13054/A Personal Favor

A Personal Favor
Date of Scene:	17 April 2021
Location:	Breakstone Lake - Xavier's School
Synopsis:	Rogue joins Beast for a picnic by the lake and asks him for a personal favor
Cast of Characters:	Beast, Rogue

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Beast has posed:
It's a lovely spring day, in that it's not raining. The sky is cloudy, but the sun still pokes its head through, beaming shafts to the surface of the water and setting the lake to sparkling. In the distance a few students are enjoying the water, kayaking and such, but Hank McCoy is doing tai-chi atop one of the rock jetties out over the depths of the private lake.
    When you are acrobatic and gifted with physical abilities, such slow, graceful exercises have to be done in interesting ways. Currently, he's doing a handstand on one palm, arm out and slowly going through the motions, balancing legs pointed to 3 'o clock. Some soft music is playing from a very small radio nearby and it looks like he came out here with lunch in a basket and some reading material also. A blanket is draped over the flat of the rock.

Rogue has posed:
Having been doing her usual spell of hiding in plain sight for the last few days, Rogue had decided to take a small flight around campus. Not going too far to scare any plain Jane person, and yet not staying near enough where she could easily be seen and spoken to. She likes doing things on her own time most days - and recently she's been trying to clear her mind but simply cannot seem to shake the thoughts racing around her head.
She comes back over the lake, and spies Hank doing his excercising on a rock. Hovering in mid flight a moment, she soon moves to gracefully land steps away from the Doctor. Not for any other reason than to hope she doesn't startle him or cause him to lose his focus. She's silent for the moment as well, figuring that either he'll notice someone is nearby eventually by sight or scent - so hopefully her presence goes noticed in a gentle way.

Beast has posed:
Henry McCoy is usually quite perceptive of his surroundings, but just like all animal senses some circumstances do tend to lend themselves more to surprise than others. Not today though; his legs go straight, lifted hand down so that he's standing on his palms dead straight like a living lightning rod, then he flips himself forward, tucks and lands on all fours for the finish, looking over toward Rogue with a following florid bow of head and arm. "Good afternoon Anna-Marie," straightening, he lightly shakes out his limbs one at a time and flourishes himself in a spin and fold, down to the blanket and food. "Fresh air does work up an appetite, doesn't it? Care for some cheese rolls and ham? Fruit salad? Iced tea?"

Rogue has posed:
Rogue smiles gently. There's always something about Hank using her real name that makes her feel appreciated and not shunned. She likes that. "Afternoon Hank." This offered. "I think I could take a little bit of all that, sure. It's been a pleasent day for getting some fresh air." Saying this as she walks over and sits to join Hank on the blanket. Of course, even while on her own, she still wears the full body suit and gloves - just in case she runs into someone or is needed for something. "You seem to be doing well. Are you feeling alright still?" Asking this and then looking up to the skies and their cloudy but also partly cloudy ways before glancing back to him and offers a smile.

Beast has posed:
Henry McCoy plays mother, setting out a couple of reusable picnic plates to provide -- there's bean salad too, which is always good. Why he had enough for two, or perhaps even three people, well, might be worthwhile pondering what Hank was like as a boy scout, really! Once served, he leans himself back on one elbow, that he can eat on is side and still be conversational.
    "Much better, overall. Things are still a little foggy on that period of time, but more recent recollections are returning. It was just rather disturbing at the time, given I rarely ever forget a thing. Having this window of complete blank was harshing on my mellow, as they say." He chases food with iced tea, looking squintily up at her where the sun adds a little extra challenge to the moment. "How about you? All reasonable in the land of my favourite mega-miss?"

Rogue has posed:
Rogue is surely not surprised at the amount of food that Hank has packed in that picnic basket. One never knows who might wander by after all, and she's sure that Hank could put back enough for one and a half if not two people alone. Nothing wrong with that considering, it's just an idle thought. Still, she softly thanks him for the plate with a little bit of everything and takes a bite of bean salad first while listening to the man answer her question. Answers which gain a nod and then, "Well I am glad it's slowly coming back. I can't imagine what it feels like losing memories..." Her issue has been the opposite. Having too many memories in her brain to keep track of.

There's a pause, a long one, after he asks that last question of her and before she even thinks of an answer he's caused her to flush a bit. "Am I your favorite mega-miss because I'm also the only one here who counts completely?" Asking this before taking in a breath. "Honestly, things have been a bit...discouraging. But mostly on a personal level. It's funny I caught you out here, because I've ben debating coming by your office to...talk about something that I would consider a personal favor."

Beast has posed:
"I'm sure some people might find it refreshing to forget, but I'm not usually one of them, no." Hank eats quickly, but not impolitely. It's true, he can simply put a lot away - but there's a lot of him to fuel, so it probably balances out. An apple slice crunches in a rather satisfactory manner to punctuate her question, to which no verbal reply is given; he merely looks over the top of his spectacles at her, under bushy blue eyebrows. Don't be silly!

The follow through though, has him patting his mouth with a napkin and tossing it to the side of his plate, elbowing upward to sit in the lotus position, toes a'wiggling in an up and down scale as he gives her all his attention, hands in his lap. "Not an office, but perhaps better for the lack of four walls," he offers, frowning slightly. "I'm sorry to hear that. But now? You have my undivided attention." Which is likely why he is ignoring the food for now.

Rogue has posed:
Rogue doesn't eat too slow or too fast, and she makes sure she samples a little bit of everything before focusing on one type of thing. Likely the fruit salad, which she eats through little by little before having said what she did about wanting a to speak to Hank on a personal favor. As he offers himself as an open source, she smiles and takes a sip of iced tea to wash down her last bite of food.

"I want to know if you mind... making something to help supress my powers..." She just comes out and says it. "I'm tired of not being able to do..." She looks down at her hands and then shakes her head. "Anything... it sucks." okay she can do some beneficial things, but what she's always wanted is an active social life that isn't hindered by not being able to physically do things with other people.

Beast has posed:
Henry McCoy's eyebrows scooch up. "Oh. Well, now." He presses his thumbs together, looking slowly along her arm, over her collar bone and down the other side, taking in the overall of the bodysuit in totality and settling lastly on her belt. A very small rub occurs, thumb pad to thumb pad as he considers. "I suppose it's doable," he muses, tilting his head a fraction as his glasses slide a little down his nose with the movement, "Hmmm."

A finger is lifted up then and he indicates one of her gloves with it, reaching forward with his right hand, palm up. "I'd like you to remove one of your gloves and just touch one finger to my palm for exactly as long as it takes you to start feeling me ... in you. I'd like you to focus very strongly on the exact time, don't touch me any longer than that."

Rogue has posed:
Rogue eyes Hank for a long moment. Long enough that to anyone else it might become uncomfortable, but Hank /knows/ what he's asking of Rogue, and she's always hesitant when it comes to doing anything gloves off. Still, she finally takes a slow breath and moves to begin pulling off the glove of her left hand, flexing it out a little. "Alright..." This and then she reaches to touch her finger to his palm as requested, focusing solely on that motion...

Beast has posed:
One-onethousand...
Tingles, then the debilitating feeling on Hank's end of the spectrum.

Two-onethousand...
That's probably about the mark when eyebrows get bushier, hair begins to get thicker and the intense curiosity of a mind that is unlike a great many others starts tickling at the consciousness. Two seconds isn't very long at all, but one second for it all to begin is really short of a time.

Luckily for Rogue, she doesn't have to actually pull her hand back, because after that count of two thousand, Beast's palm falls down with a deep intake of breath from him, thanks to muscle relaxation. Lifting his hand required action after all, which goes to show that the clever fellow had a plan to stop himself getting leeched. Right? Yes, we'll go with that. "Oh, my goodness. Right. Ok. Just give me a moment..." resilient like he is though, if not at Logan's standards, Beast still recovers quickly. He takes some of the clingwrap from that which was covering the bean salad and stretches it over his hand, raising it again, with a nod to her. "When I've faded from your brain, try this again. I want to see if thin membranes as opposed to gloves, work at all."

Rogue has posed:
Those two seconds feel like a lifetime, and just as she's getting that sensation of Beast in her mind, it begins to fall away because his hand is gone. She has to maintain contact for it to continue working, and so it's a relief when it all sort of fades almost as quickly as it tickled her. The physical traits she was taking on all but disappear a minute after his hand is one and she watches as he takes that clingwrap and places it over his hand.

In theory, even something as thin as clingwrap should work because she's not touching skin to skin - which is the key point of her draining powers. So she's a bit more willing to conduct this part of the test and lifts her hand once more a couple of minutes later when she's convinced that Hank's presence is no longer within her mind. Her finger touches the clingwrap, her focus is on what she's doing, and she waits.

Beast has posed:
Clingwrap is really very thin. But it does hold. Even after a minute, there's no tickles of awarness, nor draining sensations. The clingwrap removed, hank takes one of the disposable hankies and peels the two layers apart, so that there's a very tissuepaper thin layer and nods, to repeat the process. Again, same results would apply. NOthing at all. "Well... we could manage this with probably a monocellular barrier between your skin and anothers. There's a few possibilities there," he offers, reaching to his chin to tap and scratch. "This is where I put the caveat down: I'm not going to suppress you. That avenue leads to all kinds of troubles, believe me, I /know/ this for a fact. When you mess with your own genome, it gets bad. But I think we can work with temporary fixes, as long as you're dilligent and take the time to apply them properly. Would that work? So that you can interact from time to time without fear?"

Rogue has posed:
When the clingwrap and even the peeled apart napkin work as expected because there's no skin to skin contact, Rogue gives a nod of her head. Then she listens as he explains what they could do, and throws in that caveat. If someone were to really dig down into Rogue's psyche, they would likely discover that the reason why she has no control over her actual power - and not that which she got from Ms Marvel - is because she fears her power. "I mean I already take the time to cover myself up all right and proper regardless of where I'm goin' for the just in case. I think if there's a better alternative to take every once in a while, that'd just be a nice thing to have." Saying this as she puts her glove back on.

Beast has posed:
Henry McCoy unfortunately, has no telepathic gifts, only the regular observational kind of the human condition and a proclavity for empathising with the outsider. He knows what it's like to be lonely. "The ability to touch is something that makes us human. When we are denied that simplicity, it can be very, very damaging," No kidding doc. Well done that man. But the way it's said, is with sensitivity. "So, lets see what we can do. Even ten years ago, I would've said this was going to be problematic, but... let me work on it. We've got full spray-tan cubicles now, which means we have micro-diffusers that are fine enough for a full body covering of a barrier liquid. You're not allergic to anything are you?"

Rogue has posed:
Rogue nods to the first thing Hank says, and the way he says it, but it doesn't make her feel much better. She's made mistakes, she made one huge mistake without knowing it would happen, and it's torn her apart ever since. "I'm willin' to do most anything at this point. And you're the smartest man I know...and I like bein' your project no matter what that project is. So..." She trails off then and at his last question, she shakes her head. "Not that I'm aware of, no."

Beast has posed:
"That's kind of you to say Anna-Marie," Beast replies, smiling with it. The muzzle makes that an odd thing to look at, but there we go. "We'll work something out, then. Some variety of latex polymer with an oxidizing emulgent should work very well, but you'll have limits until I can work out something more durable. Casual contact would be fine, exertion and excessive friction would remove the coating...I imagine I can get that working if I can arrange a tanning booth for you, within oh... a week or two? Good enough for a test run, if you trust me." Aka: Only you and me and we'll be doing this touchy touchy thing again, in test run number one.

Rogue has posed:
"Well, I mean it, Hank." Rogue offers while listening to him already begin to sort of work out what he's going to try and accomplish for this favor asked of him. She smiles and gives a nod of her head as he talks it out. "Sounds like a plan. I...truly appreciate you bein' willing to help me with this." She offers. "Just let me know when it might be ready for the first trial run. I look forward to it." This said, and that part of the conversation pretty much over, she looks to her plate and takes another bite of food. Which is, interestingly enough, still bug-free during their conversational break.

Beast has posed:
"Oh, think nothing of it. I've thought about your ability before, a time or two. I've always been curious as to whether bio-magnetic feedback would disrupt it, but that's hard to accomplish and even harder to broach as a research topic in casual conversation. Can you imagine?" Beast goes a bit cross-eyed for a moment, bobbing his head in a side to side manner, like a bobble-head doll "Hi, would you mind terribly if I hook you up to electrodes for science? I promise, I'm not mad, I just want to see if I can make your aura do backflips." He leans back, legs still in the lotus position, to prop his elbows again and reach for a cheesy ham bun. "Just don't tell Scott I'm exercising my brain more than I ought, ok? Still taking it easy, dontchaknow."

Rogue has posed:
Rogue actually lets out a laugh, and it's a genuine thing, something that might be a bit rare for people to hear from her. "If you came up to me talking about that stuff, I don't think I'd bat an eye. Well, maybe if you had asked me within, like, my first few days bein' here. But now? You're a man of science, and I'm someone that defies the concept. Sometimes. If YOU wanna hook me up to a machine and make things happen, I'm all for it." Then again, Rogue is a weird one. A glutten for punishment and bad things. So long as they're happening TO her and not BY her. "Anyway. Secrets safe with me. I ain't tell Scott a damn thing."

Beast has posed:
Henry McCoy touches a digit to the side of his nose with a curt nod of the head. "He worries to much anyway. Anyone would think it's because he feels responsible for my continued sobriety and functionality as a human being, or something." His tone sounds amused, looking at her with his head tilted. "For the time being though, lets stick with pounding on pieces of not-wood. I have a refined set of planks for you to test whenever you feel up to it. We can even put a piece of copyprint with a face on one of them if you feel like it... I promise I won't say anything."

Rogue has posed:
Rogue smiles and nods. "Summers means well. He just appreciates you, as do all of us, and I know he was gutted when you were out of commission. But I think that's kind of his thing, to feel guilty. Wish it weren't tho." She offers. "Mmn, promise me one will have Remy's face on it, and we've got a deal." She says then with a chuckle. Finishing up the last bits of food, washing it down with tea, she takes a breath to let out slowly. "I really do appreciate your help... honestly... I wasn't sure if you'd be willing to do anything considering...I know I'm askin' a lot."

Beast has posed:
"Yes, well, that's because Scott is an idiot. Well, no, he's not, but he's got this big brother first-responsible thing going on for him but we're all adults here. I tease, but..." fondness colours Beast's tone. "Blood you're born to, Family you can choose, no?" He has a few more crunchy apple pieces, then uses a segment of orange to gesture at her with. "And considering what? That you're a human being in need? A friend? Part of my family? Go on, which one is it..." he winks.

Rogue has posed:
Rogue smirks and nods her head. "No. You're right. Scott is an idiot..." She confirms and then doesn't say much of anything else towards it. "I do believe you can choose family, yes..." Before she's being gestured at with an orange as Beast tries to get her to finish a thought. "More considering the /what/ that I was asking. All else aside, I wasn't sure if you would be willing to do anything because of what I'm wanting you to do. The limitation you offered sort of hit the original idea I had."

Beast has posed:
"Anna-Marie, if you really, truly wanted to be normalized... I would try. I honestly would. I just know how dangerous it is and how unpredictable. My recent bout with amnesia is testament to what happens when you dick around, after all." Beast pops the orange in his mouth and squishes it against his teeth. MMmmmmyum. "Then again, I could just be a glutton for punishment," he states this deadpan, sniffing as he selects banana slices. "I ran into Wade Wilson the other evening, surfing down the stairs on a carpet. He wants me to try making him some weaponry that is School safe, I suppose. Either that, or he's actually gone off the deepend."

Rogue has posed:
Rogue blinks and then looks down at her plate of food for a moment, she tries very hard to not let Hank's words work on her, but they do. There's a blink, and then she lifts a gloved hand to swipe at her eyes. "Ain't nothin' going to be able to make me normal, Hank, and I know this. Normal ain't for people like me...but..." She pauses, setting her plate down and lifting tea to take a generous swig of it while her mind works. "But Cyclops gets special glasses, and most people can control their powers without anything special anyhow... whys it gotta be that I'm stuck on the ass end of the other side not able to do a damn bit of anything just because when I touch someone it all goes tits up." When he mentions Wade, she scoffs. "That ass clown can bite me. For all I care I'd toss him to the other side of the planet in a heart beat if Jean and Scott weren't so bleedin' heart to help him with his problems." A pause. "Just give him a foam sword. He'll be fine."

Beast has posed:
Henry McCoy slides a look at her, sidelong again. Then he's looking out over the water, which is truly rather sparkly and perfect on a day like this. He stretches his legs out at last, rolling the toes and thier claws up and down the scale before looking at her once again, more directly. Nothing is said, precisely, but he does raise his right hand to gesture with a wiggle of fingers all the way up and down his blue, furry self. "We can't all turn off who we are," Ok, maybe he'll say something. "Anna, we're not all the same. It's all complicated, for each of us. Jean could be a supermodel, but you get her all emotionally upheaved and she'll destroy a city block. Scott has to keep his eyes shut unless he's wearing /rubies/ on his eyes, for heaven's sake. Some of us can't ever pretend and some of us don't want to, I suppose. Guilty as not charged though, I would love to not be blue and fuzzy and... I would love to look like a human again. I'm holding myself back from trying to fuss with it again, because the last time went so very well. But I do get it. I do." He glances up at the clouds then, lies back onto the rock atop the blanket and cloud gazes. "You get gloves. And that's not ideal. You'd think, after all this time, at a school that dedicates itself to helping mutants find control over themselves, that we'd have worked out how to go outside the box of thinking. I mean, /are/ you like me? Or are you more like oh, Storm? I can't turn off what I am. Ororo has to decide to do."

Rogue has posed:
Rogue takes a breath and then lets it out again. She doesn't say anything in between all the stuff Hank says, and just lets him speak his piece. Not all the same, sure, but not everyone is wholly restricted. She can't even hug someone because her face is never covered. The last bit of what he says, or more accurately questions, has her giving a blink and looking over towards Hank more directly. "If I could turn it off, I wouldn't be having the issue I am, would I?" She stands then, her meal done and she takes another steadying breath. "I get it. Everyone is different, has their own ways of coping, and found ways to help themselves out. I'm just being selfish I guess, which isn't really fair to anyone..." She steps off the blanket, looking out to the lake a moment before she turns back to Hank. "Thanks again. Let me know if you need me to help test anything you work on, and either way I'll swing by when I'm ready to test more of those not-wood objects you've been making." She smiles, but it's forced, because all in all she's not happy - but that's mostly a personl thing. "I'm gonna go...I'll see you around Hank..." At the tail end of it all, she doesn't even wait, launching herself into the air to fly off somewhere unknown.