House of M - The Beginning

[selfhelp]

Who: Billy Kaplan + Anyone who wants to be involved in the House of M Plot + Related CR + Anyone Really
What: Um. The House of M Plot.
When: October 1st-7th
Where: Literally anywhere in Luceti, yo
Summary: Billy returns from a kidnapping feeling a bit, er, different. A white light envelops the village for just a moment, and when it fades... well. All kinds of things are different, actually.
Rating: Varies, anything above R take it elsewhere!

Still accepting last minute sign-ups, if anyone is interested.


It starts off so innocently, early on the morning of October 1st. A burst of light, a warm rush of energy that consumes everything it touches, and it's gentle enough to feel like stepping out into sunlight from the shade. It's so brief that some people might not even notice it happened. But there are certainly... differences. Some subtle, some not. And those changed won't even understand the problem.

After all, why would perfection be a problem?

The truth is, there are no problems. There can't be. It's perfect, Billy thinks. Believes it. His belief is his reality, and now, it's their reality. It all has to be perfect; they deserve it, all of them, for one reason or another. And he'll do whatever he has to protect that perfection from being tainted, ruined, taken away from them.

Teddy died so this could happen, after all.

So what is your new reality?


((first two threads reserved for the intro thread and billy's status; after that consider this log a free-for-all.))

Comments

[touchofrogue]

[Let's face it, Rogue's daughter is the actual cutest thing ever. Rogue feels this fact has been amply proved by her boyfriend consistently stealing Anja away from her.

'You have to have a break,' he says or 'I'm just going to go for a walk,' or 'Why don't you rest?' or 'I just want to help out, you're always working so hard' and sooner or later Loki has whisked their daughter away to show her off. So at odd times, Rogue will find herself with an abundance of free time on her hands. During these times, she:

a) Occasionally minds the Item Shop. She's not at all as interested in this now that she has a baby, however, and mostly just pokes about the home decorating section.
b) Will be at the Battle Dome. She is convinced that she hasn't lost all her baby weight yet and is determined to fit back into her uniform without a hitch.
c) In the library. She's looking up baby care books. Anja has started teething and while she's alright most days, some of them the poor baby just cries and cries and she hates not knowing what to do to help. Rogue wishes her mom was here.
d) Grocery shopping. Because diapers run out quickly and so do animal crackers.

When Rogue is not out and about, she's at home with Anja, encouraging her attempts to pull herself up by the sofa. But it wouldn't be too rare to see her taking her baby out for a stroll. It's too nice to just stay inside.]

[snikting]

After her workout in one of the Dome's rooms, she'll find Logan outside waiting. A sort of surprise, seeing as how he's resting against the wall not far from the door. Easily missed.

"Ya used to be faster."

Or maybe she used to be slower. It was a little too easy to give her some criticism after having a kid. After all, it seemed like everyone just decided to start popping them out.

[touchofrogue]

"I used to get more than three hours of sleep a night," Rogue snapped, not in the mood to hear it. Her uniform was still tight.

(Her uniform was always tight. She just had forgotten in the past few months. Don't try to reason with her.)

"Anja started teething," she added with a sigh.

[snikting]

"Maybe ya ought to give her a bone to chew on."

As always, Logan knew nothing about children. His closest thing to a daughter was Laura. He got to miss out on the crucial teething stage of her development. But if he had been there, he probably would have given her a bone. And it probably would've worked.

[touchofrogue]

"She'd choke on a bone," Rogue said, putting both hands above her head and stretching until she released a satisfied sigh. "What brings you out here?"

[snikting]

He shrugged. "Seemed as good as any place to spend a few days. Thought maybe something interesting might finally happen around here."

So far, Mayberry had been its same old self.

[touchofrogue]

Rogue gave him a quick grin. "Bored again?"

[bluestyonder]

It took a while to figure out where Rogue was. But once it was narrowed down to the library, Kurt eventually bamfed into the right room and settled in a nearby chair, sitting confidently in place while he watched his sister peruse the latest book.

Three of his tiny fuzzball clan had accompanied him there - Josephine, Samuel and littlest Marie. The three of them, all somewhere in the 3-5 year old range, quickly scampered over to her while chanting, "Auntie Rogue! Auntie Rogue!" and eager to hug at their coolest aunt.

"You know, Sis? If it's baby care you're after, books come in second place to learning from the master," Kurt said smugly as he propped his feet up on the table, pointing to himself with two thumbs.

[touchofrogue]

Oomph. Fuzzball tackle. Rogue set aside her books and gathered them all up in her arms and spun around, much to their shrieking delight. "What's with all shoutin', pipsqueaks? You forget we're in a library?"

She plopped back on her chair and released the giggling gaggle of Wagners to peer up at her older brother. "Yeah? Maybe. But I don't see Amanda anywhere around here."

[bluestyonder]

Kurt chuckled warmly at watching Rogue with his kids. They always got along nicely.

And he gives a self-deprecating shrug at her response. "Touche. In that case, how about the second master."

[touchofrogue]

"Can there be a second master?" she wondered, reaching out to rescue her book from Josephine. "Sammy, why don't you an' Jo go run off and find a pop-up book."

[bluestyonder]

"There totally can be! Like... a co-master!" And he ushered off the kids as they complied and ran off. "Remember to be quiet - or the library monster will hear you." He laughed mischievously before looking back towards Rogue.

[touchofrogue]

Rogue had kept Marie in her lap - with her boyfriend kidnapping their daughter half the time, she might as well take what baby lovin' she could. "So what brings you into the library? Huntin' monsters?"

a!

[alloys]

Occasionally Tony and Susie visited the item shop as well, because while Tony insisted on building most of her toys (quality control was important) there were some things that he could abide picking up from the shop. Besides, you never knew when you might get surprised by a unique find. Unique and bizarre and flat-out weird, but hey, at least through their mutual mocking someone was getting use out of those oddities.

It was father-daughter bonding at its best.

The pair were checking out some plush microbes when Rogue and Anja walked in, and they both grinned as soon as the mother and daughter were spotted.

"Hi, Anja!" Susie came scuttling over to ogle the baby. She was a fan of babies.

[touchofrogue]

Anja was not yet old enough to be on her feet, though she was beginning to learn how to crawl. Rogue had found that the best way to go shopping with her daughter in tow was with said daughter placed firmly in her stroller.

"Hello, Susie," Rogue smiled. Anja inspected the newcomer seriously before breaking out into a (mostly) toothless smile. The right upper incisor had made a recent appearance. She nodded at Tony as well. "Nice to see you too, Mr. Stark-Potts," she teased.

[alloys]

Well met. Susie held out one of the plush microbes for Anja to take, eager to keep the darling girl smiling.

"Likewise, Miss No-Used-Last-Name-Like-Madonna. How's the tyke?" He inspected Anja himself for a moment. "Looks like her chompers are coming in. How fun for you."

[touchofrogue]

"That one came in last night," Rogue said with a small smile. "I'm hopin' it'll be a break for her for a while."

Anja reached for the plushie, making an interested sound.

[alloys]

"And a break for you," Tony added knowingly. "They get lethal once they get a full set. I mean, just look at you, Sue."

Sue made a pouting face up at her dad. "Daaaad!" But it didn't last long - hers broke into a laughing smile when his did.

[touchofrogue]

"Mmm, shark teeth." She sighed a little and ran her hand through her hair. "She's lookin' forward to eating solid foods. Right now she loves throwin' mashed bananas."

[which_witch]

[Wanda will totally admit to Anja's cuteness, but cutest thing ever? Wanda has pictures of Billy and Tommy from when they were babies. It was like cute squared. A one-two KO punch of cute. A juggernaut of cuteness. Though Wanda might be slightly biased.

Regardless, this wonderful day (though aren't they all?) finds Wanda at the library. Having learned to read since arriving in Luceti all those years ago, she's found it to be a wonderful hobby, and not at all a bad way to exercise her creative mind.

She's making her way through the stacks, looking for something new to occupy her nightstand, when she spots Rogue. Smiling, she heads over.]

... Hello, Rogue. I feel like I haven't seen you in ages. ... How is motherhood treating you?

[touchofrogue]

[Rogue glances up from her reading and smiles at Wanda.]

Hey, Wanda. [Her smile softens a little just thinking of Anja.] Motherhood is wonderful. Worrisome. But wonderful. Though I reckon you already knew that.

[which_witch]

Mmm, indeed. What has you worried with Anja, currently? [Because it would be "currently." After this there would be something new, and something else after that. Such was the life of a parent. But it was all worth it.]

[touchofrogue]

She's teething. [Rogue frowns a little.] She's never been much of a crier, but when the teeth start comin' in, she's just in so much pain. We started freezin' a bagel and giving it to her, but there's gotta be something better than that.

[which_witch]

Poor little angel. I never thought of using a bagel, with William and Thomas! We seemed to prefer a small wash rag soaked in chamomile tea, and then frozen. Or at least William did. Thomas was... a whole other story. [She chuckles slightly, remembering. It's easy to laugh, now, when it's so far away. At the time, it wasn't nearly so amusing.] Still. It can't last forever. She'll have a head full of beautiful teeth, soon enough.

[touchofrogue]

[It was a little difficult to think of anything that could have from her and Loki's union as an angel, but occasionally Anja was so sweet Rogue wondered where she came from herself.]

I'm not worried about forever. I'm worried about tonight. [Her gaze flicked away. Gifted with the ability to feel, take away, or replace someone's emotional while she was touching them, Rogue had the inside track on what this was doing to her daughter and she didn't like it.] Loki an' I both agreed not to use our powers on her to make it better, in case it messes anythin' up, but...

[But she hated the fact that her child was in pain and there was nothing she could do about it.]