A Random Thing...

[jmtorres]

eta: against my better judgement, is now also on ao3.

Random's musings:

workingslacker: Okay, you're Evil.

(This is how she opened the conversation. There's a reason why she's my friend.)

[Me]: For?
[Me]: I mean, you know, what have I done *this* time?
workingslacker: Given me Adam/Ekhart bunnies when I don't even like Mutant X anymore.
[Me]: You can share them with me. I may even write them.
workingslacker: If I tell you, then I spoil the season finale.
[Me]: Blah, so?
workingslacker: Okay, so Mason ends up in one of the pods.
[Me]: How does this occur?
workingslacker: Bad plot device.
[Me]: I think that's the series in a nutshell.
[Me]: That and "suspect science."
workingslacker: Seriously. This was the *worst*

...tangent on the MX site's alternate universe tapping. They're fairly sure this site is not from the universe they're tapping. *giggle*...

Back to the bunny.

workingslacker: Adam accidentally rescues Mason out of stasis, but Mason's got memory damage, and Adam doesn't have the heart to tell him he's supposed to be evil.
workingslacker: Plus, full body condom.
workingslacker: And, of course, the memory damage is prior to their breakup.
[Me]: I very badly want to see the kids' reaction to this development.
workingslacker: "I knew Adam was gay!" "Duh, this is the house of gayness!"
[Me]: *rolls eyes* Yes, but also, "Eckhart! Adam, how could you!"
workingslacker: "With lots of lube."

[Me]: Tell me more. Tell me about Adam and Eckhart back in the good old days.
workingslacker: Well, Adam and Mason were lovers prior to project genomex, and they thought that science could only bring them closer together.
workingslacker: It would be like they were having children.
[Me]: Alas, when they literally had children, (aw, lookit the little mutant babies) they didn't have time for sex anymore?
workingslacker: Yeah, and they got a version of a divorce.
[Me]: 'a version'
workingslacker: Well, Mason didn't take being rejected in bed too well and went evil.
[Me]: rejected in bed! Oh my! What happened?
workingslacker: Now I'm getting mpreg bunnies!! Make it stop!

*Jul pauses to laugh her ass off again.* Thankfully, that tack didn't go anywhere.

[Me]: How about Incident X? What really happened and how does it fit in?
[Me]: Come on. What's the *real* reason Eckhart's in a full-body condom?
workingslacker: Well, Eckhart started thinking that Adam loved the mutants more than Adam loved him, and so he tried to experiment with himself...but it went wrong.
workingslacker: And he's blamed Adam ever since.

...tangent on sex-related accidents...

[Me]: I want details here.
[Me]: And possibly sex.
workingslacker: Well, the kids discover that Adam and Mason are a couple by walking in on them in the Double Helix.
workingslacker: While Mason's going down on Adam
workingslacker: Emma walks in. She turns around really fast, and runs into Jesse.
workingslacker: Jesse has a cow, and the others rush to see what the fuss is about.
[Me]: And then? Do they stop, or does Mason just keep on sucking while Adam tries to explain?
workingslacker: Well, they stop, and Shal's traumatized for life.
[Me]: What, she's never seen a dick before?
workingslacker: Nope ;-)
[Me]: Wait. A dyke who's.... oh. Ok.
[Me]: I'm imagining Shalimar being scarred for life.
[Me]: The fact that she has to turn away and close her eyes and bury her face in Emma's bosom probably saves Mason's life.
[Me]: And Emma's kind of crooning, "It's okay hon, it's okay..."
workingslacker: And Brennan's kind of in shock. Didn't think Adam could still get it up.
workingslacker: Jesse's getting all jealous and fuming
[Me]: And Mason, poor Mason who doesn't remember any of these people... how's he doing?
workingslacker: He's kinda shy.
workingslacker: Blushing.
[Me]: Actually pink, through the latex.
[Me]: Okay. What does Adam say?
workingslacker: *ziiiiip* "Uh, you're back early."

That's about where the conversation petered out because I had to go to bed, but Random had successfully passed on the bunny.

Scenes from Amnesiac Eckhart land...

Adam had to calm them down. "Everyone, this is Mason. He's been in a stasis pod and therefore doesn't remember the last... twenty... eight years." He was allowed to fudge his age. He looked sternly at the mutants until they nodded their understanding of the situation. "Mason, these are... the kids. Our kids."

Mason looked at him in astonishment. "Our kids?"

Adam grinned. "Jesse here's a molecular. He can change his density. Emma's psionic, Shal's a feral, and Brennan's an electrical elemental."

"You mean, it worked?" Mason asked. "The experiments--you finished them? They worked?"

"Yes," Adam said proudly, only lying a little. "There are hundreds of mutants. Most of them are elsewhere, but these four stay here with me, at the Sanctuary."

"The Sanctuary?" Mason asked, turning from the kids back to Adam. "Where are we?"

"The location is secret. That's one of the things that makes it a sanctuary," Adam replied.

Mason was frowning. "Why do you need one?"

"It's a hard world for mutants," Adam said. "People are afraid of them, prejudiced against them. The government wants to control them and study them against their will. Protecting mutants is pretty much a full time job for our team," he said, nodding towards the four, then corrected himself. "More than a full-time job. It's our cause. Our lives."

Blah blah blah, this reads like a summary of the series. Booooooooring.

Well. That was the pitch. Adam felt himself holding his breath, and exhaled impatiently. It didn't really matter if Mason was swayed by it now; at some point, he would regain his memory, and it would be what he thought then that was important.

Mason turned to the kids again. "I want to apologize to you all," he said. "I wish I could have been here for you, to help protect you. I feel like I lost out, being in stasis for your childhoods. I feel like--I've failed you."

"You have," Jesse burst out. Emma stepped on his foot.

Adam sighed. Mason looked crushed. Jesse glared at Emma briefly and stalked off.

Brennan cleared his throat and said, "Don't worry about it. We're cool. Just do better, huh?"

"I'll try," Mason replied gravely.

Shalimar looked sullen, and like she wanted to say something, but she set her jaw and folded her arms and went after Jesse instead.

"Was it something I said?" Mason asked wearily.

"They'll come around," Emma said kindly. "Um--why don't I show you the Sanctuary?" she suggested, reaching out and taking his gloved hand.

Mason looked down at her hand, then back up at her face. Adam felt like he was the empath, he could so clearly read Mason's emotions. He hadn't expected her to touch him, but he couldn't quite remember why.

"Thank you," Mason said, and allowed himself to be led off.

"So," said Brennan.

"So," said Adam, waiting for the inevitable questions.

"You and Eckhart were a thing thirty years ago," Brennan said.

"Yes, we were," Adam said sadly.

"Do you actually think you can convert him, or are you just reliving past glories while he's stuck in the past?" Brennan asked.

Adam pursed his lips disapprovingly at Brennan. "I would never. Of course I'm trying to convert him. I just hope that it works, that I can get him to see... everything he's missing out on."

"Can I make a suggestion?" Brennan asked.

"What's that?" Adam said.

"Why don't you lock the door the next time? You know. For Shal's sake."

----------

"Hey, Mason," Brennan said. He leaned over, glanced to both sides in a way that Mason felt make him look shifty, and said, "So give us the scoop--what's Adam's last name?"

Mason frowned at him. "Eckhart, of course." When Brennan looked fazed, Mason went on, "We legally changed our name to a combination of our previous surnames. It's not as if we could get married, but it was--a gesture."

"No, no, I mean before that," Brennan said. "What were you guys' names before?"

"Mine was Eckland," Mason replied, "and Adam's was--"

"Not important," Adam interrupted.

Brennan looked surprised, a bit chagrined, and guilty.

Mason had the distinct impression that either some conspiracy was at work or that Adam had become paranoid in the last thirty years. He kept his mouth shut then.

Later, when he and Adam were alone, Mason observed, "I see it's not just me you don't trust."

"What do you mean?" Adam asked, looking wary.

"I thought it was just me that you didn't trust, for some reason, when you wouldn't tell me where this Sanctuary of yours is," Mason explained. "But you don't want the children to know even your name. Adam, what is going on?"

Adam sat down on his bed and started taking his socks off, looking morose. "I haven't used a last name in a long time, Mason. I didn't want to be Adam Eckhart, because I didn't think I could bear to be constantly reminded of everything I thought I'd lost for good, but I didn't want to change it back, to pretend nothing ever happened, that we never were. So I dropped it. Entirely. I'm just Adam now."

"I don't understand," Mason said, pacing a little. He sidestepped a few emotional issues by attacking the practicalities. "How do you function in society? Have a bank account? A--a phone number? A job? Pay taxes? Vote?"

"I don't," Adam answered softly.

"You don't what?" Mason asked, bemused.

"Any of it," Adam replied. "I'm an outlaw, Mason. A rebel. I break laws--unjust ones--in protecting mutants. Some people--some people consider me a terrorist."

Mason blinked at him. "Do you blow up buildings?"

"Rarely," Adam replied wryly.

"Kill people?"

"I was framed, honest."

"Undermine the government?"

"The government's the problem!" Adam said vehemently, rising and throwing his socks at the hamper in the corner. "The GS Agency--Genetic Security--God, they're like Nazis. They catch every mutant they can and put governors on them, little devices that allow them to control when a mutant can use his or her abilities. With pain. If the mutant tries to use his or her powers without permission, the pain is enough to make them collapse.

"And the damnedest thing--the damnedest thing is," Adam sighed, "I invented subdermal governors."

Here we are back in series summary land. By the way, where do they get off calling them "subdermal" governors? They stick way out of the dermis. Little black knob on your neck. Quite visible. Not sub at all.

"Why?" Mason asked.

"The first mutant we ever created," Adam said. "He had--incredible powers. But he was a sociopath, no conscience, believed that he was God. The scary thing was that he could make people obey him as if he were."

Mason snorted. "I assume you mean that he could make people obey him better than if he were. God said don't lie, but everybody lies. Not to mention all the other sins they commit when they feel like it."

"My, aren't we cynical," Adam said, looking halfway amused and halfway worried.

"What happened? You created the governor to control him?" Mason surmised.

"Yes," Adam sighed. "Gabriel's dead, now... I wish... he killed his parents, you know. If he could have been tried, he probably would have been executed. I wish we'd killed him then. Instead, I got fancy, and every other mutant is still paying for it. They use governors on every mutant they can get their hands on."

"Pre-emptively," Mason said, thoughtful.

"Prejudicially," Adam countered. "Most of them are just normal people trying to cope with abilities they have no map for, and they're treated like criminals not just before they're proven guilty of any crime but before they're even accused of any crime. Any crime other than being a mutant," he finished bitterly.

Jesus. I can't escape the series summary style exposition here.

"Mason, I have a confession to make," Adam said.

"What?" Mason asked, feeling suddenly cold.

"You know how you said everybody lies?" Adam asked. "I've been lying to you. You weren't in a stasis pod for thirty years. It was more like thirty minutes, which isn't enough time for a pod to go all the way through its cycle, which is why your memory's scrambled."

"Why did you lie?" Mason asked. "What don't you want me to remember?"

"Oh, that we broke up," Adam said, sounding forcedly light. "That you blame me for the fact that you live in a plastic shell. That you're the head of the GSA," he went on softly. "That you founded it."

Mason studied him quietly. It wasn't that difficult to absorb this information--he'd felt inclined to play the devil's advocate to all of Adam's arguments--but it was still painful. "I'm a Nazi to you," he said slowly. "You think of me as unjust, cruel--" He turned away. "Well. That explains why half the children hate me. The thing I can't figure out is how the other two can stand to speak to me."

"Emma's telempathic," Adam said softly. "Sympathy is in her nature. And Brennan--I gave him a second chance, asking him to join Mutant X after he'd screwed up his life, and he's willing to pay the favor forward."

"Then you expect me to see your side of things now," Mason said. "Am I your captive, Adam? Are you brainwashing me?"

"No," Adam answered quickly. "I wanted to show you--I hoped that you might understand, if you got a chance to see how things are here, without knowing that we've been--enemies. But I'm sure you'll get your memory back eventually, and when you do, if you want to go back to the GSA, to GenomeX, then we'll send you back."

"I suppose I should thank you for the kindness of your offer," Mason murmured. "But I'm not sure I feel that you've been kind."

All in all, much more serious than the original premise Random had me on...

I have more in my head, but I'm going to stop and post this now, and write more later.