Duke looked up from lunch at his mother as the doorbell rang, and Rowena stood up to see who was there.
The studio had called, saying Duke didn't have to go in today. He supposed they must still be working out the scripts or something. The thought depressed him. This mutation of his was bound to put a cramp on his acting career. Romantic roles were certainly a no go.
"Duke? I have someone here I'd like you to meet."
Duke turned and his face lit up.
"I know you! You were with the circus! You had the fuzzles!" he exclaimed.
Rogue frowned momentarily.
"Of course, I remember you now," Rogue replied. "You named yours Buster, right?"
"Yep," Duke said proudly. "What are you doing here?"
"Well, I know you probably had the impression I was an alien," Rogeu replied seriously, sitting down next to him. "But I'm actually a mutant."
Rowena discreetly picked up Billy and left the room.
"You are?" Duke asked suspiciously.
"Yes. My power is parasitical in nature: I absorb the other people's life force."
"What does that mean?"
"Well, I absorb the memories of anyone I touch. If they have powers, I borrow them for a time, and if they don't they usually fall into a coma for awhile. It depends how long I touch them. And sometimes, if I touch someone for too long, I can absorb all the life force they have and kill them," Rogue replied seriously.
"You absorb memories?" Duke asked, his face lighting up. "That's what I did. And it hurt Sarah when I touched her. She thought I burnt her, but I didn't. It just felt like it."
"Can you still access those memories?" Rogue asked.
Duke paused, seraching his mind.
"A couple of them," he said.
"Do you feel like you have Sarah's voice in your head?"
Duke shook his head.
"Okay. It sounds like our powers are similar, but not identical," Rogue replied.
"Is that how you were able to do the sand and glass stuff?" Duke asked. "You absorbed atom manipulation?"
Rogue paused before replying.
"I found out that my power could kill quite by accident. There was a human/alien hybrid by the name of Calvin, who decided to attack me. He knocked me out and then..." Rogue faltered. "In any case, he touched me, but he couldn't let go of me when my power kicked in. And because I was unconscious, I couldn't push him away so..."
"Oh."
"I had his power for, hmm, two years?" Rogue considered. "I don't have it any more now. I must have used it up."
"Are you able to touch people without absorbing them?"
"I can now, and it took practicing with Calvin's power before I was able to. Unfortunately, I don't think you're going to be able to do that."
"So, I'm never going to be able to touch anyone ever without hurting them?"
"Most people learn to control their powers by using them. Unfortunately, mutants like you and I don't have that luxury," Rogue replied. "We have to learn internal discipline."
"Ugh."
"Yeah. I was never really good at it, but until I got Calvin's power it was the only method I had. None of my friends were really open to the idea of me practicing on them."
Duke cracked a smile.
"So even though Calvin was a bad guy, it ended up good?"
"From a power point of view, yes," Rogue conceeded. "But you try living for two years with a serial rapist/murder yelling in your ear and see how easy that is."
"Oh."
"Since I lost the power though, he's only as loud as my other voices, and tends to get lost in the crowd, for which I'm grateful."
"Yeah, I can see that," Duke sighed. "Okay, so basically, I'm going to have to become a vulcan."
Rogue took a moment to stare, then a smile appear on her face even as her eyes narrowed.
"Star Trek fan?"
"Passingly. You?"
"No. But I have a friend who's a fan of probably every sci-fi and fantasy TV show out there."
Duke chuckled.
"You may want to consider wearing gloves," Rogue advised. "They'll get uncomfortable on hot days, but they'll help avoid accidents."
"Okay."
Duke and Rogue chatted for well over an hour. Duke asked many, many questions and Rogue shared her experience and advice. At one point, they tried an experiment only to discover that their powers wouldn't work on each other.
"Probably too closely related," Rogue guessed.
The fact that there was one person he was able to touch gave Duke some hope.
"Okay," Rogue said. "I need to go. The studio asked me to come by and update them. They said that someone would be coming by tonight to give you the new scripts, and you're to come in tomorrow."
"Really? Yay!" Duke exclaimed.
"Feeling forgotten, were you?"
"Like I was being swept aside more like. I really love acting, I just.... I couldn't... If..." Duke trailed off.
"I don't think it'll be a problem. When I checked in this morning everyone was running around like chickens with their head cut off: stressed, perhaps but there was genuine enthusiasim in the possibilities. I'll tell them about gloves when I go back over there - now there's something that I'm sure will really excite the cotume and marketing departments."
"Oh? Why's that?" Duke frowned.
"You kidding? You're a television star -"
"I'm not a star. Yet."
"Yet," Rogue grinned. "Nontheless, Fairview gets a lot of viewers, and one of said characters is about to get a trademark clothing accessory. Marketing might not be my forte, but I think it's safe to say that gloves are about to become fashionable again."