Vitiation
| Vitiation | |
|---|---|
| |
| Dates run: | October 16-20, 2006 |
| Run By: | Tapestry, Azzy |
| Read the logs: | p1: p:vitiation Vitiation |
"You want not to be here right now."
After the events of Bleeding, Marius and Jennie are finally forced to confront the ensuing problems. The hard way.
Cast
Marius Laverne, Jennie Stavros, Theresa Cassidy, Yvette Petrovic, Cain Marko, Kyle Gibney, Lorna Dane, Moira MacTaggart, Charles Xavier
Infectia (off-camera)
Timing
Plot Summary
While fulfilling the Medlab-duties that are part of his penance for Bleeding Marius thoughtlessly opens a package clearly addressed to the now-absent Henry McCoy, though the "From" label is oddly smeared. It appears to contain a homemade wooden paperweight of a heart surrounded by a double helix. Handling the object leaves a substance Marius takes to be sawdust on his hands; in his haste to get the situation over with he completely forgets about personal hygiene and takes his regular marrow-donation from Terry without washing them. Which has no unforeseen consequences whatsoever. (See: Voices Carry)
Over the next few days Julio and Kyle notice Marius becomes increasingly restless; Crystal attempts to initiate contact with him and is declined. However, it only becomes unquestionably clear something is truly wrong three days later, when Yvette encounters Marius standing in the middle of the kitchen with a drawer in his hand, a pile of silverware at his feet, and every cabinet in the kitchen ajar. When Yvette attempts to help him the clearly-unhinged Marius flees. Alarmed, Yvette recalls his friendship with Jennie and goes to inform the other girl. Despite still not having forgiven him for that going evil thing in Bleeding, Jennie goes off in search of him. Alone. In the beginning of a dark and stormy night.
Jennie's powers help her to find Marius. It turns out he's gone off into the woods, where he's trying to fight the increasingly strong urge to attack and feed on other mutants far, far sooner than he should need to. He fails, and Jennie is forced to physically retaliate by collapsing a tree on him. Unfortunately this doesn't help as much as you'd think. Xavier picks up her fear and directs the two nearest staff members to the situation: Cain and Lorna. Kyle happens to be in Cain's way and ends up drafted as bloodhound. The three arrive on scene as Marius begins to take Jennie's marrow; Cain does the sensible thing and uses the nearest handy projectile, which happens to be Kyle. Kyle proceeds to engage with Marius physically. Marius is not on the winning side, so he instinctively teleports away -- in front of Cain, who promptly knocks him out with a sonic boom.
Obviously people end up in the Medlab. While Lorna comforts Jennie Xavier goes into Marius' mind to assess the problem. It is determined that the package Marius came into contact with was sent by Hank's currently-jailed stalker, Infectia, who had broken her restraining order against him and used the item as the vector for a biological agent. After some coaxing Xavier manages to get Marius to leave the psychic cage he's built for himself, and the pre-existing treatment for Infectia's virus is administered by Dr. MacTaggart. Marius and Jennie finally conclude their little saga by not-kissing and making up.
Related Links
External Links
Trivia
This is actually the second time Jennie has had to resort to the application of a heavy object to Marius' head via her powers. The first was a bookshelf, which was under circumstances less dire but immeasurably more annoying.
After three months of their son's stubborn refusal of all contact, Marius' parents Cartier St. Croix and Amanti Laverne were appraised of the situation by the school. They showed up unannounced to reestablish their relationship with Marius -- and to press charges against Infectia.
Meta
Blame: Nute
The events of Vitiation were set 3-4 months before the premier of Bleeding as a way to establish to the two major PCs that the school could indeed offer tangible aid. The plots' close temporal proximity was because the plotrunners decided "about a month" was as long as they wanted to play Marius and Jennie's mutual angst.
The catalyst for this was almost a possession by the Marvel Comics villain Mountjoy. However, this idea was met with leeriness from all fronts as possession was the new black from mid-2005 and to mid-2006.
The intercutting flashbacks to the "should I ever need to be taken down" conversation between Marius and Jennie was due to Azzy envisioning the chase-sequence take place against a voiceover. And she really needed to break up the action sequence.
Use of Infectia as a villain was suggested by Nute, as was the climactic astral scene between Marius and Xavier. Due to the then-untagged nature of the original plot, as of Vitiation's running Tapestry had only read one log.
The scene in which Cain throws Kyle towards Marius is directly inspired by the Fastball Special, which finally appeared in the game shortly before This Savage Land as a tactic with Juggernaut and Wolverine. In X-Project canon, Kyle is still campaigning to get to name 'that cool throw someone at someone else' move.
