20 years of X-Project - Mack
May. 8th, 2023 10:41 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
xp_daytripper posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
x_projectMack joined X-Project in July 2010, taking on Jean Grey and then the irrepressible Molly Hayes (who at 12 was the youngest character in the game). She still has her two girls, with Molly having aged up a bit in Asgard and the original Jean being killed off in the Dark Phoenix Saga and a Phase 2 version being introduced. Mack is also one of our artists and makes some pretty awesome vids as well, which you can find here.
1) What brought you to X-Project?
I saw an ad for the game on Hollow Art. I was looking for a new game and missed role playing.
2) What keeps you in X-Project?
The community and the world building.
3) What's a moment that has really stuck with you that you wrote?
The Dark Phoenix Saga, Hotel California, Fury Said to a Mouse, Genosha
Jean began to gasp again, fighting to breathe as her eyes locked on the void, her body twisting and writhing in agony from the pressure and the cold. Suddenly, her narrowed eyes softened. Anger. Pain. Fear. It was all of these things the demon craved. It would consume it, gorge itself on her, on the others, until there was nothing left. Letting herself be overcome with those emotions only fed the demon itself. It made it stronger. She had to do things another way.
"No," she repeated, wisps of flame bleeding through the cracks in her armor. She could feel something growing, changing, as the fire snaked through its hands and spread throughout Jean's form, bluish-black melting away into orange-yellow.
"I am fire. I am life, " Jean said. Her astral skin burned away to reveal a body made of fire, the Phoenix's wings unfurled.
"So burn."
Its scream tore the sound from the astral plane. It reared back, but too late; the flame was already coursing up its arms, flowing towards its head and heart. It writhed, humanoid form losing cohesion as it did. With a handful of stumbling backward steps, the avatar disintegrated.
Jean spread her palms and lifted her head, searching the miasma. The darkness still remained, it had only retreated. Her eyes lowered toward the remains of the demonologist. They lingered. Lifting one hand, the Phoenix's wings billowed, growing in strength as the fire spread throughout the entire area. It shot through every nook and cranny, obliterating every trace of the demonologist it could find.
"Goodbye."
There was no death cry, no shattering of self. Not enough remained of the man for that. But there were wisps of sensation, and so Jean knew the shock of an alien personality and the sharp red edge it brought. She felt, too, the hopeless grasping of a drowning soul -- and unexpected purchase. Another presence, removed but carrying the spirit of a world she had longed to know but had been unable to see. Not purchase enough for salvation, but enough. Enough to guide flame, and the release it brought.
Just impressions, like the last of the light of a long-dead star.
(full log here)
4) What's a moment that has really stuck with you that someone else wrote?
Genosha
He made the tea with movements made smooth by habit and practice, the small ritual doing as much to soothe him as the liquid itself. The slight tremble of his hands as he added Jean's sugar that caused him to spill the white grains across the saucer was a giveaway that perhaps he wasn't as calm as he presented.
Jean reached out, gently putting her hand over his. "Charles?" she said gently, glancing him over.
"Talk to me."
~Always so observant, Jean.~ Charles stopped what he was doing and grasped her fingers. "I am so, so sorry, Jean. All of this, what happened to the children, the beatings, Rachel..." His voice choked up on the name. "It is my fault."
Rising from her chair, Jean walked around and crouched down in front of him. "No," she said, taking his hands in her own.
"No, Charles. It was their fault and theirs alone. You cannot blame yourself for the actions of evil men. If we hadn't stopped them who knows what they would've done? What they would still be doing? turning mutants into mindless slaves...killing those who would dare speak out. They took our children, our friends, our family because they knew it would hurt us.
"They knew just what to use to get us to try to back down, but we didn't. We stood up to them when others didn't because what they were doing was wrong . They knew it. Otherwise they wouldn't have tried to cover it up by trying to scare us into silence. And my heart aches that the children got caught up in this and....for our losses, but I am not sorry that we got our family back and the thousands of people alive today because of us, mutants and humans alike. We saved a nation. Because we refused to turn our head when others did."
She searched his eyes.
"You are a great man. The best I have ever known. They did this because they saw the good in you too. Mourn, but don't blame yourself for the actions of others. Please."
"They targeted us because I made us a target. Everything we've done, the X-Men, India, Budapest... Am I really so arrogant to believe I know better? That I have the right to impose my beliefs on a whole nation?" The anguish in his voice was the anguish of too many hours holding vigil, not expecting to see his people again. "Especially when I am not the one paying the price?"
Jean shook her head. "And David Moreau had the right to do what he did? You are not arrogant to want to make a difference," she said, reaching up to gently touch his face.
"The world needs voices that say 'no more' when the world averts its eyes to the evil that men can do. It's hard, it will always be hard, but is is worth doing."
Charles let out a shuddering breath as she touched him, his hand coming up to grip hers tightly. "I want to believe that," he said, his voice choked with emotion. "I need to believe that."
(full log here)
5) What is something about X-Project that you really like/enjoy?
World Building, fan art, plot sessions.
1) What brought you to X-Project?
I saw an ad for the game on Hollow Art. I was looking for a new game and missed role playing.
2) What keeps you in X-Project?
The community and the world building.
3) What's a moment that has really stuck with you that you wrote?
The Dark Phoenix Saga, Hotel California, Fury Said to a Mouse, Genosha
Jean began to gasp again, fighting to breathe as her eyes locked on the void, her body twisting and writhing in agony from the pressure and the cold. Suddenly, her narrowed eyes softened. Anger. Pain. Fear. It was all of these things the demon craved. It would consume it, gorge itself on her, on the others, until there was nothing left. Letting herself be overcome with those emotions only fed the demon itself. It made it stronger. She had to do things another way.
"No," she repeated, wisps of flame bleeding through the cracks in her armor. She could feel something growing, changing, as the fire snaked through its hands and spread throughout Jean's form, bluish-black melting away into orange-yellow.
"I am fire. I am life, " Jean said. Her astral skin burned away to reveal a body made of fire, the Phoenix's wings unfurled.
"So burn."
Its scream tore the sound from the astral plane. It reared back, but too late; the flame was already coursing up its arms, flowing towards its head and heart. It writhed, humanoid form losing cohesion as it did. With a handful of stumbling backward steps, the avatar disintegrated.
Jean spread her palms and lifted her head, searching the miasma. The darkness still remained, it had only retreated. Her eyes lowered toward the remains of the demonologist. They lingered. Lifting one hand, the Phoenix's wings billowed, growing in strength as the fire spread throughout the entire area. It shot through every nook and cranny, obliterating every trace of the demonologist it could find.
"Goodbye."
There was no death cry, no shattering of self. Not enough remained of the man for that. But there were wisps of sensation, and so Jean knew the shock of an alien personality and the sharp red edge it brought. She felt, too, the hopeless grasping of a drowning soul -- and unexpected purchase. Another presence, removed but carrying the spirit of a world she had longed to know but had been unable to see. Not purchase enough for salvation, but enough. Enough to guide flame, and the release it brought.
Just impressions, like the last of the light of a long-dead star.
(full log here)
4) What's a moment that has really stuck with you that someone else wrote?
Genosha
He made the tea with movements made smooth by habit and practice, the small ritual doing as much to soothe him as the liquid itself. The slight tremble of his hands as he added Jean's sugar that caused him to spill the white grains across the saucer was a giveaway that perhaps he wasn't as calm as he presented.
Jean reached out, gently putting her hand over his. "Charles?" she said gently, glancing him over.
"Talk to me."
~Always so observant, Jean.~ Charles stopped what he was doing and grasped her fingers. "I am so, so sorry, Jean. All of this, what happened to the children, the beatings, Rachel..." His voice choked up on the name. "It is my fault."
Rising from her chair, Jean walked around and crouched down in front of him. "No," she said, taking his hands in her own.
"No, Charles. It was their fault and theirs alone. You cannot blame yourself for the actions of evil men. If we hadn't stopped them who knows what they would've done? What they would still be doing? turning mutants into mindless slaves...killing those who would dare speak out. They took our children, our friends, our family because they knew it would hurt us.
"They knew just what to use to get us to try to back down, but we didn't. We stood up to them when others didn't because what they were doing was wrong . They knew it. Otherwise they wouldn't have tried to cover it up by trying to scare us into silence. And my heart aches that the children got caught up in this and....for our losses, but I am not sorry that we got our family back and the thousands of people alive today because of us, mutants and humans alike. We saved a nation. Because we refused to turn our head when others did."
She searched his eyes.
"You are a great man. The best I have ever known. They did this because they saw the good in you too. Mourn, but don't blame yourself for the actions of others. Please."
"They targeted us because I made us a target. Everything we've done, the X-Men, India, Budapest... Am I really so arrogant to believe I know better? That I have the right to impose my beliefs on a whole nation?" The anguish in his voice was the anguish of too many hours holding vigil, not expecting to see his people again. "Especially when I am not the one paying the price?"
Jean shook her head. "And David Moreau had the right to do what he did? You are not arrogant to want to make a difference," she said, reaching up to gently touch his face.
"The world needs voices that say 'no more' when the world averts its eyes to the evil that men can do. It's hard, it will always be hard, but is is worth doing."
Charles let out a shuddering breath as she touched him, his hand coming up to grip hers tightly. "I want to believe that," he said, his voice choked with emotion. "I need to believe that."
(full log here)
5) What is something about X-Project that you really like/enjoy?
World Building, fan art, plot sessions.
