This is such a good story. I hope you'll come back and finish it. I want to know more about everything, and I absolutely love the way Xavier interprets Logan and Rogue's relationship.

I had neglected these boards for some time out of constant disappointment with so much of the material. How fortunate for me to revisit your list of stories and find that you had posted a new one! I am so pleased to see you here again, and with another diamond-bright set of character studies and, as per your style, an oblique look at Logan and Rogue's relationship, such that it is! Some favorite moments:

"Logan nods without comment, and Xavier remembers that he has never really liked taciturn people. People suspicious of or inhibited by speech. Xavier has never known the luxury of being one of those who could trust the body and its gestures, more than words. More than thoughts. Everything Xavier has ever been able to hold onto, has never been something he could hold with his hands." Never felt that Xavier whas ever entirely trusting of or comfortable around Logan...

"The swiftness with which she looks away reminds Xavier of how twitchy she is, has always been. How when she had arrived Xavier had always considered Rogue the feral one, not Logan." As another admirer commented, in all the fanfic based on X1 I've read over the years, I don't think I've ever read anyone's take on Rogue's state of mind when she first came to the mansion...

"Xavier sees Logan lower his head, lean ever-so-lightly out into Kurt’s path. His nose twitching, his entire body still and taut as a hunter’s. Detecting. Inhaling.

Smelling, Xavier realizes. Smelling.

Then Kurt passes, and the moment does, too. Xavier looks at Logan. It isn’t quite jealousy, or anger on the man’s face. Just this serious, grave determination. This frank instinct, or need. Need to take what he can. Need to feel what he can. Where he can find it." One of the things about Logan that has always been at the heart of my fascination with the character is in the way he uses this part of his mutation - his enhanced senses and his inate abilities to "read" what he's sensing - to gather information about a situation or a person. I love how you use that in your descriptions of him. He's a lot more than the adamantium skeleton, the claws, and the berzerker rage - thank you for tapping into that about him.

Now, I see that it's been some time since you've updated. I will be checking back more often in hopes of seeing more of this new story. Welcome back and thank you, Acse!

I am pretty sure that I let out an undignified squeal when I saw that you had updated. Your stories are always an intricate pleasure to read, and I especially love the way you have written Storm, Xavier, and their relationship.
The Resnais nod has made my brain replace Logan, Scott, and Phoenix with the triangle in Last Year at Marienbad.

I like this story. It's a bit confusing at times but it's probably just my not paying enough attention xXx

Author's Response: Thank you for this kind comment! lol, I think it's a bit confusing to me, too, and I'm the one writing it. All the sudden flashbacks occasionally trip me up.

So very many things I loved in this. Some I give reasons for, some I like just because.

"Everything Xavier has ever been able to hold onto, has never been something he could hold with his hands."

"Logan already looks like he doesn’t want to say a thousand things." Doesn't he really? Dead on with this one.

"I already know you—already vowing to protect a precocious young girl who’s crawled inside your heart, let me tell you how this not-love story ends, however much you think you’re already needed, it isn’t even half of what you’re going to end up needing—"

"The swiftness with which she looks away reminds Xavier of how twitchy she is, has always been. How when she had arrived Xavier had always considered Rogue the feral one, not Logan." Hmm, I can see this. Very plausible & a great new way of going back over those scenes with a different eye. That's one of the best things about fanfics - seeing the original work through someone else's eyes.

"older than everyone her age, exhausted by being both smart and old, trying desperately not to be so smart and old. That last part, at least, all three of them have in common." AHHH!! Even after all of these years of thinking about all things Rogan I did not make this connection. Consider my mind blown. Really.

I love how your exorcising X3 demons with this. Going back over the last conversation Logan & Xavier had. I never really placed much thought that their last exchange was an argument. I also love you simultaneous X1 references. Sharp as a tack is what you are.

So I looked up The Once And Future King & didn't realize that it made an appearance in X2! Apparently the comics also reference it. Awesomesauce! I always feel like I stumble upon the best Easter eggs in your fics. Did you include this work because it was used in the various X-Men works or just a personal preference you found fitting?

Author's Response: Hi sahara! Yes, I've always liked how Rogue and Logan seem similar in that way, in X1. Both twitchy and defensive, trying to survive, just on the cusp of despair. And the colors they used for her, all that green and auburn and brown. She always felt like a kind of woodland creature, someone raw. The smart/old thing with the three of them really gets me. I think they, along with Jean, are the characters who are always trying to suppress what they know and how they know it and how that informs how they live in the world. And how desperately hard all that knowing makes their daily lives. It's moving. And that last conversation between Logan and Xavier in X3 just HAUNTS me. Because to some extent I think it's total character assassination for both of them, but at the same time, I think it's amazing, provocative, interesting character assassination. The monster that it makes out of Xavier, and the way Patrick Stewart, like a boss, just delivers these really disturbing lines, about Xavier's conduct with Jean, Jean's mind. The man it reveals him to be. What he's capable of. And the way Logan learns all of this, the distrust and horror that descend upon him. But also his somewhat annoying over-righteous indignance. I don't know, it's a very, very disturbing scene. Ah--and as for The Once and Future King--I'm working it in because of it's relation to Xavier and Magneto in the movies. There are things in it that illuminate Xavier's character and way of thinking about education in particular, for sure. Thanks again for all these wonderful comments and observations! It's always a pleasure to hear from you.

As if I needed another reason why you're one of my all time favorite authors here.

"About bodies, and how to live in them." Indeed. This just kept playing in my mind over & over again throughout this first chapter. I'm so excited to see what you're going to do with this theme. There are so many different directions you can take it & I know it'll be excellent since you're writing & ideas are always up to par.

The timing of this is just dead on. "About bodies, and how to live in them." I guess that's a theme that's been running through my mind before I even read this, but just didn't recognize it until now. As someone who has been exposed to & experienced the ultimate breakdown & limitations of the body in recent months, this hits close to home.

I really, truly cannot wait to see where you take this.

Author's Response: Hi, sahara, sorry for replying so late!! Yes, the theme of living in bodies is something I think about constantly, and I think it shows up in the writing here, too. I've personally felt those breakdowns and limitations, too. And what's always fascinated and affected me about this series is its relationship to bodies, to the work of having (or not having) a body and the experience of having (or not having) a body. The simultaneous fragility and brutality of a body. A "mutated" body, a violenced and violent body. An ethics of the body. I mean, all of their mutations are essentially weaponized mutations, making people more capable of doing damage to other people, other lives... making these people at once harder and more vulnerable, at once more closed off and more opened up, TOO opened up. How to live in bodies like that? I can't stop thinking about those questions.

Ecstatic is the only way to describe how I felt on seeing a new story from you - So, so glad to see your superb writing skills back in action and once again your concept and style have me hooked and eagerly awaiting the next instalment.

I know you’re still probably wishy-washy [your words not mine!] when it comes to our fav couple and it doesn’t matter what or who you write about cause it’s all so damn good but I still can’t help keeping my fingers crossed that the Rogan bug has bit you :) we’re a great bunch you know, slightly mad but a good bunch none the less! x

Author's Response: Yaayy, hi, litlen! Did I say I was wishy-washy about them? Seriously, I have nothing but affection for the Rogan bunch and for the Rogan ship itself, though the way I write them might suggest otherwise... I just like all the levels of intimacy they have, sometimes but not always including romantic. So I don't know if this story is going to be less wishy-washy, in that regard... But maybe I've been a little bit bitten by the bug? ;)

More please xXx

Haven't read the chapter yet, but I just wanted to tell you I'm so glad to see you writing new stuff! I've really enjoyed reading your other stuff. They left me with so many thoughts I know I composed a bunch of reviews in my head, don't know if I ever posted any of them. ;-) I know for sure I was up until 3 a.m. one night finishing the Anti-Romance Story!