X-lab/x-works/the symposium

[himynameiserin]

So here's my pitch for a new X-book or concept during the Krakoan Era.

Basically, inspired by the increase in Mutant Technology, the formation of The Five and the terrforming of Mars, our lead characters start musing about the future of Mutant Training. Will the school still exist on Krakoa? Or is the idea of a school outmoded? How will young and old mutants learn how to master their powers when everyone is so busy with the expansion of Krakoa?

Lead Characters:

Sage
Cecelia Reyes

Supporting Characters (turning into Lead Characters as series progresses):

Triage - Christopher Muse
Caliban
Masque
Morph - Benjamin Deeds
Prodigy - David Alleyne
Forge

Cecelia Reyes is settling into life on Krakoa, but she's a doctor at heart, and finds herself feeling isolated and increasingly redundant in a world of resurrections and mutants with healing powers. She considers leaving Krakoa to return to the human world, but she's torn because she has grown to love her fellow Krakoans, and is wary of the anti-mutant distrust which has only been exacerbated by the birth of Krakoa. Returning from a visit to the human world, she strikes up a conversation with Sage. They discuss CeCes feelings, and spitball for a bit about where she might place herself. She's a doctor, what about teaching? They start discussing the history of the X-Men, where kids would come to the school to learn how to control and perfect their gifts, and wonder if even that process is different in the new world?

They think of Hope stabilising the Five Lights powers when they ignited, and her role in the Five and the creation of planet Arrako. In this new world, maybe there's a way to help mutants to be the best versions of themselves using mutant technology?

---

Sage has been working with Caliban, seeing how his mutant tracking ability might help with her job of monitoring entry and exits from Krakoa. Caliban had hoped to take up Polaris' vacant role in X-Factor to help find missing mutants, but Sage has a theory that his mutation might offer more than it seems. She thinks that Caliban's power may have the potential to evolve, and performs a "jump-start" on him. Following this, Caliban is not only able to track mutants, but to perceive the full potential of their powers. He agrees to continue working with Sage and as word grows round Krakoa, Caliban becomes exceedingly popular and sought out, as mutants are keen to learn what they can do. Having lived a life of isolation and rejection, this is the happiest Caliban has ever been.

---

Meanwhile, Morph - Benjamin Deeds has been seeing CeCe Reyes to deal with some depression. He's unable to shift it, and wonders if there's a chance the Krakoan flowers could help. As they talk, he explains his frustrations regarding his passive mutation, especially now on this island of abundance and colour. CeCe spends some time analysing Benjamin's mutation, wondering if the slight electrical fluctuation it causes (shown in an issue of Bendis' UXM, can't remember the number), might be something? She also wonders if it could potentially be a stunted version of full shapeshifting. She briefly considers calling on Mystique to ask her advice, but decides against it. She considers going to Synch or Rogue, to see if they can absorb his powerset and discover any corners he might have missed, but again decides against it. Finally it clicks, and she decides to bring Morph to Sage and Caliban.

They analyse Benjamin, but sadly reveal that...this is it. This is his full powerset, at full capacity. Benjamin begins to cry, heartbroken, but Sage, Caliban and CeCe comfort him. On Krakoa, not everyone HAS to be a fighter, this is a new world, this is a place where mutants can LIVE rather than survive. His mutant power might not be a showstopper, but he is a mutant, and therefore he has a place. This strikes a chord with CeCe, and she realises that she's counselling herself as much as Morph. Inspired, she asks Morph what he wanted to be before he was a mutant. He says he wanted to be a therapist, and was studying psychology before he developed (will have to check this). CeCe then says this is perfect, as his mutation allows him to put people at their ease, to gain their trust, to mirror them. So, Benjamin vows to continue his training in psychology and will become a therapist for the mutants of Krakoa.

All of this inspires CeCe and Sage to develop what we'll call X-LAB/X-WORKS/THE SYMPOSIUM. A place where mutants can come to learn how to develop themselves, and find their place in the new world.

It will work in sort of anthology structure to begin with, with some of the less showy mutants, or forgotten mutants, coming to the lab to see their potential. Sometimes the mutants may need a physical modification in order to achieve their potential (more on that below), so they recruit Triage as a Biokinetic. Triage will work with CeCe Reyes, though his powers work automatically, he feels more inclined to understand what his powers are doing to bodies, so he starts learning (interning) with CeCe Reyes. Masque comes in to help repair damage done to mutants bodies with their emerging powers. Morph and Prodigy will help where there may be a psychological impediment (think Cyclops' brain damage, or Jubilee's early fear of her powers).

CLIENTS INCLUDE:
Angelo Espinosa - Skin.

Skin initially comes to Morph because he is having difficulty accepting Utopia, and is struggling with being brought back to life after death (something Morph will realise is common). He then expresses dissatisfaction with his power set, in particular his grey skin, and the pain it causes to make himself look "normal". Again, Caliban and Sage determine this is the extent, his powers won't change, but they all agree that his body isn't necessarily "optimised" to cope with his extra skin. Triage and CeCe work together to adapt Skin's body so it has more blood to support his extra skin, and enhance his circulatory system. From this point on, Skin's tone returns to a regular pigment, and he is able to rearrange it without causing pain. With this, he begins to experiment further with his stretching (we'll see him swinging away like spider-man on lengthened fingers)

Jono Starsmore - Chamber

Simple one. He has a hole in the chest. He has considered running Crucible to have a recreated body, but he is nervous. Masque and Triage combine their abilities, with CeCe's guidance to refashion him a chest and face. Forge fashions him an aperture to emit his psionic energy (like the one Chamber wore in AoA). But Caliban can see that there's more potential here, he notices that Chamber survived what would be a fatal injury when his powers ignited, and that he developed telepathy to communicate, and lost the need for food/air. Chamber is in fact an adapter, in the vein of Darwin/Lifeguard. The energy within him is violent, but it is also symbiotic, so it works to keep Chamber alive. (Haven't quite worked this one out yet).

---

SO YEAH, basically, this would be a really good place to showcase and enhance some of the lesser featured mutants, without the need of a secondary mutation, (just some minor retcons) or clarifications. I could also see this as being the STARTING POINT for Krakoa's experimentation with the Chimera concept. As they work with individual mutants, Sage will begin compiling data and seeing opportunities for combinations of powers, where teams could be formed, or how powers could come together for non-offensive benefits, as with Mars. If Madrox wasn't being used elsewhere, and Synch wasn't being used elsewhere, I would have snapped him up for a role. I had in mind that he would permanently absorb Madrox's powers of duplication, and create multiples that could then absorb each clients powers and experiment. He would begin to absorb more than one at a time to test Chimera possibilities.

Anyway, I hope you like my idea! Apologies for the bad formatting, non-linear layout, I've been thinking about this for months while trying to sleep, so lots of ideas to get down.

[Sutekh]

Well, I love that you're using Sage, Cecelia Reyes and Caliban, of all people, and it would be a very cool look if Krakoa was more willing and able to help Caliban find a purpose and a niche and acceptance than Apocalypse was...

Seriously though, this is a very neat idea. Sage (and Hope, IIRC) has shown the potential to help people unlock powers (as she did with Lifeguard and surfer-boy, IIRC), so it would make sense to have her involved in something like this (and also get her the hell away from Beast and X-Force, so he can drown in his own sketchiness without her there to save him or lend legitimacy to his madness).

The idea of helping various mutants reach their full potential, or that some mutations may have been incomplete or frustrated and need to be guided or further unlocked, seems an inconsistent one, but definitely true in some cases, with plenty of mutants having 'leveled up' abilities over time. (Cyclops used to get tired and 'run out' of blasts. Kitty only recently-ish developed the power to phase large things like buildings and ships. Emma gained that whole new secondary mutation thing...) There's certainly precedent for someone like Skin to get a minor upgrade, if only to be a bit more effective, if *hardly* even an 'alpha' like Havok or Colossus.

I'd want to keep Chamber focused on being a psionic entity, but also able to maintain a flesh and blood body, and the 'fix' for him could be to start with astral projection, to pull his psionic energy out of his body as not just as an astral form, but also one of telekinetic force, while not damaging or blowing up his meatsuit, and being able to manifest his most damaging energies free of the (fragile!) confines of his mortal flesh.

One of the many many oddball mutants I'd want to show up seeking some mutant solution to his mutation's crippling side-effects is the Mutant Force member Paralyzer, who can generate electrical blasts, but whose hands and feet have turned into crab pincers. With some help from healers and gene-tweakers like Sage, he might gain the ability to charge his body with electricity and make it transform from a normal boy with normal hands who can pee unassisted, to a big crab-armored form with pincers that is much more effective in combat (and looks more like one of the armored Cancer LMDs from the Zodiac), so that he can make the most of being both a mutant badass *and* a dude who can open his own beers or wear shoes.

[himynameiserin]

YES! I love that idea for Chamber! I wanted him to do something rather than being sort of ill-defined as he is (I feel), but your idea seems like a really cool elevation of his powers. And yep, agreed about Paralyser!!

I just remembered that another mutant who would be helped/recruited early would be Scrambler! So he might be one of the first they push, meaning that rather than just using his powers to make peoples powers go haywire, he can also help them to settle, or push them in a certain direction. Ditto with Leech, perhaps his powers moved in the suppression direction because of his surroundings in the Morlocks tunnels? Maybe he developed them in that way because it gave some of the morlocks relief to have their powers suppressed around him, but it might be there's potential for him to also learn how to "amp up" powers too.

[himynameiserin]

For Angelo, I have this idea that once he's had the pain of his skin extrusions sorted, he tries "thwipping" and swinging like spider-man. Then, having fun, he wonders aloud what else he could do. Then in my head, I'm imagining that Benjamin Deeds says "what if you, you know..." and grabs the ends of his coat making them into wings. Angelo smiles, then we're at the top of a cliff, and he jumps off, moving his skin into huge gliders under his armpits (like web gliders) and he glides off into the distance, laughing.

Then we'd come back to him at the end of the issue coda, he's in the Green Lagoon. We see Indra sitting with the mangled version of Rockslide, trying to spend time with the casualty of X of Swords. Rockslide coughs or something, startling Indra and forcing him to reflex into his armoured form (mimicking a scene from an old New X-Men issue, during Messiah Complex). Skin watches, then pauses, concentrates, and forms his skin into an hardened exo-skeleton type shape, similar to Indra.

[himynameiserin]

And maybe a more sinister underlying storyline throughout;

As Triage and Sage and Caliban start musing about the possibilities of Chimeras, but lacking the resource of Synch or Rogue to test power combinations in a single person, they start wondering aloud about recruiting a precog, to see if they see the results without having to actually do the work. This flares up the attention of Xavier, Magneto and Moira, who I guess would try to turn them off this idea without revealing why precogs aren't allowed. Maybe they encourage them to do the work to advance mutant technology, so it's their own fault that the Chimera program kicks off.

And then, also, what if, Mystique is frustrated by their refusal to resurrect Destiny, so she starts trying to infiltrate the Symposiums work. She'll try to coerce Caliban to watch for mutants that have similar power sets to the 5, maybe leading to an alternate 5 (like the 6 have alternates), so that they have a different route to go down for restricted resurrections.

I also have an idea that Martha Johannsen will be in this book. She'll come to the team, and have her telepathy boosted. They will offer to fashion her a body, but she's ok with how she is.

A main crux of what I'm thinking for this idea is that everyone has a place. There's self acceptance, reframing the characters mindsets of what it is to be "exceptional", and making space for marginalised people to LIVE rather than survive. To thrive in fields other than combat.

The other books have the fighting down, they protect the culture, these could be the stories of the people who create the culture maybe

[TheMutantTheorist]

I love this idea but I see a lot of changing the appearance of mutants to look more human. it's touching some subjects we're already seeing talked about in New Mutants and is in a way very anti-mutant but I guess if it helps the mutant achieve their higher self I don't see a problem with it but I just like seeing mutants look unique and to be proud of their differences.

If this is a school tho Id like to see mutants within specific powersets teach other mutants how to control and grow within their own powers. There would be "classes" for mutants specialized in teleportation, flying, elemental powers, mental powers, physical powers, and other things similar. It could give a lot of spotlight to unused mutants.

[Sutekh]

I love this idea but I see a lot of changing the appearance of mutants to look more human. it's touching some subjects we're already seeing talked about in New Mutants and is in a way very anti-mutant but I guess if it helps the mutant achieve their higher self I don't see a problem with it but I just like seeing mutants look unique and to be proud of their differences.

It is a wonky subject, but at the end of the day, I'm *not* deformed and unable to have a normal life, do have functional hands, haven't had my face blown off by my powers, am not a brain in a jar that can never get laid or kiss someone or taste cheesecake, etc. so it's not really kosher for me to insist that someone who *does* have those restrictions, *and doesn't have to* should stay restricted out of some sort of muddle-headed 'mutant solidarity.' if the character is determined (by the writers, obv) to *want* to be the way they are, then more power to them, but most of them (Chamber, Martha, etc.) have clearly expressed dissatisfaction with their current state, and no amount of preaching that they should accept their state by pretty mutant supermodels is worth anything other than a snort of derision, IMO.

If this is a school tho Id like to see mutants within specific powersets teach other mutants how to control and grow within their own powers. There would be "classes" for mutants specialized in teleportation, flying, elemental powers, mental powers, physical powers, and other things similar. It could give a lot of spotlight to unused mutants.

The Mutant X show (originally intended to be about Marvel mutants, IIRC) divided it's mutants into four categories;
Psionics - telepaths, espers, telekinetics, precogs, mind controllers, astral projectors, etc.
Ferals - folks like Rahne, Shark Girl, Angel, Catseye, Indra, Angel Salvadore, etc. those with animal traits / physiology
Energy projectors - Cyclops, Banshee, Havok, Polaris, Sunfire, etc.
Material/Structural - sort of a grab bag for people able to alter state like turn to steel (Colossus) or stone (Rockslide) or sandstorms (Dust) or turn intangible (Kitty) or regenerate (Wolverine) otherwise transform either themselves or change the environment (transmuting matter or even teleporting).

I don't remember the exact names of the four categories, and the last one in particular seems like a giant grab-bag (teleporting *and* turning to metal in the same power structure?), but it would be neat to see some actual thought put into classifications or categories by Xavier, Sage, Cecelia Reyes, Kavita Rao, etc.

[Phoenixx9]

The Mutant X show (originally intended to be about Marvel mutants, IIRC) divided it's mutants into four categories;
Psionics - telepaths, espers, telekinetics, precogs, mind controllers, astral projectors, etc.
Ferals - folks like Rahne, Shark Girl, Angel, Catseye, Indra, Angel Salvadore, etc. those with animal traits / physiology
Energy projectors - Cyclops, Banshee, Havok, Polaris, Sunfire, etc.
Material/Structural - sort of a grab bag for people able to alter state like turn to steel (Colossus) or stone (Rockslide) or sandstorms (Dust) or turn intangible (Kitty) or regenerate (Wolverine) otherwise transform either themselves or change the environment (transmuting matter or even teleporting).

I don't remember the exact names of the four categories, and the last one in particular seems like a giant grab-bag (teleporting *and* turning to metal in the same power structure?), but it would be neat to see some actual thought put into classifications or categories by Xavier, Sage, Cecelia Reyes, Kavita Rao, etc.

I believe the name of the 4 were Psionics, Ferals, Elemental (for environmental and/or electrical manipulators) and Moleculars --all the rest (who can change their molecules to do things), such as Jesse who could become Ghost or Granite.