(no subject)
VID: "I WISH I WAS THE MOON"
PAIRING: Proto-Wolverine/Rogue
SETTING: Pre-X1 (early spring 2005)
SONG: "I Wish I Was the Moon" by Neko Case
FOOTAGE: The X-Men Franchise, etc.
COPYRIGHT: Marvel and 20th Century Fox
SUMMARY: On the night of a cold full moon, two lonely people reflect on what has led them to eking out separate lives on the road.
Marie, on a bus in Canada, remembers how cocky she was about the idea of a northern adventure before her mutation manifested. What followed was four months of a very strained relationship with her family and a head full of someone else's memories.
One rainy night, Marie tells her mother that she's thinking of running away. Her mother comes into her room later and convinces Marie that the medication her doctor prescribed must have had some effect by now and that what happened with David will never happen again. Of course, Marie takes in her life force - learning that the reason the woman she thought of as her mother never understood her need to run away as a child was because she's not her mother after all. With an ambulance outside, Marie sits on the stairs and takes in a picture of her adventurous, dearly departed "aunt and uncle" - who she now knows as her real parents. With the voice of her not-mother in her head, she takes off for parts unknown.
The bus Marie is on passes a truck with a camper driven by Logan, who's contemplating his dog tag and obsessing over a fragment of a remembered voice asking him, "Why is the moon so lonely?" The reason he doesn't know is because of what happened a few days earlier.
After ten years on the road, Logan finally returned to Canada. He went out into the woods, where he once planted a crop of peyote. After forcing down enough to kill a weaker man, he succumbed to a violent trip in the hopes of getting some memories back. Well, during the trip he saw plenty of his past, ran from his fear of his animalistic side, came face-to-face with "the trickster,” and got in a knock-down drag-out fight with himself - only to wake up bloody and unconscious, with no more understanding of the memories he lost. Except for that damn question echoing in his head - "Why is the moon so lonely?"
Upset and worn out, Logan gets a room for the night. Little does he know, Marie's bus has stopped at the same hotel. Having stolen a keycard, she sneaks into a room just as Logan opens his door to figure out what that scent is outside his door. He lets it go, and they both get ready for some much needed rest.
Problem, is neither of them can sleep. They both mull over the problems in their minds: “Why is the moon so lonely?” “I can’t remember.” - “I hate it here, I just want to get away.” “If you don’t like your family, then get your things and go. Isn’t that what you’ve always wanted?” - “This is bullshit. You’re wasting your time.” - “She’s never been this cruel before.” - “I can’t just walk away. I deserve to know who’s playing me.” - “There’s definitely something wrong with me.”
And then, in the space between awake and asleep, they both get this feeling like some day there’s going to be someone they can pose the same questions to - “Who am I?” “What’s going on inside my head?” - someone who needs the answers just as much.
This feeling wakes them both up, makes them sit up in bed with a desperate, disbelieving prayer to the cold, hypnotic moon - never realizing that the someone they need is just one room away.