DISCLAIMER: This is an unauthorized
work of fiction using characters that are (c) & TM by
Marvel Comics Group. No profit is being made on this story,
so I'll invoke The Marvel Readers' Bill of Rights (for the
full text see Stan's Soapbox in some of the May 1998
comics, e.g. Generation X #38):
"8. The right to practice scripting and drawing our Marvel
characters for your own pleasure and amusement."
The story and the original characters (like Raven and Valerie's
daughters Irene and Hope, see the list in the end notes) are
(c) Tilman Stieve (Menshevik@aol.com).
You can download this and copy it for your entertainment,
but don't sell it for profit, or Marvel will set their lawyers
on you. Please do not archive this on your website without
informing me first.
Drink to Me Only With Thine Eyes belongs to the continuing
series, the Tales of the Twilight Menshevik; it interconnects
with a few other stories, but should be understandable on
its own. It is set in an alternate future, about a year after
the death of most of the X-Men. Other stories in this timeline,
the Days of Future Twilight, include The
Survivor Has a Different Kind of Scar and Pictures
at an Exhibition.
You can find the other Tales archived on "Fonts
of Wisdom," "Down-Home Charm," "MissyRedX:
The Average Website," and "Stacy's
Fan-Fiction Page."
Ergo Bibamus 3:
Drink to Me Only With Thine Eyes
By Tilman Stieve, aka the Menshevik
"I knew Nurse Collins was you."
"Did not."
"Yes, I did!"
"Liar." The black-haired woman gave him a superior kind of
smile. "Give it a rest, Logan. Let's go in and get drunk."
The two had reached their destination, a bar on the wrong
side of the tracks of Annandale-on-Hudson called The Dead
Man's Hand. The kind of place where Wolverine did not
look out of place with his leather jacket, lumberjack shirt
and the wide-brimmed hat with its maple-shaped feather array
up front. Mystique had chosen her appearance accordingly and
was in a faded denim jacket. She had her Raven Darkhölme face
and looked as young as she had the first time she assumed
it decades ago.
Logan bought the first drinks and they sat down at a table
in the darker corner of the room.
"So, what brings you to Annandale?"
"I wanted to see you," Raven replied. "I was in Salem Center.
I had put it off too long. I had to look after ... her estate.
I was told you were here and I thought I'd look in on you."
Raven Darkhölme wanting to see him on the spur of the moment?
Logan raised an eyebrow, but for the moment decided to let
it pass. "Appreciate the thought, darlin'. You're not lookin'
too shabby now."
"You should have seen me a couple of months ago, my friend.
My family could tell you stories... Maybe Irene already has."
"Well, so far Reney's been very discreet," Logan replied.
Irene Cooper, also known as Overdrive, was a new teammate
of his in Factor X, the team formed from X-Factor and the
handful of survivors of the X-Men after September 2nd, 2013.
"At least when I was around, but then I'm not always there."
"No, I gather you spend just about every free moment here,"
Mystique said quietly, "to be with Jean Grey. I just saw her
at the hospital..."
"I know, I was there, remember? I could smell who you were."
"Only when I allowed you to." Mystique briefly smiled, but
did not pick up his bait. "I was surprised how beautiful she
looked in spite of everything. If you know how to look. Her
physical wounds healed nicely... not that that makes it any
easier for you ."
Logan silently nodded.
"Is that ... the state she's always in?" Raven looked into
his eyes.
"Pretty much so," was the morose reply. "She had what the
doctors call her 'lucid episodes' more often until about two
months ago, now she's like this nearly all of the time."
She took his hand in hers. "I'm sorry," she finally said,
but faltered trying to think of something appropriate to say.
"Yep, that's always the problem, what can ya say in a situation
like this. You never really got to know Jeannie that well,
except in the narrow way that ya make a point of studyin'
all your potential enemies an' allies." He put down his empty
whiskey glass with a smile that began grim but softened into
understanding. "So ya have to wonder if there's anything you
can say that I won't take the wrong way 'cause I can't forget
that I know her better than you do because I was closer to
her. Reckon the same thing would have happened if I had tried
to commiserate you just after Destiny died."
"Well, you were a source of comfort then, if only for a night.
I appreciated that."
"Geez, ya hadda bring that up." Logan scratched his ear,
slightly embarrassed about the reminder. "I had just lost
Mariko, Jean wasn't going to happen, and then there you were
in that grubby little bar. Sex seemed as good a way as any
to ease the hurt..."
"It was more than just that, my friend. There weren't many
people with whom I could talk, and what you had been through
was similar enough to what Irene and I had experienced." She
tilted her head. "And it was too soon for both of us to start
looking for a permanent partner."
Logan looked slightly skeptic at Raven's analysis of his
own mind two decades ago, but did not contradict her. "I mainly
recall how lonely you appeared."
"There is nothing that can make you feel more lonely than
the death of a loved one -- I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said
that, she may yet recover."
"Ya think so? No, I guess ya don't, really. We've both seen
too much of death, we know better. I try to cling to hope
because, after all, this is Jean, but ... there are days when
I just want her sufferings to end."
"I used to believe miracles were the X-Men's stock in trade,
Logan," Raven said with a bleak expression, "but that ended
when I buried Kurt and Rogue."
"I lost many friends on September 2nd, but few were closer
than those two. Which was really strange, considerin' that
Kurt had lived half a world away from me for twenty years.
But every time we met, it was just as if we had just parted
the day before."
"I know," Raven said with a rueful smile, "you were one of
those people around whom he was more relaxed than when he
was around me."
Logan raised an eyebrow. "But you must have seen him a lot
more often than me."
"Well, he came to visit his sisters, mostly. We managed to
overcome what had happened in the past, smoothen over things,
but there always was this element of awkwardness."
"Ya mean he still resented you for abandonin' him as a kid?"
"There also was the matter of my checkered past -- he sensed
that my transformation from enemy to friend largely hinged
on the state of relations between mutants and others. That
had there been a dramatic deterioration I might easily have
become a 'super-villain' again."
"Even if it had meant leavin' Val and yer kids?"
"Think I couldn't do it? I'd do it if I was convinced it
was necessary, even if it broke my heart. However, it might
not have to come to that. Val prefers to work within the system,
but if the system broke down, I'm not sure she would not become
a 'freedom-fighter' too. After all, this is part of this country's
ideology since the founding fathers."
"Yes, I remember."
"Besides, it might not even be up to my choice. What if one
of the crazies who tried to kill her over the years had succeeded...?"
The expression that rushed over her features made it plain
that this was no idle fear. For a moment Raven appeared vulnerable,
but then she reverted to her normal manner. "But to return
to Kurt, he was a very devout man who took his faith extremely
serious. He tried to live by the tenets of his religion, and
I think he honestly forgave me, or thought he did. No, the
problem was mainly because of me, I think. There were always
these moments when there was something that made me feel ...
bad about what I had done to him. Even though I believe with
my intellect that Irene had foreseen the reason why we couldn't
raise him ourselves, why this was the only way to save him,
my heart kept yearning that things had been different. And
other things. And that behavior then made him feel uncomfortable
when we two were alone." Mystique's shoulders shrugged. "Maybe
I'll get the hang of this parenting thing in another decade
or two."
Logan's face echoed her self-ironic smile. "I know the feeling
well, Rave, there were times when I didn't feel up to the
job with some of my kids." He went over to the bar and returned
with another glass.
"So, you have a problem child too?" Mystique asked when he
sat down again.
"Well, things didn't always work out perfect with Amiko,"
he said, "Maybe it wasn't such a good idea t'leave her in
Japan after Mariko was killed. I mean, Yukio did a great job
raisin' her, but there were years when there simply were too
many things going on for me to find the time to see her as
often as I should have. I sometimes wondered if I should've
put less of a premium on her bein' raised in her native culture
and taken her across the Pacific..."
"That would only have worked if you had stayed in Westchester
instead of going with the Meddlers," Mystique replied. "All
in all, from what little I've seen of her, I'd say she turned
out all right."
"Yes, I'm proud of her. But it wasn't always easy. Don't
know how you managed to give Rogue what she needed when she
lived with you and lead the Brotherhood at the same time.
But for Amiko... it wasn't just that she saw so little of
me, Yukio was also kept away on missions for weeks at a time.
So there were times when 'Miko felt very lonesome. And it
didn't help when the other kids started arrivin' and needed
attention. It made her feel a little insecure, bein' the only
one who wasn't actually kin, and, as she already suspected,
the only one who wasn't a mutant."
"At least she didn't turn out like my Graydon." The joke
was somewhat feeble.
"No, her sense of honor prevented that from happenin'. Even
when the Hand kidnapped her and tried to brainwash her against
me." He leaned forward. "At least that episode finally got
us to talk about those feelings she had kept to herself. Good
thing too, I think she otherwise might have taken it harder
when Yukio had Gen. Abigail had been pretty hard for her to
digest -- she found it hard not to believe I'd be spending
most of my free time with Iggy, just because she lived on
the same continent as me."
"And you only saw her very rarely before her tenth birthday.
At least that's what Rogue told me..."
"She got that right. Scott had accepted Abigail as his without
reservation, given her his name, it would have been dishonorable
not to give them a chance to really become father and daughter."
"But it didn't come easy to you, did it, so Amiko's jealousy
maybe was not entirely without foundation."
"No, it wasn't easy, and I'm glad Iggy decided to let me
become part of her life after she learned the truth and accepted
it. But before that happened it was very hard to keep myself
from tellin' her I was her dad. A lot as it was for you with
Kurt before ya joined X-Factor."
"Possibly. He asked me about our resemblance when we first
met, as foes, and I told him to ask his foster mother. And
then, when he came to see me in Washington, it evolved he
had put off asking Margali about me for almost four years.
Just as you... never mind. Had Kurt been so scared of the
possibility that we might be related?" She scratched her chin
lost in thought. "Maybe that's a reason why I found it so
hard to become close to him, even after he finally did accept
he was my son." She raised her glass, and together they toasted
Kurt's memory. "But you were talking about Amiko."
"Yes, she finally did realize that her fears about Abigail
were unfounded. But Gennosuke was not just mine, but also
Yukio's, so she might've felt betrayed by both her foster
parents if we hadn't had our discussion before that."
"And how are you and Amiko today?"
"Pretty okay, really. She's leadin' her own life now, got
started on her own family, has to learn herself now how to
square a career and bein' a parent. She was here a month ago,
when she traveled to Snow Valley to see Abigail and to bring
Umeme there to enter the School."
"Ah yes, Hope mentioned that Umeme moved into her dorm. She
said it was so nice to have someone who's practically family
living on the same corridor." Raven paused. "It really was
such a disappointment for her when her sister Irene decided
to join Factor X so soon after she arrived at the Academy."
"A hard choice, that's for sure. Reney talks a bit how she
would have preferred to devote more time to her studies, but,
well, after Rogue and Kurt died she felt there was nothing
else she could do." Wolverine reflected about Raven Darkhölme's
and Val Cooper's elder daughter. "She reminded me of Rogue
quite a bit at first. When Rogue started out with the X-Men
she also was very serious about helping and kept a lot of
her feelings to herself. And both overcompensated for their
insecurities, actin' a lot more confident and cheery than
they were."
"At least you and your comrades made Irene more welcome than
you did Rogue," Mystique could not help sniping.
"And both Rogue and Reney proved their worth to the team
several times over durin' their first few months," Logan continued
unperturbed. "We were very proud of Rogue then, and we're
proud of Reney now. But far as I can see, you're not exactly
happy about the way things are, are you?"
"No I'm not, but what could I do? Val and Havok screamed
the team needed new recruits as soon as possible." Her fingers
ran through her hair, disrupting its well-coifed order. "I
had to help with the training, you know I wasn't fit for front-line
at the time. Well, at least that's going to change. I'll be
going on the active roster once I return to Washington."
"So you'll be able to keep an eye on her," Logan quipped.
"As if Irene would let me after a year on the team! She'll
likely as not insist on us being on different squads. Another
round?" She went over to the bar and bought another drink
for each, a red-eye for Logan and a light beer for herself.
"Strange, how I always seem to end up with someone from your
family as a drinking buddy. First it was Kurt for a couple
o' years, then Rogue, and now you."
"Hope you're not set on corrupting Irene as well."
Logan laughed. "Well, switchin' on that accelerated metabolism
of hers oughta enable her to deal with the effects. But you
know how it is. I'm here a lot, and Irene spends most of her
time with the others. She's quite close now with Paige and
our new guy from Denmark, Herluf. Far as her off-duty socializin'
with Canadian colleagues goes, she's not like her elder siblings.
Yet."
Raven looked at him curiously: "Did ... Rogue go out with
you a lot?"
"We were drinkin' pals." He paused in reflection. "Well,
ya know Mags wasn't one of nature's great mixers, preferred
to stay at home or walk through the countryside when he had
time on his hands. Rogue enjoyed goin' out and spendin' time
with her friends. While we had the Meddlers, she'd go out
dancin' and clubbin' with the younger ones, and to bars with
me."
"Alone?"
"That's how it often worked out. Magneto tagged along a few
times, Remy was there sometimes, a few of the others, but
it was just Rogue and me often enough. There wasn't anyone
in the Meddlers she'd known as long."
"And what did you talk about?"
"All sorts of stuff. Often she'd just take the opportunity
to unburden herself about her leadership grief. Found it nice
to have someone besides Magneto to talk about these matters.
It had been a bit like that when I led the X-Men. I really
could use her more optimistic and idealistic outlook as a
corrective for mine back then, she probably felt she could
use the same thing in reverse... But apart from that, we talked
about anything that came to our minds. I remember gettin'
her interested in hockey..."
"And Magnus didn't mind you spending so much time with her?"
"No, he could always join us when he wanted to, and Rogue
spent a lot more time just with him... He was already old
-- even though his body had been de-aged -- and set in his
ways. There simply were times when he wanted to be alone.
You know, he once said that he actually felt quite comfortable
with her goin' out with her 'fatherly friend' Logan rather
than her ex-beau Remy. Not entirely sure how serious he was
about that. The Cajun was just a friend to her after she got
back together with Magnus, his romance with her was way in
the past."
"And you and Rogue did not dwell much on the past, did you?"
"You know me -- if ya don't ask, I won't tell. Not that I
can even remember everything with all those implanted memories
and the gaps left by post-hypnotic erasures."
"Yes, you didn't seem to remember Destiny and me when we
clashed in the Capitol the first time my Brotherhood went
public."
"Well, I couldn't shake a vague feeling of familiarity, but
that's all there was."
"And Rogue didn't talk much about her past?"
"Only when it cropped up in a conversation, and that didn't
happen often, 'cause nobody asked her about it exceptin' those
parts that involved friends or enemies of the team. She didn't
divulge too many embarrassin' details about you, at least
not to me, but then she 'n' Mags never took me along to Mississippi.
So there's no need to fret on my account, darlin'."
Mystique smiled a thin-lipped smile.
"No, she usually was very complimentary of you, how much
better you 'n' Irene were than her biological ones. She liked
to show her family snapshots and videos a lot whenever she
got a new set."
"What did she have to say about her biological parents?"
"My, aren't we curious today." Logan was a little amused.
"Nothing much really. I remember that her birth-mother had
to raise her by herself, 'cause daddy skeedaddled before she
was born, probably when he heard Mommy was pregnant. Rogue
mentioned her mother's name once and that she had died, but
it really didn't seem that interestin', so we soon switched
the subject. No wait, she accidentally touched me, I passed
out, and then we changed the subject."
"Did she say she knew who her father was?"
"Can't say, I never asked her. Is it important? You don't
plan on huntin' him down to tell him he doesn't deserve to
live when his daughter died a hero, that sorta thing?"
"How do you know I haven't done that yet?" Mystique smirked,
then swallowed. "No, I already knew who fathered her. And
as it happens he was with her when she died."
"Waitaminnit, ya don't mean to say that Magneto..."
"Don't be disgusting, Logan."
"But I told you a year ago that Magnus was the only one there
when she died. I carried her to his side because she wanted
... to be with ... him." He fell silent under her gaze. "Oh."
Mystique nodded significantly.
"I see what you're drivin' at. So give: Why'd ya think I'm
her father?"
"Some years back, Rogue and I were vacationing together in
her childhood home in Caldecott County, and some old acquaintances
told us that her mother had just died. Since no one was there
to claim her belongings, Rogue flew out to Memphis to visit
her grave and pick them up, but I don't know how much time
she took to look at them. She put them into storage in Washington,
a collection of boxes in our loft."
"And you had a close look at the stuff."
"Yes, I've always been a nosy parker. It helps in a profession
where information can mean the difference between life and
death. Be that as it may, there were a lot of old letters,
official papers, photographs, all in huge disorderly piles.
Well, in the documents relating to Rogue's birth, the name
given for the father is one Barry Boysen, whereabouts unknown."
Logan just looked blankly.
"I see that name does not ring a bell, but since you also
didn't remember the name of Rogue's mother that's no surprise.
It must have been an alias you used during a period that was
later mindwiped and replaced with false memories. Anyway,
I'm pretty sure Boysen was you, not just because of the berry
connection, but also because of these."
She fanned out three faded color photographs on the table
before him. He picked them up. The first one showed a man
and a woman with their arms around each other's shoulder:
A fetching young brunette in a tight knotted shirt and cut-off
denim pants smiled into the camera standing next to himself.
He was pretty sure it was him in the Molson T-shirt, even
if the man in the photograph had shaved off his sideburns.
He flipped the picture over to read "Barry + me in Natchez,
1973," written with a blue biro. The other two pictures were
variations on the theme, one of just 'Barry', and the last
one another shot of the smiling couple, taken at a different
location. The woman's face seemed vaguely familiar to Logan,
but was it because of a genuine buried memory or a slight
resemblance to someone else he had met during his long life?
He breathed deeply and waited for Mystique to finish her account.
"She hired a detective to find you, but I don't have to remind
you that if you don't want to be found even a better investigator
than the country-fried private eye she could afford won't
be able to find you. His report and notes were among Rogue's
mother's papers. I read it, and I'd say it's possible that
you walked out of her life before she found out that she was
pregnant. Apparently you had just appeared in Caldecott from
nowhere, and after a few months you just vanished again. 'Barry
Boysen' took a job at a car repair shop near the local military
base, so I'd hazard a guess that you were on one of your secret
service missions and left after you had done your job. Of
course we can't entirely exclude the possibility that she
had not been completely honest with her shamus, that there
was another man..."
"Paranoia comes with the territory in our old professions,"
Logan admitted.
"But on the other hand, had you been found, what would have
been easier than to take a blood test? I'm inclined to believe
you're Rogue's father, and I suspect so did she. It probably
was no accident that she touched you after she dropped her
mother's name into the conversation."
"If that's really what you can see in the papers and photographs,
I shouldn't be surprised. She had a way of testin' if I really
couldn't remember her birth-mom, and so of course she used
it. Assumin' that she actually went through those papers before
depositin' at your place. She might not have done."
"True, I'm walking on unsure ground here. Can't you remember
anything she said to you that could be taken as an indication
of what she thought?"
"Well, she was quite close to Abigail, but that doesn't mean
that she thought Iggy was her half-sister. She was a kind
of aunt to so many of her teammates' kids. She liked bein'
with kids, maybe because she couldn't have any of her own."
"Was there anything she said before she... passed away?"
Logan thought long and hard. "Well, ya know she caught the
full force of King Apocalypse's blast. He then took off to
face Excalibur, who were just arrivin'. I went to her and
tried to help her recover with my healing factor, like I'd
done before, but the psi part of the blast had neutralized
her absorption. Rogue took it pretty bravely -- there were
some tears, but her first reaction was 'So I'm really gonna
die this time.' Just like that, very matter-of-fact. And then
... well ... she told me to say good-bye to you from her and...
let's see... 'You're always there for me, aren't you, Logan?
Pity it don't help today. But I'm glad you're here and that
we became and remained friends. Proves everyone deserves a
new chance.' And then she had me carry her to Magneto's side.
Not long after that she died, about two minutes before he
did. Now up until today I'd thought she had been referrin'
to herself and maybe Magnus when she said that about people
deservin' new chances, but it was really ancient history,
to bring that up at that point..." He fell silent, somewhat
confused.
"It could be taken either way," Raven mused with a note of
disappointment in her voice. "Not unambiguous enough to be
certain."
"My guts tell me she knew about what was in the papers. I
know she did not like her biological mother, but why bother
pickin' up her things in the first place? And you, didja know
about this long?"
"Years, I'm afraid. But, well, I was saving the information
for an occasion when it might be handy to tell what I knew
as a distraction on you or Rogue, and that occasion never
came. Although I wasn't actually sure if she hadn't told you
all about it. Maybe you two had already taken a genetic test
in secret. I guess you still could do that, there should be
samples left from her autopsy."
"And you know where every single one of them is located,
eh? Includin' any that might have mysteriously 'disappeared'."
Logan reflected for a while. "Nah, I don't think I'd want
that. Rogue knew I was her pop, but she didn't want me to
know. Wonder if she told Magnus..."
"It would certainly put a whole different complexion on that
'fatherly friend' remark you mentioned."
"Yeah. if you don't mind, I'll leave thing things as they
are. Rogue seems to have preferred it that way -- she could've
told me before she died, but apparently she wanted me to remember
her as my friend, not my long-lost daughter. The important
question is not if I really am her father or not, but if she
thought I was."
"And that depends at least to some extent on what you and
I want to believe about her."
"Yeah. It's hard enough to be sure she looked at everything
you found in all that stuff and drew the same conclusions
as you, and even acceptin' that, there's plenty of possible
explanations why she'd keep it to herself. She might not have
wanted me to beat myself up over something I couldn't remember,
or maybe she didn't want to upset her authority as team leader
with me, or she didn't want you to become upset over how close
she and I were... Were you, when ya found out?"
Raven cast down her eyes. "A ... smidgen. But I thought that
if she continued to be your friend, I would have to respect
her decision to let bygones be bygones. I knew how she'd react
if I had tried to tell her how to treat you. She was her own
woman, and I did not see any sign that made me think she was
letting her emotions, strong as they could be, cloud her thinking.
I alluded to her biological parents on an occasion or two,
but she just said that chapter of her life was closed. Later
she told us we could burn her mother's stuff if we needed
the space, and I later told her and Valerie that I had done
exactly that... I guess I could have told you that she was
your daughter at the funeral, but you know what I was like
then. It was hard enough to share my grief with Valerie and
the girls..." She looked up and into his eyes again. "But
I'm better now, and so I was in a more receptive frame of
mind when Val suggested I should finally tell you before I
came here."
Logan noticed that Raven did not exactly apologize for her
behavior, but that would have been very incongruous for her.
"So, are there any other people you and Val are goin' to take
into your confidence?"
"No, that will be up to you."
"Well, I'll think everything over, but I think I'll prefer
to keep this between the three of us. But thanks for tellin'
me. Guess it shows you never can tell even about people you
think you know."
Wolverine did not make it clear to Mystique if he was referring
to her or to Rogue. They got up from their seats and started
to leave.
"No, it was good to talk with you Logan, thanks for listening.
And what I said about our little one-night stand: I meant
it. It wasn't love for either of us, but at least it was the
next best thing." Raven put her arm around his shoulder. "If
there's anything Val and I can do to help... no, silly for
me to bring it up with you. Not that long ago I needed help
myself. At least I'll be able to ease your workload on the
team now. So if you want to take over the training side of
things for a while and relocate that to Westchester, so you
can be at Jean's side more quickly when ... there's an emergency,
just say the word."
"I have a feeling it won't be much longer," Logan replied
gloomily. "Maybe I'll just take an extended leave."
"That should be doable," Raven agreed. "Are you all right?"
"Raven, I'm waitin' for a woman to die who I love more than
my life," Logan said somewhat gruffly, "you tell me a dead
friend of mine is actually my dead daughter, but I guess what
I really find scary is how friendly you've been to me today.
Am I really in that bad a shape? That was a rhetorical question,
by the way."
Mystique smiled faintly. "If you think it helps, I can go
back to cold and distant. No, you need some time away from
me to sort yourself out, I'll take my leave. You know how
to contact me, but maybe one day I'll just be with you before
you know it..."
"Ha! That'll be the day." He slapped her upper arm with his
fist, and then she was gone in the crowd of shoppers.
Slowly Logan walked back to the hospital. He went to the
room where Jean Grey-Summers lay and sat down by her bedside.
He looked at her. She still was in coma, her skin had an unhealthy
pallor. As Mystique had remarked, there was beauty to see
for those who knew how to look. Normally it took the eye of
someone who loved the person in question, but having loved
and lost herself, she could empathize with his love for Jean.
Logan did not pick up the book that he had left on the bedside
table when he went to the bar, but began to speak to the unconscious
woman in a voice not much above a whisper. "Jeannie, you won't
believe what Mystique just told me..."
Fin
Notes:
This is the third of a trilogy of stories where Logan goes
to eateries or drinking establishments with ladies of his
acquaintance. 'Ergo bibamus' is Latin for 'so let's drink',
but Bibamus is also the French nickname for the mascot of
the Michelin tyre company, which publishes the most well-known
guide to gourmet restaurants.
Chronology:
Should you keep track of the Twilight Menshevik timeline,
Drink to Me Only With Thine Eyes is set in 2014, roughly
a year after The Day the X-Men Died (September 2, 2013). The
story belongs to the alternate timeline Days of Future
Twilight, which includes The Survivor
Has a Different Kind of Scar and a number of other
stories. The surprise revelation in this particular story
has been on my mind for close on ten years, it's up to you
to decide if it was a good idea or not to finally go with
it.
Copyright Note:
The characters are (c) & TM by Marvel Comics with
the exception of Barry Boysen, Nurse Collins, Hope Cooper,
Irene Cooper (Overdrive), Gennosuke (Logan and Yukio's son),
Herluf (the Danish member of Factor X), The Meddlers, Umeme
Munroe, and Abigail Summers, who are mine.
This story was first published in Tales
of the Twilight Menshevik: The Second Collection, which
was produced for the 150th mailing of the MZS-APA in December
2000. The MZS-APA has a website at http://users.ev1.net/~skullduggery/
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