hee hee hee! The opening scene with Logan was seriously fun. It took me by surprise but, by the scene's end, I was wondering why I was surprised: it's such a typical Logan thing to do, really. Someone's in the middle of a temper tantrum? --Shock them back into a saner perspective!

Cute "thinking cap" visualization. I'd never thought of that, but it's true.

I'd love to see where you're going to take this concept from "A Study in Scarlet". It sounds like it's going to play an important part in the plot, farther down the road.

Author's Response: Yes! You have no idea how happy the \"typical Logan\" part of your review made me. I can only hope that I can capture Logan in my writing. He, like most of the X-Characters, has his quirks, but showing that in original print without falling back on a caricature is hard. And yes, the Wolverine does not do temper tantrums. And double yes, Marie is a fan of throwing them. I love the quote I found & used in Chapter 5 from A Study in Scarlet and I\'m trying my best to work it in as well as I want to.

these characters don't seem to be acting like themselves ... in any of the chapters except the 1st one. I think you went off the rails the minute you decided to make Logan a total pig. His nose would NEVER be able to stand living in a dump so bad even an ordinary human would choke on the fumes, y'know?

reposting? You are my absolute fav author here, you know. Sigh. I just love these masterpieces. Too bad you can't post the Logan/House crossover fics here. Those were some of your best work! Still cracks me up just to envision some of those scenes!

Author's Response: LOL Kind words, and I thank you for them.\r\nHouse is another character I loved to write. It seemed natural to put my two favorites together and it cracked me up to tell their tales. I am happy you enjoyed.

you did an especially fine job painting Jean's motivations wihtout making her unsympathetic (despite her general foolishness). there is an exception, though: her shaking Logan & blowing up @ him in the here & now. That seemed a little wierd.

I like how you've made Logan an integral part of the Mansion society from early days. Certainly that's something we've never seen in the comics, movies, or TV (discounting Xmen: Evolution, which was completely lame by comparison to ALL the other Xmen incarnations)

Author's Response: Well, it came across by accident. There was no way IO could blend comic-verse, where Logan had been an X man since the mid-70\'s, with Movieverse, where he shows up in 1999, without having him have been there for awhile. And, if, in the movies Scott, Jean, etc were all thirty-something, and came to the X-Institute in \'79, was for Logan to have been already an X-Man from the early days and to have taught Scott and Jean as teens. It turns out that it worked well for the purposes of the story, though. I\'m glad the blend was good.\r\n\r\nAlso, I think Jean blows up at Logan in the here and now for two reasons. 1) She has spent all this time, and effort, both emotionally and physically trying to bring him home, and he\'s giving her the, oh well, maybe. But (2) and I\'d say this was her *REAL* reason, she envisioned Logan returning to home to, oh whatever had been going on for 11 years (we the audience are not sure what that is yet) and her having things the way they were before she married Scott. But, oho, no, here he is with another woman, and a YOUNGER woman at that, who a) does not seem all that impressed or intimidated by Jean and b) is determined to make and ave a life with Logan, no matter what. Jean maybe shouting at him to wake up and smell the coffee that his home is at the X-Mansion, but the part she\'s leaving out, especially in front of her husband is WITH ME. Because, as we all know, even people like me, who like Jean, she really dose think she is THE GREAT AND POWERFUL JEAN GREY, and she always wants to eat her cake, and have it, too.

hmm. story's gettin' a little too dirty, here, for my tastes. Guess I'm gonna haveta sign off on this one.

Yep. This has to be the only one of your fics I HAVEN'T liked. Oh, well. Had to give it a try. I guess part of the problem is how completely unfamiliar I am with your crossover character; so I can't get into it. I felt a little lost, too, as to how Logan planned to kill himself & make it stick. I felt like there was considerable subtext I'm missing, clues I was supposed to understand but did not.
?
Oh, well. I'm your biggest fan, tho, for the House/Logan series & your giant Xmen saga.

Author's Response: I had to go back and read it for content to make sure, since it’s been three years since I wrote it, but I think I can answer some of your concerns. Marie is dead and in a grave. Logan has left the grave long enough to get alcohol and come back, but he is essentially staying there. He is guarding her, protecting her, until he can realize she is safer now than ever before and he is going to have to let go and accept that cold hard fact. \r\n\r\nOne: I don’t believe Logan is out to kill himself here. He is miserable, yes, as he cannot join her, but he is too grounded in the real world (sleeping, peeing, protecting idiots from themselves) and he knows it. Even he thinks he doesn’t need saving.\r\n\r\nTwo: Eric is an unknown to Logan. He sees someone dressed weirdly, talking weirdly, and then takes a trip into the man’s head and sees things that stun even him. Here’s a man who was dead, actually dead and buried, and came back to life. What I didn’t explain (and that probably confused you) is that this man is still dead, per the Crow story, and will return to his love when he goes back into his grave. Now, Logan can’t stay dead. Even if he were to kill himself, it wouldn’t last long enough for him to see Marie. This guy can. That thought throws Logan off balance just enough to ask for help – a sure way to tell Marie he loves her when he’s not sure he ever said it enough to make it known. \r\n\r\nThis leads to Three: Logan will recover and move on, and he knows that, too, which only adds to his guilt and loneliness, hence the alcohol (which even he knows won’t last) to ease the situation.\r\n\r\n It’s simply a drabble – a short ‘what if?’ situation meant to answer a writing challenge, but I appreciate you letting me know how it made you feel. Very valid points you raised, rest assured. The person it was written for was very familiar with the Crow, so it was probably not as detailed as it should have been. My apologies for the confusion.\r\n

well, this could use some serious polishing; nevertheless, it's a fascinating idea and I enjoyed reading it. You could take this concept really far, and it would be a fun romp.

Author's Response: I know it needs work and I am looking for a beta, but having been gone for so long I don\'t know how to go about asking. The stories tend to spew out of my head without regard to grammar or spelling. However, believe me when I say this is positively shiny compared to the story I previously posted as Kia Mira, but I am open for any help offered. Thank you for taking the time to review.

So THAT's where you stopped writing??

Sigh.

Well, you have me hooked, that's for sure.

The image of Logan in casual silk/linen combo like a movie star (or, in particular, like Hugh Jackman in Vogue) definitely stuck in my mind! ;) But I really like the way you've tweaked Logan's personality in this one.

And the team's reaction to Rogue's actions here will be delicious, I just know it! Will she really spar with Logan? Are you really planning on writing that scene NOW? --or later? And on a serious level, or more like a "let me give you a challenge, see how you've grown" type of fight?

Well, anyway, I'm excited about the possibilities, and looking forward to finding out the details of their backstory you've so tantalizingly dangled out there, particularly how Rogue "left Logan for dead"

Author's Response: Glad you like suaveLogan. I\'ve never even thought to write it that way before, and I suspect its what blocked me on this piece in the first place. I just couldn\'t fix him in my head like that. But this time, I seem to have been able to take it forward, and I\'m having fun with the dichotomy. LOTS of fun ...

Woah. Some very impressive psychological exploration is going on here! I didn't expect you to head in this direction with Marie, not at all! I thought most of the ambivalence would be on Logan's side, but look at this! --it's mutual! How very fascinating.

One question: how do the Xmen expect Logan to join them if they tie him up, first thing??

Author's Response: Glad you enjoy the psychobabble; it\'s one of my favourite things. This is essentially Marie\'s story, and on the evidence - killer skin, nasty parents, ending up as trainee assassin? There is no way she is going to be a healthy, balanced individual. Re your question: Yup, I\'m wondering this too. And I bet Logan is as well :D

I needed a Jaq-fix this morning. :( I hope those updates are coming along well! ;) Feed that muse, girl!

Author's Response: Maybe not yesterday? I had a bad couple of days so I\'m thinking Sunday at this point, unless I pull something out of my hat now. (It is 6.07am and I have just started up the computer; anything is possible!)

RE: your A/N -- I'll tell you a secret: I like backstories WAAYY better than smut! All the possibilities keep my mind whirling for hours. A sex scene is just ... a momentarily thrill of fulfillment, and then it's on to the next thing. Their *story* is what keeps me here, reading.

So, in short: definitely no rush on the smutty chapters from this quarter. I find, generally on this website, that the quality of the story invariably goes down just as soon as they start rolling in the hay. After that, it's like the author stops paying attention to the need for *Good* writing! Like they think the cheap thrill is enough to keep us reading (it's not).

Heh heh. I think I was ranting. Sorry for that! Back to the *review*, and off the soap box...

I was definitely hoping for a Queen v. King of the Cage battle from that first sentence where Rogue talks about The Pen. I loved the pic you painted of the woman she's become with the Marine twins' (& Toad's) reaction to her.

Logan's continual paranoid-sensei advice in her head was a really fascinating commentary, too.

But: You blew me away with that last scene! I honestly didn't think it would be *that* bad, what she'd done to him. And it's shocking b/c it's such an anti-movieverse Marie attitude ... just the opposite of what X1's Rogue would have done in that situation. And it's also an ironic reversal of Logan's first meeting w/young Jubilee. And STILL, even after I know what happened, I'm full of questions! That's the master writing technician's way to package the Big Reveal, sister!

You put so much info in so few words, here. It's a VERY short chapter, but it doesn't feel like it b/c it's packed with sentiment and subtext.

Author's Response: Sorry I didn\'t get to this before now - I\'ve spent all week writing and rewriting C6, and it kind of ate my brain. Thank you so much for leaving such detailed feedback ... it\'s really, REALLY appreciated. I\'m glad you are loving the backstory ... usually, I try to keep this focused and moving ahead, and I think its the security of knowing I\'m not in a hurry that lets me indulge all those little sidetrips. I have a puzzle in my head, with a lot of pieces, and bit by bit, they\'ll all fall into place to reveal the full picture. Re the quality of writing going downhill with sex scenes ... sometimes. I think the trap is when people don\'t integrate the scene into the story, ie treat it almost as a standalone, that it can be jarring. I really try not to do that. I doubt it will be too long before it happens, though ... I can\'t help myself :D But I can tell you that it won\'t be at the end, in a \"and they lived happily ever after *cue sex*\" scenario. Finally, glad you liked the Big Reveal. I will admit to being a bit of a schlock merchant and enjoy writing things that make people sit up and take notice; and that\'s EXACTLY why this story is AU, rather than X1, X2 or whatever. Because this is NOT movieverse Marie; she never had the chance to become that, because another road was taken.

Normally I don't read short one-shots like this but I'm glad I did this time. Vivid, and powerful, this one was! I liked the outcome. It was skillfully done.

Sequel? Well, if you're inspired, sure! This might be hard to top, though ;)

Author's Response: Thank you! I\'m more a novel length reader, as well. It means a lot that you read this one and took the time to review. I agree, this is better as a one-shot, but my muse is intrigued. I\'ll just chain her to the wall though...She\'s only after a bit o\' Logan, anyway. Thank you for the review.