driftfleet | (no subject)

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(no subject)

Who: Charles Xavier + You
Broadcast: Video
Action: SS Heron
When: Right now!

[ The video starts with Charles sitting on his wheelchair, his hands neatly folded on his lap. He rubs faint circles on his legs for a few seconds, the only real sign of tension. ]

Hello. My names is Charles Xavier. I am a geneticist graduated from Oxford. I -- [ ran ] -- run a school in Westchester for the Gifted. Mutants. People with abilities. My focus is the training and control of abilities we do not always fully understand, abilities that are gifts but can often run amok.

[ He pauses, catching his second wind before continuing on, poised. ]

I am also a telepath with a full set of abilities in aiding the mind and extremely . . . proficient. I do not read minds without permission, because honestly, I really don't care.

[ Charles pauses again, wondering if he should say more and dismisses it. People can ask him if they need details - which they will. ]

If anyone would like to make use of my abilities and skills, they are certainly most welcome to. Confidentiality, of course, is key and you need not make anything public if you do not wish to. If you have any questions for me, the floor is open for you.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[The sound of vague movement is all that comes from the communicator for a moment while Kurt deliberates. Giving Charles the information he might need means violating his Jean's privacy without her permission. But his Jean is dead, if she's lucky, and the woman he knew has sacrificed far worse in the name of helping others.

His voice is considerably closer to the communicator, and thankfully pitched for the nearness.] Her last name is Grey. You.. may not find her before her parents find you. If it happens the way it did in my world, her telepathy will surface during a car accident when she's a young girl. She survived, but her friend didn't. [He nearly goes on to explain the trauma Jean was still working through when he met her, but realizes with a jolt of relief that he doesn't have to. If anyone on this madhouse would intuitively grasp what feeling someone die would do to a new telepath, it would be Xavier.] She.. lived at Annadale--something or other. Dammit.

I'll find her.

[ Oh. Charles doesn't need to ask how that felt, how that would feel to someone who have just discovered their telepathy. Shaw was his first, brutal awakening - a man he helped kill. He still sees the coin, moving closer. After that, so many others had come and gone, leaving their marks on his mind as they rise and fall to death. ]

Good. She was a.. dear friend, back home. I'm loathe to picture any version of her being alone for longer than she has to be.

Ororo was dear to me too, but she can also take care of herself. [He chuckles as he says it, fondness clear in his tone. Privately, he wonders why Ororo would leave her homelands to join the X-Men. In his world, it was because Apocalypse had destroyed them as punishment for her defiance.]

Those were the only names I was told, really. Logan found them significant and I owe that man a great deal.

[Kurt snorts derisively.]

Don't depend on the man too much. You'll be up a creek without a paddle.

I do know what Logan is like.

Then you won't be surprised when he hares off at the worst possible time. [Yes he's still grumpy about Weapon X quitting the X-Men in the middle of a war. He wants to be pissed at how the man betrayed them all by turning into Weapon Omega, but ever since he tried to soothe Kitty by telling her that Logan probably thought he could control Apocalypse's power, the idea's festered. What if that's really what happened?

What if that's how it began for En Sabah Nur, accepting a power he didn't understand or thought he could control with the intent to protect the people he loved? If that's true, was there even a sliver of that man left inside who they could've saved? Would they have even tried, or would they have executed him like ~~Piotr Bobby~~ so many others because there just wasn't enough time?

Kurt forces his thoughts away from that path with a soft, frustrated growl. 'Doubts will destroy you.'] I'd rather not talk about him. Tell me about your school, Xavier? I assume you're opening one, if you're looking for those three.

[ He pauses briefly before speaking. ]

There isn't much to say yet. The school was closed for a while, during the Vietnam war. We . . . lost a lot of staff and students. I'm hoping to restart the school.

We must be related, I'm forever saying the wrong thing to you.

What do you hope for when it restarts?

[ He smiles faintly. Charles could say the same thing. ]

Honestly? Just a space where mutants can grow. Where they can nurture their dreams, their hopes. None of us really had that. We had to grow up too fast, too quickly.

The school will give them that chance.

Yes, we did. [So much of his childhood was sacrificed for sake of the war; by the time he was the age of the other Kurt here, he'd already killed a man. He'd do it all again, and by no means does he want to be Wagner; but he is jealous of the man, just a little, because he didn't have to.]

Do you think those dreams will survive the world outside your school?

Edited (clarification) 2016-05-26 15:32 (UTC)

I see no reason why they shouldn't.

Raven -- Mystique saved the world. The President. No mutant had ever done that before. That kind of legacy will be difficult to tarnish.

There will be difficulties, but the world is already a better place.

She really did that? [He smiles, broad and proud. Thankfully, the pride portion translates into the softness of his voice.] Good on her. You must be proud.

[He was, when his mother took up ferrying the refugees to Avalon. Learning in the shadow of the last battle that she'd been milking them for everything they owned put a tarnish on the gleam of his pride, but he still clings to the knowledge that nothing they owned was worth the risk she put herself through.]

I am.

[ There's no mistaking Charles' pride either, though it's layered in love and nostalgia. ]

And I imagine she'll do far more in the future.

Oh, I imagine she will. In any world I've traveled, I've neither met nor heard of a version of my mother who could stand idle. Whether that was good or bad for the world depended on how her goals lined up with their's.

Perhaps. But she seems . . . alone. For the most part.

[ Lonely. Everyone's view of Mystique scares him. Even though it's clear that their bond is unique and doesn't seem to exist in other worlds, it hurts to know a large part of his life, the Eriks and the Ravens seem so . . . lost ]

When you live as long as they have, it's hard not to be.

My mother always said she had me and that was all she needed, maybe it was even true. All I know is that when she took pictures of me (and there were many), she would always write my name, the date, and what we were doing. I suppose she was afraid of forgetting me, after I died.

Kind of funny that I outlived her.

Perhaps. Or perhaps she would have preferred it that way.

Oh, I'm certain she would. But with the track record Darkholmes have of getting what they want, I'm amazed I didn't die in childhood.

Mutants rarely get what they want.

[ It's a fact. ] But Raven has always been protective of her family.

You're not telling me anything I don't know on either subject. If I had what I wanted, there'd be a tiny blue toddler running around the ships that insisted on calling you Grandpa.

[That's more Linda's dream than his, but Kurt never exactly objected to the idea of children. It would have been selfish; he was one of the first second generation mutants and the wars had reduced their numbers as well as baseline humanity's. Of course he'd pass on those genetics.]

[ A grandson. A family.

Charles doesn't trust or believe in those things anymore. He loves Raven and Erik, but that kind of dream lives in the barest of senses, an impulsive feeling to which he has no defense. ]

I'm sure you'll find other avenues to pursue - and find what's right for you.

Erik always did say you had such faith in humanity, mutant and baseline.

Thank you for not saying I'll find someone else to live that dream with.

[ A little rueful. ] It would be hypocritical of me to say that.

Like that's ever stopped anyone?

(no subject)

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Video; private (WOW I'm sorry for the TL;DR)

no worries!

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