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𝕛𝕒𝕤𝕜𝕚𝕖𝕣 (bardcore) wrote in colligo_threads,
@ 2011-06-20 21:23:00

Entry tags:

charles xavier, rogue

Who: Charles and Rogue.
What: Tea and conversation.
Where: The Sanctuary.
When: Early evening.
Rating: TBA.
Status: In progress.

So much about this place fascinated Charles. Not only was he on another planet, potentially in another reality, and forty-eight years in the future to boot, but there were so many mutants here, the likes of which he had never encountered. The people at the self-proclaimed Sanctuary were especially fascinating, as were Miss Suresh and Mrs. Winchester. The latter's ability was a particular point of interest to him with his recent work using her blood. Which, now that he was thinking about that, there were vampires here. Vampires and werewolves and all manner of creatures he had believed to be little more than myth and folklore. Erik's presence was a welcome surprise, even if there was still a measure of awkwardness between them. But he was adjusting to all of that. Honestly, the most curious aspect of this city was the presence of his future students.

Katherine and Marie were both charming young women, but he found himself confused by them. The idea of acutally having students was still a novel one to him and he clearly wasn't what they expected. He had to wonder how much he had changed from his time to theirs, how much the world had changed on the whole. Marie's reaction to Erik was unsettling, and the catalyst that prompted him to this meeting. Or not this meeting, since he wanted to meet with her anyway, but certainly to his request. He did not delve idly into the minds of others, no matter what some might think. He understood the risks in looking at so much of the young woman's mind, but he needed to understand how things had gone so very wrong. Even though he and Erik had their idealogical difference, he couldn't imagine his friend doing what the girl had said. He wasn't only concerned for Erik or himself or even their future. He was worried for Marie. If she was his students, then he wanted to be there for her. And he couldn't do that if he was constantly unsure of what might upset her. So he needed to understand.

He was glad she had agreed to tea, and he had set things up in one of the smaller sitting rooms while he waited. He was sitting in an armchair, his wheelchair within reach. He was still adapting to the thing, but he was getting used to it. It wasn't quite the time they had agreed to meet, but he was getting anxious. He was beginning to worry that perhaps the young woman would ultimately think better of coming to see him, when he felt her approaching. "Come in, Marie," he said calmly as she reached the door. "I would stand but...I'm sure you're used to this by now. Please, do have a seat. How do you take your tea?" See? He could ask, like regular people, who didn't read minds on a daily basis.

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bardcore
2011-06-21 03:00 am UTC (link)

Marie's conflicting emotions danced along the surface of his awareness, but Charles did his best to ignore them and focus on the girl herself rather than the impressions in his head. It seemed rude to favour the unintended projections that reached his mind at the expense of his company. Instead, he poured two cups of tea, adding sugar to one and leaving the other plain. He passed the one with sugar to Marie, then regarded her with a calm smile. "There you go."

He was very curious about this young woman, but he did not want to push her. She did not seem the type to trust easily and, even though he knew she was close to his older self, he worried that he could easily cause her to pull away if he wasn't careful. He felt something akin to when he first met Erik, the desire to reach out and make sure that Marie knew she wasn't alone. Well, obviously she wasn't, what with Katherine here, but there were different sorts of isolation - something he knew all too well from his own experiences before Raven had come into his life and, more recently, with Erik and Raven's departure.

The staring didn't bother him, and he laughed softly. "Don't apologise," he told her. "I hardly mind. I apologise if it's unsettling to you, me looking this way and being from so long before your time." His lips quirked in a small smile. "But it's not so bad, is it? I mean...I suppose I could shave my head if it would make you feel more at ease, but I'm rather fond of my hair." The faint teasing tone shifted into something slightly more serious. "Tell me about yourself, Marie. You have me at a rather unusual disadvantage. It is not often that people can say they know more of me than I do of them."

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untouchable
2011-06-21 03:25 pm UTC (link)

Tell me about yourself, Marie.

Although it sounded more like an order than a request, Rogue knew that wasn't how he'd meant it. However she still couldn't help but hesitate a bit, torn between doing as he'd said and postponing what she knew was an inevitability anyway. It wasn't that she had a problem with him knowing things about her. It was more a matter of she just didn't like talking, or even really thinking, about the past anymore than she absolutely had to and it was hard to talk about yourself without it. Still, for the Professor, she would if only because he truly could have simply gleaned the information from her mind and not even bothered asking to start with.

Taking her cup of tea with a smile, she held the saucer the cup was on with one hand while using her teeth to pull her glove off the other hand. It was a little awkward, drinking tea with gloves on. Finally able to pick up the cup without having to worry about dropping it, she took a small sip to steady her nerves then started speaking. She even made herself look at him while doing so rather than allowing her gaze to fall to the murky liquid in the teacup.

"I'm not sure what it is you want to know," she said, if only to buy herself a few more precious seconds to figure out just what to say. "I'm eighteen. I showed up at your school two years ago after running away from home." She paused. "Well, actually, I met up with another mutant in Canada and we wound up ambushed. Then Scott and Jean showed up and brought us to the school." She smiled faintly at the memory having long since gotten over that very minor trauma compared to all of the others that would follow.

"I... I'm just a normal girl," she shrugged, the corners of her mouth lifting up ever so slightly in a sardonic grin. "Minus the part where I can't touch anybody without killing them, I mean."

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bardcore
2011-06-21 10:40 pm UTC (link)

Charles wondered about his future self when the children seemed so surprised that he would ask their permission to look inside their minds. He wondered even more when the thoughts Marie projected ran in the same vein. He had always been respectful of the privacy of those with whom he was close. It was true that he would use his powers with strangers and enemies, or pick at the surface thoughts of pretty girls at bars, but he never invaded the minds of his friends. And he certainly wouldn't do so with his students. How could he expect them to respect the inherent responsibility of their powers, to use them ethically and not abuse them, if they could not even trust in the sanctity of their own minds.

He watched with a measure of curiosity as she removed one of the gloves. He could tell she was anxious about something, but did not pry. He was sure, with time, she would explain the significance of the accessory. Or, perhaps, she simply liked gloves. He could hardly claim to know what fashions would be popular decades in the future. Precognition was not an aspect of his telepathy. He looked down at his tea for a moment, as though he could find guidance in the dark liquid. Perhaps if it was, he would have chosen his words more carefully that day on the beach, and things would have gone very differently.

"A mutant in Canada?" Charles asked, curious. He knew that it was highly unlikely that it was the same man he and Erik had once met, but he still found himself giving voice to the words in his head. "Was he a rather gruff gentleman with a penchant for crass language and cigars? If so, I met him once. Quite the interesting fellow." He tilted his head at the next two names. "Now...Scott Summers, right? I do wonder if he is Alex's son. What is his mutation, if you don't mind my asking? And what of Jean?" He ducked his head. "I'm sorry to ask so many questions. This is just all a bit fascinating for me...the idea of my plan actually coming to fruition."

He raised an eyebrow at her next words, suddenly understanding the gloves. "I am sorry," he said, and he meant it. "I cannot imagine how difficult that has to be. You must be a very strong young woman to manage such a mutation. I hate to be presumptuous, but perhaps there is a way to control it. I have difficulty believing nature would be quite so cruel to anyone."

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untouchable
2011-06-22 02:31 am UTC (link)

Rogue blinked, faintly taken aback at the description he gave of the Canadian he'd met. "That..." She blinked again. "Sounds just like Logan, actually," she said, obviously somewhat stunned. She had known Logan didn't age like everybody else and had known he had amnesia thanks to what had been done to him. What she didn't know, however, and what she was almost positive Logan also hadn't known, was that the Professor had known who he was long before ever meeting him when they both turned up at his school. She found herself hoping, for the Professor's sake really, that Logan never showed up in the city from her time. She couldn't imagine it would end very well.

Trying to get her thoughts back on track, she focused on what he'd asked about Scott. Thinking about him hurt. She'd never been particularly close with the man - no one who was close with Logan was also close with Scott, really - but losing him had been devastating for all of them. Not as devastating, however, as...

No. She wasn't going to think about that. She wasn't even going to let it flicker through her mind. Clearing her throat and shifting a little, she finally said, "He had these, like... energy beams that shot out of his eyes. He couldn't control them on his own so he wore these special sunglasses." She swallowed, hard, at the thought of Jean. "And Jean was a telekinetic." Amongst many, many, many other things that frankly terrified Rogue to even dwell on.

The small smile returned to her face at his attempt to lessen the rather heavy burden her ability caused her to carry. "Well, two years at your school and we hadn't figured out a way yet," she pointed out mildly. There wasn't any judgement in her tone and certainly no hostility. Yes, her ability sucked but she would always be grateful for simply having a place to fit in, a place to belong. Being able to control it had always been something she'd known would never be very likely.

Still, it was nice to have a dream, even if it was that you might never reach, she supposed as she took another sip of her tea.

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bardcore
2011-06-22 06:15 am UTC (link)

Charles smiled. "Logan," he said thoughtfully. "It's good to put a name to a face. We never got quite so far as introductions on his part. Erik and I were recruiting mutants for a CIA task force and we found him. We only got as far as our names before he dismissed us with a rather colourful suggestion." He'd actually found the man's gruff demeanour to be rather entertaining. He could only imagine what he would have been like as an addition to their group. But then, he supposed, even if Logan had heard them out and come along, he never would have stayed with a ragtag group of kids. He wouldn't have had the patience for it. Still, it could have been terribly interesting while it lasted.

Charles was a fairly intelligent man, so it didn't escape his notice that there was something Marie resolutely wasn't thinking about. He didn't pry, but he did wonder. It was also hard to miss the way she spoke of her two friends in the past tense. "Scott's mutation sounds rather a lot like Alex's," he said calmly, though he felt a bit ill at the idea that these two people he had never met but would one day know were dead. "Alex 's blasts come from his chest. Hank made him a suit that allows him to control and direct the energy. Scott was probably his son, from the sound of things." He was quiet for a moment, then he spoke again. "How did they die, if you don't mind my asking?" He felt a strange attachment to these strangers, particularly Scott. He couldn't imagine Alex's son dying under his tutelage. It felt wrong.

He smiled slightly, when she pointed out the time during which his future self had been unable to help her. "While it's true that wisdom comes with age," he said in a light, easy tone, "older does not always mean wiser. From the sound of things, my older self thinks of things far differently than I do. No disrespect meant, of course, as I would hardly insult myself. Just...perhaps this needs a different approach. I'm told I have quite the talent for achieving ridiculous and improbable results by sheer virtue of my unbridled optimism." Erik always did have a peculiar and amusing way of phrasing things. He was fairly sure he wasn't meant to take it as a compliment, but he was contrary in that way.

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untouchable
2011-07-12 04:57 pm UTC (link)

Rogue did mind him asking. She didn't want to talk about Scott and Jean, didn't want to feel that same almost overwhelming sense of loss that threatened to consume her whenever those that had died crossed her mind. However, this was the Professor - younger, true, but still very much the man in question - and therefore she would discuss it. He had her loyalty, without question or hesitation, and this was just part of that fact.

"Jean... something happened to her," she started, her tone a bit more subdued. She frowned slightly and studied the murky liquid in the cup she was holding. "A man attacked the school and kidnapped a bunch of kids. We went after them and Jean..." Rogue sighed, forcing her gaze back to Charles'. "She sacrificed herself, to save all of us. A couple of months later she came back. There was something wrong with her, though. She was so powerful and just..."

Rogue hesitated. She swallowed, hard. "She killed Scott. The only thing ever found was his glasses." Taking a sip of her tea in the hopes of calming her nerves and stopping the trembling in her hands, the girl hesitated. "I don't really know how she died, just that eventually she did." Another hesitation before she looked back to him. She had her ideas what had happened when she was off, trying to decide if she wanted to 'cure' herself or not. However Rogue would never put those thoughts to word without proof of some sort. So she simply shook her head.

"I'm sorry," she apologized. "I didn't mean for our meeting to get so heavy. I promise, it's not all death and bad stuff, back home. There's good too." It was just hard to see, sometimes, but it was definitely there.

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