Introduction to the School

[notsogroovy]

1407 Graymalkin Lane, Salem Center, Westchester County, NY. Also known as Xavier’s School For Gifted Youngsters.

It was the site of hope for dozens of students built upon the bones of a lonely childhood. Two times the school had been opened. The first attempt had been destroyed by the war and by the patriotism (or recruitment) of students and teachers who felt they were doing what was right. The second attempt would prove to be more successful, run by a headmaster who had regained his own hope.

The school, the home, was no longer a place of loneliness. Instead, there were children almost always on the move, fluttering down from the top floor, walking through walls, or just appearing with a loud Bamf. There were darker things at the school, of course. Nightmares that could boil the walls of a room if left unchecked and homesickness, sometimes for homes that had rejected them. But there were also adults who mentored these children. Pain and heartache may have still been in the house, but so too were companionship and support.

It was an air that the teachers deliberately tried to invoke since many of them hadn’t had it in their own childhoods. They’d had to hide or were hidden or were even persecuted just for being who they were. It was the teachers who had all decided that they would try to make the lives of the children easier than their own.

But that didn’t come without a cost. There were layers beneath the school, layers where some of the students were trained to protect themselves and others and to fight. The world might have seen mutants in a different light after Mystique’s rescue ten years ago, but they’d also seen what Magneto could do. Mutants might have finally been in the light, but they still weren’t always safe and that was where the X-Men came in. Hoping for a better future, but also preparing for a worse one.

And that was really what Xavier’s was: a refuge and a place to forge the next generation of mutants, ones who wouldn’t have to live in the darkness their forefathers had. And it was up to their teachers to make sure they were ready for that future.

Comments

[frankensteinian]

"Raven." He sets his mug down on the counter. He doesn't know what he wants, but he knows that he can't figure it out here. He has to see what's out there in the world before he can do that. It's not a question he's ever really had to face, and he doesn't know how to answer it. "Have I ever lied to you?"

If he says he'll be back, he'll be back. That's the one thing he's sure of right now.

[notsogroovy]

"Not meaning to lie and not lying aren't the same thing. You can absolutely mean what you say. Right now." She didn't mean to be so invested in his answer. She wanted to make peace with it. He needed time, of course he did, and her own decision to stay had been made almost at the spur of the moment. She'd convinced herself that when Hank had first thought she was going to stay that she wouldn't. For anything. Yet here she was.

"And I know Charles will always welcome you. But you've never struck me as the professor type."

In her mind, that was why he would stay. Because he'd decided to contribute to Charles' view of what life for mutants could be. It wasn't why she'd stayed, but she doubted he would have had a conversation with Hank about it.

[frankensteinian]

She has a point, and while he does intend to come back some day, it's clear that he isn't going to convince her of this until it happens. "I let everyone down already. I don't want to do it again." He'll leave it at that. She can make what she wants of it.

"I'm not that type. I don't know what I would do if I stayed here." She's already determined that he won't, so admitting that doesn't seem like it will make much difference. "Which is one of the things I need to figure out. I'm not the professor type, but what am I?"

[notsogroovy]

"None of us know that. Well, except for Charles. He was always a professor, even when he was young." That didn't mean she was leaving. It didn't mean that she wasn't the making the decision to try to be a part of something again. Being alone wasn't healthy for anyone, especially him. She'd seen what he was like when he was alone. But she could see that he'd already made up his mind. She wouldn't ask him to stay, no matter how much she wanted to.

"Then I suppose we'll see you when you get back." We, not her. She wasn't sure she had a place in his life anymore.

[frankensteinian]

"Now I have a chance to figure it out." In a way that he never really had before. He had followed along in the direction that life and his choices took him, but now he's got a new direction to find. One that he wants to find on his own instead of doing what others expect of him.

There's more, too, and he feels like he owes her at least that much of an explanation. "There's a house in Poland that was occupied by people who were pretending to be no different from any of their neighbors." He was the one who had had to pretend the most, of course, but Magda had had to do plenty of pretending of her own, acting like she wasn't married to an international fugitive, and they're all lucky that Nina hadn't lost control of her powers in sight of others sooner than she had.

"They were more than victims of an unfortunate circumstance, and they deserve to have someone remember that. I can't let strangers dig through that house." He needs to rescue what's left of Magda and Nina, even of Henryk, before it's misinterpreted or turned into something garish and cheap.

[notsogroovy]

"I heard," Raven said quietly. "That's why Charles started looking for you." She'd heard that he had a family. Or rather, every now and again, people who knew that she'd been involved with Erik saw fit to pass information onto her. No matter how hard he'd wanted to hide, there were some people who kept track of that information.

She sighed. Much as she might want to argue against Erik leaving, much as she might want to persuade him to stay, how could she object to what he was saying? If she'd somehow lost Charles, wouldn't she want to have some hint of him to remember him by? Wouldn't she object to having his home looted?

"I hope you find what you're looking for." Whatever that might be.

[frankensteinian]

"Because of them?" He'd been too though, in that regard. By the time he'd found Erik, there had been nothing left to find.

"I hope I do too." He knows what Charles would say. He's looking in all the wrong places, he won't find it until he's least expecting to, he can't find what he's looking for if he doesn't know what he's looking for. But Charles knows nothing. He's been alone most of his life; it's a hard habit to break.

"It helps, knowing that I have somewhere I can come back to when I want to." When. At this point, he pretty much figures he'll be back here at some point.

[notsogroovy]

"Because I found out what happened."

And she couldn't think of anything more to say. She wanted him to stay, but he had his reasons to go and she couldn't even argue them. She was just afraid that once he left, he'd decide to stay gone. Not that she could blame him for that either.

She took a deep breath. She just had to stay detached. He was a part of her past and, realistically, a year was nothing. A drop in the bucket of the entirety of her life, never mind that it was a drop of color in a clear pool.

"I should probably head back to bed."

[frankensteinian]

"You did?" Somehow that doesn't surprise him. Charles had known about it, tried to pretend that he understood it, so obviously he had known about it too. Whoever had found out first had passed that information along to others.

"I'll see you tomorrow." The 'before I leave' is left unsaid. She knows what's happening, and if she's not going to believe him when he says he'll be back, then there's nothing he can do about that.

[notsogroovy]

Apparently, her interest in him was well-known in certain circles. She wasn't sure what she'd done to cause that association. She hadn't directly expressed interest in him in the last ten year. But still she'd found out and, once she'd known, she hadn't been able to simply stand by and do nothing.

"Tomorrow," she replied. She wasn't sure whether she'd see him off or whether she'd be conveniently distracted by the children. It would depend on whether she'd be able to bear seeing him leave, knowing that it could very well be years if ever before she saw him again.

[frankensteinian]

"Raven." He doesn't know how to say what he wants to say. He doesn't even know what he wants to say. There's so much between them, and he wishes that things had turned out differently twenty years ago, and their paths hadn't diverged so completely. The thoughts of her and of Charles are what had convinced him that the world was worth saving. When he returns to this place, it will be for them.

"I will miss you." It's the best thing he can think of to say, and it's rare enough for him even to admit that much.