Introduction to the School
Jan. 25th, 2017 11:22 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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xfactors1407 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.
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.
(no subject)
Date: 2017-01-29 12:47 am (UTC)The question was whether she wanted him to stay. For Peter's sake? Yes. She did. For Charles' sake? It might be best that those two have it out and get past their issues. But she wasn't sure how to feel for her own sake.
She still loved him to save him from himself, but she wasn't sure she could trust him to want him for herself.
"Erik. Can't sleep?" Which was obvious, but what else could she say?
(no subject)
Date: 2017-01-29 02:32 am (UTC)He used to be a lot better at knowing what she was thinking. He misses that. But there's twenty years in between there, twenty years that have changed things. She's not the same person he remembers just as he's not the same one she remembers.
"It's a late night for you too."
(no subject)
Date: 2017-02-07 02:55 am (UTC)"I'm not really used to all the people." Which wasn't quite true. She'd kept herself alone, not inaccessible. She hadn't wandered off to some mountain retreat; she stayed in hotels.
"I suppose it's just one of the only times I can be alone, without the eyes of all the students on me." That was true enough. She'd seen awe in faces before when they saw her, but never like this.
(no subject)
Date: 2017-02-08 03:32 am (UTC)And then it had happened, and he had found out exactly what would happen if his identity were discovered.
He doesn't fault her for wanting to be alone, either. "That is an advantage. I appreciate what Charles is trying to do here, and I hope it works out for him this time, but I'll be the first to admit that there's a reason I'm down here now instead of earlier."
(no subject)
Date: 2017-02-11 11:22 am (UTC)But things were different, now. He was still grieving the loss of something that Raven doubted she would ever have. She wasn't built for children, a family. And it wasn't like Erik and Charles could ever come to terms with things between the two of them. To be fair, she wasn't sure that she and Charles could come to terms with the differences in how they believe the world worked, but she was willing to work with Charles. At least for now.
"And you didn't want to be caught."
(no subject)
Date: 2017-02-11 04:18 pm (UTC)He wants Raven to know something too. "I don't intend for it to be permanent. It won't be another ten years before you see me again. I promise."
This is a promise he intends to keep. He'll let Charles have his school, and stay out of that, but mutants need to stick together, and he'll be there when they need him. Probably sooner than that, too, but there's more than just the school building that he needs to fix.
(no subject)
Date: 2017-02-12 01:22 am (UTC)"If I'd been in bed asleep, would you have let me know you were leaving? Or would you have just left?" She told herself that she wasn't hurt. She hadn't been a part of Erik's life in a long time. He didn't owe her any sort of explanation.
It was a lie, of course, and one that would have been screaming to Charles, but Charles wasn't here. At least that was one awkwardness she didn't have to deal with.
(no subject)
Date: 2017-02-12 04:03 am (UTC)"I'm not leaving right this instant. Of course I would have told you before I left." She and Charles are the ones he'll miss most, after all. They're what he's got for family now. He's not going to ignore that.
"I just can't clear my head with other people around."
(no subject)
Date: 2017-02-15 01:26 am (UTC)A small part of the back of her mind wondered what would happened if she did ask him to stay like he'd asked her to leave all those years ago. He'd probably stay, but if he came to regret it, he might blame her. She'd certainly blame herself.
"Keep in touch this time, all right?" She didn't want to pretend she had no idea what was going on in his life when really, she knew everything.
(no subject)
Date: 2017-02-18 02:48 pm (UTC)He knows how much he's walking away from this time, and he won't stay away forever.
"I won't go far, either."
(no subject)
Date: 2017-02-24 04:34 pm (UTC)"You have the number here if you ever want to talk."
Because even if he did come back, and she wasn't sure he would, she didn't expect he'd stay.
(no subject)
Date: 2017-02-24 08:18 pm (UTC)If he says he'll be back, he'll be back. That's the one thing he's sure of right now.
(no subject)
Date: 2017-02-24 08:45 pm (UTC)"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.
(no subject)
Date: 2017-02-24 09:19 pm (UTC)"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?"
(no subject)
Date: 2017-03-01 07:45 pm (UTC)"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.
(no subject)
Date: 2017-03-03 03:03 am (UTC)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.
(no subject)
Date: 2017-03-07 04:53 pm (UTC)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.
(no subject)
Date: 2017-03-09 03:47 am (UTC)"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.
(no subject)
Date: 2017-03-09 10:06 pm (UTC)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."
(no subject)
Date: 2017-03-11 03:19 am (UTC)"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.
(no subject)
Date: 2017-03-11 10:31 pm (UTC)"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.
(no subject)
Date: 2017-03-12 01:54 am (UTC)"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.