capeandcowllogs | Log; Ongoing

Entry tags:

Log; Ongoing

Who: Scott Summers, Maggie Mui and OPEN
Where: The new Institute
When: Saturday afternoon
Summary: Scott is at the Institute, Maggie comes by for a tour, anyone else can too
Warning: None
Format: Whatever people want

Scott was in his office, going over class schedules and making sure they had enough teachers to cover all the classes that students wanted to take. His new office was located more toward the entrance of the Institute so that visitors would be able to get to him without too much trouble. As much as he sometimes loved paperwork though, he was hoping something would come along to distract him.

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Maggie nervously made her way through the entrance of the Xavier Institute, looking about with awe at the architecture. She wondered to herself if it was really possible to have a school that trained people with powers... with no ulterior motive such as the organizations back home had.

She quickly made note of the door labeled [headmaster or whatever it says] and rapped on it briefly with her knuckles. "Um, sir?" She said just loud enough for her husky alto to carry through the door. Just a hint of an accent clipped at her English phrases. "It's Maggie Mui. I had texted you..."

At the knocking, Scott got up from his desk and opened the door. Standing there was a tall Chinese woman, nearly as tall as he was, who looked slightly nervous to be there.

"Miss Mui, it's a pleasure to meet you," he said, smiling at her and extending his hand. "I'm Mr. Summers, the Headmaster here at the Institute. I'm glad you were able to make it."

She took his hand and shook it briefly but appropriately firmly. "Thank you for having me, Mr. Summers." She paused. "Is this a good time?"

"No, this is a great time, I was just hoping for a break from paperwork," he told her, giving her another smile as he stepped into the main entryway.

"As you saw coming in, this is the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning. It's modeled after a school that many of us attended back in our world."

She eyed his red "sunglasses" curiously, but said nothing about it. Instead she answered him, "It's very impressive."

She stood ready to follow him whereever he led. "You said you trained people with 'powers.' Was that the case back in your home as well?"

"Yes, back in our world, there are people called mutants. Through evolution, we carry what's called the X-Gene," Scott explained. "It gives us abilities that humans don't have. Because we're different, there's a lot of anger and fear towards us. The school was originally founded to give mutants a safe place to come and learn, as well as learn to better use their powers."

She took that in thoughtfully. "Ah... hence, 'X-Men,'" she realized, remembering his earlier appellation for his allies.

She frowned, trying to gather the words to explain what was on her mind. It probably took her several moments (so he could interject whenever in this rather long, halting speech). "People with powers exist where I come from, but they're rare enough to not be noticed that often, let alone persecuted." She paused.

"Where I grew up, Dokusensha took in people with unusual abilities. Or genetically altered them to give them those abilities." She looked at her own hand, almost quizzically. "We were told we would be fighting for the glory of Grandmother China." Another pause. "Ultimately, they determined I was not fit to be a full soldier, though I did freelance work for them. They weren't going to just lose sight of me."

"Dokusensha was not a good place, in the end," she said, massive understatement though it was. "They hurt a lot of people, in the name of the good of the order."

After another long pause. "That's why I wanted to learn about this place. I don't know how to be subtle about it, so I'll just say it. If you're training people who are lost, that's good. I'd love the opportunity myself to learn amongst others with unusual talents." She frowned determinedly. "But I don't want to see people being used for their abilities."

Scott listened thoughtfully to what she was saying. It wasn't unlike what some organizations in their world did, Department H and the program that spawned Wolverine, Deadpool, and a host of others came to mind, and his heart went out to her.

"I completely understand your caution," he said, waiting until she was done with her entire speech before speaking. "We're not an army. We're more of a family. Do the X-Men fight? Absolutely. Most of us feel a sense of responsibility to use our abilities to protect people. But no one is saying you must become an X-Men or you must fight. It's a school and we're here to teach. If you decide at any time you don't feel comfortable here, you're free to leave. If you want to use your abilities for something other than fighting, we'll train you in that the best we can."

She nodded, in turn listening carefully. Nothing in his tone or body language suggested he was being deceptive, and she allowed herself to feel slight relief. She summed her thoughts: "Thank you."

"So... about the tour. Can I see some of what you do?"

"Of course," he said, smiling once again and gesturing for her to follow him.

"Being the weekend we don't have a lot of classes right now, but I can take you buy some of the classrooms and explain what's going on in them," he said. "And I can give you a rundown on the classes in general."

"That sounds good," she said, awaiting the rundown before asking further questions. She walked with him down the hallway, eying this or that poster or architectural gewgaw.

"Through here we have our science classrooms," Scott said, opening one of the doors and stepping inside. It looked like a typical high school science classroom, if perhaps a bit more modern.

"We can teach everything from elementary school to doctorate level courses."

She looks around at the lab equipment--and at any textbooks in the room.

"Wow, you must have quite an impressive faculty." She looked at him inquisitively. "If you don't charge tuition, how do you keep your staff?"

"We have some very good teachers, yes," Scott said, unable to help sounding a bit proud at them all.

"And we're mostly funded through very generous donations by Mr. Worthington, although we're looking at some alternative methods as well."

"Mr. Worthington?" She had not met this person yet.

She poked her head to look into another classroom, and then turned back toward Scott to ask him her other burning question (next to are you secretly a brainwashing supers-training terrorist organization): "Do you have a library?"

"Warren Worthington III," Scott said. "Codename: Angel. He's a member of the X-Men as well as a very savvy businessman."

At her question about the library, he smiled. It didn't surprise him that she was curious about that.

"We do," he said with a nod. "We have the schools old library as well as books we've been acquiring on our own. Would you like to see it?"

The thought of a collection of books for a school like this brought an instant smile to her face. "Yes, please."

"And if there are any particular books you'd like that we don't have, we can see about getting them," Scott said as he headed towards the library. Seeing her happy at the thought of a library made him smile as well.

"Do you spend a lot of time in libraries?"

"That... that sounds wonderful." She picked up her step a little.

"I love to read. My sisters..." her face fell a little, still keenly missing them, "we all read a lot. I like libraries because..." She thought about it. "Well, books should be shared as much as possible."

"Well, I hope this one is up to your standards then," Scott said as he pushed open the door to the library. Nothing to be too shocked about, but it was still fairly large and full of books of all kind.

"Large and full of books of all kind" was enough to get Maggie excited. She stepped in, automatically picking up a book lying on a table and running her fingers across its spine lovingly.

"So many books..." She breathed. She looked at Scott. "From your world as well?"

"Most of them were left over from the school who used this building before," Scott explained, walking further into the library. "Others we've recently acquired and brought over from our old building in another part of the City."

"A lot of books... been read, wanting to be read. Mostly well cared for." She pulled one book off a shelf, seemingly at random. She opened it, and a few pages torn from the binding started to spill out. She ran her finger across the torn pages, and they knit themselves neatly and cleanly back into the book, as if they'd never been damaged. "Some better than others, but that happens in a library."

She placed the book back on the shelf, patting it on the spine, the way a mother might pat her child after patching a scrape with a band-aid.

Scott had rarely seen anyone care for books so carefully. And he'd NEVER seen anyone actually heal a book. He wondered what sort of ability could do something like that. He wanted to ask, but didn't want to be rude. Another idea struck him.

"You know, we don't have a librarian," he said. "We're looking for someone to take the job, perhaps even just part time. Would you be interested?"

At first she gasps in utter glee, at the thought of spending all her time here in a library. If she could tell her sisters about such an opportunity! And by tangent to that, she imagines the response from her little sister Anita: You can't be a librarian! You'd just sit on your butt all day and read all the books!

She blushed, as if that had actually been said to her. She hesitated. She'd love to. She'd want to try... but she'd probably fail.

"I... librarians have information science degrees..." She thought about it. All these books, they'd be lonely if they'd have no one to pay attention to them. There could be other ones that needed fixing up, too...

"But maybe I could take some classes." She shifted. "Can I think about it? I'll sign up for classes in the meantime, and double check on my part time schedule at the bakery."

((ooc: And let's say she accepts the job, part time, as of the day of the snowball fight? Let me know what you think.))

"In all my years in education I've learned that what's far more important than degrees is a love of what you're doing," Scott said, smiling at her. He had noticed the blush but decided not to comment on it, as that would probably just make it worse.

"And you obviously love books," he added. "But there's no rush. Let's get you signed up for some classes first and then if you want the job, we can work out as many or as little hours as you want."

[ooc: I think that would be fine!]

She smiled, glad he was so willing to be flexible. "Thank you very much!"

"Of course," he said with a nod. He was glad she was so enthusiastic about it.

"What kind of classes are you interested in taking?"

"Well... information sciences. Or something with computers." She considered. "Not just for this, but it's good for my work in general."

Considering work, even if she wasn't doing much detective work, it wouldn't hurt to improve her skills in that arena. "Do you offer criminology courses?"

"We offer some computer courses," he said, leading her to the other end of the library where there was a small setup of computers. Not top of the line, but all rather new.

"And we don't currently offer criminology courses, but I can ask around and see if anyone would be interested in teaching it."

"That's all right. I'm a detective back home. I was thinking it might be useful." She followed him, looking at the computers with general curiosity (when she wasn't still gazing at the books on the shelves that they passed).

"What do you offer?"

"I'm sure that Dr. McCoy has at least a passing knowledge of forensics, if not more," Scott said. He would have bet more, Beast never had just a passing knowledge of anything.

"Mostly your standard courses for grade through high school," he said. "But several of the instructors are experts in a wide range of fields and could offer more challenge classes if it was called for."

Somehow another book had ended up in her hands as they passed through the library, and she flipped through its pages.

"Dr. McCoy? I don't know him." She considered. "I read a lot, so I know a lot of facts, but that's not the same as being schooled. I like sciences. And of course literature.

"What would you recommend?"

Scott was somewhat amused that she ended up with another book but didn't say anything, she seemed to be happy and more comfortable looking through it.

"I would recommend we talk to Dr. McCoy and see what he feels comfortable teaching. We can also talk to the police force and see if they have anyone that could help train you hands on. Also, I definitely suggest a literature class, I think you'd like that."

"I'm happy to meet Dr. McCoy any time." She considered the rest, and a slight tension about meeting the police (not that she had a particularly bad history with the law... just not a fantastic one either) passed by the time Scott said "literature class."

"That sounds great."

"I know he'll really enjoy meeting you," Scott said. He could just imagine how much Hank would enjoy answering all her questions.

"Well then we'll get you signed up today and you can start next week."

"That sounds great. Thanks again, Mr. Summers."

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Log; Ongoing

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