milliways_bar | (no subject)

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Charles has been taking advantage of the fact that time stops in Milliways to do work and learn more about the people who pass through here. There's such a variety to the minds and experiences that if he didn't have to finish his editing, he'd probably spend most of his time with his eyes closed and just listening.

As it is, one of his sections isn't going as he'd like and he keeps going back over a certain sentence until he's quite lost track of time.

When he finally gets it right, he looks up and realizes that took a while and allows himself a break, so he leans back in his chair and observes the Bar.

Tiny tag: Charles Xavier, Antinoos
OOC: If you approach him while he's working then he's not mentally listening except quite passively. After he's stopped working, he is actively listening to the conversations and minds around him. Feel free to interrupt him or wait until he's on a break. Please let me know what he'll encounter in your pup's mind. Thank you.

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X considers that question for a second, studying Xavier carefully.

Very carefully.

"Paying attention helps," she ventures.

"Significant details will often be altered."

For instance, the Charles Xavier X knows does not have a sister named Raven.

And her Alex Summers was not alive in 1964, let alone a teenager. Not that X knows that part of it.

Yet.

"Past events are a safe topic of discussion."

"Yet for most of the mutants I've met, my past is also their past. It's difficult to create a baseline that way,"

It's much easier when you're the one in the future looking back instead of the past one looking forward.

Given that X does not share the bulk of her timeline with many mutants in-bar (and is unaware of this) --

She cannot deny the difficulty of a baseline.

But sometimes it is easy.

"You said your sister is named Raven. The Professor Xavier I know had a -- "

Here she pauses, looking for the best words.

" -- an evil twin. Named Cassandra. Nova."

Beat.

"They are not the same."

"That's quite useful. If there's a good moment, I'll check for who is aware of Raven,"

Though he won't be mentioning that detail to Raven, he doesn't think she'd like it.

"It can help," X says, after a momentary silence.

"You will not worry?"

She thinks it is not very productive.

Milliways is too unpredictable.

"I'll try not to. Mostly the future timelines make me more hopeful than anxious,"

After all they all seem to involve mutants coming together.

X thinks about that, too.

"I am allowed to ask why?"

"Yes, it's nothing too complex simply that there are more mutants and you feel comfortable telling people you are a mutant. Jean and Noriko were also open with it which is wonderful. Raven and I are still hiding,"

Here they're finding out they don't have to.

"It is easier here," X offers.

"People are not afraid."

When she was smaller, that was a revelation.

"Good, we need places to not have to be afraid. Everyone does."

X shrugs again, gaze flicking toward the front door.

"Sometimes it is dangerous. Here."

Beat.

"But that is not the same."

"Is it dangerous in different ways?"

That would seem logical but Milliways doesn't seem to be that logical.

"People are not afraid of each other."

Most of the time, anyway.

"But that means sometimes they are very stupid."

"I can see how that would cause problems. Sometimes that happens where I teach, everyone thinks they're smarter than everyone else so its hard to be wrong,"

Academics can be very stupid sometimes.

"Yes."

At least in part.

That and without fear, people aren't always good at remembering consequences.

"I am good at stopping fights."

"That can be a useful skill. Is that connected to your mutation?"

He's still learning the best way to ask without seeming rude.

X has to think about that for a moment.

She was made in a lab and raised as a weapon, largely because of Logan's healing mutation.

But that was Logan.

For herself --

"My mutation helps. But I am very good at fighting."

That would be true, regardless. It's only her specific methods that would change.

She'd be better at blocking, for one.

He nods and takes a sip of his drink, it seems like there's a complicated story underneath what she's saying,

"Do you have to do a lot of fighting? Can I ask that?"

"I do not have to. Now. But I choose to."

Beat.

"It is important."

Before, she did not have a choice. There was the lab, and there were missions, and there were people to kill.

Now --

Now is different.

"I protect people."

"That's very important. I can see why you choose to do it,"

Protection is a great gift to give to anyone.

X does not look so very startled.

"You can?"

She's curious.

What does he know?

"Yes, I grew up during a war and with people still feeling the effects of the last one. I don't know how mutants are going to play a part in what happens next in my timeline but we need to be there for each other and protect each other."

"Yes," X says. "You do."

Then she pauses. Again.

And, a little more carefully --

"I protect humans, too."

And not just in Milliways.

"They trust you to?"

Their futures aren't the same but he finds that an amazing possibility.

X looks startled.

Again.

"Trust is not relevant. It is what I do."