February 27, 2016:
Gabriel finally has a sit down with Jean.
Jean's Office
Characters
NPCs: None.
Mentions: Brinley Myers
Plot:
Mood Music: [*\# None.]
Fade In…
After having been brought into the mansion by X-23 (http://cmbeta.wikidot.com/log:3390), this is of course after Gabriel stood around and sort of yelled at the building informing X eventually about being pushed to come, well long story short Gabriel ended up in the mansion. The man, dressed in blue jeans that look very worn, a T-shirt that is clean, but again worn down some and an old cowboy hat is standing like a statue outside in the hallway of the Headmaster's office where X had left him until the adults in charge were able to find time to talk to the enigmatic man.
*CLICK*CLICK*CLICK*
The quick rush of heels down the hallway with a briefcase held out in front of her, fingers ruffling through the papers was the sound that could be easily heard, quiet mutterings to herself next, and the vision of.. okay. There was no vision here. Jean looked a right mess. Her hair was nearly unkempt, wind blown and all over the place. Glasses hung in between her shirt latched there as if it belonged, her pants were alright. A pair of dark washed jean covered over boots which, as she stops and hops upon one foot, is quickly zipped up and planted upon the ground mid stumble.
She stops and looks at the young man, a frown curling her face as fingers brush and comb through her hair. "Eh.." She starts off, then shakes her head. "Come in."
She didn't know what he was in for, but him standing outside of her door? She could figure one or two things.
Enrollment, or he's someones stray.
Gabriel's attention snaps up as the woman walks down the hallway, the sound of the heels catching his attention and his eyes fall over Jean momentarily. There is a polite nod from him before he speaks. "I recall you. At the festival in the streets. Miss Brinley introduced us briefly." The accent of the man, clipping and foreign flows out before he reaches up to politely remove his hat. "I do not intend to take much time. I am here because I told Miss Moira and Miss Brinley that I would come here to listen."
The tone is polite enough, but his emotions which seep a bit from him are a bit less structured. He doesn't want to be there but isn't impatient; if anything there's a very slight undertone of fear from him. Not fear of those around but an internal fear. The sort that keeps barriers and walls up of mental and emotional energies. Shortly, he is not very trusting. "This building is very structured." With that statement, as off as it is, made he follows a bit more after Jean motions him to do such. "I have no memories of anything prior to one month ago when I was found. I have powers but no true knowledge of them. Miss Moira believed that this would be the best place for both of those issues to be addressed, however I have been staying with X-red for several weeks because I like it there."
"Oh! Gabriel, yes!" She enters into her office, dropping her briefcase upon the table, the papers spilling out willy nilly as she takes a seat within her chair. There was a brief rock to it, but she does manage to find that 'spot', the one where you settle into something you've always sat in just right and it just takes all of the stress and tenseness away.
She smiles a little, her head tilting to the side as the glasses were yanked from her top to toss upon her desk along with the gathered mess.
"Yes. We rebuild it close to every two years. Fortification." She lets out a sigh, then leans forward.
"So. Tell me of your time here. In New York. And of your time with Moira." The smile that plays upon her lips remain even as she speaks. "And what you like most about X-Red."
Gabriel stands there witnessing the display of disorganization with a tilt of his head. It is a rather chaotic demonstration which seems to cause him a little stress emotionally initially before it fades. "From the beginning. It has been about two months actually. A dock worker found me in a crate, chained up and in poor health. They did some tests and found that I was a mutant and contacted Miss Moira to come and get me since she was familiar with my kind. She was very helpful and supportive but nothing could be done to help bring back my memories. After a month with Miss Moira we decided to come here to see about getting help."
Gabriel glances around the office some, getting his bearings and looking at the various decorations while he continues speaking. "I visited an X-Red open house at Miss Moira's encouraging because it would be a way to meet others like me without being too intense. I liked the people I met there that were from X-Red. I also met people from here while there." Gabriel's eyes turn and look at Jean. "I did not like them as much. I knew Miss Moira would wnat me to come here next, so instead of doing such I went and lived on the streets of the city for a week or two in order to avoid having to come here."
In a way, her messes were made on purpose. The shared room that she has with Scott is spartan; not a fleck of dust or anything on the wall. The communal space where Emma, Betsy, and Jean keep all of their random belongings and 'girl stuff' is spotless as well. It's possibly why those three women usually get along well. Other circumstances barring. But the look towards him was nearly blank, unreadable. Even as she gleams the slight emotions that came from him, she remained unreadable.
"You have a strange way of stating things." Jean points out. "Almost detached." She glances down just a moment, then leans forward. "There's nothing to fear here. Personalities clash and that's alright. And I see why she wanted you to come to here first." She smiles. "But things don't always work out. Perhaps it was better that you stayed with Ms. Brinley until you gained your footing and approached when you felt the need."
"What did you not like about those people that you've met?" She draws out a sheet of paper and a pencil, then begins to scribble a few words here and there, waiting for his answer.
Gabriel looks around once more and takes a few steps to the side, looking at the floor for some reason as he seems to be thinking, his brow furrowing as he does so. "They were happy. Comfortable with one another. When you are on the outside of everything, not knowing who you are what you are.. seeing others who are that way is a frustration. So jealousy?" He looks up at Jean then. "That would be jealousy, so I did not like them because I was jealous of what they had."
He walks a bit, turning his back so he can look at the wall, hand reaching up to touch the bridge of his nose gently. "I do not fear anything here, other than myself. Were it not for Mexico I do not think I would have come here." Slowly he turns around and looks at Jean, managing a small smile although it seems forced, awkward, not quite fitting. "I have found that I am getting softer, I do not view people quite as harshly."
Jean listens, perplexed.
"I do not think that emotion that you were feeling was jealousy. Often times, jealousy is mixed and minced with yearning. Perhaps that seeing those people who were comfortable with each other brought a glimpse of the feeling of your past that you cannot remember, and brought it to the present."
Still, she watches him, not reading his mind just yet, only threating him as a patient who had just walked into her office. She had given up the practice to return to this school, and now she's the Headmistress and leader. Funny how the way the world works.
"Have a seat." She gestures out towards the chairs opposite side of her desk. "And tell me what happened in Mexico.."
Gabriel steps around, looking at the chairs before looking up at Jean. He studies the woman for a moment before nodding politely and going towards the seat. As the slides into it, the posture of his back remains straight and upright without a slouch to it and his hands fold across his lap in a position that emulates a servant waiting for instructions. "I accompanied someone I had met. There was some kind of incident and I decided to assist my friend with it."
The explanation has his hands twitch just ever so slightly while he keeps his attention steady on Jean but his eyes are just ever so slightly downcast and subservant. "I embraced my powers there and were it not for intervention I feel that much destruction could have occurred. This was one of Brinley's larger concerns as she does not know how to help me with this." The short tale is given and then he adds with a quiet addendum, "It is possible it was not jealousy. I do not think I feel to often. It seems like a distant idea to me."
Elbows were planted upon her desk as her fingers press and steeple, the outlining fingertips pressed against her lips as she keeps her green gaze readily upon him. She weighened him as he move, sat and spoke, the way he sat with his back straight as an arrow, the way his hands twitch, and how his eyes remain down. Even his manner of dress was studied, and soon she takes in a deep inhale of a breath.
"I see."
Her gaze lifts again, hands slowly lowering to lay idle upon the table, one eye squinting as she finally exhales. It was clear that she was communicating with someone, but with whom?
"What is the scope of your mutation, if I may ask?" Then a pause. "You feel. It just doesn't register because often times people believe that they can choose to or not. I have a proposition for you that I hope you will accept. But first, tell me what you know of yourself. Your mutation that is. And what, if at all, you truly want for yourself."
Gabriel continues looking downcast for a few moments and is silent, the way his brow furrows every so slightly it is clear his mind is thinking of answers rather than just providing them. "What I know of my mutation is that when I become angry, or…" He stops, trails and then for just a flicker the corner of his lip curls upwards, "Or happy I pull the energy of things around me into myself. In Mexico I was annoyed and could feel the energy of all the weapons, all the power being used and I pulled it to me then released it outwards as I wanted to." His hands lift up now as do his eyes to look at Jean. "Through my hands, my eyes."
And now, now his eyes remain up on Jean as he looks directly into her green gaze. "I want… I want for myself to know why I was locked away. To know if others are locked away that need help. To be able to know who I am so I can go forward or if need be, to go away."
Jean furrows her brows slightly. "Like a concussion blast?" She doesn't insinuate further, she lets that idea go right then and there as she offers up a little smile. "So yours is controlled by intense emotion. Anger, happiness, annoyance driven to the former.." She grabs up a pen, the taps it with a slight fanning motion upon her desk. The click-click sounds meant to focus or perhaps, seek to judge or gauge his reaction. "Hands and eyes.. hmh.."
Though his further words give her pause, allowing her to carefully settle the pen upon the desk in a way that it does not roll. "I see. But.. what if the people that you've come to know or come to know you do not wish you to go away? What then?"
Gabriel looks steadily at Jean and shakes his head, "I have spent time pondering. If someone is locked away and hidden, there is a reason for it. One, it is because they are valuable in some way and are being held for payment or transport. Or two, they are dangerous." Gabriels' eyes follow the movement of the pen as it is picked up, then set down, then placed. It seems interesting to the man before his focus returns once more to Jean. "In either case, it stands to reason that at some point, someone will come looking. If that someone is a danger, do I not owe it to the people that I have come to know to do what is best for them?"
"And that could be correct. But there are other reasons and other ways that you aren't looking at it. Many decisions and choices do come into factor. Such as.. is this person locked away of their own choosing? Or is it a form of justice from the harm that they have done?" She lifts her brow slightly, then shakes her head. "Someone will come looking but you won't be found here. And if you allow it, anywhere." She lifts a hand to tap against the side of her temple.
"And yes, you do owe it to the people. You also owe it to them to know that they make the choices, those sorts of choices for themselves. If they consider you family, they will not leave you behind. And you have to trust that they will make the decision for themselves. Whether it is right or completely detrimental to what you're trying to accomplish." She leans back within her chair now, rocking it slightly. "Someone once told me, that you are not god. We don't get to decide what's best for another person, no matter what position we're in. No matter what good we think we're doing. Good is often time the cause of most harm in the world."
Gabriel listens quietly to Jean's words, mulls them, ponders them as his brow furrows in contemplation. Finally there is the barest nod of his head, "What you speak seems to make sense, however I would take more time to think on it. I do not worry myself about good at present, mostly I wish to make sure those that have shown kindness to me are protected from ill."
He straightens quickly, apparently feeling a bit of slouch having come to him at one point and once more settles his posture appropriately. "Until I know what has been however, I cannot make decisions on what is to come, correct?"
"You're allowed to. And most people wish that of others, to protect them from the harms and troubles they may face. But understand, it is a true test of a person who stands by your side, even when the chips are down." She smiles a little, then draws herself to a stand. That quick rise takes her towards the shelf, which houses a small fridge which was soon opened and a bottle of water withdrawn, one for her and one for himself.
"You are correct in this. Which brings me to my offer, if you choose to accept. I would like for you to see me once a week for therapy. Training, I will find you someone suitable or do it myself." She pauses. "After an initial trial, of course. And if you need, I can arrange a place for you to live within these walls until you decide to seek living arrangements elsewhere. And know this, you are not a captive here. You can live and go of your own free will. The only schedule you'll be required to keep are your appointment times. In which we'll explore the current you now, and who you were previously. Is that understood? Or shall adjustments need to be made for you to be agreeable to this?"
Gabriel listens to the offer before nodding his head slowly, "I believe that to be acceptable, for the time being. I would prefer to stay where I am now. I have a small room at the X-Red location. My friends there would be happy if I am around I think and it will help me as well to be some place familiar. If this is alright, I do believe we have an accord." Such an odd choice of words, accord. Even when he says it it comes with an odd clip of an accent.
Jean has already noted the strange way he speaks, though accord does bring about a slight frown, but she relaxes. "Very well then. You'll know the times to return here for your therapy and training. I'll be made available upon your time of arrival." She moves towards the door now, offering him the bottle of water in passing, then grips the handle to tug it open. "And it'll be wonderful to talk to you. I'm sure. And tell Brinley I said hello."
Gabriel rises when Jean does and looking at the bottle of offered water accepts it as he heads to the door. "I… will arrive at the appointed time. Until then, be well. I will relay your message." Before he steps out, he picks up the hat he had set down and affixes it ontop of his head, nothing quite like that urban cowboy look. With that, Gabriel makes his departure.