Bobby in Sheppard's Office

[Bobby Drake]

(open OOC, though perhaps not IC)

Bobby stands outside Sheppard's office for a long time, trying to decide what he wants to say. Or, maybe, what he wants to avoid saying. Or maybe what he's going to have to listen to before he gets to say anything, since he isn't exactly making the Dean's List lately.

Really, he's hoping Magneto will attack the Institute or something before he actually has to walk in that door.

Which he doesn't. And he's already made the appointment (Well, at least he's reserved a block of time on Sheppard's on-line calendar... which is like making an appointment, isn't it? At least if the guy actually checks his calendar.) so it's not like he can just walk away.

Well, he could. But he won't.

OK... here goes.

He knocks on the door, then comes inside when invited and goes through the abbreviated version of the Meeting the New Principal dance with about a tenth of his brain. He has an eerie suspicion he called the guy Professor Xavier while he wasn't paying attention.

Doesn't matter. He's probably used to it.

"So, anyway... I'll cut to the chase. First off... figured you should know that Magneto's reforming the Brotherhood. I mean, not that they're reforming, they're still the bad guys. I mean, he's forming them again. Him and John - um, Pyro. John. Others, I assume. Don't know who. Thought you'd want to know."

It occurs to Bobby that he's babbling. Which is bad, because it allows for the possibility that he'll say one of the things in the "avoid-saying" pile. Bad, bad, bad.

"And second off... I wanna know what we're doing about abuses of the Mutant Concentration Camps -- I mean, Containment Camps. From what I hear they're torturing mutants in there, which is the sort of thing the X-Men are supposed to be against, right? So do we find out who's doing what, collect evidence and take names? Or do we sit around and wait for Magneto to drop Mount Rushmore on them?"

Oh, and I seem to be dating Pyro. He doesn't say that out loud... or think it particularly hard. But it feels weird not mentioning it. And hey, Sheppard's a telepath, right? If he wanted to hear it, he'd hear it.

Man, Drake, he chides himself, you're getting almost as good as John at this doublethink business.

[Jake Sheppard]

... and this, my friends, is why we check our calendars occasionally...

... so we can be out of the country when one the students goes batshit insane and starts thinking we have any sort of power. Or, for that matter, any clue what’s going on here.

Bobby’s entrance isn’t really that much of a surprise. Even with his sporadic interest in students memos and stuff like that, which tend to be filed under Boring paperwork. Read Later, you’d be hard pressed not to have noticed frequent mention of the Iceman and some impending personal crisis he, as the new headmaster of sorts, should probably have been more concerned about. Besides, the guy is hardly a quiet thinker. And yet he’s still taken aback, both because of the kid’s apparent belief that he, the glorified work experience boy, can actually make a blind bit of difference to this, and because it looks like he might have no choice but to try.

The part of him which still hasn’t got any sort of grip on this ‘responsible adult’ business – which, really, covers most of him – considers briefly fishing around inside Bobby’s head, trying to get to the bottom of this… obviously there’s a lot Sheppard hasn’t been told (yeah, that’s why he’s interested. Nothing to do with wanting to unravel the enigma falling apart infront of him – Who the hell is John? being one question which refuses to go away, no matter how many times he stamps on it with big mental biker boots). But that would be wrong, wouldn’t it? Stupid ethics. Stupid responsibility…

Hang on. None of this really comes under his jurisdiction, does it? It’s X-Men business, which he’s been politely told he has no place in, aside from using the brain-scrambler if and when the need arises.

”Have you told Ms. Munroe about this? Or Mr… erm, or Logan?”

He hates himself for effectively walking away (though to be fair he holds out little hope that Bobby will let him), because it’s something you tell yourself you’d never do. You like to believe that something would stop you turning your back, that you’d want to change things. Well, the want is there, but what the hell can he do, really?

[Bobby Drake]

> "Have you told Ms. Munroe about this? Or Mr… erm, or Logan?"

Bobby skids to a halt. "No... not yet. Figured I'd see you first... you are the new guy in charge, right? Besides, this is a telepath kinda deal. Least, I figured it would make more sense to have you find out who'se been doing the torturing, on the QT, instead of having Logan investigate more, um, blatantly?"

Something about Sheppard's tone of voice, and the body language of his pauses, sets off an alarm in Bobby's head. It reminds him of his Dad whenever he'd asked for anything as a kid, just before he said "Well, your mother and I feel..." and Bobby knew they'd never even talked about it, he just didn't want to face her. Which had always been awful, because while Bobby sympathized (after all, there was a reason he'd always gone to Dad first), he'd also expected Dad to be a grownup.

Story of my life, isn't it? Always expecting someone else to be responsible. Well, enough of that crap. He's angry, all of a sudden, and while a moment's honest reflection would tell him that he's just projecting his anger at himself for not having done anything onto Sherridan (who after all, only just got here), he isn't taking the moment just yet.

"Actually, you know what? Never mind. You're probably right... Logan's approach is more effective anyway. And I bet the threat of a little localized frostbite would work just as well as those claws of his, if applied properly. Just forget I mentioned it... I'll take care of this one myself."

He turns around and heads towards the door, wondering if Sheppard will let him go, and wondering if he's bluffing, and a little disturbed to realize he's not sure of either.

[Bobby Drake]

(( closed thread here, picking up in Office Hours ))