The Dr will see you now [Jake's entry, X-office]

[Jake Sheppard]

OOC - oh the cheese of the title. Couldn't resist.

So, this is the office

The office, of course. Not, and probably never, his office. Because although Jake has little faith in the supernatural – despite his ‘paranormal’ abilities and the nice little clairvoyancy scam they let him run pre-Moira – it’s painfully obvious that a dead man is still very much in residence not only here but throughout the Institute. The one concession which has been made to the new occupant of this parchment and panelling mausoleum is the chair. He likes the chair; it’s big, leather, and suitably authoritarian. It also spins…

No. No time for that nonsense. There are records to run over, endless notes and forms and protocols to read and memorise, lessons (god help him) to plan… In short, he finally has a ‘real job’ beyond arsing around as a ‘Research subject’ on the Island. Only problem is, they’re expecting him to do it in the middle of what is, for some raised on comic books and bad spy novels, probably the best playground on the planet.

This battle with the ‘Inner Child’ has been grinding on since conquering jet lag opened his perceptions to anything other than bed, coffee and painkillers. It’s uniforms and codenames and holograms and lasers and a secret underground lair and a jet that comes out of the swimming pool and bad-ass motorbikes and Wow! and… and he has to remind himself that he’s not a student who can get over-excited about such things and have it be charming or cute. He’s a teacher, and a middle aged one at that. It’ll get harder to forget just how old he is, no doubt, once he’s in amongst the ‘Beautiful People’ who, if the rest of this country is anything to go by, no doubt populate the school, where the contrast with his ‘charming British eccentricity’ will be even more evident, but even so he can’t quite shake the New Boy feeling.

Well, it makes sense, doesn’t it? He is new, and next to Storm/Ororo/Professor Munroe’s experience and Wolverine/Logan/Professor, erm, Logan’s age he cannot claim to be the adult of the three. Even some of the kids – the ones with the harsh, prematurely grown-up quality which probably means they’ve donned the leathers and seen action he’s only read about – make him feel small.

Surely one spin can’t hurt?

[Ororo Munroe]

Ororo steps briskly down the hallway.

This morning she was set to meet the new headmaster of the Institute. She had declined the post for various reasons, the least of which had been attempting to run both the X-Men and the school would likely put her into some sort of mental breakdown. Perhaps, if Scott was here, I would have... She cuts the thought off before it reaches its conclusion. Scott and Jean had always thought of taking over together after the Professor became too old and tired to keep up with everything. Jean had the public profile to be able to promote the school effectively, thanks to her research, and of course, Scott had been the longtime field leader of the X-Men.

Events nearly six months ago had utterly destroyed that scenario.

It was hard to believe the three of them were gone. She and Hank were the only ones left from the onset of the school, the only ones to carry on what a good man had started years ago.

And so it was on herself and... she recalls the data sent over from Muir Island. Jacob Sheppard? Aha. Jake. Jake Sheppard. It was on the two of them to form the minds of tommorrow, together. Ororo had learned to not count on Logan's presence indefinitely.

She arrives at the door to the Professor's - Jake's - office, and stops, amused. Mr. Sheppard appears to be spinning in the chair they'd pulled from an empty office down the hall. She coughs lightly.

"Welcome to the Xavier Institute, Mr. Sheppard. I trust you're settling into your office well?" Ororo manages to keep the expression on her face utterly neutral.

[Jake Sheppard]

Jake doesn’t quite jump at the voice (which is a godsend, really, because with his complete lack of any sort of grace and dignity there’s only one way that would have worked out, and overturning the chair in a spectacular pratfall is not exactly the best start...). Instead he freezes the way small kids do when they’re caught out, as if not-moving might just make the fact they’ve been seen less real, half grins half winces to himself (Yeah, we were seen. Way to go), and turns the chair in an embarrassment-tinged variation of a more dignified manner.

”Erm..” – oh yeah, this would be a worst-case scenario, wouldn’t it? If the hair wasn’t a dead giveaway, then her poise and weird air of graceful authority would have given it away; the figure in the doorway, the one who’s just been treated to a glimpse of him at his most childish and endearingly idiotic (i.e. looking a total idiot) has got to be Oro.. erm, Sto… erm, Professor Munroe (the codename issue is yet another thing he’s yet to get his head around, sigh, and he’d feel like an idiot asking. Taking his queue from others seems to be the best strategy, totally ignoring for the moment the fact that as Headmaster he’ll have to take rather than follow the lead sooner or later). Jake flushes slightly, but only for a moment before his *charming* (read quirky, boyish and mildly mischievous, but in a winning sort of way… hopefully. Alternatively he could just look crazy, or daft) grin snaps back into its customary place.

”Yeah” he says brightly, inwardly wincing at what had previously been chirpy cockney and is now a huge neon sign pointing to his ‘alien’ status (adding *learn to sound less British* to the ever increasing to do list) ”It’s… erm” He flushes crimson again, laughs it off ”Sorry.... Wow, this is suitably embarrassing and awkward, eh… Maybe we should start again and do things properly” Snapping back into charming, he gets to his feet and proffers a hand. ”I guess you sort of know who I am already, but whatever. Jake Sheppard”

[Ororo Munroe]

>”I guess you sort of know who I am already, but whatever. Jake Sheppard.”

I suppose I do... in a sense. Moira had been rather vague as to the man's credentials, but honestly, at this point she was happy to have a headmaster, especially one that could work with Cerebro. She'd originally thought they would have to wait for Josh to be ready to tackle the thing, and without a teacher that would have been quite a while.

Jake also seemed rather charming, in that distracted-academic sense. He wasn't... handsome, exactly. More along the terms of cute, then. Like a boy who'd never quite grown up. And the accent was... striking. No. Not him. Not here. He's your colleague. She shakes her head. Gaia knew that there hadn't been a man around the Institute that she'd been interested in since Leo had left the Institute for Europe...

She reaches out a hand to meet his. "Ororo Munroe. How have you been settling in? I know the flight from Muir is a long one."

"I just wanted to say, between us... I'm glad you're here. I'm new at this, and I hope that the two of us will be able to work together. Hank is far too busy to be around much, and I never know where Logan will be the next day." She gives him a genuine smile.

"Finally... are there any questions I can answer for you?" Like where we keep the leather uniforms, or what happened to our last three facuty members, or why a man in a metal hat is trying to kill us?

[Jake Sheppard]

Her handshake is… firm. Almost intimidatingly so…. which is good, because it means someone around here knows what’s going on, or at least has the metaphorical balls to act as if they do… because he sure as hell doesn’t, and it’s no use pretending that he’ll ever really feel comfortable pretending that he does – although, Jake being Jake, he can bullshit his way through which a grin and a refusal to commit to anything it feels sort of… wrong, really, given that they’re now playing with the future of the race or something… whatever it was Moira had said in her this is important, don’t screw it up speech as he boarded the plane.

”Erm… fine, yeah. It’s” – he fumbles for the right words, and settles for that great British fallback – ”a nice place, really. And jetlag’s not too bad when you can get in people’s heads and poke them until they take sympathy on you” Jake quirks a slight smile, runs the free hand through his hair before letting hers drop and retaking his seat, gesturing for her to do likewise.

Her gratitude is ”Duly noted” with a small nod and a genuine smile bounced back at her. ”And, y’know, I’m hoping the same thing. Because I’m… totally new at this, really. Not sure how much help I’ll be. But I’ll try” – another flash of the *charmingly bemused* grin (wow, it’s amazing how much he relies on that… though he gets the feeling he’s going to have to get some new strategies down now he’s actually going to be doing something worthwhile with his time…)

”I think I’m okay, really…” There are a million questions he’d like to ask, but most of them make him sound either like an excited schoolboy or someone who forgot to read the paperwork for the new job, so he’s not going to… ”Cos, well, you’re running the X-Men side, right? Have to admit that I still don’t quite… get… that”

… okay, too late. Nice one, Jake.

[Ororo Munroe]

Ororo sits down, listening intently. The accent was highly distracting.

> ”Cos, well, you’re running the X-Men side, right? Have to admit that I still don’t quite… get… that”

There's a loaded question. What were the X-Men? Ororo wasn't certain she knew herself. Which was a dubious prospect, seeing as she was in charge of the whole outfit.

"The X-Men... where do I start? The concept of the X-Men was conceived by Professor Xavier. Somehow, he knew that there needed to be individuals that could oppose Erik Lehnsherr - Magneto - when he finally struck out at humanity. After Scott died, I found myself in charge. Without Magneto as the center of mutant unrest, things have been rather quiet lately. I assume that we will have to handle other mutant terrorists of his ilk at some point." Someone had to take the reins. Gaia knows Logan wasn't interested in it.

"If you like, I can show you around the subbasement. That's where most of the X-Men facilities are." She cocks her head at the question.