Not so magical after all [OPEN]

[xprofessor]

WHO Charles Xavier
WHAT Exhibitions of good judgment.
WHERE A bar that isn't Furor's.
WHEN Evening of Sunday July 10.
NOTES Charles is getting extremely drunk. Enough to chase away the conflicted emotions re: Erik's arrival

Comments

[goldn_boy]

"You seem... better."

Jim slides up to the bar beside Charles, raising a finger and ordering his usual. If his tone doesn't sound entirely sincere, it's because he has his doubts about that sort of display considering the state of the man the last time they'd met.

[xprofessor]

"Do I?" asks Charles, turning towards him, empty shot glass in his hand. "Funny thing, looks. Appearances. Never quite reliable."

[goldn_boy]

"You would know," Jim says. He motions for the bartender to fill up Xavier's glass too, on him. He's trying to keep his thoughts at bay, as best he can. He's doing a little better than their first meeting.

"I hope I'm not presuming," he says. "I can go if I'm still... noisy."

[xprofessor]

"Oh, thank you," says Charles, flashing a smile. "You're doing a lovely job. I admit I don't mind as much, now, because I've had a bit to recover."

He pats Jim on the shoulder, absently.

[goldn_boy]

Jim eyes him, because he knows some of it's an act. But the man does seem better, and it's none of Jim's business.

"I heard you had something to do with the barrier coming down," he said quietly. And smiled a little. "So drink up."

[xprofessor]

"I did, I did," he admits, modestly. "Burnt me out like a firework. It's something about stressful situations, life-threatening danger -- kicks me into a higher gear, sometimes to my own detriment. But how about you? How have you been?"

[goldn_boy]

Jim nods, as if recognizing the feeling. And he does. He's not psychic, not in the least. But his intuition, once he learned to listen to it, has served him well. Almost like another sense.

He shrugs at the question, though.

"Better, now," he says. He pauses, knowing he wouldn't say this normally, knowing he probably shouldn't have drunk quite as much though he's far from drunk. "The barrier, the food shortage... brought up a lot of things. My war, you might say."

He takes a sip of his whiskey.

"Helps that I'm eating again, too."

[xprofessor]

"I felt the tumult within you," says Charles. "I tried not to, I promise, but sometimes you just can't quite help it. You have quite a lot of layers to you. Not visible normally, but when something slices so deep, you can see the strata, all the way down. You, my friend, are a geological anomaly."

He pats Jim's shoulder again.

"Did I have a topic originally, or have I been wandering like this the whole conversation?" he asks.

[goldn_boy]

Jim watches him for a moment, somewhat fascinated. It's flattering to be told about oneself, of course, but that's not all. Maybe it's the fact Jim doesn't have as many people around him as he did a month ago. Maybe it's the casual physical contact. Or the booze. Either way, he's warming towards Charles.

"It hasn't been long enough to get very far," he assures him. "And far be it from me to stop you from extolling my complexity. The deception of simplicity seems to fool most people." He's mostly joking; it's not a deception, or an intentional one, and Jim wears his heart on his sleeve most days. But he also plays a lot of things, the deepest things, close to the vest. "You're not exactly transparent, yourself."

[xprofessor]

"If I were transparent, it would make some things easier, wouldn't it?" drawls Charles. "Perhaps then people wouldn't complain about me peeking into their skulls. Fair's fair."

He held up the shot glass full of whiskey.

"And perhaps then I wouldn't feel so damned alone. To traumatic lives, my friend; may our pain prevent someone else's," and he tosses the shot back.

[goldn_boy]

"I don't know. Even in a glass house, sounds like you still have binoculars." But he raises his glass, realizing, with a pang of regret, that he rather likes the man.

Regret, because Jim feels keenly the lack of certain people in his life, people he'd met and liked and now, for various reasons, is cut off from. It's not strong enough to make him renounce social interaction or even friendship, but it's enough to make him wonder.

He takes a moment, after the shot.

"Do you mind me asking questions?" he says. "Because I have a few, but I know most people don't like to be quizzed about their inner workings on short acquaintance."

[xprofessor]

Charles grips the bar perhaps a bit harder than necessary.

He holds up a hand. "Not a quiz if it goes both ways," he says. "May I communicate more directly?" A pause. "Yes? No? Stay out of my head, you damned mind-reader?"

[goldn_boy]

Jim doesn't have any assurance that Xavier won't try anything other than communication. Then again, he's both used to jumping in with both feet and slightly more reckless even than usual.

"Never the last one--I have manners enough at least for that," he says. There's another short pause, Jim just watching him. "All right. On the condition you don't go any further than I allow."

Jim's not the secretive type, but he's not exactly an open book, either.

[xprofessor]

Charles reaches over, and touches his fingers to Jim's temple. Not really necessary, but it helps to focus.

And then there's another presence, warm, slightly erratic (it's the whiskey's influence) and friendly behind Jim's eyes.

/What was it you wanted to know, friend?/

[goldn_boy]

The gesture reminds him of Spock, and there's a spark of warmth/regret of his own. The voice in his head could not be mistaken for an illusion, or imagination, and it's far more pleasant a sensation than he's experienced in the past with any sort of mind-to-mind contact. Save Spock, of course, but even that--

He's not sure how to answer, but he does know the difference between thought and putting that thought into words, so it's worth a shot.

/How you manage, with all of that boiling under everyone you meet. Whether you can shield yourself from it at all. And I suppose... how you maintain faith in humanity, if everyone is transparent./

They're big questions, and Jim doesn't mean to ask them all at once. He doesn't even really expect an answer. But he can sense Xavier's loneliness, his sadness through the card tricks and whiskey, and part of him just wants to try to reach out and offer some measure of understanding. Even if he can't possibly.

[xprofessor]

/You operate from a mistaken assumption, my friend.../ He doesn't bother to use words. Words are clumsy and inadequate and communication this way is so much better, so much more effective and more beautiful.

He shows.

He shows Jim that it isn't a problem maintaining faith in humanity. That he's seen the worst humanity has to offer, and he still loves them madly. All the pettiness, all the sadness, the anger and the joy and the lust, he loves it. He needs it.

Without meaning to, he lets a different emotion leak through, like a curl of blood-red in clear water. Loneliness, because no one can hear him like he hears everyone else; disgust, and the hope that if humanity is worth saving, then Charles is worth saving too.

That stray bit of emotion vanishes, almost as soon as it's there.