bakerstreet | thursday pic prompt

thursday pic prompt

the picture prompt meme

i. COMMENT WITH CHARACTER
ii. OTHERS LEAVE A PICTURE (OR TWO OR THREE....)
iii. REPLY TO THEM WITH A SETTING BASED ON THE IMAGES.

THIS POST WILL BE IMAGE HEAVY.

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Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

[Crazyballs can sure be the word. Very much the word. Especially at this historical moment when everything in academia is under such massive assault. It's excellent if she's able to work in her field for a while now though. That is so very valuable (I say as someone living the reality that there just are no academic jobs and we're all bizarrely happy even to be under-employed and exploited, orz). This is why we must take solace in small good things like fab RP that takes on a life of its own! :D]

Pausing to look at Hank a moment longer, Aurus gave a nod. "All right."

He even managed to reserve his sigh until he was out in the hallway. Actually, if he thought for a moment that it would make Hank feel better to go a round with him--bare fists or practice staves or whatever--he would certainly have offered it to him. But how could he ever have guessed? He didn't know about that bluer side of the man at all.

As it was, he just figured that he had to give him time. And more than that, he had to accept the possibility that Hank would go straight to Charles and give him a solid talking to which, regardless of Charles' current leanings, would leave him feeling that Aurus had betrayed the delicate balance of whatever was growing between them.

He wanted none of these things, but he was also quite convinced that no wise course of action could include any direct intervention on his part: it wasn't always possible to control a situation. Sometimes you just had to give it space and time to unfold on its own. Right now, the proverbial ball was not in his court.

That didn't mean for a moment that the uncertainty and anticipation didn't threaten to steal his focus, so he murmured in his mind to distract himself: Ventari, I hope you're looking forward to this.

He didn't honestly need to ask. He already knew.

"They won't be able to see me," the centaur's low voice rolled through his thoughts, "my only disappointment."

They won't, but they will still know your words.

"And about the rest--your most recent meeting?"

You think I was wrong to leave him like that?

"I think it depends. Read well how the hurt lingers with him when you see him next. He was angry with you, and that sort of anger can fester."

Aurus took that warning, too, under advisement.

Following Hank's directions, he found his way (eventually) to the back door. He paused a few times to glance into open rooms, making sure he'd not gone too far, but actually some areas of the school were already beginning to look somewhat familiar to him.

Making his way outside and onto the lawn, he chose what seemed a central spot--a sunny place near a dogwood tree and near to where a scattering of students were out around the grounds, some playing and talking, others more solitary. A few, he noticed, had turned their heads to watch him, eyes following his practically from the moment he stepped outside. Perhaps he needed only to sit down to prompt them to come over, but he figured it was worth extending a clearer invitation than that.

He glanced around, deliberately catching the curious eyes. And then, with a swing of his arm, he projected Ventari's tablet into the world.

A large stone block, chiseled in New Krytan script, the tablet floated three feet off the ground, suspended by vines that tethered it to nothing. Seemingly solid, but in reality completely intangible, it pulsed with a golden glow of energy that seemed to ripple through it, burning the foreign writing onto the air in little bursts of green and ghosting breaths of flowers that bloomed and vanished in waves across the ground. It was beautiful and magical and it radiated life.

Aurus glanced again towards the onlooking students--he definitely had their attention--then gave a nod of his head to encourage them over and sat down on the grass with the tablet nearby.

[She's said the same things many times. She has such a thing for data and figures... she's very happy to do work using SAS I believe the program is? Currently she's doing her best trying to find something of the suit with hopes it'll grow into something more in the future. And good RP is often hard to find, so it is well valued (she's also an RPer ^^)]

Well Aurus certainly got what he wanted! There were gasps from many of the students watching, nudging with elbows and pointings, and given that small encouragement, some began to come over. They were older students, more sure of themselves (or cockier, or protective), and a few younger children peering out from behind them. They came over and stayed slightly away from the glowing stone block floating over the ground, grinning and obviously curious.

An older girl was the one who made first constant, giving Aurus a smile and studying him up and down before saying, "you're the one who came out of the portal yesterday." A sort of greeting, clearly having seen when Aurus appeared in this particular world the previous night. "I was hoping Professor Xavier would let us get to meet you!"

One of the younger children was getting close to the tablet, a hand reaching out curiously to touch it, or at least attempt to. Some of the other students were clearly interested in what was going to happen if he did, letting him get in trouble first. Aurus might pick up an 'I could make something like this!' from a blonde girl, her eyes bright.

[SAS is a statistics program of some sort, is that right? I'm very solidly an arts/humanities person, so my knowledge of everything in that corner of the sky is very weak. I have a friend who's a psych PhD and when we try to talk about our work it sometimes feels like we're speaking two different languages. Fingers crossed that your GF finds something that's enjoyable and rewarding to work on though. My partner is also an RPer, and I love that RP is a part of our lives. I scoff at people who look down their noses at relationships between RPers. How unimaginative their love lives must be!]

"Yes, that's right," Aurus confirmed in answer to the girl's inquiry. "Did many of you see that?" It was a general question to include the others, though for the moment he maintained his most direct conversation with the girl: "I'm pleased that he agreed to it too--I've not often spent much time around children, and I'm told that you lot are quite interesting people."

He watched the younger boy reach out for the tablet without a word of reproach. There was no harm at all in him trying since his hand would merely pass right through, perhaps sensing only the vaguest hint of warmth, like a fleeting shaft of sunlight.

"You can come closer if you like," he told them, looking up at the assembling group from his seat in the grass. "It's quite safe. In fact, if you happen to be hurt, it can even make you feel better."

'Make something like it' indeed! He couldn't help an internal smirk at that--by now he didn't doubt that one of these students could make something that looked like the tablet. But he would be amazed indeed if they could replicated the magic of the tablet.

[That's exactlyh what it is! I couldn't imagine life without things like books, RP, LARPing... is their life just really, really boring with no imagination? I can't even fantom the idea, personally.]

A few hands went up among the group and more children were coming over as it was getting spotted by others coming by in or outside. The boy nearly pitched forward when the tablet proved to be completely insubstanial, which got a bunch of giggles out of people as he caught himself, blinking, before he swiped his hand through it several more times to try and figure out what was going on! The girl who had spoken up about making one walked around it partially, her nose wrinkling a little, before she put her hand to the ground. There was a few seconds of her concentrating, the tip of her tongue sticking out, before she pulled her hand up sharply. From the ground rose a stone about as long as Aurus' hand and very much a shape similar to that of the tablet! That made her grin as she caught it, holding it up.

Several crowded closer, but it was the older girl who spoke. "So who are you?" She sat herself down near him, pushing very straight black hair from her eyes. "I'm Suzanne. Are you friends of Professor Xavier?"

Aurus certainly had his audience as the students were hanging on every word (well the ones not peering over at what the blonde had done or staring at the tablet as they came close) wanting to know more about this new comer.

"What kind of power is this?" Asked a boy, pointing to the tablet in confusion.

"Illusions?" Another called over. "Danielle can do those, right?"

"I guess..."

[I seriously sometimes feel like I have nothing to say to "normal" people. I mean I do, I'm exaggerating, but I just get these moments of not being able to make sense of what they do for fun.]

"That's very good," Aurus acknowledged the girl's tablet replica with a smile, and then added a very gentle bit of teasing: "But yours doesn't have anything written on it."

Turning back to Suzanne and the others for whom she was momentarily the spokesperson, he said, "My name is Aurus. And yes, I think I can fairly say that I am a friend of Professor Xavier's, though I must admit that we only met for the first time when I arrived here--quite by accident--last night." Certainly Aurus considered Charles to be his friend already regardless.

"And it's not an illusion. It's a projection, a channeling of power from a place you won't have heard of before--a place called the Mists."

That, he suspected, would garner a barrage of questions, so he prepared himself to field them as they came.

[Everything from my end ended up just fine (both weather and car wise!) so I can't complain! I am, however, NOT looking forward to the first snow fall. People are idiots but more so because my partner finally moved up here from down south and doesn't know how to drive in deep snow. So... well, learning experience in coming.]

Well to be fair they did have very similar inabilities to sit still! Peter might move far more quickly but that didn't make the similarity any less clear. Peter just tended to be more obnoxious with his but he couldn't help it when his body was constantly telling him to gogogogogogo. Charles silently though Kurt's tail was clearly like a cat - an indicator of mood and almost completely detached from conscious thought.

Just before he disappeared, Kurt would feel one of Charles' hands creep up to clasp onto his arm. A double catch just in case his chair did not end up going with them. However, when they landed, Charles' eyes were quite wide and his lips slightly parted. That had been... incredible. No, he definitely took back some of his initial thoughts on the matter. He had been able to think that entire time and he was certain that if his molecules were breaking down completely that conscious thought wouldn't be possible. The witness to those strange lights, just as Kurt had described them and darkness all around... could they have been in space? It had been too quick, and he had been holding his breath besides, to try and breathe and too quick to even feel a drastic change in temperature. Could those lights... be stars?

He burst out in a laugh, his surprise turning into a wide grin. "That is incredible!"

[I feel you, I feel you. I am very lucky to have a lot of nerds for friends thanks to the LARP community. Maybe it's dorky to say but LARP pretty much saved my life. I had a half decent job but lived in the middle of no where, alone and depressed, apart from my college friends when a strange series of circumstances led to me going to a con and getting dragged to the LARP. I ended up moving to where several of them live and have been friends with them for 11 years now. Couldn't be happier about it.

Er but point being, I'm lucky to have friends to are all playing Pokemon Sun and Moon along side of me, who watch Marvel movies, who do Drunken Fingerpainting Nights (seriously, get drunk watching horrible movie then fingerpaint your drunken feelings about the movie. It is the best), who table top and RP.]

Well that clearly was a challenge! The girl blinked at him before grinning, then squinted at the tablet as she was trying to figure out the writing and how to add it to her miniature version of it. Several of her friends gathered around and were trying to help to whatever degree they could.

Suzanne though raised her brows, surprised, and of course Aurus ended up getting a dozen questions from curious students. What do you mean, by accident? What are the mists? Is projection your power, then? Are you an alien? Where did you come from? Where were you trying to go?

Charles, sitting tucked up to a window at the side of the school facing where Aurus was, looked amused as he heard the excited questions (though unable to pick out precisely what was being said) through the cracked-open panes.

[Oh my lord today has been such a crazy day. I feel like I haven't stopped talking since 10AM. Which is so ironic because I've grown to have a hilariously small social circle outside of colleagues here where I work, so Wed-Thurs is like all of teaching and being social for the week in 48 intense hours. I adore many of the people here, but the kind of friendships I have with them are distinctly non-nerdy. (All my nerdy energy is spent with my partner these days.) And right now that's all working fine for me, but last year and the year before I was a pure emotional wreck, also living in mid-Bumblefuck and totally depressed, so I completely know the feeling. I also initially began planning to do my PhD in the UK because of a circle of fandom friends here who I wanted to be near. We've drifted apart over the years, but I am 100% on board with decisions to move to be near nerdy/fandom types regardless. (Also, drunken movie night finger painting sounds like the best idea ever omg.)]

Aurus watched the girl with the miniature tablet out of the corner of his eye, actually very interested to see what she'd manage to create. He rather thought he approved of her. Beyond a smile, though, he gave no outward sign just yet. (In his mind, he could feel Ventari's growing interest in what this student and her team of advisors might make. But then the centaur was inevitably quite eager for someone to get to the point of actually reading the tablet.)

As to this deluge of questions he was getting, Aurus was actually pretty ready with answers:

"Projection isn't my power because actually I'm not a mutant. So I don't have powers in the same sense as all of you. I do, however, have the ability to channel certain forms of energy--magical energy, broadly speaking.

"The Mists, which is also where I came from last night, is a proto-reality, a mystical space between worlds. Every time and every place is connected in some way through the Mists, like islands in a sea. I went there to wander, to explore. And last night I happened to arrive here.

"Do you think that makes me an alien?" He posed the question back like he hadn't quite settled on what answer he'd prefer to give it. "Personally I'm more inclined just to say that I'm a sylvari. But this is your world."

Of course if every answer Aurus gave spawned another five questions he's soon be swimming under an exponential flood, but he still preferred giving these children answers that left something to be puzzled out (actually, he preferred giving most people answers that left something to be puzzled out). And of course he equally did not know Charles was watching him from the window, but he would have been very pleased to know that he was, however far away.

[very good, yes!! surprisingly, the news has not been full of morons that have drove themselves into any ditches. it's definitely a learning experience, but i am sure they will do just fine after a few times out!]

That is completely true, though. Every time he's seen Peter move, Kurt can't help but be enthralled. The ability to pretty much freeze time because one is moving so fast? Absolutely brilliant in his opinion. The tail's a bit of both - conscious and not-so-much at times; it can lash wildly when his mood shifts to anger or excitement and when he is calm or doing something relaxing, the appendage will absently twitch. When he wants to willingly move it, he does, like the times he has used it as a weapon.

He felt the grip on his arm, of course, knowing full well that he would have to react quickly if Charles' chair hadn't come with them. Luckily, it had and he was immediately glad that he'd moved when he did. There was a moment where his head spun, forcing him to close his eyes to try and be rid of the dizzy feeling, since it had helped before, but it was his teacher's laughter and his comment that halfway stabilized him.

His eyes fluttered, yet he smiled and chuckled quietly also. As long as he didn't make any sudden movements, he should be fine. "So, you saw them?"

[Ug I want to give you a big old hug. I'm so glad you have a partner to love and be loved over there. One of the best things is just to try and find more nerdy-places. Cons, game stores, etc. Even if it's brief nerdy things... better than nothing!]

It meant the young ones trying to replicate the tablet were reading it in the process of attempting to make the writing correct. Aurus would hear a quiet question from the youngest one there to the blond ('what's a bloo-sum?') and a whispered answer in return ('it's a flower!') but there were students around that were sitting in silence as they read it, listening to what Aurus was saying. Of course some had missed the point entirely and were purely more interested in their blue visitor.

And of course there was an avalanche of questions that would keep coming from the children in general, as curious and excited as children tended to be. Watching from afar, Charles put his chin on his palm, frowning as he watched Aurus speak to his students. There had been a deep desire to reach out to Hank's mind and find out what had happened after he had left the two of them alone, given that Hank hadn't been seen since, but he tried to respect his friend's mental privacy. What did they talk about? What did they do? What the hell happened?

He breathed out hard and closed his eyes. What he couldn't keep himself from was a sweep of the area, but without touching any specific minds. At least he could feel their excitement, bright as sunshine.

[I hope you had a great thanksgiving! Took my partner to Thanksgiving to see more of my family, and it was very nice. No political talk, just a warm, fun time. Whew!]

"I did! It was- wow." Just a quiet breath out on that last word, giving a little shake of his head. "I didn't feel any immediate change of temperature, but I'm not sure if it was just too quick... however if you go outside in the winter it is a quick enough feeling." His mind was racing and it showed on his brow, pinched and eyes full of wonder.

"Yet we remain in tact. I could think in those moments. I do fully believe now there is some sort of time distortion involved, though I cautiously hesitate in the idea if it's entirely in the mind or a true one. Incredible." Another little laugh left him with him leaning back in his chair.

[thank you very much! it was wonderful and i'm glad that yours was good, too! it's always nice when you don't have to worry about politics. lmao i didn't get down to see my family, but i'll be shooting for christmas. our "three roomies giving" was awesome and we'll be doing a "friendsgiving" on saturday. XD currently, i'm enjoying leftover snacks and wine. \o/]

Charles' response made him relax, the weight on his chest from earlier lifting with the fact that someone else had seen the lights he'd spoken of before. Time and time again, he'd done his best to explain them, only to be given looks of confusion or outright disbelief. Then, when he would offer to show people, he was usually greeted with hesitance and that made him drop the subject in an instant. His teacher's astonishment filled him to the brim with pride, though. "I never thought about the shift in temperature ... Winters were always my least favorite time of the year, but I'm hoping that will change and I'll come to understand the beauty that everyone else finds in the season."

With the utmost care, Kurt straightened from his bent position, inhaling slowly and sighing in the same manner. He didn't feel too dizzy at the moment, but he still made sure to not move too quickly. "It's something that we could study further - at a later date, when we have more time."

[<3<3 Things are way better since we moved back to London. And honestly, my partner is so wonderful and we click so well that I don't at all mind having the rest of my nerdy life online. Also, today we're going to Oxford! I'm really excited--I've never been before, but my students all wanted to go so one of my colleagues who's an Oxford alumna arranged a trip and I said my partner and I would come along for the fun of it. We're going to two of the university museums and I'm as excited for that as for the uber-nerdy "Charles is meant to have studied here" aspect of it!]

Aurus took the barrage of questions pretty well in stride, over all. He described the Mists and the lands he'd seen within them, and he took the tactic of telling the children the story of his race and where sylvari came from--of Ronan and Ventari, the growing of the Pale Tree.

"That's what this tablet is," he explained. "Before Ventari died, he inscribed his core teachings and beliefs on it as these seven tenets. They are the foundation of my race's ethics, our moral beliefs. The real tablet hangs suspended in the Grove. This projection channels Ventari's power from within the Mists. It is him that allows me to do this--he's with me," he tapped a finger against his temple to indicate, "here."

And, so that no one would miss or mistake any of the content, he read:

"-Live life well and fully, and waste nothing.
-Do not fear difficulty. Hard ground makes stronger roots.
-The only lasting peace is the peace within your own soul.
-All things have a right to grow. The blossom is brother to the weed.
-Never leave a wrong to ripen into evil or sorrow.
-Act with wisdom, but act.
-From the smallest blade of grass to the largest mountain, where life goes—so, too, should you.

"All sylvari awaken with a knowledge of these seven tenets, but we spend long hours studying and discussing them to really understand what they mean. What do you think?"

Actually, as he posed this question, Aurus was also thinking of Hank: he would have liked Hank to be here for this, to know that these were things that Aurus believed and maybe to see how these beliefs shaped his conviction that what was growing between himself and Charles was not something to be feared. If there was risk, it was a worthy risk. Hard ground makes stronger roots.

He would have liked for Hank to feel the calming, healing energy that radiated from the tablet, and maybe to let himself be soothed by it. His disagreement with the man still weighed on his mind, and (being quite influenced by Ventari's teachings himself), he rather believed that Hank might benefit from what Ventari had to say.

[Awww, I'm glad you're doing a friendsgiving! We did that a few years back and it was a blast so I hope you had a ton of fun with it today!! P.S. - Red or white wine drinker? *JUDGING* XD

Also I had an adorable thought of Kurt being gently woken up from a nightmare by a tired Xavier... felt him having one and decided to break him from it.]

Kurt better not think Charles missed that motion, causing him to frown. They weren't that far from the house, only to the end of the drive, but he was concerned. "...would you prefer to walk back or teleport back?" Charles asked quietly, his eyes full of concern. "You could teleport from a shorter distance when we're closer to the mansion." Given that Kurt was in his full gear, he couldn't just walk through the school without attracting attention.

"I definitely think this has been enough for today. I'll speak to Raven about excusing you from your lesson today." And he wouldn't take no for an answer, not when it was his testing that had tired Kurt out.

[What's Oxford really like?? I want to go to England so badly to see everything there...! Tell me all about your trip! Also I adore your nerdiness. *grins!*]

It probably was something Hank needed. No one completely understood what the man was going through, even though Charles tried to do his best to help without going too far. He fought against that other side of him, but Raven's words had tried to convince him otherwise. Some part of him was still angry with her because she could look normal of her own choice, didn't stand out in the world and it wasn't because of her own mistakes she was like she was. It had been his own stupid, fool pride that had changed him forever. Looking in the mirror and seeing that furred monster looking back... it took something away from him. His goal had become getting Charles on his feet, and Aurus unconsciously felt like a very possible threat to that work.

While Charles... perhaps he could have used it to, a little of that healing calm, but right now his heart and mind were racing too much for it to have been fully appreciated. The children, however, were all around it, watching and listening. Aurus' question got several of them to start talking to each other about it, then one finally asked, "if everything has the right to grow... does that even mean things that kill?"

Which quickly got someone to add, "like a murderer?"

"What about criminals?" Someone else piped up.

[AHHH, IT WAS SO MUCH FUN! i ate tons of food, had great company, saw a lot of friends, and consumed more alcohol. lmao definitely needed it after some crap i went through with an irl friend yesterday/this morning. UHM both?? XD i'm more of a sweet wine drinker, though?

... -GRIPS CHEST- god, that's friggin' cute. i didn't need my heart or anything. chaaarles ;A;]

It may have been noticed, though Kurt was not going to make a big deal of it. He was tired, a bit lightheaded, but Charles' enthusiasm about the lights had given him some renewed vitality. The perturbed expression on his teacher's face made him hesitate, brow furrowing with his own unsettled look. Better to not press his luck and end up going too far. "Let's walk. That will give me time to recuperate enough to get us back to the Danger Room."

He smiled, pushing through the small amount of disappointment he felt at not being able to practice with Raven, but he didn't have it in him to fuss; he'd been able to train successfully with Charles and that more than made up for him having to miss one session with the fellow blue mutant. "Thank you, Professor. I'm sure my body will be grateful for the break."

[First answer: a lot farther away from London than it looks like it is! (Not mileage-wise, but driving time because roads in England all suck. My life on Friday was literally made of traffic. I was so frustrated. All told we spent seven hours in the car and only about three hours actually being there.) BUT BESIDES THAT it's a pretty nice city. The university is right smack in the middle of everything, and the campus stretches out around different sides of the High Street/other shopping streets, so campus and off-campus spaces are fairly embedded with each other. (There is a proper High Street with all the usual shops--it's not just posh boutiques everywhere.) The system of colleges means that there are a lot of local/distinct spaces within the whole, but you do occasionally see people in their academic gowns walking around between one campus building and another. (My colleague said this always surprised her about Oxford because in Cambridge students consider the gowns to be kind of naff, so they always take them off and shove them into a shopping bag if they have to walk between buildings or something.) Walking down the campus roads, I think there's an overall sense of self-importance from the people/place and I think the very grand picturesque architecture contributes to that a bit--it's not hard to see how being educated in that space could produce a sense of entitlement or elitism. But the university is clearly quite self-aware of that, and it fosters it as part of its draw, including for tourists--certain colleges are clearly trying to capitalize on their tourist appeal. The campus museums, especially the natural history museum, and the Pitt Rivers are totally playing that up too, with their particular brands of Neo-Victorianism. That said, I could absolutely have spent the whole day in the natural history museum because there's something so fascinating about its whole aesthetic and its collection of things (taxidermy animals, the shrunken heads in the Pitt Rivers, etc.) that would by no means be collected/produced for a museum exhibit today. tl;dr--I think the Oxford of reality is very self-aware about the Oxford of popular fantasy and the value of that "brand", a brand whose core is based on producing a sense of being a place so timeless and grand in its traditions that it remains untouched even by the self-consciousness of a contemporary world where we think about things like the Oxford "brand." (Also, I took some pics to share! ...If I can just get them off my phone.)]

One way or another, Charles would probably learn about Ventari's tablet in time--if not here, then perhaps in the Dream, or just as he and Aurus continued to talk. As for Hank, however...Aurus did hope that he might still turn up to join them as he'd said he would, but he wouldn't be surprised if the man stayed away. Hank, he felt, was in his way even harder to reach than Charles was.

All of that was less immediate than the questions that the children were now posing, though, questions which pleased Aurus very much. "These are precisely the sorts of things that my people have been discussing since the first of us awoke more than twenty-five years ago," he told them.

"Ventari's pacifism was absolute. When he and his disciples were attacked in their grove, he sat down and resolved to die rather than raise a sword. But we must remember that Ventari had been a warrior in his youth, and his choice was made in the context of his life and all he'd experienced. We should not presume that he would demand of us that we do as he did." In his mind, Aurus could feel Ventari's approval of this remark--the old sage would be no means want a group of children to believe he was teaching them that they ought not to live. He valued life far too much for that, and Aurus both knew him and understood his teachings well enough to be a confident emissary for them.

"You might think of this like scales weighing two things in balance. In many cases, plants called weeds may be very beautiful, but often their growth is aggressive--they choke out the other plants that grow around them. If all things have a right to grow, then it is no more right to let the weed choke the life from his brother than it is to yank the weed out before it has ever had a chance to sprout.

"Creatures kill for many reasons; they disobey laws for many reasons. We must read Ventari's words here in the context of his other teachings: when he tells us to act with wisdom, but act, he is telling us that we must assess each situation as its own. We cannot apply any one universal rule across all instances, but must instead use the wisdom of our judgments to try to keep the scales from tipping out of balance too far. That is something we must do every day.

"And if something threatens that balance--threatens the right to grow for the blossom or for the weed--then we must choose the actions that seem wisest to stop it. Do you understand?" Some of the children, he anticipated, would have a harder time with this philosophy than others--there were always those who wanted a clearer rule, less ambiguity, moral lines in the sand.

From what he had been hearing about this world so far, however, the conflicts between mutants and humans might be very well described by these words of Ventari's, and he wondered if the students might pick up on that.

[Well I for one am glad your OOC is almost longer! You write so eloquently, it's incredible. I forgot the gowns are a 'thing' across the pond - you would never see that here, even on the Ivy League campuses. It's funny because what you wrote reminded me a lot of University of Pennsylvania's campus even though I know they're worlds apart. That air about the place, the museums, etc. But Oxford sounds... ug. Absolutely incredible! I would haaaaaaaaate to have to be in that traffic but it sounds like it was worth it to even check out a little bit of such an incredible place (seven hours, even with traffic, would have you halfway down the east coast here holy crap o.O I go from the Philly-area to lower Virginia in 5 1/2! It's eight for my partner to go home from here to North Carolina!) I would LOVE to see pictures if you can manage it! Throw those puppies in an imgur gallery!]

Aurus' keen ears might have picked up something in particular as one of the older students leaned over and murmured to his friend, "this guy sounds like Professor Xavier." Charles advocated very much against the sorts of things that Erik had chosen to do, even if he never brought up Erik's name as the center of it. Not only for his own heart's sake but to defocus the entire thing from a single man. It didn't stop the conversations from happening from time to time - nearly everyone had seen or heard about the mutant that attacked Washington D.C., saw him on the telly, and it had to be discussed for them to be able to process it as much as know why it had not been the way to handle things.

Yet Erik would have said, on hearing such things, that the weeds of humanity did everything in their power to choke the flowers of the mutants, leaving them to wither and die because of their fear of their betters. Charles would have said that they were all flowers, competing in the same garden, but that the mutants had to learn to grow in the same patterns that the other flowers did so they all could survive and thrive.

Two very different men and two very different ways of thinking.

Aurus' words were having the desired effect on the children there, as many of them had the expression of thinking heavily on his words. At least the older children. The youngest were either a little confused and it looked it, focused on what the young blonde was doing, or defocusing quickly. It wasn't always easy to keep young ones focused for any length of time.

One girl raised her hand, clearly used to the whole school thing, before she spoke up. "How do you live like that when other people don't live like that?"

Which made the boy next to her frown. "A lot of people don't like us just because we're different." He held up his hand and when he flexed his palm, fire sprang up. It was a little flame, like a candle, but when he rolled his hand the flame moved like a little orb that he could play with across his fingers.

I know something else...or someone else...who's just as pretty.

Huh? Who?

[It's instinctively out of Marinette's mouth before she can even stop herself or think on the potential implications or awkwardness depending on the answer. Because it is Marinette, of course.]

You are.

(She walked right into it. Obviously it would only be as awkward as Marinette made it, which would be quite awkward once the answer registered in her head.)

E-eh? Me.....?

[She really did walk right into it, without even stopping to consider the obvious route Alya was going with this. At least she isn't quite as flailing or flustered over it as she might be if Adrien had said something like that.

Which probably still isn't saying much, really.]

Yeah...you.

(She gave Marinette a soft smile, assuring her that her response was genuine.)

[Aww, thank you. <3 The gowns are actually only an Oxbridge thing over here. The uni where I did my PhD was also Russell Group and very proud of its staid old traditions, but gowns weren't a thing. Cambridge students have to wear theirs when they go to dinner and there are still some colleges within Oxford that require them for tutorials too, but not many. I could rant about UK roads for a very long time and still have more to rant about. In the states I love to drive, but here...there is no pleasure in it. Pictures though! quiet back street amidst some campus buildings; I think this is Christ Church college...maybe. Or it could be Corpus Christi; courtyard of the Bodleian Library; one and two of the Radcliffe Library--All Souls College is in the background; spire of St Mary the Virgin church which is on the far side of Radcliffe Square; and rugby field in Christ Church Meadow.]

There were far far worse comparison's that could be made than between himself and Charles, in Aurus's opinion. Ironically, though, if the topic of Erik ever did come up directly--and if Aurus ever learned the particulars of the whole story surrounding him--it might well turn out that some of the differences between himself and Charles would really come to light: Aurus would not think that Erik was wholly in the wrong, nor that Charles was wholly in the right.

He would have agreed with Erik, that yes, humanity's weeds did try to choke out the mutants. But he would have rejected the oversimplification that humans therefore are weeds, and equally have pointed out that the tactic of becoming weeds among the mutants could never solve the problem. At best it could make the pendulum swing, but only to swap an uneven balance, not produce equilibrium.

To Charles, meanwhile, he would have said that any mandate of conformity was not balance either. What both men needed to learn, it would seem to him, was that humanity had its weeds and its blossoms both, and that mutants did as well, so they'd best both learn to make their assessments differently if they ever wanted to get anywhere.

As far as the question as it was being posed to him directly by the children, Aurus did take it quite seriously. He looked at the girl with the raised hand and the boy with the fire both attentively in turn, though he was sure the question wasn't only theirs alone.

"As I understand it," he told them, "your situation is made more difficult by the fact that this is a world where humans long supposed themselves to be the only sentient species on the planet. The same is not true where I come from. Humans have never been alone there, and no single race has ascendancy over the others. That does not mean it has always been easy for us, however.

"The other races all share something that we do not: they are all animals, while we are plants. For some, particularly when sylvari first appeared in the world, that made it hard to accept us as sentient beings at all. Some of my brothers and sisters were experimented on, vivisected by those who saw nothing wrong in their actions. And it's still not uncommon to find people who see us as lesser than them--they call us things like 'talking cabbage,' 'walking fern,' or act like we cannot be trusted with sensitive information because they misunderstand the mental connection we have in the Dream.

"When I first went abroad in the world, my whole race was less than five years old. I was the first sylvari many people had ever seen, so I encountered a lot of that. But I was also learning to understand a split that had formed among my own people: even among sylvari not everyone believes in the wisdom of Ventari's teachings.

"Not long after my generation--the secondborn--awoke, some of my brothers and sisters formed something they call the Nightmare Court. The Court believes that Ventari's teachings are a dupe, that we are shackled from the freedom of our true natures by following him. For members of this group, the truth of life is bitter suffering and cruelty; they thus believe that pain and cruelty will open the eyes of other sylvari to the truth of the world. They use kidnapping and a system of torture to 'convert' their members, and if they could bend our whole race to their way of thinking, they would."

Here his eyes traveled back from surveying the group to the girl who had raised her hand, "I suppose, in a sense, when I went out into the world it was because I wanted to find answers to the same sort of question you are asking--answers beyond those I felt I could find in the Grove.

"Now I would say that you must always be careful how you draw the lines of similarity and difference. Even people who are 'like you' might not live as you believe it is right to live. There are people in the world--in every world, I think--who would be tyrants. They are people for whom it is unbearable to see that other people are different and live differently. What we must do is to fight those who would be tyrants but always without ourselves becoming tyrants over others. Each of us has the force of our will, our determination. We must never be careless of how we use that force in our encounters with the people around us."

Letting them absorb this speech for a moment, Aurus cocked his head to look at the young blond girl with her replica tablet--a project that increasingly pleased him. "How's it coming?" he asked her and her cohort with a smile.

[That sounds like it was AWESOME! Glad you enjoyed it! ...I'll forgive sweet white wines. *grin* And is that approval then? It was either that or Hank could do it if that's more your interest.]

"Raven and I would both be less than pleased if you suddenly passed out in the middle of everything. Raven would be worried, as would I, but my sister would also take it out on me." He laughed, clearly meaning it as a joke, but he also knew that it was somewhat serious as well. She would have laid into him for exhausting one of her pupils and not telling her. Not that he would blame her...

So he started off towards the mansion, chair gliding well over the paved driveway. As they moved, he did keep a careful eye on Kurt, just in case. It would be less than easy to manhandle him up if the young man passed out on him.

"I believe that last teleport answered my question about connection, but I would like to do one more test in the future. If I connected to your mind, would I be able to follow you to another location or would it cut off completely? Considering that now we have confirmation consciousness remains the entire time, it's a possibility either way." Sometimes the scientist would never leave, even if he did less in the terms of research than he did when he was younger.

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thursday pic prompt

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I hit preview and realized my ooc remark is practically longer than the tag! lol

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