ataraxionlogs | oo8. sort of open.

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oo8. sort of open.

CHARACTERS: Charles Xavier and Nuala; Emma Swan; Captain Hook (Killian Jones); Severus Snape; Ilde Knox; Cassandra Anderson; Alex Summers; William Tsang; Claire Bennet; Nuala; Erik Lehnsherr; the Winter Soldier; others as they happen.
LOCATION: Medical bay; science department; level 5, holodeck, passenger quarters; media library; laundry facilities; oxygen gardens; level 14; others as they happen.
WARNINGS: Descriptions of body horror.
SUMMARY: Jump cycle thirty-five happens, and Charles continues to exist. Basically.
NOTES: Monthly catch all! This is only partially open because I'm not providing a fixed narrative thing to reply to. Hence, please let me know if you'd like to do anything, and I'll be happy to set up a thread (unless you feel ambitious).

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[ Her hands are already outstretched to take the leash from him before he makes the indication that he's going to off it to her. Or, rather, her hands are extended in an offer to help him in any way, since he is so heavily and adorably burdened by fur that any assistance anywhere, she thinks, probably wouldn't be unwelcome.

Claire wraps the leash around her hand, across the back of her knuckles, a couple of times and gently encourages the dog back toward her. Not for the first time, she wishes that their individual rooms were larger so that it could just bound off and get into the trash somewhere, but as it it, her legs just become the twisting leash's next victim and her thighs the current support as the dog reaches up toward her. Like her hands, her mouth is already open to thank him when he interrupts that train of thought. Claire snaps her mouth shut with a grin and then goes ahead anyway. ]

Too bad for you. Thank you. Seriously.

[ The expression on her face is wrought with genuine gratitude. Do you know how nice it is to have even a little bit of time to yourself in this kind of situation? Claire imagines this is what having children must be like. Meanwhile, she moves out of the way so that Charles can deposit the less squirmy of the two anywhere he wants. ]

Were they okay? They didn't eat anyone or anything, did they?

[ Obviously exactly like having kids. ]

[ It is a little like having children, if those children were super mobile and a bit bitey and couldn't be reasoned or negotiated with outside of fistfuls of food. Charles leaves Claire to her wrangling of the puppy who has not yet succumbed to the day's activities, easily sidestepping and moving towards whichever bed seems like it gets the most dog action. ]

No one was eaten, but I think they did try to make a good go of the Garden's insect population. Hello Izzie, [ probably doesn't brook much response from the older dog as much as the return of her puppies, and Charles goes to set his bundle down on the mattress. This, of course, rouses the young dog enough to iyip, but Charles just sort of.

Holds him in place until the dog settles, with belly rubs as bribes. No, you're sleeping now, ssh. ]

I take it you weren't altogether prepared for role of den mother.

[ She's probably going to get fired from her department, and she's barely even started. The new letters assigned to her have barely dried - so to speak - and already she's letting three dogs find various spots in the gardens to take their collective dumps. And she is way too focused on dog poop for her own good. Instead, she tries focusing on getting her handful of puppy where it needs to be and not bolting out the door. ]

You could say that. [ It would be the understatement of the century. The understatement that ate the Tranquility. ] Obviously I don't mind, but when you look forward to getting a dog as a kid you don't stop to think about all the stuff you're actually going to have to do for them.

[ Whether that's because her mother took on the active role of dog parent and generally did not allow Claire and Lyle to be very hands on in their training or because Sandra would have ended up doing everything anyway, if they weren't show dogs, it's all up for debate. ]

It's double in a place where the food isn't really food, so to speak, and dog food is basically something that you have to make yourself. [ At least she's got Severus on her side for that. ] I don't know how everyone else is managing with just one animal. Whoever owns that dinosaur must be really happy that it eats grass. Maybe I could convince the dogs to be vegans.

[ The tangential thought of Severus' help in making dog food brings back a glance past his shoulder. He'd seen them, obviously, her occasional forays into visiting his work space, but that was some time ago, and--

Well. Assumptions. ]

No doubt if you clearly and succinctly communicated to them the ethical advantages of such a lifestyle, they'd be all for it.

Wouldn't you? [ --this last part directed to the puppy who has no idea what's happening, just that it is content with having rolled onto its back in exchange for skritches, but only flops around onto its side when skritches stop and Charles straightens back up. Inspecting the accumulated grit under his nails from the day's activities, and the slightly greasy lay of dog fur that's sticking to his palms.

Absently, he cleans one palm off against the other. ]

You're being very responsible. Is Severus helping you wrangle them? I didn't think he'd be any sort of dog person.

[ She adjusts her stance to lean with arms crossed and a hip cocked to one side, watching the little display on the bed, as one of the puppy's legs almost starts going but doesn't quite find itself all the way there. ]

I couldn't do that with any actual honesty. Not when I really want a hamburger.

[ Not for the first time, she thinks that she needs to find some hand sanitizer or something. It's floating around the middle of a list about a mile long that she's been constructing regarding how to keep this tiny space clean with three dogs and one human living in it, along with a list of names and faces she might be willing to give one of the puppies to, if she ends up not being able to handle it on her own.

Following today, his general interest and care overall, Charles makes that cut, but she hasn't come to making the decision yet. Which she should probably stop thinking about around a telepath. Maybe she should have hung out with Matt Parkman more. ]

I'm trying to be, as much as I can, but it's not a one woman job. I don't think he's much of a dog person, either, but he's the only person I know who knows what goes into dog food, so I'm just trying to strong arm him as much as possible. I'm trying to figure out what to do with them in general, too. I was thinking maybe about training them, somehow, to be therapy dogs for medbay, but that might be outside of my skill set. I can barely make them sit on command.

I don't think I've ever heard of a therapy dog.

[ Hopefully, Claire is already aware that Charles harks back to the dark ages of vinyl records and rotary dial telephones and shitty mental health standards; if nothing else, the cut of his jeans and point of his shoes might effectively give him away. There'd been a private half-smile at the drift of her thoughts

and no sudden out loud agreement to kidnap one of her dogs

but otherwise he listens to the external things, tucking hands into pockets at a hover, neither on his way towards leaving, nor about to make himself comfortable and impose. ]

But no doubt they can be trained, with how smart their mum is. I, uh.

[ No, he can't help it. But he veers away from insisting she can't possibly take care of three whole dogs!! and instead touches on; ]

Your father mentioned Parkman, by the by. Apparently it made him a rather good receptacle for telepathy, through exposure if not practice. [ His voice slants wry, but gentles further as he adds; ] Relating some to what I said about him on the network, his generousity, although I hadn't really wanted to get into it over texting.

[ It occurs to her, however belatedly, that yes she kind of has forgotten or failed to notice the cut of his jib or, rather, of his pants. But that's what happens when you strip time lines away from everyone and chuck them together in a place that more than half of them have no real conception of. She's immortal, besides. Time is going to eventually stop meaning anything unless it's counted against someone whose existence doesn't have the same stipulations as hers.

More importantly, everyone is from every time. It's easier just to explain something than to try and avoid it altogether. ]

It's exactly what you would think. [ Is what she eventually says around a smile, trying to hide how flattering and how terrifying that is. Great, now she has to train these dogs come hell or high water or risk embarrassment. Oh my god, Claire, stop being so weird in front of the mind reader. ] People like dogs. Basically all they need to do is lay there, I think. They make people feel better.

[ Or more stressed out, if you're Claire Bennet. Of course, people in the real world who actually own therapy dogs don't have to worry about where their food is going to come from, literally, or what's going to happen when Smiley decides to manifest into a physical entity and start eating all the passengers on the ship. Or something.

Obviously why she needs to get rid of one of them. Anyway! Her mouth just sort of stays open there for a minute, and she tries in spite of herself to keep her mind relatively blank. Which is impossible, seeing as how she needs to form words to communicate. ]

That's understandable. I appreciate hearing it in person, honestly. It's kind of nice to keep getting reminded that Nathan wasn't a total ass to everyone who knew him. Not that he always was, but he could be, sometimes. I wish I would have had his practice and his exposure, or maybe his control, but I didn't spend as much time around Parkman as I probably should have. [ Don't think about the house blowing up. Too late. ] Not - I mean, no offense. I didn't mean it like that or anything. Peter could do it, too, sometimes. Depending on who he'd been around that day. Can you turn it off? Just curious.

[ Charles hands drift up as if he could somehow coax her to calm down, except that all that frenetic energy is contained mainly to synapse firings, herky-jerk thoughts firing this way and that, as opposed to the outward. ]

...none taken.

[ His hands go back down, still at a semi-hover. Amicable warmth doesn't disappear, or wan in such a way as to be replaced by frost; it just dwindles a bit, as if matching his attempt to pull back on his own ability.

He considers lying to her. ]

Not really, [ instead. ] But I can ignore it, and it'll sort of become whitenoise in the background, like anything else might. My apologies, I didn't mean to unsettle you. It just seemed--

--relevant.

[ She appreciates the honesty, over anything else, for a number of reasons, and while she might not be able to necessarily slow her thought process down knowing that there's someone who can follow it the same way she might follow a radio station turned down in the car, something in her face or her shoulders or her overall disposition looks a little less hectic. ]

No, it's okay. It's not a big deal. It's probably just as weird trying to have a conversation on your end. [ Claire makes a gesture not unlike wiping a window clean. The puppy not previously preoccupied by rolling around makes a jump at her hands in an attempt to nip at them. Fortunately, they aren't bestowing the same lack of manners on their guest. ] Can you hear what the dogs are thinking?

[ Just trying to make things light, okay. ]

[ It works, mainly, in earning a crooked smile from Charles. Shaking off her own shakenness, both of his own manufacture and vaguely empathetic. He's been ashamed of his power before. Accidental invasions of privacy aren't one of them, but any excuse will do. ]

No, no, dog's are a little too endearingly stupid for my power to touch them.

[ There's a glance down at the one still excitable, all newish white nippy teeth. Ah well. He got one to tucker out, and that'll have to do. ]

It can be a little odd. I'm compelled to respond to things that seem. Pertinent, I suppose. What I had wanted to say was that Nathan did show me some things of your world. His treatment of-- people like us. Before he put an end to it.

[ He's not actually sure all of what Claire knows, but she sees rather onto it. Aware. It's nothing he's shared with Severus or Erik, because of the politics inherent, a talking point he'd kept dormant until suddenly wanting to talk about it now that the man is gone.

Probably dead.

Sorry about ruining your lightening up efforts, Claire. ]

He wanted to show me the sort of man he was, because-- well. Fraught circumstances. You might've heard about the bridge takeover. Anyway. That's what I meant, on the network, because he didn't have to do anything of the kind, and I'd like to imagine he had some very compelling reasons to become a better person.

Izzie, probably.

[ Little joke. He doesn't know Claire, and has only ever had fraught interactions with parent relationships, but you know. Putting it out there. ]

[ Claire laughs a little, because she does have to agree with him. Endearingly stupid is a perfect way to classify what she has to deal with every day. Although she privately believes that Diablo is a genius in disguise, whereas Tug is his jocky older brother. Maybe it's reflective of who owned them previously. Who does that make Izzie, then? Claire doesn't think about it. Assigning identities to dogs is weird.

Of course her mood is subject to change, and laughing over one thing doesn't negate the possibility of finding something else immediately arresting. The smile doesn't slip from her face necessarily, but it does become a little tighter, though she's careful that she doesn't direct it at him. It's just... a sore subject. Unprovoked and unbidden, images are pulled up out of filed away corners of her mind - the plane, the hoods, little snatches here and there, Mexico - maybe with more ease than they would have been had Nathan not recently vacated the premises to return back to the future that waited for him. Charles is half-right about that at least. There's no probably in Nathan's dead. It's just all the way certainly dead.

Resolutely, she does not think about how it happened. ]

He wasn't always a good person, you're right. [ Her resentment of that fact is a lot more personal but with good reason. The way her opinion had changed is, too. ] I didn't know him my whole life. I don't know if he ever said anything about that. I didn't meet him until I was sixteen, and from that point on it was always a little bit of a struggle to see the good in him, even though I knew it was there. Maybe that's what made it so frustrating when he wasn't. [ She scratches behind Tug's ear. ] The times when he finally got his eyes to open up and see the whole picture - I had very good reason to be really proud of him more than once. I'm glad that stuck with him here, that he showed more of that to people who weren't just us. He needed to flex that muscle a little more, show everyone what he was capable of.

[ It isn't the first time that she's felt sad about Nathan leaving since it happened, and being armed with the knowledge of what's coming for him makes it sting that much worse, but it is the first time she's felt sad about it right in front of someone who doesn't really know her. He can probably hear that or interpret it in some way. ]

Sorry. [ Her tone and expression are full of self-deprecation. ] I mean, thank you.

Don't apologise, I put you on the spot a little.

[ He has a way of, in turn, not sounding awfully apologetic about that, just mildly factual. Sympathetic. He mentally leans away from her thoughts as best he can, letting the familiar memories that tug at her mind slip away from him, careful not to unravel them. It would probably bring pain to them both.

And losing the control he's carefully navigating would be embarrassing besides painful. There's a small shake to his head at her thanks, reflecting that she's being generous in kind too. It would be easy to just go 'k well it's been real' and leave it done. ]

It's a rare thing, that someone gets pulled here, and they're able to make a difference. I'm glad for you both that I truly believe he did.

[ It's a parting note, a glance back at sleeping puppy, back at her. ]

I should let you get on. You can-- say hello to Severus for me.

[ His tone lances knowing, as he starts for the door. ]

[ In all honesty she appreciates a more clinical, clipped approach, even if it is mixed a bit with sympathy. Anything more would be an acknowledgment of the outburst, and that would just leave her feeling more awkward than she already does. For her part, she's comfortable nodding, her mouth caught open and about to say something but changing its mind halfway there and closing around an exhale. She smiles, small and tight but not unkind.

As for the Severus comment, well - at least her face doesn't turn the color of a tomato for once. Just the rise of her cheeks. She isn't surprised. Really, she isn't sure how more people haven't said anything about it, but she's standing within two feet of a telepath. There's no way that one wasn't getting picked up on. Overall, the invasion of privacy isn't exactly welcome, but it isn't enough to turn him away either. He has been gentle about it. ]

Nosy. [ She says it with a barely-there hint of laughter, arching an eyebrow. ] I'll pass along the message. Any time you ever want to walk the dogs, feel free to message me. [ She stands at the foot of the bed and comes forward to see him out of her room like a polite and intelligent person. ] They like you.

[ Which is good enough for her. ]

[ The smile reflected back at her is mild, understated, more visible in the deeper lines at his eyes than anything else. He might point out that in all fairness they exist in each other's vicinities enough to fill in the blanks of fleeting thoughts, but--

It probably wouldn't be considered overly cute, though, if he threw in acknowledgement of her puppy placement considerations. Why couldn't he be born with flying or lightning hands or something. ]

I like them too. Let me know any time you need them walked, in turn.

[ Roster be damned. They like him. ]

Take care.

[ Claire has known people with flight and lightning hands and in her opinion lightning hands is vastly overrated. Once she gets used to it, arms herself more thoroughly with the knowledge, it's probable that she'll be less flustered around him as a whole. Knowing that that Charles doesn't do it intentionally, even if only for the most part intentionally, leaves her less ruffled than if she suspected otherwise. ]

I will. [ It's a definitive promise, sealed with puppy drool and a lot of black dog hair. She leans in the doorway, one hand braced, and gives him a little wave before she turns around and lets the door slide closed. ] See you later.

[ Like... tomorrow. For more walking. ]

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oo8. sort of open.

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