10211/Ice Cream and Homecomings

Ice Cream and Homecomings
Date of Scene:	27 November 2019
Location:	Wellness Office - Xavier's School
Synopsis:	Ice cream helps ease a difficult discussion after Chris' homecoming.
Cast of Characters:	Triage, Nightingale

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Triage has posed:
The holidays might be quiet, but Chris is not ready to bank on that. While he helped to prepare for Thanksgiving dinner, he had noticed that Shannon seemed particularly uneasy about something. Before he left the kitchen, he asked her if she would like to talk. She seemed hesitant but he is hopeful. With that in mind, he has returned to his office, with no appointments for the evening and ready to listen.

Nightingale has posed:
     Many things often had Shannon uneasy these days. The week had been a long one, culminating with her trip to Metropolis the night before, and the aftermath the next day. But it was nothing that couldn't be cured with some ice cream and good company. So she's gotten two pints of Rocky Road ice cream from the freezer in the kitchen, two spoons, and comes knocking on the Wellness Office door. Some cures were better shared. "Hello in there...?"

Triage has posed:
Chris looks up from his tablet and smiles when he sees Shannon. He beckoning with one hand while he sets the tablet aside with the other. He eyes the pints of ice cream and the spoons. Rising from the chair, he goes to the door. "Come in," he invites, reaching to flip the wooden sign to "In consultation" and then to close the door. "I'll get napkins and glasses of water," he offers.

Nightingale has posed:
Shannon flops down in one of the chairs, and sets the pints down on Chris' desk. She's still in her jeans and white t-shirt, but this time has her big, floppy sheepdog slippers on. "Figured you could use a little treat, after what sounds like a really long flight back." She pops open the lid on one of the pints and digs right in, the risk of brain freeze notwithstanding. "What brought you back so early, though? Did something happen?"

Triage has posed:
"Thank you," Chris responds, returning to his desk but opts for the other visitor's chair beside Shannon. He reaches for the other pint and pulls back the cardboard lid. "It was long but that story can wait," he defers. "I was more worried about you when you dragged yourself into the rec room." He starts to dig at the frozen goodness but pauses to ask, "What happened?"

Nightingale has posed:
Shannon sighs a little around a mouthful of rocky road ice cream, both somewhat content, and not exactly relishing getting into the whole sequence of events again. "It got a little messy in Metropolis," she begins, taking a moment to swallow down what she's already eaten. "There was a pretty nasty little fracas at Superman's memorial. I'd just gone there to leave some carnations when it wasn't a whole media circus. Wound up finding a lot more than I bargained for."

Triage has posed:
"Do you mean the cemetery?" Chris asks, pausing his spoon halfway between his pint of rocky road and his mouth. "I thought that the place had some high-level 'protections' around it. What do you mean by 'messy'? Do you mean that something Happened out there?" He sighs and frowns, fearing another 'incident' of the kind that seemed to have become all too common around Shannon. "I hope that you had an escort, at least."

Nightingale has posed:
Shannon shakes her head. "I didn't this time. You'd think that would be the one safe place to go, a freaking cemetery. One that's got some pretty powerful protection on it. Oh, yes, there was an incident, alright. Plenty of faces I didn't recognize, one major one that I did, and one that I made the acquaintance of pretty darn quickly. Pretty evil magic user flinging her stuff around and getting people pissed off at each other... I might or might not have done a flying drop-kick on her right into Superman's statue... oh, and that cloaked man, the one with the symbol on his cloak? He was there again, too. Found out who that was. And there's just for starters."

Triage has posed:
Chris lifts the spoon again but stops when Shannon answers about the escort. he sighs. "Oy," he murmurs and pops the spoon into his mouth, apparently hoping for some comfort there. However, this admission seems to be the tip of the icebuerg. His brows furrow and he frowns. "Unless something has changed and I didn't get the memo, which is possible but unlikely, you shouldn't leave the grounds without an escort." He shakes his head. "You could be expelled if the staff learn about that, and if you were in Metropolis, they probably will learn about it." He looks at his carton of ice cream for a moment. "Okay," he sighs. "Tell me everything that happened."

Nightingale has posed:
     "So why don't I save them the trouble?" Shannon throws her hands up in the air in frustration. "You and I go to the mall. Completely, totally escorted. And you know pretty damn well what happened there. So it doesn't seem to matter too terribly much if I'm escorted or not, trouble finds me. So why the fuck do I even care what happens at this point?" She jams her spoon into the ice cream, again and again, trying to soften the mix up so she can guzzle it down. "I don't want to go. This has been home, and I hope to hell they don't throw me out. But at this point it might as well be a foregone conclusion."

     Jabbing at the ice cream isn't helping her mood any at all, but she does it anyways just to give her hands something to do. "I just wanted to pay my fucking respects in peace. No BS, no gods, no messing about. Just leave a few carnations, get a little thinking done, and come back. But what do I find? Some unfamiliar faces... three baddies floating near the memorial itself, with the one in the center throwing about some pretty bad juju and getting everyone mad at each other. Honestly, if it hadn't been for things that Logan and the Captain and plenty of you have said to me about dealing with anger, I'd have been in a whole lot of trouble. The only one I recognized right away was Thor, and one of the three that was floating by the memorial was the mystery man we saw the last time we were there."

     She rolls her eyes and jams the spoon into the ice cream again, finding it starting to slush. The container is slammed down onto the desk with a frustrated growl. "Come to find out Wonder Woman got involved, too. Never saw her before that, but will never forget it either. She threw a lance at the cloaked man, hit him good in the left side. Got the woman who was casting that dark magic with a lasso she was carrying, and someone else had fired off some beams at that... I'm gonna call her 'Enchantress' just for lack of a better name. No idea who fired them, don't care. I was on my way up into the air to do a drop-kick on her when I saw Bean on the ground. He was heading for a tunnel off to the side. Anyways, I drop-kicked this Enchantress right into the statue, and Thor finishes the job to knock her out."

     She sighs deeply and hugs her knees to her chest. "I tried to hail Bean with that bluetooth setup we used, like at the coronation. Only message I got was 'Comm silence. Infiltrating.' Had zero idea he was even going to be there, or what he was after. He went into the tunnel, there was an explosion, and I saw him make it back out again. But from there to this morning in the kitchen, I didn't hear from him." She sighs softly, and bows her head, resting her forehead on her knees. "I tried to tell Jean last night when she showed up in the rec room that I wanted to take advantage of her office hours... kind of had hope Bean would show up on his own. He did, thank god."

     She falls silent for a few minutes, gathering her thoughts, and trying to rein in her runaway emotions, the shock of the night setting in. "I wanted to heal that cloaked man. He was being controlled as much by the Enchantress, I think, as she was trying to control the rest of us. But Wonder Woman said no, she was taking him back with her for medical care and questioning." Her expression is caught between a panic and frustration, and she growls. "FUCK! I might as well just stay on school grounds, period, because it seems whether or not I have an escort, there's trouble anyways!!!"

Triage has posed:
Chris frowns and sets aside the pint of ice cream. He listens quietly, giving his full attention to Shannon. Her torrent of words is not so much story as cathartic outpouring. "Did you tell Jean what you've just told me?" he asks when she finishes. Guessing that she did, he adds, "What did Jean say about it?"

Nightingale has posed:
Shannon shakes her head. "I've been waiting to hear from her, she knows I wanted to talk to her during office hours. You think I wanna hold something like that back from her? Hell no!" She sighs, and starts rocking back and forth slowly in the chair, her wings folding around her. "Want to tell her... was able to give a full write-up to Sam at least, but still want to tell her... couldn't keep this back... didn't want to keep it back...."

Triage has posed:
Chris leans forward and touches Shannon's forearms. "You're angry. Why? Can you tell me that? I know that you're angry about some other things, but let's focus on this one. Please, don't cork that bottle. Talk to me Shannon."

Nightingale has posed:
     "Angry? ANGRY?! Oh no. Well, maybe some, but right now scared out of my mind that this is going to get not only me, but Bean kicked out of here. FRAK, I don't go looking for trouble. But it finds me anyways. I didn't say one blessed word about the school, not to anybody there, nothing on my person that would even come close to connecting me to here. Never even so much as mentioned my last name to anyone. But now you say this is going to get me kicked out..." She doesn't try to brush away that touch to her forearms, but neither does she seem to relax.

Triage has posed:
"I know that we agreed to help Jeremy because we thought that he needed our help," Chris answers. "We went to the mall for some time to relax. I know that you didn't hunt for trouble and no one should blame you for using your skills to fight it when it comes. I don't know what will happen but I'm worried for you." He squeezes Shannon's arms gently. "If I can help you, I will."

Nightingale has posed:
     "I give up. Just going to stay put right here at the school. Heck with the concert, heck with volunteering, heck with it all. Just going to stay put right here." And that, as it seems, is that. She still makes no move to dislodge Chris' hands, and seems to have forgotten entirely about the ice cream.

Triage has posed:
"That's the coward's way," Chris objects. He releases one of her arms and cups her chin in his hand, raising it to force her to look at him unless she closes her eyes. "That isn't fair to you or to anyone else, including me. If you do that, you'll lose everything and be left with nothing. Is that what you want?"

Nightingale has posed:
     Raw fear, enough to hit anyone looking into Shannon's eyes right in the gut, is written all over her expression. She doesn't try to pull away or close her eyes, but she is very, very reluctant to answer. "But I don't want to be thrown out of here and taken away from everyone, either. I don't want to lose everything and everyone..."

Triage has posed:
Chris gazes into Shannon's face. He has known her for only a few months, but he has learned to read every nuance expertly. "Then don't quit, and don't turn away from people who are here to help you. Talk to Jean or Kittty soon. Don't hide in your shell, and don't cork that bottle. We've come too far for that."

Nightingale has posed:
Shannon nods a little bit. "Got no idea when I'll be able to get a hold of Jean or Kitty again... but at least I gave a full write-up to Sam. All that I told you. I know he can be trusted to get it where it needs to go when it needs to be." She sighs softly, and just reaches out towards him briefly. "If they didn't expel me over Jeremy, I don't think they'll expel me over this, as long as I'm honest about it and don't hold it back...."

Triage has posed:
Chris nods. "Tell them everything and trust their judgements," he urges. "Now, what about the rest? Do you still want to hide here in the school? Do you still want to drop from that concert?" He turns his head to look at their containers of ice cream. He smiles, removes his hand from her chin, and playfully touches her nose with his finger. "Do you want to finish that?"

Nightingale has posed:
Shannon tries to smile a little bit for him, but a few tears trickle down her face. "I don't know... part of me wants to say heck with it all, but I promised I'd play and I can't break that promise. And I can't hide in the school but that whole being escorted or going in pairs thing sure doesn't seem to be working too well, either. Trouble happens whether or not it's followed..." As for the ice cream? She swallows back the worst of the tears and nods. "I guess so... "

Triage has posed:
"Ask Kitty or Jean about the escort," Chris suggests. "They might have changed their minds. If not, I'm sure that you can find someone to go with you. As for your performance, you spent a huge amount of time on that song. It seemed to mean a great deal to you only two days ago when you wrote about it. Sam and Andrea arranged everything for you. Why do you want to forget about it now?" He reaches for her cup of ice cream and offers it to her.

Nightingale has posed:
     "The threat of expulsion sure makes you real reluctant to do much of anything." Shannon sighs a little bit and curls her hands around the container of half-melted, mushy, mashed-up ice cream, and nibbles on it. "The concert's more about Andrea and Dazzler and that's how it should be. There are more involved in the warm-up acts than just me, Andrea and Sam didn't just arrange it for me. That would be an incredibly selfish thing to think. At most, I'm just one part of a warm-up act, a part that doesn't mean as much to the overall show." She nibbles a little more of the ice cream, seeming to think on things for a moment. "It does mean a lot to be able to sing that song. But I wonder if it really /is/ good enough, if it could ever measure up to anything any of the others could do... but it's the only thing I can give to Sam and to Alexis, and the clan, that can reach all of them at once, for Christmas... but is it good enough?"

Triage has posed:
"If you wrote it for Sam, Alexis, and the clan, then it doesn't need to be good enough for professionals, only good enough for Sam, Alexis, and the clan. If you want them to hear it, sing it for them and let everyone else think what they want," Chris recommends. "Tell them, either before the show begins, or from the stage." He reaches for his cup and begins to eat his half-melted ice cream. "The rest will leave with memories of Andrea and Dazzler. Your audience will be Sam, Alexis, and the clan and they'll remember that."

Nightingale has posed:
Shannon nibbles a little bit on her ice cream, seeming to consider something for a moment. "I could sing the song for you now," she offers. "Or you could wait till the concert. Up to you, since I've already got Christmas gifts planned for you anyways."

Triage has posed:
Chris shakes his head. "I can wait for the concert. If you tell Sam, Alexis, and the clain, then all of us will know what you really mean when you sing on that stage. If the rest don't get it or if they think that you're less than the big stars, as you said, 'That's their loss.'" He smiles. "I'll be proud of you."