7648/Serpent's Path

Serpent's Path
Date of Scene:	27 May 2019
Location:	Xavier's Office / Classroom
Synopsis:	Sibilance has a serious conversation with Charles. He offers some advice for her.
Cast of Characters:	Sibilance, Professor X

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Sibilance has posed:
    Miss Ainsley Garcia, also known as Sibilance, has arranged a day to meet and talk to Doctor Xavier. It's after that beach party, where Sibilance was seen actually enjoying the company of other Mutants, even if she was still pretty shy during the event. She's here largely on a personal capacity, so that she can speak with Charles for a little while, as he had offered his help and she wanted to take him up on that offer. He was very patient with her, and she's curious to see if he'd be willing to help her if...

    If he knew what she's done to protect herself over the years.

    It's likely she found herself in one of the seats here in Xavier's office, settled and waiting to be seen.

Professor X has posed:
The Professor can be heard approaching, talking pleasantly with someone in the hall. It sounds like he is discussing something administrative. He and whomever he is speaking with laugh and then Charles comes into the room. He is in an eletric wheelchair so that he can get around with his arm still in a sling against his chest. He smiles brightly when he sees Ainsley.

"Miss Garcia, it's good to see you again. There is tea there, I had it put on just before you arrived," he says and comes over to shake her hand. "It was good to see you at the beach, I'm so glad you met Kurt. He's incredible, one of a kind. We're lucky to have him with us."

Charles glides over to the side table with the tea.

"I usually take mine as it is, but a little sugar makes all the difference some days," he carries on politely. He prepares his tea, sets it on the little lap table his wheelchair has and glides over towards the windows.

"Please, join me over here. It's such a nice, and the summer heat hasn't started eating at the gardens yet."

Sibilance has posed:
Sibil accepts Charles' hand, flashing a warm smile to him. She's quiet for now, as she usually is, but she seemed to perk up at the prospect of tea. She stands and gathers her own cup (two cubes of sugar, for her) after he's gotten his own, and steps over to where the window is. She stands in a sunbeam and enjoys the warmth of pure sunlight.

"Ahh," she speaks up, "If you like, I can help with the gardening...? I'm very good at it." For now, she's just trying to whittle at her feelings of terror at the idea of explaining her origins in full to anyone. She peeks through the window, craning her head to check on the plants. "Looks like you have someone that does a good job already..."

"Where do I start," she murmurs, deciding to just tear off the band-aid, so to speak. "I... I was born in Mexico, one of the smaller towns in the southern regions. My mutations forced my family to emigrate, because the locals..." She places her free hand to her face. "Mexico is mainly Catholic, as you understand. My appearance frightened people. They thought I might be... evil." She rubs at her scales and closes her eye on that side.

"The way my mutations manifested, I sometimes wonder if it wasn't some kind of cosmic joke."

Professor X has posed:
"You enjoy gardening? Ororo is the unofficial guardian of the gardens. She gets a lot of help from the students, some just enjoy it and others as part of understanding their abilities. I'm sure Ororo would welcome another hand," Charles says genially, appearing to take no note of Ainsley's anxiety.

He turns his attention from the garden to Ainsley when she moves on and sips from his tea. She has his full attention, as if there were nobody else in the world. He nods understandingly about the reaction of people in her hometown. Charles lets the quiet stretch on when she finishes, not pressing or filling the space with himself. He does not seem the least bit uncomfortable. He sips his tea again.

Sibilance has posed:
The snake woman sips from her tea to occupy the long silence she uses to cope with telling this to someone. It's a show of faith to explain herself to anyone. Sibil continues.

"My family resented me. It wasn't their fault, they had no recourse, nothing to point their anger toward. Relatives here in America harbored us to protect us from deportation, and ..." She trails off. "Anyways. My childhood was very... lonely. People were afraid of me. Snakes draw up a primal fear in even the most powerful animals. And then my mental abilities developed." She taps her forehead with two fingers, and takes a sip of her tea.

"I was young. I didn't understand how frightening it would be, even for the people that loved me. I saw behind the curtain, I saw how some of them were so afraid they had to fight just to look at me. I didn't understand why knowing what was in their minds would scare them... I only knew it was hurting the people I loved."

"So, I left. It didn't feel so different, being on the road. At least no one I loved was getting hurt anymore." She closes her eyes and pauses. Her voice was cracking. She sips her tea and waits for her composure to return.

Professor X has posed:
Charles listens carefully, his face softens when he hears about her family's reaction.

"I can't imagine what it has been like to be so alone for so long," Charles says gently. "And to know what was truly happening in the minds of your loved ones... Psychic abilities have their special challenges. They rob us of the illusions about others that many use to get by."

Charles sips his tea. "You must have been a very resourceful young lady to manage on your own."

Sibilance has posed:
"..."

Ainkli lowers her gaze to the floor. She's ashamed of this part. "I had to do a lot of bad things to protect myself. I was an illegal, and a Mutant. No one would shelter me, and for a long time I was homeless. So, I stole things. I had to use my abilities to... force people to help me travel when things got too dangerous in a town or city. Sometimes..." She pauses.

"Sometimes I had to hurt people. I've killed people."

Her voice cracks again. She crouches and sits down there in front of the window and settles there, legs crossed. She couldn't look more small, more ashamed of herself.

She looks like she's about to cry. She grips the teacup almost hard enough to crack it.

Professor X has posed:
Charles sets his tea cup aside on the window sill. He chair whirs softly as it comes closer. He reaches down to put a gentle hand on her shoulder.

"It's okay to let it out," he says softly.

Sibilance has posed:
Ainsley starts openly sobbing. She has to put the cup down so she doesn't break it, and she presses her hands to her face. It's all she can do.

She's so quiet, even when she's letting it out. The despair of all the hate that she's seen and experienced, of the loss of her family, the loneliness, the pain. Even though she's found a better place in life, it still hurts. It hurts a lot.

It'd take a few minutes for her to calm down again. She draws her knees up to her chest, her face damp with tears, making her scales shine. Her eyes are red. "Th..." Hiccup. "Thank you." Sniff. She's still got nostrils, despite the snake visage.

"I... I don't know if I deserve this kindness," she murmurs.

Professor X has posed:
Charles reaches behind the curtain and pulls out a box of tissues stashed there. He hands the box to Ainsely.

"Of course you do," he says with quiet intensity. "No matter what happened. You didn't ask for any of this, Ainsley."

Charles looks away politely for a few moments if Ainsley takes the tissues and uses them. Then he turns his attention back to her.

"It can be cold and hard out there, for a young woman, for a young mutant. It can make us do things we never thought we would or could do."

Sibilance has posed:
She didn't ask for this. It's good to be reminded of that. She looks up to Charles after that, and it draws her out of her dark place again. She unfurls and reaches out to accept the tissues. Largely she uses them to wipe her face clean, but blows her nose at least once. Then she makes a face like it was especially gross. Her sinuses are a bit weird.

Sibil puffs a sigh. "I wish I could go back and do it differently, sometimes. Try to convince my family that I love them, that I want to protect them. To stop myself from making those mistakes." She rubs at her scales where the tears ran down. "... where are you from, Charles? What... what was your life like?"

She looks up to him, bright eyes more youthful, more like one of his students. She clearly needed to get that off her chest, and it's helped more than she realized.

Professor X has posed:
"Me? That's not very interesting. I was born here in New York. This was my home, in fact," he says and gestures to the building

"I was and am more fortunate than anyone has any right to be. So I try to use what gifts I was given to help others. Really, that's what matters most, don't you think? Not the mistakes we make, no matter how horrible. But what we try to do for others. I can't control where and how I was born, whether or not I am a mutant, any more than you. But all of us can redeem our mistakes and move forward."

Sibilance has posed:
"I can see why Kurt calls you and the others 'family,'" she mentions. "He's a good man. Whenever I see him, he's out trying to help others, talking to others, giving so much of himself. It makes me want him to be happy. I..." She glances aside, and back. "I think I've got a crush on him. Or is it love? It's hard to say. He keeps saying I'm brave, and..."

"It feels nice."

Professor X has posed:
Charles smiles knowingly. "Hmm, and new. Not many people have said that to you, genuinely cared for you just as you are."

"Kurt is a wonderful man, with a beautiful heart," Charles says, his voice turning to gentle caution. "But go slowly with your feelings. All of this is new, exciting, raw. You are vulnerable, maybe more than you realize. Let yourself discover who your new friends are, and who you are with them."

Sibilance has posed:
Sibilance looks up to him with surprise, and blinks slowly. Then she picks up her cup of tea again to finish it off. She mulls over the advice in silence for a minute.

"Okay. I'll go slowly."