15615/Scott-thing Sinister in the Mail

Scott-thing Sinister in the Mail
Date of Scene:	14 August 2023
Location:	Back Yard
Synopsis:	Sinister sends Scott a collection of things to mess with his head.
Cast of Characters:	Scott Summers, Emma Frost
Tinyplot:	Something Sinister This Way Comes

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Scott Summers has posed:
The back yard of the mansion contains many acres - spaces of sport courts, as well as the garages and beautiful long walkways with lounge zones. Scott Summers often brings some of his work out here, to sit in the open area while he takes care of paperwork or other duties. It gives him full ability to be a workaholic, but also stay accessible to the students or the other denizens of the mansion as needed.

Today, there's multiple piles of various mail that he's going through, with a short folder rolling-cart at his left. He's filing the mail into the different categories - urgent, TBD, file, and so on. The weather is warm and pleasant, the exterior bright, and Scott is dressed appropriately casual - slacks and light blue polo.

His lemonade, he finds, is empty, after attempting to get a drink from it but finding it only melted ice. He makes the most of the icewater dregs in the bottom, anyway, and considers the still-tall mail pile.

Emma Frost has posed:
The mail pile fortunately has nothing that is ticking. A large variety of magazines of questionable content (and intent). Advertisements. Copies of the Daily Bugle from multiple decades ago that had been ordered and only recently worked their way through the mail system. Several 'For Dummies' books on things that shouldn't be humanly possible to fail at. And one 'Learn to Play the Ukelele in Three Easy Steps' that might send shudders through the minds of any that didn't immediately try to burn it with fire.

And there sashays out Emma Frost, despite the hour, having a goblet of wine in her hand. "Why Scott, are you working? Even you can make something simple like going through the letters into a chore."

Scott Summers has posed:
"The last time we gave bill sorting out as a punishment for students that were out past curfew, they made a bigger mess than it was worth," Scott deadpans smoothly in answer, "So this is more of a ... first pass, before the remainder is set aside for them to sort." There's a cheekiness, an /intentional/ quality to the straight way Scott is saying this - though it's not entirely serious. Still, those that don't look deeper would potentially just take this as the dry face-value 'I am sorting bills out' that it seems to be.

One of the larger bulky envelopes is removed from the top, as well as the Ukelele item. "Not yours?" Scott asks Emma lightly, tilting the Ukelele item at her, and then flicking it into a 'recycle' stack.

Emma Frost has posed:
Emma Frost would nod, "Oh, so you're takig it upon yourslf to prevent pain and suffering by the rest of the faculty? You are sincere and earnest to a fault, Scott. Thank you for taking the hit so the rest of us might have some sanity. And heavens no, if I was going to play something to entertain the student body it would be something far more inappropriate for mixed company."

Shaking her head, "But still, find out who wanted that and revokve any privileges they have for safety's sake." Even for the studetns doing thier best to engage in creative endeavors, there had to be limits.

A bulky envelope might catch Scott's attention for just a moment. Return address.. The orphanage he had grown up in for a time with Alex.

Scott Summers has posed:
"Is there an instrument that is by nature inappropriate?" Scott asks, curious at where she was leading with that. It's an innocent enough question -- he can't think of something that is always inappropriate to play. But Emma would be one that would know, maybe...

"I thought that was more the song choice, or the lyrics." No judgement about it, at least until Emma declares she wants to play the drums naked in front of children, or something.

"If they want Ukelele, they can start it. No judgement here," Scott says, serene, and unwilling to put down something in that way. "A passion is a passion, no Ukelele bullying." He does, however, add a little half-smile: easy to miss if Emma wasn't paying attention.

"Besides, I..." Scott trails off, looking at the address on the package, and color drains out of his generally unreadable face.

Emma Frost has posed:
Emma Frost would smile, "Oh.. It's also the sorts of things that would be accompanying it. And it's rather adorable when you're so naive, Scott. Never lose your sense of innocence, no matter how hard the rest of us might try to break you of it. Do enjoy denial for as long as you can maintain it. Just do watch out if you see another accordion manual. I've seen some of them trying to perform Weird Al and it's only caused immense emotional pain and collateral damage in the process."

The envelope has the faded return address of the orphanage. And the name over on the top of the sticker reads 'NATHANIEL ESSEX'.

Scott Summers has posed:
Scott normally would spar back, and hold his position about the instrument itself being innocent, but the song or lyrics or dance being the issue -- but he's busy being distracted by this other thing. So Emma doesn't get the usual boy-scout response, and instead gets .... nothing really.

Scott sits with the enevelope, tapping a few fingers along the tape. He's taking a moment to stabilize himself, to decide what he thinks of this... and to build some walls up. Some emotional defenses in place, before whatever is coming.

But Scott isn't necessarily secretive. He just needed a moment to steel himself, and he has it. "My past has decided to send me mail," Scott says, flatly.

Emma Frost has posed:
Emma Frost would frown over at Scott, about to ask a question right as she simply pulls the information. Eyes narrowing to thin slits. All of them ahd suffered at the hands of that monster.. Scott more than most. If not all of them.

"What is that monster doing?" The envelope itself is hard to resist opening. Overstuffed, taped over to make sure it wouldn't burst. Heavy but with papers in it rather than anything particularly bulky.

Scott Summers has posed:
Scott gives his head a little small shake. He doesn't know, and he isn't the sort to make guesses out of zero information. "All of these parcels passed through the scanner for dangerous materials," he does say, in a flat tone. Informational. So nothing should jump at their faces. Still... Scott adjusts the angle of his sunglasses just a little, which creates an aura of reddish fluxing power along the top edge of them. It would be very trivial to tilt his head and blast the holy hell out of whatever is in the package, if needed. A little overkill, really -- like leveling a nuke at a fly on the wall -- but that's just Scott's power. Overkill, often. At least he's such a control freak in general, so it is under good management.

Still, Scott uses his letter opener to slide open the edge of the tape, and then around the bottom and left side-- excavating so that he can lift the side of the parcel like a trap-door, instead of opening it the way the sender may have desired.

Emma Frost has posed:
And Emma instinctively shifts over to her diamond form just to be on the safe side. Inside the envelope as Scott goes to ever, ever so carefully cut it open is, first o fall, a withered death certificate. FOr his father, from that wreck in Alaska all those years ago, marked with 'no body found'. Falling out right after it, purposefully tugging at the corner is a picture of him and Alex dressed up at the age where they would have first moved into the orphanage.

Scott Summers has posed:
Scott doesn't really want to touch the things with his hands. So there's the blade of a scissor used. It's less about getting fingerprints or anything on the items, and more about... still having some distance between himself and these items. He slides the two papers out with the blunt edge of the cutter. He's not breathing right now, just holding it.

At least, that is, until he's gone through everything in the stuffed envelope - in particular, if there's any message. Scott has turned more of a pale mix of loss of color without too much else, though he's all right... this isn't anything that's a surprise.

"It seems he wants to get to me," Scott says, then, in a tone that's forced to be normal. But Scott's doing well, he's suppressing the past 'great' right now, considering.

Emma Frost has posed:
Emma Frost would just hiss, "Lovely. Make usre you don't cut your finger." The next bit over sliding around is a doctor's report - in faded cursive, photocopied. Of when he and Alex would have been checked over upon being put in the orphanage. The handwriting familiar.

He /had/ been the doctor doing the examination, after all. Signed with a flourish at the bottom, that haunting signature that with it came so many nightmares for every mutant over at the institute.

Another is a picture, not of Scott or Alex. But of.. Cable? Grainy and old, however aged and faded. Like a Polaroid. Crisp despite the yellowing nature of it.

Scott Summers has posed:
Scott doesn't want to react too much, and he attempts to stengthen his emotional walls. So he just makes a stack of these items, each of them being pulled out and put into the pile. The same way Scott was stacking bills. With some denial about it in place, and desire to weather well and be a solid leader while Emma is present -- means he's emptying it out, and trying not to allow the sender to get much reaction.

"Well, if he wants a reaction, he won't get one," Scott says, cold. But the envelope isn't empty, so that could still change.

Emma Frost has posed:
In this form, Emma purportedly feels no emotions. Something that Scott might envy about now, perhpas. Another thing goes to be thumbed - pictures growing up. Cheap one sof holiday presents and the very low end Christmas trees. Halloween. More doctor scribblings.

How lovely to know that someone had paid attention to every moment of your life as you grew up.

Scott Summers has posed:
Scott is getting overwhelmed by the volume. And his reaction is to just kind of push it into a pile-- all the photos, this giant historical stalker volume sent. He turns towards his rolling filing cabinet and draws a big envelope out of it...

And all of the history stuff from the letter gets slid into it. As if putting it in that envelope could shut it away or ...something.

Scott is pained, but his jaw is locked down to control showing it. His eyes are hidden, as always, so that's a boon, keeping him appearing quite businesslike.

Scott then checks for anything else in the mailer, finally letting himself cough a little and breathe normally.

Emma Frost has posed:
It's more things. More documents until he left the orphanage and ended up in the Mansion. The one that probably stands out as the most chilling is recently, from the last few years.

When Sinister captured several o fthe X-Men and held them for experimentation and analysis. And they had to fight their way free from the stuff of nightmares.

Over on the bottom, a small post it which says 'Be Seeing You Soon' in that familiar, twisted handwriting.

Scott Summers has posed:
Yes, that last item is the problem. Scott puts the personal things away -- that's just something for Scott to sort out on his own, in his view -- but that last one? Well.

That, he turns, and allows Emma to look at fully. Scott will mask and swallow his own problems with his past, but this is a broad threat, and secrets don't help.

Scott doesn't say anything yet, he's still in a poor emotional state from the memory lane he was just flung down, so he just observes Emma looking at the last paper.

Emma Frost has posed:
Emma Frost would look down at it, reach over and pull it to her face. "He is, as you said, messing with you." she would be in a pure rage herself if not for her diamond form. "Don't deny it. It's all right darling. The more you fight it, the worse it gets. Don't let him have tha tpower over you."

She goes to if he would allow pluck the picture from his hands, and gesture at his glasses. "Have at it." Holding it up and voer to the air at an angle..

To hopefully have Scott get the cue to just disintegrate it.

Scott Summers has posed:
"No," Scott says, though. He had been white-knuckling the scissors. He instead extracts them from his hand, putting them down with an unsteady sway to the fingertips. Other hand pushes the glasses back up into place. It's not visible, but he does close his eyes for three long seconds.

"I won't let him even have that much power, /to get a rise out of me/," Scott says, though his resolve isn't extremely strong. But his heart is in this, in what he wants to be.

"I'm better than just that anger." Or he'd like to be. "There could be something there that Hank can glean in his lab. I'll send it along. I have a responsibility to everyone he threatens. Not just myself." Scott extends a hand, asking with the movement to have the threatening page back. In this decision, Scott doubles down, and becomes suddenly more solid, reliable, stronger. He shuts away his personal reaction to do what he feels has to be done. Moments like this show why Scott /is/ a leader; the responsibility to the team is always first.

Emma Frost has posed:
Emma Frost would glance at Scott, "There won't be anything useful. And you're suppressing it too much. There's something to be said for holding it back.. And also to let it go once in awhile. I don't presume to know you, Scott. I just know that pressing everything inwards is a verypoor coping mechanism. And all you're doing is letting him poke more and more at you until you finally lose control and detonate. You can't suppress it forever. Best to let it loose in a controlled environment, darling. I suppose that doesn't include me around, however."

Scott Summers has posed:
"There's still time to destroy it in a fire, if it does prove to be worthless," Scott answers. He doesn't like being told that he's suppressing, mostly since he does suspect that he /is/. These telepaths and their awareness!

Not that Scott has ever had any problem with the telepaths, actually: he's used to them. He mostly expects them to generally be aware, and hasn't taken it as invasive, compared to others. His acceptance of telepaths tends to make them more comfortable with him: since there's just no real blame from Scott if they happen to know things. He understands what it is to not entirely control an ability, and gives them that space to be themselves - to look.

"There's also students here, some on the balcony. I won't suppress it forever. Just not in full view here." Scott does give her that firm word -- his word IS his bond, he does mean it. But he takes the paper back to put it in its own folder, into 'TBD' in his filing system. Neatly organized, as if that helped get more power over it, in Scott's world. He does feel better, with it sorted...