5526/Toby or not Toby

Toby or not Toby
Date of Scene:	10 March 2021
Location:	Library
Synopsis:	Scott comes by the library to read. Xi'an is there. They discuss Owls. Catyclops detective agency is recruited for a case.
Cast of Characters:	Scott Summers, Xi'An Coy Manh

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Scott Summers has posed:
Scott often had trouble sleeping, a hold out from missions dating back to his teens, and a history growing up in one of Mr Sinister's foster homes. There were dreams that came along with such an origin story, as one might imagine, that often haunted him when certain times of the year came around. So it is tonight, as the winter night grows just a little warmer, that he finds himself strolling through the mansion.

Wearing pajama pants and a t-shirt, he's got on some slipon house shoes as he pads about the hallways as if this is completely normal. The sound of older students in the Rec Room, laughing over a video game keeps him from walking with his book into the quiet there. While the quiet conversation of two female students gushing about whatever student had tickled their fancy this week keeps him from going to grab a snack.

That's how he winds up in the library. Carrying a book beneath his arm and his usual red lensed glasses tight against his face. Quiet as a ghost as he moves towards a table to find a place to read through the night.

Xi'An Coy Manh has posed:
As Scott settles down, and perhaps loses himself in the world of the book - the black letter upon the white (or is it yellow?) page - he may hear a faint and ethereal melody emanating from somewhere in the room. It is subtle - one must be here for some time to hear it at all. And then...

It stops.

There are footsteps. Faint ones.

"-- Ah! Msie- bleh," says Shan, emerging from the doorway marked 'Library Office'. She is wearing a three-sizes-too-big T-shirt with the Aphex Twin logo on the front, along with green fleecy pants, rolled up on the right. "Scott," she concludes.

She shifts her grip on the steel-bodied laptop she was carrying. "Are you looking for something? I was catching up on the catalogue updates. If you need peace, just say the word." The laptop is shifted around further, clasped to her stomach. At this point the wind outside rises for a moment, gently rattling one of the less-recently-painted windowpanes.

Shan glares at it.

Scott Summers has posed:
Scott doesn't acknowledge the ethereal melody at first. Not because he hasn't heard it, but because in Xavier's mansion there's any number of odd sounds to contend with at any given time. He's just sort of use to it after so long here.

Flipping through the page of his book with a little turn of his head, he doesn't actually glance up until the sound stops and is replaced with footsteps. Looking towards the thus labeled office with a nod of greeting for the Mistress of the Brary.

"Shan." He offers her the briefest of smiles in greeting. "No, I was just reading. I have trouble sleeping some nights." No explanation, but no need for deception either. He's likely got his reasons, most of which are well documented in the X-Men base.

Following her glare to the window pane rattled by wind, then back again.

"Everything good?"

Xi'An Coy Manh has posed:
"I know what that's like," Shan offers, quietly. There are her own stacks of horror, though she does not raise them beyond a downcast look. She does put the laptop down on a table as she is going to be there for more than twenty seconds.

"Anything good?" she adds, casting a momentary glance towards the Book of Summers. "I did get four new copies of Starship Troopers, though - they'll be here next week, good thought."

Is everything good?

Karma purses her lips.

"This is going to sound silly," she says, "but I think there's an owl out there who wants to get in here."

"Something's drawing them here. I don't know what - they always seem to wait til I'm tired, or fully occupied, and then BANG. It scares me, and by the time I can compose myself enough to try and reach out -- it's gone."

Scott Summers has posed:
"Good." Scott closes the book, a novel as it turns out, over his fingers curled across the top of the front flap and slides it where she can see it. Tom Clancey, which should probably make a great deal of sense given his proclivities. "Kind of a guilty pleasure, I admit." Another brief smile, another clipped nod. "Hopefully the students find it as educational as I do. There's more than just military theory they can take from that particular book."

Only looking away when she mentions the owl, with a brow raised over his glasses. "Hm. I know there's an owl out in the woods near Logan's cabin, but it usually keeps away from the Mansion because of the lights." Looking back to her, "It doesn't sound odd though. Could be one of the students has developed an animal control ability and is inadvertantly calling one?" Any number of explanations. Really.

Xi'An Coy Manh has posed:
"Hm! - Oh, oh, I remember now. The... something for Red October. With the submarine. Right?" says Shan. She then puts a hand on her hip and breathes out. "I can't rule it OUT, no... I was afraid it was going to be some kind of secret enemy attack but then I went out one evening and shone a flashlight up there, and it was these just... perfect prints of an owl's wings."

"It must be a pretty dumb owl, if it keeps doing this."

"I did think of that. Some telepath or somebody doing it in their dreams... Maybe even the professor. You've known him a long time; is he fond of owls?"

Out in the darkness, there isn't much. The window does not face towards well lit areas, no doubt on purpose.

Scott Summers has posed:
"Mhm, this one is Clear and present danger." Scott shows the cover again, but is still distractedly glancing back at the window she'd pointed out where she'd seen the owls wings. "Same character, Jack Ryan. All purpose spy, really.. or analyst anyways." Quieter voice, book slid away so he can push up from his seat to go and check the window.

"When did you first start noticing the owl?" This time glancing back at Shan. Could be a sniper nest, wouldn't bother him. His dreams must be pretty bad if they manage to keep him from sleeping, right? "Professor likes most things, though I can't remember him ever expressly mentioning owls. Besides, I don't think he would accidentally call upon an animal in his sleep."

He's not entirely sure he DOES sleep, to be honest.

Deep meditation, maybe.

Xi'An Coy Manh has posed:
The window is tactically secure enough, with a view to the forest that has been gently cultivated to have very few sniper-friendly trees in the first few rows between the treeline and the mansion. It is probably due for maintenance - Shan may not have prioritized it, or maybe something else is going on that makes it a hassle. It's a grand, tall window. And now that he looks, with the contrast level...

Those ghostly impressions can be seen.

Three of them. Faded outlines of wings. They do look like ghosts, like this, even if they do not, perhaps, speak to a graceful performance by a bird.

"Fall, I suppose? It might have happened once before then, but that's when I started managing things," Shan says, pausing to rub at her hip for a moment. "Perhaps once a month during the fall. Then a little more often over the winter. I wonder if it's even the same bird." (The wing prints are inconclusive.)

"It could have been happening for years, for all I know... I had to go to the dorms after 9, after all." Shan looks towards the ceiling, then, folding her arms loosely. "... hm... Nobody who I *know* is a telepath is dreaming right now..."

Scott Summers has posed:
Scott is looking over the windows with the intense inspection of someone searching clues, as he does almost everything honestly. From the mundane to things that may actually contain them, his fingers trace the imprint of the wings and size it against the others. To say he's an expert at something like geometry is an understatement, he's got an intense, almost formulaic, apptitude in spartial awareness. The distance between points stand out to him like code patterns to a cryptologist.

He could probably be one.

"Hm." He finally says with a step backwards from the window and turn back to Shan, "They don't look specifically like the same wings, but given variations in flight patterns and level of decent, it would be complicated to corrilate without further evaluation from the outside... and it's cold." And thus far, from what she's said, not a threat. Moving back over to join her with only a casual look over his shoulder at the subject of their shared investigation. Something to get his mind working helps his thoughts focus, it's why he reads before bed. "I don't know of any students who have that particular ability either, but given the number of new attendees." A fractional shrug.

"Once day breaks, Catyclops will be on the case." Pause... staring. "That's Scruffles and I's new detective agency." He's attempting humor. Dryly. And potentially badly.

Xi'An Coy Manh has posed:
The marks sit there. The space... the size... what do they mean? Perhaps there's a certain similarity - the bird, or birds, all seemed to come from within the direction of the Mansion's courtyard. Maybe that means something.

"Something to check out, maybe," Shan laughs.

The wind rises... and falls again.

There is silence from Shan at these words.

Her head turns.

"What will your rates be?"

Scott Summers has posed:
"Kibbles." Scott answers immediately, hands halfway in the pockets of his pajama bottoms, nodding in a slow fashion that only slightly bobs his bangs.

"I tried to work out a deal where we split the difference, but he's rather quite set on it. Kibbles or nothing." Hand waving out in a sideways chop. The grin on his face plays out its welcome then slowly sets back into true neutral, since Scott is a druid.

"I'll take a look in the morning. For now, I think I'm going to have a drink and try to sleep again." Reaching out to grab his book off the table, tucking it beneath his arm. Eyes dancing around the library behind the red lense of his glasses.

"Sleep well, when you're able."

Xi'An Coy Manh has posed:
"Then when you have opened for business, I shall prepare my case," Shan says.

Is she humoring Scott?

Yes. But also, she is already adding a two-pound bag of kitten crunchies to her next shopping trip.

"Sleep well, if you can," Shan says. "Tomorrow is, after all, another day."

IN A TREE IN THE WOODS

The owl stares at the distant window. It ruffles up its feathers. As it descends towards a nearby mouse, its eyes do not leave the distant faint gleam. One day, the owl thinks.

One day, I'll break you.