7816/Rec Room At Night

Rec Room At Night
Date of Scene:	13 September 2021
Location:	Recreation Room
Synopsis:	Beer, part of a game of pool, and an alien. Michael Laxmi and Logan talk about the Jubilee situation.
Cast of Characters:	Logan Howlett, Laxmi Mallick, Michael Erickson

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Logan Howlett has posed:
With the students all in bed for the night, the doors locked and security for the night settled, Logan decided to have a couple of beers and play some pool in the rec room. The balls have been racked up and made ready, a cue selected, he looks ready to break then pauses to take a drink from his bottle.

It has been a hell of a morning, day and night, to huggy-feely for him really. Ororo had learned about Jubilations current condition and not taken it well, which lead to the weather goddess needing a hug and he was the only adult around. He gave it, he's not that cruel, but it really wasn't his thing. Jubilation looked much like she'd needed a hug, but thankfully she hadn't wanted one. Roxxi did. It was different regarding students, he couldn't explain it.

Laxmi Mallick has posed:
    Laxmi had finished practicing a new dance routine - but it seems this time she'd at least bothered to take off her belled anklets, as she pads in on relatively silent feet. Doubtlessly not silent enough to evade Logan's notice - but then that wasn't her intention. Instead, she was simply intent on getting a glass of seltzer water from the soda fountain, and she heads that way with single minded focus - getting a glass off of one of the shelves, and filling it with ice. Once it's filled with seltzer, she finds a bottle of lemon juice, and she adds a few splashes of that as well.

Michael Erickson has posed:
    It has been a long night, for certain. And then there's...Michael. Who, despite the ridiculous hour, has decided to trawl the grounds after checking in at the school's security desk. Grounds, then the house - sticking to the polite wings, away from the bedrooms, he makes a nighttime stroll of it, checking the various rooms to learn their configurations.

    Eventually this takes him to the rec room, where he arrives roughly an hour after he entered the grounds. Dressed in jeans this time, heavy boots. T-shirt and battered cafe racer jacket. He wasn't exactly expecting people to be in so late - but there are people here, and so he greets them with a nod and a quiet 'Good evening' as he makes for the refrigerator. Face grim. It's always grim unless he's moved to interact. Like a flat, stony mask.

Logan Howlett has posed:
Logan wears his usual white tank top, with a red and blue flannel over the top like a jacket, left open in the front. Covering his legs is a pair of worn denim jeans with a brown leather belt string through the loops, and a pair of old tan work boots that have seen better days. He lines the tip of the cue stick up with the with the white cue ball and sends it flying into the once neatly formation of colored and striped balls.

"Evening, Laxmi," he offers as he straightens up, collecting his beer from the edge of the table. Then he hears first the other foot steps approaching, the scent of the 'not a man' arriving moments before Michael appeared in the room.

Turning his head slightly, eyes scan the man in much the same way they had before merely lacking the predatory desire to snikt him. "Mr. Emerson," is then offered as a form of greeting. Not only was the correction never made, but a first name was never given.

Laxmi Mallick has posed:
    "Namaste Logan, and you as well, Mr. Emerson," Laxmi greets them both - one after the other, setting down her glass so she can press her hands together in greeting. "I hope you're not having any trouble getting to now the school?" she adds towards 'Mr. Emerson,' her smile warm and polite. "The grounds are pretty extensive - it took me a little while to get to see everything.
    She picks up her glass of seltzer, and starts towards the pool table - picking up a cue and rubbing some chalk onto it. "Do you mind if I join? Though I can't promise to be any sort of real competition..."

Michael Erickson has posed:
    "Oh, it's...Erickson," he says, smiling as he takes a bottle of soda out of the fridge. "Michael Erickson. Or that's my name on this planet. My real name is Cal'hatar - Cal'hatar of Chandilar, of the noble house of Atlex, Officer Third Magnitude of the Shi'ar Imperial Military Forces. Formerly, of course. They're not, you know, a big fan of me in the Empire anymore." A nod to Laxmi as he effortlessly twists off the bottle's cap twixt thumb and forefinger, crushing it between those digits before tossing it into the trash. "I believe I promised you the story when I saw you next, Mister Logan."

    Laxmi gets a nod. "Good evening, Miss Mallick."

Logan Howlett has posed:
Logan offers Laxmi the chalk by showing it to her, then setting it on the side of the table so she can pick it up. Any other way would have most likely ended up in touching her, and he's still making sure that doesn't happen.

"You're more than welcome to join," he says as he sets the chalk on the table. "I'm not looking for competition, just shooting balls to relax."

Once again his eyes drift back to Michael, one brow lifting slightly. Apparently the alien didn't know anything about recycling. "No obligations required," he states with a slight shrug. "Got what you are, still not certain I like it but it is what it is. If Ororo said you can be here, and Jean doesn't have issues, then you can be here. If you want to tell me your business, I'll listen."

Laxmi Mallick has posed:
    "Oh, I do apologize for mis-remembering," Laxmi replies with some embarrassment. Once her cue is appropriately chalked, she sets the little block down at the end of the table - waiting for Logan to take a shot, before she'll line up one of her own.
    Her form, honestly, isn't that great, nor is her aim. But you can't get better without practicing, right?
    "Do you prefer Cal'hatar when you're here at the school?" she asks, "And Mr. Erickson when we're in public? I haven't had to deal too much in 'secret identities,' to be fully frank with you."

Michael Erickson has posed:
    "Erickson is fine," he replies to Laxmi, smiling faintly. "Best to do that, rather than throw off the students. But I believe in being honest, now that I have the freedom to do so."

    Michael looks back to Logan. "We are predators, Mister Logan. You and I. My people were descended from hunting-birds. How that worked out to lead to /this/ body-form is a bit of a mystery, but I rather have my own thoughts of a common ancestor across multiple galaxies. At any rate, my 'business' is everyone's business, so long as I'm here. I'm quite aware of the burden of trust that is upon me."

Logan Howlett has posed:
Another drink of beer it consumed before Logan rests the bottle on the side of the table and moves look over the table. He isn't ignoring Michael, in fact he's listening very intently to what the man has to say.

"You're wearing a disguise," he comments, finding the shot he wants. Bending to like the stick up again, he eyes the ball and makes adjustments. "At least, that's whatcha smell like."

The shot is perfect, a solid ball sunk in a side pocket before he straightens himself again. Since they aren't really competing, he steps back to let Laxmi have another turn, collecting his beer again.

"But you're right about one thing, I'm a predator," he adds as he looks back to the Shi'ar. "Ya stuck like that?"

Laxmi Mallick has posed:
    "A predator?" Laxmi asks uncertainly, looking between both men, before taking another shot. She so neeeearly sinks it, that she lets out a sigh of frustration. Next one she'll get. ... maybe.
    "You mean - in that our species," plural, "have both evolved eating meat?" she asks uncertainly. Or did they mean something a little more sinister? Sometimes it was hard to tell.

Michael Erickson has posed:
    "I've had some alterations done," Michael says, leaning against the bar. He takes a sip from his bottle. "We look more or less human, my species, except the hair's false. We normally have feathers." He chuckles, running a hand over the combed-back undercut flop of black silk that crowns his head. "Genetic surgery to vastly extend my lifespan, psychocrystalline fibers implanted in my body to show up as human on sensor devices. Otherwise I'm as I was born. I was a spy on this planet for years, after all. Just I was supposed to be watching the Kree, not humans or mutantkind." He looks down at himself, chuckling. "Aye, I"m 'stuck' like this. But it's all right. I've been like this longer than I wasn't. I came to this planet when I was twenty-five. I'm seventy now."

    Michael takes another pull from his bottle, and nods. "Meat-heavy diet, in the case of my people. But we're omnivorous by and large. I tend to eat enormous amounts of rare meat; the genetic surgery that extends my life also has done a real number on my metabolism. Meat and blood, the protein that comes from it, fuels my existence."

    Then back to Logan. "Which reminds me. I met young Jubilation."

Logan Howlett has posed:
Seeing which ball Laxmi was after, Logan looks the table over carefully. If he planned the shot right, he could sink a ball and ut the cue ball in a position for her to more easily sink that striped ball near the corner pocket. Moving around the table, he gages the shot a moment, then the beer it set down once more.

"Predators hunt for more then meant," he comments, striking the ball to sink a solid as he intended and watches the cue ball bounce of the side bumper and roll into a near perfect position to sink a stripe. "We hunt, we kill, sometimes for food, mostly because it is our nature."

Collecting the beer he steps back. "Had to have gotten pretty damn close to her to have her scent on you," he then comments to Michael. "At this point I think I'm the only teacher here who isn't ready to stake her in the sun... yet."

Laxmi Mallick has posed:
    "It is a disconcerting situation - I think any of us can admit that," Laxmi remarks - completely unaware of the 'assist' Logan has given her with her shot. She looks satisfied, though, as she studies the arrangement of the balls, lines it up, and- she actually has to hold her breath for a moment as the striped ball teeters on the edge of the pocket, before falling in. She really does need to practice this game more often.
    "It's true, then? I'd hoped it was some ridiculous rumor. I'm afraid I don't know the young woman - have you known her for long?" she asks, looking towards Logan. "How does something like this even happen?" And to a child in their care, no less! Even if it did happen before she'd been hired at the school.

Michael Erickson has posed:
    "She's having a very hard time. She needs affection and understanding right now, more than anything. Not isolation - yes, I know. She's dangerous. But the thing inside your headmistress can destroy galaxies." Michael gives Logan a flat, grave smile. "Isn't that funny? Here we just mobilized - you /displaced the entire government of a galactic culture/ to save the life of one woman who possesses enormous destructuve power, and now this /child/ is facing destruction at the hands of her peers over a much smaller capacity for carnage. And neither had anything to say in the matter."

    He takes another swig. "Let me be clear. If anyone tries to kill Jubilation, they'll go through me first. And I'm not so easily killed as I was before I came to this house the first time." Another swig. "There's only so much hypocrisy that I can stomach this year."

Logan Howlett has posed:
For the moment Logan decides to pause the pool game, mostly so he can sort through what he knows and what is speculation. He also has to decide if he'll have a go at Michael or not.

Setting the beer down, he turns more toward Michael. "First off bub, no one's killing Jubilation," he says bluntly, then sets the cue down on the edge of the table as well. "I was the first one to discover what she is. Did I threaten? No. Did I taunt? No. I gave her detention for using her powers on students, told her to watch how she talked to others to keep it from happening, and told her to tell Jean, Hank and Ororo."

He glances to Laxmi for a moment, his ire rising slightly over the gall of this piece of alien shi'art. It is likely that is she wasn't there, this would have got bad right here and now, but she is, so he takes that moment of looking at her to keep himself from testing just how hardy the alien was.

Looking back he continues speaking. "You seem to forget, there's a lot of kids, young kids not just teenagers, around this school Erickson," he sort of spits that name out like it tastes bad. "But Jubilation /is/ one of our students as well, and the facility'll have to go through /me/ to get to her. Don't know who you think you are in regards to this, but it's got nothing to do with you... suggest you back off on it."

Laxmi Mallick has posed:
    "I would also be opposed to killing someone who's committed no serious offenses that I'm aware of," Laxmi agrees. "I simply think it's important to understand the situation, to determine the best ways of protecting //everyone// involved. And that would include Miss Lee. We do her and the other students a disservice otherwise." Her voice remains calm and relaxed as she speaks, though there's a frown of concern tugging at her lips. "I think, in particular, determining if there's any risk that other children here could end up in a similar... situation would be particularly of interest. I still don't know how Miss Lee was changed. Do either of you?" She looks between the pair, picking up her glass to have a sip of her drink.

Michael Erickson has posed:
    "You just said they were ready to..." Michael blinks once at the man, then frowns. "I seem to have misunderstood, then. Certainly, if they don't seek to harm her, it's a different story." He shrugs. "And you're right; I'm new here. But that doesn't matter, Mister Logan. I was more than happy to die for your people when it was the Empire calling - if it means doing it again to protect a child, so be it."

    A glance to Laxmi. "I don't. She doesn't remember, either. I've already starting an investigation as to find methods that might lead to her being cured - and, failing that, mitigate her condition to such a point that she is not a threat to herself or others."

    He looks back to Logan. "My misunderstanding of your words aside, Mister Logan, I'm talking to you about this because /you/ understand her. Just like I do. So let's be friends on this, shall we? Being territorial about who's what in the school isn't going to help her."

Logan Howlett has posed:
Folding his arms across his chest, Logan snorts.

"I said some of them were," he corrects. "Never said I was one of them. Stood up for her to Ororo, will do so to anyone else." He grabs his beer and takes a drink before hooking his thumb on the left hand into the edge of his pocket.

"I get Ororo's concern. Jubilation was our Resident Assistant, which meant she had the keys to every kids room in this place... and she's a vampire. See the problem? But I took her keys, cause we have to protect /all/ the kids."

Now he looks over to Laxmi. "She was headed to a summer job, alone. We require all older students who stay during the summer to get a summer part time job. They're supposed to be escorted, she choose to go alone against rules. This happened. That's all I know, except that I will keep her from harming anyone while she's here. I'll be up through the night for just that reason."

Laxmi Mallick has posed:
    "And sleeping through the days, then? I mean - you'll need sleep eventually," Laxmi points out, looking between the two men. "Maybe it would make more sense to make some sort of watch schedule - if you think that's necessary to keep everyone safe. I mean - it makes sense. We always have adults around during the day, when the students would normally be awake."
    She lets out a sigh before adding, "How unusual is it for someone not to know how they became a vampire? That- ...seems a bit odd, doesn't it? But it's not a subject I know very much about."

Michael Erickson has posed:
    "I don't believe I said anything about /you/, Mister Logan." He frowns. "You said specifically you weren't one-- am I having a stroke?" He looks to Laxmi, his brows high. "Did he not say that he wasn't one who wanted to harm her? I've lived on this planet for forty-five years, I'm pretty sure my command of the language is -- no, nevermind. Forget it."

    Back to Logan. "If she's too much of a problem to have here, I'll take her in. Vampiric creatures aren't exactly rare in the Empire. The living dead bit's rare, I'll admit, but we have magic in the Empire as well. I'm willing to help keep her on the straight and narrow on my own part."

Logan Howlett has posed:
Good, he got under the aliens skin for a moment, that's really all Logan was after. To see what it took to ruffle the man's feathers, no pun intended.

"Jubilation stays with the school," he says first, firmly, end of conversation on that specific topic. "What happens after she graduates is her choice to make."

The pool game it now forgotten, he would have won if they were keeping track of points, but that wasn't the point of the game to him anyway. "I only teach three days a week, Laxmi," he then says. "And I only teach one class, sleep isn't an issue. I don't think it's really needed to have someone wandering the halls at night. Jubilation hasn't attacked another student, she's not drinking off them as far as I know... though I sure in the hell hope she's not feeding off Noriko or Ororo will go ballistic, and I do /not/ want to be in the same state with the Weather Goddess if that happens."

There is a hint of shudder to him at that thought. He's seem her at her best in combat, and he's seen her at her worst, when her emotions have controlled her and thus she lost control of her powers. He doesn't want to see the later again, ever.

"The only reason I'm keeping watch at night is to appease Ororo and any one else's concerns regarding Jubilation being more active at night. The facility are holding a meeting this week, to determine the course of action regarding Miss Lee, which will include how to help her, if it's even possible. I know she's miserable, she's fighting the nature of what she's become against who she really is, and she's slowly losing."

Laxmi Mallick has posed:
    "Tempers are particularly high, Mr. Erickson, with something such as this. I'm sure that's the problem. Heightened tempers and emotions always hamper effective communication," Laxmi remarks in a concilatory tone. After another sip, she sets her drink back down on a coaster, a faint frown pulling at her lips.
    "That must be particularly troubling for the people who care about her the most. I'm sorry everyone is going through this - I'm happy to help however I can, but... I'm out of depths."

Michael Erickson has posed:
    "Exactly," Michael agrees, blowing past Logan's dicking with him and focusing on that's important to him. "She feels like a monster, and she's grasping for any affection that might be offered her. All I had to do was accept her and not judge her for what she's become, and she was so much more comfortable. Were I not an ally, I could have easily manipulated that. Her new nature uses psychological manipulation as part of her instinct set, but I've been a spy for long time, and the Imperial intelligence cadres have thousands of years of training experience. Game recognizes game, as they say." He takes a final drink of his bottle and shake shis head, keeping it in his grip. "If she is not to be lost, she cannot be made to feel like a pariah. This is exactly how people are lost to the manipulation of outside parties. How families are destroyed by agents. She is the weak link in the social chain, right now. She needs protection, not horrified isolation from her peers."

    He makes a dark back in his throat. "I'd hate to think that the vaunted solidarity of mutantkind only goes so far. Present company excluded, naturally."

Logan Howlett has posed:
The last of the beer disappears before Logan walks over to the bar and pointedly puts the bottle in the large container marked recycling. Maybe he was being petty about the whole recycling thing, or maybe he was using that to aim his anger at something that he could actually aim it at. In a fit of anger and desperation, Jubilation had blamed all the teachers for what happened to her. She has used words as a weapon, and they had struck Ororo pretty damn hard. He wasn't immune either, he had spent the entirety of the day questioning if there might have been some way to stop what happened from happening. He knew there wasn't. The teenager had chosen to leave on her own, thinking herself invulnerable like all teenagers do, and as a result had been attacked... as often happens in this world.

"I spend an hour with her every day," he finally says, pulling himself out of his thoughts. "I'd spend more with her if she wanted, but I've never once implied to her that I think she's a monster. The whole problem of isolation was her own doing, Erickson. She took what I said and twisted it."

Instead of another beer, a bottle of soda. He couldn't get drunk, but a coke sounded good. "After she accidently glamoured a couple of under classmen into doing her nails and hair, I warned her that what she says can have effects, and she needed to be more careful how she spoke to others. Jubilation is a girl used to being the queen bee, the top of the social chain, so she's always just told others what to do... unfortunately, with her powers, that takes away free will. So after I said that, apparently she decided to take it as 'don't talk to any students, ever, I'm a pariah', which sure the hell is not what I said. Keep in mind, all this was after playing the victim to what she'd done to the other students, refusing to admit she had done anything at all, even by accident."

Laxmi Mallick has posed:
    "Teenagers are not known for having the most rational responses," Laxmi replies, letting out a sigh.
    It's almost laughable - she's not that far out of her teenaged years herself - especially as compared to the two men she was speaking with.
    "Is it any surprise, though, that it's taking her time to adjust? Even someone far older and more experienced than she is would struggle with such a cataclysmic change in their life.
    "Have we at least ensured she has a safe and ethical source of nourishment?" she asks. "That seems the easiest and most important way to protect her, and the other students."

Michael Erickson has posed:
    After all this is said, Michael just...stares at the man. "Perhaps you and I were never kids, Logan," he begins, "But you've worked with them long enough that I'd like to think you've discovered the grand secret of teenagers: they're /dramatic/. They take /everything/ personally. She was already a mutant; now she's walking around dead and hungering for the blood of everything she ever cared for. She's lost everything, and now she's in mortal fear that she's going to kill someone, or worse, without even meaning to. Perhaps we might forgive her some theatrics. Throne of Chandilar, she's only eighteen years old!"

    Then Laxmi speaks, and Michael takes a deep breath. "I'm...going to work on that. I'm going to see if I can't get anything from back home that might generate some kind of safe nourishment for her. Clonal blood percolator, something like that. It'll be hamburger instead of steak, most likely, but she'll be able to live on it if I don't miss my guess. But the urges likely won't stop. I've offered to put her straight into the line of Imperial will-training exercises, as well. She's already strong enough not to have fallen apart with this, I'm going to try and help her hone that will to the point that she has a degree of mastery over the thing she carries with her."

Logan Howlett has posed:
Logan stares at Michael, again that urge to just stab him once, just to see. He was preaching to the choir, and to the one person in the school who had already stood up for Jubilation, twice now. Did the alien really think Logan was that stupid or we he also testing, to see just how far he could push the mutant before he snapped.

Another growly grunt, left eye twitching slightly, and Logan is walking back over near Laxmi. He does not touch her, he merely places himself closer to her. The scent of her perfume and her calm voice helped... a lot. "I know she's being a teenager," he half growls, half says. "Which is what I reminded Ororo of, whose been around em a hell of a lot longer than I have. Up until this year, I was the groundskeeper, there's a reason I don't socialize much, and bub you are pushing every one of those reasons."

Eyes go back to Laxmi while he takes a breath of calm. "I care a great deal about these kids," he mutters, maybe for his own admitting of it, perhaps so both of them knew the truth. "All of them, Jubilation included. I'll do whatever it takes to help her, hell, I'll give her my blood, not like it would effect me none."

Laxmi Mallick has posed:
    "Your people have a machine that can artificially create blood?" Laxmi asks with some surprise and curiosity. "...that would certainly be ethical. If you could acquire something like that..." She looks towards Logan, a wry smile on her lips as she adds, "I hardly think it's a good idea to encourage her to feed on teachers. Though - why wouldn't it affect you?"
    She shifts her posture, so her hip leans up against the pool table, her fingers trailing lightly on the green felt of its surface.

Michael Erickson has posed:
    "Well they're not common," Michael says, "At least, not the size of unit that would be convenient. But I'd like to think the Majestrix owes me a /little/ for helping her cause, though it wasn't nearly so much as what you'd done. I don't mind trading in that goodwill if it's going to help an innocent young woman."

    He, too, takes a deep breath, then. Looks squarely at Logan. "I'm sorry." A pause. "It's very clear that you love these kids. I know I can be...prickly. My people are passionate and proud. I'm not /trying/ to get your dander up. The people from my province especially; we're like the Italian stereotype, really, except for real. We get loud and shout to show we care about a situation. I'm just appalled that this happened to the poor girl in the first place - and perhaps I'm projecting just a little besides. Our situations have a neat symmetry to them that I suspect amplifies my outrage for her." He tosses the bottle in the trash, then, and amid the clank goes to get another soda from the fridge. "I'm your ally in this, Logan. I'll try and tone it down for you, though. I know I can be a real pain in the ass without meaning it."

    So there's an admission for Logan in return. And an apology besides. Perhaps he might explode into flame for his next trick, eh?

Logan Howlett has posed:
Logan walks over to the trash, pulls the bottle out and throws it into the recycling container, without so much as a word about it, just does it.

"I'm an ass," he admits without so much as a pause. "I don't get along with people, I don't like people as a rule. The worlds gotten too touchy-feely for my tastes, and there's always some jackass trying to play big man on the totem pole... which just gets my hackles up even more."

He moves back around to stand near Laxmi, beginning to wonder if it was the perfume or just her, but again not saying anything. "When I put my mind to something, nothing can deter me from it. I'm blunt, gruff, and few other descriptors that aren't so nice to repeat in mixes company." He eyes Laxmi with that comment, then looks back to Michael. "I don't mean to offend with what I say or how I do things, I'm just used to being alone and doing my own thing, so if I do offend, I don't usually notice it until someone else points it out. There's a saying I've picked up in my years, I don't threaten... I make promises."

He takes a drink of his soda then adds, "For what it's worth, I get you, probably more than most. We aren't too different."

Now to Laxmi, and that explanation. Setting the soda down, he holds out one hand and with the other hand points to the space between his knuckles, "Watch right there." When he's sure she's watching, he extends the adamantium claws from that hand to show them but also so she can see just how amazingly fast his hand heals from it, in fact there's no blood at all. If that wasn't proof enough, often it's not, he uses one of those claws to drag across the back of his own hand. Sure, it hurts like a mother f***ker, but it heals almost as quickly as he makes the cuts. "That's why."

Laxmi Mallick has posed:
    "For all my prim demeanor - I think I can withstand a few swear words, Logan," Laxmi replies with some amusement. "And is that why you tolerate my presence? Because I'm not 'touchy feely'?" she remarks in a dry tone, a smile pulling her lips upwards.
    "Well. I wish you luck procuring the machine. If I would be of any help, I would - but I can't imagine that's the case." Having missed the incident with Jean, and Shi'ar, she hadn't even met the Empress Lilandra. So what aid could she possibly offer?
    Logan's demonstration of his gift quickly draws her attention - and as she draws his own claws across his skin, she lets out a gasp. "Mr. Logan! Don'-!" she starts, one hand reaching outwards - but stopping short of contact as the wounds quickly heal. "Remarkable. So... you can also regenerate blood more quickly than most?"

Michael Erickson has posed:
    "Yeah, well. I haven't been home for forty-five years and I've outlived my whole family at this point, so I guess I'm seeing a lot of my present and my past in this kid's future and I'd for damned sure like to try and fix that if I can." He shakes his his head as he again twists off the bottle cap and tosses it aside. "I'm not trying to play big man on the totem pole, though, however I might sound. I know I can sound a certain kind of -splainy. Sorry about that."

    The flickering of claws gets his attention; he looks up, one brow quirking at the display of metal and the rapid healing. He doesn't say anything, of course. He just looks, takes mental notes, and moves back to the topic at hand. "So. I've made a connection with her. I'll do what I can to help as a mentor, if that's acceptable. Seems as though as an outsider, I might have purchase where students and staff do not."

Logan Howlett has posed:
Logan just nods to Laxmi, and pulls the claws back into his hand. He won't go into detail about those claws, but the healing part has always been there, dating back to the day his bone claws first appeared and he killed his mother's lover, who turned out to be his father. Why was nothing simple?

"Everything regenerates that quickly," he then says, though he won't list the number of things that have been blown up, blown off, ripped off, etc. and he regenerated from it. "And yes Laxmi, that's /exactly/ why I like being around you." He keeps a perfectly straight face, but there's something in his eyes and a slight twitch at the corner of his mouth to indicate he's joking.

Turning attention back to Michael, Logan shrugs again, "I don't run the school. I don't know what you're here for, in what capacity. I can't say yes or no to you being a mentor, not my place, that's something that needs to come from the Headmistress. Like I said, we're having a meeting this week, if you got something specific you want said at the meeting, write it up... hand it to anyone but me." He snerks, taking a drink of his soda. "Or yeah, hand it to me... cause I'll say it like it's meant to be said."

Laxmi Mallick has posed:
    "It must be difficult - being away from home for so long," Laxmi says with sympathy. She sees her own family almost every weekend - and helps out with her nieces and nephews in the evenings, sometimes. "Especially to outlive the people you loved and knew. I'm sorry." She finishes off her seltzer, setting the glass back down one more on a coaster.
    "I probably have the least amount of authority of all the teachers here - being such a new hire. But if you can build a connection with her, and help her find productive and meaningful ways to recover, control these new gifts of hers, and re-integrate with the school's community... I mean, it would be foolish to turn that away, I think."
    Towards Logan she adds, "It seems that your gifts have much more direct applications than mine."

Michael Erickson has posed:
    "I'm volunteering." He runs a hand through his hair again, more than ever aware of how it's just a mass of regenerative crystalline fibers and not /real/ keratin. "To teach, albeint in a limited degree and for a limited time. Galactic politics, Shi'ar culture, military technology and tactics. Essentially 'know the enemy and their ways' sort of stuff. You lot are extremely skilled but it would be a real advantage to know what my people are capable of should the Majestor's allies or former patrons roll up for revenge."

    Michael gives Laxmi a nod. "This is my wheelhouse. Bringing people together. I led troops into battle as a young man, kept my units together across battlefields on multiple worlds. She needs us - needs you. I'll do what I can to help her stay in the fold."

Logan Howlett has posed:
Battlefields. Logan had been in too many wars, on too many battlefields. He'd watched good men die, he'd watch bad men die. Every time it had been claimed that it was for freedom and justice, and perhaps it was, but the truth is battle it what he was good at, and not much else.

"I should go check the halls," he suddenly says, his mind wandering back over dark thoughts, the things that he could actually remember versus the many that he knew he did not. "Laxmi, we'll finish a game of pool another night, and I'll show you a few adjustments to your stance when shooting."

With the soda bottle in hand, he turns back to Michael. "If you need to crash here, guest room on the first floor."

Laxmi Mallick has posed:
    "I'll look forward to that, Logan," Laxmi agrees - taking her glass to the sink before washing it and putting it away.
    She turns back to Michael with a friendly smile and a gesture. "Would you like to thoroughly destroy me at a game of pool, Mr. Erickson?" she asks with a warm voice, returning to her pool cue, and adding more chalk to it. She'll allow him to take the first shot.
    Which may result in her never getting to make any shots at all, if they follow the actual rules. Or who knows? He may be just as bad at this game as she is.