| Log Title |
| Summary: | Scott Summers arrives at the Xavier Institute, but he seems younger. He meets by Jean and the two share the joy of the reunion, as they agree on a slow approach in filling Scott in on just what happened. |
| Date: | 2016-10-23 |
| Related: | None |
| NPCs: | None |
| Scene Runner: | NA |
| Social/Plot: | Social |
| Players: |
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Jean has decided to take some time off from her Headmistress duties, helping students and faculty alike to come to terms with different people being different versions of themselves. Much confusion and hurt emotion on the line, which meant many hours of counseling and mediating. But right now, there was peace, she was sitting in the sitting room, by the coffee table, a cup of tea with fresh squeezed lemon and honey set before her. She seems slightly lost in reverie, as she takes the occasional sip.
After finding himself here in this reality Scott did a lot of wandering and exploring. Things were different but not necessarily radically so. Everything just seems more..advanced. Technology has taken a decent leap from what he remembers and the few things he remembers also seem older and more advanced. Though maybe not extremely so.
"Professor?" It was only natural that he'd make his way back to the manor. He was team leader of X-Men Blue and he's curious to find out if that's still the case here or if the X-Men even exist. As he enters the sitting room he spots Jean and is forced to a complete stop. "Jean?" He asks his voice full of doubt and wonder.
"You do know I…" Jean starts to answer, thinking a student was looking for her, before realizing how familiar the voice is. She hasn't heard it in years. It's a voice she yearned to hear again, and in seconds her cup of tea is down on the table, and her green eyes shoot towards the very familiar, if somewhat younger than she'd expect, Scott Summers. "Scott…?" Her voice trails off in disbelief as she gets up on her feet, staring at him as if he were a ghost. In seconds Scott will finds their rapport coming back into existence, Jean's voice echoing in his head, «you've come back to us?»
Confusion plays over Scott's features. Not because he can hear Jean's voice in his head, that's nothing new, but because he's wondering if he's literally just been transported into the future. In the end he decides that isn't what matters right now. What's important is that the X-Men exist, the Manor is here, and most importantly Jean is here.
«Jean!» Racing across the room he throws his arms around her holding her tight. For the first time in days he's starting to feel a bit of normalcy. "How long have I been gone?" He asks after letting her go. If he had to put a time frame on it he'd say 5 or 6 years but that's from his own universe…he has no idea he's actually replaced a different Scott entirely.
Jean was hesitant to rush at Scott, not entirely certain if he would know her, and if he does, on what grounds. She is well aware of the mix up of the multiverse, and how different timelines and dimensions got intertwined and mixed up. But to see Scott rushing at her from across the room, she can't remain stoic, and hurries to meet him halfway, her own arms wrapping about him in a tight embrace. "Scott," she cries into his shoulder, squeezing him in the tightest embrace she can muster. "Let me hold you for a moment longer," she says when he lets go of her, "there'll be time enough for answers after. I thought I would never see you again."
Scott holds the hug for as long as Jean wants and is reluctant to let her go when it's time. Her smiles and laughs nervously when she mentions thinking she'd never see him again, "Just another day for the X-Men, right? We're still the X-Men aren't we?" He looks around and the manor looks familiar but, as with most things in this reality, just a bit different.
"I'm sorry," he eventually says awkwardly. "Though I don't know what happened. One day I was prepping for a training session with Storm and the next…I'm here. And here seems normal just…not. You know?" If anyone would know what this feels like it would be Jean after all.
Jean keeps holding Scott for a good number of minutes, before she eventually eases her grip, and then takes a step back to look him over, "you look incredible, Scott, you really do." She does laugh when Scott manages to insert levity into a rather unexpected reunion, "yes, that we are, though the school is now called the Xavier Institute of Higher Learning." She looks amused as Scott describes how similar, yet different, normal and strange everything seems to him. "It gets weirder, but your instincts never failed you…you are not where you came from." She holds out a hand tentatively towards Scott's temple, pausing a moment to ask, "do you mind?"
Scott's features harden when Jean mentions he's not where he came from. That's a blow. He was coming to accept that he might be time displaced but to actually be sent to an alternate dimension? He's seen too many to think this ends well. At least this world doesn't seem to be dominated by sentinels or anything like that. And Jean's here so he's pretty sure he can take anything she might be getting ready to show him.
"Of course," he says as she holds out her hand. He trusts Jean and he trusts that this IS Jean. The psychic bond they share proves that and that's all he needs. As she reaches out to touch him he closes his eyes readying himself for whatever she's about to show him.
Jean seems sympathetic enough to Scott's confusion, that alarming feeling in being a stranger in a familiar place. At least a strange place makes it clear you don't belond, this is quite a different thing to contend with. She didn't quite state the nature of displacement, spatial or temporal, but it didn't really matter in the thick of it.
Given permission, she touches Scott's temple, her eyes turning white as she first gleans a glimpse of the place he came from, so she can better explain the oddities. A comfort is that much of it is recognizable to her, most of it is exactly the same as what she experienced in her early days with the X-Men, it's all there…even the marriage proposal he was about to make but didn't quite have the time. Jean wasn't expecting to see that, and it makes her gasp as she pulls her hand away, her eyes returning to their usual green hue, as she looks at Scott, and then lifts her hand, the golden wedding ring on her finger, "so…at least you know what my answer would have been," she offers with an awkward smile, no need to give him a full update of all the drama, of Madelyne Pryor, of Rachel, it's best he doesn't even know some of it, and is better eased into the rest.
"Oh!" Scott flushes deeply. He was nervous about the proposal, VERY nervous about the proposal. He and Jean had been through so much and though he knew they loved each other he wasn't sure if they loved each other enough to take it to that ultimate level. He smiles as it appears they were.
"So…I never proposed where I'm from but I did here. How much longer did we have? What happened to me here? Did I die?" The thought suddenly makes his throat constrict. Even if it's not him the idea of dying is just not pleasant. His heart suddenly breaks for Jean, if that's what she went through he knows what that pain is like. He hates thinking that he might have caused her pain like that, even if it was beyond his power.
"The proposal is actually complicated…" Jean admits as Scott asks about the complexity of it, "do you want the full story? I think it's best to say, we just ended up getting married, and it's still the happiest day of my life," she was worried how Scott might react to this news. But she's happy to see he is taking it rather well. "Now…I could show you, but maybe it's better if I just tell it…it's…" she quiets down and then sits back by her cup of tea, "I think you should sit down for this, Scott. Now, think a moment, it's not pretty…so the question is how badly do you want to know?" She levels her gaze with Scott, and then points at her tea, "I brewed it fresh, there's more if you like some?" The way she stalls and looks so concerned suggests it may not be an easy tale to hear.
Scott takes Jean's hands in his as they speak and pulls her close again. "Hey, I want to know but it doesn't have to be now. All that matters right now is that I found my way home and that you're here. We'll figure everything else out." Sure, things are going to get even more complicated since he's not really her Scott and she's not his Jean but they can tackle that down the road. Right now Scott is just happy to be back home at the manor.
With that he almost collapses into the chair. He hadn't realized just how exhausted he was. Now that he's in a safe place it's all starting to crash down hard on him. "I think some tea sounds amazing," he says with a weak smile and a heavy sigh. "You look good too, Jean. You look amazing. More sure of yourself, it suits you." There's definitely a confidence in this Jean that wasn't in the Jean from his timeline. He likes it. He just might not like the fires she had to walk through to gain it.
Jean's tone becomes warmer as Scott takes her hand in his and pulls her closer, something she doesn't mind one bit. "True…you could probably use some settling down," Jean agrees, before quipping, "you already know where your room is, the decoration might be different, but it's yours to use."
She smiles warmly as Scott takes her on the tea offer, "if I got a good read of just what time you're from, then yes, I've been through quite a lot since then. I did become more confident, thank you for noticing. Let's go to the kitchen, you can finish my cup along the way, you deserve it," she picks up her cup and offers it to Scott, "by the way, did I mention I'm the Headmistress of the school?" She grins sheepishly, for a moment feeling like the little girl who first set foot in the school to escape a world that thought she was insane. So much has happened since then, but having found Scott, has made it the best decision of her life. No matter what have come and may still yet come.