xp_logs | Envoy (Nathan and Charles)

After pulling himself together in the wake of the weekend's revelations, Nathan starts to think about what should be done now. He has some ideas. Charles, as always, facilitates.

"Do you have a scale?" Nathan asked a bit dimly, staring down into the teacup. "Of crises, and what kind of tea they require afterwards. I'm just wondering," he went on, when Charles didn't immediately respond. "You know. English Breakfast for small problems. Earl Grey for everyday hassles. And what is this? Darjeeling?"

Then again, the immediate crisis was past, wasn't it? Not that he had really expected Saul or Gideon to move against the school; lying telepath-to-telepath was difficult, if not impossible, and Gideon had been very pointed about his intentions. But a couple of days distance from that conversation in the restaurant, with no consequences in sight, was making him feel considerably better than he had been on the weekend. Be honest, Nathan, you were waiting for the sky to fall so that you could commit ritual suicide.

That left the non-immediate consequences, however. Not to mention the 'work' that had been going on before his father and uncle had let him in on the truth and which was probably continuing on its merry way, whatever the next generation thought of the family business.

"Pekoe, actually," Xavier said dryly, dropping a cube of sugar into his cup and stirring briskly before taking a sip. "I save the Darjeeling for romantic triangles or visitors from the subcontinent. I think I have my system perfected after all these years." A slight smile betrayed Charles' wit as he sat his teacup on the saucer gently.

Quietly, Charles leaned forward, placing a hand on Nathan's knee in a gesture of comfort and familiarity. The gesture coming from a telepath of Charles' magnitude was profound, given the openness that physical contact between psychics tended to create. "The sins of the father, it's said, are visited upon the son. Personally, that axiom is one I have never subscribed to, and I do not believe you should either, Nathan."

A faint smile, there briefly and then gone again, was Nathan's only response to Charles for a moment, as he took that moment to let himself absorb the offered reassurance. Just being around Charles was steadying, as it so often had been in the past. Maybe, twenty years or so down the road, he'd be that centered. Then again, at the rate he was going...

"I'm working on that," he said finally, then sighed a little. "You'd think that when I'd spent my whole life rejecting what I thought was my family legacy, it would take more than a couple of months to get me to the point where I forget how to do that." He took a careful sip of the tea, which was extremely hot. "My head's clear enough at this point that I'm more concerned with what we do now, though. Even if they continue to not threaten the school directly, what they're doing out there in the world..." Nathan trailed off, dissatisfied by the vague tug of his precognition. "Well. You know what I saw when I first met Gideon. Put that together with what Saul was in New York to do, reconstructing the CONGO databases, and it's more than worrisome. Direct threats, even when they're not directed at us, we can handle. Them shaping the lives of mutants on the everyday level, in non-confrontational and sometimes perfectly legal ways..." Not so much.

Xavier thought for a moment, taking a long and measured sip of his tea. "Not every threat requires a combative response, and while Remy has been exceptional at identifying threats that do not lie at our doorstep," Charles' praise was evident in his expression as he continued, "not every incident requires a... deniable response. Nor should it."

"Were it possible to directly change the world for the better, in its entirety," Charles continued, "we all would do so in an instant. Yet we cannot, and so we do what we are able, and still mourn those things we cannot affect or change."

"It's... hard to explain," Nathan said slowly, thinking about what he'd seen in Gideon's mind, in his precognitive 'aura' in Philadelphia and Chad. "In a way, though, what they did to me is both a good example and a bad example for what we can expect from them, I think. Bad, because it was personal, and in general, I don't think that's their usual modus operandi. But good, too, in that they didn't really... do it themselves. They made use of an opportunity that already existed... Mistra." He watched the steam spiral upwards from his cup. "Exploiting structures already there... heightening tension, rather than creating it. Looking for evolution into greater... strength, that way." Nathan blinked. "Apply that to the world at large, to mutants as a group rather than one boy," he said, a little unsteadily, "and it takes on whole new dimensions of wrong." And for a precognitive, the social engineer was every bit as scary as the raving lunatic supervillain. The ripple effects tended to be longer-lasting, if subtler.

Xavier's gaze shifted to the steam from the tea, poring over the patterns of vapor like some modern-day oracle before speaking. "There was a Spanish philosopher who wrote that any one man, through his trials and successes, mirrored the glory of all men. He said that anything one man could achieve, humanity as a whole was capable of. I find this especially applicable to your struggle, Nathan." Xavier shifted forward in his chair, supporting himself with his arms.

"There are those in this world who would manipulate and abuse others for their benefit, to mold the world as they see fit. You, as a single man, broke from that cycle. And I believe you came here with an idea of how to use your experience, your struggle, on that grander scale."

Nathan gave him another ghostly smile. "I had a thought, yes. Several thoughts, as a matter of fact." He set his teacup down, took a moment to marshal those thoughts. "We... the X-Men, I mean, step into situations where the...tension-" It was as good a word as any. "-has already reached the critical point, or is on its way to doing so. Intersections of events. Remy and his group do the same, or work to short-circuit the tension before it can build to the point of explosion." His eyes flickered to the window for a moment. "But my... family isn't wedded to the idea of the grand gesture. They'll make it if they need to, or if they're pushed to it, but... slow and steady wins the race."

"Look at the situation in Chad," Nathan said, a little passion creeping into his voice. "The camp was beyond objectionable. The camp was an obscenity. But it goes beyond the children we liberated. If the Chadian government turns around and starts that operation right back up, it would still go beyond the specific children involved." Better. This was better. A specific example. "A lot of those children were from the Sudanese refugee camps, not just the one whose mother got Dom involved in the first place. If Chad decides to take another kick at the can, those kids are still vulnerable, because there's no awareness of the problem and no method to address it. No will to protect them." Nathan's jaw clenched. "So they'd either fall into government hands, or have to retreat even farther into feral behavior to avoid it. Harder to catch a wild animal, after all. The fear, the urge to survive, would change them, in ways just as damaging as military training would change the ones in the camp. And I get the very strong sense that would fit my family's philosophy even better than successfully mass-produced mutant child soldiers."

He leaned back in his chair, wondering at the sudden surge of adrenalin. "I'm not worried about the things that the X-Men or intel can fight," Nathan said. "I'm worried about the battles that don't look like battles until after we've lost them."

"Your... experiences," Xavier picked his words carefully, "enable you to recognize such situations, and I feel that with the connections you have made in your career, as well as those available through myself and through Remy, if anyone would be suited to deal with such potential crises - those that lie still, like a snake in wait - it would be you. Not only for your experience and ability, Nathan, but I believe that this may truly be your nature." Charles gave a warm smile, one that indicated that Nathan was not speaking to Charles the professor and progenitor of the X-Men, but Charles the man.

"Well," Nathan said, his smile a little steadier, "if my relatives have decided they're going to be the anti-humanitarians, the least I can do is... uh, thwart them at every turn." His mind was racing suddenly, as if saying it aloud had suddenly set him free to consider all the possibilities. "It's the developing world I'm most concerned with," he said. "First-World countries have more checks and balances. Support structures. People who yell loudly if they see abuses going on, even when those being abused are mutants." He was sounding like he was back in classes at Albuquerque, Nathan reflected dimly, arguing with the sheltered twentysomethings who hadn't seen the things he'd seen, traveling the world on missions for Mistra. "But when you have a... failed government, a lack of civil society, there's nothing but vulnerability."

"And how do you change that?" Charles asked, in that 'I know the answer but want to hear you say it' voice that he had apparently perfected over the years. "Without resorting to the methods used by your father and uncle, how do you effect that change?"

"Knowledge," Nathan said with a certain amount of irony. But some of the passion was creeping back in again. Knowledge had made the difference so many times in his life, for better or for worse, that he couldn't help but appreciate the value of information. Even if he wouldn't be caught dead putting it to the same uses his family apparently did. "The developing world is not this formless place full of hungry people and nothing else, no matter what the average man on the street here in the 'First World' thinks. There are structures there that can be strengthened, if the people in the right places are given the right information at the right time." He fell silent for a moment. "You give people the weapons they need to fight for what they believe in. Information's the ultimate double-edged sword."

"Then you can be that person." Charles made the words a statement, an affirmation rather than a question. "An envoy of sorts, extending that open hand of knowledge, solving a problem before it becomes one, as it were."

"I'd have to do some travel," Nathan said, the wheels still turning behind his eyes. "Not at first, and maybe not as much as I think. Get back in touch with my social contacts in various places... hell," he said, blinking at Charles with a sudden, rueful grin. "I ought to take the New York bar exam. So many NGOs are based through the UN here... it would be the perfect in."

"How does Thursday sound?" Xavier said, sitting up straight. "I happened to speak with an old friend of mine who was recently appointed to the appellate court, and he happened to mention that the bar association is waiving fees for independent applicants this year..."

"Thursday?" Right. Thursday. "Thursday it is, then," Nathan said, quietly thanking whatever God there was for his photographic memory. And his general lack of need for much sleep. Definitely, there were a few nights of reading in his immediate future. "I need to look back at the data Remy and I brought back from Philadelphia," he said. "See if that gives me a few places to start." He gave Charles a thoughtful look. "And I need to do some reading, find out precisely what happened at CONGO and why their servers crashed. I refuse to believe that was entirely innocent, whatever Saul had to say about Samara's ethical business practices."

"Your father did not strike me as a dishonest man," Charles said cautiously, "but rather a man who has carefully chosen what to believe, so as to never present anything more than the facts that suit the situation. Would that he were so dishonest, I believe your situation would be less... complex."

"I didn't mean that he didn't believe it, just that..." Nathan paused, shaking his head again. "Just that there's more to it. I never saw the same things in my father that I did in Gideon. It makes me wonder..." He trailed off, not ready to go down that road just yet. The shock was fading, but the anger was still very much there. "So," he said, more briskly. "Bar exam first? Then I'll have to get started on that other reading." Reading, hell. He needed to build himself a database - not a threat database, but background material. Identify the potential problem areas for mutants in the developing world before he actually did anything about them.

"Indeed you should," Charles agreed, extending his hand to Nathan. "This is a turning point for you, my friend. Make the best of it."