[Tommy and Scott] Friday morning

[x-traitor.livejournal.com]

Scott comes down to see Tommy and they talk at each other. Nothing is won on either side...but Scott gets a feel for one of the new problems he has to deal with



: Tommy was just finishing the old book, 'The Three Musketeers' as he heard the door open. He looked up quickly, shoving Coca under his pillow. He started using the rhino as a pillow under his arm cast and the little guy had grown on him. Tommy was expecting one of the girls who brought him food, or the hot red-headed doctor, but this guy with the red glasses was new. "Well, your new..."

Scott gazed at the boy for a minute, then mustered up a brief, perfunctory smile, one that came off considerably more tired-looking than he'd intended. "I should have been down here to see you before now, but things have been busy. I'm Scott Summers," he said, sitting down in the chair next to the bed and not stopping to ask for permission. "I'm the headmaster here."

Tommy just gave him his normal annoyed look that he reserved for everyone that came in here though he raised an eyebrow about the headmaster bit. "Little young for that ain't ya? Or is that what you do?"

"What? Not age? No." Scott raised a hand, touching his glasses lightly. "My eyes. I'm an energy projector, but I had an accident not long after I manifested - I was in a plane crash. Wound up with brain damage that prevents me from controlling my mutation, so the glasses do it for me."

Tommy raised a thoughtful eyebrow.” Interesting. You do alot of damage then I take it?"

"Well, the purpose of wearing the ruby quartz glasses all the time - I have goggles that I wear while asleep and in the shower - is so that I don't do any damage at all," Scott said calmly. "But yes. If I chose to, I could turn this mansion into rubble in about five seconds flat."

That caused a smug look to cross Tommy's face as he proved a point to himself. Then he cocked his head to the side. "So, your obviously not a doctor nor one of the helpers who brings meals. What do you want?"

Scott didn't answer his question, merely tilted his head, smiling slightly. "Something I said made you happy. I doubt it's that I'm capable of demolishing buildings if I take off my glasses. Care to share?"

Tommy just continued to smile. "A few days ago, one of your lovely mad lab assistants asked me why I hated mutants. I said because of all the destruction and loss of life they cause, you being a prime example. Now, Mr Summers was it? I have politely answered your question so can we skip the lecture and have you answer mine? What do you want?"

"The most I've caused, Thomas, is some incidental property damage. And mostly here, where it's expected. Mutants don't manifest knowing how to control their powers. Your lead tree is a good example of that."

Tommy just rolled his eyes so they wouldn't show his curiosity about the lead tree. Going to see if it was really real and not a figment of his imagination was the first thing he wanted to do when he got out of here. And he stayed grudgingly silent, waiting for an answer.

"What do you want?" Scott asked, then went on before Tommy could answer. "Other than to wake up and find out that this was all a dream. That you're back with your friends and family, and your genes are as pristine as those of any baseline human who's ever lived."

Tommy frowned. What kind of question was that? "Honestly, yes, I would. I'd be lying otherwise. But I'm not an idiot, I can see what's going on. And honestly, right now I just wanna get out of this bed."

"What's going on?"

"That I'm obviously a freak now as well as everyone one else in this cursed place." Tommy rolled his eyes. What kind of idiot was this guy?

"Freak. It's such a funny word, really," Scott said, his gaze straying idly around the room. "And cursed... I'm wondered that myself, from time to time. But in the literal sense of the word."

He blinked, was this guy really for real? Tommy was beginning to wonder about this guy...if he was really sane enough to be the headmaster of any school, much less a freak school.

Scott looked back at him, raising an eyebrow. "What did you expect?" he asked patiently. "For me to come storming down here trying to convince you that your beliefs are wrong? I suspect you've been getting the standard lectures from some of the medlab helpers you've seen thus far. They're very well-intentioned, the girls, don't get me wrong. But they're missing a critical piece of information about you."

Tommy just again raised an eyebrow at him. "Oh? And what would that be?"

"That you honestly are not mentally capable, just now, of absorbing anything other than what you've been taught." Scott shrugged lightly. "It's not your fault. The term is 'indoctrination', and judging by your activities before your manifestation, it was done pretty successfully. You honestly don't know better, and your judgment’s been stunted enough that you can't approach the issue critically."

Again Tommy just blinked at him. This man was sitting here saying he'd been 'indoctrinated'. That it's not his fault he couldn't absorb something new...Where did he get off? "What the hell! Like it's nothing you don't do with the kids here. What I believe, is what I believe, and I'm not just gonna change for you all. As I'm sure a reformed FOH mutie would look good on your record....I'm not gonna provide. They may have rightfully rejected me, but I am still a Friend of Humanity."

"You're a mutant, Tommy," Scott said, just as patiently. "And you don't believe what you believe, you believe what you've been spoon-fed. The FOH, fundamentally, appeals to the fear people have for anyone who's different. It's an organization dedicated to taking the easy way out. I don't hate them, per se. They're just..." He paused, smiling very slightly. "Less evolved. It's ironic, because they dehumanize themselves as completely as they do mutants. But you don't expect anything better from people who shut off their intellect the way your friends do."

"People are already afraid. The FOH helps them by doing something about those fears. As I told one of your helpers, we are more concerned from saving human from the destruction you cause. Yes, we want to find a way to control mutants, but so people will be safe and no one has to suffer any more." Tommy sat up straighter, looking Scott straight in the eyes. "You all don't even care what you do or who you hurt in the process." And he shook his head, before Scott could reply. "I'm not gonna listen, so save your breath."

Scott laughed. Softly, and ruefully. "I thought we'd already established that you aren't going to listen, Tommy? You can't. I don't have any illusions about that, right now." There was pity, and a certain weary amusement on his face. "You know what you remind me of? A Pez dispenser. Your mouth opens and out comes highly processed rhetoric with very little nutritional value."

"Yes because insulting me is really going to higher my opinion of you. And to think you teach children..." He shook his head mockingly, tsking softly.

"I have," Scott said after a moment, "absolutely zero desire, or energy, to improve your opinion of me. You are a child... considerably younger, mentally, that you are physically. One doesn't get upset about a child's temper tantrums or irrational thinking patterns. One merely corrects them." Scott looked at him very levelly. "So that leaves us with the problem of what to do with you," he said, moving back to the heart of the issue. As bleakly entertaining as it was to watch the boy flail around spouting slogans from the FOH handbook, the week had been entirely too long to find amusement in that for long. "You realize that you can probably never go back to your friends and family. If for no other reason than the local police are likely to help them finish the job they started on you a month ago."

Tommy honestly only shrugged. "Do I have a choice? Will you let me stay here around your precious children? I highly doubt."

"I for one will be advocating that," Scott said calmly.

That was met with another raise of eyebrows. "And your staff how do they feel? And what about the students themselves. I doubt you will find many that agree." Now if they would just let him leave...he could deal with this himself.

"A number of the students hate you, with good cause," Scott said with a shrug. "I imagine a number of the staff probably dislike the idea of you staying as well, but here's the thing, Thomas. We don't always like our students. We don't have to." He leaned forward a little. "But," he said steadily, "there are limited alternatives, with you. Even if we didn't turn you over to the police for arson and attempted murder - which would be very difficult to prove, given that the local police are corrupt and your victims are suitably terrorized - and even if your former friends didn't kill you, it would be thoroughly irresponsible of us to let you go off to... oh, kill people and do severe property damage because you don't know how to use your powers."

Tommy only nodded. "So what are you going to, oh Mr. Summers? Seems you have a problem on your hands." His voice was smug but his was serious

Scott shrugged. "Argue for keeping you around and deprogramming you," he said, rising from the chair. "At least until we can be somewhat sure you're not a danger to anyone else or yourself. And don't give yourself too much credit, kid." Scott's smile was humorless. "We've taken in much worse than you."

"Oh I have no doubt." Tommy agreed honestly. "I'm sure I'm tame compared to most. Bet your children think otherwise." He only nodded to Scott in dismissal, picking up his book again.

"Oh, yes," Scott said tolerantly. "To them you're the devil incarnate... that's what you want to hear, isn't it? That they're afraid of you?" Scott shook his head, gazing down at the boy. "I'm sorry," he said, when Tommy didn't look up. "Was I supposed to let you have the last word?" Smiling very slightly, he turned towards the door, pausing once he reached it. "You're right," he said. "You are a problem, Thomas. But I'm an engineer. Solving problems is what I do." And he let himself out, closing the door quietly behind him.