xp_logs | Warren and Crystal - Future Plans (backdated)

Warren tells Crystal about the fight with his father and they talk about various ways of helping out in the mutant community.

There was something liberating, Warren thought, about not having to worry about getting to meetings. Or reading reports. Or... anything else he'd done at Worthington Industries. Sure, he'd get sick of the free time soon enough and find something to do, but for now he was enjoying it.

Especially when it meant lunch with one of his closest friends. He'd dragged Crystal away from the school for the midday meal, with the intent of talking to her about what had happened with his father. It was going around and around in his head, and he just needed to get it out.

"I quit working for my father," he blurted out after the waiter had taken their order, and poured their drinks for them.

Crystal stared at Warren. Staring wasn't a very polite thing to do, but sometimes it had its place. Besides, this was Warren. "Is this a good thing or a bad thing?" she inquired. "What happened to bring this about?"

"Good," he said empathetically, before adding "I think." He shrugged, fingers starting to play with the edge of his napkin. "You know I've been unhappy with it for a long time, and then... well, we had a fight. Over... well, it started over him wanting to know why I won't date 'normal' women. And then it spiraled from there. I may have lost my temper a little."

As far as Crystal knew, Warren didn't date women at all, but he did spend quite a lot of time out in public with them, giving the outside world the impression that he dating women including herself. "I am not normal? I am wounded, truly I am," Crystal remarked before taking a sip from her glass, not looking wounded at all. "What did you say to him?"

"No," he replied with an apologetic smile. "Though my mother did start all of this off by wanting me to invite you to family dinner sometime, so you know, not all of my family hates the idea of you." He shrugged. "I told him it was his fault. If I have to hide what I am to protect the family, then he doesn't get to complain about the results. I never know who I can trust when it comes to my 'secret', unless it's another mutant. If I wasn't hiding, maybe I... well, actually, I probably wouldn't necessarily date someone who wasn't a mutant. But it would be an option, at least."

"I hope that if you do stop hiding, it is not simply to allow yourself to have such an 'option'." Crystal thought Warren deserved better than that. Baseline humans were fine for most things, but dating? Crystal hadn't ever bothered to ask what her sister would think if she wanted to date a human because Crystal herself just wouldn't want to do that. It wasn't hard to imagine the look on Medusa's face if she ever broached the topic, though. But she was also aware of the fact that theirs was not a popular view. "I suppose that it would be easier for you to have an actual, public relationship if you did not have to hide anything about yourself, although if you do reveal your true self to the world, you might have many other matters to deal with, ones much more pressing than finding a date. I take it your father did not take your words very well?"

Warren laughed. "Oh, definitely not. Things are complicated enough, I don't think I need to looking elsewhere for people I'd like to date." He shook his head. "I didn't really give him a chance to react. I just left. And I haven't spoken to him since, or shown up at work." His position at Worthington Industries had always been something on the nebulous side, and he honestly didn't feel the need to properly tender his resignation. As far as he was concerned, he was done working there. His father could work it out as he pleased.

"What are you going to do now?" Crystal asked. "Do you have money that is yours alone, or is it possible that he is able to cut off all of your resources? You could always come teach at the mansion," she added with the hint of a grin, knowing full well that Warren wouldn't want to do that. "Xavier's always seems to be open to hiring new teachers no matter how few students are enrolled." And, sadly, they were down one very good teacher at the moment.

"No, I've already done my stint as a teacher, it's not really my thing. I'll probably spend more time on my projects in District X, and Angelo and I talked about setting up a law firm to work out of there. So I have options." Warren grinned at the thought. Stuff he actually wanted to be doing, rather than stuff he thought he should be doing. How novel.

"There's some stuff my dad can touch, but my trust fund is not one of them. And I have my own investments," he continued. "I'll probably move out of my apartment, since he gave it to me. Perhaps even back to the mansion." It had been years since he'd lived there full time, and the thought of returning was a little strange.

Once again, Crystal stared at her friend, and then she laughed. "You want to move back into the mansion?" The thought was strange to her, too. She'd never known living-in-the-mansion Warren. She'd met him at the West Coast Annex when she was dating Forge, and even when the winged mutant had moved back to New York, he hadn't come to live at the mansion. "You would want a suite of your own, I assume. There is plenty of space in the mansion, of course. You would not prefer to find another apartment in or closer to the city, though? Possibly near District X since you appear to be planning on spending much time there."

Warren shrugged. "Why not? It would be more convenient for team things, and it's not like it's a terrible place to live. Maybe I'd find an apartment in the city as well, but that takes time, and I'd rather move out sooner rather than later. I already spend a couple of nights a week at the mansion as it is, I might as well do it in the comfort of my own bed." The more he thought about it, the more he liked the idea.

"You have always been my out-of-the-mansion friend," Crystal pointed out. "People might assume that you wish to be a teacher again if you move in, especially since you have been one before. But it is your choice, to make, not theirs." Blue-green eyes gazed at him as Crystal had a thoughtful look on her face. "Well, I suppose that way we would not have to meet up somewhere to go out, we could simply leave together from the mansion, or at least go back together even if we went out after being somewhere in the city."

"There are plenty of people around that don't teach," he said with a shrug. "If the school were desperate for teachers, perhaps, but I'm fairly sure the staff the school already has could easily teach anything I could. And I'd rather focus on something that actually needs my time and attention."

There certainly were, and they should be thankful for that in a way. Crystal couldn't imagine Jared being allowed to teach. What a horrible thought! Given the way the man had acted towards others, not just adults but students as well, it could be her situation with Logan all over again. Some people just were not meant to work with children or teenagers. "Yes, it can be quite good to feel needed. I do not particularly feel needed with what I am doing now," Crystal admitted.

Warren raised an eyebrow, leaning back slightly as their meal arrived. He didn't say anything more until the waiter had departed. "You're not enjoying teaching anymore?" Warren understood that, but he hadn't realized Crystal was unhappy with it.

Crystal shook her head. "Did I say that? No, I have returned to the school to teach on two separate occasions. I want to teach, always; otherwise it is quite likely that I would have moved to California when Forge decided to stay there." She picked up her silverware and began to cut her steak.

"Ah," he said, tilting his head curiously. "Is it the school you're not so happy with?" Warren began to eat as well, crunching through the salad he'd ordered with his fish.

"Have I ever been entirely happy with the school?" Crystal raised an eyebrow, then tried a bite of her food. "I still keep coming back, however. I suppose that I did feel needed for a time, but there are very few students now, and I do wish that the classes were larger. Some days I feel as though I am a tutor rather than a teacher at a school. But what I was actually referring to was the team, and in a way this is not so bad, but on the other hand..." It was her turn to shrug now, done so with a slight lift of her shoulders. "Maybe things could change after I become an official paramedic in just a couple of months. I could be around for more shifts in the Medlab rather than spending time in the city in ambulances and hospitals. Not that even this seems very necessary as we have three actual doctors on the staff of the school, but as we have seen recently, it can be hard when one or more of the doctors are injured."

"Why don't you see if the Angels clinic could do with your help?" Warren asked curiously. "They get far more traffic than the medlabs do, and a lot of their patients are mutants. They don't have the same sort of facilities, but I think your help would be needed there far more than it is. And Lord knows there isn't a great deal of emergency response that really knows how to respond to problems in District X."

"I believe that I already am the emergency response in District X," Crystal said wryly. "Not officially, of course, and yes the Angels Clinic is there, but I highly doubt that it is a coincidence that the known mutant manages to wind up responding to every call that comes in involving Mutant Town when she is available. It is not as though there are many calls for help from there, though. It is a small population, only approximately half of them are mutants, and many of the residents there are not fond of contacting the outside world for help. I suppose I may as well see about making it official. I suppose people shouldn't be too surprised when the crazy mutant princess who decided to become a schoolteacher and then added being an EMT onto her resume as well decides help out with medical care in an area populated by hundreds of mutants."

"Who cares what people think?" Warren grinned. "If you wanted to go where you're needed, then just do that. There are so many mutants outside of the mansion that need help, and I can't help but think it would be a good thing if we all did more. We were all lucky enough to go to school there, to learn about our powers. Not everyone is that lucky."

Crystal nodded and finished another bite of steak. "Admittedly I did not need the school to learn about my powers, and in fact had been working on my abilities for eight years before I came to the mansion, but my case is a very rare one indeed. I am certain that there are a number of children in District X who could benefit from someone helping them with both their powers and regular schoolwork. If I am to spend more time in District X, I could do more than help out at the clinic."

"See?" Warren replied. "There's plenty that you could be doing, rather than just restricting yourself to the team or the school. They're both important, of course, but they're not for everyone. And the Professor has the institute to sponsor programs outside of the school, you could look at some sort of tutoring program or something. I'm sure there are others that would love to be involved."

Crystal smiled. "I am certain that I can handle what is needed to start a tutoring program. After all, years ago I had an idea to start a new school, and I did. I found a location, came up with a plan, helped spread the word about it, looked over the student applications... and I was all of seventeen at the time. Now that I am older and wiser" she laughed a bit at that "and have received both a university degree and a license to teach, starting a program in District X should not be much trouble at all. That is, of course, if parents and students there are interested, and should there be a need for such a program I would hope that they would be pleased were one to exist there."

"You also were in your home country, with a royal title to back you up," Warren pointed out. "It doesn't matter how good your intentions are, District X is a pretty insular community. Unless they know you, and trust you, it doesn't matter if every kid in District X needs help, they're not going to accept your help." He frowned a little bit. "Trust me, I'm running into the same problems. There's only so much you can do for a community that doesn't necessarily want your help, even if they desperately need it. People have their pride, and they don't like accepting what they see as charity."

Crystal nodded. "That is true. I hope that they would trust me, and even if I have not earned their trust yet, perhaps if I do start spending time at Angels Clinic and they begin to see me there more often, on my own, the trust will come. Perhaps starting small would be best in this situation? Rather than essentially forcing a program into their area, start with only those few who might already be open to such an idea, and then allow them to spread the word to discover whether or not more people would be interested."

"Or just start with the clinic, and see where things take you. There's so much that needs to be done just with the clinic alone, especially now that they don't have to worry about funding. You'll work out sooner rather than later what sort of thing is needed within the community."

"Teaching is my passion, although I did take an interest in the medical field at a young age," Crystal replied. Her father's mutation had piqued the curiousity of the young girl, and as a teenager she had become interested in how her own powers could be used to affect the human body in a beneficial way, and studying courses related to biology and anatomy and physiology, plus receiving medical training, had helped with that. "Given the choice between one or the other, I would choose to be involved with students to further their education over spending my days in a hospital or clinic. But," she continued, "I should be able to do both, yes? I am involved with both of them now, and once classes are over for the school year, I will have the additional time needed to devote to new places and goals. At the present moment, however, I am interested in hearing about your law firm idea."

"Oh, well," Warren shrugged. "Really it's just a continuation of the work I was doing in California - I took a lot of pro bone cases dealing with discrimination against mutants, and it's not entirely an area that you get a lot of people wanting to work in. And discrimination against mutants is particularly bad here in New York, no one's forgotten what Apocalypse tried to do." He smiled ruefully. "But there's still a lot of work to be done for it. I have to pass the bar exam here, which I can't sit until July, and then I won't get results until November. And I have to find an office and hopefully a partner and start actually trying to find clients. Unfortunately it will take a while before things actually get started."

"You have plans, though, and that is what is important. You have already spent time looking around District X and speaking to people about what you plan to do." Crystal smiled. "You have quit working for your father, but I believe that you are still going to be a very busy man. There is so much for you to do even now, and then, once everything is ready... it will be wonderful and exciting, I am sure. The work you will be doing will help mutants and can show people that most mutants simply wish to live their lives in peace, just as non-mutants do." Crystal thought it was unfortunate that people could focus on the negative portrayals of mutants they saw, remembering Apocalypse and thinking of him and Magneto when they thought of mutants, rather than focusing on the fact that for every one mutant like them there were thousands more going about their daily business, not considering themselves any more or any less than baseline humans, wanting the same things out of life that everyone wanted.

"It certainly will keep me busy," Warren said. "But that's okay, I like busy. There's nothing I dislike more than sitting around, doing nothing, just because I don't have to do anything to earn a living. I suspect this makes me a terrible trust fund brat, but I'm mostly resolved to that. Especially when it means I can do work like this, that actually has some meaning to it, rather than sit through boring business meetings all day." He smiled ruefully. "And hopefully one day mutants won't need anyone to do this sort of work, because the rest of society will actually get that mutants are people too, superpowers or no."