LOG: Clint introduces Billy to Scott and the mansion (Backdated to May 16th)

[x-asgardian.livejournal.com]

Clint gestured toward the door he'd led Billy to after parking the car out beside the garage and walking through the mansion's apparent maze of hallways. He'd warned Scott that they were nearly to the mansion and now he just hoped the older man was prepped for an introduction. "Mister Summer's is pretty cool. He'll give you the official rundown of things here. Probably a tour of the facilities and stuff."

Billy took in the place with interest as he followed. He'd not been quite sure what to expect from Clint's "old money estate" description. It wasn't as opulent as he'd wondered, but the sheer size of the place took him aback. His parents were well-enough-to-do, but even a reasonably sized condo in Manhattan was dwarfed by the building itself, not even taking the grounds into consideration. "Is this his place?"

"I think it all belongs to Professor Xavier. He's the old money. Mister Summers is like. I dunno what you'd call him. Official something or other." Clint paused and then knocked on the door.

"Official suspicious old man I think," Scott piped up from inside his office, "or driver and maker of supremely fast cars." He noted with a grin as he pushed the door open. "Come on in, you must be the friend Clint said he was bringing to the mansion."

"We're friends now?" Billy asked Clint with a sideways glance. He brushed his long curly hair back, studying Scott a moment. "But yeah, I'm Billy. He said enough to...catch my interest, so I thought I'd come check it out. Thanks for letting me come by."

"I mean, we're not going steady or anything," Clint said dryly. He held his hand out to shake Scott's, then tipped his head toward Billy and said, "He's probably gonna take some convincing."

"Well, we're pretty good at convincing," Scott replied as he gestured to the couch at the back of his office. "Can I get you anything to drink?"

"We'll see about that," Billy chuckled as he settled onto the couch. "I'm good, thanks. Really just looking for more details."

"And on that note," Clint said, tipping his head toward the hallway, "I'm gonna head over to the kitchen for some real food. Billiam, you've got my number if you need it."

Billy nodded toward Clint, waiting until he'd left before continuing. "It's a nice place, for sure. Clint called it...," he paused, trying to recall the exact word. "A haven, I think. From my experience, though, it can be a blurry line between 'haven' and 'prison,' however fancy the digs."

"It can be a matter of perspective," Scott agreed, "but there are no bars on the windows or locks on the doors. We don't want to force anyone to stay here if they want to leave." The X-man settled back in his chair, "That's not what we're about. Anytime you want to leave we won't stop you. A lot of us have left but there is something about this place that keeps drawing us back. It's home."

"Well, that sounds nice, but forgive me if I'm still skeptical," Billy shrugged, his tone not particularly confrontational, just unconvinced. "At any rate, I've got a decent enough home situation, better than most, for sure, so that's not what really caught my interest. I want to help people. And I think I'm doing a fair job, whatever Clint says, but he said this place might be able to help me be more...effective, or however he put it. So that's really why I'm here. To see if it's true."

Scott steepled his hands and leaned back in his chair, "We do...undertake that kind of thing." Scott allowed, unsure of how much Billy had been told. "We've seen most kinds of powers here and are pretty good at handling them and setting up training programs help people to control and use their powers more effectively. Clint's probably right, you can always find a way to be better, I've been at this all my life and I'm still learning more effective ways to work. What exactly do you do?"

"Isn't that your job?" Billy quipped, mostly joking. "Honestly, I don't know. until now, it hasn't really mattered. I say...stuff and it happens. More or less. That's what I'm maybe interested in. More of the more, less of the less."

"I'd like to think my job is helping people too," Scott countered with a smile inclining his head at Billy, "But that sounds a lot like magic to me. We can run you through some exercises to find out. But don' worry, we have plenty of experience with that too," Well he knew it was Magic, this was Billy but it was best not to rely too much on his memories of the past.

"Interesting choice of words," Billy said thoughtfully. "'Exercises,' not 'tests.' That's one point for you. How many people are here?" he asked, skepticism starting to give way toward curiosity and interest.

"It differs, like I said people come and go, this isn't a prison," Scott cocked his head to the side, "We have around 70 people living at the mansion these days. It's a big mansion and we have plenty of room here, but this is probably the most people we've had here in a while. It's quite an eclectic collection we have here."

"Seventy," Billy asked, his eyes widening. "Wow. I had no idea it would be that many, even if you were extremely public about it. I guess I've got a lot of people to start meeting."

"It can be a little overwhelming," Scott confided, "but don't worry we don't bite. Well most of us anyway. We try to stay on the discrete side of public, as far as most people know this is just a place where we live thanks to Charles. You'll meet most of the residents pretty quickly, especially at lunch times. We have a pretty big communal kitchen most people prefer to use so its easy to bump into people there."

"Well, sure. Let's give it a go, then," Billy concluded. "Will be good to meet others at any rate, and we'll take it from there."

Scott glanced down at his watch, "Well there's no time like the present," he noted standing up, "It's just coming up to lunch time so we should be able to find at least a few people hanging around the kitchen's now looking for some food. Care to see what we could find?"