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Summary: Emma and Selene finally meet face to face. An agreement is made.
Date: July 15, 2010
Log Title A Meeting of the Minds
Rating: PG-13
Emma Frost's Office
Miss Frost's office is not as white as one would expect, however it does present an overall theme in the room. Using a classic den/office style structure from the building, the hardwood floor has been mostly covered from entry to desk with a white carpet that has been decorative bordered in an ivy-pattern, with the center having a delicately done floral arrangement. Two plush white leather chairs sit slightly staggered and angled facing a white marble topped desk of dark-stained oak, the Xavier Academy logo in front emblazoned in a polished steel. Atop the desk is materials for physical writing as well as a dual-monitor computer system that seems keyboardless, instead having a single mouse-like interface device. To the right are a pair of striated white marble book-cases filled from top to bottom, in the center of the pair a marble fireplace that burns sedately despite the time or season.
Just past the dinner hour, Emma's office seems dim despite the waning sunlight playing off of the furniture and the marble accents that have been added to the office. In front of her on the high-tech displays are incident files having to do with the rash of things happening on campus since her return, and the chill in the air seems to be emanating from her scowl. a pen twirls in her hand, tapping the end to raise and lower the tip striking her desk in a steady beat. Eventually, she just presses a button on the screen, and says into an open comm channel, "Please have James Palmer and his current mental occupant brought to me." Standing up for a moment she turns and faces the outdoors, scowling openly as this meeting has been one she seems to have hoped not to have.
Several minutes pass as James is contacted and brought to Emma's office. With a click of the door knob and a creek of a hinge, the hyena enters sans escort. And while it does look like him and even smells like him, the presence that enters with him is vastly different; alien. 'Selene' crosses her arms, still standing just inside the doorway, "I wondered when you'd invite me to your crystal palace, Emma. I was beginning to think I had been forgotten about."
Emma barely twitches a look over her shoulder, arms crossed and staring out the window, giving a blatant snub to courtesy as she replies, "I had several opening lines ready for this… the most humourous being that you've let yourself go since last I saw you. I've thought long and hard about how to begin this. And then you nearly killed two of my students…" Finally she turns to face the hyena-form, "I didn't know it was you at first. You're good at hiding yourself. And I was too busy to do a proper scan of the grounds. I assumed Addison was doing this. But he doesn't know you like I do."
Selene offers a smug grin and takes a few steps inside before closing the door behind her. "Three," she corrects as she closes the distance between her and Emma, "But, as I told Sam, your students fight back much harder than Xavier's 'New Mutants' ever did." She casually lays her hands on a chair and leans forward, "I have to admit, I like what you've done with the place. Well…aside from the fact you let just 'anyone' waltz onto the school grounds. Standards, Emma. You’ve always been bad with standards."
The room becomes suddenly a bit more cool than it was a moment ago and the sharp look from Emma might have something to do with it. But that and the hard line of her lips are the only sign of agitation. Her chair turns in her hand and she seats herself, adjusting her coat a moment and then tilts her head in consideration, "Don't be coy, and don't… play games with me. I've little mood for it. The only bargaining chip you've to yourself right now is that body you're in. You will tell me this before we go any farther. Is James Palmer conscious of your actions towards those he considered his friends?”
Selene raises her hands in an appeasing gesture. Allowing Emma to take a seat before she does, the former Black Queen considers the question with a sharp inhale, "Currently or Formerly? Because the devil 'is' in the details." A hand wave follows, "I've been in contact with your student since, best guess, February. Never once was he aware of my true identity. Nor do I believe he knows what has happened since the park incident. I cannot guarantee that, however. But his consciousness has been either ejected or has been buried so deep I can't sense it."
Emma taps something on the screen she was looking at and then glances back up at the hyena's form, her eyes careful and studious before finally she says, "I would tell you how many lives you've nearly destroyed with your little game here, but I've no wish to encourage you. All I want to know now is what you want. Because what I want is you gone… back in whatever hole you crawled out from, and preferably never to be heard from again. You're a relic, with all the native charm of a viper, and I will not have you in this place a moment longer than I have to stomach it."
Leaning forward, Selene places her elbows on her knees. Speaking through sharp teeth that fit her better than they ever will James, she replies, "Simple. My freedom." Her eyes narrow as she offers, "I've been imprisoned far too long, and I will not go back without a fight of the likes that is bound to decrease a number of those lives you speak of." But, she's no stranger to negotiating with Emma, so she offers the carrot. One that will hopefully keep her rival from deciding that James' life is worth risking to rid the world of Selene. She leans back in her chair, twirling her wrist, "In trade…I will leave your students along for one year. Provided they do the same for me."
"No." Comes the simple and blunt reply from Emma as she stands up and leans against her desk, keeping herself now on eye level with Selene, both of her's narrowed, "Because you'll twist that word to whatever means you desire, while waiting for me to have it broken by actions taken by others here. I will not slip so simply into one of your little verbal traps. I may not be seventeen thousand years old, but I was definately not born yesterday." A heavy breath is exhaled through her nose as she lightens her darkened stare for a moment, "You want your freedom… so… get out. We're neither strangers to bodily possession…" The pause hangs pregnant until she adds, "Unless… of course… You NEED my help. My remaining… connections."
Selene chuckles darkly, “You know me well, Emma. You always have. However, you forget who taught the Romans about salting the earth. So, lets talk plainly.” Crossing one leg over the other, she offers some insight into her mind, “I would sooner die and take another one of your own with me than submit to your pride and ‘ask’ you for help. However, by putting that ‘greatest weapon’—that pride of yours—away you’ll not only find I’m amicable to your suggestions, you’ll also find I will give you full disclosure.” She stands, the hyena’s form towering somewhat over the woman, “If not, then lets go straight to the threats and promises. You eject me, he dies. Give me reason to question my own thoughts because you or Addison might be tampering with them, he dies. If I get even the slightest headache he…actually, come to think of it…you’re going to have to work pretty hard to keep him from dying if you’re not more careful from here on out.”
Moving around to the front of her desk, Emma stops in front of the center of it, and leans right where the Xavier symbol is, letting her backside kiss the cool marble as she crosses one ankle primly over the other, and crosses her arms under her bosom as she tilts her head to watch the possessed form carefully, "This situation you've caused… or however it has begun… is too unique for me to be allowed my pride, nor you to be allowed your threats." Her arms go wide as she shrugs in an italian mobster sort of fashion, "And while of course… there is a severe amount of gloat I think I'm due over this entire affair, or unholy terrifying rage… there are the children to consider. You will be forgiven the ordinarily necessary apology for offending me by threatening to suicide Mister Palmer… and I will turn my resources to what needs to be done to vacate you from his premises." One finger goes up in pause as her arms cross once more, "You will however… give restitution for the damage to one Robyn Larkin. This much is inviolate if this process is to remain… friendly."
Selene retakes her seat, that smile retaking her lips in time, “I’m glad we still understand one another, Emma. From what I had heard, I was afraid you were a ghost of your former self and that our meeting would involve you blotting my tears or cuddling me to your bosom.” Leaning backwards she inhales sharply, the continuation of the discussion the only sign she offers that she agreed to the terms. “I am trapped. Rory Campbell is up to his old tricks again and it was his spear that has made my exit ‘seemingly’ impossible. That is…barring the sacrifice I had been preparing. How and why his spear did this to me, I am not sure. And—other than someone actually removing my consciousness and moving it back to my body—I am unsure how to do this without bloodshed.”
Emma spreads a long and lingering smile on her face as she reaches up to delicately shift some of her forelocks back behind her ear, so that both eyes remain visible, "You just cannot let go, can you… always with that last word and smug little superiority complex you've cultivated for so very long." Steepling her fingers together, she then says, "You agree… here and now… upon your title as Black Queen of the Hellfire Club… that you and any of your faction, or your influence in perpetuity, regardless of the body you may inhabit or agenda you may perform in future… owe one Robyn Larkin a boon. And that no harm may come to him from you and yours until he releases you of your word by requesting that boon, and upon successful completion of it's requirements to Mister Larkin's satisfaction. Upon contract that I will deliver to DaCosta myself once we have things underway… agree to these terms, and we may begin working on something we both ardently desire."
Selene laughs as Emma finishes, “You forget, little one, that I am not a member of the Hellfire Club. I am its Prisoner. In its basement. In a very deep, dark, hole. OR…I was until one of your own helped me retrieve my body last night.” For effect, she lets that news soak in, “You can deliver whatever contract to whichever person you want. But in the end it will have the same meaning to me. Nothing.” She narrows her eyes, “However, if we both agree that Robyn’s boon is all it takes…no matter what that ‘single’ boon is, then we have a deal.” Obviously, she’s banking on Robyn’s child-like mind to make this easy on her, “In addition, I want no interference from anyone. You, Addison, your staff—anyone. Myself included.”
Emma brings once delicate finger to the side of her head, "And you think I'm also so purblind as to not see that the moment you wrest control of your body once more, the first thing you would do would be to attempt to rekindle any powers and influences you once had, all the way perhaps to the pinnacle you once stood? We will discuss the contract to be signed later… for expediency, I will accept your word. They will not be informed of this. I will explain it to the child myself. Now…" She pushes off the desk finally, "You will be unhappy to know Elizabeth Braddock is back from the dead. Again. And she will until this has been resolved, at her agreement, your keeper. In the morning, you will bring yourself to the lab for a full medical scan, including blood and tissue, so we may compare records of what changes Ahab might have expressed within Mister Palmer's genome. I will also discuss with Forge recreating my possession device I originally designed and used on Ororo Munroe as a means of removing you from here and restoring you to your previous mental residence."
Selene doesn’t comment on the part about rekindling her power. After all, it is true and they both know it. To everything else, however, she disagrees, “No.” She waves her hand, “No to your pretty little Betsy and no to you telling Robyn without me there to insure against your historically well-known deck stacking.” She hmmms, “Everything else, fine. However, I will not ‘sign’ anything until I have returned to my body—unharrassed and as I left it. Should you botch this…like so many things in your past…then any agreement we have is null and void. However, until then you have my word and my bond.”
The look of weariness that crosses her face for a moment is something only another trained to spot such could even catch and discern, but then Emma gives a subtle nod of her head, "Fine. But you will behave… no conspiracies with anyone else… you will accord yourself as a guest here. If I find out you're going behind me to do things yourself… well… we go back to threats and promises…" The smile she gives Selene is enough to make any hyena proud, "And while you've been stuck in a hole, I've got ever so much better at being vindictive." Emma then motions towards the door, "You may leave now, Selene. We will meet again soon after I've seen the results of the medical exams."
