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Summary: Selene meets Rashmi in the old chapel. Politeness is maintained, mostly.
Date: September 19, 2010
Log Title:
Rating: Log Rating.
Xavier Mansion — The Sanctuary
Note: The Chapel is cleaned and mostly repaired, contrary to the desc, but the wall has yet to be rebuilt.
Across the threshold into the chapel is a small receiving foyer, dust and dirt coating the once welcoming room, which is now bereft of furniture or decor, save one framed painting, the glass covering it dark with smoke almost to the point of making the art and inscription impossible to read. Upon closer inspection, it is a painting of two women in an embrace, one older, one younger, the inscription reading 'For whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God. Ruth 1:16'.
Through the large double doors lies the main sanctuary, pews and alter still set up as they were when it was in use, however, the ash is still thick within, and the smoke has stained the walls and chairs and wood black. Back and to the left lies and opening the fire left, a charred passage to the grounds. Leaves and dirt have made their way into the room, concentrated the most heavily in that area. Behind the alter on the back wall, there is only one place left unblackened, which seems to have once been under a large cross, as the shape, if not the cross itself, is outlined on the wall.
Off to the right side of the sanctuary are a few doors leading to small and simple rooms, all bare at this point, but once used to house the priest and other permanent staff of the small parish. The first of the trio still has a rosary hanging on a peg in the wall. The others, however, hold nothing at all, only the effects of the fire.
Late afternoon, and Rashmi is doing the last of the self-appointed rounds she'd taken it upon herself to do for the school, as a way of thanking Xavier's for letting her come back to spend her Sundays at the Mansion. The swish of the broom, the occasional footsteps as she moves along, and her quiet humming, the only sounds in the stillness of the old Chapel, a quiet smile on the redheaded Hindi's face. This, it seems, is a very-much-enjoyed moment of peace for Rashmi, perhaps even something she looks forward to.
Having made it a point to explore Xavier's to the fullest, Selene almost enters the chapel through the hole in the wall a fire left some time ago. Not turned away by the sounds of cleaning, the makes eye contact with the broom's owner before coming closer. A thin smile forms on her face, the look in her eyes one of recognition. A simple nod follows, "Rashmi.. There's a pause, "Mind if I enter?" Vampires and permission, of course. Or is that a wive's tale?
Rashmi blinks at the unexpected voice, turning around quickly. There's a moment of puzzlement as she searches Selene's face, brow furrowed, her thoughts a quiet choral babble as she tries to remember this teacher who clearly seems to know her name. "…I don't see why not…? It's on school grounds, right?"
"That it is," the Black Queen says with a nod. Entering fully, she takes a look around before addressing Rashmi's puzzled expression, "I'm Selene, darling." A quirked eyebrow awaits a triad of expletives, threats, and not-so-thinly veiled violence. After all, the last time these two met it was via her hitchhiker status inside of James.
The response is… certainly not what expected, even for a telepath. It doesn't much help that Rashmi's surface thoughts are starting to 'sound' like a monologue handed off between sextuplets, and the result is a strangely stilted «Wait, that's *her?*/She doesn't look like I expected/no horns/tail/fangs/bad dye job?/Oh… wait/right/Crap/*Telepath!*» And her barriers clang down, cutting the rest of her train of thought off from the casual listener. The redhead does, at least, have the grace to blush at her slip-up, ducking her head slightly and clearing her throat to move the encounter along. "….Sorry. *Any*way. ….Was there something you wanted, ma'am?"
If Rashmi was close enough, she'd see Selene's oddly colored blue eyes dilate and shift to a darker color. It's the type of thoughts coming from someone so 'small' that throw her off. Or rather the near multitude. The smile grows somewhat, maybe showing off those pointed canines of hers, "Only sometimes. When it suits me." She shakes her head and moves her attention away from Rashmi and sets about what she came to do: explore, "Not at all. It's only by sheer coincidence that you and I find our paths converged yet again."
Rashmi's eyebrow rises faintly, eyes following Selene's wanderings through the chapel. After a moment, she returns to her sweeping, the broom's strokes slow and deliberate, and for a few breaths, the only sound between the two. "…I don't remember us meeting before, ma'am. Of course, by now I know *you've* probably met *me* quite often, but seems like it was pretty one-sided. ….Unless I'm forgetting something?"
Running a finger along one of the pews as she walks towards some of the more extensive fire damage, Selene answers, "Through our mutual friend. James. Inside the medical bay. Before that, I was merly, on occasion, watching through his eyes." She tilts her head just enough to keep the other woman in her peripheral vision, "I must admit, you have an ability to speak with him that few others possess. It's as if his mind actually unfogs for a brief moment."
"I'm afraid you'll have to narrow it down a bit further than that, ma'am," Rashmi replies, stooping to take up the dustpan, sweeping the latest pile of dirt in. "We both spent a lot of time in Medical, in turns. Usually visiting each other, and all." Her skirts swish as she strides to the garbage can in the corner, emptying the dustpan out. "I get that a lot from people…. sort of. I guess the trick is to actually care about what they have to say."
There's a nonchalant tilt of a head, and an eyes that barely makes its way toward Rashmi, "I suppose it doesn't matter." She looks at the finger that had just touched the pew and rubs it against her thumb, as if contemplating the dust more than the chapel's level of the cleanliness, "Interesting place." Having finished her exploration, she walks back towards the hole in the wall.
"Robyn told me about the lithium," comes Rashmi's voice at Selene's back. "I have to say… that was pretty stupid, honestly."
Having not quite made her exit, and now facing the graveyard, Selene spares Rashmi the smile that finds itself on her lips, "I'm sure he has, along with, I'm sure, a long list of every injustice I have exercised against him. A list that I will not deny is accurate."
"Oh," comes the airy, distracted reply, "yes… yes he has. But as crazy as it sounds, putting you in charge of an extracurricular team he specifically wanted from the outset, I'm assuming that since you're still here, it's only crazy, not dangerous. But frankly, it's the lithium thing that's stuck in my mind."
"Then it pleases me that we can both agree on the therapy comment," Selene say as she turns to face Rashmi. Obviously the conversation isn't over, so leaving now would just be rude! "And, if it makes you feel any better, I was appointed to this position and my position as teacher." She shifts her hip a little, hand now resting itself upon it.
Rashmi clasps her hands behind her back, eyes narrowing slightly as she meets Selene's gaze. "No… The therapy comment was also pretty awful, but mostly it was just icing on the cake. If you'd scheduled appointments with Mr. Mayfair-Parker, that'd be different. But like I said, it's sticking in my mind. If you'll excuse me, ma'am… I just can't understand why someone who's supposed to be as experienced and, admittedly, dangerous as you've made yourself out to be would fall back on playground-bully tactics and spiteful laziness. It sort of stands out, don't you think?"
"It does, doesn't it," Selene says with a sly smile, "One would, say only maybe, as if one were trying to be noticed?" Arms falling to her side, she takes a few steps closer towards Rashmi, keeping the distance 'conversationally' pleasant. "Sadly, tactics that might otherwise see to my removal in your American public school system only serve to reenforce my position here." As the click-clack of her boots stop, Selene offers, "Was it paramount to a tantrum? Perhaps. Successful? No. I blame the fact that one of your headmasters knows me so well. So, Robyn is stuck with me as much as you are stuck with his continuing wingeing about me."
"I wouldn't call his complaints about *anyone* who once threw him in front of a truck 'whinging,'" Rashmi replies, steel creeping into her voice. "In fact, I'd call them justified concerns, and fully intend to keep watch for any more. Ma'am." The redhead's lips purse together, the hum of her thoughts behind the block all but visible. "…But given the circumstances, I'm also assuming that this position is *your* punishment. So. If you'll be kind enough to hear me out, I'd like to make a suggestion. …As a biased but neutral third party, you could say."
She practically ignores the comments of her wrong doing: "No, by all means," Selene says as she takes a seat on a pew that is probably much to dirty for the clothing she wears, "Entertain me." A wave of her wrist follows. "The only thing that I ask is that you do the same. Either now, or another time." Her eyes narrow predatorily as she waits for the advice to begin, one arm finding the back of the pew as the devil makes herself comfortable in the house of god.
Rashmi leans against the side of the pew behind her, brushing a lock of hair away from her face. "You've been made to teach this team, ma'am. You don't seem to have much choice in the matter, and no matter what you do, you don't seem able to back out of it. I'd submit, then, that the best way to handle this is to do the job you've been made to do. Boring and unpleasant as it may be, it's also your only option. Be a decent teacher, or even a *good* one if you think you're capable, and you'll probably find the time to move a lot faster than it presently is."
Putting up the front that she is at least considering the advice, Selene shows the courtesy to at least not to the ideas that are presented to her. It's nothing she hasn't already considered, and something she must do to retrieve what she needs from the school. Whatever that something may be. "Your advice is noted, albeit rather…obvious for the situation?"
Rashmi shrugs. "Oh, probably… But then, it's sort of difficult to get a read on what you *would* think of and wouldn't. See also: playground-bully tactics."
Probably only adding to Rashmi's theory of bullying, Selene only smiles. For she has a pretty good idea of the strife she is causing, and continues to do with in the simplest of action. In this case, neither confirming nor denying, nor reacting to a statement. Somewhat because it's nothing she has never heard before, and usually during a chess game using others lives. Maaaaybe like right now. "Do you know what it means to live to be nearly 20,000 years old, Rashmi? I'm sure that you can provide more than a surface estimation."
"No," Rashmi replies quietly, shaking her head, "and I can't imagine a time where I'd ever want to." Looking back up, she locks eyes with Selene, her voice quiet, sincere. "I'd almost feel sorry for you, you know… It's just a shame that you seem to enjoy the things you do so much."
"See, not so different," Selene says with a only a slight move of her head, "There is at least one thing we can both agree on." It's a cryptic statement with that could be read as Selene not wishing long life on Rashm (hopefully of the beyond-mortal variety). "You find my ethic questionable. And I expect my habit of living on off the life of others more so?"
"Is it a habit?" Rashmi counters. "Is it something you do because you can? Or because you don't have any other choice? Is it something you'd give up, if you had the opportunity?" The redhead's shoulder lifts, falls. "…Actually those questions're pretty rhetorical, since I don't have any way to reliably know the truth, whether or not you'd even be inclined to give it to me. But I *do* know about Robyn, and how he needs psychic energy to live. So I guess the answer is, it's not so much the need, as the *will* that's questionable, isn't it?"
"I have as much reason to lie to you as you have yo believe me," Selene states, "Which means we are at a conversational impasse. In part because the courtesy I extended to you by hearing you out has not been returned." The dead expression on her face never changes, "So, since this is the case, I will continue upon my journey and allow you to continue yours. There's an interesting parallel to the situation you find yourself in today I hope is not lost. Speaking to me. Cleaning the dirt out of a church with a hole in its wall. Your energies would serve your situation better to spend if you spent more time on the cause and less on the effects." She stands to leave.
"I'm perfectly willing to hear you out, ma'am," Rashmi says evenly, eyebrows rising, "I don't believe that admitting I don't have powers of lie-detection have any bearing on whether or not I'm *listening* to you, you know. But, yes, I interrupted. For which, I apologize, and promise to remain silent until I can be certain I won't be interrupting anymore." Her eyes drop to the dirt, and back up. "I can sweep floors, ma'am. I *can't* build a proper wall to save my life. The best I can do, I'm afraid, is the best I can do. But at least I know I can do *something.*"
Selene motions to the rest of the room in a neutral fashion, "Even without counting the room that could be taken by the seated, there is more room in here for you and I. And yet, you choose to do this alone. Even though outside these walls you are anything but." That last part comes out rather matter-of-factly; Selene resting on her hip once more. "I see that Xavier's rule under Scott Summers has taught you even less about team work than I have been accused of knowing."
Rashmi blinks, a small smile startled out of her by the accusation, followed by a soft laugh and a shake of her head. "…Repairs need teamwork, ma'am… but all it takes is one person to care for something… Even if it's simply a chapel. I'm surprised you hadn't learned that by now…"
Selene gives Rashmi the type of look usually reserved for a simpleton that was just caught shoving chalk in their nose, again, "Child…one without the patience to hear their elder, better, out is not one who should be offering lessons. Especially, when operating under such limitedand handicappedexperience." The hand comes off her hip and she turns to leave the chapel, "Given the high regards the others hold you in, I expected more from our conversation that a poorly executed tit for tat. But my expectations from Xavier's ilk are often met with such results. Good evening."
Unlike Magneto, whose acerbic observations would garner either an embarrased blush, if she conceded her foolishness, or quiet defiance, if she did not, for Selene Rashmi simply holds her tongue, waiting until the ancient woman has left the Chapel, and some many minutes after. Then, she simply picks up the broom again, and returns to her sweeping.
