asgardeventide | [ 4 - video + private to raven ]

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[ 4 - video + private to raven ]

[The feed comes up to see a very calmly seated Erik Lensherr at a desk. In the library. Surprise surprise. The best part is that Erik doesn't even seem to be interested in the video much at all, reading a book instead until a moment or two after the feed is turned on.]

Charles Xavier has returned home. [He sets the book down, no real emotion showing on his face, except for disappointment perhaps. He had thought this time would be different.] I do not care to know the details of who stays or who goes. I just wonder why the gods are so keen on bringing back certain people only for them to leave. Again.

This can't possibly be the first time this has happened? When someone has arrived in Asgard, leaves, comes back again - with or without their previous memories of Asgard - only to leave again? Do the gods not have a more effective use of their powers? Or is there no way to better control this?

Just some thoughts I've been entertaining recently.

[private - video - raven darkholme]

Are you free this evening?

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[ You may notice that your older facetwin has his arm in a sling. You can thank Thor for the break and his own stubbornness for the fact that it isn't healed. Just a reminder that no matter how bad things get, you will never be as dumb as Moran. ]

It's happened more than once, old chap, and do you know why that is? The gods are bastards. Ponces, blighters, tossers, rats. Call 'em what you will, wrap 'em up in some "loving, wise, all-knowing" package, but all of 'em are the same.

[ When the fed starts, she's sort of grinning at Erik, about to say something about the fact that the video had started on his end yet he just sat there and kept reading. But then he speaks and all traces of the grin are gone. Because Charles is gone ]

What do you mean Charles left? He couldn't have. He just got here...

[ She's silent, then, until she manages to remember that he asked her a question ]

Yeah. Yeah I'm free.

Well, this makes my life easier.

[It was nearly painful, trying to keep Xavier at bay while having to play the friend with him, and simultaneously hiding the existence of the entire organization to which he'd defected.]

Were you here when the first one was here? Supposedly he fought the gods about us losing our abilities, so much that was was one of the ones they bumped off. You never mentioned that he used to have some actual fight in him.

No. He's definitely not the only one it happens to. I'm starting to think they can't always hold on to some people.

[At least Erik has the decency to, you know, not laugh. Or even smile. Especially since this is a momentous occasion right here.

Moran and Erik are agreeing on something.]

I have to agree with you there, Moran. And the more things like this happen, the less I find myself even having the energy to build up the name.

Then why bother bringing them back at all?

[Erik doesn't say anything about how much easier Pyro's life has become. Maybe there's still a part of him that is...healing. But when he mentions the first Charles, Erik shakes his head.]

I arrived after that Charles had been around for some time. But you'd be surprised. Charles and I used to see eye to eye on a lot of things. We fought side by side, once. For the same cause.

[The grin almost hurts him more, because he can see the way her face changes, recognizes what's going on. He shakes his head.]

He's no longer on the network - which, in my experience, means he's left Asgard completely. To go back home. I'm sorry, Raven, I should have spoken to you about this in person-

[Rude, Erik. Really. But then onto the other matters. He pulls himself back together.]

Would you be interested in dinner? It's not quite...the best time, of course, but I wanted to ask anyway.

Hardly the first time, old chap. I'm starting to wonder if there isn't some mystical revolving door of consulting detectives.

[ That is just amazing. All of that. On both accounts. ]

Good god, man. Did we just agree on something?

I-

[pause for effect]

I do believe we did.

No, it's okay. I just- It's probably better this way right? We don't have to lie to him now.

[ Yet she still looks really disappointed. As weird as it was having Charles here and having to lie to him and knowing what she knows about what happened at home but he's still her brother. She had family here and now the gods sent him home.

She brightens a little though at his question. Not much, but it's something ]

Dinner? Dinner would be great. And it's actually perfect timing.

[ He looks quite surprised. And a bit at a loss of what to do in the case of agreeing with Erik. ]

Well--damn.

[Well, it was a spectacularly thoughtless comment. But he'll learn to expect those.]

Yeah, I know. You worked on Cerebro together, right? Was he using it adopt mutant kids back then, too, or did that not start until the school was built?

[He can't help but be curious about this fierce, determined Xavier, so different from the man who wanted mutants to hide out in his mansion and stay quiet until humans could be brought around.]

Maybe something about them just keeps slipping their grip? But they want them here, apparently... That much seems clear.

I am sorry to hear that, Erik, especially when it's happened more times than it should.

Very true.

[But he can tell she's still bothered by it, and if he can direct her attention somewhere else, then that's what he'll do. Which is why he smiles softly back at her when she brightens, nodding.]

Then I would be honored if you would accompany me tonight.

In a way, it was. We'd been recruited by the US Military to stop another mutant, a man who went by Sebastian Shaw. He- [Erik stops himself, pauses to collect his thoughts. As much as he may trust this boy, he realizes not everything needs to be shared. Not yet, anyway.] He was an enemy to the country, and we were meant to stop him. Cerebro had been started by the government, but Charles perfected it, and we used it to find other mutants to build our team.

Charles had always planned to adopt mutants, bring them in and give them a home when they might not have had one before. Where they could learn about their powers and learn to use them effectively. At the time, we were just sponsored by the government. Up until they turned their backs on us, of course. [There's still quite a bit of bitterness in his tone, there. Because he still blames them - the government, humans, for what happened to Charles. What happened to them. But he shakes his head after a moment, bringing himself back to the point.] The school was a later decision, after I had already begun to recruit for my Brotherhood.

I guess my question, then, is why the gods find it necessary to try and bring them back. Even after so many failed attempts.

Thank you for your condolences, Miss Liddell. I'm afraid to admit that I've grown a little tired of this revolving door. [Sigh.]

[There's a long moment of silence while Pyro tries to digest this. The government, who tried to push registration on them. The military, who attacked a mansion full of kids on the orders of a genocidal madman.]

You - worked - for them?

[His face twists with exertion. This is Magneto, the man who saved him and all of mutantkind, and then offered him freedom. The man who changed his entire course in life for the better. But this news - it's still unacceptable.]

Rightfully so, as well. I didn't realize that could become so frequent.

Failed attempts to keep them here? Perhaps they are looking for a particular reaction.

[He sees Pyro's reaction, and is actually quite intrigued by it. By what he could possibly be like, in the future, to elicit such a thing by this information alone. For Erik, it was only a couple of months ago. But Pyro? This had happened years in the past. So much had changed for him.]

At the time I had my own agenda, as did the government. It was a means to an end, that ended very quickly. [Erik shakes his head.] I did what I had to in order to reach my goals, and when they no longer helped me towards those, I cut ties.

[But then his curiosity gets the best of him.]

Why?

If they are trying to elicit a more extreme reaction, their plan is backfiring. The more this happens, the less I feel the need to react at all.

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[ 4 - video + private to raven ]

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