ArchivedLogs:Discipline

Discipline
Dramatis Personae Kyinha, Xavier
In Absentia	2015-12-24 "{To what end?}"
Location <XS> Headmaster's Office - B1
Quietly elegant, the headmaster's office is as old-fashioned as the headmaster himself. The large wooden desk is the centerpiece of the room, the guest's chair a high-backed dark wood one. The walls are painted in rich dark colours, a sole impressionist painting hanging on the wall. The hardwood floors are polished, the floor kept carefully neat and tidy, the room perpetually immaculately organized. Outside the windows of Professor Xavier's office there is a light drizzle that colors the sky and spreads a distant haze over the hills -- which are incidentally still green, given the nearness to the end of the year. Professor Xavier himself is at his desk, a pot of tea steeping on his desk, fine china tea cups resting on the silver platter before him, a few lumps of sugar in the bowl, but the milk having a rather more watery appearance than usual. He leans back in his seat, fingers steepled together as he quiets himself, waiting for the approach of a familiar mind - before beckoning him to, << Come in. >> Without even breaking stride, Kyinha enters as bade. Freshly showered and changed from his morning workout, his thoughts are straying to the weather and how that might affect his fishing run later. He wears a short-sleeve button-up with tessellated bird and fish patterns and dark and light blue, khaki cargo shorts, and brown sandals. His jet black skin is looking a little duller than usual without the faint halo of light that often shows over it, but his eyes still blaze as if with an inner fire. "{Good day, Professor,} he says in Portugese. "{Happy holidays.}" "{Happy holidays to you as well,}" Professor Xavier replies. Though he is speaking a scholastically developed version of Latin, a dead language that few but absolute classic majors would recognize, the words simply make sense to Kyinha's mind. He gestures to the tea and raises an eyebrow questioningly, before offering verbally as well, "{Would you care for some tea?}" He reaches over and starts to pour his own, the fragrant bergamot filling the air with more vibrance as he pours the steaming liquid into his cup. "{How do you take yours?}" "{Sure, thank you.}" Kyinha isn't troubled the language dissonance, at least, though he is now starting to assemble what he means to ask Xavier. Not that the topic is a secret, telepathy or no -- his email had been entitled 'Regarding Holiday Amnesty for Grounded Students.' "{A little bit of milk, one lump of sugar, please.}" "{You are welcome to present your case any time you would like -- unless you would like to discuss the unseasonably warm weather before hand. Normally, I find that type of small talk tedious, but given the temperatures this late into the year, it is very worthy of note.}" He pours a second cup before setting down the pot and picking up a pair of tweezers and dropping a single lump into the first cup, stirring it slightly before adding the cool milk. He then picks up saucer and tea and offers it to the young member of his faculty. "{Thank you.}" Kyinha accepts the tea and drops into the seat across from the headmaster. "{It's confused the wildlife, for sure, and made fishing easier than it should be.}" He stirs his tea with the spoon before setting it and the saucer down on the table, keeping the teacup in his jet black hand. "{But, to be direct, I believe that restricting students to campus as punishment at this juncture not only harms them, but serves no useful disciplinary function.}" He lift the cup and takes a long sip. "{Our students have watched their friends sicken and die and come back to attack them. They've been terrified, underfed, overcrowded, and harassed for weeks. And, grounded or not, most of them won't get to see their families for winter break.}" Inwardly, there is a sort of low-key background anger to his thoughts. Not specfically aimed at Xavier, though, and not enough to keep him from speaking civilly and enjoying his tea. "{I urge you to give amnesty to students under disciplinary action, or at least temporarily commute their sentences through New Year.}" "{To what end?}" Charles asks quietly, cupping his tea cup between his fingers while he enjoys the tender aroma spilling off of the surface in gentle clouds of steam. "{We also need to protect these children from what is going on in the world at large -- which has been hard enough on campus as it is, with the situations you have described. They have been given every opportunity to request that someone take them to their chosen destinations, but those who have been grounded are those who have not taken advantage of that availability and snuck out on their own, without our protection.}" He speaks softly and evenly, the warmth in his tones as an attempt to sooth the edges he finds in his conversant's mood. << {To what end? Compassion, I hope.} >> Kyinha is already shaking his head. "{But the question is coming from the wrong place. The decision to /punish/, and to continue punishing, should be held to a higher standard of scrutiny.}" He sets down his teacup and leans back in his chair. "{Consider again what I have said: considering the stress, considering the cultural importance of these holidays to many, and considering these students have already defied the rules, do you really suppose grounding them serves to protect them? At best it breeds resentment, and as likely as not they'll go off on their own again anyway.}" He is calmer now, certainly, but no less firm. "{If their safety really is the issue, and if you believe it is truly too dangerous out there still, then allow them off campus conditional on a staff escort.}" "{Still dangerous?}" Xavier consider this. "{I do not think that there is a question as to whether or not this is still dangerous. Some of these students have not only gone out against the restrictions and returned with injuries. I fail to see how things are not dangerous at this time.}" Xavier frowns deeply, turning his gaze down to the surface of his tea before taking a sip and setting it aside. "{In the end, I have but one question: if we back down on this, if we allow leniency, how will we impress upon our students the importance of following the rules and guidelines set forth by this institution? I can't see how not being firm with the consequences we construct as a result of any particular act will benefit them in the future. Is not the intention of such consequences a way to teach that there are repercussions to actions?}" Kyinha's eyes widen ever so slightly, the lift of black eyebrows on black skin not really visible. "{I think that we have fundamentally different ideas about the relative importance of discipline. In my view there's little point scaring obedience into children who will grow up to be persecuted whether they obey or no. And to otherwise compromise their mental and emotional health just to /make a point/?}" He shakes his head and rises, smiling ruefully. "{No. These are extraordinary circumstances, they call for extraorindary considerations.}" He bows his head slightly. "{Thank you for the tea, Professor.}"