Logs:Quiet Quitting
| Quiet Quitting | |
|---|---|
| Dramatis Personae | |
| In Absentia | 2024-11-15 << I wish I could tell you. >> |
| Location
<XAV> Xavier's Study - Xs Third Floor | |
from: Charles Xavier <charles@xaviers.edu> to: Scott Summers <scott@xaviers.edu> date: 15 November 2024, 22:06 subject: Fwd: Resignation This caught me quite flat-footed, and I am concerned. I thought you might have some insight, whether on the message itself or his overall wellness since returning. If you think this is cause for alarm more generally, I will reach out to Mr. Black. Regards, Dr. Charles Xavier Headmaster, Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters 1407 Graymalkin Lane, Salem Center, New York ---------- Forwarded message --------- from: Jackson Holland <jax@xaviers.edu> to: Charles Xavier <charles@xaviers.edu> date: 15 November 2024, 21:45 subject: Resignation Professor, I would like to inform you that I am resigning from my position at Xavier's School, effective immediately. I immensely appreciate the opportunities you've provided me for personal and professional over the years, first as a student and then as staff. Sincerely, Jax Holland from: Scott Summers <scott@xaviers.edu> to: <charles@xaviers.edu> date: 15 November 2024, 22:19 subject: Re: Fwd: Resignation Professor, Jackson hasn't seemed too well lately, but it's been a hard few months. He didn't mention anything about this to me. Scott from: Charles Xavier <charles@xaviers.edu> to: to: Scott Summers <scott@xaviers.edu> date: 15 November 2024, 22:21 subject: Fwd: Resignation That hadn't escaped me, and I would not have been shocked at a resignation or overtures in that direction. What concerns me is the abruptness and, now, the fact he did not seek your counsel. I will reach out to request an audience. Regards, Dr. Charles Xavier Headmaster, Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters 1407 Graymalkin Lane, Salem Center, New York from: Scott Summers <scott@xaviers.edu> to: <charles@xaviers.edu> date: 15 November 2024, 22:23 subject: Re: Fwd: Resignation Professor, Thank you. I would prefer to over-react. Scott Perhaps Charles can see the exact moment Scott has parked his bike, his bike safety thoughts clicking off as abruptly as if he'd turned the key on his brain, too. In their place he is casting out for where on campus he should go to find the Professor, muddled and deceptively mild in his query of << ? >> Charles does see it, though he might not have if he weren't fretfully watching for it. His familiar telepathic presence, as warm and comforting as ever, guides Scott to Charles's study. It also conveys relief, gratitude, and, ruefully, the many drafts of a response to Jax that he has written and discarded. He is not at his desk when Scott arrives. He is parked by the window in one of his more comfortable chairs, wearing a plush blue and gold dressing gown with a Kinross tartan blanket over his lap. He's given up typing for the moment and set his laptop on the chess table, the wan light from its screen making him look even more exhausted than usual, even for a Friday night. << I wish I could tell you. >> Scott is still dressed for his date, though it evidently wasn't a very fancy date, he is in jeans and boots and his motorcycle jacket. Nice button-down shirt, at least. He knocks unnecessarily before he comes in and has a seat, quietly, in his chair at the chess table, turning it around toward the professor. His first reaction is, belatedly, to the email drafts: << I don't know what to say, either. I'm surprised he didn't talk to me. >> Surprised might be putting it lightly -- mentally there is a definite sense of floundering for an answer to this, almost more hurt and confused and taken aback by this than he is by Jax's resignation. He breathes in -- breathes out -- this doesn't exactly stop his thoughts roiling, where they are trying to make sense of this, but they do allow for, << Can you ask why? >> (He has a few theories already, but is very anxious to see some of these disproved.) Charles agrees with the weighing of Scott's concerns. He summons up not a single memory but a composite of the previous autumn, when Jax had been absent -- not just from Xavier's but from so much of his community -- for months in deep depression. Probably he recognizes this is not reassuring, and he tries to lend Scott some measure of his exhausted but meditative calm. << I can, but I don't want to pressure him, and there is a certain extent to which I will, no matter what I say. >> He suspects that it would be better on most axes for Scott to talk to Jax, but still thinks he ought himself to send a reply. << (even if he won't talk to me) >> Scott is yanking up a memory too, far more recent, just as unreassuring, talking to a sharkpup in the dim hallway of the Brotherhood's Mojo house; his memories are far more often auditory than anything else, but the only context this one has for Charles is cold, shivering shock; sick, upsetting fear. << Oh, right, >> surely this isn't the first time Scott has had to reckon with the notion that somebody wouldn't want to talk to the Professor for whatever reason -- it isn't even a feeling he's never had -- but it always seems to have the same novelty to him. He's considering taking out his phone, sending an email himself, but at the late hour he got back to the school he's a little loath to do so, << (it's late) (he might be asleep) (he might be --) >> the spin of concern clears out with a quick shake of his head. << I can ask. I can call. Maybe in the morning. >> This to-do list is heralding a peaceful clarity of mind that, for the moment, soothes his unease. It is probably only by dint of lifelong experience that Scott can distantly feel Charles start to reach for more of that encounter from another dimension, but he checks himself and accepts the emotions as they are presented. << He is so much more than just a good teacher or a beloved alumnus, but you know that, likely better than I do or ever will. >> Here a quiet surge of grief and remorse of all that he has seen and acted upon too late. << He has often gone against the grain in his own fashion, and we ought to heed him better. Correct or not, voices of dissent keep us honest, and when they fall silent it signals something has gone terribly wrong. >> Appended to this musing is the knowledge he already shares with Scott that they have much to reconsider quite aside from Jax. Appended to that is the wry assurance that they will have plenty of to-do lists to make. In response to this very faint probe, Scott is providing only, << I am concerned, >> which is so blatant an understatement it might have been comical under any other circumstances. He settles a little, uncharacteristically, slumped in his chair, his hands folded between his knees. Though his mind keeps adding to his own to-do list at the surface, now adding possibly-unnecessary contingencies if Jax doesn't pick up the phone, it is calmer and cooler, deeper down, where he is fighting the urge to tell Charles to be less self-deprecating once in his goddamn life and, also, trying to decide if he's right, rummaging his memories with something like a rustle of paper through every time Scott and Jax disagreed, and Scott listened; every time they disagreed, but Scott didn't; a parallel skim through interactions with the other sharkpup that just concludes, << (they keep us honest) >> in very soft echo. Out loud, finally, "It's November. It's pretty late. I can call in the morning, and ask to talk." This is not really a request for permission, but it does come with a clear hope that this will be approved of, as Scott gets to his feet. "Good night, sir." | |
