Logs:The Ethics of Power

The Ethics of Power
Dramatis Personae Marinov, Professor X, Tessa
In Absentia	2020-08-30 "um. I can explain this."(Part of Final Boss: Xavier TP.)
Location <PLC> Meditation Room - Midtown East
This room is lined with zafus and zabutons in muted earth tones. There are no windows at eye level, but ample skylights and filtered LED strips all around that ensure the place is softly but adequately lit by day or night. Cabinets lining one wall are full of additional cushions, stools and other meditation paraphernalia, from singing bowls to incense. The hour is late, late, late, but the lights are still on in the meditation room. A sleek, high-tech wheelchair has been parked in the center of the room, its occupant returned to it somewhat crookedly. Charles Xavier has seen better days -- and nights, and ungodly hours of the morning -- his dressing gown badly ruffled, one slipper gone and the other just barely hanging onto one gnarled foot. There's a welt on his cheek that will probably be a bruise later, but he looks otherwise unharmed. He groans softly and stirs, instinctively trying to right himself in the chair before he's even opened his eyes. When he does open his eyes it's with a slow and blearly blink at his surroundings, uncomprehending and not yet alarmed. "Children?" he mutters, his speech slightly slurred. "Safe?" "Hi Professor," says Marinov, their tone heavy. They're seated on the floor, back propped up against the wall, a darkly coloured power suit on. "The children are safe, yeah, safer now than earlier." Their phone stops illuminating their face as they click off the screen and snap the cover shut. "You shouldn't be able to use your," Marinov taps their forehead lightly with their finger, "mind control, here." They rise from their position and take a couple of steps towards Xavier, their gaze turned down towards him and their posture straightening. Their tail lashes irritably. "I'd like to discuss your academic record." There is a visible flash of alarm in Xavier's expression when Marinov taps their head, but otherwise he still seems more dazed than anything else. He does manage to sit himself upright now, though -- the old man's arms are stronger than they look. "Where are we?" he asks calmly, looking around. His steel gray eyes return to Marinov. "It's been a long time since I've been in school, young --" He vacillates for a moment, then settles on, "-- person. What would you like to know?" The ends of Marinov's fingers twitch slightly at Xavier's response. They ignore Xavier's initial question, but give him a pointed look to acknowledge that they've indeed heard it. "You teach 'The Ethics of Power', yeah? So I've gotta assume that you must have done well learning about ethics and stuff." They close their eyes and sniff the air lightly. "So, like, if I use my sense of smell to figure out that the last thing you drank was earl grey tea, that's probably fine. Ethically. But what if I could make you forget what it smells and tastes like? I shouldn't do that, yeah? I shouldn't fuck with someone's memories, right?" Like Xavier, Tessa is also dressed for bed, soft grey pajama pants and an ancient oversized TMNT tee shirt. Unlike Xavier, she looks considerably less ruffled at having been dragged out of hers -- a cup of herbal tea in hand (chamomile-passionflower-lavender, for those with the nose to scent it), a bleary expression on her face that -- -- is dropping away rapidly as she peeks into the meditation room to grope for the light. Freezes. Her eyes go wide-wide, the mug shaking in her hand. "He's here," is followed swiftly by, "why is he -- why are you -- what? Marinov, are you -- okay? Did he -- how are you here?" Xavier does not answer for a long moment. When he does, finally, he sounds incredibly weary. "I could not have done well in it because there was no such class before I created it." He shifts, leans forward slightly to get a better look at Marinov. "I had to figure it out as I went along, and I cannot say that I have always done well in all situations. But..." His hands splay open, candid and fatalistic, "I do think I've managed to avoid making anyone forget what Earl Grey --" He breaks off when Tessa appears in the doorway, his eyes going wide. "Tessa." His expression softens. "Oh dear. I do think I've some inkling what this is all about, now." Marinov's eyes widen suddenly and their posture stiffens when they detect the scent of the herbal tea, and they glance backwards towards her. "I'm okay, Tessa," they say gently, holding up their hands, "We had to do something quick. Shane was-- Jean and Kurt-- um. I can explain this, but we had to bring him here, or else... bad stuff." They look a little defeated as they struggle to come up with a rational explanation, but emboldened once more. "Some inkling? I wasn't being like, literal! About the tea! It's a fucking..." They gesture around with their hands, and their voice becomes increasingly heated. "Metaphor! People have holes in their memory, and it's impossible to know what's in them, whether it's tea or something else!" "You -- you brought him." Tessa's posture eases, but only very slightly. The shaking of her hand calms, at least enough that she does not continue to slosh tea over her knuckles. "You all went and -- oh but you are okay, right?" Her eyes have widened; she hastens into the room, frowning first at Marinov and then at the Professor's bruised face. Her hand clenches on the handle of the mug. "Some inkling --" She draws herself up to her not-particularly-imposing height, chin setting hard. "You admit it, then. I'm not crazy, you really -- you did -- what did you do?" Xavier lifts a forestalling hand, though from some angles it might look as though he were expecting to be struck. "The students took it upon themselves to fetch me from the school -- I suppose, to talk to you, Tessa." He sighs, rubbing the side of his head gingerly. "You're not crazy, and I can explain this, but perhaps in private? You need not worry about my powers -- yours have grown considerably, and I'm cannot hear a peep out of anyone's head." "Yeah. I'm okay. We--" they glance towards Xavier and hesitate. "I don't think anyone saw me coming." Their eyes narrow slightly, a couple of fingers scratching under their own chin, as they continue look to Xavier. "To talk to her, yeah. But also to talk to us. There are gaps in some of our memories, too, someone has checked. Someone we trust." This last is nearly spitted at the professor, a low growl rising in their throat as they continue, altering the sound of their words into something more fierce. "Dicking around with people's memories, I could write a fucking paper in your class how it's fucked up and I would get a C because I chose too obvious a topic!" "You can explain here," Tessa bites back sharply. The sharper tip of her hand to indicate Marinov sets her tea to sloshing again, splashing down onto the floor between them. "How many kids have you done this to? We've found more. How many people come out of that -- your supposed safe haven lobotomized? They deserve answers, too." Xavier's frown deepens as Marinov and Tessa speak. He's already shaking his head well before he answers. "I did alter your memories, Tessa, it's the truth. But I did it with your permission, and only as a last resort." He folds his hands together in his lap. "Of course, you do not remember that, and I have no means to prove it to you, and I doubt you'll want me in your head again even if I could find one." His gaze turns to Marinov, steady. "I have done similar things for other students over the years -- students who have suffered traumas they could not move past -- but very few. There's plenty of room to debate the ethics of doing so, and I would not dismiss a paper on that topic." He unclasps his hands, spreading them wide. "But you were not one of them, Taylor." He shakes his head again. "That you have gaps in your memory is a serious matter, but I swear that I have never altered your mind in any way and I was not aware anyone else had, either." "What the hell? Why wouldn't you, I don't know, keep the memory of her fucking consenting?" grumbles Marinov, their voice still altered by their continued growl. Their ears remain folded back, teeth slightly exposed, but brow knit in thought as Xavier speaks to Tessa more. When he speaks to them, their attention snaps back to the professor. "I wasn't?" The low growl tapers off and they look towards him with suspicion. "Was-- what about the others? Did you do that to their heads? It's-- who the fuck else would be plucking memories out of my brain! If it wasn't you..." One of their canines is exposed in a grimace when they look at the nasty mark on Xavier's face. "Then I sure as hell am not gonna get any kind of letter of recommendation... but. Who would-- ?" "Why the hell would I consent to that? How the hell would I consent to that? We were children. We --" Tessa cuts herself off sharply, eyes darting from Xavier to Marinov. Her weight shifts uneasily from one foot to the other, knuckles gone taught where she clenches at the mug. "Who else would do that? Do you just let other telepaths lurk at the school? Play around in your students' heads?" "Because leaving any memory of the surrounding events would have eventually led us -- here." Xavier encompasses his captors with the short sweep of one hand. "I surmise that it happened anyway because of Tessa's own formidable power, which I clearly underestimated." He laces his fingers together, subsiding farther into his chair. "You agreed because you were desperate, because there seemed no way for you to get on with your life. Your medical records from that time will attest to that, if you wish to verify it with Dr. McCoy independently." He rubs the side of his head again. "Taylor, given the nature of our school, I wouldn't rule out the possibility someone did something to your memories by accident. What happens under my watch is my responsibility, but it is simply impossible for me to keep track of what every single telepath on campus is doing at any given moment." He studies Marinov, grey eyes keen and unblinking. "If I could take a look at your mind, it may be possible to discern who did it. I may even be able to undo it. I understand if you would rather not, but perhaps you would let someone else do it in my stead?" "Might've led us here, but at least we'd know why we were here! If you're forced to forget that you even agreed to something, it feels awful lots like you never agreed to it in the first place," says Marinov, as they start pacing, their thumb held between their teeth, their tail fidgets irregularly. They sniff dismissively when Xavier offers to take a look at their mind. "The new kid, Kurt, even he had holes in his head. And I have them going back a long time. But he just fucking got to school, like, a minute ago! Whoever's creating these memory blanks is doing it at a pretty efficient pace if it's not you! And they've been at it awhile, I find it hard to believe that the most powerful brain in the world would've missed an accident like that." "Good job you did because here we are. Who knows what I'd have been -- who I'd be now if you hadn't --" Tessa draws in a shaky breath through her teeth, head shaking again hard. "Did you stop to think what it would do to us? What it'll do to any of these kids to screw with their heads and then send them out into the world half-broken?" Her eyes are bright, though the tears there are not gathering enough to fall. "Undoing it won't make up -- but it's the least you could do to start." Xavier seems to deflate, just a little. "I'm not -- the most powerful brain in the world. That should be evident by now, if nothing else." He drops his hands back into his lap. "It was my mistaken, to underestimate the effect your power would have on what I attempted to do, Tessa. And I will undo it, if you wish -- to the best of my ability." He bows his head. "That, and nothing more. I promise." Marinov pauses in their pacing and holds up a hand towards Tessa to put a comforting hand on their shoulder, though giving her a questioning look if it is alright to do so. "You think your mistake was to underestimate her power?" they say incredulously. They shake their head, eyes wide. "Christ, Charles." Tessa nods, leaning slightly into the touch Marinov offers. Her eyes grow wider, and her hand jerks up -- flinging the remainder of her (thankfully... no longer piping hot) tea into Xavier's face. "Your mistake came long before that, Professor." Beneath Marinov's hand her shoulder is very faintly trembling. "You'll undo the damage you've done and not a single thing more. And I swear to you if you hurt these kids any further --" The fury is deflating into something heavier. Tired. "It'll be a lot worse than chamomile next time."