7/2 Instance: Go Ahead, Seattle; I'm Listening

[Ferguson]

Timelined: The day after 'Should've Got A Prenup'

<Lorna> This was the only time in her life where Lorna had made the adult decision to live through the horrors of decaf coffee. She was gittery enough still without the addition of sweet, black caffeine.

<Lorna> Staying with Darren and Sel had definitely been the way to go. She didn't know how she could have slept in the boathouse after everything and she definitely did not want to have to have woken up to the mess she had left.

<Lorna> So now she was calmly sitting at her desk in her office, sipping at her coffee, and just staring ahead. It was quiet and, chances are, she wouldn't have to see anyone. It was exactly what she needed right now.

<Eddie> And then came the knocking at her door. Three painfully slow knocks. One. Two. Three.

<Lorna> ...Seriously? "Come in." Lorna held her coffee cup carefully, looking up to see who it was.

<Eddie> Eddie came in, trying to leave his fury outside. He closed the door softly behind himself, standing still and hiding (badly) a look of anger and disappointment. "You busy?", he asked, a little too harshly.

<Lorna> "No, come on in Eddie." Lorna pushed one of the chairs out with her foot.

<Eddie> The look Eddie gave the chair indicated his reluctance to be formal, against his better judgement, he sat down, clasping his hands together and taking a deep breath, pondering exactly what to say.

<Eddie> "I just wanted to know if you actually, seriously think that dragging a boat load of killers home was a good idea, I guess.", yep, Eddie chose the bad version of what he wanted to say. And he knew it. But there was no other way to say it, in his opinion.

<Lorna> If Eddie wanted to play snappish little child Lorna would let him. "Eddie, what exactly do you think would have happened if we had turned anyone over to SHIELD that day?"

<Eddie> "We'd be one super-group of murderers shorter?", Eddie almost laughed his reply, what sort of question was that? "You and Darren make the same mistake: those...idiots are not X-Men! They're not with us as of the moment they spat on everything we are!", he took a few breaths, his empassioned speech was making him more and more offended to even know them.

<Eddie> "Fuck me: Adam? Adam had his fucking chance. And that's just ONE of them!", he went on. "'What do I think would have happened'? God forbid we all grow some fucking backbone..."

<Lorna> "No, they're not X-men." Lorna agreed. "And if you think I don't know that then you've obviously not gotten to know me very well, Eddie. I'll tell you what would have happened."

<Lorna> "What would have happened was not only would they be held by SHIELD, but we would have as well. We would have lost everyone we had rescued because, lets face it, they had just been used in terrorist attacks across the nation and the world and it's only us playing things carefully that is avoiding having to turn them over as well."

<Lorna> "If they were convicted do you think the government would allow Xavier's to exist anymore? No, not only would the idiots who did this suffer but our own victims would suffer, the x-men would be no more, the school would more than likely shut down, and then what the hell would happen to mutants then?"

<Lorna> "Hell, Bobby led them and I'm married to him and I think he should have to answer a pretty high price for what he's done but I'm not willing to sacrifice everyone for that."

<Lorna> She sat back in her seat, taking another drink of her coffee and keeping calm. "So that's why I made the call I did. If you want to yell at someone for it I'd suggest going above my paygrade, Eddie."

<Eddie> "And what the FUCK would be the point!?", Eddie snapped, "Xavier Institute is an IDEA. A good idea, but an idea nonetheless - it's a haven, but to all the wrong people, and they shouldn't just be welcomed back in!"

<Eddie> He hesitated on his next sentence, although not what he wanted to hear, Lorna had a point. "We should hand them over. They're not 'students', they're super-powered criminals. And if we can't hand them over, we should strip them of their powers and leave them behind."

<Eddie> "With. Great. Power.", Eddie stated as firmly as possible, "If someone can't be trusted with that power, they shouldn't HAVE the fucking power."

<Lorna> "What do you think would happen if we were to throw poeple out?" Lorna shook her head, wondering if she was just making some great leaps and bounds or it really wasn't the logical conclusion she had come to.

<Lorna> "Throwing people out is just going to create animosity. It's going to create the kind of things we fight against all ready. Yeah, we're going to lose some fights when it comes to saving people but when people make mistakes we're not going to throw them out if we can help it."

<Lorna> "You want to forcibly remove someone's mutation? It's a part of who they are, Eddie. It's maiming people, might as well say they walked off of that jet, lets chop off their legs. That's not right either."

<Lorna> "We're a safe haven, yes, and we're always going to be a haven for anyone who chooses to stay with us. They made bad decisons, yes, I'm certainly not going to argue you there. I know very well how utterly fucked up it was."

<Lorna> "But as far as my vote on the staff as to what happens to them I'm not voting they're sent away. Some of them would be fine, sure, but what do you think's going to happen to someone like Adam on the streets, like Laura?"

<Eddie> "Without powers? I don't give a damn.", Eddie said bluntly. "We can find places for them - rehabs, things like that. But they do NOT deserve this place and they do NOT deserve the gifts they have.", he shook his head.

<Eddie> "Freedom's a basic right everyone has, but when they abuse that, they get locked up. Why should it be different for these lot?", he looked up at Lorna, eyes fixing on her, "...or is this you not wanting to agree because of Bobby?"

<Lorna> "...fuck you." Lorna said blandly. "You think I can't be objective? You're just not liking the decision I made in the field because it steps on your sense of justice. No, I can't be completely objective but I know why I made that decision and I don't regret it one bit. "

<Lorna> "You nor I have any right to decide who deserves powers because nobody deserves them, it's just how we are. Hell, most people don't even want them. I didn't make the decision in order to keep them out of a prison. Prison is the last thing we need to worry about."

<Lorna> She managed to calm herself down again, putting the cup down. "Do you know what Black Air was, Eddie?"

<Eddie> 'Black Air?', Eddie shook his head, "We-...I'm unfamiliar with it...", better to hear her out, he thought.

<Lorna> "Black Air happened my freshman year, first fight as an X-man, really. Scared the shit out of me, didn't think I was exactly combat material but back then we were actually sorted out into teams and that was where I had found myself."

<Lorna> "Black Air was a British military experiment. They wanted to 'draft' mutants so with their infiltrator they managed to kidnap all of our British students."

<Lorna> "Now, I'm all ready pretty queasy with SHIELD having the Acolytes. I mean, Fury is an all right guy from what I've seen of him but I can imagine the other government officials and what their opinions on mutants are."

<Lorna> "Eventually if they have enough mutant prisoners what exactly is stopping our own government from the same exact thing? There's another reason right there I wasn't about to hand anyone in that day. I think you have my key reasons now for the most part, Eddie."

<Eddie> Eddie looked away, seemingly still trying to hold up his straw house of defiance. "It's just not fair...", he finally sighed, "After everything...what's the point of this place? How can we just...forgive? Pretend the lives they took don't matter? They're the worst kind of evil - the kind that doesn't even know it."

<Lorna> "We have to hope we can teach them." She answered, a small, actually honest feeling, smile started to form. "We know the lives matter, they do too but right now they think it was the right price to pay. They aren't unreachable and I'm not telling anyone to forgive them, I'm not forgiving them either."

<Lorna> "But I"m not going to turn my back on them either and I hope you won't, too. This is the part of playing the hero that really sucks. There's no easy answer and we may even fail to reach them but we have to believe we can."

<Eddie> "Once bitten, twice shy.", Eddie shook his head, he really didn't think he could hack this sometimes, and this was one of those times. "This isn't even the first time, some sanction has to be in place and I stick by my words: they're no longer X-ers. Ever again. And as for their powers...", he sighed again.

<Eddie> "...well, I'm just glad it ISN'T my decision.", he breathed. "For what it's worth, I'm sorry. I just...I just hate them, to be honest. I'm sick to death of every single one of them."

<Lorna> "Of course you do. I hope you can move on to just hating what they did because that's what we're going to have to do if we're going to help anyone, from them to the racist asshats at the FOH. We can't afford to hate people, just what they do and do what we can to get them to change and believe me, it makes me damned tired...especially now."

<Lorna> She looked down at her coffee cup. Decaf, who the hell had she been kidding. "We're going to be bitten a whole lot more times. It's the nature of the whole thing but I'm not giong to tell you to get over it yet, okay?"

<Eddie> Eddie nodded. Wasn't a fat lot left to say, really. He stood up and helped himself to the door. "Don't know how you can even stand being here right now...I'm leaving for a few days - this place...I just know I'm not helping at the minute.”

<Lorna> "I do what I can to help." The answer came quickly but it was true enough. "This is my home and I'm not going to let what has happened ruin it for me if I can help it and I hope to be able to do what I can for people...though, right now, I probably am not in the best mindset."

<Lorna> "But I'm trying to stay within my limits for what I can handle right now...but I know that I am not keeping myself on decaf any longer. Walk me down to the kitchen?"

<Eddie> Eddie stopped, smirking a little. "Yeah, sure.", he opened the door and took a deep breath, for some reason his mind wandered to his Dad, and he found himself feeling a little ashamed of his 'solution' suggestion. "You ever meet my old man, Lorna?"

<Lorna> "He came to the play last year, didn't he? Good man."

<Eddie> "Sometimes you, he, and X sound too similar to be different people.", he sighed.

<Lorna> "...are you telling me I sound like a man or that I sound like I nod off and snore?" Lorna let herself smirk, looking over to Eddie as she tried not to laugh.

<Eddie> Eddie shook his head, "Telling you that in situations like these, there's a reason you guys are in charge, 'Boss'.", he smirked back, walking ahead of her.

[Scumfish]

Throw Adam out of the school, he'll take up residence in the forest. Watching you. From the trees. With Bit. Resenting. He doesn't need his powers

Awesome instance. Again I say: Delicious fallout!! WOO!

[puppygirl]

*Darren slaps Eddie across the back of the head* Slick ... you just never learn ...

Great instance guys!

[Esynthia]

Go Lorna! Eddie will learn to love them again if they have to make him! j/k

Good instance you guys.

[Ferguson]

Now she never said anything about love.

[puppygirl]

I think she meant something a little more akin to 'suffer their presence without giving into the temptation to punch them in the face'

[Slarti]

Well fuck you too, Ed!

Maybe it's my missing game time but wasn't he the source of a zombie plague or something?

[TechPrincess]

Well fuck you too, Ed!

Maybe it's my missing game time but wasn't he the source of a zombie plague or something?

Pwned.

[puppygirl]

Well fuck you too, Ed!

Maybe it's my missing game time but wasn't he the source of a zombie plague or something?

Pwned.

... She's got you there, Slick

[Chaos]

....holy shit.

I...I think I just got served. D-did I just get served?

I think I did.

[Ferguson]

[Scumfish]

Game, set aaaaaand match, sugar.

[Ult_Sm86]

In the words of Mr. Krabbs:
Ayak-ka-ka-ka-ka, yer drownin in yer own ink boyo.

Great read though. Good job!