the promise & the threat.
* Scaevola is in yr office, making yr tea.
* Threnody arrives shortly after, unusually quiet and withdrawn. She knocks, of course, though.
"Come in, it's open." And 'lo, it IS.
* Threnody goes on in and stands there, awkwardly, hands shoved into her jacket pockets. "You look different." ... that's some kind of greeting. I guess. "But I guess you really aren't the same guy." (She hopes.)
* Scaevola still looks like Jeremy Irons, shush, and so he's confused. She hasn't seen what he really looks like, has she? He's certainly never changed appearance in the Nexus. "No, I...I'm very much not. Can I offer you anything? I've tea and little cookie things that the nurses throw at me when they don't think I've been eating enough."
* Threnody was remembering Ye Olde Forehead Lozenge, which she will ...not explain yet, if she does at all. Her body language is doing an /awesome job/ at conveying, say, 'nervous wild animal.' "No. Thanks, though." The manners feel tacked on, but like a good idea, anyway.
"Understandable. I'll have some though, if you don't mind." There will be tea and biscuits and he'll take a seat at the little sofa section of his office -- it's less imposing than a Face Behind a Desk.
* Threnody takes that cue to settle in the chair, although she's still pretty skittish. Let's just assume that keeps up until otherwise specified. "S'fine."
"I, ah, also picked up something else, if you thought I'd need it." He motions to a small dish with a few of those terrible tasting purple candies that the Sanctuary is known for. "In case you'd rather I did this without even the benefit of little while lies."
"I have no idea what those are." She squints at them. "But the truth'd be better. Considering."
"They force you to tell the whole truth and nothing but. Rather distasteful, but if you feel it's necessary."
* Scaevola is making a Gesture here. Be impressed.
* Threnody does take that into consideration. If she says take it she's going to look like a bitch, especially if his world's not as screwed up as hers; if she doesn't ask him to, she's not going to be as sure of herself. "...I don't--know. You going to lie if you don't take one?"
"Well, /no/, but it removes the option. Are you planning to lie to me?" Oh, dammit all. Fine. He'll take one. "....and these things taste like that horrible, fake grape cough syrup. This truly is a sacrifice."
"No." Probably not, anyway. She shrugs, glancing down at her lap.
As the damned thing takes effect, there's a bit of a ripple in the air around Scaevola and suddenly, there's a much younger man sitting there. While the most shocking thing is that he is snow-white pale, lacking even the pink undertone of an albino, it's probably equally unexpected just how -young- he is. There's no way he could be any more than thirty, mid-twenties is more likely.
"...so. Let's talk."
* Threnody stares at him for a second, and isn't sure whether she ought to be stunned or not, frankly. "All right."
* Scaevola fidgets with the cuff of his shirt and seems to have lost most of his confidence with the 'Scaevola' personality. "As you know, or, well, as Elizabeth told you, my name is Nathaniel Essex, although it's been a very long time since I went by that. I have never gone by the name Sinister, but...in the Nexus, I've met my alternates."
* Threnody is a little more unnerved by the fidgeting; it's one thing for him to look like he's in her age range, but it's another for him to act it. It does lower her defenses a little, though. "And...the Legacy virus? Did you deal with that?"
"No. I don't ... I didn't know what that was until I came here." He tends to fluster a lot. Please, bear with him.
"Your alternate was trying to study it, about...six, seven years ago, I think. He wanted to cure it. That's how I met him." She's suddenly very glad she hasn't met his alternates within the Nexus, even more than she was before.
"We don't have it on my world, at least, I've never come across it. I left just before the cure came and went." Movie!verse.
* Threnody nods, carefully, pushing her hair back away from her face. "You're better off. Obviously." She pauses. "So you've never known any version of me, back where you're from."
"No. If...from what I've learned from my alternates, who, by the way, are terrifying and completely psychotic, is that we don't have much in common except for a name."
"Good." She's a touch sharper-edged there. "I was his prisoner, and he was--I don't want to mess up your life or whatever you've got going here, but...why don't you use your original name?"
"Because I know what people think about my alternates. Who would let me live and work in peace with that hanging over my head?" He just wants to live a good, quiet life.
"But your work is--what? How did you /live/ this long?" She's not sure where the similarities begin and end, aside from his apparent lack of psychosis, for which she is very grateful.
"When I was very young, and I'd...my wife died, and my sons, they ... now I know that they were mutants, but at the time, I just didn't understand and I needed to. I met a man who offered to finance my research." Uh oh...
* Threnody tilts her head, trying her best to stay unreadable. "...yeah?"
"And, well, in time, I ... you see, he didn't want me to get old, or to stop being useful." This would be where Essex starts to look increasingly uncomfortable with lots of hand-gestures while he's talking.
"Ain't that nice of him." She mulls that over. "Does he have a name, or shouldn't I ask that?"
"I'd rather you didn't. We parted ways, some time ago, but from what I've learned not so violently as my alternates did -- which is why, I think, I couldn't care less about any sort of Summers or Grey, or whoever they are."
* Threnody laughs, suddenly, at that, although she...doesn't really sound very amused. "If you can stay away from them, I recommend it. They have a way of sucking people in." Oh, hi, have some incredible bitterness...which she dampens almost immediately after. "They're just mutants. Just the, uh, messiahs, saviors, Phoenixes, and general overpowered fuck-ups, most places."
* Scaevola looks a bit like a startled deer. "So, yes, erm, well, you see why I tend not to advertise?"
"Yeah. I don't trust you, still, but hey, let's face it, I'm not a trusting kinda girl. And I'll understand if that goes both ways." Talking about the Grey family appears to get that casual edge back, along with her bravado.
* Scaevola nods. "That's quite fair. Is there anything else?"
"Mm. Elizabeth?" It had to come up eventually.
"Yes. I...I like her a good deal more than I thought I could. It's...I really don't know what it is. I don't want to hurt her or upset her, which you can see, because we're talking, so she'll stop making that Face at me."
* Threnody is silent for a little longer than she really ought to be. "Works for me." She rises from her chair. "I've got class, so..."
He nods and stands, offering her a hand to shake? :D? "I'm glad. Thank you, for listening." And not shooting first.
* Threnody shakes his hand and doesn't even flinch first! \o/ "Thanks for the explanation." She heads for the door, and pauses, on her way out, adding, awkwardly: "Sorry about...y'know, your family. I...uh, sympathize." And now she's gonna skedaddle.
"Me too." He's going to lock the door after she leaves. No one should see him like this. ....and then he's going to call Jalal.