Hanging about [Tag: Beast]

[eos]

It was odd, being in a new house, away from their parents for the first time. They had a new room - again with twin beds, one of which had effectively become a wardrobe - and a new set of people to interact with, but occasionally Eos just wanted to get back to the orchard and sit up in a tree looking out at the scenery.

Which was why she was sitting up in one of the big trees that lined the drive, attempting to do her English homework perched in a fork of the branches. Her sister was around, somewhere, as always, but Eos didn't feel the need to be attached to her hip every second of the day.

They weren't conjoined, after all.

It was a bit hard to read Wuthering Heights, though, when there were more interesting things to do. Like watch the traffic - both the vehicles passing along the street out the front of the school, and the human (or, most probably, mutant) traffic passing below.

Sneezing a handful of times, and catching her grip again with alarm clear on her face, Eos readjusted herself and went back to her book, her pink shoes propped up on the branch next to her to hold her steady.

[cass]

Balanced high above the ground in one of the trees that lined the drive – A Live Oak, Quercus virginiana, quite aged - Hank’s eyes suddenly snapped from the research paper he was reading to peer down at the cluster of dense, obviously mature, dark olive-green foliage several branches below. Was that a sneeze he had just heard?

He cocked his head to the side, listening intently. Surely not…

Gripping the papers firmly in one foot and the bough he was sitting on loosely with one hand, he stuck his nose forward and sniffed the wind. Human! … Or rather, he reasoned, mutant. And were those pink shoes? His shaggy eyebrows rose slowly in surprise, how had he missed that arrival? The paper wasn’t that interesting. He had felt quite young, hours ago, when he bounded up here to read, away from the bustle of the mansion, but perhaps old age was catching up with him after all?

He shifted the papers from his foot into his free hand and tucked them neatly inside his jacket. Old age or no, pink shoes were worth investigating. Grabbing hold of the trunk he swung out from his branch and down, gripping the next bough steadily with both feet. There was a shuffle from the branch below, the sound of a turning page. A student then, Hank decided it would not be appropriate to startle the newcomer after all. Gripping his branch with his knees, he rolled slowly backwards to hang head-down in the foliage.

The owner of the pink shoes stared at him from wide, hazel eyes. A book was clutched in her hand, but judging from the spot marked by her finger, not a lot of reading had been done. Hank smiled at her. Wuthering Heights.

“You know,” he said, holding up a finger of his own to quote the author, “A person who has not done one half his day’s work by ten o’clock, runs a chance of leaving the other half undone.”

He dropped down onto the branch opposite her, winked and smiled. “Although,” he added cheerfully, “it does seem a good day for just … hanging around - If I do say so myself.” He waggled his eyebrows and grinned.

[eos]

I've read it before.

There was a blue man hanging upside down in front of her. A big, blue, furry man. Upside down.

And all she could say was 'I've read it before'.

Thankfully, the big, blue, furry man dropped down to the branch in front of her and winked. She couldn't help but smile at him. Even though he was big. And blue. And furry.

Yes, Eos was having a bit of trouble getting past that - she'd never known any other mutants before (aside from her sister, of course, but she didn't count as an 'other'), so she was still getting used to the more obvious physical mutations. Even with this guy's... well, rather animal appearance, though, he seemed quite nice - and he'd quoted Wuthering Heights, which immediately gave him cool points in her book.

Well, there was nothing wrong with thinking that a bit of literary knowledge was cool. Her parents were scholarly types, after all.

It's a lovely day to be up here. I didn't think anyone else would be, though. Are you one of the teachers? Her lips never moved as she spoke into his mind, fixed in a friendly smile.

[cass]

“Well,” Hank fixed the girl with a thoughtful look, as thrown off by her question as he was by her slightly eerie demeanour. She was talking to him, and smiling, and silent - all at the same time. It was rather curious. And she was the one looking at him with a peculiar, twisted expression. He couldn’t help but smile at the strangeness of it all.

“I wasn’t expecting to find company up here either - but I’m not at all displeased that I did! Even though,” the smile made his eyes crinkle up in the corners and he leaned forward engagingly, unable to hold back from sprouting another quote, “they say a sensible man ought to find sufficient company in himself!”

A light bubble of laughter escaped from her lips, as quick as the flicker of recognition that flashed across her hazel eyes. She’s bright, this one. Hank smiled appreciatively.

“And yes, I am a teacher here, of sorts.” He extended a big, fury blue arm to offer a hand.

“Dr. Henry McCoy, resident Beast.”

[eos]

"Eos Montgomery."

Shifting a bit so that she was still secure, the girl leant forward to take his hand, shaking it firmly - well, as firmly as any fourteen-year-old. She couldn't help but notice that it was, like the rest of him, big and blue (though not so furry) but also noted that it didn't feel very different from any normal hand. Maybe she'd been expecting it to, although now that she thought about it, looking different didn't mean you actually were different. After all, people said that she and her sister were different, and they looked quite normal. Nodding to herself a little, Eos turned the book over so that it was lying open on her leg, marking her place without having to pay attention to it.

'Resident Beast' probably meant something along the lines of 'Gemini', but she couldn't very well introduce herself as that without her sister around. It was just wrong to even think of it that way. But he couldn't be much of a beast if he was quoting classic literature - not to mention a doctor. A paradox, and one that she found interesting.

"Do you spend a lot of time in the trees, then? I'm sorry, I'm only new, but I wouldn't have expected a doctor to be climbing trees very often." Of course, she hadn't really expected the school to be full of mutants of all shapes, sizes, colours, and powers, either. She'd been doing her best to keep to her own dreams, as tempting as it was to go exploring and see just what other mutants thought about when they were away from the waking world.

[cass]

Hank chuckled softly in response to the girl’s question and her polite, but keenly obvious, curiosity. It was delightful sometimes the way the young could adapt to unusual situations so speedily.

“I’d expect, Miss Montgomery,” he said, removing his glasses and pulling a handkerchief from his top pocket to give them a brief wipe over, “that being new here will offer many experiences you won’t necessarily be expecting.” He held the polished glasses up to the light a moment, and gave them a final rub.

“In truth Eos, and more to answer your question,” Beast caught her eye momentarily, “I find sitting in the trees more relaxing than being confined to the environs of my office in the mansion all day – a fact which, I suspect, has just as much to do with my mutation as it does not.” He chuckled softly again. “No doubt, this-” he served her another wink and waved a hand indicatively towards her branch, “is a sentiment you yourself can understand.” He smiled warmly again and settled his glasses back into place on his nose.

“Although,” he gave his leafy surrounds a somewhat pensive inspection, “I do not spend as much time in the trees as I would like at present. Like you, my dear Miss Montgomery, not many people expect a doctor to be climbing trees too often.”

[eos]

"I do prefer the trees sometimes," she nodded, "but I don't think it has a whole lot to do with my mutation." For a moment, Eos looked pensive, staring beyond the blue doctor. Blinking a few times, she nodded.

"That is more to do with dreams, but most people do not expect girls to spend all their time in bed, just as they would not expect a doctor to spend all his time in the trees." A form of telepathy, she thought, now that she had been able to find out a bit more about mutations - not telepathy in the traditional sense, despite the way in which she spoke, but rather something that only worked when people were dreaming and their minds were more open. But then, perhaps it was only more open because of their mutation. It could be confusing sometimes. Dropping her feet down from where they were braced, Eos swung her legs for a moment, gazing out at the school framed by leafy green.

"But perhaps, in a place like this... They should be more willing to think of our mutations when they assign our places." She grinned, imagining a sort of treehouse classroom for Doctor McCoy to work from. Perhaps there were some who would not like the heights, though, or the wind, or even the trees themselves, though Eos could not imagine a more tranquil setting for learning.

[cass]

Beast laughed, simultaneously delighted at the thoughtfulness of the suggestion and somewhat troubled by its connotations. “Well my dear girl, you might be onto something there, although I hope I have not given you the wrong impression about this school and the willingness of its directors to think of, or cater for, our mutations?”

He paused briefly and the smile suddenly crept back into his eyes. “Because as I’m sure you’ll soon discover, in most cases, ‘they’ most certainly, and usually already, do.” He gave the branch below him an affectionate pat and returned her grin.

“Perhaps most people don’t expect doctors to bounce around the trees - or girls to spend all day in bed - and indeed, perhaps most ordinary people would not understand why any of us would want to – but this school was not designed by ordinary people, Eos, nor is it full of them...” Hank paused, forced, not for the first time, to marvel at the great miracle of what Charles had achieved during his lifetime, and feeling, not for the first time since the man’s death, an immense pang of loss deep within his heart.

It was strange, the way emotions, lacking any tangible, physical value and being entirely impossible to quantify, were still capable of producing very real physical reactions. He shook his head slowly and looked back to the girl in front of him.

“So don’t go forming the wrong idea about this school will you, Miss Montgomery? For this is a place where our mutations - and our more extraordinary circumstances along with them - are most easily accepted, if not always completely understood.” He smiled at her.

“After all,” he glanced appreciatively at the foliage surrounding them, “the trees are here, you no doubt have a bed in your room and-” he waggled his eyebrows engagingly at her again, “- I have a chair on the roof of my office!”

[selene]

Selene broke into Eos' thoughts.

"Have you -seen- the blue teacher yet? He's awesome!"

[eos]

"That," Eos said with a beaming smile, "is SO cool."

A familiar voice interrupted her thoughts, and Eos' smile grew.

"I know!" She said to her sister, "I'm talking to him right now, he is MADE of awesome. Did you know he has a chair on the ROOF? In his office, I mean."

Turning her attention back to Doctor McCoy - sometimes she felt bad for talking privately to Selene when she was supposed to be speaking to others, as though she was passing notes but had no way of getting into trouble for it - the young woman nodded.

"I should probably leave you alone, though. I bet you've got much more important things to be doing." The idea of him using one of the trees as a workspace seemed completely natural to her, even more so now that she'd had a conversation with him, and she didn't want to interrupt. There was already a little bit of hero-worship starting to form.

[cass]

Well I've no doubt we've all got other things to be doing, Miss Montgomery," Hank patted the research paper inside his pocket with a big, furry blue hand and nodded astutely towards Eos' copy of Wuthering Heights.

"But, whether they are more important things, I'm not so sure. Francesco Guicciardini reasoned that 'since there is nothing so well worth having as friends,' one should 'never lose a chance to make them', and I tend to agree with him. After all, 'the making of friends is the best token we have of man's success in life' – Edward Hale." Hank grinned. "And I have no objection to being more successful."

With a chuckle he jumped nimbly to his feet. "Nevertheless, I think I'd best be leaving you to it, and this time without stealing the words of those wiser than myself… Welcome to the school, Eos, I hope that it proves every bit as valuable to you as you can imagine. Please, feel free to drop by my office any time for a chat. It has been a pleasure meeting you, Miss Montgomery."

Waggling his eyebrows, Beast bowed ever so slightly, and then somersaulted in a tidy back flip to the springy ground below. He landed perfectly. Straightening up with an impish grin, he mimed tipping an imaginary hat, turned and walked as decorously as ever back towards the school...

[eos]

[Eos continued in 'Hailmaryfullofgrace']