<hr/><div class="floatleft">(http://data.whicdn.com/images/4614250/large.png)</div><strong>Name:</strong>Salem Summers | "Cyclops"<br/><strong>Location:</strong>Near the main entrance<br/><strong>Date/Time:</strong>Sept 7th, around 3:00pm<br/><strong>Tagging:</strong>Bobby Coles, and Abigail Kreuger, & OPEN<br/><strong>Content:</strong>Conversing with Abigail and Bobby as the tour group re-gathers. Inpure thoughts!!!<br/><strong>Wearing:</strong>jeans, black flats, leather riding jacket, white blouse, visor<br/><strong> THE MAP:</strong>Map of Xavier's mansion (http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/marveldatabase/images/3/33/X-Men_Annual_Vol_2_1_Inside_The_Xmansion.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20100117204841) See Sun Wukong for any clarifications or confusions regarding this image and the game's mansion.<br/><hr/>Salem took her calculated approach to the conversation, waiting for Medusa to reach a natural resting point as she cataloged each topic while they skipped through Salem’s concentration. As medusa gave the paraphrased version of her history, Salem turned her body enough to see Bobby off to the side of them. She didn’t jump, but her head did pivot on a strange axis, cocking it to the side.<strong>“Oh, Hi Bobby. Quiet over there.”</strong>Medusa took the opportunity to address Bobby. So, Salem held her tongue a bit longer.<br/><br/>She stored all of her points of focus in a small pocket of her mind and clung onto them with different keywords, like fingers slipped into different parts of a book. Bobby’s past was about as troubled as Salem expected it to be. There was a lot of weight to it. But it didn’t feel like he was attracting any sympathy towards his situation, nor did it seem like he was trying to belittle Medusa’s pain by exacerbating the conversation with his own. It was simple, he’d been asked, and he was giving his fair response.<br/><br/>Salem nodded in his direction. She was starting to understand him better than she thought she would. She couldn’t imagine that kind of experience, it sounded more like a piece of fiction than a memory as she heard it. Of course, she knew the story to be true, it only made sense with his background and his crimes.<em>‘There’s always this gravity in his world.’</em>Salem’s mind grasped the real complexity quickly.<em>‘He’s constantly suffering.’</em><br/><br/><strong>“I probably don’t understand, Bobby. I probably never will.”</strong>Her shoulders opened to him, she leaned back against the railing with a firm group on the wood.<strong>“But I’ll always be here if you need someone to talk to, someone to help you explain parts of the world that don’t make sense.” </strong>One of his sentences troubled her deeply, but she wasn’t sure how to address it.<em>‘Who does deserve life?’ </em>She didnd’t know the answer to that question, so she chose to avoid it completely.<br/><br/>She allowed a moment for Bobby to react to her.<br/><br/>She smiled and looked back to Abigail.<strong>“I grew up in orphanages too. A few of them, different cities, never Chicago though. Mostly up in New England.”</strong>Salem had very recently learned about the distant past in her life, but none of that really felt relevant to her. She still didn’t remember any of it happening, and it was nothing short of loco to anyone with real world problems, even some as devastating and traumatic as Bobby’s. Trying to explain that your mother was kidnapped by aliens and raped was complicated, especially when she didn’t even understand how that was possible.<strong>“I think you’ll find this place to be a lot like them, lots of sibling rivalry and little pretend pecking orders. There’s even chores. You’ll fit right in.”</strong><br/><br/>As Salem finished up her related history with Abigail, a few of the kids started to file back in from their rooms, they joined Salem by the staircase. Three of them essentially walking in all together. One of them had been Salem’s little assistant. When she came back, she stood directly beside the tour guide and looked down along the staircase.<br/><br/><strong>“We’ll wait for everyone to get back and then we’ll be on our way again.” </strong>They still needed three or four more. Salem started looking for the roster of the tour to do a checklist, and make sure she wasn’t leaving anyone behind.<br/><br/>As she waited, she turned to Abigail to continue the more grown up conversation they were having.<em> ‘I must be getting good at this.’</em>Salem couldn’t help from smiling as she and Abi continued to have one small bonding moment after another.<em>‘First all of this progress with Rogue.’ - ‘Now I’m sort of getting along with Medusa.’ </em>Not everyone at the mansion liked Salem, but she could feel herself acting as a better communicator over the last few months.<em>‘I’m even hitting it off with Alleyne and Logan.’ </em>She thought about her TA and her flight instructor.<em>‘Jean Grey too.’ </em>Salem’s social boundaries were still largely professional, but she was starting to understand that those engagements had a social backbone to their structure. She was learning how to mix the two worlds, and she was learning how to talk to people effectively, and make friends without trying to prove something to the people around her constantly.<br/><br/><strong>“And Medusa, I almost forgot. Getting together sometime sounds fun. We’ll find something to do, there’s a lot on the grounds. I have a lot of classes, but I’ll find time for something. It’s too bad We can’t leave the grounds. You seem like the type that would like a good motorcycle ride.”</strong>Salem gave Medusa a rare grin, one that hinted at mischief. Salem’s bike had enough for two, and back in the day, she used to take girls out to the mall to go shopping, and come back.<strong>“One of these days, though.”</strong>Nowadays, asking a girl out a motorcycle ride meant something different than it used to. Salem’s new found attraction to the fairer sex was as intimidating as it was exciting. Medusa was definitely some one she could see herself being close with.<br/><br/>Still waiting for the rest of the tour group to collect. Salem gave Bobby a good long look from the other side of the room. There wasn’t much of an expression on her face. She was mostly just looking him over to get a measurement of how sexy she found him in comparison to Abi.<em> ‘That didn’t help much.’ </em>Salem couldn’t tell. Each of them appealed to her in very different ways. But her mind was in the gutter no matter.<em>‘I’ve gotta fix this soon. I probably shouldn’t be thinking about sleeping with two of the students in my tour group.’ </em><br/><br/>Granted, Bobby wasn’t much of a student, but he would be learning there with everyone just the same. She continued to debate in her mind what was more appealing, a woman’s breasts or the angry stubble on a man’s chin.<br/><br/><div align="center"><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 18pt;"><em>-End of Scene-</em></span></div>