Xaviers!

Will was walking through the hallways back towards is dorm room, late, late one night.

He was whistling to himself, obviously pleased, as he wiped away the last bits of debris from his hands.

((open))

The next morning a smartphone that had apparently been slid into the room underneath the door starts ringing loudly with the tone of an old rotary phone.

"Will's Taxidermy, you snuff 'em, we stuff 'em," Will answered.

"Animals aren't allowed in the dorms, dead or alive." Ashlie's voice comes from the other end.

Without missing a beat she goes on. "A local business in Maldon was vandalized. You would not have happened to notice anything when you left campus last night?"

"Now, that depends. Which local business was this?"

"A pub. The Ship and Anchor."

She sounds patient, but who knows with the robot-lady.

"Now, would that be the same pub that assaulted two of your students with no repercussions, or am I thinking of a different pub called the Ship and Anchor? I've not been around recently, and you know half my mind is on other things."

"If there was an altercation I was not made aware of it. Are you saying the owner of the pub instigated a completely unwarranted attack? Or is this possibly connected to drunken disorderly conduct of the kind that might require students to be picked up?"

"So, if I can get this straight -- being drunk justifies getting assaulted? Good to know; I'll make sure to print that in the next edition of the student handbooks."

"No, but being drunk might constitute being thrown out of a pub. I cannot make a judgement call on hypotheticals, but I can on breaking and entering and vandalism. I am trying really hard to keep the owner from filing a police report right now, because if he does then I have no choice but to hand over the evidence I have that places you at the scene."

"Being thrown out does not equal assault, and I think it would probably be best if you updated your tables to make sure you don't have a false equivalence somewhere.

And, to answer your original question, no, I didn't notice anything wrong last night."

"If nobody reports the assault there's very little that anybody can do about it. Regardless, it is no excuse for this kind of retaliation. As unfortunate as anti-mutant sentiment is, things like this only make the situation worse."

"So we shouldn't stand up for ourselves. Gotcha. Hey, maybe humans will rescind the Mutant Registration Act if we ask really nicely!"

"Politically motivated vandalism is still vandalism. It doesn't matter if I agree with you or not, because I have no choice but to abide by the law."

"Well, then, you're off the hook. Innocent until proven guilty, right?"

"By GPS data I have of your location. And wasn't your other self supposed to keep an eye on you?"

"If you have GPS of my location, then you have some evidence that I ducked off campus, and that's all. Not particularly solid evidence, at that.

And if you're unhappy with his efforts keeping an eye on me, that sounds like the sort of thing you should take up with him. He still considers himself your property, at that."

"Right now is not the time to be toeing the line, Will."

"Then do your damn job and protect your students. Honestly. This place is supposed to be improving mutant-human relations, and yet two of your students -- one of whom you technically own -- get assaulted and arrested, and you do nothing? And nobody does anything? Clean up your own house before throwing stones at mine."

"Are you done?" Ashlie asks after letting Will rant a bit. "Stop blatantly breaking the law. I shouldn't have to say this, but apparently I do."

"If you're more concerned with the law than the wellbeing of your students, go ahead and turn me in; I'll get by better on my own," Will challenged.

"I don't want to turn you in, despite your best efforts to force my hand." With that the connection cuts out. Rude.

"Honestly. She's so exceptionally bad at her job. I should..."

He paused.

"I should," he grinned.