2012-10-19 By Any Other Name

Their previous meeting, as productive as it had been, was necessarily brief. Once Xi'an revealed her telepathy in the cafe, Emma had reciprocated. She had also decided there was absolutely no way she was going to settle for less in a librarian. Unfortunately, her schedule was tighter and more urgent than usual, so Emma left Xi'an with an apology and a card, asking her to catch up with Emma at the given address the next evening to settle the details. She hadn't intended to also get a visit from Remy just hours prior, but scheduling for the Cajun theif was probably futile anyway.

When Xi'an arrives, the door opens to s light telepathic bidding on Emma's part, and the newly-minted librarian is admitted to the extremely nicely-appointed penthouse... which is also currently a mess, with sheets of blueprints and concept images everywhere, some scattered, some hanging, a laptop here, a tablet there, a bottle of excellent cognac on the kitchen counter. Someone's clearly been working.

This is, without a doubt, the most expensive apartment Shan has ever been in. It's actually a little disorienting. At least the mess helps ground it in reality somewhat -- it helps her feel a little bit less like she's walking into a very ritzy art gallery or something, and more like she's setting foot in someone's home.

Since Shan has no need to dress to impress, she hasn't. It's another round of t-shirt, jeans, warm hoodie and scarf for her, and she starts shrugging out of the hoodie as she wanders inside, casting a curious look around. "Miss Frost?" she calls lightly. She knows Emma knows she's here. The door wouldn't haveopened, otherwise.

Emma swings in from the back room, carrying a couple of fresh sheets of concept renderings, which she pins up with the others on a string hanging across the room, which already holds a line of the things. "Come in, Xi'an. Make yourself comfortable," she greets, as the door swings shut. "Would you care for a drink? I friend dropped by earlier with a delightful cognac. I daresay I haven't had better in years."

"I might skip the cognac and go for some tea, if you have any," Shan replies with a grin, wandering over to peek at the pinned renderings with a curious tilt of her head. It's one thing to discuss a school or library. It's another thing to see one, even if right now, it's only pictures. "But thank you. How are things coming?"

On closer look, it's more like... five schools. Maybe more, if permutations of different elements comes into it. "There's always later, I suppose. The bottle isn't going anywhere," Emma allows. "It comes along. we're still a ways off from groundbreaking, yet. Working with the permits now. That is part of what we should perhaps discuss tonight."

"Oh, I just don't normally drink." Not /anymore/, for damned sure. It's a control thing. Shan actually offers Emma an apologetic smile before turning her attention back to the renderings, absently folding her hoodie over an arm. "Well, I'm all yours. Leong and Nga are at a friend's for the night, so I'm not running on much of a deadline to get home."

Emma Frost chuckles. "I'm sure that's pleasant. I... hmmm. Well. I was going to say I don't have children. But that has become complicated recently. Nevermind," she blows the comment off, and heads for her kitchenette. "Have a seat, dear. It's a very nice couch. Now then. I don't mean to be forceful about it, but I would very much like to have you as our head librarian. Insofar as I expect a 'head' title to mean anything practically. However... I sensed some... urgency involved when we spoke yesterday."

Shan tilts her head slightly as she tries to puzzle out how, precisely, that can become complicated, before deciding -- you know what? She probably doesn't even wanna know. "Hmmm? Oh, a little. Rent, and all," she says with a helpless shrug, turning to go claim a spot for herself on the sofa. "But I'm sure I can find something to get through to the school's opening if I need to, especially this time of year."

Emma makes an undersatnding noise. "Actually, I have a proposal to offer. As it happens, I need a new personal assistant." A pause. "As of about fifteen minutes ago, actually." She shrugs, waits for a kettle to heat while she fetches some loose tea from the cabinet. "It is actually not a difficult job. I can't fathom why I am having such trouble finding one that sticks. In any case, I would compensate you for the trouble at the standard company rate until we're ready to turn you over to the school job proper. It should cover your needs comfortably."

"Personality conflicts," Shan suggests promptly. There's no judgment there at all, it's just the most obvious answer she can imagine for Emma's difficulties. "I... could probably do that. What does it entail?" she asks curiously, absently leaning forward to peek at one of the blueprints spread out over the coffee table.

"It is simple," Emma replies. "Which does not mean it isn't difficult. Periodically... well. Frequently, I need small things while I'm dealing with the larger things. Calling about getting permit forms, setting up meetings, research-- that sort of things. Those need to simply get done. In a reasonable amount of time, with a reasonable degree of competency. I like my assistants to know where they are on everything they're working on. I don't care if it's not done as long as it's progressing at best effort and there aren't excuses. I don't want to be argued with unnecessarily. I don't like explaining myself more than once. Sometimes once is a waste of time-- I just need it done without comment. These projects get large and require efficient execution." She shrugs. Clearly... personality conflicts. "You'd be spending a lot of your work time either here or at the office. A fair number of my managers drop off reports-- most of them land on your desk. I need them skimmed enough to work out what I need to see immediately and what can wait until I'm ready for it. It's usually quite obvious, to be honest. They're supposed to attach notes about that kind of thing."

Very slowly, Shan nods, rolling all of this around in her head. 'Simple but not easy' does sound like a rather succinct summary, to her mind. "I suppose it would be a good way to find out if we can work well together before commiting to the more long term position with the school," she finally admits. "Sure. I'll take a crack at it."

"All true. Alright then," Emma agrees. "If you want to start now, there's a notepad on the coffee table with a list of possible names for the place. I'd like a second opinion since I'm starting to hate everything again. We'll get you your laptop and badge and so on tomorrow." The pad is full of variations on "Metropolis Academy". Several are already scratched out.

"Been looking at them all too long?" Shan hazards with a laugh, scootching forward on the sofa so she can reach the notepad and scoop it up for a look. Hrrm. "I think you can leave Metropolis out of the name. People are gonna know where it is, and it isn't the city's school, it's yours," she muses aloud, propping her chin up in a hand while she eyes the list.

Emma considers Shan's opinion carefully. because she asked for it. "Well. I don't want MY name on it. I'm egotistical, sure, but I already have my name on buildings all over the world. And that's more like a personal vendetta, anyway," she muses, waving the thought off. She wanders over after some thought, handing Shan an expensive-looking teacup full of expensive-smelling tea, and peruses the list again. "What about..."

Shan accepts the tea with a quiet thanks, rummaging around for a pen with her other hand. She comes up with a plain, cheap Bic, and reaches over to scratch 'Metropolis' off of the various listed names. Sure, that leaves some of them with one-word names, but a couple of them...

"That one," Shan says, tapping one with the pen.

Emma decides on the same choice as soon as she sees Shan cross out the Metropolis part, but she waits to see the woman's opinion before she nods. "The Academy of Tomorrow. I like it. See, you're already better at this than the last two."


 * "I do have something of an advantage,"| Shan notes teasingly, tucking the pen behind her ear so she can turn her focus to her tea. "It'll look good on the sign."

Emma chuckles. |"True, but I call to question the implication that is how you pulled it off,"| she notes mildly, looking thoughtful. "It makes for a nice logo as well. I think."

"That, you'll need a graphic designer for," Shan laughs, shaking her head. "Definitely not my field. You could always let the students submit logo designs -- if not for the school, maybe for a shirt or something. Just to let them feel like they own a piece of it. That can be important in a place like this." Not that she would know or anything. Goodness no.

"I have some I can tap for it," Emma notes, and then grins wryly at the thought. "Perhaps a shirt design. Or if they would like to form a student... ah... well... team. Which I am open to with some supervision. The School logo however... that needs to be settled before we open doors."

Shan gives Emma an amused look over her tea. |"That many smart, powered kids in one place..? Oh, there will be a team. Maybe more than one,"| she says dryly, drumming her fingers against the mug. |"Squads. Whatever you want to call them. Better to have the infrastructure there to support it and help keep them safe."|


 * "I detect the voice of experience,"| Emma muses over her own teacup, perfectly comfortable with switching to telepathy mid-conversation. She's clearly curious. |"It's a good area for students to own their experience as you suggest. We'll need to come up with parallel offerings for our kids who are not so... physically heroic. A band. A thinktank. A gallery, perhaps."|

"Nothing I can go into in any real detail on," Shan replies, and her tone is genuinely apologetic. "But it really is just the way kids behave. Especially at the sorts of ages you're going to be seeing. Look at any high school on the planet, you'll see them grouping themselves out into packs."

"True enough. And that's fair, as long as it's also fair that I just assume you were at some point similarly engaged yourself in some fashion," Emma notes with a teasing air. "In any case. Your second task. When we've gotten your laptop tomorrow, it will have a full directory for Frost International contacts. Call Product Design and tell them we need full branding materials for The Academy of Tomorrow. They have some time before we need finals, but I want the first round of concepts in two days."

Shan nods once and snatches the notepad back, flipping to a clean sheet so she can jot down a quick note before she can forget to. "Okay. Business days, or actual days?" she asks curiously, glancing to Emma. It's an important distinction, after all.

"Good girl," Emma says happily. "Business days. I won't make them work the weekend unexpectedly for something this far out," she answers. "After that, call the Metropolis Planning Commission and find out if your predecessor actually managed to request the permits we need. We'll pick up the information they'll need out of his desk when we get the other things you'll be needing. Though I suppose it's your desk now, actually." she waves a hand. "Whatever."

"It'll get sorted," Shan says confidently, scribbling onto the notepad before she tugs the sheet free. Hers now. Into her pocket it goes.