wedonot: (This is pretty dramatic lighting.)
Dr. Charles Xavier ([personal profile] wedonot) wrote2012-09-21 03:24 pm

TWENTY NINE ✖ VIDEO

[Charles has set himself up in a corner of the soup kitchen at one of the tables, with some papers and notebooks tucked off to the side from the device. It's a quiet day at the Salvation House soup kitchen, but then during school and work hours, it usually is, and so he's taken to trying to pen out another story for an upcoming deadline while having a smoke, anddd promptly got a little bored with the ideas he'd been coming up with and decided to do this, instead.

He's a bit younger than his Barge counterpart, but looks fairly world weary if still polite and friendly and hopeful. He's gained a bit of a reputation around town as someone always willing to go out of his way to help someone in need, which means a fair amount of people probably find him preachy or a nuisance, so feel free to assume that sort of thing if your character's not very well off/a criminal.]


Someone asked me the other day what the trick is to writing a good story, and I thought I'd share my answer with the rest of you in case you've been horribly misled by a teacher or some other adult in the past. See, I once had a teacher who tried to tell us that it all depended on how we structured everything, grammar wise, and everything else would just come to us as long as we kept that in mind.

[He laughs a little, and he looks somewhere between genuinely amused, frustrated and a little sad as he continues.] Admittedly my classmates and I were about seven at the time, so I think she was more concerned with us being able to string a coherent sentence together let alone a novel, but I've always thought it was ridiculous, to think being a good writer depended on where you put the commas. What matters is if you can tell a good story, and the best way to do that is to be self aware of the world you're living in, find ways to make it interesting to talk about with someone else, and put it down on paper.

Obviously if you plan on making a living out of it, you might want to change some things - names, setting, that kind of thing - but honestly, that's just about all it takes to write a good one.

[He stubs out his cigarette in an ashtray off camera.]

Anyway, I'm sure you've all had enough of me rambling. I know Officer Arthur's already let you all know, but we really could use a few more volunteers down at the Salvation House. I know it's a time commitment, but there are people who need help in this town, and if you're in a position to help out, we'd be more than glad to have you. I've been told the work's good for the soul. [He says it as sort of a dry joke, smiling a little as he does, but sometimes it feels like that's why he does it. Not that he's ever really talked to anyone about it, but there you go.]

[ooc: So I had a minor change in plans for Charles. He fought in WWI at eighteen for about a year, came home and wasn't really the same partying wealthy kid he used to be, so a couple years ago he up and left and came to Redemption. Basically he turned into Ernest Hemingway meets Edith Keeler for this breach idek He spends a ridiculous amount of time volunteering at the Salvation House soup kitchen, looks out for the people who frequent/should be frequenting there and is a writer for the local paper and a few other The New Yorker type publications. They're usually sort of sad-but-sometimes-uplifting stories about the human condition in the modern period, and he never talks about the war and rarely says much about what he did before coming here. I'll be tagging with [personal profile] amongstrangers and am open to spam if anyone wants to run into him!]
bodilesswarrior: (1920s)

[personal profile] bodilesswarrior 2012-09-21 09:47 pm (UTC)(link)
[Her smile's wry but warm.]

Arthur could take a leaf out of your book. [Which is no surprise, she supposes.]

And any teacher worth their salt will nurture a child's creativity, first and foremost.
amongstrangers: (a beautiful little fool.)

[personal profile] amongstrangers 2012-09-21 11:34 pm (UTC)(link)
[He just chuckles because, well.]

She wasn't a very good teacher, period. I'm surprised I learned my multiplication tables as quickly as I did.
bodilesswarrior: (1920s)

[personal profile] bodilesswarrior 2012-09-23 01:56 pm (UTC)(link)
[Barbara shakes her head, more than a hint of indignance in her expression.] I'd tell you I didn't know where they find some of these people, but it would be a lie.
bodilesswarrior: (1920s)

[personal profile] bodilesswarrior 2012-09-23 08:14 pm (UTC)(link)
I was a teacher for years. You pick up a thing or two if you keep your eyes open.

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burnmythoughts: (1920s)

[personal profile] burnmythoughts 2012-09-21 09:50 pm (UTC)(link)
[Jean looks sceptical. She usually does, unless she's manipulating someone.]

Seems to me there's gotta to be more it, else we'd be getting a lot more stories.
amongstrangers: (I am one of the few honest people.)

[personal profile] amongstrangers 2012-09-21 11:38 pm (UTC)(link)
[Charles doesn't seem too fazed by it and just shrugs a little.]

It's the best way to start. You should give it a try, I'm sure you'd be great at it.
burnmythoughts: (1920s)

[personal profile] burnmythoughts 2012-09-23 01:58 pm (UTC)(link)
[Her eyes widen at that, just a little.] Doubt it. What have I got to write about, that people'd want to read?
amongstrangers: (you can't live forever.)

[personal profile] amongstrangers 2012-09-23 05:33 pm (UTC)(link)
I don't know. What interests you?
burnmythoughts: (1920s)

[personal profile] burnmythoughts 2012-09-23 08:12 pm (UTC)(link)
[That takes her aback, too. People don't usually care what she's interested in, not since -

She shrugs.]
Surviving, mostly.

[But, well, he asked, and he's kind in a way that's never felt false.]

...I like the pulps. The ones about - you know, knights and space and monsters. [Where it's easy and simple and good to be a hero.]

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yeahscience: ([flood] suit #1)

[personal profile] yeahscience 2012-09-22 12:14 am (UTC)(link)
What kind of...

[He hesitates, then switches to private.]

What kind of things do you do down there?
amongstrangers: (it takes two to make an accident.)

[Private]

[personal profile] amongstrangers 2012-09-22 12:17 am (UTC)(link)
We give people a hot meal, a place to stay if they need it, we can help them find jobs or somewhere more permanent to stay... Whatever we can do to help, really.

Why?
yeahscience: ([flood] suit #3)

[Private]

[personal profile] yeahscience 2012-09-22 01:22 am (UTC)(link)
Just... wondering, I s'pose.

Do a lot of people come through?
amongstrangers: (you can't live forever.)

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[personal profile] amongstrangers 2012-09-22 01:27 am (UTC)(link)
A fair amount. Depends on what day and how bad the weather outside is.
yeahscience: ([4-5] contemplatin')

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[personal profile] yeahscience 2012-09-22 01:35 am (UTC)(link)
Like more when it's raining, more on Sundays?

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ichoosefight: (so detective what brings you here?)

[personal profile] ichoosefight 2012-09-22 02:22 am (UTC)(link)
Well that's a relief, because I always put the commas in all wrong.
amongstrangers: (a beautiful little fool.)

[personal profile] amongstrangers 2012-09-22 02:24 am (UTC)(link)
Maybe you should get someone to look over what you've written before submitting it to a publisher.
ichoosefight: (beyond cool)

[personal profile] ichoosefight 2012-09-22 02:26 am (UTC)(link)
[ She giggles. ] Oh, I would never be able to get published. I can barely stand the thought of my teachers reading anything I've written!
amongstrangers: (there are only the pursued.)

[personal profile] amongstrangers 2012-09-22 02:28 am (UTC)(link)
It can't be that bad. What have you written about?
ichoosefight: (boom)

[personal profile] ichoosefight 2012-09-22 02:36 am (UTC)(link)
Oh, silly things. [ She blushes a little, embarrassed. ]

Parties and school, and things like that. And sometimes dreams.

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demigoddess: (who do I look up to?)

spam

[personal profile] demigoddess 2012-09-22 04:14 am (UTC)(link)
[ Cassie steps heavily into Salvation House, with a box obscuring everything other than her legs, arms, and the top of her head. She drops the box on the same table Charles is sitting at with a loud thud and clatter as the cans inside move. ]

Sorry to interrupt your writing, but I was just wondering if you could point me in the right direction. I have some food to donate, all non-perishable, it's just that the last time I was here I was with my Papa, and it's already been a few years now.

[ Sad to say this small donation does nothing to make Cassie feel any better about her own crime involvement, it does however leave her with the feeling that her dad would be pleased. When he was running the place he made a point to come by at least once a month. ]
amongstrangers: (it takes two to make an accident.)

spam

[personal profile] amongstrangers 2012-09-22 07:03 am (UTC)(link)
[Even though he saw her coming, Charles still jumps a little at the loud noise. He's been a little jumpy since he got back from France, even years later - he'd scared the hell out of Raven at one point when a car backfired, before he'd come here - but it's easier not to immediately panic when he can see what actually made the noise, so he relaxes fairly quickly, looking up at the young woman and the box for a moment before carefully swinging his legs back over the bench and standing up.]

That's alright. [He looks at her curiously. Mrs. Turner - the current person in charge - had talked about the man who used to run the place, before Charles had gotten here and more or less become her faithful sidekick, and he'd seen pictures of him and his family.]

You're Cassandra, right?
demigoddess: (I live for these prison visits)

spam

[personal profile] demigoddess 2012-09-24 10:38 pm (UTC)(link)
[ She looks at him confused for a second, but finally nods. ] Yes, Cassandra Sandsmark. It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance.

Did you know him? [ Probably. How else would he know her? This takes things to a new level of embarrassing, but as long as he doesn't ask, she won't say anything. ]
amongstrangers: (an arrangement of notes.)

spam

[personal profile] amongstrangers 2012-09-27 03:55 pm (UTC)(link)
No. But Mrs. Turner talks about you both, sometimes. She's got a few pictures. [And she'd apparently more or less adopted him and liked filling him in on all the town history that had happened before he'd come here, so he'd heard a bit about the Sandsmarks. He offered a hand to shake.]

Charles Xavier. Canned goods go back on the shelves over there. Do you need a hand taking them over?
demigoddess: (why don't we just make this simple)

spam

[personal profile] demigoddess 2012-09-28 06:00 am (UTC)(link)
Oh? Really? What a shock-- Well, no, my p-father was a great man. [ Shut up she begins telling herself, before glancing toward the shelves Charles mentions. ]

Do you work here? [ She asks, a little awkwardly, placing her hands over the top of the box. ]

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