xp_logs | Nathan and Crystal - An Exercise, Backdated to the Saturday before last (Reply)

Yet another backdated log. Nathan takes Crystal out for a walk around campus on a super secret mission. Crystal is not impressed.

Nathan smiled briefly at Crystal as she came down the stairs towards him. He'd told her to meet him in the front hall, without an explanation as what they were doing, and she looked... guardedly curious, maybe. "Afternoon," he said, then inclined his head in the direction of the door. "We're going to go for a walk."

Given the situation, from anyone else, "we're going for a walk" might have sounded ominous. Although her initial encounter with Nate had started off being uncomfortable, she did not want that to be the case anymore. How could it, when Medusa clearly held him in such high esteem? And he had offered to work with her. He hadn't had to do that, but he did.

"Good afternoon," Crystal replied, walking with Nate towards the door.

"This is possibly going to seem a little alarming," Nathan went on in the same amiable tone as they headed out. The fall air was cool and crisp, even in mid-afternoon. "It's in the nature of an exercise, to illustrate something to you. I'd have preferred to do this in New York, a different way, but as you're grounded..."

OK, now he was sounding ominous. Crystal began to feel wary, but did not make an outward show of it. It was a bit funny, save for her weekend trips, she had only left campus a few times before, and now that she was grounded there was something else for her to do off-campus. "I suppose I shall have to trust you."

"The day I ever do anything to harm one of the students at this school... well, it'll never come," Nathan said calmly, heading in the direction of this end of one of the walking trails as they reached the bottom of the front steps. "We're going to take one of the less-used trails around the lake and back."

"Oh, I did not mean to suggest that you would do such a thing!" Crystal said hastily. "I am sorry, I did not mean it like that." Good going, Crystal.

"See," Nathan said almost cheerfully, "I didn't know whether you meant it like that or not. So I responded in the way that I did to either reassure you, if you did, or to make you stop and think about how that had come across, if you didn't." He gave her an almost whimsical smile. "I've been taking lessons in the rudiments of diplomatic conversation for a while now. I'm not so sure it's taking, but occasionally I have hope... at the very least I'm learning now not to always say what I have in mind, however much I might like to. Or re-learning. I acquired the skill under very different circumstances a long time ago."

"I meant it in a good way, actually. Medusa admires you, and I trust her opinion," Crystal explained. She, too, had been taught how to carry on a proper conversation, but very few people around here seemed to appreciate it. They were more into saying crazy things and using foul words or even silly words like 'dude'.

"Your sister and I spent a fairly productive afternoon at the UN this week," Nathan said as they passed under the trees. The foliage was still impressive in all its shades of red and orange and yellow, although a good portion of the leaves had fallen. He glanced sideway and down at Crystal, assessing her demeanor.

"Yes, I know," Crystal replied. "Medusa informed me that it was rather productive." Crystal wondered what this walk was supposed to entail. Nathan had said that it was an exercise. An exercise in what? Just be patient and wait to find out.

"She's been spending quite a bit of time down at the office in the boathouse," Nathan went on. "Helping us work on this whole situation in Prague." His tone was conversational, his posture relaxed. Deliberately so.

Situation was putting it mildly, wasn't it? "I know," she replied calmly. "You are working hard to do what you can to help this unfortunate situation."

The lake came into view through the trees, sparkling in the fall sunlight. "I can hear the water lapping at the rocks, in the boathouse," Nathan mused. "At night, I mean, when the rest of the house is quiet. It's a very soothing sound." He wasn't above nudging her in the right direction.

Crystal nodded. "That is a very beautiful and soothing sound," she said, thinking of all of the times she had heard such a sound back home.

"Remind me of home. Muir Island, I mean... I haven't been back for too long," Nathan said amiably. "I need to tell work to take a hike and go with Moira one of these weeks."

"Why have you not returned home for so long?" Crystal asked. "Surely
you can do some of your work from there."

"I could. And I really should, from time to time. It just seems like it makes more sense to be here... but I miss it," Nathan confessed quietly. "Ah, well. We'll be back there for a good chunk of the holidays, at least," he said more cheerfully. Pleasant chatter. Served multiple purposes, not just that of the exercise.

"That is good to hear," Crystal replied, wondering when the "alarming" part was going to come into play. She still wasn't sure what the point of this "exercise" was. Maybe they were just walking and he was trying to see how long it would take her to ask what the exercise was?

The carefully neutral responses were, oddly, not unexpected. Probably a sign of respect, Nathan reasoned; possibly she wasn't sure what the hell he was doing, but because he had her sister's okay, didn't want to be too blatant about questioning him. The highly trained manners at work?

"I used to come out here sometimes and... well, you probably haven't ever seen 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon'. A martial arts movie, where the actors look as though they're defying gravity. I was very taken by it, and running around from tree to tree - or roof to roof -used to be one of the ways I relaxed."

Crystal had to hide her amusement at the thought of Nathan leaping from tree to tree. "This sounds like an interesting movie," Crystal told Nathan. "Perhaps I will suggest it for viewing during one of the movie nights." It certainly seemed like a much better choice than the rather silly movies the other students liked to choose.

"It's a lot of fun. Has a very sad love story at the core of it, though," Nathan said wisely. "I found it very depressing at the time. But for a movie night... not a bad choice. It's got something for everyone. A couple of love stories, and martial arts." He paused, then sprang lightly into the air, carefully directed TK
carrying him like a leaf on the wind to the top of a nearby tree. "I more or less stopped doing this when I started flying," he called down to Crystal.

Crystal looked up at Nathan. "I will make the suggestion, then," she called up to him. And actually go to one of the movie nights. "Do you not like doing that as much, or do you just default to flying?"

"Still like doing it, actually. Love flying more." He stepped off the tree branch and his exoskeleton sprung into life around him, the fiery glow of it casting the trees into sharp shadows. "You fly too, don't you?" he asked, the wings of the firebird beating lazily. They didn't need to do that to keep him in the air, of course - it was a matter of will, but it was a reflexive action.

"Yes, I am capable of maneuvering myself through the air," Crystal answered, smiling at the sight of the firebird. It was, as Medusa had said, quite an impressive display of power.

Nathan lowered himself back through the trees, wings folding back and then collapsing inwardly neatly so that they did nothing more than disturb the leaves. "I've understood since I started doing this why so many mutants envy those who have the ability to fly," he said. "There's something very wonderful about it."

Crystal nodded. Not everyone was lucky enough to have a power that allowed that person to experience the joy of flight. "I like flying," she said. "I like being off of the ground."

"I'm surprised I haven't seen you out and about and doing it more often this last little while, then."

"I have not flown lately," Crystal replied.

"Why?"

"I have not felt like doing so."

"Can I suggest something?" Nathan asked lightly as they continued down the trail. This whole conversation really was killing numerous birds with one stone, no pun intended. "Although I should say that since I've been teaching, I've learned that demanding things is usually counterproductive. So you can take this as an observation, rather than a request. It's simply that many of the problems you've faced lately seem to have been due to a couple of factors that have combined in an
unfortunate way. First, the fact that you make assumptions and don't ask questions... second, that you promptly take those assumptions and internalize your reactions. No one gets a chance to shed any light on your questions when you do that."

"I did not like the answers and responses that I received when I did ask questions or make suggestions," Crystal said. "That is, I did not feel that my words were taken seriously, and that they therefore did not receive proper consideration, not that I simply did not like what I was being told."

"Did you ever ask about your concerns with self-defense class?"

"No, I did not have any actual concerns about the class. I thought that it was being taught the way it was supposed to be taught here."

"In a way that made you that uncomfortable?" Nathan tilted his head at her. "In a way that was openly offensive to you?"

"Yes. The people here seem to be familiar with each other and work together quite closely. Why would I think that his methods were unknown to those responsible for the safety of the students here?"

"Poor logic, there." It wasn't said harshly - in fact, it was said almost gently, but no less firmly for all of that. "I remember very clearly telling you that the telepaths here are scrupulous about their use of powers. And we are, suffice to say, the only mindreaders around. Unless you regularly saw someone sitting in on Logan's classes, jumping to the conclusion that we all knew how he was
conducting himself... well, was jumping to a conclusion."

"I did not think that any telepaths were reading his mind or the minds of his students," Crystal told Nathan. "What I thought was that the school was aware of exactly who was allowed to teach the students, that I should trust the school's judgment in giving the teachers their jobs. I am not the only student in his class, and this cannot be the first class that he has taught. No one else said anything. I did not think to question his methods; I accepted them as part of the
craziness that seems to go around here. He is not the first staff member to act towards me in an inappropriate manner, and no one seemed to react to public instances of such displays of behavior."

"Crystal." Nathan stopped, shaking his head with a faintly incredulous smile. "Stop. Just for a moment, and think about that. Logan was teaching self-defense, because the administration of the school believed he was capable of doing so. He was trusted to do so. It turned out to be the wrong decision - the trust was misplaced. It would have been far easier on you, on him, and on everyone, had a student, someone who was directly exposed to how he taught, brought it to the attention of the administration of the school that there was something wrong." He tilted his head at her again. "You obviously don't believe that your opinion is worthless - you believe very strongly that your feelings on the situation are right. So why would you act as if your opinion is worthless and not speak up about a problem? It doesn't make sense, and you need to recognize the contradiction in your own behavior if you're going to avoid such problems in future."

Crystal did not want to go around in circles and was more than a bit tired of restating the same few points. Some people understood, others didn't. Besides, hadn't Nathan just made her point for her? Trust had been misplaced. The school had trusted Logan, she had trusted the school's decision. "Everything here is new for me," she explained. "Everything is so different from what I am used to, and I
am still taking it all in. I am here to learn, not to attempt to change the status quo. I would never attempt to force my beliefs upon others, and while I may not understand the way things are here and the way people act towards each other, I accept the fact that to others they are proper and acceptable ways to conduct their lives." Even if I will never, ever understand them.

"I am not going to tell you that you need to assimilate into American society," Nathan said after a moment. "Partly because that would be a very presumptous thing to say, partly because I don't honestly think you need to. You do however need to figure out a way to learn to live in it, since you are staying here. That doesn't involve acting like everyone else. That doesn't even involve liking the way some of the people around here act. But as you've accepted that you don't understand the way things work here at times, you need to realize that you're not going to learn if you don't ask questions. If you're silent out of misunderstanding, that's never going to be rectified. You don't," he concluded, "have the right to ask people to behave in a way that's more familiar to you. You do have the right and should be asking for clarification, or help, when they're behaving in a way that's deeply unsettling to you. Because sometimes that might just be a cultural difference you need to live with, yes. Other times it might be something else, something more serious. Like it was with Logan."

Crystal nodded. "I know. I plan on being more communicative now."

"That's good. What you need is a strategy, really," Nathan said, with a quick smile. "You get along well with Ms. Munroe, no? I know that she would be happy to talk to you if anything came up. Ororo is a big believer in avoiding problems before they start. And anytime you want to come down to the boathouse with a concern," Nathan went on lightly, "you know that Moira and I will do anything we can to help."

"I will keep that in mind," Crystal told Nathan, giving him a smile in return. Right, she was going to run to the boathouse any time she had a problem now. And after that, she'd volunteer to babysit Rachel everyday after class.

Nathan laughed at her. "You know, you could just say 'thanks so much for the offer, but are you insane'? Rather than limiting yourself to the eloquent look." He shook his head as they walked up a slight rise and the mansion came back into view through the trees. "In any case, that's my advice for the day, I think. You don't need to swallow it whole, but giving it some serious thought might be a very good
idea."

Crystal hid a frown. Of course she wouldn't say such a thing, why would Mr. Dayspring make a suggestion like that?. Yes, that was all she needed now, to actually start telling people how crazy she thought they were. That would certainly help make her life here much easier, wouldn't it? "I will think about your words," Crystal said calmly.

She was going to have a difficult time, Nathan thought a bit sadly. Younger and less sure of herself than her sister, and her coping methods were not working at all. Maybe she would think about it, though. That was all he could hope for, and all he could do in the meantime was his best for her.

"So, here we are again," he said as they came out from under the trees. "The end of our walk. Now what I want you to do is go inside and describe what you saw and heard, on our walk - not what we talked about, but what you saw and heard around you. Call it a diagnostic check on your situational awareness," he said lightly. "There are precisely six things I'm looking to see if you noticed, and they're all things I added to the trail and its environs."

Mr. Dayspring had added things to the trail beforehand to see whether or not she had noticed them? That was the exercise? The walk had been to see if she would notice purposely placed items without knowing that they were there? Crystal nodded as she headed toward the mansion, trying to recall anything that had looked or sounded out of place.

"Someone put me through this exercise once, a long time ago," Nathan said, his expression very distant all of a sudden. More than once, actually, and in a number of different locations. "I won't hold you to the same standards as I was held, but it's still a useful exercise."

Crystal had to hide a laugh. The same standards? She had had no idea of what the possibly alarming walk in the nature of an exercise was supposed to be about. Crystal and Nathan had carried on a conversation the entire time; she had kept wondering what the exercise was. Now it turned out that she was supposed to have kept an eye out for things that he had placed around the trail?

"I hope that Kyle's pig was not one of the items you choose to use," Crystal said lightly, "because I did not see it."

Nathan just laughed softly. "No, no pig. I am not the mastermind behind that particular plot." He glanced sideways at Crystal as they headed across the lawn towards the mansion. "I'd go right in and try to get down what you remember, while it's still fresh."

"I will do that."