xp_logs | Crystal and Pietro - Meeting by the Lake (Backdated)

Backdated to the week Elpis was in Prague. While he's out for a run and she's out for a flight, Pietro and Crystal meet for the first time...the first time at Xavier's, that is.

For someone used to taking twenty-minute morning jogs ranging well over a hundred miles, the Xavier's campus might as well have been a sardine tin. Which was, Pietro thought, not exactly new--he hadn't really been able to stretch his legs living in any but the most remote Brotherhood bases--but he found the parallel mildly amusing.

What the school did have, however, was a lake, which was almost as much fun as a few thousand square miles of private land would have been. Pietro liked lakes; sprinting across open water like a human skipping-stone felt like nothing else in his experience. And he had to give Xavier this much: Magneto placed a great importance on training, on improving upon one's mutant gifts . . . but it was all in the service of the cause. Here, for the first time in a long time, Pietro felt free to simply enjoy his powers. On his next pass across the lake, he turned a cartwheel, shooting up plumes of spray, and laughed for the sheer simple pleasure of it.

From a height above the trees, Crystal approached the lake, wearing her work-out outfit. She was still staying clear of the gym, but there was no reason she could no practice or work out outside. Crystal preferred being outside, anyway. The past week had certainly been...interesting. Medusa was away, and Crystal was staying in her room, a fact that Crystal was quite happy about. She'd had more than one surprise this week, and was glad that she hadn't had to hide her initial reactions in front of Jennie and their suitemates.

Crystal looked at the lake quizzically. It wasn't on fire, but the surface was not flat and calm. It looked like a speedboat was rapidly making its way across the lake, but it did not appear that there was a boat on the lake. As she moved toward the water, Crystal began her descent, trying to get a closer look. Yes, those were waves caused by a wake, but she could not see the cause of the disturbance on the lake. It was as if invisible forces were moving across the lake, and fast. No, Crystal realized suddenly, not fast. Very, very fast.

Halfway across the lake on his latest pass, Pietro caught sight of a slim figure floating through the sky. One of the students, most likely . . . one he recognized, possibly, he thought as he saw a stray beam of sunlight glimmer in golden hair. He angled across the lake again, and stopped on the near shore, looking up at her. It was Crystal. Hm. She'd been friendly enough on that brief visit to Attilan years ago, but she'd been a child then; he wondered what she'd heard of him since.

"Good morning, Lady Crystal," he called up to her. "Enjoying your flight?"

So he had recognized her and remembered who she was... and he had just called her "Lady Crystal." Great. At least he, unlike the others here, knew the proper title to be used without needing to be told. The others at the mansion, of course, never used a title when speaking to her or about her; if anything, they had thought that she was a princess, and she had made it very clear at that time that she did not require the use of a title here.

"A good morning to you as well, Mr. Maximoff," Crystal replied as she neared the ground. She stopped several feet away from Pietro, remaining two inches off of the ground, and continued speaking. "Yes, I am, thank you. I take it that you were enjoying your run?" Running across water was definitely more interesting than running on a solid surface.

"Pietro, please. I'm a guest, not staff. Thankfully for us all." He looked out over the lake a little wistfully. "The water's a little choppy, but it was a good run, yes. Pity the lake will freeze over soon, though; running like the humans do is so very boring." He gave Crystal a brief smile. "And how have you been these past few years? I hardly recognized you, and not only because your control's better."

"I was ten," Crystal replied, trying to hide her embarrassment. "I have not crashed into any walls or tables for several years now. I have practiced a lot and discovered many other ways in which I can use my abilities." Smiling slightly, she added, "I am still discovering new ones. And there is no need to use the title of 'Lady' for me here." Medusa might not mind being called by a title here, and Crystal was sure that she'd at least be pleased that Pietro had referred to Crystal in the proper way, but Crystal did not want to get into the title issue with the entire school again.

"I will remember. And I'm glad to hear you've been practicing--not that I doubted it. Control over our abilities is something we should all take pride in." Pietro tilted his head slightly, thinking back. "You . . . control air, wasn't that it?"

He hadn't read her journal, then; Crystal was actually glad for that. "Yes, I can do many things that relate to air and components of air. I can create wind, cause water to form, solidify air, make alterations to air pressure and temperature…and those are just the basic descriptions of what I can do." She eyed Pietro for a moment. "I hope that you do not believe that everyone here takes pride in what they can do. If that is what you think, you are in for an unpleasant surprise. I know that I was quite surprised to discover the truth myself."

Pietro smirked. "I said we should all take pride in it, not that we do. That's a bit much to expect from the current American cultural climate." The smirk transmuted into a more genuine, speculative smile. "Though speaking of control, I've just had a thought. Would you be interested in trying an experiment, just for fun?"

Just a bit of surprise showed on Crystal's face; the rest of it was kept hidden. The same feelings she had felt when Mr. Dayspring had taken her for a walk came flooding back. Crystal hadn't known what the exercise was until the very end; now she didn't know what sort of "experiment" Pietro wished to conduct. What exactly did he have in mind? "What sort of experiment?" Crystal asked, allowing a hint of curiousity to be heard.

"Better shown than told, perhaps. I'll start small; see what you can do with this." Pietro extended one arm slightly and started rotating his hand, faster and faster; in moments it was an indistinct blur, and a narrow vortex of wind swirled the leftover fallen leaves.

Crystal's eyes widened as she realized what Pietro was doing. He did not have power over weather, wind, or air, but he could create wind, a whirlwind! He had asked her to see what she could do with it... Crystal eyed the vortex and the leaves and concentrated. She was familiar with the control of whirlwinds of her own design but had not, well, experimented with ones she had not created herself. The vortex grew slightly larger as Crystal added a bit of her own power to it, picking up leaves and carrying them to various points in the circling path of moving air.

Interesting. Pietro could feel her touch in the wind, as the vortex tugged on his hand; not at all an unpleasant sensation, though perhaps it was for the best that they'd both started small. He concentrated on keeping the airflow as steady as he could. "That's an excellent beginning. Can you change the direction? Bend the wind upward, keeping the rotation the same?"

"I am not certain, but I can try." He had to ask her to attempt things she had never tried before, didn't he? Of course, that was what made this an experiment and a learning process. Quietly, she took a deep breath, and concentrated on doing what Pietro had asked. Attempting to change the direction of wind that was not entirely her own felt...odd, and this wind was being generated by someone; it was not a natural wind that she could simply redirect with a more powerful wind. Crystal had to be careful; she could not risk doing anything that would end up even remotely resembling an attack.
Slowly, the direction of the vortex began to shift..

Pietro shifted his arm slightly as the wind bent his wrist. "How are you doing that?" he asked curiously. "Direct influence on the vortex, or are you pushing it with a wind of your own?"

"I am giving it a slight external push, plus a small portion of the wind in the vortex is mine," Crystal told Pietro. "This is something new for me; I am only used to working with winds that are entirely under my control."

Pietro tilted his head, a challenging smile playing at the corners of his mouth. "Only a slight push? You could do more? Feel free to try--we're comfortably subsonic, I'm not likely to break."

Crystal held up a hand and held it close to the whirlwind, feeling its movement but not physically touching it with her hand. She placed her hand under the vortex and, when her hand moved in an upward motion, so did the vortex.

Pietro's hand moved to follow; the pressure was significant now, though still well within his comfort level. "That's much better. Ready to try something a little larger?"

Crystal nodded, wondering again what Pietro had in mind. Crystal was fairly certain that she could take complete control of the vortex, but after doing so it would be hers and would not be any different from one she had created from the start.

"All right then, try this." With a rippling shrug, Pietro brought the rest of his arm into play, creating a much larger and faster vortex. The remaining leaves blew away, and some of the smaller pebbles near the lakeshore began to follow them.

Crystal's eyes widened; as the vortex grew, the small amount of control she had over it lessened. Well, then. Perhaps it was time to bring in a whirlwind of her own. Crystal made a motion, and a dozen or so pebbles, along with slight amounts of dirt, lifted up from the ground in a spinning motion. The new whirlwind moved towards the other one and began to push into it.

Pietro felt the counterforce of Crystal's new whirlwind and grinned, pushing back as best he could. But the difference in leverage became clear very quickly; Pietro only "held" one end of his vortex, while Crystal controlled the entire length of hers. After a token struggle he stilled his arm, rolling it at the shoulder as his whirlwind died, and laughed. "Very nicely done. I think I could learn a good deal from you."

As Crystal's whirlwind spun in front of Pietro, the complete oddness of the situation suddenly became quite clear to her. She'd been here for five months now, doing her best to learn from others while dealing with the fact that no one here seemed to believe that she had anything useful to contribute. And now, suddenly here was someone, an ex-Brotherhood member no less, who not only though that he
could learn from her but was actually saying it.

"You...thank you. I think...yes, I can do that. I am always amenable to further practice on my part, and if you think that you can learn from me, I will be glad to do that."

"Is that really so surprising?" A self-deprecating smile was not an expression that sat comfortably on Pietro's face, but he did his best. "I'm well-practiced with the direct benefits of my mutation. I've never met my equal at anything that involves moving at extreme speed. But the incidental effects . . . ah, that's something else again. I can create whirlwinds, yes, but how much control can I exert over them? What might I be able to do with them? There I've only scratched the surface. And I truly enjoy learning new things I can do with my speed."

Crystal decided to leave out the fact that her normal use for her whirlwinds involved picking up objects and tossing them into closets or under beds. With but a thought, her whirlwind moved away from Pietro and grew smaller, depositing the rocks and dirt back onto the ground before fading away to a simple wind that quickly ceased to exist. Crystal nodded to Pietro. "I understand. Although I had already discovered multiple ways to utilize my control over air, and had spent a great deal of time perfecting my control before I came to this school, I am now able to use my abilities in a variety of ways that I would have thought were impossible only six months ago."

"My mother often said that each day was a new opportunity to learn." Pietro ran his fingers back through lake-damp hair and smirked slightly. "And say what else you might about this school, it's an excellent place for mutants to explore their abilities."

Oh, of course it was. Mainly if you were a newly manifested mutant and/or had suffered a traumatic experience that had necessitated a rescue by people who wore black leather, but yes, it was an excellent place for that. "Your mother sounds wise," Crystal said. "As for the school, it does provide a... unique learning environment." Never knowing when any one of a number of students or teachers who did not have good control or had a broken brain were going to have a nice little accident was certainly conducive to the learning process. Especially when she had joined in on their fun by raining inside and setting Forge's workshop on fire. "I have been working closely with Ms. Munroe," Crystal continued, "although our abilities are not quite the same, they do share a number of similarities, and I have learned a lot by working with her."

Pietro chuckled at her expression. "My mother taught Wanda and I until we went off to college; my first actual class was a . . . unique experience as well. And I haven't been much impressed by what I've seen of your classmates, so far. But Munroe . . . well, I haven't had the pleasure personally, but she inspired a gratifying amount of terror in some of my former associates, so I'm disposed to think well
of her."

"They...the students...most of them are not used to having mutant abilities," Crystal began, suddenly finding herself partially defending the other students. "Many of my...classmates are still new to the idea of being a mutant, and, unfortunately a large number of them do not seem prepared to accept who and what they are. They seem to regard their abilities as either a curse or a game." And it was said. A large part of what bothered her about the other students she had interacted with had now been said out loud to someone other than Medusa.

Former associates...Crystal knew full well what that meant. Mr. Summers had asked her to refrain from asking Pietro any questions he might not want to answer, but perhaps this was a permissible opportunity to ask the questions she had wanted to ask since the moment she had read Scott's reply? No, Crystal decided quickly, not now. No matter what he answers, I am sure that Mr. Summers was right; he has been through a great deal recently, plus he did not receive the warmest of welcomes upon his arrival. Now is not the time to ask questions that might make him uncomfortable.

"Mm. I'm not entirely surprised--it's one of the philosophical differences I have with Xavier's way. If you'll forgive a moment's pontification, the trouble with treating mutants as humans first is
that it tempts mutants to look at their powers as something basically external: either something they use, like a tool, or something that's been inflicted on them." Pietro smiled wryly. "That's always struck me as a bit silly. Our powers are as much part of us as our gender; they should be as basic a part of our identities."

Crystal nodded, smiling slightly. "Yes, well, that is how I was raised; to be proud of and appreciate the fact that I am a mutant. I suppose that I cannot help but feel sorry for those who do not feel this way; those who are unable to accept being a mutant as an intrinsic part of themselves."

"Ah, well, we're a young people yet, spread all over the world. We've only begun to develop a culture of our own." Pietro gave Crystal an approving look. "I'll be very interested to see what happens in the world as families like yours, mutants raising mutant children, become the rule rather than the enviable exception."

"That will probably take quite some time to happen," Crystal replied. "I am sure that it will happen eventually, but I doubt that this will occur any time soon. I do not believe that most people, whether they are human or mutant, are quite ready for that yet. It would be nice, though, to not be considered by most to be an oddity for having a mostly or entirely mutant family. My grandfather was a teleporter. I am a third generation mutant," she added proudly.

"The mutant birth rate is increasing each year, with no sign of leveling off just yet." Pietro chuckled. "That's one of the things that has the . . . shall we say, less progressive humans, so worried. But you're right, it's a gradual process." He tilted his head slightly. "Mutant families as established as that are very rare indeed; I'd like to hear more about yours, if you wouldn't mind. Perhaps another time?" He nodded in the direction of the mansion. "I'm afraid I have some business to attend to back in my suite."

Crystal gave a quick nod. Yes, she had pointed that out to Tommy months ago. It is idiotic to think that mutants can be stopped like that. Even if someone somehow managed to kill all living mutants, we would continue to exist because more would continue to manifest and be born from "normal humans." Briefly, she wondered what Pietro already knew about her family. He'd been on Attilan with his father; surely he already knew more than most people did about the royal family of Attilan.

"I would not mind," Crystal told Pietro. "Just let me know when and where you would like to meet and I will be there."

"Until we meet again, then." Pietro gave Crystal a friendly nod, and disappeared after a few steps, leaves whirling up in his wake.