BACKDATED: [Angelo, Marius] Necessary Talks

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Backdated to Wednesday for reasons we'll pretend are good ones. Angelo gets broken into the newest of his many responsibilities by being thrown at a member of the last week's more indignant student body.




Marius patiently carried on through the vastly dull exercise of curls, his arm bringing the light weight up in a slow, steady arc. He hoped the timing was only coincidence and not evidence of a burgeoning perennial ritual that required him to spend every November in physical rehabilitation. Still, at least this time was probably the last, at least where his mutation was concerned. Rehashing the painstaking steps of last year was far easier to take when he knew it was because his body's reserves had been wrecked mutating away from the condition that had originally laid him up in the first place.

Well, that, and because for some reason he'd thought it was a brilliant idea to eat as little as humanly possible for a month, but Marius preferred to focus on the explanation that made him look less like a melodramatic twit.

Angelo had been looking for him, first stopping at his suite and being pointed down to the weight room. Given the choice, he would have been actively avoiding everyone who'd spoken up during that argument on the journals, but he did see that someone had to talk to Marius and since Nathan really, really wasn't the best choice and Rahne was in an equally bad mood about the matter, he'd been nominated.

Thus, he was leaning against the weight room door, watching the boy do his exercises. "Marius."

Marius jerked a little at the unexpected voice, but managed to step it down beyond much more than a quick flick of the eyes. "Ah," he said, recognizing the tired-looking figure standing in the doorway, "Afternoon, Ange. I infringin' on your private weight-time?"

"Nah, I take mine after hours, normally. Less people around, an' it's the only time I get time... I was lookin' for you, actually."

"Oh?" Marius asked, tilting his head briefly as he paused in the middle of a rep. He fixed the older boy with yellow eyes, now a little wary. "Well, I have been found. Would this be for purely social reasons, or should there be a welling of Dread?"

"No need for a serious welling of Dread", Angelo tried to assure him with a casual wave. "You're not in trouble or anythin'... I just got sent to talk to you about Smichov. Call me the staff rep for today."

Oh. Well, that would do it. Marius bent to carefully place the weight on the floor and give Angelo his full attention, straightening up again enough to rest his forearms on his thighs to regard Angelo with increased caution. "I see. An' which staff this would be? Elpis, or the school? Would just prefer to be appraised of which side this is comin' from. Julio already got it from the one side. Just want to know for my own edification if this would be a continuation of the same or if you lot're switchin' off." He and Julio weren't close, but given Scott's public summons and Julio's extremely unshy expression of his opinions afterwards regular communication wasn't exactly necessary.

"Kind of both", Angelo said after a moment's consideration. "Elpis is more of my life than the self-defence is, an'... well, I'm one of only two school staff that were actually there. So you get me."

Marius snorted. "Yeah, handy havin' the switch-hitters about." He wondered how calculated the choice between the two options had been, given the professor had been well aware there was some lingering discomfort with Nathan after that incident in his office. It was a little obvious, as that had been why he'd started taking the Psionic Defence course. Which had been suggested by -- well, Angelo. All right, maybe some credit could be afforded. Marius attempted to curb some of the defensiveness. Or as much as his sense of wounded self-righteousness felt it legitimate to grant. "Right. So, may I have it what particular error in judgement I am to be Set Right about? In the interest of startin' out on equal ground."

Angelo resisted rolling his eyes, with an effort. It helped when he reminded himself he'd been like this only worse, just a few years before. "The fact that you seem to think the people here could've been doin' anythin' more than they were, for one."

Marius tilted his head slowly. Right. Bugger patience.

"You know what I'd like?" Marius said. "For people to have actually looked at what I said rather than taken it for what they wanted it to be about. As impressively dense as my head may no doubt sometimes appear, it is well within my power to appreciate that at times direct action is not feasible. My question was why, with this school's considerable resources, had more not been done to effect the indirect contribution of everyday necessities. Food. Medical supplies. Those things which it was rumoured, and since been confirmed, were sorely lacking within the ghetto. It was asked, an' not only was no satisfactory answer given me or Julio, no one in authority even bothered to get the question right. That is my problem."

Angelo just eyed him, flatly. "An' did you try to find out for yourself, instead of just askin' the people who were no more there than you were an' waitin' for an answer? 'Cause if you had, you might just've found out that not one shipment of food or supplies from within Prague was passin' that wall after it got put up. What makes you think it would've been any different if the stuff came from outside?"

"Because if the staff is any indication, this is a place run by a sodding telepath whose rolodex apparently contains a good chunk of the rest of the world's," Marius shot back. "Isn't it supposed to be we're taught to use our powers for the good of the world and all that bloody thing? It is perfectly acceptable to use mutant powers to punch people in the face, but not to sneak a crate through a checkpoint?"

"An' then what?" Angelo demanded wearily. "Another crate, an' another, an' another? An' what happens when someone decides to tell the soldiers what's goin' on, in hopes they'll maybe be let out for it? Or someone on the wall notices there's stuff inside that shouldn't be?"

"Right, an' why not?" Marius retorted, his anger uncurbed. "Since when should the giving of assistance to those in need be limited to what's safe and convenient? I sodding played it like that. This lot are heroes -- can they not do better than me?"

"Marius", was the exasperated reply, "if it all went to hell as bad as it did because the soldiers got scared when some kid fell over an' had a powers accident that looked like an attack, what do you think would've happened if they saw mutants that had no right to be there, carryin' crates that could've had anythin' in?"

"All right. Perhaps I should elucidate. Bear with me a moment." Marius let his hands curl into fists against his thighs, regarding Angelo steadily, and when he continued his voice was flat.

"Say you find yourself in an apartment full of mutants with nothin' but a padlocked door between you an' a group who, if not for happy circumstance, you might have been a part of. You can hear them through the walls. Moving. Crying. An' there you stand, throat so thick with disgust you can barely swallow -- but you've only got so much on you. You can only take the one, an' all those others . . . well, bad luck for them. You get back, an' feel sick at what you've seen. Horrified, one might say. But what more could you have done? An' let's nevermind just why you were there in the first place."

Marius slowly brought his hands together, the mirror-mounds of scartissue of his palms pressed against each other. "But what, you may ask, is the throughline between this tale of woe an' sorry and the current situation, so I shall skip ahead. I got back to reality, an' I realized: the purchasin' of a human being? Not the most shameful moment. The worst was that to do it, I played the game. I couldn't think of any way out but to buy. It was expedient. No doubt it was safer. But the point is, I was playin' by their rules. An' it sounds like this lot did the exact same thing." Marius raised his eyes from the floor to look at Angelo. "Just tell me if there's any way other than the one I took. Please. That's all I want to know."

Angelo didn't even start to answer for a long few moments, then sighed, meeting Marius' eyes. "If by 'this lot', you mean the people here, there was nothin' they could have done that wasn't already bein' done. I promise you that. An' as for the other question... no situation's gonna be the same as any other, Marius. For yours, if you'd tried to do anythin', it could just've ended up goin' really, really badly wrong. Sometimes you've gotta add up the risk over the good you might be able to do... an' think about it, Marius. Where would Yvette be now if you hadn't done what you did? You didn't put her in that place, her or any of the others."

"Yes, people do say that. I, however, shall continue in holding to my resolution to leave the judgement on that to the girl in question. She'll be back soon enough, if rumour can be believed." Sharp as the words were, the anger was running out of him now. And that, he reflected, was probably why he had politely told the professor that he would prefer to save this discussion for their next scheduled session. Maintaining the necessary amount of righteous indignation wasn't nearly as easy if people actually bothered to talk to you.

Marius shook his head, somewhere in the back of his mind still mildly surprised not to feel the weight of his hair moving with it. "I know, I know, sweet an' gentle Reason. I am told I should pay heed to it every now and again. Suppose I just don't want that to be the way the world is, is all. Tryin' to set yourself to make good, an' you get the feelin' it's bad makin' the rules. Just doesn't seem right."

"If there's one thing I've learned since I've got here", Angelo told him gently, "it's sometimes the only way to make good is to fix the rules, from the inside. Not try an' make new ones while most people still have to work with the old ones."

"Not so sure as I agree with that, given the standard of the old," Marius said, raising his hand to brush the nonexistent hair from his eyes. "Ah, well. Fight the good fight howsoever you can, I suppose. Not got much of a choice right now, personally. Forge is prodding at that HeliX thing again. Sat in on a few soundings. Why not, eh?"

"The old ones might suck, but it's the only way that does anybody any good, a lot of the time." He shrugged. "HeliX is as good a way as any, if Forge gets it back off the ground."

"Yes, and I freely confess such practicalities are beyond me. He would be Activist Bloke -- the whole of my role extends to that of the silver-tongued an' well-connected pretty face. But if it's a tongue and connections that can be lent to strikin' a contrast to the FOH an' other such ilk, all to the good." Marius studied the wall just over Angelo's shoulder for a moment, face blank for a moment, then tilted his head to look at the other boy. "Ah, incidentally, your official staff position is now instructor of Self-Defense, correct?"

"It is", he confirmed. "Part-time, along with Lorna. Along with team trainee, Elpis worker, Nathan-wrangler an' part-time student, but I find the time somehow."

Marius nodded. "Ah, beauty. Been meanin' to see someone about that for a bit now. I know the term's already half gone, but there any chance of swingin' a late enrollment? Valuable life skills an' that."

"Not sure I can get you into the official class, but if it's just lessons you want, I can probably fit you in an hour a week or somethin'", Angelo offered. "Or you can just show up."

"Then you may indeed find yourself abruptly plus one in attendance. I am, after all, That Bloke." Marius curled his hands to brush the scars on his palms. He wasn't the most attentive of past drama, but from the evidence of his own eyes he could make some inferences about some of Angelo's past experiences and felt marginally better about touching on this subject with him than he would have Lorna. Marius was aware the entire affair was probably no more than needless paranoia on his part. Compared to where he'd been this summer, the physical signs of his mutation were now so slight they were barely noticeable.

But that hadn't made any difference in June.

Angelo eyed him and asked, very carefully, "In what way That Bloke?" There were at least a few possible interpretations, after all.

"Every way of any possible meanin'," the younger boy smirked automatically. "For you see, I am quite simply that good." He stooped to retrieve the weight, easing his fingers around the rough, corrugated grip, and glanced back up at Angelo. "Anyway. Should at least maintain the illusion of continuin' my everlasting physio, but cheers for the talk. Sad to say but I don't quite figure the prof as staff-concern anymore. Bloke saves your sanity, the relationship takes a bit of a turn." He grinned. "None know better than I this lot's ability to save the world twenty times before brekkie, but you know. Occasionally it is helpful to feel attention is paid the student body before it comes to the point one deserves a good knock-around."

"Nah, I'm too tired to go knockin' people around just for that", Angelo said lightly. "If you'd kept up with the scrappy, though, I might've made an exception. But you didn't."

Marius snorted in mock-offence, setting one elbow against his knee. "Rumours to the contrary, I am not entirely immune to reason. Occasionally requirin' the application of various blunt objects, this I concede, but why else are we at this moderately-priced private institution if not to learn?"