xp_logs | Crystal and Pietro

Backdated. Crystal and Pietro meet to work on their powers together and end up talking. Jennie wants Crystal to socialize, Scott wants Pietro to socialize... there, they're socializing. Crystal finally asks the question she's been wanting to ask Pietro for nearly a month.

As a general rule, it was pretty hard to arrive somewhere before someone who could move at extreme speed. However, Crystal was a firm believer in arriving early, not late, and she knew better than to possibly be late when meeting with a speedster. Therefore, she always made sure that she arrived extra early when meeting with Pietro.

Crystal glanced at her watch, then set her textbook down on a branch. Placing the watch on top of the book, she jumped out of the tree where she'd been sitting and landed softly on the ground below. If she had to make a guess, Pietro should be arriving in 3, 2, 1...

"Hello, Crystal," Pietro said as he coasted to a halt in front of her. He cast a quick glance up into the tree and smiled. "I hope I didn't keep you waiting long. What would you like to do today?"

"Good afternoon, Pietro," Crystal replied with a smile. "No, you arrived right on time, of course. I figured that I might as well arrive ahead of schedule and use the time to study rather than attempt to arrive on time and risk the possibility of arriving late instead. Do you have any more experiments to try?" she asked curiously.

"I appreciate the effort. No, I didn't have anything particularly in mind--you're the air expert, I thought you might have something in mind. Or we could just talk, if you like." Pietro snorted. "Summers has been after me to become more social."

"It appears that this is a current theme at the mansion," Crystal replied, suppressing a snort of her own. "In my case, my roommate assumed that I am not socializing with anyone else here simply because I have not been spending all of my time in our room with her. Obviously, that is not the case. Here I am, talking with you. That is socializing."

"This is exactly my point. And your roommate makes some very curious logical connections." Pietro made a wry face. "Mind you, the irritating thing about Summers is that he's a bit too correct for my comfort. I talk to him, I talk to you, I occasionally can't avoid running into other people, but aside from that I've been fairly solitary since I arrived here. Not strictly healthy for me, as he's pointed out. And if he knew I agreed with him he would probably gloat."

Crystal had to keep herself from laughing at the idea of Pietro literally running into people. "I will not inform him of this fact," she told Pietro seriously before switching to a curious look. "You say that you cannot avoid" do not laugh, do not laugh... "running into people, but at the same time you say that it is not healthy for you to be solitary. Do you want to socialize with other people here?"

Pietro looked at her expression and gave her a grin that on any other man would have been sheepish. "Yes, yes, unfortunate choice of words. And frankly, no, I don't. I find most of the people here tiresome, ignorant, and judgemental." He smirked. "But then, that would be true anywhere. At least here I'm in the company of other mutants." He cast an irritated glance down at his ankle. "Whether or not any of us like it. And there have been a few pleasant surprises."

Crystal's own gaze rested briefly on Pietro's ankle as she frowned at the thought of the ankle bracelet Pietro was still wearing. "Yes, many of them do seem to be quite judgmental," Crystal said before looking up again, smiling slightly. "Not everyone here is like that, though." Unbidden, Jennie's words from the previous night echoed in Crystal's head. You are wanted here, Crystal, okay? Don't think otherwise. Odd words coming from someone who had seemingly done everything she could to push her roommate away. Why would Jennie want Crystal at the school, and did she even care that Crystal didn't want to be there? No one had ever told Crystal that they didn't want her there, she was...neutral. Simply there No one wanted her gone, but no one would have minded had she not been there anymore...or so she had thought. In stark contrast, people had not hidden the fact that they did not want Pietro to be at the mansion.

"Many of them have preconceived notions of people, perceptions that they form without even meeting and speaking with a person and it appears that not all of them are fond of the idea of taking the time to see whether or not their views are actually true," Crystal continued, frowning again as she recalled the way she had been treated by both students and staff members. And was it really so much better to be treated this way by other mutants? She'd had such high hopes when she first arrived here, hopes that had been run over by the time her first week at the mansion was over and completely dashed before school had started. "What pleasant surprises have you come across?"

"One does wonder where the attitude comes from, given how devoted this institution is to tolerance and understanding. We've a long way to go as a people." Pietro shook his head. "Pleasant surprises, let's see. Well, there's you, certainly." He hesitated for an instant. "And your sister, of course. And Dayspring seems like someone I'll want to know better . . . let's see, and that Scots girl who works for him was rather pleasant. Oh, and I've developed a new appreciation for eager-to-deal federal attorneys." His smile was very dry. "I did say it was only a few."

Only a few, perhaps, but these four mentions seemed to indicate that there were people here Pietro didn't mind socializing with. "Medusa and I... well, we have been surprised to find ourselves here, too," Crystal said with a soft laugh. "Your arrival was a surprise as well. Medusa enjoys volunteering with Elpis. She has great admiration for Mr. Dayspring, and he works with me on...self-defense." Her nose wrinkled slightly. "I know he means well, but I was told that these...lessons, were supposed to help with the integration of 'powers into self-defense techniques and it has ended up being about verbal 'what would you do if...' scenarios. I have never spoken with Rahne but Medusa has spent time with her in the course of volunteering with Elpis, and she sounds nice. As for attorneys," she continued, offering a small smile, "I hope that your lawyer balances out the other person you have mentioned, 'that Cooper woman' is what you call her, I believe. And, hopefully, it will not be long before you are no longer required to wear that unwanted piece of jewelry on your leg."

"Each individual power requires a different approach to self-defense," Pietro pointed out. "And Dayspring needs to know what you know already, and how you think, in order to know what to teach you." One corner of his mouth quirked up. "It only feels like he's wasting your time." After a short pause, he sighed. "The lawyer and Cooper come as a set, I'm afraid. He's not my lawyer, he's the government's; the man they put in charge of assembling the case against my father. Even so, I'm sure many people would say I'm getting more than I deserve."

"Yes, I can imagine that people would say that," Crystal replied, "but that does not mean that they are correct. You did help the X-Men for... well, I do not really know how long, all I was told was 'years.' Mr. Summers said the school and many people here owe you a great deal." She considered her next words for a moment, not wanting to seem rude. "The day after your arrival, I sent an email to Ms. Marie asking why a member of the Brotherhood was here. Out of everyone who responded to your journal when you arrived, her reaction seemed the most rational one. Like me, she wasn't sure what was going on, but she did not feel the need to make rude comments about your presence here. She... declined to answer me and instead passed on my question to Mr. Summers, who then explained to me that you had been working against your father and were not truly committed to the Brotherhood. I just wondered, and feel free to tell me that it is none of my business, how long has it been this way? Were you always against your father's way or did you truly believe in them but revise your opinion at some later point?"

And tell me, Pietro, when did you stop beating your wife? he thought bitterly. This was what it always came down to in the end, with these people: whatever else he did, he was Magneto's son, he had believed in his father before there had been any talk of genocide, and he wasn't bending over backward begging for anyone's approval, and that was enough to damn him. Was Crystal really any different, or had she just taken longer to work herself up to the question?

She was always polite, but he thought she'd be polite to her worst enemy if it killed her; that was how she'd been raised. She gave every impression of enjoying their conversations, but Pietro knew better than anyone how much a determined person could keep hidden, and how well.

And yet . . . her frustration with the mansion, from what little she'd let slip, was the frustration of innocence disappointed: she thought the world should work a certain way, that people should behave to a certain standard, and was constantly reminded that they didn't. She might hide her opinions, when it suited her, but she didn't hide her self. She practiced what she . . . didn't preach, heh. She'd been honest with him; trusting, even, in a way that didn't quite disarm him but was coming surprisingly close. So maybe you should try returning trust, rather than abusing it, for once, hmm?

"When we first met," he said quietly, "I was as loyal a son as my father could wish. Looking back, there were signs already that he was growing unstable, but at the time I didn't see them. Refused to see them, is perhaps more accurate; I so very much wanted him to be the man he . . . almost was. Then a few years ago--do you remember the day of the mysterious worldwide headache, that affected first mutants, then humans? That was partly my father's doing: he took a weapon intended to kill the world's mutants and turned it back on humanity. After that betrayal, that obscenity, I turned against him. I made contact with Summers, for backup when I needed it, and began working to bring my father down."

Crystal listened, surprised by the change in tone of Pietro's voice, and nodded slowly. She wasn't quite sure whether or not she had offended him; she sincerely hoped she hadn't. It appeared that Pietro was giving her an open, honest answer, and it had not been preceded or followed by any sort of statement even resembling "it's none of your business," "you're nosy," "be discreet," or "so there." Crystal didn't see the need for people to throw in such words when discussing matters of importance. Just being told the actual facts, without insulting remarks, was a welcome change.

"That was over three years ago," she said, a hint of wonder creeping into her voice. "That is... that's a long time to do something like this, to pretend that you feel one way when you don't, to work in this manner, alone, with only occasional backup. I hope I didn't upset you by asking. I know that I was young and silly the first time we met, but I remembered the way you spoke about your father and I wondered if that had been real. You say now that it was, but that at the time you didn't know what he was capable of... okay." Crystal gave a brief nod, then continued earnestly, "I believe you. I didn't ask before because I didn't want you to take it as an offensive question, and because I decided that it didn't matter; what matters is that you did turn against him, and I can't imagine that this could have been an easy thing to decide to do and carry out on your own for so long."

Pietro vented a low, raw chuckle. "It wasn't. I never had an easy choice in three years, but it was--I felt, I feel responsible. I still wonder, sometimes, if there was a moment when I could have stood up to him, when knowing his son wouldn't follow him down his road might have pulled him back from it. And I'm having to relive every horrible minute, all my choices, all my failures, putting together my files for the government. You have no idea how much I wish one of my full copies had survived. But it's not--" He tilted his head slightly, surprised by the realization. "From you, it's not an offensive question. You just wanted to know . . . because you were curious, not because you wanted to make some kind of point with the information, and I appreciate that."

Crystal let out a silent sigh of relief, glad that he had not taken her question in the wrong way. "I've always been curious," she admitted, "and there is a distinct possibility that at some point I will want to ask you other questions, but they will also be due to curiosity, just wanting to know something, not to make any sort of point." She grinned suddenly and continued, "If you still want to work on something new with whirlwinds, I've just had an idea..."

"Oh, have you?" Pietro's answering grin held more than a little curiosity of his own. "Well, then by all means."