xp_logs | Nathan and Ororo, Tuesday evening

After a Danger Room session, Nathan gives a frustrated Ororo a suggestion for how to address the 'team morale' problem. It's unconventional, to say the least.

"...now was that really so hard?" Ororo was saying as she began to unzip her leathers, resting one foot on the bench as she worked the zipper up her calf. "Really? Because it seemed to me to be quite easy, really, working together as a team in that scenario. Wouldn't you say?" She glanced over at Nate then, her scowling expression daring him to disagree.

"Perfectly easy," Nathan said, not being a dumb man. He undid his jacket, sliding it off. "And look at us, all unbruised and successful..." He'd noticed Ororo being a little... vehement about things, in the Danger Room. The grimly satisfied look she'd kept shooting him had been mildly amusing - the conversation with Kurt earlier had put him in a perverse mood, apparently - but he'd managed to keep that out of his expression.

"Yes, it is quite rewarding, being triumphant. So much so that you think some of the others might want to try it every once and a while. Instead of sabotaging each other into failure." Her right boot came off first, and clanged against the lockers just a little too loudly as she tossed it away. "But apparently that is a foreign idea to them," she continued in a mutter.

Oh, yes. The boss is in a grumpy mood today. Not that he had much room to talk. "'Ro," Nathan said, pulling off the black shirt that went beneath his jacket, "have these scenarios really been that bad lately? I ran a perfectly decent one with Cain the other day, and a good one with Marie before that..."

"Not every scenario, no. Yours, for example, seem to go smoothly enough, no matter who your partner may be. But there are others who seem to be using their training time as a way to take out their personal frustrations and vendettas, sometimes on one another. And that is not what the Danger Room was intended for." Of course Nathan knew that, but then again, Ororo had thought everyone else was cogniscent of that fact as well. Apparently she had been wrong. "I do not know what else to do... every day we are functioning less and less like a team."

"Well, it's been a hell of a year, 'Ro," Nathan said a bit wryly, rubbing at his upper arm. He'd lied - there was a bruise forming there, despite the leathers. "Think of all the unresolved crap that's floating around. And while I appreciate the compliment, I can't honestly say that if you stuck me in a scenario with Logan and I had a chance to let him get hit with one of those damned thwomps that I wouldn't take it." He offered her his best 'don't kill me?' smile.

"Whatever happened to going down to Harry's, getting drunk and confronting people there?" 'Ro moaned, sinking down on the bench. "I would honestly rather pay for the property damage than watch another tape of people doing their best to turn the Danger Room into their personal revenge fantasy."

After a moment's hesitation, Nathan sat down beside her. "It is a problem," he said after a moment, forcing himself to look at it objectively, rather than fantasize about Logan getting hit with a thwomp. "Not just in the Danger Room, either."

"I know we are only human, but we must be able to put aside our personal feelings sometimes to accomplish something important. If we cannot do that here, how can we trust one another in the field?" she asked him, trying to keep from sounding like she was whining.

"If you want my opinion," Nathan said with a mirthless smile, "the problem is that we are putting them aside. No, hear me out," he said before Ororo could respond. "Yes, it's good to keep our eyes on the job, be X-Men first when we need to be. But the truth is that there's a lot of interpersonal difficulty that's getting glossed over because we're telling ourselves we shouldn't let it matter. That we should be... bigger than that, or better than that."

Ororo held her tongue; however much she wanted to argue with him, she had to admit that he had far more experience in such matters than she did. "Then what do we do?" she asked simply, giving him a searching look. "Without killing one another?"

"It's tricky. You can't just say 'Sort out your differences with each other or else', obviously." Nathan tilted his head, considering the problem. It was a long moment before he spoke again. "There was something we used to do at Mistra."

"Oh?"

"Mmm. We were all programmed to act like pack animals too, remember, we non-ferals. That could be problematic because of course it introduced an element of competitiveness between the operatives into the equation. Too many people wanting to be the leader of the pack, or at least higher on the totem pole than someone else. And the directors started to get very huffy if fights broke out in the halls and landed operatives in the medical wing. So," Nathan said simply, "we made it official instead."

Ororo raised her eyebrows, pulling her other foot up on the bench in a squeak of leather to begin unlacing her boot. "How so?" she asked curiously.

"We'd have a night, every few weeks, where if someone really wanted to pound the tar out of someone else, they could challenge them to a fight. In front of the rest of us, whatever operatives weren't currently out in the field."

"An organized fight?" Ororo didn't recoil or shake her head; instead, she did something far more disturbing. She smiled. "In front of everybody... yes, I can see the benefits of that."

"Everyone was fair game - including me, which was awkward some nights when too many of the young hotheads thought they wanted to take a crack at the alpha male. But it wasn't just dominance stuff," Nathan said thoughtfully. "Sometimes it was about settling grudges. Other times it was just blowing off steam... we need a little of both, and everything in between, I think."

"And by officially sanctioning it, they both recognized the need for it and were able to keep it organized enough that it did not descend into chaos. A very wise idea.'

"Yeah, go figure. I should ask Mac if it was his, initially," Nathan said wryly, then pursed his lips. "My suggestion?" he asked as he got up - he really needed to head shower-wards, and he was not shedding the rest of his clothes in front of Ororo. "If you decide you want to do something like that, put limits on it. We're all too well-trained not to take each other apart if we really went at it. Make it... boxing, maybe," Nathan offered with a brief laugh. "Gloves and mouthguards and a referee."

"And no active powers," she added thoughtfully. There was no need for them, when they could concentrate on beating each other up the old-fashioned way. "I think this is a brilliant idea, Nathan. I will speak with Amelia and whoever she clears will be able to participate."

"So that leaves us with just one question," Nathan tossed back in amusement over his shoulder as he headed towards the showers. "Who are you going to call out, Storm?"