LOG: [Jono, Haller] Out by the lake

[x-legion.livejournal.com]

Jono is out bonding with nature. Haller is killing time chucking rocks into the lake. Alas, they do not fight crime.



The counselor flicked his wrist as his arm arced, cigarette pressed negligently between his lips. The stone skipped across the surface of the lake three times before it disappeared with a plunk. Definitely out of practice. He took another stone from his opposite hand and pulled back for another try.

Jono just watched from where he sat under the tree. "Get outside," she'd told him, "go make friends with the grass". So here he was, communing with nature. It was very green, and slightly wet. With occasional frogs. And now a skinny guy chucking rocks out at the lake.

The slightest shift of movement caught Jim's eye as he flung the next stone. The telepath turned and saw a dark-clad young man sitting a few yards away, the lower half of his face swathed in bandages. There was a moment of uncertainty before Jim remembered the newest arrival. Or re-arrival.

"Hey, Jonothan," Jim said, pulling the cigarette out of his mouth. "Sorry, didn't see you over there." He'd never talked much to the other man before the accident with Kevin; Jono had mostly worked with the younger kids. The un-crossing paths hadn't been helped by the fact neither party were the most social people in the world. Still, Jim knew enough to carefully arrange his shields before addressing him.

Jono only acknowledged Haller with the barest of nods, instead focusing on the small ladybug crawling across his knuckles. "Haller, is it? It could probably be figured that a bloke sitting in the shade wearing black might not take too much offense at not bein' noticed. I suppose this is 'communing with nature'. I am a tree or some shite."

Jim nodded. "We are all One. You are the tree, the tree is you. I am the rocks in the lake, and that random shoe over there shares the same essence as Kyle's bald cat. Profound stuff. Personally, I'm just here to throw shit in the lake." The weight of Jono's mind on his thoughts was light -- minimal contact. None of the psis in the school were invasive, but Jono's telepathy was faint, like the psychic equivalent of someone picking something up with his fingertips.

Turning away from Jono, the older man fingered another rock. "I heard you were back to teaching. Sorry I didn't say hello, my brain seems to have trouble retaining anything that's not horrible trauma. Are you going to be staying here for the summer?"

"Summer and then some," Jono answered as he picked at a loose thread on his jeans. "Professor says it's better to get readjusted to the place before the school year. Looks like I came back at the right time." Jono's short burst of laughter was like the telepathic equivalent of glasses rattling in a cupboard. "Lot to get readjusted to. Doesn't even seem like the same place anymore."

Jim smiled slightly as he sent the next rock skipping out over the lake. Five this time. "I'd say any time that lets you miss kidnappings, plural, is the right time. But yeah, the readjustment . . . it's such a different environment from Muir. Muir's a little more . . ." He paused, cigarette almost to his lips as he searched for the appropriate word, "um, suited for 'quiet time,' I guess."

"Kidnappings?" Jono's mental voice was slightly amused. "Mate, during the first year I had demons, mobsters, commandos, and then I blew up. Kidnappings are a walk in the bleedin' park."

Jono stood up, long legs unfolding as he walked out towards the water. The wind off the lake felt cool in his hair, and out of impulse, he tugged at the bandages and let them fall free. He tucked his leather jacket back, and let the fiery energy within him coil out, reaching over the water. "Hope you don't mind," he said, "was feeling a bit stifled."

"Don't worry about it." Reflections of blue energy rippled out across the water from the flame that was Jono's chest and lower half of his face. Yeah, Jim thought as he studied the younger man out of the corner of his eye, I guess he would be the kind to test people. He flipped Jono a stone. "Here. You can commune with nature by throwing other parts of nature at it. As for the weirdness, I don't know. I'm pretty sure it's a valuable learning experience. For what I'm not always sure, but there's always something."

Jono caught the rock and turned it over in his fingers. "What's it that Marko says? Life sucks, get a helmet? Maybe that's what it teaches us." He skipped the rock out over the lake, watching it bounce once off the water before disappearing beneath the surface. "Me, I'm here just hoping it'll get better."

"Cain's his own type of learning experience," Jim agreed, tossing Jono another rock from his handful. "Try using your wrist more. So, if I can ask -- what made you decide to come back? Love of teaching, or still trying to learn something?"

Jono looked at Haller with an exasperated expression on what remained of his face, the blue energy crackling up in irritation. "Less a love of teaching and more a dislike of being a walking sparkler. If there's any chance of ever getting back to normal, it's either here or Muir. And Paige prefers here. So that pretty much settles it, yeah?"

Jim took a drag, one eyebrow cocking at Jono. "Not to sound like I'm reading from the big book of therapist platitudes here, but what definition of normal are you working off? Do you mean like how you were before the accident last year, or how you were before you manifested, or what? I mean, being a disembodied ball of psionic energy may be what nature considers normal, but I don't think that's what you're going for."

"Did you know that I can barely remember what swallowing was like?" Jono said angrily. "Even with a 'fixed' body last year, after what Paige and Forge cooked up, it wasn't the same. I didn't eat, didn't breathe, I felt like a damn mannequin walking around but it was enough for me."

He picked up a rock and flung it over the lake without trying to skip it, just throwing to see the splash in the distance. "It was as close to normal as I'll ever get again. I don't care about what I'm 'supposed' to be, or what big step in evolution I'm supposed to represent. I want to be able to sit down and have a bloody beer at the pub with my mates. Or get out of breath. Or speak. That'd be normal enough."

Despite the noise Jim's attention didn't follow the rock. He only nodded slightly, eyes tracked on the end of the cigarette glowing in his hand. "You keep it pretty close to the surface, huh?" he asked, though there wasn't much question in it. "The frustration, I mean. Which I get. Taking one step forward and two steps back is shit even without the part where you're minus bodyparts and sensation." One finger flicked against the cigarette, shaking ash free. "I'm not a huge believer in what people're supposed to be. Actually, if I was I'd probably have to shoot myself in the head, so I don't really have any argument about not going with what's natural. But if you're anything like me I think somedays spending all your time focused on fighting what you're trying not to be just makes you . . . tired." The counselor raised his eyes from the cigarette to Jono's. "Or am I talking complete bullshit?"

Jono looked from the end of the glowing cigarette to Haller's eyes, then shrugged. "It's possible," he said nonchalantly.

"I won't ask you to specify which one." Jim gave him a crooked smile and held the cigarette up to his mouth. "Anyway. Not really my business, I guess, but I tutor telepathy sometimes. Probably not exactly what you need, but some of the psi-stuff is re-applicable. If you ever feel like taking a break from being pissed about what you can't do yet I could help you work on what you can. It may only be slightly more exciting than becoming one with a tree, but it's something to do."

"Back to training," Jono mused. "Well, you're not Emma, but it couldn't hurt. I'm supposed to be learning to use what I got, ain't I? Hopefully without blowing myself up this time."

"You should try working with everyone. We've all got specialities. Jean's best at the physical-mental tie ins, Nate's better at receptivity than me. I'm not sure how big a help my area's going to be, but I do have to work on how not to destroy things a lot, so there's a little common ground there." Jim's smile turned sardonic as he raised the cigarette slightly in a way that displayed the old burnscars on the back of his hand. "Xavier's offers a well-rounded education."

"To say the least," Jono agreed, looking out over the lake. "Okay, I think I'm done with nature now."

Jim's hand whirled out to skip the last rock over the water. Plishplishplishplishplishplishplishsplunk. He dusted his gravelly palms off on his jeans. "Cigarette's almost out and I just hit seven. I'm done too." The telepath glanced up to smile at younger man, the blue flame pouring from his chest striking reflections in his mismatched eyes. "Good luck with the not blowing up."