xp_logs | Music room, Monday morning, Laurie/Terry

Laurie's morning wanderings lead her to the music room where Terry is playing harp. They discuss team and family. Backdated to Monday because I'm dumb and forgot to post it.

Laurie wandered somewhat randomly, from time to time raising a spoon to her mouth and taking a bite from the bowl of cereal she held. She'd long ago decided that eating breakfast should be an ambulatory type of event and sitting in one room was for other people.

She'd been following music for the past few minutes, a sort of soft sound and if she'd had to place the instrument she might have thought some form of string, but not violin, she knew what a violin sounded like, nor a cello, she'd heard those as well.

It wasn't so continuous as either of those, more like individual notes falling into a pool of quiet, solemn but wandering at the same time. The door to the music room was slightly ajar, the only reason that the sound carried at all. The sound proofing in that room was rather phenomenal otherwise. Closer on it was easier to hear that a voice had joined the music, the same sweet, sad, wandering sound.

Terry wasn't really playing for anything but the joy of it, even though her song was a lament. Taking time out for her music had been much neglected recently and she indulged now as a result, playing what came to mind, not what would entertain.

Laurie leant against the half-open door, munching sedately on her cereal as she watched Terry play. She felt no real need to disturb the other girl, happy to simply listen for the moment. Besides, it was rude to interrupt when someone was doing something they so obviously enjoyed.

The last notes faded away and Terry let the harp settled back into its place. She pushed her hair out of her face and turned toward the door. "Hey there, Laurie. What do you think? Passable or should I not quit my day job just yet?" Terry grinned, joking mostly, tucking up a leg beneath her.

Laurie smiled, blinking slowly as she came out of the listening stance she'd taken up in the doorway, "Very nice, I didn't know you played the harp."

"Since I was a little girl. My Uncle Tom wanted me to know how, so he always made sure that I had access to lessons no matter how much we moved around." Terry flexed her fingers and beckoned Laurie in, "After I moved here, I used to take lessons with a lady in town but I've got too busy for that now. This is the first time I've played since getting back here from home. Do you play anything?"

"No, never even really thought to try, to be honest. I'm not so much with the artistically gifted, more of a math whizz, although not your polymath type though. I kinda lost out on the 'genius gene' lotto," Laurie said, moving further into the room, before leaning against one of the tables as she took another bite of cereal and chewed thoughtfully.

"Well, music's got a math base, doesn't it?," Terry pointed out practically. "There's all those studies about how learning music helps students in maths and science classes. Sure you don't need to be a genius for it, God knows I'm anything but. Hard to admit that around here, where everyone some sort of brilliant mind or another." It didn't seem to have any effect on her good mood, however.

"We've all got talents," Laurie admitted, looking around at the classroom, she'd never even contemplated learning a musical instrument, she wasn't sure where she'd start, and with the pre-med training she was trying to cram in as well as all the other classes, she wasn't sure she'd be able to concentrate enough to attempt it. "I'm probably more suited to healing and such things though, I don't have much time these days, with classes and X-men training and everything else. I swear there needs to be more hours in the day."

Terry laughed, "I hear you there. I swear it's a good thing that I'm up till three every night to call home anyway or I'd really be cranky about how much time my homework requires. There should be a law about assigning more work than there are actual hours in the week, right? I had to make time for this today and I'm sacrificing a good quiz grade to do it. This helps me focus though, so I think it's worth it."

"I run," Laurie admitted, grinning at the laughter. It was the thing she'd found since she came here, everyone was so...close, she supposed the word was. Even those people you might not necessarily get along with, you were still, there was some sort of bond there. She'd never seen a community like it, it seemed to function more as a rather large, random family then anything else. She made a note to talk to Dr Summers-Grey and Mr Haller about it. "Although I've been waking up later then I usually do lately, long study sessions mean for less sleep and more grumpiness, I think."

"Never been much of a runner myself. I'd rather spend the time around people." Terry hopped up from her bench, unable to sit still any longer. "Studying alone is like torture. And I'm a bit of a morning person so all these late nights are screwing me up. If I go stark raving mad before the end of the semester, you'll know why."

"It tends to give me time to rest," Laurie admitted, taking another bite and looking thoughtfully around the room. "Speaking of insanity, you going to be joining the others in torturing us poor trainees, or will you just be enjoying our bumbling antics on the playbacks? Not that I'm going to have the chance for antics for awhile, Mr Summers wants me to concentrate on my powers for awhile, not that I blame him."

"God, I hope I get trainee time. It'll be nice not to be the most inept person in the room for once. There's nothing like thinking you're doing well only to have one of the senior team members come in and walk all over you without breaking a sweat." Terry didn't pace so much as fidget in a very tight radius though the energy didn't actually seem to be nervous, just excess. "We've all done the bumbling new kid thing. That's part of it as much as the silly nicknames."

"Not so much bumbling for me at the moment, like I said, Mr Summers doesn't want me doing DR training till I've learnt a little more control." Laurie said, gaze following Terry's movement but appearing unperturbed by it. She had a tendency to fidget herself, and that translated into not minding the trait in others. "How long did it take you to go from trainee to team?"

"Forever, it felt like," Terry declared dramatically then modulated herself, "9 months or so. There weren't any dramatic missions that needed everyone for Clarice and I to get knighted in the field as it were so we had to do things the long boring way. Angelo took hardly any time at all, he made team before us even. You've read that mission report, I'm sure?"

"Nooo, I don't think I've made it to that one yet," Laurie said, curious. "What happened?"

"Angelo was at a conference for Elpis work when that terrorist guy, Saidullayev? He showed up and there was a rather messy hostage situation. The team was called in. Angelo," she said his name the same way that Bobby did, "An-he-lo", having spent far too much time mocking her husband for exactly that quirk of white boy over-compensation. "was made team afterwards. Clarice and I had to wait another month for our blacks."

"Wow, that's kinda intense. Let's just say that I will be terribly glad if it takes me months to earn my blacks considering what you've got to do to earn them quickly then," Laurie said, with a wry grin.

Considering that she mostly wanted to be medical backup anyway, taking time to learn the ropes and gain full team status would be of benefit to her anyhow. She still had a year of high school to go before she could start pre-med courses at New York University, and that was if she got in. Although with all the study she'd been doing with Dr Grey-Summers, she couldn't see why she wouldn't make it.

"Why did you decide to join the X-men?" she asked suddenly, curious.

Terry stopped her fidgeting and looked at Laurie in some surprise. She hadn't explained her reason for joining to anyone other than Sean and Scott. "I...it's nothing special, really. I wanted to make a difference. My uncle was always adamant about following your heart, protecting what's yours and growing up here gave me a fair view of what that means on a bigger scale."

"I wanted to help people too," Laurie mused, noting the surprise. Had she asked a strange question? She'd have thought it the very first question to ask a fellow team member, knowing other people's motivations always gave you an idea of the person, or so she'd always thought. "I wonder if that's how everyone starts out, just wanting to help."

"I...I've always thought so. There's not really any other reason for it, is there? It's not going to make you popular or famous or wealth and sure there's hardly any thanks in it. It's...well it's like joining the police." Terry frowned, twisting a lock of hair around her finger. "If you're not doing it because justice is important to you...I can't say that I know why you'd do it.

"I don't know, I think maybe some people might do it because they want to make up for stuff they've done in the past. My Dad, well, he's trying to make up for not being there when I was a kid by getting to know me now. I suppose if it was something else you'd done, something that hurt people, being in something like the X-men would be a way of fixing that sort of," Laurie mused, noting Terry's movements with concern, she hoped she hadn't gotten into a conversation the other girl wasn't comfortable with.

"I suppose, restitution makes sense. There are plenty of people on the team who might feel like they have something to make up for. If I'd stayed with my uncle, I probably would myself," Terry mused, still tugging on her hair. "I don't know. I suppose I should have thought about it before now. Motivation is everything." The fact that she hadn't considered it before bothered her. It was a huge oversight on her part.

"I had to convince my Mom to let me train, so I sort of had to think about it a bit" Laurie explained, smiling wryly. "I think she probably would've refused if she could have found a good reason for it, but she knows me, and she knows I'm not likely to walk into something without thinking about it. Even if I can't promise that I won't get hurt."

"Mr. Summers made me ask my dad for permission. But Sean understands the team and wanting to do something good, so that wasn't hard to do. I never thought to ask other people why they did it." Terry smiled, "You get along really well with your mom?"

"She's my Mom, why wouldn't I get along with her?" Laurie said, sounding surprised for a second, and then blushed when she remembered how many people here didn't get on with their parents. "Sorry, I forget sometimes. Even with my Dad, it's not the same as some people here, at least he wants to try to get to know me."

Terry smiled, unoffended, "Sean and I didn't for a long time. I resented him for taking me away from my uncle and we used to fight all the time. Destroyed all sorts of windows and wall screaming at each other. I think it's nice that you and your mom have a good relationship."

"Did you live with your Uncle long?" Laurie asked, before finishing off the last of her cereal.

"Until I was ten. My mother was killed in a bombing before I was a year old. He raised me." Terry looked fond but in a rueful way, like you did when you talk about mistakes you've made that you can't bring yourself to regret. "He's a grand man, charming as the day is long. There's not a man alive can hold a grudge against Tom Cassidy." Except Sean, of course but that was different.

"Sounds sort of like my Dad, everyone seems to love him. But well, he has certain advantages non-mutants don't," Laurie said, placing her spoon in her bowl and clutching it in front of her. "I don't know if he's done anything like that since he got here though."

"Have you asked?" Terry said simply, taking her seat again, "Probably the easiest way to find out, isn't it?"

"I guess," Laurie replied, reluctance evident clearly to those who knew how to look, and how to listen. "Anyway, I should get this bowl back to the kitchen. I have some stuff I need to do before I get ready for class."

Terry hummed a snatch of something, concerned by the shift in Laurie's voice. "You're not the only one, I've just about exhausted my free time too." She hesitated a second then spoke slowly, not used to this sort of confession, "I used to write letters to them, Sean and Uncle Tom. Every week, pages and pages of letters. Asked them why they'd both left me. I never sent them; didn't want the answers so much, I suppose. Asking isn't easy, really. I shouldn't make it sound like it is." Her tone didn't ask for a response but it wasn't a dismissal either. Just an apology and open offer, should Laurie want it.

Laurie paused in her exit from the room, her hand resting against the doorframe for a second before she spoke, "I don't know how I'd react if he was. It's not right...to use our powers like that. I wish, I want...I just want it to be easy, and it's not fair."

Terry smiled ruefully, "Sure I know what you mean there. Life's not been easy or fair since...ever. Seems like it should be though. Just every now and again. That would be nice."

"It would, it really would," Laurie said, smiling wryly and exiting the room.