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xp_logsJulian runs into Cammie in the weight room, she eggs him onto some light property damage. ((Backdated to Friday Evening))
As was typical for him after play practice, Julian was in the weight room-trying to squeeze a workout in between a long day and an even longer night of homework. Thankfully the weekend was on the way and he'd have some time to relax. He put everything but the task at hand out of his mind as sit-up after sit-up brought him closer to being ready to use some of the equipment.
If nothing else, Keller had to admit that he was in the best shape he'd been in since his time in the Lords. It was a part of his past he didn't allow himself to dwell on, so Julian pushed it back into the dark corners of his mind before finishing up his warm-up.
He decided to practice some of the moves Callisto had been demonstrating in self-defense the day before on the heavy bags before doing anything else- just to see if he could. When no one else was around he was also practicing adding TK-force to his punches, which was coming along rather poorly, but any progress was good progress. Unfortunately, today Julian was not alone today.
Cammie spent a lot of her waking time when she wasn’t working in the gym. She was beating on a punching bag now, each time her fist hit it she was trying to hold in what was otherwise a satisfying rush of poison. It was harder than it looked.
She was quiet for a long moment and then simply said, “Having fun playing around, are you?”
"It's not playing, it's practice," he drove a sloppy punch into the bag on the last word to drive home the last word. "Having fun, um," Julian tried to think of a snappy come back, but nothing came to mind. It was obvious that Cammie was here on serious business- not just practicing her form, but learning control. "Well, I've got nothin'. How's the poison control practice going?" He smirked and hit the bag again, sending it swinging wildly as he added as much power behind it as he could.
“It goes,” Cammie said simply, taking a break for a second and stretching her arm. It didn’t feel right to keep everything back, but it was something she was learning. Slowly.
It annoyed the hell out of her though.
Julian nodded and took a moment to focus before socking the bag with a right hook- it shook a little, but hardly moved. "Damn," he wondered why it hadn't worked- but any observer could probably see it was because there hadn't been any follow through. He tried again with similar results before trying it with his left and reproducing the original results. "What the hell?" he pondered.
“Having problems?” she asked lightly. Her own annoyance at her power training seeping out a bit here. She could be mean when she wanted, but this was more like amused.
“It hardly even twitched.”
"Really?" Julian said with heavy sarcasm, "I hadn't noticed." He grabbed onto the bag and sighed, thinking that Cammie was being meaner than usual. Without much hesitation Julian knocked the bag with a jab again, rocking it to its limits before it swung back to knock into him. "Damnit," he should have listened to Nathan's advice about not training angry- though right now it was more of a frustration over everything that'd been going on lately.
“It’s not going to work while you’re all pissed off,” Cammie pointed out.
He helped himself up, looking embarrassed. His "I know that," dripped with frustration and sounded a little waspish. Julian felt bad he'd snapped at her, but things with the play were getting intense and classes weren't letting up. Back in Cali his school was on break right now- and there was no where Julian Keller wanted to be at this very moment than on a beach.
“If you knew that, you wouldn’t be in here right now,” Cammie pointed out. Not that she was anyone to talk, but that wasn’t anything he’d know.
She was, of course, right, so his concession of a, "Yeah," was a bit dejected. Julian swallowed his pride and sighed before continuing, "I'm
sorry, Cammie...stuff's just weird right now." He started to walk off the mat, towards his shoes and the green water bottle next to them.
“Yeah, well, stuff happens,” Cammie said. “I think stuff happens here more often than it does anywhere else, simply because of what this place is,” she rolled her shoulders before starting back in on her bag. “You either deal with it or you don’t.”
Julian nodded, "How do you deal with 'stuff' when it comes up?" He turned back toward the punching bags, "You usually seem to have things pretty together."
She almost laughed. Her. Together. Yeah right. Thought nightmares had started to taper off and she had Kurt at least she could talk to. She was reluctant to go in and talk to the head shrink. The concept still made her uncomfortable. She punched the bag a few more times. “No one has things together. You just deal.” Somehow, having dealt with the worst of life everything else seemed to just fall in place.
On the other hand, Julian had only just started handling the terrors of the world. "Yeah, alright," he'd only just started actually being challenged in classes and it hadn't even been a year since people knew he was a mutant. "But, I mean, you seem together right now...you relieve stress by doing this right?"
“Yeah, kinda. You wouldn’t like the way I handle stress,” she said simply. Fights. More fights. Anyway to get to a point where the fear of death made her feel alive. She didn’t say that though, “But trust me. In the grand scheme of things? You don’t have anything to really worry about.”
He let out a long dejected smile, "I know." It was true, life was pretty sweet for him- he had money, good looks and a beautiful, not to mention hot, girl to spend his time with. He was somewhere people accepted him and where he had more freedom to be himself than ever before...but things were just so damn busy and since his parents had threatened to disown him he'd have to make some lifestyle changes (particularly since they didn't specify what 'excessive' spending meant). "Just wish I had some way to unwind that didn't involve spending money."
“What, you asking to spar or something?” Cammie said, looking back at him, she didn’t care about anything he thought was his problems or his sweet life.
"While in the past, I may- or may not- have indicated that I could take you," he gave her an insincere smile and paused. "I think it's best to state here and now, after you've viewed the extent of my abilities, that you, Cammie, would absolutely and totally pown me."
“Then you know what, I’m not sure what you should do,” Cammie said, “Because this, is all I know and you can’t even take out a bag with your powers. I mean, try it. You’re TK right? You should be able to blow the shit out of this bag. Do it.”
He paused, "Seriously?" Kyle would probably kick his ass for doing it, but he always got over whatever trouble Julian had managed to get into so far.
“Do it. You’ve been sucking so hard core in trying to get it to move. Punch it right off its hinges. Live up to your own hype. When I say
something I’m not bragging,” Cammie said, stepping away from the bag. “TK punch it to bits.”
"Alright," Julian didn't like being pressured into anything- that's how he'd gotten into trouble with the police. He slipped his shoes back off and walked back over to the bag. Though he was slightly peeved, he was no longer angry- a certain kind of focus had set in. "Here it goes." He called up all the energy he could muster and decided to try creating the layered shells like Nathan did when he flew. He pulled back and then nailed it square in the middle, sending the bag swinging up toward the ceiling, but not breaking the chain it hung from. He frowned and dug deep, feeling his eyes start to glow a little as he followed through with the other punch. This time the bag flew off the chain and skipped across the floor before coming to a stop thirty feet away.
Julian hadn't realized he'd been holding his breath, but he let it out, his eyes going back to normal as he took deep, labored breaths. Hitting that bag across the room felt...good.
“Oh, you’re a fucking wuss. That bag isn’t broken,” Cammie said, looking over at it. “Nine out of ten of the peeps here can pull a bag right off its chain. That was pathetic.”
Yes, this was how she helped.
“Pop that fucker.”
He was letting her get to him, the anger was slowly creeping back in. The bag was off its mounting, what more did she want? His eyes began to glow again as he picked up the bag across the mat. A green glow surrounded it as Julian lifted it up and brought it back towards them. Nathan had told him that he didn't need to hold the entire object to float something, but if he was going to crush it....
As it floated before them, Julian grinned and began to squeeze, putting even pressure across the entire bag. He could feel the stuff inside- he wasn't entirely sure what it was- trying to find somewhere to go. He kept squeezing.
“Oh come on. You can do better than that. You’re barely even putting a bulge in the fucking thing,” Cammie said, egging him on. She was good at this. It was how she got into fights. How she got her kicks. She liked to think she could make a priest punch her.
“Some cripple at the old folks home could do better than that, and they’re not even a mutant. Jesus, you think you’re special? POP IT!”
"You asked for it," he said, with a bit of a wicked look in his green eyes. He relinquished his hold on the top of the bag and squeezed as hard as he could. A bit of blood trickled down his nose as the top of the bag exploded in a shower of water. Julian reacted quickly, putting up an umbrella like shield as the bag crumpled into a thin cylinder and fell to the floor. He took in a deep breath and wiped the blood away, looking around the floor at the flood he'd caused.
Cammie got wet. She didn’t mind, she was laughing. “Hah, that was cool.”
"You know what's cool?" Kyle had been heading for the gym anyway, and had skipped his locker-room stop when he heard the pop and excessive splash. He'd waited until Cammie's laughing mostly stopped, and Julian looked less like he was about to pop his own head. "Having minions who are gonna follow me to where the shop vac is, carry it all the way back here, and clean up all this water without me having to lift a finger." He was leaning in the doorway, arms crossed.
"Oh," Julian's smile faded as he sniffled, the rich scent of blood filling his nose. "Hey, Kyle...uhh...yeah, sure thing," homework would have to wait- he'd done the crime and now he'd do the time. One of the secret truths that Julian kept to himself was that he liked having consequences, back home his parents had always bailed him our or just didn't care.
Cammie pointed to Julian, “His mess. I have a mortal fear of shopvacs.”
If Kyle's hair hadn't been in a state of 'many weeks overdue for a cut' his eyebrows would've disappeared into his hair. Instead, there was just a sort of facial movement that suggested that he was looking at Cammie incredulously. "If you have a freak out, I'll call Doc Samson and we'll sedate you. You're guilty by hanging out with Kid Poltergeist here. I'll be nice, you can carry hoses."
"I wonder how I'd be sedated, but whatever. You want me to carry hoses, Kid Poltergeist can work the shop vac and no one gets traumatized anymore than they already have tonight."
"I'm fine with that," Julian just wanted to get on with it. Obviously, homework was going to be pushed back and his workout was over, so best to do what needed to be done as quickly as he could. "Shall we?"
As was typical for him after play practice, Julian was in the weight room-trying to squeeze a workout in between a long day and an even longer night of homework. Thankfully the weekend was on the way and he'd have some time to relax. He put everything but the task at hand out of his mind as sit-up after sit-up brought him closer to being ready to use some of the equipment.
If nothing else, Keller had to admit that he was in the best shape he'd been in since his time in the Lords. It was a part of his past he didn't allow himself to dwell on, so Julian pushed it back into the dark corners of his mind before finishing up his warm-up.
He decided to practice some of the moves Callisto had been demonstrating in self-defense the day before on the heavy bags before doing anything else- just to see if he could. When no one else was around he was also practicing adding TK-force to his punches, which was coming along rather poorly, but any progress was good progress. Unfortunately, today Julian was not alone today.
Cammie spent a lot of her waking time when she wasn’t working in the gym. She was beating on a punching bag now, each time her fist hit it she was trying to hold in what was otherwise a satisfying rush of poison. It was harder than it looked.
She was quiet for a long moment and then simply said, “Having fun playing around, are you?”
"It's not playing, it's practice," he drove a sloppy punch into the bag on the last word to drive home the last word. "Having fun, um," Julian tried to think of a snappy come back, but nothing came to mind. It was obvious that Cammie was here on serious business- not just practicing her form, but learning control. "Well, I've got nothin'. How's the poison control practice going?" He smirked and hit the bag again, sending it swinging wildly as he added as much power behind it as he could.
“It goes,” Cammie said simply, taking a break for a second and stretching her arm. It didn’t feel right to keep everything back, but it was something she was learning. Slowly.
It annoyed the hell out of her though.
Julian nodded and took a moment to focus before socking the bag with a right hook- it shook a little, but hardly moved. "Damn," he wondered why it hadn't worked- but any observer could probably see it was because there hadn't been any follow through. He tried again with similar results before trying it with his left and reproducing the original results. "What the hell?" he pondered.
“Having problems?” she asked lightly. Her own annoyance at her power training seeping out a bit here. She could be mean when she wanted, but this was more like amused.
“It hardly even twitched.”
"Really?" Julian said with heavy sarcasm, "I hadn't noticed." He grabbed onto the bag and sighed, thinking that Cammie was being meaner than usual. Without much hesitation Julian knocked the bag with a jab again, rocking it to its limits before it swung back to knock into him. "Damnit," he should have listened to Nathan's advice about not training angry- though right now it was more of a frustration over everything that'd been going on lately.
“It’s not going to work while you’re all pissed off,” Cammie pointed out.
He helped himself up, looking embarrassed. His "I know that," dripped with frustration and sounded a little waspish. Julian felt bad he'd snapped at her, but things with the play were getting intense and classes weren't letting up. Back in Cali his school was on break right now- and there was no where Julian Keller wanted to be at this very moment than on a beach.
“If you knew that, you wouldn’t be in here right now,” Cammie pointed out. Not that she was anyone to talk, but that wasn’t anything he’d know.
She was, of course, right, so his concession of a, "Yeah," was a bit dejected. Julian swallowed his pride and sighed before continuing, "I'm
sorry, Cammie...stuff's just weird right now." He started to walk off the mat, towards his shoes and the green water bottle next to them.
“Yeah, well, stuff happens,” Cammie said. “I think stuff happens here more often than it does anywhere else, simply because of what this place is,” she rolled her shoulders before starting back in on her bag. “You either deal with it or you don’t.”
Julian nodded, "How do you deal with 'stuff' when it comes up?" He turned back toward the punching bags, "You usually seem to have things pretty together."
She almost laughed. Her. Together. Yeah right. Thought nightmares had started to taper off and she had Kurt at least she could talk to. She was reluctant to go in and talk to the head shrink. The concept still made her uncomfortable. She punched the bag a few more times. “No one has things together. You just deal.” Somehow, having dealt with the worst of life everything else seemed to just fall in place.
On the other hand, Julian had only just started handling the terrors of the world. "Yeah, alright," he'd only just started actually being challenged in classes and it hadn't even been a year since people knew he was a mutant. "But, I mean, you seem together right now...you relieve stress by doing this right?"
“Yeah, kinda. You wouldn’t like the way I handle stress,” she said simply. Fights. More fights. Anyway to get to a point where the fear of death made her feel alive. She didn’t say that though, “But trust me. In the grand scheme of things? You don’t have anything to really worry about.”
He let out a long dejected smile, "I know." It was true, life was pretty sweet for him- he had money, good looks and a beautiful, not to mention hot, girl to spend his time with. He was somewhere people accepted him and where he had more freedom to be himself than ever before...but things were just so damn busy and since his parents had threatened to disown him he'd have to make some lifestyle changes (particularly since they didn't specify what 'excessive' spending meant). "Just wish I had some way to unwind that didn't involve spending money."
“What, you asking to spar or something?” Cammie said, looking back at him, she didn’t care about anything he thought was his problems or his sweet life.
"While in the past, I may- or may not- have indicated that I could take you," he gave her an insincere smile and paused. "I think it's best to state here and now, after you've viewed the extent of my abilities, that you, Cammie, would absolutely and totally pown me."
“Then you know what, I’m not sure what you should do,” Cammie said, “Because this, is all I know and you can’t even take out a bag with your powers. I mean, try it. You’re TK right? You should be able to blow the shit out of this bag. Do it.”
He paused, "Seriously?" Kyle would probably kick his ass for doing it, but he always got over whatever trouble Julian had managed to get into so far.
“Do it. You’ve been sucking so hard core in trying to get it to move. Punch it right off its hinges. Live up to your own hype. When I say
something I’m not bragging,” Cammie said, stepping away from the bag. “TK punch it to bits.”
"Alright," Julian didn't like being pressured into anything- that's how he'd gotten into trouble with the police. He slipped his shoes back off and walked back over to the bag. Though he was slightly peeved, he was no longer angry- a certain kind of focus had set in. "Here it goes." He called up all the energy he could muster and decided to try creating the layered shells like Nathan did when he flew. He pulled back and then nailed it square in the middle, sending the bag swinging up toward the ceiling, but not breaking the chain it hung from. He frowned and dug deep, feeling his eyes start to glow a little as he followed through with the other punch. This time the bag flew off the chain and skipped across the floor before coming to a stop thirty feet away.
Julian hadn't realized he'd been holding his breath, but he let it out, his eyes going back to normal as he took deep, labored breaths. Hitting that bag across the room felt...good.
“Oh, you’re a fucking wuss. That bag isn’t broken,” Cammie said, looking over at it. “Nine out of ten of the peeps here can pull a bag right off its chain. That was pathetic.”
Yes, this was how she helped.
“Pop that fucker.”
He was letting her get to him, the anger was slowly creeping back in. The bag was off its mounting, what more did she want? His eyes began to glow again as he picked up the bag across the mat. A green glow surrounded it as Julian lifted it up and brought it back towards them. Nathan had told him that he didn't need to hold the entire object to float something, but if he was going to crush it....
As it floated before them, Julian grinned and began to squeeze, putting even pressure across the entire bag. He could feel the stuff inside- he wasn't entirely sure what it was- trying to find somewhere to go. He kept squeezing.
“Oh come on. You can do better than that. You’re barely even putting a bulge in the fucking thing,” Cammie said, egging him on. She was good at this. It was how she got into fights. How she got her kicks. She liked to think she could make a priest punch her.
“Some cripple at the old folks home could do better than that, and they’re not even a mutant. Jesus, you think you’re special? POP IT!”
"You asked for it," he said, with a bit of a wicked look in his green eyes. He relinquished his hold on the top of the bag and squeezed as hard as he could. A bit of blood trickled down his nose as the top of the bag exploded in a shower of water. Julian reacted quickly, putting up an umbrella like shield as the bag crumpled into a thin cylinder and fell to the floor. He took in a deep breath and wiped the blood away, looking around the floor at the flood he'd caused.
Cammie got wet. She didn’t mind, she was laughing. “Hah, that was cool.”
"You know what's cool?" Kyle had been heading for the gym anyway, and had skipped his locker-room stop when he heard the pop and excessive splash. He'd waited until Cammie's laughing mostly stopped, and Julian looked less like he was about to pop his own head. "Having minions who are gonna follow me to where the shop vac is, carry it all the way back here, and clean up all this water without me having to lift a finger." He was leaning in the doorway, arms crossed.
"Oh," Julian's smile faded as he sniffled, the rich scent of blood filling his nose. "Hey, Kyle...uhh...yeah, sure thing," homework would have to wait- he'd done the crime and now he'd do the time. One of the secret truths that Julian kept to himself was that he liked having consequences, back home his parents had always bailed him our or just didn't care.
Cammie pointed to Julian, “His mess. I have a mortal fear of shopvacs.”
If Kyle's hair hadn't been in a state of 'many weeks overdue for a cut' his eyebrows would've disappeared into his hair. Instead, there was just a sort of facial movement that suggested that he was looking at Cammie incredulously. "If you have a freak out, I'll call Doc Samson and we'll sedate you. You're guilty by hanging out with Kid Poltergeist here. I'll be nice, you can carry hoses."
"I wonder how I'd be sedated, but whatever. You want me to carry hoses, Kid Poltergeist can work the shop vac and no one gets traumatized anymore than they already have tonight."
"I'm fine with that," Julian just wanted to get on with it. Obviously, homework was going to be pushed back and his workout was over, so best to do what needed to be done as quickly as he could. "Shall we?"
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