Lex and Clarice | Saturday Afternoon

[x-lexington.livejournal.com]

Lex runs into Clarice after training in the danger room and admits to being uncomfortable with his powers.



Lex felt his heart throbbing in his chest, the scenario had taken a lot longer than he thought it would and he felt like he'd run several miles. Scott had spent a lot of time telling him to trust his powers and use them to his advantage but Lex couldn't help relying on his soldier's instincts. Every time he stepped into the danger room it was an internal battle, as well as an external one.

Tonight had been far worse, Scott had prepared a scenario to strip his combat training of its usefulness and force him to rely solely on his powers... He would have said that it had worked except he'd barely survived long enough to ask Scott to disengage the session. When Lex finally managed to complete the scenario, through no measure of shear luck, he was almost completely drained. He could barely stand, let alone generate electricity.

Stepping out of the the danger room he was met by a pretty girl with purple skin and hair. For a split second he thought it was catseye and then he shook of his exhaustion and noticed the tattoos across her eyes. "Oh, hello," while leaning heavily on the door frame.

Leaning against the wall, Clarice offered him the bag she was holding, it was a mostly empty bag of popcorn, "Want some?" she asked. She'd been watching his training session up in the control room, it had been some good entertainment. Not the silly 'why are you even here' kind, but that of someone highly trained and competent...just outside of their range of expertise and experience. That was why they had the Danger Room after all, to take people out of their comfort zones and to train them better. "You put on a good show."

"No, too tired--Fuck, you were watching?" That's the last thing he needed, a member of the team watching him fail. Then they'd really start railing on the whole hamster thing. 'Aw, he's so cute and fluffy, not to mention harmless.' It would not be a good day in the world of Alexander Lexington when that happened. He caught himself before he said anything else, and decided to back pedal as fast as he could. Shaking his head, more to clear it than anything else, he said, "Well, I live to serve." Not the best recovery, but it was a start.

"Well...yeah. Training, dude," she shrugged, popping some popcorn in her mouth. "You train your body, I train my mind. One day, I'm going to be as badass as Nathan," a complete fallacy, Clarice had no intention of ever being like Nathan except in that she wasn't going to roll over an play dead, she would go down fighting. "Don't think we've met directly. I'm Clarice."

"Lex," he said with a wry smile, "and you train your mind? So you are either an x-path or x-kinesis, right?" He was starting to get a hold on all the terminology they used and felt very proud of himself for it. "And you probably witnessed what my powers aren't at the moment." His voice was slightly detached as he said the last part, wondering if there was some way to speed the process along, he hated feeling like trash every time he stepped into, or out of, the danger room.

"A whosi-whatsis?" she asked, momentarily confused. Then comprehension dawned, "Oh, no. I'm a teleporter. Long distance, where ever, whenever," she fished a card out from her pocket, it was light purple and had Pixie Express written in calligraphy on it in black ink along with her information. She had filed the small business paperwork, but hadn't formally started yet. "But that doesn't mean I can't learn strategy and team dynamics and leadership. One day, it could be me. And if it ever is....fear." She grinned maniacally and twirled.

Lex took the card with a light hearted laugh, "That's a good way to use your powers." He smiled at her, and wondered what she really thought of his performance. he couldn't stop himself from analyzing every move he'd made in there, and second guessing half of them. "So, you have any advice fit for a hamster?"

"Don't pee on me?" she suggested, joking. "We had a hamster in my 7th grade science class. He always peed on me," that hadn't stopped her from being the person that took care of him and fed him and all that though. The hamster had just been too cute, but she couldn't remember his name now. "Seriously...relax. I mean, I know it's hard because you want to do awesome and stuff, but it's like being constipated. If you struggle and push and force it, you're going to rip your ass and it'll hurt and be embarrassing and painful and you'll possibly need stitches. But if you just relax, maybe drink some juice, let things flow, you'll do a lot better," she grinned brightly up at him. Then paused and added, "Oh, and you use waaaaaay more power than you need to. Don't use a bazooka to kill a fly. It's overkill on you and on that poor fly."

That caught Lex under the chin. He started laughing and before he knew it he was holding his sides and leaning against the wall. Clarice's comments were crude, seemingly irrational, and totally uncalled for, but they were extremely effective. It took him a moment to catch his breath, and he analyzed the last part of her statement. Standing up he to face her he wondered what she could mean by 'waaaaaay more power' because he felt like he wasn't able to generate enough to stun a child, let alone take down a pair of drones. "Wait, if I'm using too much power, then what am I supposed to be doing? I feel like I'm barely able to scratch the drones, let alone incapacitate them."

It was hard to resist rolling her eyes, "It's not how much power you have, it's using it effectively," she'd had to learn that too. Teleporting was a big energy drain, but she had learned to compensate and to work with it. Energy bars and drinks were a lifesaver on missions. "Like for me, distance isn't an issue, but mass is. So I have to figure the mass for anything I 'port, me, you, a horse, whatever. I don't recommend trying to 'port a horse either, they don't like it."

"Well, I wasn't dealing with any horses, but I think I understand what you mean." He thought about how he could have used his powers differently, maybe try to overload nearby objects to cause them to explode? Moving towards the showers, he looked back, giving her a quick once over, "I'm hitting the showers, but if you want to continue this maybe we can go out for a beer. I assume you're old enough to drink?"

Mock pouting at his suggestion that she was not over 21, Clarice nodded, "It's your lucky day. My fake ID is excellent," she was 21, but he didn't need to know that...yet. "So's my real one. You need help washing your back?" she was joking, but it never hurt to be nice.

"Depends, you don't have a husband I don't know about, do you?" He meant it as a joke, but as he entered the room he knew he wouldn't mind the attention. "Otherwise I can just meet you out here in a few minutes, and then we can get a beer. I need one."

Seriously, she checked her left hand then held it up for him to see. No rings on her fingers, "Please,' she rolled her eyes, "Like you could pay me to marry a man? Forget it. Not unless he cooked, cleaned and did windows," she'd do her own laundry. "Now a woman...that has some possibilities," she grinned cheekily, "Take whatever time you need. If we're going out, I need to change," Clarice indicated her own uniform. Not exactly bar wear.

Lex stopped and laughed, "Well, I cook and clean, but I'll be damned before I'd ever do windows." He looked at her leathers, he didn't have a problem with them. "If you insist on changing," he said with a wry wink. He ignored her comments on being a lesbian because he didn't want to start prying. If there'd been one iota of sense in what Jay had said yesterday it was that everyone at the mansion had their fair share of shit to deal with.

He paused and waited to see if she would react, and then decided his wretched smell was too bad to bear. "Well, are you coming in or not? We can talk while you change and I shower."

Laughing she followed him in, just to see what he would do. Her street clothes were in her locker in the girls locker room. "If you insist," she agreed, unsnapping the side of her fencing style jacket to reveal the tank top underneath as she walked. Her jacket had a strap that went between her legs just like a fencing jacket and her pants were high waisted breeches that snapped below her knees. Knee high boots protected her lower legs.