Lex and Callisto | Sunday Afternoon
Sep. 13th, 2009 06:10 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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xp_logsLex and Callisto meet in the gym and discuss the Self-Defense course, sort of.
Lex sat in the gym on a yoga mat. He'd been trying to teach himself how to meditate, secretly taking Adrienne's advice, but found it quite difficult. The absence of movement made him feel awkward. Even so, he was trying really hard to keep himself still. He'd never admit it, but something had changed since he started trying this that allowed him to control his powers far better. He'd even passed several danger room scenarios without taking a hit.
As he continued to meditate he noticed a familiar face enter from the opposite side of the gym. He didn't think he'd met her, but that wasn't surprising. What caught his attention was the way she carried herself. He couldn't place the style, but the confidence was clearly there. It broke his concentration and he ended up falling over as she passed by him.
Callisto, dressed in loose sweatpants and her ubiquitous oil-stained tank, towel slung over her shoulder, was en route to the weight training area, but broke her stride as the young man on the yoga mat went toppling over sideways, stopping and surveying him with an expression of mild curiosity and even milder amusement. She raised her eyebrows as he righted himself, meeting his eyes and nodding in greeting, though she said nothing.
Pushing himself up to his feet, Lex pretended like he meant to fall over. It was dumb, and completely useless, but it made him feel better. Once he was on his feet, he nodded. "I've seen you around a lot but I don't think I know who you are..." He realized just how awkward he sounded and wondered if he should just shut up and walk away. Against his better judgment he decided to stay.
"I know who you are." With Callisto's hearing it was pretty hard not to figure out who any given person was - she could hear conversations with or about them from rooms away. It was just as well for most of the mansion that she knew perfectly well how to keep her mouth shut. With a little eye-roll, she gave the response she'd been supposed to to start with. "Callisto. Is me."
"Well, Callisto, it's a pleasure to--wait, as in the other self-defense trainer?" He asked, a little shocked. She definitely looked like she could take care of herself, but he couldn't believe he hadn't put two and two together.
Callisto set her chin in a way that dared him to question the wisdom of putting her in charge with impressionable youths. "I teach the class, yeah."
"Care to enlighten me on how it's supposed to go? There really isn't a curriculum that I can see." He shrugged as he spoke. He could teach them how to break bones, which was technically non-lethal, but he didn't know how the class was meant to be structured.
Callisto raised her eyebrows. Her discussion with Xavier regarding the actual running of the course had been diffuse at best. "Uh. Try not to let them hurt themselves. Try to make sure they aren't going to hurt themselves. They all have different abilities, so it's not like you can write a..." she scrambled for the word - "syllabus or something."
Lex laughed, when she put it that way it seemed like they were glorified babysitters. "I was thinking more along the lines of what are the limits, besides not killing people... cause I have a few ideas to teach them more than just throws and disarming." He wanted to teach them how to evade being hunted. He didn't know if the others would approve, but that wasn't going to stop him from trying. Better to ask forgiveness than permission, especially when the knowledge could save their lives.
"I guess that would depend what you were teaching them," Callisto said simply, shrugging. "I wouldn't know. Just don't do anything that's going to hurt the ones without healing abilities. And don't like, encourage them to do drugs or have unprotected sex or what-fuckin'-ever - there's a school ethics policy statement somewhere, you should've signed it along with everything else if you're gonna be teaching."
"I want to teach them how to survive as a minority feared by the general populace. From all the mission reports I've read, we do a pretty good job at keeping mutant involvement in the world's problems a secret, for the most part, but that won't stop people from making assumptions." He paused, realizing he was starting to rant. He wanted to believe the government wouldn't persecute mutants, but his conversation with Morgan rang clear in his mind. Funny, I've seen soldiers do the same. He wasn't going to let the students go out into the world unprepared.
Callisto raised her eyebrows. She remembered her own conversations with Nathan - her frustrations at the treatment of mutants in the general community, particularly those with severely 'visible' mutations, or those that prevented them from leading anything like a 'normal' life. "So you teach them when to run away." Callisto already did that. She had plenty of bitter memories of the times in her teens when she should have run away and hadn't.
"Not so much when, but how. I want to teach them how to disappear, and how to make their enemy underestimate them so they can get the upper hand." Lex explained, hoping she'd understand. "In the field we often found ourselves surrounded and outnumbered, but if we made them think we were weaker than we were, we could turn the tables and take the fight to them. I want the students to be confident that they can do the same."
The young woman's eyes narrowed a little, her stomach tightening at the idea of teaching kids what, to her, amounted to guerrilla warfare tactics. "Disappearing is one thing, but... they're not soldiers, they're kids. They're not all going to be X-Men or whatever. You teach them how to 'take the fight to them' or whatever and they're just gonna do it when they should be heading for the hills or calling for help." Callisto shook her head, her brow furrowing as she removed her hands from her pockets, pulling the towel from around her neck and twisting it absently in her grip. "That's not self-defense," she said, shaking her head again, "it's military training."
"It'll be a fine line, but I don't plan on turning them into an army. They need to know how to protect themselves, and while you may be able to teach them when to run and when to fight I can only teach them the ways to do so. That's why I want to work with you on this, come up with a unified plan of action." She clearly didn't understand. He'd already been through the whole 'they are students, not X-men trainees' talk when he asked for the job. Lex just wanted them to be prepared for any situation, no matter how desperate.
Callisto wasn't the best person at disguising her emotions, and in this instance she clearly wasn't convinced. She sighed, pursing her lips in thought. "Maybe there could be, I dunno, an opt-in advanced class or something," she offered.
"That's what I was hoping to do. I don't want to make these kids into soldiers, I just want to give those who feel the need to be prepared opportunities to do so." He looked at her and shrugged, she might be the hardest person to convince of his intentions, and the one he needed the most. "Let's start with the basics, and once we get a feel for each other we can talk about the 'opt-in advanced class?" It wasn't what he wanted, but he had to start somewhere.
Her mouth set to a line, Callisto nodded slowly, looking a little as though she was worried Lex was trying to put one over on her. "All right. We'll start with the basics. And we can talk about whatever else later."
Lex sat in the gym on a yoga mat. He'd been trying to teach himself how to meditate, secretly taking Adrienne's advice, but found it quite difficult. The absence of movement made him feel awkward. Even so, he was trying really hard to keep himself still. He'd never admit it, but something had changed since he started trying this that allowed him to control his powers far better. He'd even passed several danger room scenarios without taking a hit.
As he continued to meditate he noticed a familiar face enter from the opposite side of the gym. He didn't think he'd met her, but that wasn't surprising. What caught his attention was the way she carried herself. He couldn't place the style, but the confidence was clearly there. It broke his concentration and he ended up falling over as she passed by him.
Callisto, dressed in loose sweatpants and her ubiquitous oil-stained tank, towel slung over her shoulder, was en route to the weight training area, but broke her stride as the young man on the yoga mat went toppling over sideways, stopping and surveying him with an expression of mild curiosity and even milder amusement. She raised her eyebrows as he righted himself, meeting his eyes and nodding in greeting, though she said nothing.
Pushing himself up to his feet, Lex pretended like he meant to fall over. It was dumb, and completely useless, but it made him feel better. Once he was on his feet, he nodded. "I've seen you around a lot but I don't think I know who you are..." He realized just how awkward he sounded and wondered if he should just shut up and walk away. Against his better judgment he decided to stay.
"I know who you are." With Callisto's hearing it was pretty hard not to figure out who any given person was - she could hear conversations with or about them from rooms away. It was just as well for most of the mansion that she knew perfectly well how to keep her mouth shut. With a little eye-roll, she gave the response she'd been supposed to to start with. "Callisto. Is me."
"Well, Callisto, it's a pleasure to--wait, as in the other self-defense trainer?" He asked, a little shocked. She definitely looked like she could take care of herself, but he couldn't believe he hadn't put two and two together.
Callisto set her chin in a way that dared him to question the wisdom of putting her in charge with impressionable youths. "I teach the class, yeah."
"Care to enlighten me on how it's supposed to go? There really isn't a curriculum that I can see." He shrugged as he spoke. He could teach them how to break bones, which was technically non-lethal, but he didn't know how the class was meant to be structured.
Callisto raised her eyebrows. Her discussion with Xavier regarding the actual running of the course had been diffuse at best. "Uh. Try not to let them hurt themselves. Try to make sure they aren't going to hurt themselves. They all have different abilities, so it's not like you can write a..." she scrambled for the word - "syllabus or something."
Lex laughed, when she put it that way it seemed like they were glorified babysitters. "I was thinking more along the lines of what are the limits, besides not killing people... cause I have a few ideas to teach them more than just throws and disarming." He wanted to teach them how to evade being hunted. He didn't know if the others would approve, but that wasn't going to stop him from trying. Better to ask forgiveness than permission, especially when the knowledge could save their lives.
"I guess that would depend what you were teaching them," Callisto said simply, shrugging. "I wouldn't know. Just don't do anything that's going to hurt the ones without healing abilities. And don't like, encourage them to do drugs or have unprotected sex or what-fuckin'-ever - there's a school ethics policy statement somewhere, you should've signed it along with everything else if you're gonna be teaching."
"I want to teach them how to survive as a minority feared by the general populace. From all the mission reports I've read, we do a pretty good job at keeping mutant involvement in the world's problems a secret, for the most part, but that won't stop people from making assumptions." He paused, realizing he was starting to rant. He wanted to believe the government wouldn't persecute mutants, but his conversation with Morgan rang clear in his mind. Funny, I've seen soldiers do the same. He wasn't going to let the students go out into the world unprepared.
Callisto raised her eyebrows. She remembered her own conversations with Nathan - her frustrations at the treatment of mutants in the general community, particularly those with severely 'visible' mutations, or those that prevented them from leading anything like a 'normal' life. "So you teach them when to run away." Callisto already did that. She had plenty of bitter memories of the times in her teens when she should have run away and hadn't.
"Not so much when, but how. I want to teach them how to disappear, and how to make their enemy underestimate them so they can get the upper hand." Lex explained, hoping she'd understand. "In the field we often found ourselves surrounded and outnumbered, but if we made them think we were weaker than we were, we could turn the tables and take the fight to them. I want the students to be confident that they can do the same."
The young woman's eyes narrowed a little, her stomach tightening at the idea of teaching kids what, to her, amounted to guerrilla warfare tactics. "Disappearing is one thing, but... they're not soldiers, they're kids. They're not all going to be X-Men or whatever. You teach them how to 'take the fight to them' or whatever and they're just gonna do it when they should be heading for the hills or calling for help." Callisto shook her head, her brow furrowing as she removed her hands from her pockets, pulling the towel from around her neck and twisting it absently in her grip. "That's not self-defense," she said, shaking her head again, "it's military training."
"It'll be a fine line, but I don't plan on turning them into an army. They need to know how to protect themselves, and while you may be able to teach them when to run and when to fight I can only teach them the ways to do so. That's why I want to work with you on this, come up with a unified plan of action." She clearly didn't understand. He'd already been through the whole 'they are students, not X-men trainees' talk when he asked for the job. Lex just wanted them to be prepared for any situation, no matter how desperate.
Callisto wasn't the best person at disguising her emotions, and in this instance she clearly wasn't convinced. She sighed, pursing her lips in thought. "Maybe there could be, I dunno, an opt-in advanced class or something," she offered.
"That's what I was hoping to do. I don't want to make these kids into soldiers, I just want to give those who feel the need to be prepared opportunities to do so." He looked at her and shrugged, she might be the hardest person to convince of his intentions, and the one he needed the most. "Let's start with the basics, and once we get a feel for each other we can talk about the 'opt-in advanced class?" It wasn't what he wanted, but he had to start somewhere.
Her mouth set to a line, Callisto nodded slowly, looking a little as though she was worried Lex was trying to put one over on her. "All right. We'll start with the basics. And we can talk about whatever else later."
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