Angel and Sam: Chatting (Backdated)
Jul. 14th, 2012 05:35 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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xp_logsA nice summer day, and Angel and Sam run into each other in the library, of all places.
With summer in full swing it was odd for Sam to start to worry about preparing lesson plans for the fall, yet there he was, working on just that. He'd been looking for distractions since returning from Genosha and pouring himself into his work was one way to ensure he stayed distracted, so today he figured he'd check out a few things in the library in his preparations for the new school year. Even if it was well over a month away, it was always better to be prepared, at least that's what he kept telling himself.
Wandering through the stacks, he stopped when he thought he saw a familiar face. Sam folded up the piece of paper he'd taken with him, made up of potential candidates for his classes' reading lists, and confirmed that it was Angel as he approached her. He hadn't had a chance to talk to her since everything that had happened so now was as good of a time as any to check in with her.
"Hey there, how goes it?"
Angel jerked at the familiar voice, her slightly glassed over eyes raising to look at Sam. She'd been sitting in the library for days - well, days in Angel time. In real-world time, it had probably been about six hours - studying for her finals. Who would have thought visual arts classes had final exams? Projects, yes, but exams? "Hey Mr. Guthrie," she said with a grin, more than happy for the distraction. Medieval art just wasn't interesting. "It's going pretty all right, I think. Go a lot better once my summer classes are over. How are you?"
"I'm not too bad, can't complain." After everything they'd all been through lately it was hard to complain about much anything these days, at least to him anyway. He waved the piece of paper he'd just folded up to show her what he was doing. "Just getting some stuff ready for the new school year, which, I know, I know, it's a ways off, but gotta be prepared." Sam grinned and looked over at her books. "What're you studying, if you don't mind my asking?"
"Gotta be prepared two months in advance?" Angel said with a bit of a teasing grin. Of course, she'd spent most of her pre-Xavier's life believing that teachers didn't have a life outside of school, so really Sam was just proving twelve-year-old Angel right. "At the moment I'm studying western medieval art, because apparently that's important for someone studying photography? I don't know." She paused for a moment, seriously considering not asking her next question. "How've you been since, um...everything? Genosha, and all that?"
Rubbing the back of his neck while he thought about a possible answer to that question, Sam eventually just shrugged. There weren't any words to describe it, really, at least none that sprung immediately to mind. "I'm copin' as well as I can, which is about all a lot of us can do, I reckon." A lot of things had went down out there and, while he realized he'd probably had an easier time with it than some of the others, it was still a lot to process. "How 'bout you, how are you coping with it all?"
Angel ran a hand through her hair, tangling her fingers in her red locks. She didn't give the question too much thought - thinking could be dangerous, after all. "You know," she said finally. "I mean...like you said, coping the best I know how. Which has basically consisted of fixing the academic disaster I got myself into when I bolted out of England." She gestured a hand at her books. "Reading about medieval art and how to make your camera do really cool special effects is better than dealing what's in my head."
"Keeping yourself busy is always away to get away from things you'd rather not think about, that's true enough." It was probably a big factor in why he was working on lesson planning now when the school year was still a fair ways off, if not the biggest factor. "Though if you ever do need someone to talk to, if you think it'd help, all you have to do is ask." She probably knew that anyway, or at least he hoped that she did, but it never hurt to offer he figured.
A small smile pulled at Angel's lips as she picked up her pen, twirling it between her fingers. "I know," she told him. "Thanks." She squirmed for a moment, tapping the pen against the table. "Actually...I have a question. If you don't mind, that is."
"Of course, I never mind. Shoot, Angel." She didn't have to ask, he'd try to help her - and any of the other students or fellow X-Men - at any time it was needed. Sam was curious what it was she might need help about, but he listened patiently and waited for her to ask in her own time.
Angel looked down at the table, her eyes watching the pen as it moved up and down. "You've been doing this for a long time, right?" She asked finally. "I mean, being an X-Man and all that. Does it ever...does coping with all the bad ever get easier?" She would never come right out and say she was having a bad time with all this. Not when there were other people who had gotten worse and had more of a right to be traumatized. But she had her nightmares and she had her moments when everything wasn't quite okay in Angelville.
And she really wanted to know if dealing ever got easier.
That was a difficult question to answer if there ever was one. Part of him wanted to lie to Angel, to tell her that it gets easier with time and that by the time she reached his age she'd be much better equipped to deal with things like what they'd all just gone through. That'd be a humongous lie, however, and he just couldn't do that. Especially not to Angel, so instead he just sighed and shook his head from side to side a little.
"'Fraid not, Angel. It's never easy, heck, sometimes it gets harder." He was thinking back to events involving his own family, which had certainly raised those stakes and made things even harder to accept than usual. Jay popped into his mind and he shook his head again, partly to clear the image of his brother from it. "Maybe you get... I dunno, numbed somewhat and it doesn't quite hit you as hard sometimes, but I don't think it ever really gets easier. And if it did, well, maybe that'd be a bad thing." The way he saw it if something as horrible as Genosha hadn't effected him drastically then perhaps it'd speak more to how messed up he himself was, that something so bad couldn't move him hardly at all. That certainly wasn't the case, and he still had trouble sleeping on the best of nights since their return.
Somehow, Angel knew she hadn't expected a positive answer to that question. Sure, thinking that she would develop awesome coping skills when, say, she turned twenty-five was nice, but that just wasn't the way the world worked. Sadly. "Oh well." She tossed her pen onto the table, forcing some version of her customary smile. "I guess I'd rather be really bad at coping than worry that I'm going to lose some really important part of myself."
"Hey now, just because it's sometimes hard to do doesn't mean you're really bad at it." Sometimes there was just too much to deal with, no matter how well a person could cope with things, but that wasn't necessarily because a person was bad with coping in general. "Some stuff's gonna knock you flat on your butt no matter who you are or how good you are at dealin' with things, is all." It was more of a difficult concept to explain than he'd first anticipated, so Sam hoped he was making sense. "I'm pretty sure you won't lose any important parts of yourself, least I hope not anyway, kiddo." He playfully tapped Angel on the shoulder, much like he would one of his younger sisters, which was fitting since he often treated and thought of Angel as such.
A much more natural smile pulled at Angel's lips. What Sam was saying made perfect sense to her - but then, she was the queen of nonsensical, so translating it wasn't too difficult. "If I ever do, you or whoever else has permission to slap me until I'm back to normal," she told Sam happily.
He shook his head at that. "No slapping Angel, not on my watch. But I'll be the first to try'n talk some sense into you, should the time ever come, if that'll do instead." Sam grinned back, chuckling as he looked down at her books again. "Speakin' of which, I reckon I should let you get back to your studies." He didn't want to take up too much of her time, after all, and what kind of teacher would he be if he prevented her from prepping for an exam? "Good luck with the test, not that you'll need it, 'cause you'll do just fine, I know it."
"Oh, right." Angel sighed as she looked down at her books as well, then back up at Sam. "Studying. I'm on it. Thanks, Mr. Guthrie." It was a general thanks, for everything - the good luck and the talking and the, well, everything.
With summer in full swing it was odd for Sam to start to worry about preparing lesson plans for the fall, yet there he was, working on just that. He'd been looking for distractions since returning from Genosha and pouring himself into his work was one way to ensure he stayed distracted, so today he figured he'd check out a few things in the library in his preparations for the new school year. Even if it was well over a month away, it was always better to be prepared, at least that's what he kept telling himself.
Wandering through the stacks, he stopped when he thought he saw a familiar face. Sam folded up the piece of paper he'd taken with him, made up of potential candidates for his classes' reading lists, and confirmed that it was Angel as he approached her. He hadn't had a chance to talk to her since everything that had happened so now was as good of a time as any to check in with her.
"Hey there, how goes it?"
Angel jerked at the familiar voice, her slightly glassed over eyes raising to look at Sam. She'd been sitting in the library for days - well, days in Angel time. In real-world time, it had probably been about six hours - studying for her finals. Who would have thought visual arts classes had final exams? Projects, yes, but exams? "Hey Mr. Guthrie," she said with a grin, more than happy for the distraction. Medieval art just wasn't interesting. "It's going pretty all right, I think. Go a lot better once my summer classes are over. How are you?"
"I'm not too bad, can't complain." After everything they'd all been through lately it was hard to complain about much anything these days, at least to him anyway. He waved the piece of paper he'd just folded up to show her what he was doing. "Just getting some stuff ready for the new school year, which, I know, I know, it's a ways off, but gotta be prepared." Sam grinned and looked over at her books. "What're you studying, if you don't mind my asking?"
"Gotta be prepared two months in advance?" Angel said with a bit of a teasing grin. Of course, she'd spent most of her pre-Xavier's life believing that teachers didn't have a life outside of school, so really Sam was just proving twelve-year-old Angel right. "At the moment I'm studying western medieval art, because apparently that's important for someone studying photography? I don't know." She paused for a moment, seriously considering not asking her next question. "How've you been since, um...everything? Genosha, and all that?"
Rubbing the back of his neck while he thought about a possible answer to that question, Sam eventually just shrugged. There weren't any words to describe it, really, at least none that sprung immediately to mind. "I'm copin' as well as I can, which is about all a lot of us can do, I reckon." A lot of things had went down out there and, while he realized he'd probably had an easier time with it than some of the others, it was still a lot to process. "How 'bout you, how are you coping with it all?"
Angel ran a hand through her hair, tangling her fingers in her red locks. She didn't give the question too much thought - thinking could be dangerous, after all. "You know," she said finally. "I mean...like you said, coping the best I know how. Which has basically consisted of fixing the academic disaster I got myself into when I bolted out of England." She gestured a hand at her books. "Reading about medieval art and how to make your camera do really cool special effects is better than dealing what's in my head."
"Keeping yourself busy is always away to get away from things you'd rather not think about, that's true enough." It was probably a big factor in why he was working on lesson planning now when the school year was still a fair ways off, if not the biggest factor. "Though if you ever do need someone to talk to, if you think it'd help, all you have to do is ask." She probably knew that anyway, or at least he hoped that she did, but it never hurt to offer he figured.
A small smile pulled at Angel's lips as she picked up her pen, twirling it between her fingers. "I know," she told him. "Thanks." She squirmed for a moment, tapping the pen against the table. "Actually...I have a question. If you don't mind, that is."
"Of course, I never mind. Shoot, Angel." She didn't have to ask, he'd try to help her - and any of the other students or fellow X-Men - at any time it was needed. Sam was curious what it was she might need help about, but he listened patiently and waited for her to ask in her own time.
Angel looked down at the table, her eyes watching the pen as it moved up and down. "You've been doing this for a long time, right?" She asked finally. "I mean, being an X-Man and all that. Does it ever...does coping with all the bad ever get easier?" She would never come right out and say she was having a bad time with all this. Not when there were other people who had gotten worse and had more of a right to be traumatized. But she had her nightmares and she had her moments when everything wasn't quite okay in Angelville.
And she really wanted to know if dealing ever got easier.
That was a difficult question to answer if there ever was one. Part of him wanted to lie to Angel, to tell her that it gets easier with time and that by the time she reached his age she'd be much better equipped to deal with things like what they'd all just gone through. That'd be a humongous lie, however, and he just couldn't do that. Especially not to Angel, so instead he just sighed and shook his head from side to side a little.
"'Fraid not, Angel. It's never easy, heck, sometimes it gets harder." He was thinking back to events involving his own family, which had certainly raised those stakes and made things even harder to accept than usual. Jay popped into his mind and he shook his head again, partly to clear the image of his brother from it. "Maybe you get... I dunno, numbed somewhat and it doesn't quite hit you as hard sometimes, but I don't think it ever really gets easier. And if it did, well, maybe that'd be a bad thing." The way he saw it if something as horrible as Genosha hadn't effected him drastically then perhaps it'd speak more to how messed up he himself was, that something so bad couldn't move him hardly at all. That certainly wasn't the case, and he still had trouble sleeping on the best of nights since their return.
Somehow, Angel knew she hadn't expected a positive answer to that question. Sure, thinking that she would develop awesome coping skills when, say, she turned twenty-five was nice, but that just wasn't the way the world worked. Sadly. "Oh well." She tossed her pen onto the table, forcing some version of her customary smile. "I guess I'd rather be really bad at coping than worry that I'm going to lose some really important part of myself."
"Hey now, just because it's sometimes hard to do doesn't mean you're really bad at it." Sometimes there was just too much to deal with, no matter how well a person could cope with things, but that wasn't necessarily because a person was bad with coping in general. "Some stuff's gonna knock you flat on your butt no matter who you are or how good you are at dealin' with things, is all." It was more of a difficult concept to explain than he'd first anticipated, so Sam hoped he was making sense. "I'm pretty sure you won't lose any important parts of yourself, least I hope not anyway, kiddo." He playfully tapped Angel on the shoulder, much like he would one of his younger sisters, which was fitting since he often treated and thought of Angel as such.
A much more natural smile pulled at Angel's lips. What Sam was saying made perfect sense to her - but then, she was the queen of nonsensical, so translating it wasn't too difficult. "If I ever do, you or whoever else has permission to slap me until I'm back to normal," she told Sam happily.
He shook his head at that. "No slapping Angel, not on my watch. But I'll be the first to try'n talk some sense into you, should the time ever come, if that'll do instead." Sam grinned back, chuckling as he looked down at her books again. "Speakin' of which, I reckon I should let you get back to your studies." He didn't want to take up too much of her time, after all, and what kind of teacher would he be if he prevented her from prepping for an exam? "Good luck with the test, not that you'll need it, 'cause you'll do just fine, I know it."
"Oh, right." Angel sighed as she looked down at her books as well, then back up at Sam. "Studying. I'm on it. Thanks, Mr. Guthrie." It was a general thanks, for everything - the good luck and the talking and the, well, everything.
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