xp_logs | Log: Elektra & Kyle

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Elektra meets Kyle at a dojo

The dojo where Kyle's friends studied always smelled - to him - just a little bit like feet. Which made sense, nobody in a dojo wore shoes, but he always thought it should smell like any other gym, like sweat and cotton and gym mats and on a bad day a little bit of blood. And it did, he had to admit - but mostly, it was feet.

He'd intended on plopping down in one of the guest chairs and doing some heavy editing of one of Laurie's papers in exchange for her buying him some pizza, but two events factored heavily into him tucking his tablet into a backpack. One, it looked like a sparring class, which was heavy on the entertainment value. Two, the other guest chair was taken up by a black-haired woman who watched like she knew what she was looking at.

He waited for a break in the action - coughed a laugh as one of the students went over backwards from a hip toss, and then grinned at the woman. "Watch the blond guy in the back, he's going to Neo out of a lock, and then the other guy's gonna start swearing at him in ASL." He pointed at a pair of students, a blond black-belt, and a blue belt with dark hair - and a blue flickering pointed tongue.

Elektra had no idea what she was doing. Well, more accurately, she was out of her element here in the dojo. The experience, as she watched, was nothing like her previous training. The style was new to her, seeing other students was new to her, the whole thing felt less real in a way she wasn't sure she could express. She was Master Stone's only student, and Master Stone's dojo was just a loft apartment repurposed for training. All of this was normal, but something she had no experience with, and that normalcy made it feel more like a movie than real life.

Of course, not wanting to seem like dork, she watched intently, and gave the dojo an appraising look. So focused she was that she forgot to actually pay attention, and that's why she forced herself to suppress a jump when she heard a laugh coming from beside her.

Recovering quickly, hopefully quickly enough, she turned and smiled "You don't say?" Taking a half a beat she continued "I'll take that bet." Hopefully, her suggesting they just made a wager will distract him enough from her not being sure what a Neo lock is.

"I'd be stealing your cash if it was a for real bet. I know those guys." Kyle jabbed a thumb, claw out at the pair. "I just think watching swearing in sign is hilarious." He pulled his hand back, and the inch or so of clawed fingernails slid inwards before he stuck his hand out, offering a handshake. "Kyle Gibney and I don't train here but my friends who do say it's pretty well rounded."

"Elektra," she responded in a friendly tone. Her eye lingered on his, his, deformity a bit, but not enough to be rude. Her mind quickly raced through the best reaction to have, and decided on not reacting or giving it another thought. "That's good to know." she recovered, "I'm looking for a place for my friends more than myself, and I was starting to worry this was a paper mill."

"As far as I can tell, it's legit." Kyle said, after a moment of distraction as one of the students put the other in a unpleasant-looking arm hold. "Not my personal thing, but I cheat at fighting just by existing, so most places aren't my personal thing." He turned to watch the class - and then turned back, blinking. "Wait, Elektra like, your parents named you after a character in the Illiad?"

Elektra nodded, and made a note to come back to Kyle's "cheating" later.

She then let out an exaggerated exhale "Thank goodness no." Her tone became a little less playful "I'm not about to plan or execute anyone's murder." she finished with sweet tone and expression that implied she might be thinking of at least one person "not that I haven't met a few people who belong in a nice Greek tragedy."

"Yeah, plus then there's like, sisters sacrificed to Artemis and wars and telenovela-worthy drama." Kyle mangled the spanish, every so slightly. "And now I'm that weird dork in the dojo who nerds it up about literature. Hi, I'm Kyle and I teach English to teenagers and I never shut up about it." He rolled his eyes at himself, and shook his head, grinning.

Turning a bit more towards Kyle, and raising an eyebrow, Elektra brightened "You don't say?" She reflected that she hadn't had a good sense of his age, if he was a teacher, but then again people her age rarely have a good sense of other adults' age, and for that matter rarely have a good sense of their own age. "I suppose I'm fortunate enough to be sitting next to an expert in the pen and the sword." She paused for a beat and finished "I guess that makes you mightier!"

Kyle fought the urge to make a Celebrity Jeopardy joke. But it was a hard fight, he really wanted to make it. "Well, I'm at least pretty good at convincing a bunch of kids that they won't die if they read Hamlet and Macbeth, and that essay structure is a good skill to have. Sword maybe not so much, but you know, I don't need a sword much with these." He held up his hands, with sharp amber-colored clawed fingernails. "Makes buttoning shirts a bitch and a half, but hey, I can peel oranges in five seconds flat."

Elektra noted that Kyle seemed pretty comfortable in his own skin. That put her a bit more at ease, but her lack of experience with mutants, even after all that had happened in what was basically her back yard, was pretty impressive. It was like avoiding Christmas music in December. This lack of experience put her into "winging it" mode. "I'd be more impressed if you could peel a coconut in five seconds." Pausing Elektra's face took on a look of childlike wonder. "Wait, can you peel a coconut in five seconds?"

"Nah, coconuts are a pain. I smash 'em with a big hammer and then pick out the meat." Kyle met the look of wonder with a very amused expression. "But my buddy Fred? He puts the coconut in a paper bag, and smashes it against his forehead. Shattered coconut. I mean he can do that with other stuff, like bowling balls too, so it's handy."

"Han-dy," She said stretching the word to give it an extra kick of sarcasm. "And what sort of things do you get involved with that smashing bowling balls is considered handy?" She finished with a raised eye brow.

"Man, the pro leagues for bowling are super competitive." Kyle flashed a grin, complete with fangs straight out of any half-decent werewolf movie, but it wasn't almost a grimace too. "You know, or the usual keeping bigots from getting up in my face. In the words of the greatest sage of our time, Mister Will Smith, don't start none, wont' be none and man, some parts of the city, people really like to start some."

"Right. I'd totally watch bowling if they added some muties to the lineup." Not having thought about mutant issues before Elektra moved through her comment casually, and moved on just as quickly. "Speaking of." She nodded her head "The heavy squat guy who just walked in. He looks like he could 'own' this place. Do you know him?"

Kyle snorted loudly, and shook his head. "Not every "mutie" knows every other "mutie"." He said, with a frown. "I just know the guys in the back." The slim dark-haired guy with the blue tongue, and the blond black-belt. "But you know, I don't even know like, a tenth of the people in District X. Hell I don't know a tenth of the kids in the DX, and I did my student teaching there."

Stunned by the sudden stop of conversation's forward momentum Elektra's body became rigid, as she had a very clear "oh shit" look on her face. She hadn't meant any offense, but could see it now. Her mind raced for a way to save this.

"How's that foot tasting?" Kyle wasn't quite as annoyed sounding as he had been - her heartrate had gone up, even under the noises of the dojo, he could hear it clearly, but she didn't look angry, so it wasn't time for the "all muties are freaks" yelling, so he figured he had a decent chance of her comment having been a mistake, not a deliberate attack. "I've done my fair share of foot in the mouth, which bee-tee-dubs, hurts like hell with teeth or feet like mine." He stretched his legs out, showing off bare, hairy, clawed feet sticking out of a jeans that had seen better days.

Missing her cue for a moment, staring blankly, Elektra updated her mental spreadsheet, then gladly accepted the out she was just handed. "Gah!" she exaggerated a look like something foul was in her mouth. "Ever have a gym sock smoothie? I don't recommend it." Not really having time to process everything that just happened, and how she should feel about it she decided it was best to try and move on.

"What got you into teaching?" It wasn't a smooth transition, but it would hopefully get the job done.

Angry confrontation in the middle of a dojo averted. Kyle promised himself a lot of bacon for not losing his temper in the middle of a place where losing his temper would get him push-ups. He wasn't even a student there, but he knew the head teacher's reputation. "Whew, that's a complicated story. Short version, the only reason I'm actually not, you know, in jail or I dunno, homeless or something is because I got lucky and ended up with some good teachers, in a place where someone sat me down and said I wasn't a genefreak who was only good for chewing on people."

He rubbed the back of his neck, a little embarrassed. "So you know, I'm a lifetime movie special cliche, and now I'm going to totes change the subject and demand sharing time from you."

Elektra blushed on the inside, but through sheer force of will kept it there. "What would like me to share?"

Kyle grinned. "Dude, I just wanna change the subject off me and my lifetime movie achievement award life story. You know, tell me stuff. Is it Elektra one name like Madonna or Beyonce? Are you like, totes into martial arts or is this a new thing? What's the life story?"

"dude." She laughed to herself. Most people don't think of a Elektra as dude. "Alright, people latch onto my first name because it's so unusual. No, wait that can't be right. Some people latch onto my last name because they think it sounds like nachos." She paused "I guess it's like being named Madonna Beyonce."

At that point Elektra looked past Kyle while she spoke "I've been doing martial arts for awhile, but I've been an only student the whole time. My master was a kind lady in my neighborhood. I was planning on asking her to instruct my friends, but we sort of lost touch. It was weird to be honest." She looked a little sad "I thought we were closer." Realizing she failed to dodge an unpleasant turn in the conversation she forced a small edge of cheer in her voice "but my life story is amazing...ly boring." She shifted her shoulder towards Kyle while smiling as if she was quite pleased at her bad joke.

"Pretty sure martial arts and having your own teacher that you know kinda eliminates the boring part, but eh, what do I know? I'm like that guy who watches my friends take their classes." He was so not going to tell her that his idea of a fun Saturday was being thrown around a gym by a guy who could bench-press a Jeep. Kyle shrugged. "I'm guessing your teacher wasn't the facebook type?"

"Oh you'd be surprised by how bland my life can get." Elektra could recall a hundred boring Saturdays, and at that moment that outweighed the more interesting events she had not yet learned to appreciate.

Laughing at the mention of Facebook Elektra shrugged "I would have loved," with an extra emphasis on loved, "to have seen Master Stone on Facebook." Sitting up straight and adopting a terribly fake voice "your grammar in that post fails to release the right force. Take another picture of your sandwich, and try again." She finished with a laugh loud enough to disturb some of the students, and she quickly controlled herself. "Oh yeah," she mumbled "other students."

Kyle snorted, and shoved the heel of his hand into his mouth to muffle his laugh. "Ima tell Doug." He pointed at the blond guy in the back. "to suggest to Mister Lee." and he pointed at the teacher leading the class. "that he get on facebook and do just that, because I gotta friend who keeps posting pictures of her lunch and it would be hilarious. Fifty pushups for excessive pickles."

Elektra giggled, for some reason her mind added a pickle per pushup. Laughing was nice, she had been nervous about coming here, and didn't even know it. Now she just felt excited to spar with actual students. "I know you said you don't get into the action much, but if you can spar as well on the mats as you do with your words I'd love practice with you."

Kyle grinned back. "Oh, I get into the action. Just not, well, here." He held up his hands again, claws out. She looked like she could handle herself - muscles in the right places, didn't smell like a dojo freaked her out in the same way that, like, Laurie did the couple of times he'd driven her here. "Puts a real crimp in sparring when I gotta cover fingers and toes in tape up to my first knuckles, so formal dojo stuff isn't my thing." He slid them back in, and pointed with a thumb at some of the students. "But you know, stick around a while, get to know people. If you're serious, I'd love to in a couple weeks." Even so, he was going to be a little cautious.

Elektra's shoulders slumped a bit, "yeah," she said trying, badly, to not sound disappointed. "I get it. I've enjoyed my time training, but I've never had a real chance to cut loose. You know?" Elektra was only looking for some commiseration, but after she said it she wondered if for Kyle it was something she really couldn't relate to. With her head down, and her shoulders staying slumped, she looked up trying to read him.

"I totes know." Kyle agreed. "Hard to cut loose until you can trust someone, and even then, you gotta really trust 'em before you can let it out. I don't get that much, so I'm pretty, you know careful." He dug a phone from the pocket of his jeans and tapped the screen with a stiff jointed finger, claw all the way in. "Here, like, we can do the email thing and we'll figure something out, even if I gotta like, bribe my friend there so you can watch me throw him around the mats and him headlock my face off before you get to try to headlock my face off." His grin was wide and genuine.

"Yeah," Elektra said pulling out her sad little flip phone. "I'd like that." This course of action felt good, and her cool steady tone reflected it. Taking a moment or two to find the "app" (if it could be called that) labeled "@email" she turned the screen towards Kyle. It read NotYoNachos@icqmail.com. "I got that email address in high school." she commented "It was an odd time."

"Dude, high school's a weird time for everyone." Kyle said. He glanced up at the class, which was starting to pack up. "Kay, well I owe one of those assclowns beer, so I gotta run but I will for serious email you." He explained. "And if you end up in class with a girl named Laurie, she's cool. I went to high school with her."