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[xp-beast.livejournal.com]

Hank runs (almost literally) into Sue and gets a lot of helpful advice from someone who's been there, done that.

It was always the warm down that gets you, everyone knew they had to do a warm up before starting any exercise, but afterward almost everyone forgot to do a warm down. The first time she'd been surfing Sue had been so excited she'd completely forgot to stretch afterwards and had been in complete agony, needless to say that wasn't a mistake she was going to make again. So here she was, leaning against a balustrade separating the mansion gardens from the rest of the grounds warming down after her morning run. There were worse places to have to run in, she allowed, and the view around the grounds was pretty unbeatable, the woods definitely were a nice step up up from the city that she was used to. It was to be honest serene, and she'd started to enjoy her early morning runs around hte mansion grounds, though she'd never admit it, city girl through and through.

Out from the neighbouring woods bounded a figure - no, not a figure, a young man, clad in a t-shirt and sweatpants. Rather unusually the young man was on all fours, his rolling gait like something a great ape would have put on in times of danger. He had worked up quite a good pace but upon catching sight of Sue out of the corner of his eye he put the brakes on - and went tumbling head over heels into an undignified heap with a loud 'oof' as the breath rushed out of him.

The blonde's hands flew up to her mouth as she stifled the urge to giggle at the sight, someone appearing then collapsing into a pile at your feet was well Sue wanted to say it was unusual ever for Xaviers, but then her understanding of what was normal seemed to change everyday, and not always in a predictable way. She was sure he wouldn't appreciate being laughed at for tripping and falling. She knew that she wouldn't enjoy the feeling if it has been her, but she had to check on him, "That's one way to make a first impression. Are you alright?"

The young man stirred, raising his head as he rolled onto his back and untangled his limbs. "Uh-huh," he wheezed, still working the air back into his lungs. "Sorry. I didn't mean to intrude..."

The blonde shook her head, "No I think I should be apologizing for surprising you, unless falling over in sight of the mansion was part of your plan all along?"

"Not really," he admitted sheepishly. Pushing himself to his feet, he first brushed himself off and then offered an overlarge hand to Sue. "I'm Hank."

"Sue," the blonde introduced herself shaking Hank's hand, "So, before that moment that shall not be mentioned," she grinned at Hank, "what were you up to out here? Don't normally see people up and about at this time of the day, apparently it's way too early for anyone sane." she quoted making quotations in the air.

"I was just out for a... run." In truth, Hank hadn't wanted anyone else to see him running - or at least, his version of it - so had gotten up early enough to avoid most prying eyes. He hadn't managed to avoid all of them, apparently. "I, um, don't sleep much."

"It's a pretty perfect time for a run," Sue agreed nodding at the grounds. "They have the whole early bird catching the worm, dew on grass thing going on don't they?" The young woman perched herself on the edge of the balustrade she'd been stretching against, swinging her feet idly through the air, Hank seemed uncomfortable enough without her asking him about it, directly at least. "Having trouble getting to sleep?"

"Not precisely, I just don't need that much sleep. There's so much to do, I guess I've trained myself to make do with less so I can spend the time on other endeavours."

"Let me get this straight, you chose to give up spending time in a warm, soft and most importantly comfortable bed, in order to go running and doing well everything else?" Sue asked in disbelief before letting a teasing smile break out over her lips, "Thank god, I thought I was the only one."

Hank's relief was palpable when he realised Sue was joking with him. "Ah, another circadian rhythm warrior. They may have their pillows, but we'll have the last laugh, I'm sure."

"That's what we keep saying but," the blonde grinned, "on those really cold mornings you have to admit that the bed supporters might have the right idea."

He grinned back at her shyly. "Perhaps. But the occasional indulgence can be excused, as long as you're otherwise disciplined. So, ah, what do you do when you're not running? Are you a student, or..."

"Kinda a student I guess," Sue kicked her feet against the stone idly, "Well grad student to be more precise, I'm working in the city at the moment while I finish off my PhD. How about you, are you one of the students that seem to congregate around here?"

"Yes, I suppose I am. Undergraduate, though. What's your PhD in?" he asked, obviously interested.

"Robotics and Control Systems," the blonde stated with a grin, "My turn, what's your major?"

"Ah, Molecular Genetics. But Robotics and Control Systems... that's a fascinating area to be researching in now. What particular area?"

"The application of neural networks to a semi autonomous specialized swarm," Sue quoted with a smile, "which really makes my job kinda perfect. Not too many companies are interesting in practical applications of swarm robotics at the moment, unless it's directly tied to military research."

"That's surprising - I can think of dozens of non-military applications for swarm robotics, nearly all of them hugely beneficial. And with the link to neural networking surely there must be technology firms out there just dying to make those breakthroughs."

"There are a lot," Sue agreed, "But it's a very new field and so far not many people have picked it up outside of pure research done in universities so the funding from the companies is slow to emerge. A lot of it is in search and rescue or military applications right now," Sue admitted, "That's normally where the big money is, but once the breakthroughs start to come through then we should start seeing more widespread applications of the technology." The blonde laughed, "I'm using the case-studies of a security and surveillance systems and building construction and maintenance in my thesis. Itd increase efficiency in all the applications but right now the costs involved would be prohibitive, only the richest of the rich could even thing about using it so," she gave a wry shrug, "I don't think they're gonna be making their way out of the lab anytime soon."

"Still, that's fascinating work," Hank said enthusiastically. "I'd love to learn more, if that's alright. Although I understand that quite a lot of it will be proprietary, for now. Still, maybe I could visit your lab one day and you could show me around?" It was infinitely easier to invite himself to her lab than it would have been to ask her for coffee - indeed, if he had thought about what he was doing he probably would've ended up tongue-tied in seconds.

The blonde made a show of tapping her finger against her lips as if deep in thought, "Hmmm, well we can't just let anyone wander around inside the labs but if you're interested I'm sure we can arrange something," Sue grinned mischievously, "As long as you promise to behave. Although if we do see some proprietary technology leaking out just remember," the blonde leaned forward and tapped Hank on the chest with her finger, "I know where you live," she teased.

"I... uh..." And there went his tongue in knots, and no amount of wishing would untie it quick enough to keep him from embarrassment. "Right. I won't. I mean, I know."

"Relax," Sue gave Hank a friendly smile, "Truth is you're not going to be seeing a lot of top secret stuff. Despite what they show in the movies most of the research big companies do is pretty mundane. Finding new applications of existing technology. Everyone might have one or two labs working on something truly ground breaking, but that's where all the fun stuff happens. We can probably sneak into the labs if you wanted later in the day when everyone gets busy, you know if you don't mind spending a few hours wandering around the building with me."

All Hank could do was nod and attempt a smile. "Sounds great," he said, his voice sounding awkward and strangled. "Thank you for offering."

"Anytime," Sue smiled, "Nice to find someone else here who's interested in research," her last interaction with someone at the mansion with similar interests hadn't gone so well. "Let me know when you get some time off class and I'll set something up. So what about you? You know what I'm up to, only fair you share too. Molecular Genetics isn't exactly a common field. What're you thinking about doing with it?"

Oh thank goodness. A comfortable topic. "I'm not sure - obviously I'm hoping to lead some investigations into the X-gene," Hank replied, "but as the current information is rather patchy at best, it's hard to say exactly where my attentions would be best directed. My initial investigations have turned up quite a lot of crossover between the gene expression and metabolism, so maybe something along those lines. But I, ah, have quite a ways to go before I'm publishing any papers," he added, embarrassed once more.

"Oh I wouldn't be so sure of that," Sue disagreed with a smile, "Most universities have a student journal for papers and you seem to know what you're about, more than a lot of people who're in my PhD class atleast. If you want to get some papers published and some practice for larger scientific journals that's a good place to start building your name. You might not be able to get much done with the X-gene there but a paper on the expression of genes would be an interesting topic to get started on and pave the way for your future research." The blonde gave him a grin and leaned forward, "Besides, all the professor's watch those student journals for rising talent." she told Hank in a conspiratorial stage whisper, "you catch someone's eye and suddenly all the doors are open for you."

It was probably a good thing that Hank had already gotten all of the 'random falling over' out of his system, or he would've ended up on the ground again when she gave him that smile and that whisper. "Uh, I'll keep that in mind," he said, ducking his head to stare at the ground. "I'll definitely check it out."

"You should," Sue agreed solemnly, "It is one the the great secrets of academia, passed down from powerful grad student to undergrad since time immemorial, or atleast 5 minutes ago," she admitted with an off-handed smile. "I know the research companies keep an eye on the journals too if you ever want out of academia. At least I know we do. Although, you realize writing all those papers means you'll have to suffer the horror of attending all the conferences in new and exotic places. The horror."

He glanced up to smile shyly at her. "That sounds terrible," he agreed solemnly. "New York City is exotic enough for me, I don't know how I'd cope with somewhere like Paris or Berlin. But then you must get flown all over the world to speak to people about your research."

Sue waggled her hand back and forward, "Sometimes, Japan was pretty cool," she allowed, "but mostly I end up travelling for work these days corporate sell out that I am. But conferences and work are a mixed bag, I did a trip to Hawaii earlier this year for a few days, which was awesome, but that was followed up by a trip to Alaska so you get the sun and the snow. Mostly people try to set conferences in interesting locations to attract more people though so who knows you might turn into one of the jet set crowd."

"Oh, that seems very unlikely. I value the chance to exchange ideas and assimilate new research but for me the true thrill is the work itself. I'd much rather be in the lab than off speaking to people at a conference. That may change, of course," he rushed to add, eager not to besmirch her apparent lifestyle. "No one can predict the future. Well. It's possible someone can..."

"Around here? I'm sure there are one or two precogs kicking around, we have people who can do just about everything else." She grinned, "It's one of the best things about living here, every corner you walk around has something new, although it's tough not to just start examining everyone all the powers here are so interesting." Sue's grin turned into a wry grin, "I might have done that one or two times already," she admitted. "I do kinda miss just sitting in a lab doing research, I don't get much time for just science for science's sake."

"That's a shame," Hank said, looking genuinely regretful at her plight. Then, "perhaps in the future I'll need a collaborator and then you'll have an excuse to make it back to the labs," he suggested shyly.

Sue grinned, "If you ever find you need someone help out in the lab let me know. I haven't done much biology since college but," she laughed happily, "I'm kinda hoping it's just like riding a bike....you know after you spend a week catching up on all those little things you forget."

"We'll make sure you have a good protective helmet and I'm sure you'll do fine." There was some movement from inside the mansion and Hank frowned, fishing his phone out of his (previously zipped) pocket to check the time. "Oh dear, it's later than I thought. I'm sorry to be rude but I really must go or I'll miss my bus into town and be late for class." He looked rather comically flustered by the idea - could he actually enjoy going to class?

"It's that late?" Sue gave Hank a worried look, "How time flies when you're having fun huh? If you want I can drop you off in the city? I'm gonna need to head off soon to get to work without being more than fashionably later anyway."

"Oh, that would be very helpful, thank you. I'll just run and change - and shower, of course," he added quickly. "And meet you in the garage?"

Sue plucked at her tanktop and nodded, "A shower sounds pretty perfect," she agreed, "20 minutes or so shouldn't make us too late right?"

"Um..." Another glance at his phone and then he was offering her a smile. "Twenty minutes is fine. I'll see you shortly."

"Sounds like a plan, I'll meet you round the front in 20 minutes then," the blonde informed Hank with a wave as she headed back towards the mansion with a wave.