xp_logs | Scott and Shinobi, Tuesday night

x-cyclops.livejournal.com posting in

Down in the War Room, with the fun audiovisual equipment, Scott explains to Shinobi that one of the reasons Sarah's rescue went south was that the team was under the impression they already had an X-Man on scene. He goes on to explain that said X-Man is going to have to work very hard to earn his spot back. Shinobi is receptive to the idea, even when it turns out to mean getting up very early in the morning.

Follows this e-mail.

Scott scanned quickly through the highlights of the tunnel footage, jaw set, making sure the particulars of the incident were fresh in his mind. He wasn't entirely sure how Shinobi would react to what he had to say--but then, that was the whole point; if he reacted like an X-Man, he could start earning his second chance, and if not, well . . . they'd lost better.

At a knock on the door, he put the display on standby and hit the lock; the door hissed open, and he met Shinobi's gaze eye-to-inscrutable-sunglasses.

"Take a seat."

It was promising, perhaps, that Shinobi seemed to be carrying himself with an appropriate degree of seriousness, with his posture straight and shoulders back. He met Scott's gaze when the door opened, though he had to guess at where the older man's eyes were behind the glasses, and offered a polite "Thank you," before obediently stepping inside to locate himself a seat.

Scott waited until Shinobi had settled himself, then leaned forward slightly. "Did it occur to you that the reason we didn't pull Sarah back here before the situation escalated beyond reasonable salvage is that we thought we had an X-Man on scene to monitor her?"

"It hadn't," Shinobi replied honestly, with a slight shake of his head. "To be perfectly honest, very little occured to me the entire time, which.. well, is a problem I want to rectify."

Scott nodded. "That would have been my next question." He touched a few of the display controls with one hand, cueing up the footage but not starting it just yet. "The X-Men have a very simple mission statement. We face danger so that others don't have to. To do that effectively, to put our lives on the line, we have to trust each other. Implicitly. We have to depend on one another, without reservation. You failed to trust us to back you up. We trusted you when we shouldn't have. And three people are dead."

Scott tapped more controls, panning through a series of still shots: a man, face-down, with a knife through his throat; another man, torso pincushioned, lying in an ankle-deep puddle of blood next to a mutilated woman. "Sarah ran, blindly and alone, into the teeth of a mutant covert-ops unit and, except for a stroke of sheer evolutionary luck, she would be dead right now." A buckled crater in the concrete floor, centered on Sarah's broken form. "And we walked into the leftovers." Video this time, a short clip: Alison's laser blast sucked in by a man of glass, then returned to sender, burning a hole cleanly through her leg.

"And all this because you didn't trust us, and we couldn't trust you." Scott killed the display and sat back, arms folded.

"Four people were dead," Shinobi corrected, but it was quiet enough that it could have easily gone unheard. Beyond that comment, however, he simply offered an inclination of his head, to show his agreement with Scott's words.

With the video, though, there was little to do besides watch - and watch Shinobi does, leaning forward slightly to attentively study the display as he listened to Scott speak, a loosely-fisted hand coming to rest against his mouth for the duration. The shots - and provided video - do seem to make him feel a bit green around the gills, either due to the rather graphic imagery, the visual confirmation of what he'd been told occured, or a combination of both.

Silent for a long moment after the display winked away, Shinobi let himself lean back in his seat again, his posture not quite as perfect as it had been when he arrived. Trying, but it was difficult. "I'm not entirely sure what I can say," he said slowly, brow slightly furrowed. After another moment's consideration, he decided the honest truth would be the best approach: "I need help."

"That's not up for debate," Scott replied coolly, "although you're right, you do. What we're here to determine is whether or not you get a second chance to earn our trust."

Shinobi nodded slightly, eyes drifting back towards the blank display before returning to Scott's face. "I'm glad it's not up for debate. As to the second.. I would like the chance, though I'll need to be in a position to trust myself again, as well, and I don't think I can get there alone."

Scott nodded. "You'll have to work things out with the team members as individuals on your own. As for the team itself . . . that depends on your ability to convince me that you're willing to work for it, and learn what it really means to put on that uniform. I won't be easily convinced, but you'll have your chance." He paused. "Your last chance. Screw this one up and you're done."

Shinobi nodded, with a brief smile of approval. "That sounds more than fair to me. Do you already have something in mind, or can I make a.. well, not really a suggestion, so much as a request?"

"For starters--we didn't have time to train you very thoroughly before your first mission, so I'll be rectifying that. Starting tomorrow morning. Warmup run is at five AM starting from the front steps. And from now on, if you have a problem with the way the staff handles things, you come to me or the Professor first, before jumping to your own conclusions." Scott's eyebrows went up behind his shades. "But what were you thinking?"

Five AM.. that would take a bit of tweaking to the old sleeping schedule before it became habit, but it shouldn't be *too* bad. "Well, in addition to that," Shinobi began, lifting one hand to rake his fingers back through his hair in an unconscious show of nerves, "If.. I've spoken to Nate a lot, about where my head was, and what I think I need to train myself out of the habit of winding up with tunnel vision like this again. If you, or perhaps Ororo or someone, would be willing to.. more or less keep me on a short leash, kick me in the ass if you catch me slipping up..? I'm already trying to arrange regular talks with Doctor Samson and the Professor, if there's time enough, but I want to be as thorough as I can."

Scott allowed himself a little smile. "That was on the menu either way. It helps that you asked for it, though."

"Thank you," Shinobi nodded, with a relieved smile of his own.

Scott nodded. "I think we're done for now. Wear something comfortable that doesn't restrict your range of motion tomorrow--the run's just to start us off. And I'll leave a pot of coffee in the kitchen if you need it; we'll be talking about responsibility as we go, and you'll want to be able to concentrate."

"Coffee will definitely be in order," Shinobi agreed, filing away a few mental notes. "I'll drag myself out of bed early enough to jump through the shower first. Hopefully, that'll get me awake enough for coherent thought."

"Whatever it takes to get you outside on time." Scott nodded again, judiciously. "This is a good start, Shinobi. That's all it is, for now, but it counts for a lot."

Shinobi allowed himself a grin, inclining his head. "Thank you. Now we just need to make sure I don't stall out again."