xp_logs | Two logs: Haroun / Nathan, Moira/ Nathan, Monday afternoon

Nathan is making lunch for Moira where Haroun appears in the kitchen to find a bottle of water, and reveals to Nathan that he's recognized him as Cable. Amazingly, the conversation doesn't go downhill at that point. Instead, they talk about being idiots, stress relief, and have a mutual - but manly! - attack of the giggles.

Nathan studied the contents of the fridge intently. "Easy on the stomach," he muttered and then closed the fridge door, turning to the cupboards. Soup, maybe? Soup with a milk sort of base! he thought determinedly, starting to dig through the cupboards. Moira was going to eat a nice, healthy, full lunch, and he was going to sit there and watch her.

Haroun wandered into the kitchen, holding a half-eaten pita full of something-or-another in his hand. "Excuse me." he said in a cultured North African accent. "Can you step to one side? I'd like to get into the fridge for a bottle of water."

Nathan blinked, mentally smacking himself for not paying attention. For a telepath, he was having a whole lot of trouble with this 'not being snuck up on' thing. "Sorry," he said, shifting out of the way. "Mind's elsewhere," he explained, actually going over to stand in front of the cupboards.

"Not a problem. We're all a little on edge lately." he said cheerfully, taking another bite of his pita sandwich while he opened up the fridge. "You're Cable, right? Heard about you." he offered by way of conversation.

Nathan blinked again, looking sideways at him. "This must be my week for getting recognized," he muttered, raising an eyebrow at Haroun's total lack of an accusatory tone. Getting a tad defensive about our previous life, are we? Haroun merely pulled out his water and closed the fridge door, and Nathan shrugged. Ah, well. "Yes," he said. "And I probably don't want to ask you what you've heard."

"Mostly good things. I obviously don't know the whole story, but I believe you and the Pack pulled off a few jobs down Africa way a few years back? Petty would-be warlord shopping for chemical weapons? You got to him before I could - which is a good thing, as he had far more firepower than I was led to believe, and I don't think I would have survived the experience." he said with a grin.

"Ah, right," Nathan said after a moment, recalling that job - or series of jobs, rather. The problem had been a complex one. "We were in the pay of three separate national governments for that," he said wryly, pulling a can of cream of chicken soup out of the cupboard. "Amazing how complicated it all got as a result."

Haroun whistled between his teeth. "Sounds like it." he agreed. "But you did the right thing, I think."

Nathan nodded. "My conscience is fairly clear when I look back on that job," he said, a faint smile flickering across his face. "The bullet scars still ache on rainy days, though. Damn, that was a messy situation... we wound up being outnumbered about ten to one when we finally went in after him."

"I'm sure they do. The benefit to being half-artificial - as long as I can get the bad guys to shoot me in the legs, I don't get scars afterwords." he said with another smile. He extracted two bottles of water from the fridge, and then closed it. "Making lunch?"

Nathan nodded, going looking for the can opener. "I'm going to take Moira soup and watch her eat it," he said, totally serious.

"Sounds like fun." he said, uncapping one of his water bottles. "I've got a sandwich and a few bottles of water to keep what's left of my body and soul together for a little while longer."

"What have you been doing?" Nathan said, and then blinked at himself. "Sorry, that didn't come out right. What have you been up to, I mean to say."

"Prepping for the Arabic course, thinking about the Flight course, and managing to blab my big mouth to Cecelia and set myself on fire. It has been a very mixed week." he said with a tilt of his water bottle.

Nathan laughed suddenly. "Oh," he said wisely. "So you were the other idiot." He raised a defensive hand, before Haroun could respond. "Not even Scott's word, but the implication was pretty clear while he was dressing me down. Referred to there being two of us who didn't know when to keep our mouths shut."

"I would be the other idiot, yes." he said with a grin and a bite of his sandwich. Pausing to chew and swallow, he then continued. "As a punishment, I get to escort a pretty and smart girl through the basement and answer about a thousand questions. It is truly terrible to be me." he said with a laugh.

Nathan snorted. "I get to completely avoid the person I shouldn't have been talking to in the first place," he said. "Scott has some odd ideas about what constitutes a punishment, doesn't he?"

"He does, but I really can't complain. Although his punishment is personally bittersweet." he said somewhat cryptically. "I will just have to endure it."

Nathan raised an eyebrow, but didn't pursue it. "If you find yourself without something to occupy your time later, or hell, at any point," he said with a certain amount of diffidence, "I wouldn't mind a session in that very large and entertaining room in the basement. Paul and I spent an instructive evening there yesterday."

"I heard about that. Which one of you is going to clean the glitter?" he asked with a grin. "Or is Clarice going to go down there and die happy?"

Nathan laughed. "I went down and took care of it this morning," he said. "I would have saved some for her, but it was kind of sharp."

"I'm quite sure that you've just broken her little heart into a thousand unfeeling shards. We'll have to hear about it for weeks, you realize." Haroun said with a smile. "And then we'll be treated to ten-page badly-spelled posts about how tyrannical we all are and how much we're holding her down when all she wanted to do was to roll around naked in the pretty glitter and we'd all be so much _happier_ if we'd just roll around in it too..." he said, in a not-half-bad impression of Clarice's voice.

Nathan couldn't help a chuckle as he opened the can of soup. "She's a sweet kid," he defended her. "Tends towards the histrionics, but she's very young."

"She'll outgrow it." he agreed. "Or we'll smother her in her sleep. One of the two." he said cheerfully.

"No smothering," Nathan said mock-severely, waving the can-opener at Haroun. "We're infinitely patient, remember. Part of the job description." It was very, very hard not to laugh at himself. "Of course, there's the non-contractual backsliding..." He lost the battle and bent over the can of soup, snickering helplessly.

"Oh, of course! All-wise, all-knowing, and infinitely patient." agreed Haroun with a snicker. "Can't forget that!"

"Laughing with them, not at them..." Dumping the soup into a microwaveable container, Nathan shook his head, still laughing. "Not dumping them in the lake - I did that, you know. And as much trouble as it caused, I still remember the splash very fondly."

"When I get frustrated at the world, I usually have Sam plow furrows with his head. It builds character, and it always makes me feel better." he laughed. "I don't know what I'm going to do once Guthrie learns how to make sharp turns."

"Broaden your horizons?" Nathan suggested. "Lots of ways to kill frustration around here." He grinned cheerfully. "I go out to the quarry and blow up rocks, sometimes."

"And that works well for you active-power types. I'm a flyer. Not too much I can do there, other than risk my own neck to see how high I can fly before I pass out, or how close I can cut my turns without turning into a grease spot on the grass." he said with a shrug.

"Lack of imagination," Nathan said mock-severely, programming the microwave. "Does it have to be all about the powers, Haroun? I don't know if you do much hand-to-hand, but I'm always up for that... well, once the damned broken wrist heals."

"I'm certainly not the combat junkie that some people are, but a little hand-to-hand just might be what the doctor called for." he said musingly. Polishing off his sandwich, he stopped to chew and swallow before continuing. "Physical sport lost most of its appeal when I lost my legs."

"Understandable," Nathan said, and then grinned. "And hell, there's always the non-physical ways of killing frustration. Sounds silly, maybe, but there are some very entertaining X-Box games hanging around the house."

Haroun grinned. "There is that. I always wanted one of those..." he mused. "I understand the Mansion champion is a seven-year-old boy, or thereabouts?"

"Miles," Nathan said, a bit wistfully. "One of the missing."

"When they all return I will have to sit at the feet of the master and learn." he said with a grin. "Something to look forward to."

Nathan nodded. "Sounds like a plan," he said, glancing at the soup, which was beginning to bubble inside its container. He reached out and stopped the microwave. "Don't want to boil it," he explained, taking it out and reached out telekinetically to pull two bowls out of the dishwasher full of clean dishes.

"I'm surprised she lets you do it the old-fashioned way." he said, gesturing towards the soup bowl with his water bottle. "You could just heat it with your mind..."

"Apparently she has a fairly strenuous training exercise planned for this afternoon," Nathan said with a grin. "I'm supposed to be taking it easy until then."

"Is _that_ what you're calling it these days? A training exercise? Well then, be sure to drink a lot of fluids and get your rest beforehand. You wouldn't want to disappoint, after all." he said with a laugh and a hearty thwack to Nathan's back with his free hand.

Later, Nathan and Moira go outside to try a new training exercise. Nathan has an odd sort of breakthrough, but manages to give himself a rather serious headache in the process.

Moira perched on a low sitting branch of one of the trees close to the mansion. The amosphere inside the mansion was still rather insane, so she had dragged him outside for their latest training exercise. It was better to do something proactive and get your mind off of something than to just sit and wait, was her believe. "Ye think I'm nuts, dinnae ye?" she asked, swinging her legs. Nathan was staring at her like she had grown a third arm. "Ye 'eard me--doesnae 'urt ta try, does it?"

"Manipulating light?" Nathan asked uncertainly. "But... there's nothing to hold onto... is there?" This was where the gaps in his scientific knowledge really came back to bite him. "I wouldn't even know how to start."

"Think small, Nathan," she told him. "Ye may be able ta pick out an' manipulate individual particles o' light." She shrugged and shifted slightly. "It may nay work but who's ta say it willnae unless ye try?"

"You want me to catch photons," Nathan said, blinking as more of her thoughts came across the link. "Moira, I don't do well with energy, you know that... and that's energy I can see."

"Ye cannae exactly see th' virus now can ye?" Moira retorted, raising an eyebrow at him. "I'm nay sayin' this'll work, love, I'm jus' sayin' try."

"I could..." He stopped, trying to think. "Heat up the air, maybe? But that..." No, that wouldn't work. He grimaced, rubbing at the back of his neck. "Moira, that's like working on the atomic level."

"Wha's wron'?" Moira asked, watching him closely.

"It's... it's too far down," he said, unable to keep the anxiety out of his voice.

"Wha' do ye mean, 'tis ta far down?"

"It's too far down," he said, almost wildly. "I'm not... I can't reach down that far. I might not be able to stop..."

Ah. Jumping down, Moira landed lightly on her feet and made her way to where he stood. "Look at me," she ordered, gently, and wrapped an arm around his waist. "I wouldnae push ye this 'ard if'n I dinnae think ye could do it or if'n ye wouldnae be able ta control it. Ye know this."

He looked down at her, trying to muster a smile. "I suppose something like this has to be involved in what the Askani do, to manifest," he said, telling himself to calm down. Panic was all well and good, but he didn't actually understand where the fear was coming from here. "I've got to be doing something like this already..."

Nodding, she smiled back up at him, reaching out mentally to caress the link. Comforting thoughts spilled towards him and she could feel him starting to relax a little bit. "Aye, tha's why I thought o' this exercise. I'm nay sure if 'tis th' exact thin', but 'tis pretty damned close."

Nathan nodded a bit jerkily. "I think I'll sit down to try this," he said, detaching Moira gently. "Just in case." Not that he had any idea how to start, but hell, when had that ever stopped him before?

"All right." She waited until he was seated, taking time to stroke his hair, before wandering back to the tree. It was obvious he wanted her out of the way, so she would oblige him. "Take yer time."

Nathan waited until she was well-clear, and then turned her attention to the lawn in front of him. He really didn't know where to start, he thought with a grimace, and closed his eyes. Instinct, maybe? Like he'd said, he had to know how to do this on some level. Visualize it... He thought of Moira, standing there in front of him, arms folded across her chest. Visualize it, shape the light to match...

She watched him carefully as he got that familiar look of concentration. A part of her reminded herself how adorable that was but she ignored it. "Jus' remember everythin' we've gone over," Moira murmured, leaning against the tree. "Relax."

Nathan opened his eyes again, and looked at the light. There was substance there, he told himself. Just a different sort than what he was used to manipulating. He tried to force his awareness downwards, shivering a little as the air, to his eyes, took on a shimmering golden glow. His mind playing tricks, he knew; not actually light. Farther down, he thought, reaching out with his telekinesis, creating a field around him. Even farther...

Pain exploded behind his eyes and next thing he knew, he was flat on his back in the grass.

"Nathan!" There had been something flickering around him, all right, but Moira didn't pay that any attention as she found herself kneeling next to him. "Nathan, tell me yer okay," she muttered, effortlessly scooping his head onto her legs as she checked for signs of injury.

"Oww," he said weakly, squeezing his eyes shut. He wasn't sure what the hell he'd seen in that last moment, but it had been weird, and it had hurt. "Ohhh... that didn't go so well..."

"Damn it." Reaching over, she wiped off some of the blood leaking out of his nose. A surge of guilt hit her but she pushed it back. "'old still, need ta check yer eyes..." Gently, she pried open an eye, ignorning his whimpered protest. Nodding, she let him shut it again. "Everythin' okay there."

"Little too far down, I think," Nathan muttered. But it didn't make any sense. If he'd been doing something like this for months, with the Askani... He forced his eyes back open, wincing at how much the light hurt...

And sat up like a shot, ignoring the fiery pain in his head as he looked around wildly. "What the HELL?" he said hoarsely, his voice wild. There were colors below the surface of everything. Everything was glowing, shimmering... "Moira, what's going on?"

Startled, Moira stared at him. "Wha' is it?" she asked, frowning. He was staring at their surroundings, looked stunned and not a little afraid, but she couldn't see anything. The link throbbed softly in her mind and she reached for it, pushing a little when he didn't protest. "Wha' are ye--oh..." She froze, the link sending back images of dancing lights and colors swirling around everything. Not through her eyes but through his.

"What is it?" Nathan asked, one hand to his temple and blinking rapidly. "What... it feels strange..." Like his 'sonar' effect, but not, and there was so much there...

"I think ye did it...maybe..." Actually, she wasn't entirely sure what she was seeing. Could he possibly be seeing the electromagnetic spectrum somehow? "Concentrate, Nathan, ye would know more than I..."

Nathan tried to shake his head and then whimpered at how much the motion hurt. "It's like something snapped," he said, still sounding a bit hysterical despite his best efforts to calm down. "I kept trying to visualize the energy..."

"An' ye are, I think. Ye jus' need ta relax an' stop now." Moira tried to stop seeing the images through the link but it was hard, too much spill over from the tangled thoughts from Nathan. Edging forward, she leaned against his back. "Everythin's all right," she murmured. "Dinnae panic, jus' relax..."

Don't panic. Relax. And definitely do not reach out. No manipulating things you didn't understand, Nathan told himself a bit frantically, and tried closing his eyes again. "Oh, fuck, my head's killing me," he muttered weakly, grimacing as he felt more blood trickling from his nose. He opened his eyes again and nearly moaned. "Still there..."

"Try again," she whispered, wincing as the spill over intensified just a little bit. Reaching around, Moira put her hand over Nathan's lightly. "Yer okay."

Upwards, Nathan thought, closing his eyes again for a moment before he opened them once more. Move back up, just like he'd moved down. Like his mind was an elevator, moving back up to where what he saw made sense. The dancing colors started to fade, so very slowly, replaced by the familiar golden shimmer, and then.... "There," he said, and blinked as the pain in his head started to dwindle to a dull roar. The nosebleed had stopped, too, he realized.

The feeling of overwhelming tension that had gripped the link was gone and Moira sank her head onto his shoulder. "Told ye," she muttered into his shirt, tightening her hand around his. "Ye okay?"

He took a deep, shaky breath. "Head's still hurting. Not as bad, though." His hand shook as he squeezed hers. "That was... odd."