xp_logs | Haroun and Nathan, Monday morning

Nathan goes for a wander, venturing outside. Haroun is meditating. The two of them have a little chat about stress relief, flying, and Go.

Moira was asleep again. A very good thing, he wasn't complaining about that at all, but it left him feeling restless and vaguely claustrophobic again. So he'd slipped out of the suite and headed outside, managing not to run into anyone on the way. Also probably a good thing.

It was... a very nice day, Nathan thought, blinking a little as his eyes protested the light. Clear blue skies, not overly warm. He'd been cooped up inside for too long.

Haroun was just finishing up his prayers in the bright sunshine when Nathan walked outside. Instead of rising to greet the older man, or even acknowledging his existance, Haroun turned his face to the sun, eyes closed, and meditated. His body-language screamed of large amounts of built-up tension, judging by the cords of tense muscles and whatnot rippling across his back.

Nathan stopped dead, seeing Haroun. Not a man in a happy mood, he realized. He swallowed, briefly frozen, not sure whether to turn and walk away or at least make a token effort to say hello. Not sure he could handle a conversation that was at all emotionally charged. Not sure at all.

Haroun opened his eyes, and smiled at Nathan. "Good to see you up and around." he said neutrally, trying not to set the man off. "Snuck out behind Moira's back, did you?"

The smile was... somewhat reassuring. "She was sleeping," Nathan muttered, still staying where he was. "Get the sense that she didn't get much while I was... away."

Haroun nodded. "I don't think she did." he admitted. "Understandable, given the circumstances." His right hand clenched into a fist, and Haroun glanced at it before it relaxed into an open palm again. "Xavier give you the mental all-clear?" he asked.

"In a sense," Nathan said, staring at Haroun's hand. "Conditioning's gone entirely. He's got me..." He trailed off, not sure how to explain it. "I fall asleep a lot," he finally said, vaguely.

"That must be terrifying.' Haroun said blandly. "Losing the ways and means of coping. I empathize, more than you know." he said, still kneeling on the warm grass.

Nathan came a little closer and sank down on the grass himself, not entirely sure what he was doing. "I didn't get the chance to thank you yet," he finally said. "For getting her out of there."

Haroun waved that off. "No thanks are needed, although I appreciate the spirit in which they were given." He closed his eyes again, and focused on just breathing. "It has been a stressful week or so." he said quietly.

"No disagreements here," Nathan said slowly. Wondering if he should be leaving the other man to his meditation. "I think," he went on after a long pause, "it knows when people need time to get used to this place. Or get used to it again. So it doesn't give them any."

Haroun snorted derisively, and then tried to very delibrately calm his breathing. "Or it is not so much the place as the events surrounding it that conspire against us." he said. "Or the people. It has been warm out of late." he said somewhat cryptically.

Nathan blinked. "Warm," he said a bit blankly, then tried to focus on Haroun. "You're very odd," he said, and then stopped. "That... didn't come out right," he muttered a bit sheepishly, waving a hand. "Your mind. Is odd. Not trying to scan, but my shields are... not really right."

Haroun grinned at Nathan. "I am not surprised. I have unnatural devices interacting with my nervous system, and I know that it changes how my mind scans. And ... " he started to say, and then fell silent for a moment. "And I am not coping well with some of the most recent events." he admitted.

Nathan's eyes dropped to the grass, and he rubbed at one bandaged wrist, his mind drifting a little. "Too much all at once?" he asked finally, pulling himself back part of the way.

"No." Haroun said. "No outlets."

"Weren't we... talking about this? Outlets, I mean..." Nathan frowned fifully, trying to recall all the details of that conversation in the kitchen. "Hard to remember some of the stuff that happened just before... the warehouse. Sorry..."

Haroun shook his head. "Don't strain your brain, Nathan. It's been strained enough of late, and if you relapse your lady doctor will have the rest of my organics out with a blunt spoon." he laughed. "And I come out here, to sit and think and meditate as a way of getting some of the stresses out. Side-effect of being a cyborg - some modes of expression are closed to me."

"Should I leave you to it?" Nathan asked, frowning again. "Didn't mean to interrupt..." He started to rise again as he spoke, but sat down rather hard on the grass as his balance deserted him.

"No, that's all right." Haroun said. "Conversation occasionally works just as well. And I don't happen to find you attractive at all, so that helps." he said unself-consciously.

Still definitely having trouble following. "That's... good, I guess." Nathan rubbed at his eyes and then studied Haroun with as much concentration as he could muster. There was something about that comment... "There have to be outlets," he said finally, really not sure at all what he was saying. He was sensing something in that strangely disciplined mind, but he couldn't make sense of it. "Not the ones you... want, maybe. But alternatives?"

"There are always alternatives." he agreed. "Not as quick, not as effective, but they do exist. I use them extensively." he added, then opened his eyes.

This was one of those conversations like icebergs, Nathan thought. Ninety percent of it beneath the surface. "Flying?" he ventured, a bit tentatively.

"Done a good bit of that." he responded. "Helped a little bit. Not enough."

"I break rocks," Nathan said after a moment. "Or I did." He gestured vaguely in the direction of the quarry. "Break them and put them back together... like puzzles." He stopped, looking at Haroun again. "Maybe you need something... like that. High concentration."

"I read the Qu'ran and I work out, mostly. I hadn't considered puzzles - do you find that they help give you an outlet for emotions and stress?" Haroun asked. He also screamed at people, but he'd been trying to not do that since he'd arrived.

"Depends on how complex they are," Nathan said, thinking about reassembling shattered rock fragments, about taking his coins apart on the molecular level and then putting them back together. "But yeah... they do. Something more complicated, maybe. One of those three-dimensional ones that plays tricks on your eyes..."

"Tempting. Or one of those ships-in-a-bottle things. Take a steady hand and a lot of patience." Haroun mused. "I'll pick one up next time I head back into town."

"Go," Nathan volunteered. Haroun blinked at him. "Whoops," Nathan said a bit sheepishly. "Didn't come out right, again... I mean the game Go."

Haroun smiled. "I play chess, but I've never managed to get around to learning how to play Go. Do you play?"

Nathan nodded. "For years," he said. "Strategy games were... smiled on. They thought it was good for us." He frowned, shaking his head a little.

Haroun hrmmed. "Do you still play? Do you even _like_ to play, seeing as how it's a reminder of the very unpleasant time you had as their operative?" he asked carefully.

Nathan thought about playing with Terence, Hope, other members of his team. "It wasn't... always unpleasant. There were moments. Back with my team..." He smiled a bit faintly. "We used to play it at nights sometimes, when we weren't in the field."

Haroun nodded. "So - up for teaching a beginner how to play?" he asked with a grin. "I should warn you - I'm a bit competitive."

Nathan nodded, finding it a bit easier to smile this time. "Sure. And I think I can probably cope..." He paused, looking thoughtful. "Wonder if there's a Go board in the house."

"They have everything _else_, I'm fairly sure that we could find a Go board there somewhere." he said, noting that the prospect had done much to lower his stress and tension levels. "Do you want to play?"

Nathan was finding he rather liked the idea, too. Go was complex, yet simple in the ways that mattered. Nothing about it would trigger Charles' little posthypnotic suggestion. "So long as you're willing to bear with me," he said finally. "Bit slow on the uptake this week."

"Maybe that means I'll actually beat you." he grinned openly. "Do a little victory dance."

Nathan caught himself smiling back, more naturally this time. "Just keep thinking that," he actually managed to joke. "Enjoy yourself right up until the inevitable crushing defeat."

"Oh, I don't think so. We'll find out if that telekinesis of yours is up to snuff when I drop your ass from a mile up." he said tauntingly.

Nathan raised an eyebrow. "I," he said with great dignity, "have done HALO jumps, Haroun. Without a parachute."

Haroun managed to stop himself from grinding his teeth. "Isn't that special?" he grimaced.

"Didn't like doing that, though," Nathan said, frowning at the memory. "So much momentum. Was hardly in the shape for the mission when I touched down..."

"Gravity is a cruel mistress." he grinned, enjoying that mental vision far more than he should have. "I will occasionally do unpowered dives from high places, just for the excitement of it."

"I don't really fly," Nathan said, after a moment. "Can look like I'm flying, when I use my telekinesis that way... but it's more like swimming."

Haroun quirked both his eyebrows. "Swimming?" he asked, fishing for more details.

Nathan tried to think of a way to describe it. "Have to be... buoyant. Against the air molecules. There's a sense of pressure, like the air's pushing at you and you have to push back..."

"Interesting." Haroun said. "My own mutation is purely Newtonian - push hard this way, fly that way."

"Does it feel... right?" Nathan asked curiously. "With telekinesis... there's a sense that you're warping the world around you. Flying's a... strain."

Haroun paused to think about it. "My mutation never feels right, but mine's maladaptive." he said quietly. "But flying in and of itself is a joy."

"Maladaptive," Nathan said, his mind drifting again. "Charles called my precognition that, too... but there was some good in it, in the end."

"I can use it, I just have no protection against it." he said, feeling the anger stir within him again. Sighing, he closed his eyes and tried to fight the feelings back. "If I push it too hard, I catch fire."

Bad topic, Nathan told himself. He wasn't muzzy-headed enough to miss that. "Ah," he said quietly, letting the silence fall again for a moment. "Go," he finally said, thoughtfully. "We were going to play Go, weren't we?"

"We should." Haroun said, still with his eyes closed. "Grab some drinks, go somewhere where we can be loud, and play Go."

Nathan got up, a little more successfully this time. "Sounds like a plan," he said, managing a slightly wobbly smile. "Have to see how rusty I am..."

Haroun opened his eyes and effortlessly stood up. "And how badly you can lose."