xp_logs | Haroun and Nathan, Wednesday evening

They go for that beer at Harry's. Further apologies are made, jet repairs are discussed, racists are taught Important Lessons, and Nathan continues to demonstrate that he's thinking very hard about what it's going to take for him to be an X-Man.

This wasn't really serious drinking, as it would be when he and Pete got around to it as planned, so Nathan was sticking to beer. "I've forgotten how much I don't like American beer," he commented to Haroun thoughtfully. "I've been spoiled. Home base for the last seven years has been Berlin."

Haroun eyed his mug with skepticism. "Alcohol is forbidden to a servant of Allah. But I am a flawed half-servant, and I do this for the sake of friendship among men." He sipped his beer, and made a face. "But this crap is really foul."

"Foul, watery... eh. It's still alcoholic." Nathan grinned suddenly. "To be honest, the best beer I ever had was in Serbia. Little local brew in a village we were passing through. It was a revelation." He made a bit of a face. "The village wasn't there the next time we came through."

"That is unfortunate. I know that the struggle in Serbia is in part religious, and I dislike seeing brother killing brother." mourned Haroun, taking a deep drink of his beer. "So few good brewmeisters left in this world."

"Amen to that," Nathan said, taking another sip of his terrible beer. "Anyhow," he said, relaxing a little into the booth as he saw Haroun do the same. "I'm glad we're doing this. I feel moderately shitty about the way I was acting over the weekend."

"And I was too hard on you. It is forgiven." he said, making a small gesture of forgiveness with his free hand. "You feeling any better?" he asked curiously.

Nathan nodded. "Mostly because I haven't done anything to aggravate it today, I suspect. I'm supposed to be not using the TK at all until the weekend." He smiled crookedly. "Then I get to sit in medlab Saturday afternoon and get tests run to see if I can start levitating my coffee cup in the morning again."

"Don't push it too hard too fast. That way leads to nosebleeds and the seeking of a new brain." Haroun said with a grin and a drink of his beer. "We should be able to handle things without you until you're medically cleared to return to duty."

"I've overexerted myself before," Nathan said a bit ruefully, "but never like this. I usually bounce back in a day or two. It didn't dawn on me that my brain might not have been in such great shape to begin with, given that it got turned inside out and all already this month." He sipped his beer. "So what do you need me to do, precisely? When I am fit for it."

"Basically, I just need you to take the weight off the landing struts so we can replace them." he said after a moment's thought. "And then I'll need you to lift and hold the new starboard engine while Scott and I strip the old one out and wire the new one into place. Think you'll be up for that - it could be pretty rough."

"So you really do need me to lift the jet," Nathan murmured, his eyes widening a little as he looked down into his beer. "It's got to be easier than Friday," he said after a moment, thinking. "No nuclear shockwave to be fighting this time."

"Hey, if that's too much for you, we can get the support struts." Haroun said. "I don't want you to relapse on me."

"It should be all right." Nathan tilted his head, listening to the Askani whispering suggestions at him. "If I take my time, meditate beforehand, visualize properly..." He nodded, thinking about what he'd done on Friday. "That was part of the problem the last time. I didn't have the time to visualize. I just grabbed anything I could to keep us in the air."

"May want to work on that in the future. In our line of work, we don't always have the time to get set and visualize it through. Most of the time, it's instinct." he said, taking a drink of his beer. "Drink more, man! Do you want me to put a nipple on that thing for you?"

Nathan rolled his eyes at Haroun, then picked up his glass. "I don't have to visualize everything," he said wryly. "In fact, I get myself in trouble doing too much on instinct half the time. But the jet was big, even by my standards."

"It sounds to me that you stop to think at the wrong time, and that you do on instinct what needs to be thought through." Haroun mused. "Makes sense, given everything you've been through. It's going to take a _LOT_ of hard work to retrain your instincts. Because at your level of power, one slip can be deadly. As I'm sure you know."

"Glass foliage," Nathan muttered, then shook his head at Haroun. "Glass people. Yeah, I know. On both scores." He looked at Haroun thoughtfully. "Want to see something?"

"If this involves clothing being removed, the answer is a polite but firm no." Haroun said with a grin and a wink.

Nathan rolled his eyes again, more in amusement this time. "No, just brief mental contact. And before you ask, it's safe - my telepathy is perfectly okay for short-range stuff at this point."

Haroun looked skeptical, but nodded. "One sign of a nosebleed, and I am going to fly your ass back to the Mansion, and I don't care if you ignite." he warned.

Nathan's mouth twitched. "Fair enough," he said, reaching out and laying a hand on Haroun's wrist, briefly brushing against those oddly disciplined thoughts as he let his perception slide down a couple of levels. "This is what I've been seeing," he said as the room around them started to glow, everyone and everything taking on that interior sparkle of dancing energy. "More often, since Moira and I did that training exercise that went wrong back when the kids were in As--away. Multiple times a day since Friday. It's taking no effort at all right now."

"This is, to coin a phase, just plain creepy." he said, looking around at the other bar patrons. "Is this - seeing the E-M spectrum or something?"

"I showed it to Lorna. She thinks the E-M spectrum is underpinning it somehow, but she has no idea what the rest of it is." Experimentally, Nathan let his mind slide down a little further--sliding only, not pushing, and the colors changed, the soft glow turning into a hard glitter, as if every molecule of everything around them was wrapped in shimmering crystal. "Charles is fascinated."

"I can see why." Out of curiousity, he stared at his legs with wonder - then looked at his arm for a comparison. "Weeeeird. Hope it's useful to you." Haroun said with amazement.

Nathan took his hand away, then shook his head a little. The lights faded, and he smiled in satisfaction. "Not even a twinge," he said. "I guess because it's not really active, whatever it is."

"Don't push it." warned Haroun with the waggle of a finger and a grin. "And drink your beer. If I am going to sin, I don't want to be sinning alone."

Nathan picked up his beer obediently. "While we're on the subject of things that have been pushed, how's your back?"

"Sore as all hell." he admitted. "But I've been putting heat on it daily, and not doing dumb things like going out for a flight or walking around the Mansion." he said with a bitter grin. "Well, not doing dumb things _anymore_."

Nathan raised an eyebrow. "What, was I not the only person being an idiot, then?" he asked lightly.

"Not even close." Haroun admitted with a laugh. "I should take my own advice. But I did get a good bit of lesson plan done for the Arabic course - that can be adjusted depending on how many kids I get. This is going to be odd - I've never really taught in a classroom before."

"Neither had I, as of June, and look at me now. Four courses on my plate - although the Mandarin will be a reading course, at least." Nathan smiled abruptly, a smile of real happiness. "I love it. I didn't know whether I would."

"I'm glad you have something you love." he said with all seriousness. "I still need to find that something. The Jet might just be it, which is why when mercenaries take it upon themselves to use their overdeveloped brains to wrinkle it I get ... emotional." he said without a hint of irony or mocking.

Nathan took a sip of his beer to cover the flicker of irritation, not at Haroun's stated affection for the jet, but for something else entirely. Something which shouldn't have stung quite as much as it did. "No, I get it," he said a bit tightly. "You've put a lot of work into it already. I understand."

Haroun, being no fool, could tell he'd stepped into a minefield. "Look, I'm sorry, OK? Forget I mentioned it. You're happy teaching. This is a good thing."

Irritated at himself, now, Nathan shook his head. "It's not that," he said quietly. "Just... getting a little tired of being 'the mercenary'. Especially since I'm not, anymore." He smiled humorlessly. "Some of the kids tend to throw that at me, either aloud or silently, with a great deal of disgust."

"Yes, but I don't mean it with disgust. I was a terrorist, remember?" he said with amusement. "Mercenary is just a shorthand. I'll try to stop using it if it bothers you that much." he said around a mouthfull of beer.

"It's stupid," Nathan said a bit gloomily, turning his attention back to his own beer. "It's not as if I'm ashamed of what I was." Or was he? "There were limited options when I first left Mistra. I just..." He shrugged a little, gulping back more of his beer. "Never mind. Don't worry about it."

"This is Haroun, not worrying about it." he said with a sketchy salute and the remainder of his beer. "Could you do me a favor? I think that large guy over there has a problem with me. He's been staring at me for the past half-hour. Could you, I don't know, do a quick surface scan for me?"

Nathan let his eyes shift briefly to the admittedly rather large gentleman at the bar. Bigger than me, and there aren't many people who can say that... He reached out, brushing the man's thoughts lightly - and withdrew just as quickly, repressing a grimace.

"Racist asshole, yes," he confirmed for Haroun, his mouth twisting. "Now I feel like I need the inside of my head scrubbed."

"Sorry about that." Haroun said apologetically. "It still happens from time to time. If things get ugly, we'll need to take this outside. We like Harry's, and we'd like to come back someday."

"Pity I'm only a beta on that side of things," Nathan said. "I could convince him to pay attention to his beer and leave us alone."

"Don't sweat it. I'm gonna go take a little walk. Keep a light mindtouch on me - if I need you, I'll think for you, OK?" said Haroun as he stood up.

Nathan grimaced. "All right," he said dubiously, not liking the idea particularly as he reached out and 'tagged' Haroun's thoughts gently.

~I take a very special delight in tormenting racists. It is a failing of mine.~ he thought to Nathan as he walked through the crowd at Harry's towards the door. Sure enough, the gigantic overweight racist got up with a grin at his fellows-in-alcoholism and followed along.

Nathan shook his head, drinking his beer and watching through Haroun's eyes.

Haroun walked outside, heading straight for a dark and unattended section of the parking lot. The racist followed him, and in the altercation that followed, sore back or no, Haroun quite thoroughly trounced the racist drunk. Without using his powers. Feeling entirely too entertained for his own good, he walked back into Harry's and had a word with the bartender, who scowled and reached for the bar phone. ~Problem solved.~ he thought with a grin. ~And ow. I think I aggrivated my back.~

"Serves you right," Nathan said wryly as Haroun sat back down. His head was aching a little from the extended mental contact, but it had been surprisingly... enjoyable, really, to watch.

"Some people just need a good thumping from time to time. Adjusts their worldview." he said with a disturbing grin. "And I won't tell if you won't."

"My lips are sealed," Nathan said, waving at the bartender for another beer. "Given the number of barfights I've gotten into in my career, I'd be a hypocrite to tattle, anyway."

Haroun nodded, and waited for the serving girl to show up with the fresh beers. "Besides, he had it coming. All I did was knock him out. The police should handle things from there. I get the impression from Harry that the guy has been trouble before. Better us than one of the kids, or Cecelia, or something."

"Agreed," Nathan said as the bartender came with more beer. "Although you did hog all the fun."

"I'm selfish that way. Next racist is all yours, I promise." he said with a grin. Grabbing a beer, he threw back a fast swallow.

"You're too kind." Nathan said dryly. "Hey, would you be interested in training together when I'm back up to strength?"

"I thought you'd never ask." he said with a grin. "What did you have in mind?"

"I'm not really sure," Nathan said a bit hesitantly, sipping at his beer. "Most of the stuff I have been doing in the Danger Room since I got access... well, it's not the stuff I need to be working on, really. Paul and I have had a few good sessions, but..."

Haroun nodded. "Well, what do you think you need to be working on, first and foremost?"

Nathan thought about it. The conversation he'd had with Paul, the one with Moira... "I want to say control, but that's not quite it - although I could do to work on control as well, that goes without saying. How to make the right choices with the TK under stress, maybe? That's one big thing." Nathan shook his head a little. "I've got a lot of power to throw around, Haroun, even with the virus, but my judgement when it comes to how to use it is sadly lacking at times."

Haroun nodded. "All right. So is it just choice issues, or is there some trust issues in there as well? The Pack was a pretty tight team, from what I hear."

"It was--is, but..." Nathan couldn't help a frown. "It's hard to explain. I didn't have to... expose myself, with the Pack. Even if a job went bad, I could focus on keeping everyone else together."

"And that won't fly with the X-Men." Haroun said flatly. "It sounds to me like you not only need some power-discrimination training, but you have to learn to trust us. And we have to learn to trust you."

"Pretty much," Nathan said dryly. "And I don't think that's going to be fixed in the Danger Room."

Haroun grinned. "Unlikely. You're making a good start here, though. There are things we can do to grow that trust - Christ, I sound like a shrink now. Speaking of which - is your shrink cleared for X-Men business?"

Nathan nodded. "I asked him to have a word with Charles when he was here and they straightened that out. And since I'm meeting him here on a regular basis now, we don't have to worry about listening devices in his office." His mouth twisted a little, remembering.

Haroun nodded. "Probably a good idea. As far as the power goes - we can always play tag telekinetically. Maybe blindfold you, so you have to rely on your telekinesis. Or straight power contests - can you hold the black man down? - that sort of thing."

"Paul and I did tag once," Nathan said, then chuckled. "Well, it turned into pinball, actually. And I'd been doing quite a bit of work blindfolded. Moira and I came up with a telekinetic sonar-trick that's been working fairly well..."

Haroun nodded. "Maybe have someone throw in some mental static, force you to work through distraction? Since that seems to be your problem - judging appropriateness of response when faced with sudden multiple demands on your attention."

Nathan's hand went white-knuckled on the glass, but he forced himself to relax. "Probably a good idea," he said. "And that brings up something else I probably need to work on. Handling telepathic attacks."

Haroun hrmmed. "Can't help you there, I'm mindblind. But maybe Betsy or Charles can help you there. May be able to kill two birds with one stone - have to defend yourself telepathically while at the same time do something demanding and tricky with the telekinesis? Be a good test all around."

"I ought to just make a list," Nathan said, trying for a wry tone again. "Nice, long list..." Depressingly long, really, but he couldn't let that discourage him. Not if he wanted to get through it all.

"Better idea - make a list, and shop it around to the team. Put all our heads together to figure a way to help out - that is, if you trust us to." he said with a deceptively bland smile.

"Point taken. Damn, this is hard." Nathan took a sip of his beer. "Worth it, though. I think I've developed an honest-to-God idealistic streak in my old age."

"Nothing worth doing is easy." Haroun said with a grin, and then swallowed a good mouthfull of his beer. "Allah save us from idealists."

"Well, there's a depressing viewpoint," Nathan joked, then grew serious again. "So what would this do for you, Haroun? Us training together, I mean."

"For me? Gives me a chance to play with the big hitters." he smirked. "Seriously, though. It will help me to keep my own skills sharp - I'm not going to be pulling punches at you just because you're trying to figure out how not to turn me into glass. It's also in everyone's best interest to get you trained up as quickly as possible - there's a lot that needs doing out there, and we could really use you."

Something occurred to him, and Nathan snorted. "Lorna and I are going to be training together, by the way. I think that comment you made about her not being to help with the jet hit home."

Haroun hrmmed. "Wasn't trying to cut her down, but it's true as I understand things. Glad she's working on getting to the point where we can use her for things like this."

"I don't think she was stung so much as motivated," Nathan said. "We had a good discussion about it. I think part of her problem is that she really hasn't had the reason or opportunity to push herself - I asked her how many paperclips she could manipulate and it turns out she'd never thought to try more than about twelve at a time. Strength-wise..." Nathan paused thoughtfully. "She could probably lift more than me, you know. I have a cut-off point, because of the virus."

"Impressive. And given who _else_ we have floating around out there, we could really use somebody with her power." Haroun mused, then took another drink of his beer. "Raw power is part of things, but control's probably even more important. Doesn't take much telekinesis or magnetism to hold a carotid artery shut." he said quietly.

"I know it doesn't," Nathan said, just as quietly. "They didn't use me to do things like that very often, but there were times..." He paused, staring down bleakly into his beer. "Didn't have the temperament for it in the end. Always thought it was funny that they recognized that."

"And that's really not the kind of thing we stand for as X-Men." Haroun said with a relieved smile. "We save lives, we don't take them unless we have to."

"Trust me, I have no problem with the idea of not killing. I may not be much of a telepath, but I still sense death. It's worse when you cause it, too. The backlash." Nathan drained the rest of his beer. "You know, this stuff tastes better after you've had a couple."

Haroun smirked. "I'm cutting myself off after this one. I'm only half-organic, I don't have the bodymass to soak up alcohol. And I shouldn't be having it anyway. But yeah, we should be able to hamemr something out for training. I'm tempted to write up a list like that myself and post it, see if anyone has any thoughts. Better yet, we should talk to Scott or Charles, see if they want _everyone_ to do one."

"Probably not a bad idea," Nathan agreed, smiling crookedly. He eyed his empty glass for a moment, then shook his head. "Upon reflection, it doesn't really taste all that much better." He looked up at Haroun, still smiling. "You never got that Go rematch."

Haroun grinned. "I don't need to be a telepath to hear that thought. You're on. I'll even cede choice of color to you."