Nathan and Alison, Friday morning

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After a particularly difficult session in the Danger Room, Alison debriefs Nathan, who is substantially aggravated with himself, the scenario, her, and the world in general this morning. He may not quite realize how much the irritation is clouding his thinking. Set before this log.


It was not appropriate to strangle people, Nathan told himself, flopping down into his chair and trying not to glare too sullenly at the serene-faced and completely unrepentant-looking blonde who lowered herself more gracefully into the one opposite his. Especially people you liked. Even if they did run ridiculous Danger Room scenarios that left you with bruised pride and bruised... other parts.

This had been one of the exercises which involved Alison standing in the control booth and watching, without saying a word. There had been a fair number of those, actually, though there had been a few with Alison running the exercise herself, as well as others with Scott or Ororo supervising. But today's session she'd kept for herself - there were a few key exercises like that, which she'd laid claim to, in terms of supervising and debriefing afterwards.

"So," she said calmly, not smiling exactly but feeling oddly confident about all of this. "Mission debrief and analysis."

You woke up and decided it was 'Let's torment Nathan' day? Nathan thought, very careful not to project that. He had somewhat less luck not grinding his teeth. "I didn't compensate well for the sudden shift in the environment." Some of the modular components of the Danger Room had started moving unexpectedly, midway through the scenario, and his depth perception was just iffy enough still that it had thrown him. Not that he was going to admit that, though.

Unruffled by the faint grinding sound, Alison leaned back just a bit in her seat and nodded - not confirmation of his statement, but rather simply acknowledgement that he'd said something, at least. "Is that the only thing you would say stands out from this particular exercise?" That was the way they worked through them, afterwards. The 'new' things, then what seemed to be a pattern, and then the details and nitty gritty.

"Well, that and the fact that you put me into what amounted to a shooting gallery." Energy-based weapons, too, rather than projectiles. "I noticed the erratic patterns of fire." Patterns was the wrong word entirely, really. "I did take a number of hits," he admitted grudgingly, rubbing at his sore shoulder. Shielding against energy was more difficult, and he hadn't been able to shift his shields around as rapidly as he could have. He hadn't backed off, though.

It was, as Alison had known it would be, an interesting challenge to come up with things that would keep Nathan busy enough to then blindside him with something else, all the while remaining in the realm of the mundane. Which was one of the angles she'd kept to steadily, so far - everything she had 'thrown' at him had been purely based on available technologies and within the human range of things. "Mmm." He'd be filling a report later of course, something she'd drawn up specifically for him, with a few additions and suggestions from Scott and Storm - but the debrief wasn't about that, exactly.

Still grumpy, still set on never backing off. She didn't think or linger on that though, merely nodding and going on with the usual conversation. "In your estimate, when did the mission become irrevocable in its ultimate end?"
"As soon as I lost my balance," he admitted grudgingly. Very, very grudgingly. "There wasn't much of a pattern of fire, like I said, but I was starting to detect it. When I stumbled, I lost it. And then the floor started moving." He really needed to stop grumbling, he told himself. Just because he didn't like debriefing situations didn't mean he needed to take it out on Alison. Her criticism wasn't going to come complete with penal measures for his mistakes, after all.

It was easier to get the written reports from him than it was to get the verbal ones, still. Alison, however, found digging for the details something of a challenge. Saying it was a 'fun' challenge would have been mean, but possibly accurate. Staying implacably calm tended to erode whatever temper he was displaying with admirable results too, as she'd suspected it would. "Were there any moments at that point where the mission could have been saved?"

Nathan grimaced and tried to think. "If I'd caught myself before I fell. Or been concentrating harder. I got cocky, I suppose, thinking I'd sorted the pattern out..." Yeah. That was the likely culprit. Cockiness.

Oooh yes. The written report would get very interesting indeed. Probably similar in veins to the others, even if the exercise itself had changed. That had been a trend which held quite true, so far. "Patterns." Well, this was what this was all about. "Tell me more about the patterns."

"Random doesn't mean patternless," Nathan said restlessly. "At least not at all levels. On the normal perceptual level, maybe, but I was watching the lines of force and paying attention to the intervals. If I'd had a minute longer, I'd have had it."

Oh, there were patterns all right. This was what this was all about. Alison nodded serenely, careful to look down at her notes about the exercise and not worry over much else. "So, I'm taking it that you'd like to take a stab at the next exercise, day after tomorrow, then?" Ororo would be supervising that one, from the schedule note. But Alison would still be popping in to have a peek at the session, most likely.

"I'm not sure." It was an attempt at a joke, but it came out sounding more aggravated than anything else, and Nathan bit his lip, only further irritated by that. "I'm a little lost as to the purpose of these last couple of scenarios," he said, managing 'brusque'. Brusque was all right. Peevish was not. "I'm trying to come up with real-world representations in my head and falling a little short."

"We can never plan for all the eventualities." Oh, he was going to pick up the table and whap her upside the head with it. Or agree entirely, one or the other. "If I put you through patterns that could be found in the real world, for this specific exercise, then there'd be a familiarity there for you. Defeats the purpose." It was also a way to keep him from associating the exercise to something he already knew and so not see what was being presented to him, but that was another story entirely.

Nathan frowned. It struck him that he could just flat-out ask her what the purpose was, but... no, he'd undergone sufficient aggravation for the day. If these were hoops of some sort he had to jump through in order to get on active status, so be it. Full speed ahead and damn the torpedoes. "All right then," he said. "I'll draw up the written report and show up for the next exercise. Who'll be running that one?" He gave her a thin smile. "Or is that a secret?"

"Ororo." She'd bet, from the start, on him not asking - and he hadn't again, this time, was in fact stubbornly going through all the exercises, refusing to ask why. "I look forward to reading the report." She was scheduled to run the same exercise herself the next day, in fact - she wouldn't be reading his report until she'd done the run through herself.

"I'll try and be at least moderately entertaining. Throw in a knock-knock joke or two." He winced as he shifted in the area, stiff muscles and bruises protesting loudly. He was liable to be black and blue in some very interesting places. Getting too old for this, Dayspring... The thought just made him more aggravated, though, and he looked down at the table, instead of glowering at Alison. "Anything else?"

He was glowering at the table and Alison wasn't amused, not one bit. That would be later when he was gone, probably when she was on the beach in Mexico where he would not pick up on it at all. And he was moving funny enough that sending him off for a low stretch and then the medlab was a good idea - and would give him someone to grump to more, no doubt. "All good. Your medical eval with Moira is in five minutes too, so we'd better wrap up. I'm not having you be late to see her because of me."

Nathan's eyes widened and a protest leapt to his lips instinctively, before he bit down on it, hard. "Fine," he gritted. "One more medical eval is not going to hurt me, I suppose. I suppose I did take a couple of fairly hard falls."

"Good." Her voice was mild, just as it had been during the entire debrief, and Alison closed the file in front of them calmly. "I'll see you at the gym Thursday morning, then?" They had a fitness training session scheduled together, though no sparring that time.

Nathan rose, giving her a brief, fulminating look. "Thursday morning," he muttered and then headed out, trying not to limp visibly.