(OOC: To those who wonder, the Exiles meeting was held later than the GSF one and so their initial training takes place after Ororo’s team has already left)
Nothing was going as planned. Nothing at all. Almost frantically fiddling with her hair, the fiery mutant entered the Danger Room and even winced as the computer voice she had programmed herself greeted and informed her that it was attempting to identify her.
”Yeah, whatever,”
she mumbled trying to calm down. On her way there, the calm façade had eventually disappeared, letting her flame in anger (literally) for around two corners which had left a few students staring in shock, others in worry… and the rest shrugging because they had already seen more impressive things in their lifetimes. Then, however, when due to the lack of further provocation the rage faded, despair took its place.
How was she ever to make those people a working team? They had simply overestimated her, she couldn’t do it, she just couldn’t! Weakly, Aurora’s pride tried to calm her, tried to assure her everything would be all right since there had been nothing she had ever failed… but that wasn’t the truth, was it.
”I failed Aran…”
The whisper triggered memories she had thought to have put into the folder “gone and loved” instead of “depressing and still to be worked with”. In fact, she had spent enough time somehow getting over her friend’s sudden death as far as she could ever accomplish to but – as she realized trying hard not to allow herself to cry – that was just not enough to let her think of him already without feeling as if having killed him herself.
Yet the satisfaction of seeing her all down and howling she would never let them. With the utmost effort, Circe pulled her thoughts away from the past and focused on the present. A present that wasn’t much better. Well, it was in a way but still her powerlessness remained. What was there to do? A part of the ebony-haired team leader hoped, that none of them or too few to continue would follow her ultimatum. Maybe her “team” would just not show up – the easiest way out.
Finally, her dignity broke through to her again. It didn’t give her hope or any solutions but the will to not give up… a weak support.
So Jean had already added her to the team leader list officially. Well, that was to be expected of their headmistress who apparently never did anything wrong… who never failed. The perfect Phoenix, how much Aurora wished to be like her – if only in this short moment of her life when she felt lost, alone… and powerless.
Despite those thoughts, she held her head high while giving Cerebro instructions, limiting the access to herself so that none of the troublemakers would be able to mess with the rather easy scenario she had chosen for their initial training. The life guard she enabled, a setting that would prevent anything inside the room to become of actual danger to anyone. It wouldn’t have been the first time something went wrong during such a training.
When she was done, Garnet allowed her slender form to rest against the wall of the inner Danger Room, determined not to show the helplessness she was feeling.
And so, like one sentenced to death, she waited, the overly beautiful, strong and intelligent Aurora who was envied by so many… and yet wished - more than anything else - to be someone totally different. Anyone, anyone but herself.
TBC - Exiles only
"Will this chance be for good or bad? I do not know… so giving it a try and doing my best seems to be the only option I have"
ooc: And Matt, something that hasn't been mentioned much at all, Xavier has more then one Danger Room, at one point I know he definitely had Danger Rooms named Danger Room Alpha, and Beta.. or Delta.. *shifty look* So there's more then one! Which would make sense considering how many people would need to train there.
The group seemed to dwell back in the Exile room, Max being the only one who actually moved after Garnet right away, everyone else had their hesitations as far as Max noticed for one reason or another. But unlike them, Max had motivation, he would get more time with Garnet if he followed her.
Most of the walk was spent on the phone, something that was usual for Max, he was always talking or doing something, but if he was on his own it was a good chance you'd see him on the phone every time he walked without company. It hadn't been the start he had hoped for between getting to know Garnet and spending more time with her. But he'd deal with it, it didn't even occur to Max that he left Paige's book still in Gypsy's possession without making sure that the 'Mistress of Sin' did do as Garnet said and gave it back to the book worm. He hardly cared in truth, if she was going to be a snotty nosed little brat that wants everything her way, then Paige deserved all she got.
There was a twinge of annoyance for the fact that Garnet didn't wait up for him, he hadn't been to the Danger Room before and it wasn't exactly just around the corner from the Rec Room. He hadn't even been in the restricted areas before, he found the whole idea of the underground maze a little far fetched if it hadn't been for so many people talking about it. And he loved basketball so he'd seen the blackbird take off when the hanger bay doors opened. The doors where disguised as the basketball courts, it had shocked the hell out of Max, but it was cool to think he was going to see more of the place he's been spending so many years at now.
Usually if Max wasn't sure where a room he was supposed to be at was, he'd more often just skip the class instead of wondering around like an idiot. But he had more determination then usual and right now he wanted to try and get into Garnet's good graces. His dad was furious that Max let someone take his phone and what's more not only use it, but used it to call, give an order, and hang up on the older man who had been pestering his son.
By the time Max actually managed somehow to get down into the area of the underground base that the Danger Room was located in he was more then a little uncomfortable. Not only did he have to give his name and a handprint to the computer panel in the elevator, the halls looked metallic and like something out of a science fiction movie. There were things on display, being easily distracted Max had walked over to the walls to see what was behind the glass. Folded uniforms with names and most of them had a photo plus a small item of some kind, like one he was looking at had a necklace, with a photo of a young woman who had golden curls and a pretty smile. 'Kennedy Poltro', 2004-2021 was engraved under the name on a small gold coloured plaque, although it had become a tradition many years ago to honour the fallen by displaying their hard earned uniform and such here for people to come and remember, it wasn't the most comforting thing for Max.
The girl had been around his age and she was dead, he didn't know it was because she had a tumour that had taken her life, but even so some of these people, both young and old, had been killed out in fights. An uneasy feel settled over Max as he glanced down to the different halls, there was someone else downing down now, he could hear the elevator. Being unfamiliar with Cerebro, Max wasn't aware he could just ask for the computer to guide him, with red and green and blue colour coded lights running along the edges of the hallways, Cerebro can make a path - in the Danger Room's case it was with blue light - straight to the location he wanted to find.
Folding his arms, Max leaned against the wall and looked towards the elevator, hoping it was anyone BUT Paige, he would then be able to walk with them.. At least if they got lost he wouldn't feel as bad since he wasn't on his own.
Re: Justified Qualms (Exiles training)
It had been quite some time since the former mutant had made her way to the restricted area’s of the institute. She had no reason to come down this way with no mutant power. Though, Gypsy used to love just walking the corridors and paying her respects to those who had fallen in the line of battle. Only very few knew of these heroes who had lost their lives to make this world a better place and they never got the respect that they had deserved. It seemed that they had even lost the respect that Gypsy used to give them since she lost all motivation to make her way down here after her change.
It wasn't that the part demon did not care about the fallen heroes, it was just that she didn’t feel worthy to visit their shrines anymore. Gypsy might not care much about others, but these were so much more than everyone else who seemed to cross her path. They needed to be known, even if it was by a small handful of the world.
There were times that Gypsy felt like she would rather have died in battle than to go on living as someone who isn’t even demonic enough to be called a demon. Like just after she had left the recreation room for example;
Gypsy had returned to her room since she had the urge to read a decent book after reading parts of Paige’s boring book. Just after she entered her room she received one of the demonic flashbacks, a curse that Gypsy is yet to adapt to…
There were trees, lots of them probably enough to make up a forest. Actually it had to be one with all the woodland noises that could be heard. A young man came into view and he looked lost, yet there was still a sense of pride about him as he refused to admit to himself that he was lost. The pride was not to be broken otherwise he wouldn’t cope. He’d fall a victim of the dark forest. The feeling of pride that he let off was enough to make you feel hungry, well for those who were watching the young man. It would have been wrong for them to stop the pride, but it would be even more wrong to add more pride to him. To leave him alone was not an option, so the sense of pride the man had grew. It grew quickly and the man seemed to grow frustrated as he couldn’t find a way out. It didn’t last long though. Flames quickly engulfed the man, deafening screams he released until the flames died down and he was nowhere to be seen. It was obvious on where he was however. Hell, to be broken on a wheel.
A few seconds was all each flashback took, though for Gypsy they seemed so much longer. And the effects afterwards lasted even longer. Severe headaches they were and the pain they caused often made the part demon long for her head to explode so they wouldn’t occur anymore. Of course, she never let anyone know about how much the headaches hurt her. She wouldn’t be able to cope with anyone knowing that. It would be highly embarrassing, though people who had classes with her would know about the headaches since if they happened in class she’d grab her head and run out of the classroom but some, if not most, thought that she just used it as an excuse to get out of doing work. That kind of thinking Gypsy didn't mind, at least they didn't know she was suffering.
At least now the pain had subsided as she left her room for the restricted parts of Xavier’s. She remembered the how to get there and occasionally looked over her shoulder to make sure no one happened to be following her as she knew that not everyone was supposed to know about the restricted parts, hence them being restricted.
Finding the hidden elevator with ease she got inside it and began to descend to the restricted areas. As the doors opened it seemed as if she wasn’t the first person to make their way down there with Max casually leaning against the wall.
"And here I wanted to make a good impression on our leader being the first there," She said in sarcastic manner as she stepped out of the elevator, the doors quickly closing behind her. At least it was Max who she had found. She could cope with him, and probably Jess, but certainly not the others. Actually it was the two male troublemakers who had kept her from quitting the stupid team. With them there, there was sure to be amusement, at the other team members expense most likely.
Re: Justified Qualms (Exiles training)
The first thought Jess had as he tried to make his way around the restricted areas of the mansion, which he had only ever been around once while arguing with Uncle Jack and following him around until satisfied that he had gotten his point across, was 'why am I bothering?'. It was a question Jess asked himself alot and more and more frequently with each passing day. As of today he had already answered the question a few times with responses such as 'because I have to be', 'because maybe it won't be as stupid or boring as it seems with some of the team members around' and of course the main one that he kept coming back to, 'because Uncle Jack will kill me if I bail out'.
He had the power to, he knew that. Hell she wouldn't even put up a fight, couldn't really. All he had to do was say no and she'd let him walk right out of there, agree sweetly that it was just fine for him to leave and never come back. Problem was that he had a relative here. This wasn't like New York City with Liz and her endless parades of boyfriends, each one stupider than the last. If he stood up and rebelled there she wouldn't do anything but claim he was uncontrollable and leave him alone, all that he had ever wanted in the first place but here was different. Here he had Uncle Jack and he of all people seemed to care and when they weren't butting heads, which was most of the time, he was actually a pretty decent guy. What was really baffling though was that some part of Jess was telling him that it wasn't about the fact that Jack would be furious, it was about disappointing Uncle Jack. He was always butting in and trying to help people's lives and when they failed he managed to make them feel guilty for it and that's what Jess didn't think he could take. He was used to bailing whenever it got hard or he was in a situation he couldn't take. He'd been running all his life and here he didn't think he'd be able to run and that was scary.
The school rebel ran a hand through his thick dark hair and stopped dead in the hallways. So he'd basically come to a decision and it didn't involve crossing state borders or hopping on a bus. That was definetly new and Jess wasn't sure he liked the strange feeling of actually having his actions matter. Nonetheless he looked around and tried hard to remember where it was they were suposed to go since he wasn't about to actually ask anyone for help about this.
By the time he finally made his way down there and had to endure the stupid handprint and identification crap he was more than a little pissed off as usual. The typical 'screw the world' expression commonly seen on his face was even more pronounced although he did get a short chuckle out of the tacky sci-fi decal. He passed by the memorials without comment, finding it beyond even his lack of respect to speak ill about the dead. Jess did however find the display of them before heading to the aptly named 'danger room' for a training session with a group of people he couldn't possibly care anymore about or trust to save his life under any circumstances slightly humourous though. There was definite irony there.
The hidden elevator required a little effort to find but Jess silently made his way down to the danger room level. He hated the sterile feel of the confined space and the ride made his temper more foul than it had already been. By the time the doors openned and he stepped out to see Gypsy and Max already waiting nearby Jess' expression could only be described as a scowl.
"Perfect," he muttered more to himself than anyone at the sight of them. Some strange part of him had hoped that no one would be there and that everything and every problem would just fade right away. Maybe it was the sci-fi movie decoration that brought on the movie like wish, Jess thought to himself. He was less than religious so rather than praying he simply hoped that this training session wouldn't involve him having to save anyone's ass but his own because Jess was not a team player and believed in survival of the fittest and survival of the ones who lived their own lives and didn't meddle in the lives of others. He just hoped the others and the team leader felt the same way. Somehow Jess didn't think that was likely.
(OOC: I'll bring Casey in after a few more posts. Don't want to ruin the fun fun tough reunion of sarcasm and wit by bringing in wimpy right away)
"Many people find themselves doing something they love, but I belive few have the opportunity to follow after their dreams." - Jacob
Re: Justified Qualms (Exiles training)
Inwardly Max was relieved it was just Gypsy, maybe he could pay her whatever she'd ask for and he'd request one of those nice 'summer' holidays she mentioend for a friend of his. A smirk crossed his face but he made no effort to move while she stepped out of the elevator.
"And here I wanted to make a good impression on our leader being the first there," Looking rather smug, Max pushed himself from the wall and stepped a few feet closer to the now demonic powered human. The handsome grin he had was tainted with a mischivious quality that was a tell tale sign before he got himself into some kind of trouble with their teachers.
"If anyone's going to make a good impression, it's going to be me," There was a coy look, his body moving smoothly to a stop, he seemed almost playful, making it obvious why he intended to make a good impression. When he continued he spoke with a slightly more serious tone, but still seemed excited, "Fair enough this pack of losers that make up the rest of the team are anything short of entertaining, but I've seen Garnet in action, I'm willing to stick around and see the harsh torment she'll put those whimps through." Unlike the others, Max actually already did a lot of working out, he was one of the top students in his Martial arts class along with Riley Finn and two others. Riley is far more balanced and trained then him, and it bugged the hell out of Max that the dork can out do him in one of his favorite classes.
"I think we should play it smart with her though," There was a cheeky grin that flashed while he spoke, "I'm going to make her realize how pathetic those geeks are, even if I have to lower myself to the rank of 'Teachers Pet' to do it." There was a pause as he glanced at the elevator, someone else was coming, he looked back at Gypsy and it was obvious by his body language he didn't want to wait around and find out who the this new arrival was.
"Let's get going, hopefully they'll get lost and we wont have to deal with their silence and frickin' shyness again." Max had always been impatient with the shy types, he'd tell them off if they made him wait too long in class and that would usually make them more withdrawn. Like in English when a girl had to read from a book, Max kept urging her to hurry up and get started or speak faster and ended up reading her passage for her and treating her like a baby. The teacher hadn't been pleased but as usual Max never cared to listen to them.
Turning to leave, though motioning his hand ofr Gypsy to lead the way since he had little clue where he was going, the doors of the elevator opened before he could escape and Max reluctantly turned to see who it was. At least it wasn't Paige, but unlike Gypsy, Max didn't like Jess, he hated those typical and boring attitudes that just annoyed but didn't actually do anything more entertaining then that.
See, Gypsy terrified people, she toyed with their minds and played with their fears, Max himself humiliated and hurt them, degraded and mocked them, what did Jess do? He babbled them to death from bordem. Though there was a slight spark of hope inside Max that Jess might just be more low key then them, maybe he can be more entertaining if he wasn't so up himself. It wasn't really surprising that Max respected people who were abusive in one form or another, having the father and family he had it was probably expected that he'd respect people who reminded him of his father in some way. And his father used fear and pain as a way to punish and keep people in line, especially when it came to Max, though Max wasn't aware that his father was involved in anything illegal.
"Hey, can we get going before the geek patrol arrives, working with them is degrading enough, I'm not going to wait around for them as well." The sudden impatience would hint to the young Emmerson that Max would have most certainly preferred it to be just the two of them. It also felt really weird arriving before the teachers pets who usually made an effort to get to class on time or earlier.
Re: Justified Qualms (Exiles training)"If anyone's going to make a good impression, it's going to be me," There was an amused look upon the part demons face. She knew Max and his addiction to ladies, and with Aurora being the prettiest of the girls on the team she could easily tell that the school bully was going to go after her.
"Fair enough this pack of losers that make up the rest of the team are anything short of entertaining, but I've seen Garnet in action, I'm willing to stick around and see the harsh torment she'll put those whimps through." Her amused look turned into an almost interested look as Max continued speaking more serious this time. Perhaps the fancy looking Exiles leader was better than Gypsy had given her credit for. Then again, her power was fire. Of course she would be powerful and admirable when in action. She was the same when she had her power. Inwardly, she shook the slight spark of jealousy out and told herself that fire was still a part of her. If she ever did get to send someone to Hell, they’d get to be a victim of the fire down there. That cheered her up quickly.
"I think we should play it smart with her though," That would be a wise thing to do. Gypsy was smart enough to know that. She wouldn’t poke and poke at Garnet with her attitude to drive her too far that it should end up turning on the former mutant. She was smart enough to bug people just enough that she could save her skin if they happened to be powerful and would be one to use their power against her. Though, scaring people was just as fun to get anyone off her back if they dared to annoy her.
Shortly after her change Gypsy had been in a class with Madison Enright and Gypsy had made it her goal to try and out-do her in that class just for her own amusement. With Madison’s short temper she quickly had gotten angry and ordered the part demon to meet her in the Danger Room after class. A quick reply of ‘go to Hell’, caused Madison to shut up and leave her alone.
"I'm going to make her realize how pathetic those geeks are, even if I have to lower myself to the rank of 'Teachers Pet' to do it." Picturing Max as the ‘teachers pet’ gave Gypsy a slight laugh. Though, what he had said was something that had to be done. The team was just too much of a joke with the shy, quiet ones around, they wouldn’t be helpful if their team had to be called upon for a mission and the last thing Gypsy would want is one of them being in charge to save her life if she was ever in a life/death situation.
As the elevator began to descend once more Gypsy, too, looked over towards it. She had heard the doors close and it go up once she stepped out, so it was obvious that someone had called for it.
"Let's get going, hopefully they'll get lost and we wont have to deal with their silence and frickin' shyness again." She too wasn’t all that sure if she wanted to know who was in there. If it was Casey or Paige they might ask to tag along since they won’t know the way, that was if they knew the way from the rec room to the restricted areas.
Noticing Max turn to leave and gesture for her to lead the way, Gypsy wondered for a brief moment if he actually knew the way there or not. If he didn’t, he couldn’t be blamed since if you didn’t know of the advanced training room or even any of the other areas around here you certainly didn’t know where they were. However, even if Gypsy asked Max it was unlikely he would come out and admit it.
Her quick thought was long enough to keep them waiting for the elevator doors to open. Curiously, Gypsy looked over to see who it was and by chance of luck it was Jess. If it was any of the others, she wouldn’t have been happy. A dirty look seemed plastered on his face as her muttered something to himself. Looking back to Max, she could see that he wasn’t happy with Jess being there. Perhaps she was one of the very few he liked on this team.
"Hey, can we get going before the geek patrol arrives, working with them is degrading enough, I'm not going to wait around for them as well." She could clearly tell that Max was beyond impatient by now with the arrival of Jess. His arrival hadn’t bothered her since there were a lot more people who were worse who could have come from that elevator. Though it was probably best that they get going now so they wouldn’t risk the chance of one of those that annoyed all three coming from that elevator next.
"Alright, alright. Let's go," she said as she took a few steps forward to take the lead. She stopped there and looked back over her shoulder. "Since I know that I know the way there, I trust myself to lead the way," she said a little teasingly with a proud, yet almost cheeky grin. Well, she could already tell from Max that he didn’t know the way and while she wasn’t sure if Jess knew the way or not so she decided that it was best for both of the males prides if she didn’t embarrass them in front of each other. "So, are you boys coming?" she spoke once more, before turning head back around and doing as she had said by leading the way through the corridors to the Danger Room.
- THREAD CLOSED -
TBC: Outside Areas - Woods of a smaller Island (close to the Training Island)
Re: Justified Qualms (Exiles training)OOC: Soz I haven't replied before - did mean to but there was a bit of confusion about something here with ezboards (and now I feel dim lol). Didn't help that at typing I still don't know help to get Racheal into this! *sigh* Also not sure if this board is still active *hopes* but want to do at least one post anyway! *feels deprived* lol
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Not many things managed to rub the feline mutant the wrong way, but as Racheal made her way towards the lift, hackles raised, she decided that she wasn't sure if sticking to this team thing was the best idea she had ever had. Normally, morphing into the friendly, slightly hyper golden retriever calmed her down, made her forget the stress this world caused. But not today, it seemed that her single canine morph, who currently had linx-like tuffs on it's ears, had picked up the stress she felt too keenly.
Racheal sighed, finding a small corner to de-morph. She had long ago found it better not to morph infront of people if possible, more than once she had caused a panic when even a single person spotted the rather ungraceful shift between human and animal. Not exactly a pretty picture.
As her eyes shifted from the deep brown caring eyes to the harsher green feline eyes of one of the top predators, her mind wandered back to the relatively short meeting. As much as she disliked doing it, she had already started judging them. Racheal felt an instant dislike for Max, properbly not a great start for any memebers of the team. Throwing that girl's, 'What was her name... Paige?', book didn't exactly help matters. Books were, in her eyes, precious and should be handled with more care than that idiot seemed to realise.
Racheal's train of thought shifted slightly as she remembered the quiet girl. She had to remember to apologise to Paige at some point for speaking over her. Had she realised earlier that Paige was actually going to respond she would have kept quiet herself. She would properbly end up apologising whilst in morph. Racheal wasn't really sure about a spoken apology that could be heard - her 'thought-speech' was much more private.
The others she was still to really decided upon. Two of them, was it Gypsy and Jess?, seemed like trouble makers of some describtion, which she wouldn't like but they hadn't actually annoyed her as such. And Casey, and Paige really, had been quiet enough, which made it a bit more difficult to judge them. Despite being at the institute for three months, she was still bliss unaware of people being classified as geeks and the such. She knew she was a loner, she always had. But that was in the blood.
Then there was their leader, this Garnet character. She seemed nice enough, but she wasn't really sure. Plus the firey mutant's choice of outfit for an extremely informal meeting seemed bizarre. They say first impressions count, and although the girl seemed to be capable of being a leader to some degree, she hadn't been impressed really. Time would tell, but Racheal did have a problem with people who seemed in capable of proper dress. Whatever was wrong with a pair of well worn jeans and a tatty t-shirt?
She sighed, shaking her head as she entered the lift to get down to the restricted areas. As easy as ever, her mind changed subjects, pondering over technology as the lift took her down to the lower areas of the institute. Computers... lifts.. cars... televisions.. What was the point?! What was so wrong about simply walking to your destination, or relaxing outside, or reading a book? She couldn't understand why seemingly healthy people simply couldn't be bothered to do something rather than let technology rule their lives. She almost giggled as the lift doors opened. How would man cope if the battery to this technologial world simply vanished?
Although she noticed the backs of the three ahead of her, she made no effort to catch up or stop them. What was the point? Families were teams, and maybe close friends, but what was the point of throwing a random group of strangers together and expecting it to work? She paused, re-thinking that. Families were teams. That made her a traitor to her 'team'. She had destroyed her team. She couldn't remember why the fire was her fault, but she was sure it was. And then Jake.. One thing she hadn't done since coming to the institute was say anything about her family, or past, other than vague comments. She had lived all-over the place. The picture in her room was of her family. No names, no saying that she (in her eyes) killed them. And no saying that over than this place, she was homeless.
The negativity of it all weighed heavily on her She tried to push it back to the inner depths of her mind, sake it off as she made her way towards the danger room. The feline was a loner, as was this feral. They didn't need to know the whole truth.
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