2nd Transformation . spam :: gym

[permutates]

[ Instead of asking the network, she goes to the gym herself, wanting to see if there's any likely teachers, or people who are worth watching. (Raven can learn a lot from watching, she's found.)

So she ventures into the gym, blue-skinned, dressed in a tank top and loose sweatpants, and she sees the balance beam.

She part-remembers being a child, stepping out into a playground and playing along one. She always had the best balance. And she thinks of what Azazel has been teaching her, and she wonders...

She hops up onto it, a smooth movement, and extends her arms, testing her balance one way or another. She seems steady, so she dashes from one end to the other, every footstep sure. She tips backwards, then, folds until she's standing on her hands. It's hard to keep her grip, exactly; she shifts her fingers and stretches her legs out, a split, one forward, one backward. Rolls onto the forward one, moving herself back to her feet. And she does the whole movement again, quicker this time.

It's easy.

Part of her wants to laugh with the thrill of it, with realizing how innate her own physical abilities are. How graceful she is when she's not pretending to be someone else.

She balances on the end, debating attempting some sort of flip off of it. ]

Comments

[permutates]

She's a gymnast?

[ A snap of gratitude, that Alex is even saying anything to her, and she suppresses it, with her teeth gritted. She can't be grateful for something as stupid as that. Something that small. ]

[tolaywaste]

She's - yeah, she is, kind of, and other things. A vigilante, I guess?

[He slows and squints, not sure if that's the right word.]

She's a friend, anyway. She's a good person. And she likes milkshakes.

[unmakeme]

Hey, you want to hold my bag, these are the jokes.

[Natasha's almost dancing around it, light and quick. Her feet aren't planted like a fighter's - her stance is springy, like a gymnast. Agility over power, she knows where her strengths lie. Her blows come with surprising force for a woman her size, but they're still not valuing raw strength. That's not where she excels.]

Blue scales are a hell of a long way from heterochromia.

[permutates]

Is that a suggestion?

[ The milkshakes thing. ]

[permutates]

[ Heterochromia. Ugh.

On the next hit, she sends that little surge of irritation into a shove at the bag, coming at Natasha from the left. ]

It's not a normal mutation. It's a specific one, that gives people... powers, I guess.

[unmakeme]

[Natasha smiles when the bag moves in an unexpected way, and she has to adjust on the fly. This is what sharpens skills, that little bit of the unexpected. It forces you to focus, and live in the moment. An assassin who isn't living in the moment and the future is a very dead assassin.]

And your power is looking like a lizard?

[The words may be dismissive, but the tone is honest. Natasha can admit to some curiosity. She also thinks that Raven's skin, glossy cobalt and textured as delicately as fish scales, is quite beautiful.]

[permutates]

[ The words sting, nonetheless. She directs that back into the bag too. ]

This is just how I look when I'm not trying to look like something else.

[unmakeme]

[Natasha beats up on the bag for about a minute before she answers. She can't think of Raven and her looks in terms of her own life. Her own life is neither typical, nor particularly admirable. No, her life is not a model to hold against, and when she takes that out of the equation...]

You shouldn't try to hide it. It's beautiful. You look like... a fairytale.

[She doesn't specify which part.]

[permutates]

[ A pause, in which she's just steadying the bag. ]

You mean like a fairy tale monster? A mermaid or something.

[ Yeah she's read real fairy tales. ]

[unmakeme]

[Something like that.

They compromise:] Fairytale creature. It's not a bad thing. Dangerous can be beautiful. A mermaid, a siren, some kind of fairy.

[permutates]

Except if people think you're scary, they tend to be scared of you. And then they tend to hurt you.

[tolaywaste]

Uh.

[Yeah, basically.]

Kind of. She's had a bad month.

[And he trusts Raven to be kind to her. Whatever else Raven is, she can be a good friend.]

[permutates]

I'll keep an eye out for her.

[tolaywaste]

Thanks.

[He visibly relaxes. It's not much, he can't do that much for Cass, but it's something.]

[permutates]

Anyone else I should talk to?

[ She doesn't miss that - the relaxation. It makes her wonder if Cass is more important to Alex than she thought. IF there's something there. But she doesn't think she can ask. ]

[tolaywaste]

[He chews the inside of his cheek, just briefly. He'd say Anya but - no. Raven upset Anya, unsettled her. Which reminds him, he needs to talk to her. He's less angry, now.]

My best friend - here, anyway - is Ben. He just graduated. But he'll probably talk to you again in his own time.

. . . Oliver. Oliver Queen. You might like him. [A quick smile.] Or hate him, I'm not sure. It depends on the day and how surly he's feeling.

He's my inmate. My second one. I don't know if I told you that.

[permutates]

...wait, was he the one who dropped into the conversation and then suddenly left?

[ Because she still doesn't know what's up with that.

Second inmate stops her short. ]

You're still here? After one.

[tolaywaste]

Yeah, that's Ben. [There's a fond smile here that's probably totally incongruous with what she's seen of Ben so far. Which is creepiness.] He grows on you.

[He stops with the weights completely at her hesitation. He doesn't know if she thinks he's stupid or what, but.]

I'm still here. Bruce stayed on for a while, and then he had to go take care of some things at home. Make things right. This really wasn't a good place for him to stay long-term.

[Which doesn't answer the unspoken question, it doesn't tell her why, but it's somewhere to start, anyway.]

[permutates]

[ She winces, as she realizes: ]

That was a stupid question. I remember, about Darwin.

Can I ask - I'm not trying to accuse, I promise - why you're here, instead of back with him? Isn't that part of what you wanted, and why you wished for it?

[ She perches down on the edge of the balance beam, legs swinging. ]

[tolaywaste]

It's not a stupid question. It's - complicated.

[He sighs, and runs his hands through his hair. How to put this . . .]

The one thing is, Erik's here. And this place - he doesn't deserve to be here.

The other thing is, Charles is here, and he's not leaving until Erik does.

And then the other big reason is . . . there are people here I need to be here for. Not just them, but Bruce, when he was here, he needed me, even after he graduated. [And Alex needed him, but that's not the point.] Jean, you might've met Jean, she's important. I couldn't leave Ben. And Pietro.

[Anya. Snow. Cass. Even Chris. There was no way he was just leaving them.]

This place makes me angry, the way it's set up, the way it's structured. The way things work around here sometimes. I'm not okay with not being here when people are locked up with nobody to advocate for them.

. . . I thought about staying home. But I think people could see [Darwin could see] I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I did.

[permutates]

[ She listens. Trying to understand, with every little strained piece of her.

Erik doesn't deserve to be here. That was her worst fear, when she heard about Erik and Charles. That Charles somehow pushed Erik into a role where he had to be changed. That Charles decided his friend had to be helped, and nothing could be done about it. She'd been scared of getting back an Erik that was too much like Charles. Who couldn't help her figure herself out. ]

You made a family. Another family.

...I was afraid you and Charles thought this was fair. I couldn't see how you would think that, but I was afraid anyway.

[unmakeme]

[Natasha has no pity in her voice when she answers. She'd find it insulting, and if this girl (woman?) has gone through her entire life feeling like she's on the outside, she has a feeling that she will find it just as insulting.]

So use their fear and ignorance against them. Don't let them hurt you.

[permutates]

I'm working on it.

[ Learning.

She isn't sure whether the emotionless tone in Natasha's voice is welcome or a little insulting. It's... odd, to her.]

Learning to stop hiding.

[tolaywaste]

No! No way. It's not fair, I don't think it's fair to anybody. Not with the things that happen, with no warning. No way. I just want him to come home.

[Which. Is not the right thing to say. Probably. But it's out now, and - whatever, he does mean it. He wants things to be the way they were, or as close as they can be.]

[She doesn't.]

[Alex shrugs, shoulders tight.]

That's on him, though. [His choice. Not Alex's or Charles's or Raven's. Erik's.]

[permutates]

[ It strikes her insides cold. She doesn't think she reacts physically, but maybe - sometimes she doesn't control all of her body language.

Coming home means leaving her. It means leaving everyone that doesn't fit with Charles. ]

...yeah. It is.

[ Erik's choices aren't hers. She'll stay with them even if Erik goes back. ]