I want to mingle, that's what I want [closed to x-men]

[xprofessor]

WHO The X-men
WHAT Various things all through these two weeks.
WHERE THE XPARTMENT aka top floor of the Van Name building
WHEN Last week (lol LJ downtime) through this next week
NOTES All X-men got keys to the place during their first meeting, so they can come and go. Xavier's probably going to do some training/work with each person individually,

Comments

Training with Professor X~

[goldn_boy]

Jim wants to punch something.

Nothing in particular. There's just all this restless energy, a build up of months, of the almost-year he's been here. Maybe that's why he joined. Not the punching, specifically, but when Xavier pulls him aside during his first visit he is ready for whatever comes.

[xprofessor]

"Come, talk with me for a moment," says Charles, pulling Jim aside. The room is empty, save for the two of them, but even so he steps up to the corner where two windows met. The harbor sparkled in the distance, in the way only truly polluted water could. "How are you feeling about this decision, Jim?"

[goldn_boy]

"Honestly, Charles?" Jim crosses his arms, not out of denial or irritation but his own inner conflict. "I don't know." He shakes his head. "I don't mean I regret it. I needed... something to come along. And I want to be part of this. But I don't think I can hide from you that I've fought against this kind of thing before. I'm here. I'm just not sure what that means about me."

Was he changing his mind, or slipping?

[xprofessor]

"I'm not sure you've ever encountered this kind of thing before," Charles points out. "I believe I invented the roving semi-legal band of mediators, as a concept."

He shrugs. "Anyhow," he says, "I was hoping we could work on trust." He holds up a hand, a blindfold dangling between his fingers. "Ever fought blind?"

[goldn_boy]

Jim shrugs, smiling in his chagrin. "Fair point," he says. He eyes the blindfold, glancing back at Xavier's face.

"In the dark, maybe," he said. "But... I'm afraid I don't follow."

[xprofessor]

"If you let me," Charles emphasizes, "I'll fight you, blind. And I'll show you each move I make before it happens, telepathically. And you must trust that what I give you is true."

He tilts his head. "Should be a challenge for the both of us."

[goldn_boy]

Jim smile changes slowly into a grin as he realizes what Charles is suggesting.

"That," he says, "sounds like the most fun I've had in months."

Sadly, that's actually true, but it doesn't change the fact that he's all for it.

[xprofessor]

"Wonderful."

He offers the blindfold. "Then let's give it a shot."

[goldn_boy]

Jim takes it, tying it quickly around his head and adjusting so he can't see anything and it won't slip easily. He cranes his neck, one last stretch as he gets used to the dark, and starts listening.

"Ready."

[xprofessor]

En garde, Charles warns Jim's mind. And then -- he begins.

First, a broadcast to the motion-sensing part of Jim's brain. Balance and body positioning. In that, he gives Jim an innate awareness of the room around him: to Jim, it would feel like sensing the room and the furniture within it became an extension of the way he instinctively knew his own body's position. If he wanted to lift a weight, he could, with the precision afforded to clapping his own hands together with his eyes closed.

[goldn_boy]

It is odd, certainly. Partly for the very fact that it isn't--it takes Jim a moment to figure out what's happening, how he knows. It isn't a direct touch, like the sense/words Charles broadcasts. But rather, an expansion of his spatial awareness, as if driving a car.

He moves into a half-crouch, head tilted slightly though he's not listening to the outside so much as his head.

[xprofessor]

"How do you feel?" asks Charles. There's a slow expansion, still; to the places where Charles' feet touch the floor, to the set of muscles in his body. Jim can now feel Charles' body similarly to the way he can feel his own.

[goldn_boy]

He doesn't quite feel like he can move, yet, still finding his balance.

"Big," he laughs. "No, I mean... sometimes, just before I fall asleep, I feel like I'm expanding into the space around me. It's a little like that."

[xprofessor]

Charles takes a few steps, one way, the other. "You feel me moving?"

[goldn_boy]

Jim waits, and thinks it's just going to disorient him when... it doesn't.

"Yes," he says. "I mean I can't tell if I'm just hearing you or... but it feels like more than that." He steps forward, towards Charles, but not where his voice had just come from--he's already sensed the shift over.

[xprofessor]

"I'm tapping directly into motor centers of your brain," says Charles. His voice sounds a little strained. "It's a bit distracting, so forgive me if there are any flickers of nonsensical data."