2014.02.03 - Another Morning

Morning. Early morning on the weekend. Early enough that only crazy people are generally awake at this time, or students who are studying for exams. This is a normal time for Jocelyn to be awake, and she'd seen to it ample 'reminders' were sent to Rachel this morning to get her butt out of bed. She'd said she wanted to go through Jocelyn's training routine with her, so here was Rachel's opportunity. Jocelyn had warned her it would be early this morning, but she figured some reminders wouldn't hurt. People had a tendency to sleep in on Sundays.

Jocelyn has made her way to the institute's gym and is finishing up a basic stretching routine, dressed in a pair of grey shorts and a tanktop. She's got a jug of water and a workout towel sitting off against one of the walls. She'd been going through her head a few options for what she'd put Rachel through, though it wouldn't be anything out of the ordinary for Jocelyn. She wasn't sure what Rachel wanted to focus on precisely yet, and figured she'd check soon enough.

People have told Rachel Summers that she's crazy before although not, usually, due to the time she gets up in the morning. This particular morning, she doesn't feel crazy. She just feels ill. In fact, she's pretty sure she died in the night and hasn't realised it yet. She tried to ignore the reminders, but there were just too many and they were just too persistent. Finally hauling herself out of bed, Rachel crawled into the shower and let the hot water do what it could to revive her. Showered, and having downed a couple of pints of water, Rachel finally felt sufficiently human to leave her room.

Walking into the gym, Rachel's wearing a red Xavier Institute hoodie and black leggings, and her hair is still damp and spiky. Dumping the bag with her towel and other supplies by the door, she walks over to Jocelyn, still looking a bit worse for wear. "I am NEVER going drinking with Kwabena again." She says by way of 'good morning'.

Ahh. The Hangover. Jocelyn was quite familiar with this, and the redhead gives Rachel an easy grin as she comes out of her stretch. "Not a bad idea. Though if you don't let yourself get into a competition with him, you're probably safe. I've got a pretty good hangover cure if you're interested, after the workout". She'll just dangle that out there, the knowledge of a possible cure there. Of course, Jocelyn might be able to cure a hangover with her abilities. She's never actually tried. "Go ahead and stretch a bit, then we'll get started. You got anything specific you want to work on?" the woman asks. Jocelyn suspected Rachel wouldn't, if she was still hungover, but it couldn't hurt to ask.

If Rachel looks around, she'd notice that Jocelyn has already placed some water jugs around some of the various areas of the gym. The sparring area, the weights, and the cardio all have water jugs waiting by them. Though Jocelyn doesn't offer any explanation to them just yet.

Rachel shoots Jocelyn a rueful look as she gets the grin. At least the other woman's not rubbing it in. "It didn't even seem like a good idea at the time." Rachel complains, in the tone of someone who knows she has only herself to blame for her current condition. Her eyes prick up a bit at the mention of a cure, and there's a hopeful look in her eyes until she processes the condition at the end of that offer. "How pitiful do I have to look to get it BEFORE the workout?" Rachel asks, but she says it in a resigned, if amused, tone to show that she's not getting away that easily.

Without waiting for an answer, Rachel nods, a little bit carefully, as if she's not entirely sure her head's properly attached, and pulls off her hoodie, revealing an equally red tank top underneath. Throwing her hoodie at a machine that looks superfluous, Rachel begins stretching, a faint tension around her eyes the only outward show of discomfort. Despite her hangover, she's taking this seriously. "Hadn't thought that far ahead." Rachel admits, looking around at Jocelyn and grinning. "I'm at your mercy."

"More pitiful than that. You are talking to a healer, you know," Jocelyn points out with a smile. "Then I'll just take you through my morning workout. Weights, a bit of sparring, and some cardio to cool off". Yeah, Jocelyn was probably going to make Rachel sweat that hangover out of her system. She starts explaining things as Rachel stretches. "We'll do back and biceps for the weights. I usually split the weights up into three groups and do each one twice a week. Then we've got martial arts practice, and finally some running afterwards to finish off".

"I'll teach you the exercises you don't know. I'm not sure how familiar you are with lifting". Jocelyn wasn't sure how much such things played into her life in the future. Maybe they just used some weird machine that did everything for you when it came to training. Jocelyn had no idea.

Rachel just knew that'd be Jocelyn's answer, but she still puts on an exaggeratedly mournful expression when she next looks in Jocelyn's direction. She still feels pretty ropey, and a headache is never a good thing for a telepath to have, but somehow she's not having an awful time, here. "OK, sounds good." She says agreeably, content to put herself in Jocelyn's hands and be distracted from her hangover. She smirks a bit as the other woman reaches the end of her list. "If I'm really lucky, all that will finish me off." Finishing her series of stretches, Rachel straightens up and rolls her neck, wincing a bit. She must've slept funny, just to add insult to injury.

"Not very." Rachel admits. "I work out with Kitty, sometimes. Never really sorted out a proper routine, though." What she was put through in her own time kept her pretty fit, but didn't involve gyms and weight rooms. She doesn't feel the need to elaborate, she's run Jocelyn through her own training programs in the Danger Room, after all.

"A good healer can also keep someone alive through significant amounts of physical torture," Jocelyn responds casually to Rachel's remark. She walks over to the weights and sets a bar down on the floor. "This is a deadlift". A well-named exercise to start things off with, Jocelyn thought.

"You grip the bar either with both hands in an overhand position or with one as an underhand and one overhand". Jocelyn squats down and demonstrates the grip. "Then you straighten up, bringing the bar up to your thighs, but you never move your arms. Leave your shoulders and knees locked as you do it". Jocelyn then demonstrates the exercise a few times before she sets the bar down. "Give it a try, get used to the form without any actual weight on it". She wasn't going to start Rachel off with a heavy weight and no training. That'd just result in injury.

Rachel groans theatrically. "And you're going to demonstrate that, too? Shoulda known." She says in mock despair, but still follows Jocelyn over to the weights without dragging her feet. She watches Jocelyn keenly as she demonstrates, her headache receding to an annoyance behind her eyes. Still a little insistent to forget, but it's not messing up Rachel's concentration too badly.

As Jocelyn steps out of the way, Rachel steps into her place. She pauses for a couple of seconds, unwilling to get something so simple wrong in front of the other woman - and maybe feeling the ghost of anxiety as the painful consequences of failing training back in her own world flicker at the edges of her memory. She glances at Jocelyn once more before she moves, but then she replicates the other woman's actions with the bar. She pauses after her second repetition, holding the bar across her thighs, and looks at Jocelyn with a slight smile. "You're going to know if I cheat, aren't you?"

"Yes," Jocelyn responds. "I'll know if you're using your powers". Though technically, Rachel might have trouble picking up on if Jocelyn was using her powers. There is a hint of amusement in her voice, however. "But you're doing fine," the woman says as she observes Rachel performing the repetitions. "Do a few more like that, and get used to the motion. The exercise itself is more about form than anything else, and you want to make sure you have it right". Jocelyn isn't aware of any consequences for failing training, and such a term doesn't really fall into her vocabulary.

"Though you can drop the bar safely on the floor here, so don't worry about that. It's designed to take it". Jocelyn had done it many, many times. "Once you get the motion down, we'll put some weight on there, as this probably doesn't feel like all that much weight I'm guessing".

"Damn." Rachel says, almost cheerfully. "I'll actually have to do some real work." Not being able to cheat is its own challenge, normally she can get away with making things just a little bit easier for herself. And if people suspect, well, they've got no proof. "Probably wouldn't do much for my head anyway." Rachel muses, as she goes back to lifting the bar and returning it to the floor, falling swiftly into a rhythm. A Rhythm that waves a bit when Jocelyn tells her she's doing fine, and Rachel looks up and flashes her a quick grin, perhaps a little happier than the minor compliment deserves. "OK!" She says brightly, repeating the exercise until she's confident she has it, but looks to Jocelyn for agreement before she stops. "Not much, no." She's not that feeble, after all!

Not only will Jocleyn know, but the woman can absorb the energy quickly enough, cutting off that little bit of boost. Jocelyn nods and puts some actual weight on the bar. It'll weigh a little bit more than Rachel does herself. "Okay. Tell me how that feels," Jocelyn offers easily. She doesn't tell Rachel the actual total weight deliberately. Sometimes numbers put certain expectations on people, and it hindered them more than anything else. Jocelyn has some idea of Rachel's strength, but she's never actually tested the woman, so it was going to be a bit of a guessing game. The excitement over the compliment is noted, but isn't commented upon yet.

"Oh, hey. Got a question for you. Do you know what an Omega mutant is? I heard the term for the first time recently, but didn't get a chance to ask about it".

Someday they'll have to see if Jocelyn can absorb all the energy Rachel's capable of putting out, but not today. Rachel's head wouldn't take extended use of her powers right now. It's only because cloaking her Hound marks is so ingrained that they're not on display. She's not even trying to mask the Phoenix brand on her back.

Stepping back as Jocelyn adds weights, Rachel seems eager to continue, and moves quickly back into position. She doesn't say anything, but it's probably obvious that she's making herself take things slowly, when she instinctively wants to go faster. Getting ready, she flexes her fingers on the bar, and then lifts it, doing her best to keep any suggestion of effort off her face. "It's fine." She says hurriedly, not really having thought about it. Returning the weights to the floor, she lifts again - and answers Jocelyn's question instinctively. "Jean." Rachel blinks, having surprised herself a bit.

Jocelyn can't see the actual Hound marks, just that they're being cloaked. But those are always there, so Jocelyn doesn't pay those bits of psionic energy much mind. "Taking it slow is important here. There's not a lot of time between sets, but each rep should be taken with form as more important than speed or weight. You don't want to injure your back, even with a healer around". Jocelyn will add a little bit more weight to the bar, but not a lot. She can tell Rachel is having some difficulty with it, from years of training with a variety of people of different levels. "Try that. Go for five". Which is fewer than she'd been expecting before.

A nod is given. "Jean is an example of an Omega in terms of classification then. Nate too?" He seemed in that ballpark, from the amount of juice he had. "So it's just some classification based on power?" Jocelyn asks Rachel.

Rachel is a good student. She looks alertly at Jocelyn every time she speaks to her and, whatever other reply she makes, she gives a quick nod each time to show she's understood. It's an automatic reaction that Rachel's not even aware is happening, as she falls back on old behaviours. "OK, got it." Rachel confirms, before adding. "It's fine, though. Really." She watches Jocelyn add the extra weights, like before, and takes her position again as soon as the bar is ready. This time, with the extra weight, she's not so successful in keeping the effort off her face. She sets her jaw, though, and lifts the bar exactly as she was shown. Once. Twice.

"I guess he must be." Rachel says, as she continues to work. Three times. "I've never seen him do... what Jean did on Genosha, though." Four times. "It's made me wonder how much was Jean, how much was Phoenix..." Five times, and because that's where Jocelyn told her to stop, she stops. "...and how much of that I could do, if I tried." She doesn't sound all that eager to find out, and quickly shakes her head. "But I don't know the specifics. You'd be better off asking..." She grins, and shrugs. "Pretty much anyone. Sorry."

"Good. Focus on the form, and it'll build your strength. You're new to this, so you'll see an initial spike of strength over the first month or so if you do it regularly, then progress becomes more steady," the woman explains. Jocelyn will give Rachel about thirty seconds or so to catch her breath once she finishes. "I suspect Jean is more polished than Nate. He's got a lot of raw power, from what I can see, but I think she can control it. Phoenix is a whole different level though. When she channeled some of it through me on Genosha, it was definitely the most I've ever handled". Jocelyn isn't even sure she's ever mentioned that she effectively channeled the Phoenix Force to Rachel.

"Okay. Another five, same weight. This is your working weight for now," Jocelyn tells the woman. "I think we saw Jean do different things on Genosha. I wasn't on the strike force at the end". She had a different task, and as a result ended up on Genosha itself after the fallout. "Though I did see the results of what she did".

Alert look, nod, then Rachel smiles wryly. "You going to kick me out of bed regularly to do this? It's easy to be lazy around here." It doesn't help Rachel's motivation that she's been sleeping better than she has in a long time, lately. Not so many nightmares, at least that she remembers, and she doesn't /think/ she's been waking Kitty up in the middle of the night.

Rachel stands easily while she waits for more instructions, and nods her agreement. Jocelyn's mention of the Phoenix gets a sharp, interested look, one that's all Rachel's own curiosity. "What was that like? I've touched it a few times and it's... last time, it spoke through me." She shivers a bit, unconsciously. "That's why I /don't/ try to reach for it. I'm not sure I could stop it doing anything it wanted to."

Jocelyn's next instructions are a welcome distraction, and again she gets the alert look and the nod, and Rachel bends down to the bar obediently, although this time she hesitates - but she catches herself before protesting that she can lift more. She's not sure where that urge came from, and doesn't want to dwell on it. "OK." Instead, she lifts the bar, the rhythm almost second nature now. "I was in the middle of it." Rachel says, as she smoothly lifts and lowers the weights, the effort in her voice though she keeps talking as if it's nothing. "It took Nate, Hope and me, all shielding, to come through it." Jocelyn gets a sideways look. Rachel's thinking about testing herself again, and if Jocelyn's channelled the Phoenix...

Again, Rachel will get thirty seconds before Jocelyn asks her to do the lift again. "If you're interested. You've got an attitude towards pushing yourself that is a lot like my own," is Jocelyn's response to kicking Rachel out of bed. She wasn't going to force Rachel to if she wasn't interested in it. "It wasn't like I channeled the whole thing. It was when Jean was, well, I think of it as Spirit-Jean. When she needed to be moved into a body after her death. Most of it was psionic energy, but there was Phoenix there. Not enough for it to talk to me, but enough that I could feel it, you know? The sheer amount was almost like tapping into the sun instead of just the solar energy around me, you know?" That was the best way to describe it. "I'll admit most of my focus was on the task at hand". Being used as a ressurection channel was still a little weird, even for Jocelyn's experiences.

"Alright, five more," Jocelyn says. "Then we're moving on to pull-ups," the woman tells Rachel. Jocelyn figures Rachel won't mind knowing what's coming up next. She can certainly tell where the effort level is. She's used to reading people in this manner.

Rachel actually gives that one a couple of seconds thought before answering. She's not feeling as bad as she did when she started this, so exercise is winning the battle against her hangover. She wants to stay fit, and she's finding she likes the idea of the routine. And she likes Jocelyn. "I'm interested." She replies.

Rachel doesn't try to hide a keen interest when Jocelyn talks about her experience with Jean and the Phoenix. Both because the Phoenix is hardly something she can experiment with (Jean told her not to, for a start), and she never quite understood HOW Jean managed to come back from the dead. Rachel laughs when Jocelyn mentions where her attention was. "I'm not surprised!" Rachel shakes her head. It is weird, but the important thing? "Thanks. I'm glad you were there to bring her home." Rachel needs to say that first. "And I know. It's like... endless fire, but it doesn't burn when you touch it. Just flows through you..." It's hard to explain.

Rachel doesn't complain at being told to do five more, and gets to work. "Do I get a drink before the pull ups?" She asks, between lifts. That pitcher of water has her name on it.

A nod is given with regards to Rachel being interested. "Alright. That means for a few hours every morning, you'll be allowed to hate me," Jocelyn jokes. It just means reaching out and making sure Rachel is awake. Not actually all that hard to do, all things told.

"I'm glad I was able to help, though it wasn't just me. Magneto and Nate were involved. Package deal, Magneto and Jean or neither, you know? Took all four of us combining our abilities to make it happen. I just happened to be the bridge for it, really, since I can convert energy into other types now". Which made things interesting. "I'm pretty sure if I made a mistake, it would burn me," Jocelyn adds. She wasn't exactly a vessel for the Phoenix.

"Sure," Jocelyn says with a laugh, letting the woman get some water when she finishes. "You're getting some sort of idea in your head as a result of this conversation, aren't you". It's a statement, not a question. Jocelyn will rerack the weights while Rachel gets her drink.

Rachel offers an evil smile to Jocelyn. "Don't worry, I'll find a way to get you back." After all, it wouldn't be any fun if she couldn't plot her taskmaster's downfall whilst getting fit, would it?

Listening to Jocelyn explain a little more, she stops herself from making an instinctive denial about what the Phoenix might do. She doesn't know it very well, even though it seems to know /her/ inside and out, and its motivations are a mystery to her. She gives a slow nod. "It might." She admits. Not exactly comforting. "I don't know what makes me different. Other than Jean, and I don't know what makes /Jean/ different." Maybe it's time for another talk with Jean, now that they know eachother better.

"Thanks." Rachel says, not hiding her relief, and crosses immediately to the nearest pitcher to take a drink. After last night, she's probably still dehydrated. "Yes." Rachel answers at once. "You've channelled the Phoenix, even if it was only a small piece, and you know how strong Jean is." Rachel takes another sip, smaller this time, before she continues. "I want to... call it comparison testing." She suggests with a grin. "Find out what my limits are." Her expression clouds a bit. "Kwabena doesn't understand how strong I am, I think, so I'd better find out for myself." She pauses, debating whether to continue, then shrugs. "And if I do slip up, and touch the Phoenix? I'd like to have you around if it happens." Rachel pauses again. "You can say no."

"If you say so," is Jocelyn's response to her getting back at Jocelyn. A nod is given about the Phoenix possibly burning her. "I heal pretty well though," Jocelyn adds as she walks over to the pull-up bar. She listens to what Rachel has in mind. "You want to push yourself a bit. I get that". The woman considers for a minute, thinking it over. "I can do that. I asked about the Omega thing because, apparently I'm in that classification, and I should see just where those limits are myself".

That was something Jocelyn was getting used to.

"If we wanted to, I have a friend who is a power booster. If we wanted an extra layer of security, I could grab him and we could go do it somewhere isolated. He could boost me and we'd be covered". Another person on Jocelyn's list of Useful Friends and Allies. "Though we can probably do it safely with just the two of us, if we're careful and do it in a progressive manner, rather than just throwing everything out there".

There's a small smile at the mention of Kwabena not understanding. "Kwabena sometimes has a blind spot in those manners. I think it's in part due to how he tends to feel like everything is on him at times".

Rachel, despite the lingering headache, now almost gone, and the occasional faint feeling of queasiness when she moves too fast that's still hanging around, is having a good time, and smiling more than not. It's only when Jocelyn mentions healing that the smile falls off her face for a moment or two. Fortunately she's following the other woman to the pull-up bar so she can't see the expression, or that she's thinking that /no-one/ heals that well. It makes Rachel doubt what she's asked of the other woman, but it's out there, now.

And when Jocelyn agrees, Rachel's misgivings fade away. "Great!" Rachel begins, then quiets when Jocelyn mentions some eminently sensible precautions, and nods her head slowly. "Good thought." She suddenly grins. "Throwing everything out there was probably going to be my plan, but yours is better. If you'd rather have your friend along, I don't mind, but I think you're right, we can do this without blowing anything up... that we don't want to blow up, anyway."

Rachel gives in to the urge to roll her eyes as Jocelyn describes Kwabena. "I know, but he's /wrong/. And he wouldn't end up in the Med-Lab so often if he'd let us," And it's definitely /us/, not /me/. "take some of the load." Rachel frowns. "I swear, if he fires any MORE bits of himself at people, I'm going to FIND that gun of his and...!" She cuts off, pulling back on her temper, it's making her head throb again. "Sorry. Pull ups?"

There's a small grin from Jocelyn. "We'll get to the point of throwing everything out there. But we should make sure we can handle it first". They didn't need to get Axiom involved, not if they did it smart. Plus it meant she didn't have to do any extra explaining, which was a bonus in her mind. "As for that gun I've heard about, I could always ask Laura to find it and 'fix it' with her claws," the woman adds. If anyone could find that problematic gun wherever Kwabena had it stored, Laura could.

The woman then focuses on the pull-ups. There are a couple bars side-by-side, so they could do them at the same time. "Pull-ups. Simple enough. You take an overhand grip on the bar, hang there, and then pull yourself up so your chin is over the bar". Jocelyn demonstrates one fairly easily. "For an extra challenge, hold your legs straight out in front of you, so you make an 'L' shape. Adds some ab work and makes it a bit tougher". Jocelyn demonstrates that version. "We'll try five sets of ten, see how you do with that," Jocelyn tells Rachel.

Rachel's grateful that Jocelyn doesn't argue with her small rant about Shift. She knows the two of them are close, and the other woman might have felt the need to defend him. Nice to know that neither of them like the idea of the man injuring himself on purpose. Temper subsiding, Rachel grins, a slightly fierce edge to the expression. "If she can't find it, I should just read his damn mind. Lorna wants it shredded too." How many people have to tell Shift the gun is a terrible idea before he'll take notice, anyway?

Rachel falls back into routine as Jocelyn demonstrates the next exercise, and nods swiftly to show her understanding. "Got it." She says quickly, and moves to the spare bar. Grabbing hold, she doesn't even take a second to decide before she brings her legs up to mirror Jocelyn's last demonstration, and pulls herself up. Again, even though she doesn't have to, she instinctively tries not to show it, but it's effort.

It seemed everyone held the same opinion on that matter. And Jocelyn is someone who can still be close to someone and think they're being an idiot about something. Sometimes bluntness came in handy. The tall woman isn't surprised by which version of the pull-ups Rachel starts doing, and she does the same on the bar next to her fellow redhead. It's really not an exercise that requires extensive demonstration. It's one of the simplest motions there is, honestly. It's just something that requires a certain amount of strength to do. "If you need to pause at some point between reps, that's fine. The point is to finish them," Jocelyn explains to the future-born woman.

The two are in the gym, at Way-Too-Early-O'Clock for most people, doing some morning training. Nobody else is present in the gym at this time, leaving the two redheads alone at this time for the instruction. "Also, it's okay if you show that it's taking some effort," Jocelyn adds to Rachel. "It's supposed to. Work is half of the name," she points out.

As might almost be expected by this point, Rachel's answer is immediate and given without thinking about it. "I'm OK. I can do it." The words are said tightly, though not from annoyance, simply because she's pulling her chin above the bar as she says them. Up... and down again. Rachel's legs, held straight out in front of her, don't even waver. Wavering, it seems, is not an option.

She's eased down and is about to start the next pull up when Jocelyn's well-meant advice is given, and for once, Rachel's rhythm breaks. "What?" She says, aborting her pull up and just hanging there for a minute, looking confused - and then chagrined. She'd not realised what she was doing until then, but now it's obvious to her. "Uh..." OK, Jocelyn probably doesn't /want/ the full explanation. "Right. Got it." For a moment, it seems like she won't say anything more, but then says, her words spoken quickly. "Jocelyn? Before? When I've been... been trained? You didn't show effort, or say it was too hard. It would be... bad. I know you're not... but that's why. Sorry." Gritting her teeth, she pulls herself up to the bar again, and lets herself down. And then notices...


 * Hello, Professor.|

Her psi-pattern is less sharp than usual. She's working through a hangover, after all.

A nod is given to Rachel. "Don't worry about it. There's a time for pushing through something that's hard, and I'm pretty good at reading that in a person. Professional sports training for several years and all. If you're not pushing yourself hard enough, I'll call you to the floor on it. Promise," Jocelyn tells Rachel as she pauses after one of her sets. "The push comes from within yourself more than anything," the teenager explains to Rachel.

Then there's that concentrated bit of psychic energy, and Rachel's responding psychic energy. "Who is it?" Jocelyn asks, glancing at Rachel before she gets that 'look' she gets when tracing energy. She can't actually mentally respond, as she's not a psychic, but she can tell somebody is at least expending energy here, and in a concentrated form, not just in a quick greeting.

As he passes through the walls of the gym, Charles walks over to stand next to Rachel as he looks in Jocelyn's direction. <> However, he crosses his arms and cocks an eyebrow when she asks who is it.

Don't worry about it. Rachel's grateful to the younger woman that she deals with the situation with those words, rather than asking what on Earth she's talking about, or looking at her like she's crazy. Both of which she was expecting more than Jocelyn taking it in her stride. She takes a second to breathe, and then nods. "OK. New way of thinking. I can do this." She says, although this time it's because she means it, rather than because she's automatically giving what she thinks the right answer should be.

Rachel winces as she pulls herself up again, not from effort but from the Professor's astute observation. |I thought so, last night. Not so sure now.| She replies ruefully, and surprise colours her psi-pattern for a moment. |She seems fine to me.| Rachel replies, firmly and perhaps a little defensive of the other woman, but this IS the Professor. She's sure there's nothing to worry about, really. "It's Professor Xavier." Rachel answers as she lowers herself down. "I'd offer to link us all up, but with my head and your resistance..." She leaves the rest unsaid, pulling herself up again.

"Ahh. Thought so, based on where the energy is coming from," Jocelyn responds as she refocuses. "Normally I don't bother to check who is talking to who via their minds around here, but his energy signature is lingering, right around there". She points to where the Professor has set up shop, so to speak. "Which tells me he's doing something here. So, hello Professor". Because a greeting seemed polite, given that she suspected he was more than just in Rachel's head right now. "Of course, I could be wrong and I'm talking to a wall. I can just see the energy is there lingering, which isn't how most mind-to-mind conversations I've seen work with that type of energy". She shrugs at that and goes back to her pull-ups.

"That makes sense, though I can just choose not to absorb, though both of you know that, when I know it's coming". Simple enough for Jocelyn to do these days. She doesn't seem particularly bothered by it though. "Anyway, how many more sets you got left?" Jocelyn asks Rachel. "When we finish with that, I get to introduce you to a couple more back exercises, and we're halfway done with this part of the workout". Which was a milestone in and of itself!

As he closes his eyes and focuses his mind and energy, Charles's image comes into view standing next to Rachel. His hands are folded behind his back as he hmmmms softly. His voice in both of your minds now as he says, < I have learned something about your talents Jocelyn today that you can see more then I expected. We will be having a guest from the Justice League of America soon. She is a guest of mine. Perhaps you would like to come upstairs and meet her. However, I would like to meet with you Jocelyn in private either later today or tomorrow. >

As he bows slightly at the waist, Charles fades from view and he returns back to his body in the office.

Rachel does, of course, know that. But she's doing pull ups, holding a telepathic conversation, and she's still vaguely hungover. So it'd both slipped her mind and... well, she still wouldn't be the best choice to co-ordinate that kind of thing, today. Once it becomes clear that the Professor doesn't have anything further for her, Rachel continues with her excercises and leaves the conversation to Jocelyn.

"Can't talk." Rachel replies, smirking to herself, when Jocelyn asks how many she has left. "Effort." She adds, just to show that she can. To herself, more than anything. "Anyway. Nearly done." She clarifies, finishing off her assigned repetitions and dropping back to the floor. And making a beeline for the water again. Pushing her hand back through her hair, she takes a healthy swig of the water, then looks over at Jocelyn again. Her eyes are noticeably brighter than they were when she first walked in. "All right." She says agreeably, walking back over to join her.

Jocelyn will take Rachel through the rest of the workout and sparring session before the two will leave, with just enough time to get cleaned up before their JLA visitor arrives.