2013.05.09 - Debrief on the Deck

Xavier Institute - Rear Grounds

The rear grounds of the Xavier Mansion tell of its dual purpose. French doors open from the cafeteria onto the spacious patio, offering a splendid view of the surrounding mountains and forest or a perfect place to catch the sunrise. Marble tiles form a smooth, even surface that's perfect for relaxation. Indeed, that's the primary purpose, as shown by the several sets of elegant patio furniture set at regular intervals. Just beyond the patio and to the left is a large, Olympic-style swimming pool with a paved deck area around it. Further out, the full size basketball court dominates, demonstrating the other use the area has been put to. While their teachers may enjoy lounging on the back porch, the athletic field gives students a place to work off excess energy and just generally be children. On the far side of this section of the estate are the horse stables, organic herb and vegetable garden, and the greenhouse. The front grounds lie south of here, just around the corner of the mansion itself, and the rest of the grounds are enclosed by the trees of the forest. The pool house is nearby, offering changing rooms, showers, and storage space.

It's afternoon, and Jocelyn has gone out to the back porch to work on organizing some of her phone contacts and stuff on her phone. She'd accumulated a lot of contacts over the last few months, and she was one of those people who just kind fo punched them into the phone with no real sense for organization. But she'd found some application that'll organize them much more neatly, and something that lets her take notes on her phone, which was kind of cool. A GED study book is sitting on the floor next to her as well, as she'd been working on that today as well.

The only thing odd about her expression is that there is a slightly annoyed look about her, as though there is something rather obnoxious or frustrating on her mind. Most people were generally pretty friendly towards her these days, but today, people had been avoiding her a little bit, given the obvious oddity in her mood. But everyone was entitled to a bad day or three, especially near exam time!

Amanda isn't about to begrudge anyone a grumpy day. She's had them, herself. She comes padding out of the main house, dressed in workout clothes and carrying a rolled up mat on one shoulder. She gives Jocelyn a smile, as she passes by the girl, noting the scowl on her face and the book at her side. The sorceress' head cants faintly to one side. "Hey," she greets. "How's it going?"

"Hi Amanda. Eh, residual crabbiness from enduring a fourteen foot gorilla talk down to me while Mr. Wagner and I confronted him about putting up some device that scans for time travelers in Central Park," Jocelyn responds. Just another day as an X-Kid. "We got him to agree to let some of our scientists look at it, but still". She shakes her head. She had to play that role, and getting talked down to always left her crabby. "How about you?" she asks. "Oh, by the way. What happened at the end of that simulation you ran? You run our opponents a bit tougher than Doug does," Jocelyn adds. Because she always did well with Doug's simulations, and didn't usually get knocked out unless Doug was feeling ridiculous in what he programmed in.

Amanda arches a brow at the girl's description of her day in the park. She'll have to chat with Kurt about that, no doubt. If the way Jocelyn casually shrugs off the incident bothers her, she doesn't visibly let on. "Yeah. Sorry about that," she notes. "I wasn't intending to see you get hurt, but I didn't want a walk in the park, either. Mr. Wagner and I have noticed a certain blast-first-ask-questions-later attitude developing among the students that we're hoping to rectify." If a few hard knocks achieve that -- in an environment where death and/or life-threatening injury are verboten -- then the witch is willing to risk that. "Don't be surprised if we start enforcing a few back-to-basics exercises as well."

"Oh, doesn't bother me. Surprised me a little bit, because I wasn't expecting him to be that strong, that's all. It's good for me to get pushed a little bit farther than usual in the Danger Room sometimes. I have no problem with that," Jocelyn says.

They'd come to a reasonably peaceful resolution with the gorilla, so Jocelyn saw no reason to worry too much about it. Plus the gorilla had teleported away, so if he continued to be an issue, well, she'd worry about it then.

"We did that badly?" Jocelyn asks, raising an eyebrow. While she can heal herself, she was knocked out and had to rest during whatever debriefing there was. As to the blast-first statement, Jocelyn considers that a moment, debating if she wanted to air her thoughts on that, but doesn't immediately speak up on it.

Amanda offers a small smile. "We didn't get into a deep debrief," she notes. "But, generally, everyone performed quite well, given the circumstances." Including Jocelyn. Everyone has a rough session once in a while. Amanda recalls several of them. There's a reason she's so quick on the defensive spells, after all. "Grabbing the girls and getting them to safety as quickly as you did was certainly the right call.

"Ahh, alright. Thanks. I wasn't sure if I should have taken the new girl or not, but thought it would have been counterproductive to her learning, you know?" Jocelyn says, giving Amanda a smile at the compliment. "What sort of basics are you talking about exactly?" Jocelyn asks. The current Young X-Men really didn't need, as a whole, a lot of lessons on how to fight. Some did, but a number, Jocelyn had noticed, were pretty good at it.

"Oh! I don't think I mentioned it, but I figured out how to do healing," she adds. She had just kind of been unconscious, so it wasn't relevant to her at the time. "Doesn't always interact well with some of my other power use, but I can do it when I need to".

"Did you?" Amanda smiles. "Good for you. That'll come in handy."

In answer to the other question, she ticks off a few things. "Flexibility, situational awareness, use of environmental resources -- particularly in situations where power use is problematic or inadvisable," she tells the girl. A chuckle. "So, you know. More gymnastics and street fighting techniques. Stuff I know you're well acquainted with, but others aren't quite so much. Besides, we can all use the refresher -- even Mr. Wagner and I. It's been a while since I've operated in a team environment, too." Hence the reason she and Kurt can be seen with increasing regularity putting on rather impressive displays of arial acrobatics on the back lawn recently. They're relearning how to act as a team as they once did in the circus. That, of course, and making gymnastics seem cool again.

Thinking that over, Jocelyn nods. "Yeah. I can see that," the girl says after a moment. "You can say it all you want, but it takes people awhile to think about looking up, for example. Nobody ever expects to have to look above them. Or below," Jocelyn says after a moment. "I have to admit, gymnastics was never my thing growing up. I'm not terrible at it though. I can at least still do the splits, but you know, even if I had the money as a kid, given my height, no gymnastics program in the world would look at a kid my size," Jocelyn says with a laugh. Even when she was young, Jocelyn was tall.

"So, what have you been up to, anyway, aside from coming up with new Danger Room scenarios?" she asks Amanda. "It's probably more interesting than studying for the GED".

Amanda laughs, now. "Oh, I've been keeping busy. There's no shortage of things for me to do." Yeah. She's not going to talk about the whole tangle with Mystique. Nor, at this point, about the weirdness that was Renaissance Land.

Regardless, she gives the girl an assessing look. "Yeah, I can see traditional gymnastics coaches overlooking you for someone more petite. But, the flexibility even basic mat training brings is invaluable. I'm sure you got quite a bit of it in your fight training, growing up. And, I'm sure you know, the more familiar you become with your fight partners, the more likely you are to be aware of where they are in the room around you and how they're likely to move and to strike. That's what we need to teach the students, here. How to see the subtleties that shift the playing field. Get that figure out and we can start talking full-field tactical awareness, advanced target and threat assessment, and the merits of non-traditional battle tactics."

Geez. Ya'd think she was prepping for a war or something.

A nod is given when Amanda says she's been busy. She doesn't push for details, however. She figures if Amanda wanted to elaborate on it, she would. If not, that was fine. Another nod is given about the gymnastics and fight training. "I'm reasonably flexible. Not as much as you or Mr. Wagner, but there's only so far my body will go for some types of moves". It was just how she was.

"Yeah. Laura, I can predict pretty. Jubilee too. Vic, when he's about, though I know he's been busy". Being all...Vic-like or something. Jocelyn shrugs at that. "I'm starting to get the hang of how Mr. Wagner works, I think". Even if it didn't always click with how she did things, she could see how he worked. "I actually work fairly well with Mr. Summers too," she adds, thinking that over.

"And what sorts of non-traditional tactics are you thinking about?" she asks out of curiosity.

Amanda considers the question. "When you fight, you usually fight to win, right? The goal is usually to defeat your opponent with greater skill, or luck, forcing them to surrender or otherwise withdraw. That's assuming, of course, your opponent is equal to or less than your capabilities. But, what happens when you're the one out-numbered, out-gunned, or out-skilled? What if retreat isn't an option? What do you do, then? Wait to get smashed into a pulp? Surrender and hope for the best?" The smile she gives is a gypsy's smile. "Or do you change the rules of victory? Instead of trying to 'win', try simply to block. Look for a stalemate. Look for misdirection. Look for feints and faultlines. They're not always there, but they're often there. They're subtle and hard to see, and often well beyond the skill of people new to their abilities. But, it's our job, here, to teach those things as well as we can. Sometimes, the best offense is a good defense."

"Oh, the 'Oh, Crap' scenario," Jocelyn responds. "I'm familiar with the idea," Jocelyn says with a nod. "Sometimes it helps to have an ace up the sleeve, so to speak and to use an overly-used phrase. Something you haven't shown them, or a little something extra that can create an environment more suited to your skills. Like if Jubilee uses her flashing lights and blinds people. I can close my eyes and still 'see' energy fields," Jocelyn offers. "But you don't want to use that if Laura is involved, as it'll overload her if done too much". Like those smoke bombs.

"I think I get what you're driving at. That hasn't been heavily emphasized yet, no," she agrees, having recalled the various training sessions that she'd been a part of so far.

Amanda nods. "As I said, that's the more advanced stuff. I actually intend to run a few scenarios with the suppressors on... Put us in there without any mutant abilities to rely on. I expect the first one or two will be somewhat disasterous, but, given the types of things we face? Not a bad idea. Even I've learned basic scrapping, and I like to stay well behind the front lines." Spellcaster, after all. Ranged it best for her.

There's a pause at that. "I...think you'll want me in a very secure room when you turn the powers back on. When my vision came to me the first time, I basically exploded and destroyed a building. Getting inundated with all the energy running around and seeing it all at once will overload me pretty much every time". Jocelyn just figures Amanda should know. "Though I can keep from using my powers in a fight, short of my vision, if I want to". She shrugs at that. Going through that initial 'turn on' experience was something Jocelyn had no desire to ever relive again.

There are ways around that, Amanda knows. "I'll keep it in mind. No one will go into that sort of scenario completely blind. Not the first time, particularly." She cants her head. "You see the energy even with your eyes closed?"

"Yeah. I see energy through things, too, so closed eyes doesn't really make a difference. I can see energy through skin, after all". Jocelyn pauses, trying to explain. "To me, when I'm sitting out here, I see the various outdoor energies all around. Gravimetric, magnetic, solar, kinetic, that sort of thing. They're pretty thick. But I look over at the manor, and there's another layer. Electrical running throughout the place. Thermal for the heating. Life energy for the various individuals moving around inside. Psionic for the telepaths actively using their powers. And since the manor isn't as thick as six football fields, I can see beyond that, and see that there are various energies moving about out there, too".

Jocelyn offers Amanda an easy smile. "That's why it took me a good week to actually be able to be coordinated enough to do complex tasks like write my name or read a book when it first manifested. It can be overwhelming at times".

Amanda cants her head, now. "So... how do you see anything at all? All those colours and overlapping fields must get confusing." She stands the mat she's been holding over by a deck rail and leans against it, arms crossing lightly over her chest.

"My brain has adapted somehow. It does tend to require me to focus a little more to make out really fine details. Some of them just shade everything, like solar, kinetic and magnetic, which are all over the place. Electric though, it tends to run in certain spots, so it's like someone has a shiny electrical outline of the phone in their pocket. It's kind of like how you learn how to tune out certain things that aren't important at that particular moment, I suppose, but ramped up a whole lot".

Jocelyn does offer an easy shrug, however. "It does, at times, get confusing. That's when I overload. Too much energy just blinds me, and to compensate, I start drawing in a bunch, more than I can handle. And then...boom. I let it all out at once". It wasn't something Jocelyn liked much. "There's a reason, Amanda, I tend to be a very focused individual. It's a little bit of an extension of that".

Once again, Amanda nods. "I can see that," she concedes. It's amazing, really, how many mutations come with some sort of brain shift, in addition to a physical shift. Most of them, in fact. Go figure, huh?

Her eyes stray to the library book. "Looks like you've been studying."

"Yeah. Thinking I want to actually go to college, but I'd rather not be a high school student for another two years. Being twenty-one and in high school would suck. So, GED is the goal. If I can manage that, I'm hoping to find some way into admissions late," Jocelyn explains. "But, that means hitting the books, and I won't mind telling you that a Detroit Public Education does not necessarily measure up well," she says with a small sigh. "But, I'll get there in the end". Somehow.

"I have no doubt you will," Amanda assures her. "Do you have a major in mind?" She's just curious, now. Her own education is a little ecclectic, all things considered. A childhood spent home-schooled on the road. Young adulthood spent immersed in magic. There's a reason she's something of a jack of all trades...

"Perhaps, unsurprisingly, something to do with energy. So, I'm not sure what major that'd be yet, but I think it'd be something I'd be good at. With the right training and education," Jocelyn says. Since, well, duh. "Though there might be something else, once I get there, that I get interested in. I'm open to other possiblities when it happens".

Amanda smiles. "I'm sure you'll figure it out." Jocelyn's a smart girl, after all. She turns and picks up her mat. "Well, I was going to do a little stretching. So, I'll leave you to your book, then, shall I?" She doesn't really want to take up all the girl's time, after all. And she's promised Kurt another circus session, later. Which means she needs to limber up before then.