Pathetic Intentions

[Piotr Rasputin]

Hitting Colossus was a bit like hitting a big steel wall because he was, well, basically a big steel wall. Even in human form he was stronger and more dense then your average guy. So when Pixie cam flying towards him, crashing towards him rather, he knew this would not end well.

Stepping quickly to one side he let her fly past him and into the large foam cheese wedge behind them. He would have tried to grab her and stop her, but he was afraid that he’d accidentally grab hold of one of her wings and they didn’t look particular strong or stable.

“Okay, maybe we went a little fast?” He said, referring to both her speed of flying and his own speed of lesson. Reaching down he picked her up, going for her arms instead of her head. He wasn’t the brightest X-men in the bunch, but he could tell his hand-to-head carrying style hadn’t gone over well.

“You have to tell me if I go to fast for you.” He said as he righted her, glancing down to see if there had been any serious injury done by the collision. She seemed find enough, if a little dazed. You're the flying expert here, yes?[/blue]

“But you seem to be doing really well. You can’t land, but we knew that coming in here.” He said, patting her helmet knowingly. “The rest, you just need to practice. It’s like learning to ride a bike or speak English.” Both of which Piotr had learned to do since coming to the institute. “At first it’s hard. Your brain catches on much faster then your body or your words, but you keep practicing and eventually everything catches up.”

“How much you practice? Other then in the danger room with the team. On your own.”

[Megan Gwynn]

Bracing for impact, she was surprised to say the least when she hit something soft before tumbling to the ground. Quite content to stay there for a good few hours, she couldn't even tell which was was up. It was a disorienting experience, trying to fly. Sometimes she had to develop an Ender's Game mentality. The enemies gate was down, but even with the ability to reorient yourself, tumbling along into mats and things, it was useless.

Her wishes to stay down and take a nap didn't seem to be granted though as she was pulled up. Part of her was thankful she didn't have to complete the task herself, as it seemed getting up was going to be difficult, but she soon realized that just standing was going to be a challenge too.

"Uh.. I. ..m.. good.. I'm okay," she said slowly, not even realizing what he was really asking, she just assumed he'd ask if she was okay. As her head became less and less dizzy though, she looked up at him, her helmet sitting crooked atop her head. "Oh.. I uh.. try to avoid practicing outside of the danger room.. less..things get uh.. broken that way."

She tried to concentrate on standing up as the memories of her room, once trashed by her attempts at flying. Well, more that once really, more like three or four times trashed, and when she had tried outside, lets just sat the trees and their branches weren't so nice to her. As all of this seemed to fade, she suddenly felt the sensation of the room tilting. Noticing it was her falling back she snapped out of her thoughts and reached out for his arm.

[Piotr Rasputin]

Before Pixie could finish her thought, she was falling backwards, too tired or dizzy or confused to keep upright. Piotr reached out to catch her shoulder, intending on standing her back up, but at the last second changed his mind and guided her down to the ground to a sitting position, where she could catch her breath.

“Sure your okay?” He asked, worried that he’d pushed her too hard or too far. It was obvious that the lesson was done for the day, he found it a little depressing. He’d hoped to surprise Kitty at the end of the day with a fully competent and talented flyer for her team, but that obviously wasn’t going to happen. Pixie had worked hard, but flying was obviously a lot more complicated then punching through walls, and he’d proven to be a poor teacher for it. It would be several weeks before he’d be getting any “thank you”s from his girlfriend, if at all.

“Let us call it a day.” He said, waving off the danger room, which dissolved around in a shower of colors, leaving only the large silver room with it’s curved walls and large hanger doors. “But no more avoiding practicing, yes? I want you to try to fly a little bit every day on your own, just like we did here. Okay?”

“Maybe that way, next time, you’ll spend more time in the air and less time trying to knock me over.” If she even wanted to a second lesson. He wouldn’t mind giving it a second try, provided he was given a few minutes to think it through and quiz Warren about some flying techniques first. But that was up to his student, who, at the moment, couldn’t even stand up. “Come on, let’s get some water in you. It's almost dinner.”

[Megan Gwynn]

Megan was almost dreading standing up again, ready to even fight against Piotr to be able to just rest on the floor. Luckily, she didn't have to persuade her large teacher of anything as he seemed to read her mind, setting her down after the catch rather than trying to get her to stay straight. Letting her eyes close, she too realized that lessons would be over for the day, and even though she was frustrated at the lack of amazing progress, it felt good to have at least worked toward her goals.

Unclipping the helmet she tugged it off and it clattered to the floor, holding onto the straps to keep it from rolling away on her. "Yea.. She sighed to all of his questions, summing up an entire conversation with just one word. Yes, she was okay, yes, she would no longer avoid practices and a definite yes to the mere thought of food coming anywhere in front of her. Her stomach felt oddly empty as she sat in the room, which now seemed oddly empty as well.

Despite Megan's size, she tended to eat just as much as anyone else, or even more. Her accelerated metabolism provided plenty of energy for her wings to operate, and even for her to enjoy all of her other recreational past times such as dancing or roller blading. She was always the energetic type.. until she got hungry. When Megan was drained she wasn't quite her cheerful self. She was more quiet, more passive and more willing to just sit down and watch the world pass by her.

Such was the mood now as she took a deep breath, forcing herself to stand back up so they could make their way to where this promised water and prospected dinner was. "Oh, if I really wanted to try and knock you over, you'd be on the floor," she joked, trying hard to bring back her cheerful self. Letting out a small laugh she ruffled her pink hair before running her fingertips through it, trying her best to rid herself of the helmet hair. Settling for giving her head a good shake she again became dizzy, her steps swaying to the side as she bumped into Piotr before correcting herself. Laughing, now more genuine she turned to walk backwards, squinting up at him. "I think you're a good teacher Petey" she said, tilting her head while never turning to watch where she was going.

[Piotr Rasputin]

“Thanks kid.” He said, reaching out to turn her around before she ran into something or tripped. He had no idea how girls managed to do that, walk backwards while talking, and seeing it always made him a little nervous: there were to many sharp corners and awkwardly placed knickknacks around to make it safe or practical. Kitty had a habit of doing it, although with her phasing power, it wasn’t nearly as dangerous. “Do me a favor and tell Kitty, yeah?”

He hadn’t meant to say that out loud, he’d just been thinking about her (when wasn’t he?) and it just sort of slipped out by accident. He winced slightly, not one to share his personal problems with strangers. Thankfully he’d turned her around, so she’d probably miss the look on his face, so he covered it up with a fake grin and a:

“But no one else, yeah? We've got to prefect the Rasputin Training Plan before we start marketing it on the other students. I plan on having you flying loops on the promotional video."