Hiding out {Mr. Wisdom}

[Chain]

The young blond tilted her head and nodded. "Just a bit. But then I tend to notice more than people give me credit for. Had to watch to see who had the potential do dethrone the Queen Bee, ya know? Don't worry about it though, you'll find your balance. I don't think you'd be here if you weren't capable. Sometimes we just need someone who understands. Although definitely work on the punishment thing. Maybe that's where your balance can be? I mean it's cool that you are the teacher we can just talk to and not really worry about being judged. But if you find that boundary? That way the others don't think you are an easy mark? Although I think you are far from an easy mark." The girl snapped her mouth shut and palmed her face. She was doing it again, sticking her nose in where it didn't belong and offering advice when it wasn't asked for. "Sorry...." The word came out muttered and slightly frustrated.

Kelly leaned back against the wall and thought about it. "It really does never end. I mean I can totally see why they did what they did, one bad apple and all that. Technically, it's not even really the humans that I am too upset with about it. I mean, I was kind of scared of mutants too, still am actually even though I am one. I don't know much about what is going on, but I know I don't like the idea of bad things happening to good people, mutant or human. Although even when I didn't know I was a mutant the Sentinels would have scared the spit out of me. I think we should just take all the humans that want to harm the mutants, and all the mutants who want to harm humans, get them all off planet and let them kill each other. Then the rest of us are free to live happily ever after." It was a pipe dream she knew, but still every girl had to have a fantasy.

[wisdom]

It was true he was perhaps too lenient with his students... Ok, he was incredibly lenient with his students... But it wasn’t out of fear or some misguided need to be liked by the kids, more a case of Pete Wisdom having a distaste for authority that stemmed way back into his childhood. Then again, if he actually wanted to survive as a teacher in this six ring circus of a school he supposed he better get over that distaste and fast. He wasn’t the sort of person that liked being taken for a ride.

“Don’t apologise, you’re just speaking your mind. If I had a problem with that... I’d be slightly more of a hypocrite that I am normally.” It really didn’t bother him that she was sticking her nose in at the moment, outsider observations weren’t always a bad thing after all; sometimes you needed “fresh eyes” on a problem. Of course if she pressed to far it might be a different story, he wasn’t about to let her pry into his private life or past anytime soon, or ever if he could help it.

“We have super powers, they build sentinels. A mutant takes a life, the humans take a life. Lex Talionis.” He spoke softly, gazing off to space. “The law of equal retribution. An eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth, tit for tat.” He glanced at the younger mutant and frowned slightly. “Regardless of what you think, that’s the best, and in some cases only positive case scenario we can realistically hope for. Sadly with people like Magneto running around it’s becoming as viable as your idea.” He shrugged and slid a cigarette from the packet in his back pocket, and as usual sparking it up with an application of his power. “That said, he isn’t the real problem. The real problem is the fact we all seem to be driven to hate things that are different than ourselves, and that, luv, is something that will always remain a fix constant regardless of the species, human or mutant.” He of course knew there were exceptions to the rule, people who fought against their baseline instincts and actually embraced the new and different things of this world, but sadly they weren’t a majority it seemed, at least where mutants were concerned.

[Chain]

"You've got to be the first person to tell me that. Everyone else tells me to stay out of it. Unfortunately, I haven't mastered that yet. Hell, I'm not even a good apprentice at it yet." Her face screwed up and her brow furrowed. Really she needed to work on that. He was definitely one of the first people to tell her to be true to who she was. Well save for her parents of course but even they tried to get her to scale it back a bit. Maybe it really was her after all.

"There will be no peace in a world full of fear. Unfortunately, the world is ruled by fear." She sighed softly and looked up at him. "The best we can really do is hope to survive and enjoy the ride while we can. Right? No sense in wishing for things that you can't change, no matter how hard we might try." Kelly shrugged and looked up at him. "So, what are the ground rules around here? And can you tell me anything about that boy that's covered in ice? He's really cute."

[wisdom]

Pete laughed quietly and twiddled his cigarette between his fingers. He could see why people wouldn’t be keen on her forward personality and her speaking her mind, when combined the two qualities often caused people to see parts of themselves they’d rather not see. Still, she was a ‘straight shooter’ to quote the idiom, and in many regards that was an admirable talent. Not exactly a wise talent until she learned to control it, but admirable.

“I wouldn’t say give up completely on wishing, luv. We all need something to hope for, even if it’s a million to one long shot.” Pete exhaled softly, letting the smoke gather before his face before he waved it away with a gesture of his hand. “Clichéd as it might sound, hope is one of the few things that can get you through a crisis no matter what.”

“Boy covered in... You mean Bobby?” He snorted and shook his head, smirking once more. “Can’t really tell you much, luv. He’s been here longer than me though, got a reputation for a bit of a prankster too I hear.” He shrugged lightly and took a drag on his cigarette. “Other than that you should just ask him yourself, might as well use that forward personality of yours for something, eh?” He could probably tell her a bit more, but no way was Pete Wisdom playing relationship councillor to a high school student, not on his salary. No way, no how.

[Chain]

"Yeah, but we never really learn, so isn't it technically kind of hopeless? Keep the women down, we revolted and now we have rights. Keep the blacks down, they revolted and now they have rights. Keep these people down, fight a war. Keep those people down, fight a revolution. I mean good grief it's how the country was established in the first freaking place. But we never learn, there's always something the shows up and we need to beat it down, only to have it revolt and the war starts again. Where's the hope in that?" Most people wouldn't peg her as the type to give a shit, let alone to actually think about things like this. But it's something that she actually does pay attention to, because it all seems so hopeless and pointless.

"Wasn't sure if you knew his name. But yes he would be the one. A prankster? Could be interesting." When he mentioned using her foreward personality on Bobby she just smirked and winked at him. "I have been. That's why I'm interested in finding out about him. But I'll understand if you don't want to cross that line. No harm in asking though." Kelly was exceptionally proud of herself, she didn't ask him if any teacher here tripped his trigger.

[wisdom]

“Technically? Yes.” Not exactly the kind of answer he probably should be giving, but Pete was a realist and a pessimist. “It’s not that we don’t learn, luv. It’s that we just adapt to hate something else, or find a new way to do it. The revolts, civil wars, what ever... They’re just a necessary process in the end, a kind of sad one at that. You’ve just got to hope that when the smoke settles you haven’t landed on the wrong side of the line, and, as wrong as it sounds, aren’t the next target.”


“I’m not the kind of person you want dating tips from, trust me on that.” His track record when it came to relationships was something of a sore spot to the Brit. Everyone woman he’d dated either seemed to be crazy, or wasn’t the type to put up with half the crap he brought home with him. “Besides, I’m not entirely too sure what kind of advice I could give to a sixteen year old high schooler.”

[Chain]

Kelly actually thought about that for a few minutes and nodded. "A said commentary on today's society, but I guess you are right. However, we are on the wrong side of the line, apparently. We just have to hope that when the dust settles they'll move on to something else to fear." That thought made her a little sad. If you are going to hate people, then at least hate individuals or set groups. Technically, you shouldn't really hate anyone, but you know what I mean? Hate the Brotherhood, don't hate Xaviers kind of thing."

"Don't worry, I wasn't going to ask dating advice. I generally don't need it. I was just wondering if you knew anything about him." The girl shrugged and grinned. "What do teachers do for fun?"

[wisdom]

“Never works that way, luv. You get bitten by a Labrador, you start fearing all dogs. Just one of those things, unavoidable as much as it’s distasteful.” He rubbed his jawline once more and tried to think of something a bit more positive to say. Sadly there didn’t seem to be any silver linings to the war clouds that hung on the horizon and he drew a blank. “What can I say? As much as I hate to admit it, we’ve just got to ride it out and, for the most part, turn the other cheek.” The words sounded hollow in his ears, reminding him of similar lines and speeches he’d heard from various people over the years. It was next to a universal code for ‘A shitstorm’s coming and we don’t have a clue how to survive it’, but there really wasn't much else for the former spy to say. Before this year was out Pete was sure those war clouds would break, and people like Kelly would be forced to do or see things no one should. What really could you say in the face of that?

“What do we do for fun? Suppose it depends on the teacher really.” He frowned and took a drag on his cigarette, “Me personally? Night out, couple of drinks.” He gestures to his cigarette with a nod of his head. “Packet of cigarettes... I’m golden. The other teachers? Probably something a bit more sedate.”

[Chain]

Kelly nodded and sighed softly. "I know. I just hate that it is that way. I mean back at my old school I was top of the food chain. Most people think I ruled the school Mean Girls style. But I never really went for that, well not unless they pissed me off. Then I could go bitch quicker and more effective than anyone I knew. But that wasn't how I operated." The girl stopped talking and looked up at him, wondering if she had lost him and how far back in the conversation. It happens to her often enough people just tuning her out. "That's going to be hardest thing for me do. My dad calls me the tiny blond bulldozer. Damn the torpedoes and full steam ahead."

The blond giggled. "I keep seeing teachers like sitting around playing bridge and discussing current events and literature. Some secretly watching soap operas that they Tivo'd. But you I picture as more in that seedy, no offense, bar, sitting in a corner with smoke billowing around your head, while you nurse your second whiskey."

[wisdom]

Pete wasn’t exactly lost in the conversation, he could figure out the key points. That said, he wasn’t entirely sure if ‘Mean Girls’ style was a reference to another film, or if it was some Americanism he’d yet to come across. Tiny blond bulldozer. Despite having only met the Jerseyite scant moments ago, Wisdom could tell that that was a pretty precise description of the girl in front of him, perhaps as close to perfect as you could get to describe her in a few words.

“And now you’re at the bottom of the proverbial food chain, and not just in social status. You’re at the bottom looking up, wondering where you fit in?” He stubbed his cigarette out and let it drop to the floor, cocking his head and giving the girl a slightly wiry grin. “Luv, we’ve all been there. Hell, some of us probably still are. But what you’ve got to realise, what people like Magneto have got to realise, is that just because one day you wake up and due to some genetic quirk you now have super powers, it doesn’t make you a different person. Everything you went through that made you who you were up until that point didn’t suddenly vanish, you’re no less Kelly Wilson than you were a few weeks ago. Once you accept that, well, you can start to move up that chain again.”

The image of Professor X and Storm watching Soap Operas was enough to bring a smirk and an amused snort from the teacher, and the whole picture of Cain playing bridge? Well that one would stay with him for a while. The scene she painted for him however was startlingly accurate, in fact he’d been in such a rundown bar hours previously doing just as she described. He coughed and rubbed the back of his neck, flashing a slightly lopsided grin as he did. “Yeah, probably something along those lines.” Part of him wondered just how observant this girl was, then again Wisdom wasn’t exactly hiding his out of school habits entirely.

[Chain]

"That too, but it wasn't what I meant. Although working my way back up is a pain the ass. I worked hard to get to where I was and now I have to start all over. But what I mean was you can't rule through fear, and for some reason people don't realize that." It was one of the fundamental things she learned back in her old school. Around her freshman year when she dethroned the original Queen Bee. "Every experience, no matter how big or how small, changes you. I am still Kelly at the core, but I am now different since I've found out I'm a mutant. It might not be a big change but it's a change. But I'm still me, I will always be me.... Well unless a telepath makes me not me...." Shakes her head before she confuses herself.

She grinned at his smirk. "I see Professor Xavier as reading quietly in his study to relax. Boring. Professor Monroe tending to a garden. Coach Cain pretending that the tackling dummies are the enemy. I don't know about Professor Sage though. But yeah, that's what I totally see for you." His response just made her that much more aware of the fact that she was right so she couldn't stop the bit of a smug smile that touched her lips.

[wisdom]

Pete could understand her distaste for having to work to regain what she’d lost; he had similar feelings in regard to his own life at the moment. A few months previously he was the pride of her Majesty’s service, now he was barely struggling to be a teacher in a secret high school for mutants. “Ruling through fear is the only way some people know how to, luv. In many regards it’s more effective than you think, you just need to learn how and when to apply it effectively, and when to... Well, not.” Of course in Pete’s opinion, having seen what he’d seen over the years, very few governments or any social groups for that matter ruled through anything but fear. It was just the way of the world. Hatred and fear. It was a small wonder it hadn’t come to a crashing halt already. “Its how you let it change you, luv, just because you can fart lightning bolts or belch fireballs or whatever, doesn’t mean that you have to suddenly become a new person. I think some people lose sight of that, and it turns them into things like Magneto and his little brotherhood of wazzocks.”

“Tessa?” He asked, lapsing into addressing the cyberpath by her given name once more. “She’s not as stuff as you’d think, though she’s probably up there with Xavier and his books.” It was a sad fact that he had more in common with Cain than he did the rest of the teaching staff. That wasn’t to say Cain was a bad guy to hang around with, but sometimes Pete wished the rest of them weren’t so uptight.

[Chain]

"Oh I know when to get my bitch on. But I know what you mean, the mistake fear for respect. Just shows how stupid villains really are, you know? I mean you seriously got to love the ego trip that makes them think they can do it better than those before them." There was some serious eye rolling with that comment. "Kind of makes me want to get my bitch on. But then that's just escalation and things go to hell." It's pretty sad, she knew violence never solved anything but still felt like kicking an idiot's ass. "Wazzocks? What's a wazzock? I need to know so I know how to use it. I like that word. Wazzocks." She couldn't help but giggle.

"So you are one of two not dull instructors. You and Coach. I can live with that." She grinned up at him. "He I imagine going into the middle of the inner city and just wailing on whatever crosses his path."

[wisdom]

“That might be luv, but it only takes one of them to get it right and validate that little trip in the eyes of the rest. Just look at history, someone will always eventually come up with a way to improve on what those before them did.” Despite his words he agreed with Kelly, that half of these “villains” around today were practically a result of some jumped up ego trip that had yet to fall flat on its face. It seemed that sometimes the fall really took a while to catch up with someone’s pride in this current climate.

“Wazzock?” A quizzical look graced his face before he realised that this side of the Atlantic, or indeed outside of his home city, it had never really caught on. “Means eejit, plonker, pillock, idiot.” He shrugged slightly and smirked, “Sometimes I forget that you yanks aren’t exactly up on the ol’ lingo.”

“Heh, a few years back and you’d probably be right in that regard.” Pete frowned as he recalled all the pictures and events that MI6, not to mention the other intelligence agencies out there, had managed to tie to Marco over the years. The man really was something of a walking legend, not to mention a walking disaster. “But these days? It’d probably only go down like that if he was provoked. Least I hope so.” He smirked and shook his head. “I for one wouldn’t like to be on the other end of that in either case.”

[Chain]

”But they never get it right. They keep causing wars and killing people. But yeah I know what you mean, there’s always someone who can improve whether for good or for ill.” She just hated that so many had to suffer for it. Kelly started to rub her forehead a bit and sighed. Whenever she couldn’t understand something and she tried hard to figure it out, she usually got a headache. Trying to figure out the idiocy of villainy was going to put her down with a migraine she just knew it.

Kelly giggled when he started going off on the other words. Plonker she understood but only because she’d heard it in a movie once. ”I like that word. I have to remember it, and plonker. That makes me giggle too.” She stuck her tongue out at him when he commented on the yanks and lingo. ”It’s not my fault. Maybe you should teach proper English insulting.” Kelly had to agree with him. ”I don’t want to tick off Coach. He’s waaaaay bigger than me.” The thought of being his tackling dummy made her shudder.