7984/Pool is Training Too

Pool is Training Too
Date of Scene:	25 September 2021
Location:	Recreation Room
Synopsis:	Tabby practices ricochets while chatting with Michael and gets an offer to learn spycraft from him.
Cast of Characters:	Tabitha Smith, Michael Erickson

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Tabitha Smith has posed:
Training does not often take place in the recreation room, but this is no normal kind of training. Tabby is practicing... Geometry and Physics! Otherwise known as she is standing at one corner of the pool table.

The balls have not been racked or it doesn't seem so since they are all sitting at the corner where Tabby is standing and clustered together in a way that couldn't possibly have happened randomly.

Tabby leans forward slightly as she takes one of the balls in her hand and rolls it across the table to bounce off two rails before stopping short of anything because she didn't roll it hard enough.

Michael Erickson has posed:
    The soft sound of pool balls bumping on the rails draws in Michael as he passes the rec room entrance in the halls; he opens the door and leans in through the doorway, peering in to see Tabitha doing her, uh, homework. A faint smirk lines his lip for just a moment before he slides on in.

    Like almost always when he's on school premises, Michael wears a plain if well-made suit of gray gaberdine, which makes him look more like a stockbroker than a teacher or alien soldier or whatever else he is. "Hey, Tabby," he offers as he comes into the room, making for the bar where the sodas and whatnot are on offer. "Practicing your pool hall sharking?"

Tabitha Smith has posed:
Tabitha Smith glances over her shoulder when the door opens, "Mike! Hey there. I'm actually practicing combat tactics believe it or not. Trying to learn how to bounce things around corners accurately." Another ball is taken in hand and follows the path of the previous ball... or that was the intent anyway. It clearly doesn't work exactly as intended since the second ball bounces differently and doesn't hit the first one.

Michael Erickson has posed:
    "Ooooh." He comes over, having fetched a Coke for himself and another for her, which he puts on the edge of the table for Tabby to snatch at her leisure. "That's an interesting way to do it. For the plasma bombs you generate, right?" He peers a tad. "I had a soldier in my troop back home that used to do that with grenades."

Tabitha Smith has posed:
Tabitha Smith snags yet another ball and attempts to hit the first ball with it on a direct ricochet instead of a triple bounce this time. "I'm not very good at math but I might just be starting to get the hang of it." The ball taps the intended target sending it spinning. "What are you up to tonight?"

Michael Erickson has posed:
    He leans over, free hand sliding into the pocket of his slacks as he sips at his Coke with the other. "Nothing, really," he says, peering at the balls as she goes. "Though now I'm remembering the way antimatter grenades bounce off hard surfaces. I make it a policy not the use the ones that I have." Michael looks up at her then. "What do people think of your powers? I can see them either recognizing them as being useful as they are, or misunderstanding them as jokey."

Tabitha Smith has posed:
Tabitha Smith pauses in rolling the next ball to look up at Michael. "Lethal. My powers are lethal weapons in the hands of an overgrown child. A lot of people think I can't be serious. Well okay maybe they don't think that anymore, but I'm still a trainee instead of full team member because I don't have enough control." The ball is rolled firmly across the table toward the far rail and bounces back and forth across the table in zig-zags. "To be fair though, I do still play a lot of pranks."

Michael Erickson has posed:
    "Nothing wrong with pranks." He makes a faint face at her, then looks back down at the table and her progress. I mean sure, control, but I hope they take you seriously /now/. I saw your potential the moment you showed it off."

Tabitha Smith has posed:
Tabitha Smith nods slightly, "I'm sure they do. Rogue and I made a pretty good team taking down those defense towers around the crystal on M'Kraan when we went after Jean. She even said she understands why I pop them off all the time. They are fun to play with." She looks over at him again, "Saw my potential did you?" The corner of her mouth twitches.

She sets a ball spinning in the middle of the table then bounces another off the opposite rail to try and hit it, missing spectacularly.

Michael Erickson has posed:
    "I was an officer," he says, chuckling. "And a spy. My job to find the talents in my troops, and to identify assets." Mike takes another pull from his can, then takes a deep breath. "So you got to see the Crystal? I never got to do that. Heard about it a lot, obviously. Had an ancestor that served as a guard for it, though. Biggest bright spot in our family for generations." There's a bitter note in the end, there. Something he tries to push down.

Tabitha Smith has posed:
Tabitha Smith frowns at the spinning ball and tosses a bb-sized time bomb at it. It lands directly atop the spinning ball and blows up with a little pop, blasting the spinning ball sideways toward Michael as she reaches for the Coke he brought her and pops it open. "Nope. Didn't just see it. Went inside the damned thing." She takes a long swig from her soda.

Michael Erickson has posed:
    He catches the ball in mid-air and sets it down, nodding. He looks...well. Now he's the one on the side of the unknown. "I can't imagine what it must have been like," he says. "The most sacred treasure of the Empire."

Tabitha Smith has posed:
Tabitha Smith lowers the soda then in an extraordinary moment of not brushing aside the serious stuff admits, "Like having everything you care about twisted into knots and everything that terrifies you dumped on your head and then ... Just being wrung out. That thing is straight up scary."

Michael Erickson has posed:
    Michael lets out a long, soft sigh. "Of course it is," he murmurs. "Why can't magic jewels be nice?"

Tabitha Smith has posed:
Tabitha Smith smirks, "Well hell, Mike, who expects nice from anything? The world ain't nice. This place is mean and hard and we get what we earn. And that's how we earned Jean back. We fought ourselves and then Lilandra's brother and his dorks."

Michael Erickson has posed:
    "I said I wished it," Michael points out. "Throne knows how much of a force for bad times I was for several worlds when I was young. I just wish it weren't so." He looks back to her, then. Grim. "Thank you for this service you have done for my people. The Empire is imperfect, but under the Majestrix's leadership I have much more hope for it."

Tabitha Smith has posed:
Tabitha Smith shrugs a shoulder, "I didn't do that much. I just ... Well I killed this Shi'ar general I think. Maybe I didn't since we were still inside the crystal at the time so maybe it just seemed like I killed him and he didn't die, but felt like I did. That's all I do. Blow things up."

Michael Erickson has posed:
    "That's all /I/ do," Michael points out. "I mean in the end. Is there something else you'd like to do?"

Tabitha Smith has posed:
Tabitha Smith shrugs a shoulder again then picks up another one of the pool balls and sets it bouncing. "Not really. I am what I am. Trying to be something else only leads to bad places."

Michael Erickson has posed:
    "Very Zen of you." He chuckles, sitting now on the edge of the table. Perching, really. "So what can I teach you while I am here, Tabby? If anything?"

Tabitha Smith has posed:
Tabitha Smith spins two balls onto the table then rolls another one at the first knocking it into the second which rebounds off a rail then spins back toward her. "There's probably a lot you could teach me. What sort of things do you know well enough to teach?"

Michael Erickson has posed:
    "Well there's the whole galactic history angle," says Michael, peering now that the balls are caroming off another then. "Hand to hand combat, ballistic and energy weapons training - though you don't need that, I suppose. Military tactics. Philosophy." He considers. "Willpower and focus training. Could teach you how to be a spy, or survive on a wide variety of planets and climates, to boot. Lots of stuff."

Tabitha Smith has posed:
Tabitha Smith perks up a little, "You wanna teach me how to be a spy? That does sound interesting. Also happy to learn any of the rest of that so long as it doesn't involve studying. I am done with studying unless it involves lots of interesting hands on experiments like trying to crack pool balls together."

Michael Erickson has posed:
    "Well, you gotta remember stuff." He grins. "I mean you'd not want to land on a high-gravity world and forget how to deal. But yeah, lots of this stuff doesn't require a lot of book training." Mike's brows arch. "A lot of it is outright lethal, though. I've been really trying to lower the scale of things for students, at least, because I don't want some poor kid accidentally killing someone."

Tabitha Smith has posed:
Tabitha Smith points out helpfully, "Well, I am not a student. I am a resident who recently graduated the high school curriculum and has failed to enroll in the college curriculum. I may or may not be involved in teaching the students urban survival because as someone who spent at least a little time homeless, I know a good bit about it. And if I am gonna kill someone, it's just s likely to be with my own powers as with anything you teach me."

Michael Erickson has posed:
    He smirks. "I'm just saying. We lift a ton of weight, my people. I can kill most people just by punching them, and most the martial arts I know are all about flat out crippling or murdering people as fast as possible. Not what they're gonna want the kids to learn." Michael doesn't really sound as if he's convinced about that. "But I'll teach you whatever you want."

Tabitha Smith has posed:
Tabitha Smith chuckles, "Well I'm, physically speaking, a real wuss. Even if you teach me something that would be deadly for someone with your strength, I am far less likely to hurt someone with it. Spycraft seems more likely to be fun though."

Michael Erickson has posed:
    "Spycraft I can teach you," he says, nodding along thoughtfully. "Right, so let's meet up here in the next couple of days about it. For now..." Michael checks his watch. "I've got an appointment. Looking into possibly getting Jubilation a source of blood that won't hurt anybody. I'll come by tomorrow and see what you're up to, all right?"

Tabitha Smith has posed:
Tabitha Smith smirks, "I could go into the city and borrow a crate of blood bags from the blood bank." It may or may not have been a joke. She leans back over the table and starts tossing balls around again, "See you later, Mikes."

Michael Erickson has posed:
    "You could," he says with a chuckle, "But I'd rather find a stable system that didn't require taking from others. Plus there's always a chance she won't drink it cold. That thing inside of her is...picky." Grinning, Michael salutes her with his can, drains it, and heads on out. "See you around, Tabby!"