ellectrical | (no subject)

(no subject)

There's been a lull just long enough for Elle to grow restless. If anything good came out of being so exhausted so much of the time, it was that it had kept her occupied.

So to cure this newfound energy, she's turned to practicing. She's had plenty of opportunity to train with her abilities, however – the one thing she doesn't have to do anymore is run away. And as she'd been reminded, she could stand to be faster.

Jogging, it turns out, works to make her physically exhausted. But when collapses, still panting, close to the shoreline of the lake, her mind is still as loud as it was before.

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"Hence the running. Right?"

"Yeah."

Eyes still down -

"I don't know how - good I am."

Sam considers her for several seconds.

"Do you want to?"

She looks up to him.

Uncertain, "Do I want to know?"

"Well, yeah. I mean, I don't know what exactly it is you're trying to do other than run, but ..."

He shrugs.

"I could time you, or race you, or whatever. If you want."

There's a pause, and then she smiles.

Even if she also admits, "That's not really how I meant it."

"Okay."

He smiles back, easily. After all, it's far from the first time he's mistaken her meaning, and this time she's not angry or throwing anything at him.

"How did you mean it?"

The smile fades at this, though it's also not like she's angry or throwing anything.

"I don't - know how -"

Elle folds her arms. "When I had to - learn things, they just told me to do them. I don't know how else to do things except to - make myself."

Which may be why her approach to exercise is to push herself to collapse.

"And I don't know how else - to help her."

He considers that.

"To help her ... you're trying to learn stuff. By making yourself do it. Right?"

Beat.

"What exactly are you trying to learn?"

Elle shakes her head.

"She needs to - learn to do something. And I'm trying to make her."

She knows that's not enough, but it's still a little longer before she pulls together the words to continue.

"Other people are - worried about her. But I just - try to make her learn what she - has to."

"You're trying to teach her," he realizes.

At least, he hopes he's got that right.

"Teach her something... you can't tell me what, right, but ... whatever it is, it means you need to be able to, to -- to outrun or escape something. Is that it?"

She's quiet for a moment, mulling over these words.

"It's more like I'm testing her," she says eventually.

"And if she - doesn't make it, I - need to run."

That... doesn't sound good.

At all.

Sam stares at Elle.

"You need to run from her?"

Elle's eyes drop.

She supposes she didn't really do a great job of talking around it, but it doesn't stop the pang of uncertainty after the fact.

But her answer is still evasive. "She almost always - makes it, now."

"Almost always."

"We have help," she answers, a little short now.

"It's not - I'm fine."

He holds both hands up in the air.

"Didn't say you weren't."

A beat.

"Have you had much practice at trying to evade people? In situations like this?"

"Yeah."

But X is really, really fast okay?

But after another pause, she admits, "It's not really - what I'm worried about."

"Okay."

That's probably good, right? He hopes, anyway.

"Want to tell me what you are worried about?"

There are a few threads to that, but Elle jumps to one that isn't so self-centered.

"She thinks -"

Elle stops, and when she speaks again, it's a little more quickly, like she's not being quite so careful with her words.

"She doesn't want people to use her. But she thinks about it - differently than I do."

Sam blinks.

"How do you mean?"

"She thinks - you can stop it."

Elle folds her arms.

"Like if she - fixes this, it won't happen."

"And you don't believe that?" he guesses.

She looks down again.

"Maybe it's true for her."

But then, Elle starts to shake her head. "I don't think it is -"

He doesn't interrupt, but instead listens in silence, an inquiring expression on his face.