LOG: Manuel and Jennie

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After sleeping through dinner, Jennie goes in search of a snack, and meets everyone's favorite Empath. Not quite what you'd expect.



Jennie definitely remembered where the kitchen was.  It was not far
from where her tour started.  She hoped nobody would mind her poking around at this hour, but like that guy Forge said, it was summer and classes were out, and the people were pretty relaxed around here. Although Jennie would believe it when she saw it.

The kitchen was mammoth, all pretty stainless steel and spotless. Going to the giant refrigerator, Jennie opened the door and whistled. The grocery bills must be ginormous.  She quickly grabbed cheese and deli meat, but there weren't any jalapeños, or salsa for that matter. How was she going to make the Burrito Of Doom without any spicy stuff? It'd be more like a Wrap of Doom, that is, if they had any tortillas...

Manuel had every intention of just stopping by the kitchen, grabbing a snack, and then moving along his merry way. But he felt someone new in there, someone who on the surface was unhappy about something or another, but underneath it was packing quite a bit of anger and pain around.

Could be fun.
 
Jennie rummaged around in what appeared to be the breadbox, if push came to shove she could settle for a sandwich.  Her stomach growled.  Or, she could just start eating and not make anything, as her stomach had probably already cannibalized all of her lesser internal organs.  The only thing she had eaten that day was 2 donuts and a half a cup of coffee, and the box of pocky.  She then noticed the young man leaning against the doorway.  "Um, hi?"   

Manuel leaned against the doorway and studied the new girl. Not bad,
not bad at all. "Hola." he said, trying to be friendly and parse her
atrocious accent. "Hungry?"

Jennie's stomach chose that exact moment to growl again.  Jennie could feel herself blushing.  "Just a little."  She patted her stomach.  "It's in 'feed me now, bitch!' mode, meaning it probably has already digested my pancreas."

"We can't have that." he said, staring at the girl a little rudely
from behind his very expensive designer sunglasses. "Ah. Here we go."
he said, walking past her to open up the fridge and pulling out
several packages. "I know just what you want."

Jennie raised an eyebrow at him. Spanish accent, rude, mind games, she had been given a brief warning.  Okay, so he thought he could fuck with her head, let him.  She was hungry and she was too tired to be really pissy. "Are you Castillian?  You've got that cool lispy Spanish accent."

"Called it in one." he said, not liking the turn her emotions had
taken. She felt wary - ah. They'd warned her about him. A pity. "And
here you go." he said, holding out for her consideration the well-hidden packet of tortillas. They were Angelo's, but Manuel really didn't care all that much. "You like Mexican food, do you?" he asked pleasantly.

"It's because of where I grew up, sorta.  Las Vegas, 'the meadows' all that.  My friend Julia would make us these ultimate burritos before she went off to work, she was a paid dancer in one of the clubs there, and I had a kind of a craving for one."

"I noticed." he said, putting a name on the emotion that he sensed.
"Enjoy." he said, stepping back to give her room to access the fridge.
"So what brings you to Xavier's?" he asked pleasantly.

"Um. " Jennie said hesitantly.  "Julia, she got herself in a bit of trouble, and she’s dead. And... it's just safer for me to be here."  Jennie decided not to lie, because he could probably tell.  "My brain's not going to end up in jar, is it?"

"No, I'm fairly certain that the brain-in-a-jar thing is long since
faded from fashion here." he said with a laugh. "I'm sorry about your
friend." he said sincerely.

"It's in the past.  Not much I can do now."  She said a little sadly.  "So, can I interest you in a bit of food?  It's not gourmet by any means, but it gets the job done."

Manuel quirked an eyebrow and smiled winsomely at her. "Sure, why
not?" he said lightly, and then sat down on one of the kitchen stools
to wait for her to prepare what she was going to prepare.

"Okay, I hope you like spicy."  Jennie said as she uncovered a jar of
jalapeños.  "Because these are going to be a little spicy."  She set the jar next to the meat and cheese on the counter. "I'm Jennie, by the way."

"I'm Manuel." he said, extending his hand for her to take if she saw
fit. "But I can tell you've already been warned about me. I'm not as
bad as they say, truly." he said with a small smile. "I vigorously
deny any rumors that I strangle puppies or worship Satan."

"Good.  Because I can't abide any puppy-strangling."  She said with
mock-seriousness.  Jennie reached out and shook his hand.  "Can you tell me where to find a cheese grater, or a cookie sheet?"  She said as she opened and closed cabinets. 

Manuel stared at the cabinets for a second, and then pointed. "There's
a likely spot." he said before swearing explosively in Castillian. He
gestured towards the paper towel rack while leaning well-forward,
keeping both hands over his nose and mouth.

Jennie quickly grabbed a handful of paper towels and handed them to Manuel. "Are you alright?"

Manuel wadded up one paper towel and crammed it up one nostril. He
then wadded up another and repeated the process with his other
nostril. The rest went for cleaning up what blood managed to escape.
"Pushed too hard." he grumbled. "Tracking objects by their traces is a
real bitch." he said.

Jennie looked confused for a moment, and then chalked it up to something about his empathy.  She found a glass and filled it with some water from the fridge, and then handed it to Manuel.  "You going to be okay?"

Manuel looked at the water, and then shrugged and sipped from the
glass. "I'll be fine. These pass relatively quickly." he said.
"Nothing to worry about."

"Empathic occupational hazard?"  Jennie said, as she started rummaging
through the cabinets again, this time emerging with a cheese grater and after several seconds, a cookie sheet.  There was a bit of an awkward silence, so Jennie pressed on.  "So, what type of music do you like?" 

"Something like that." he said, and then grinned. "I used to DJ in the
clubs in Spain. I like trance, industrial, hardcore, that kind of
thing. Electronica in general gets me jazzed. If you hear it in a
club, it's generally all good." he gushed. "How about you?"

"Wow, a D.J. huh? Nice."  Jennie removed the hunk of mozzarella from the wrapper and began grating it.  "Julia was a go-go dancer, and she would sneak me in so I could go dance with her, because I'm a little underage.  So yeah, I love Electronica.  But I'm also a little old-school, I like rockabilly and pyschobilly, which is a kind of 50's-style rock mixed with punk.  Anyway, it's good music to dance to, and it's so hard to find guys that are willing to dance."  She finished grating and began to assembling the wraps.  "How are the clubs around here?"    

"Around here? Pathetic and sad. Luckily for us, New York's not that
far at all, and the club scene _there_ is much better." he said with a
grin. "I've known a few go-go dancers. Did your friend have the
required raging drug habit as well?" he asked.

"Nooooo.  After seeing what happened to my Mom, who's like this huge crackwhore?  Julia was completely clean, like, no caffeine even.  She used to bitch at me to quit smoking, like leaving little packs of nicorette in my room."  Jennie smiled a little. "Anyway, God, that's right, New York, just around the corner."  She popped the wraps in the oven, and then pulled a stool out and sat down. "So, what're the people like around here?" 

 "My viewpoint is somewhat ... unique." he said, in the Understatement
of the Century. "But most of the time if you don't antagonize folks
here they'll give you a fair go." he said. "But watch out for Jamie
and Doug, unless you like being pranked." he said with more than a
hint of disapproval.

"That's why I asked you, I'd rather hear the opinions of several people
before I make my decision."  Jennie yawned suddenly, covering it with her hand.  "'Scuse me.  Anyway.  Do you still D.J.?"  

"Not much of an opportunity to do so, unfortunately. I'm just about
ready to get my driver's license, which will help a lot." he said with
a small laugh. "Most of the time, I do mash-ups to amuse myself. We've
got a server for nothing but music, and I've got a few folders out
there of mashups and some other stuff I've done."

"There's a server for music?  Sweet.  I'll totally check those out, if it's okay."  Jennie checked her watch and then got up and walked over to the oven. Grabbing a nearby dishtowel, she pulled the cookie sheet out of the oven and laid it on top of the range.  Grabbing two plates, she deposited the wraps with a spatula, and then turned and handed one to Manuel.  "Bon appetite."  She said.  "Careful, it may still be a little hot."

"Bon appetit." he said, correcting the girl's pronunciation. He
neatly cut a piece off, blew on it to cool it, and then put it in his
mouth to chew and swallow. "Not bad." he said with a surprised look.
"Not bad at all."

Jennie shrugged and then took a bite of her own.  "Yeah, s'alright.  I had to make do with what I found.  It's good club food, lots of energy and it doesn't weigh you down."

Manuel grinned at that - his idea of clubbing food was hard drugs and
alcohol and maybe a little something solid from time to time. "I'm
getting that impression." he said, attacking the rest of his wrap.

Guess he was hungrier than he thought.

Comments

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" She quickly grabbed cheese and deli meat, but there weren't any jalapeños, or salsa for that matter. "


Yeah, because Doug "Wages war against his tastebuds" Ramsey -ate all of them-.

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I forsee a chilean death pepper contest happening.

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Oh, it's on. So on.

[xp_daytripper]

Winner takes on the Brit with the curry obsession? Or the other Brit with the curry obsession, since the master is off being Evil right now?