xp_logs | Crystal and Remy - Coffee on a Cliff

Backdated to the week of Crystal's internship on Muir. A happy Crystal finds an unhappy Remy working outside and joins him for coffee. Work, family, powers, royalty, and genderswapping are among their topics of conversation and Crystal finds herself with a possible new "internship."

It was a wonderful, beautiful day. Crystal was definitely enjoying the time she was spending on Muir. A new environment, dedicated professionals, so many things to learn, great scenery... and quite a distance from New York. Sitting on a cliff, Crystal smiled as she looked out at the water.

Remy LeBeau, on the other hand, was in an especially foul mood after the day's investigation. Every stone that he turned over revealed more questions and more details that didn't make any sense. He'd finally abandoned the empty office that Moira had loaned him, opting instead for a picnic table outside, open to the chill wind coming in over the water. Cold didn't bother him much, and he mostly ignored it as he scrolled through records on his laptop, stopping to make the odd note on a pad, the pages ruffling with each breeze.

Crystal stood and stretched, then hovered five inches off the ground before turning around to head back to the building. It was on her way back that she saw Remy, who hadn't been there when she came outside earlier. She recognized him, not just because of the journals, but because she had met him once, more than six months ago. "Good afternoon," she greeted him with a smile.

"Hmm?" Remy looked up from the screen. "Oh, pardon, petite. Remy a million miles 'way. He scrubbed his hand over his face, rubbing his eyes briefly. Too many hours staring at tiny numbers, and even if a picture was starting to emerge, there would be another couple of dozen hours more of this. "Out taking de air, neh?"

Crystal nodded. "Yes. I apologize if I interrupted you. I did not mean to disturb your concentration." It was clear to Crystal that Remy had been very into his work, just like Nathan, only Remy didn't have a mini-army of teenage girls eager to feed him. She hadn't expected to see anyone else from the journal system here, and was quite curious as to what he was doing there, but she didn't want to seem rude.

"At dis point, any distraction is welcome." He reached over and pulled the themos of coffee out of the file bag on the end of the table and poured himself a cup. He tilted the top towards her, the invitation to join him for a drink obvious.

Crystal smiled slightly and gave a small nod as she accepted Remy's invitation, joining him at the table. Even an entire ocean away from the school, she was being offered coffee by someone from New York. She actually didn't mind and found this to be amusing. "I am glad to see that someone who is into his work is perfectly fine with taking breaks on his own and welcomes distractions," she told Remy.

"Well, a job dat's going to take a hundred hours gets longer if you have to add burnout to de end of it. Besides, makes you sloppy, slow, prone to mistakes--" He poured the plastic cup full, using the top of the themos to drink out of himself. "Making mistakes isn't something dat Remy ever got comfortable wit'."

He gave a thin smile and sipped from the top. It was dark Kenyan coffee, something that Ororo had introduced him to; thick and bitter. "Dat got you here for extra credit dis semester?"

Crystal smiled at Remy's statement. Why didn't other people see it that way? She took a sip of the coffee, her eyes widening at the taste, and swallowed the coffee that wasn't anything at all like the other types of coffee she'd had before. "I am here for an internship," Crystal explained. "I volunteer at the medlab at Xavier's. It is the first time the research facility here is trying this, so I am a willing test subject."

"Planning on pursuing dat? Medicine, Remy mean." He flicked close the files in front of him and stretched a little. It really had been a long week. "Figured dat even if you not next in de succession, dere would still be plenty of duties dat will get in de way once you graduate."

Get in the way? Crystal shook her head. "They will not get in the way. I want those duties. I have not been able to fulfil them properly this year, but after graduation I will be able to devote time to them, plus I will take university classes at the palace. You are not the first person to ask if I am planning on pursuing studying medicine." She gave a brief nod. "Learning various ways my abilities can be used for medical purposes is something that interests me. Learning everything I can about my abilities interests me. Perhaps I will study medicine after all."

"Dat's studying medicine. I meant get in the way of practicing it." Remy clarified simply, with a little shrug. "Of de royalty dat I've run across, none of dem have had de liberty to be able to practice de various fields dat dey studied, either due to dere position or security concerns. Attilan any different?"

"Maybe they did not wish to practice the field," Crystal suggested. "One of my classmates asked me if I wanted to be a doctor after I graduated... no. I will not be a doctor and I do not wish to be one. I am Lady Crystal Amaquelin of the royal family of Attilan. That is who and what I am and wish to be. I already have a 'job' and it one that I accept willingly."

"Hmm." Remy said non-commitally, sipping from his cup. He couldn't understand it, but he'd never been bred to do one thing from birth, which he assumed was required. "So when do you return to Attilan for good?"

"I will return home after graduation on the tenth of June," Crystal replied. She could have given the number of days until then, but decided against it. She also wasn't sure if that's when she'd be returning "for good" as she never knew when her parents might decide it was time for a vacation. Everyone would be busy with the plans for Medusa's engagement party, but they might want a few days away from the palace before the party took place.

"Dat will be nice. Must be nice to be wit' family, after so many months away." LeBeau eased himself back, raising his face a bit to catch the salt wind. The cold was very different, but the moisture in the air reminded him a little bit of New Orleans.

Taking a sip of coffee, Crystal raised her eyebrows. "I have gone home several times during the past year and have seen my family," she said after setting the cup on the table. "I was not exiled to the mansion, even if it does feel that way at times. You are correct, though, it will be nice to be home with my family again."

"'fraid dat Remy mostly missed you schedule over de last year, petite." Remy said dryly, gently reminding her that the Snow Valley Center and the school lived in very different worlds. What was common knowledge for the school barely even registered with them at times. "'sides, dey tell me it's different visiting home den going home for good. Can't say for myself, but it's what dey say."

"I would be quite concerned if you had been keeping track of my schedule during the past year," Crystal remarked, smiling slightly. "But yes, going home to stay is quite different from a brief visit." She paused for a moment, considering a question. "I have told you why I am here. May I ask what brought you here? Is there a certain reason you chose to come to Muir specifically, or did you just need time away from the office?"

"I'm here working. It's a shame, since Moira's cooking is such a draw to de tourist crowd." LeBeau said wryly. Moira's coffee was as infamous at Muir as it had been at the mansion. "Still, seeing wit' what happened to de mansion, it's better to have an ocean between us."

He was working. Well, yes, of course; that much should have been obvious to anyone who had half a brain. That hadn't been the question. "What happened to the mansion?" Crystal repeated, a small frown forming on her face. "What do you mean? What happened to the mansion?"

"Missed de journals? 'parently dey ran into a mutant dat, well, swapped dere genders. Most of dem." Remy shook his head. "Guess dat makes me suddenly gay and trendy. Remy going to have to seriously change my wardrobe. De, what, gay eye for de Cajun guy, neh?"

Crystal nearly choked on her coffee. "I, ah, knew about the, ah, gender swap, but I was under the impression that it was not a mansion-related event seeing as how some of your coworkers also managed to change their genders. I am not sure how what happened to them could have caused you to become gay, though."

"My girlfriend is 'parently a strapping six foot black man wit' a bad white haircut dese days." Remy said, with a chuckle. Afterall, how else was he to react to the whole situation other than to make a joke about it? He topped up both coffee cups. "'case you didn't know Ororo Munroe and I started dating a couple of months ago."

"But that does not... I mean... are you..." Crystal stopped. She really couldn't get away from the insanity at the mansion and in New York, could she? "You have not changed, she has, and surely she and the others will change back. Soon. Before my internship is over." She didn't want to go back if everyone was still genderswapped. She was definitely staying away from the mansion during the weekend, and if everyone changed back by Sunday evening she'd return and smile and pretend it hadn't happened, and if they hadn't... no. Bad.

"Supposed to only be a few more days at most." Remy said, shaking his head. "Dat was my attempt at humour which no doubt is de reason dat I never tried a career in stand-up." The mansion was high on the strange meter, and despite a year there, it appeared that Crystal never really had adapted to it. After all, a more different environment from her life at the palace than the school was hard to imagine. He vaguely mused how she'd react to the life of those at Snow Valley. Possibly find it more comfortable, in a way.

"Oh, yes, I see," Crystal said, nodding. "Humor. Of course. I apologize. I just... I do not find it funny at all. People running around clad in black leather is an odd enough concept, add in the popularity of being kidnapped and possessed and it is extremely unusual... the dinosaurs should not have existed but they did... but this... it is... a bit too much." Illyana was right. People should stay in their own shapes.

"It's a strange world around you, petite, and de X-Men are one of de groups smack in de middle of it. For example, my new coffee girl is a former Demon Queen. Your groundskeeper is part Elder God. And you and you sister are actual royalty, going to school in New York State. Sometimes you need to let youself sit back and accept it." Remy was staring past her, looking out over the sea, his gaze distant. "Sometimes it strange enough to give a monster a second chance. Dere's worse lives to be in den dis one."

Crystal's eyes flickered out to the water, then looked back at Remy. "Some monsters are not really monsters, I believe. People make mistakes. They can change. Everyone who takes the time to realize that their past actions were wrong and makes an effort to avoid repeating them deserves a second chance."

"Dat you wrong 'bout, but it's a good thing to be wrong 'bout." Remy said, not exactly cryptically, but certainly without bothering to explain further. The Cajun, despite his apparent openness in the afternoon air, still carried most of his life close to his chest. "In any case, you lucky to be missing out on what must be some harilarious bathroom arguments back at Westchester right now. Dis your first time to Muir?"

"Yes, it is truly tragic that I am missing what are surely scintillating and entertaining discussions," Crystal replied with a small laugh. "How unfortunate that I am away while all of this is happening. I am sure that you are also saddened to be missing the equally interesting conversations that are occurring at Snow Valley. Also, yes, this is my first visit to Muir. How many times have you been here?"

"Many times. Remy got an unfortunately tendency to need being put back together by Moira." He said wryly. Most of his time on Muir had been being patched up or arriving with someone else who needed to be. He'd stopped in briefly to see Rory, Landin and Sara, but they hadn't recognized him and he'd made a fairly hasty retreat soon after. "It's quiet here. Raw, much colder den New Orleans, but it's got the same... pace, I suppose. Everything is forced to slow down."

Crystal nodded. Such things had to happen in his line of work. The X-Men went off and broke themselves, the people at Snow Valley went off and broke themselves... New York was full of people who liked to go off somewhere and break themselves. "I am enjoying my stay here," she said. "The cold does not bother me, I am learning many things, and in my free time it is easy to find a place that is quiet and peaceful. I have never been to New Orleans. Is that your home?"

"Used to be. Long time ago." He said simply. Under his hands, the wind rustled his papers and he took a moment to shift his laptop over them to keep them from flying away. "Guess dat New York is my home now. Seems to keep getting less temporary all de time."

"That seems to be the case for many people," Crystal replied. Maybe the "must stay here" fever was actually a New York thing, not a mansion one, or maybe it seized you at the mansion and made sure you didn't stray too far. Crystal knew people left but many seemed to come back to stay or at least have a long-term visit. She didn't intend to be one of those people. "It is good that so many people from many different backgrounds have found a place they can call home."

"I think dat's what Charles was intending wit' de mansion. Personally, it's hard not to like a city like New York, Remy think." He grinned suddenly, one of the many flicker quick glimpses past the professional mask he did so naturally. "Besides, where else can you get good Afghani take-out at two in de morning, neh?"

He stretched, a bizarre sight with his unnatural agility and plastic laced bones allowing him to extend to an almost unnatural amount. "De wind is picking up. Dis place going to feel like my office every time Sofia wants to annoy me." He mused, mostly to himself.

"She uses her powers against you when she wishes to bother you?" Crystal asked. "I know she redirected sound when Mark had his iPod fun, something that I would have found rather useful on Kazoo Day at the mansion, but does she really create wind simply to annoy you?"

"I think dat Sofia exists simply to annoy me." Remy said archly. "Oui, she's found of de icy wind over de neck when we're in de middle of one of our pleasent chats. Not sure how de sound thing worked, but Remy took de more logical route of just not being at de office."

Crystal had to stifle a laugh at the thought of Sofia existing for the sole purpose of annoying Remy and perhaps the other people who worked at Snow Valley, as well as the thought of Remy essentially hiding from his coworkers' craziness, not that she blamed him for that. She didn't always have the option of just not being at the school while whatever the current insanity was took place, but she sure didn't have to stand there in the middle of it.

"I understand the basics of the idea," Crystal replied, "but I never gave much thought to it before my arrival at the mansion. Directing my voice at someone, yes, but actively directing any other source of sound away from me and at a particular person or place? Not really." As she spoke, the wind Remy had been speaking of died down around the table but continued a few feet away on either side of them.

"Guess dat dere's always something to learn, neh? Amazes me sometimes what she can do wit' dose winds." Remy shook his head. "She's mostly self-taught on dem too. Without de Danger Room or a staff to help her. It's a pretty impressive feat."

"That is what most people have to do, yes?" Crystal said. "Most mutants do not have access to a specialized training facility or teachers who have already been trained in the use of their powers. The difference is that not all mutants are interested in learning all of the ways they can use their abilities or having a good grasp on control. I have learned many new uses of my powers since my arrival at the mansion, mostly from Ms. Munroe, but I had already spent a lot of time on working on my powers before then and had excellent control over the known uses at that time."

"Most people wit' de power levels of ones like de X-Men tend to run into a lot more problems before de ever get help." There were always stories in the news of unfortunate and occasionally tragic accidents by mutants who were too young or experienced to control their powers. "I'm pretty impressed by what some people have been able to figure out demselves. I never had dat problem."

"What are your powers, if I may ask?" Crystal asked Remy, suddenly realizing she didn't know the answer to that question.

"Getting into de intelligence business, petite?" Remy grinned and pulled a deck of cards out of his jacket pocket. He pulled out three, showing them to her. Two black aces and the Queen of Diamonds. He flipped them back over and with remarkable speed shuffled the cards around, occasionally flipping the queen back up to show her and over again, quickly lost in his motions. "Which one is de Red Lady?" He said, pointing to the three cards lying facedown on the table.

A slight wind found its way under two of the cards and pushed them up so and over on the table so the faces of the two cards, the Ace of Clubs and the Ace of Spades, could be seen. "That one," Crystal replied, pointing at the one card still remaining facedown

Remy flipped over the card. The two of clubs. "'fraid not, petite." He touched the card with one finger, until it started to glow with a nimbus of energy. Then, with a sharp crack, the card exploded into nothing, only a few ashes of waxed paper left to drift down in the air.

"Dat's what Remy's power is."

Crystal blinked, looking surprised at the revelation of the card's true identity. After the card met its demise, she looked up at Remy. "Do you keep spare cards handy or do you have to get a new deck of cards every time you do that?" she asked with a grin.

"Always keep a few cards around." Remy flicked his fingers, and the Queen of Diamonds appeared as if by magic between his ring index and middle fingers. He passed it over to her with a smile. "Never know when you're going to need an ace up you sleeve, non?"

"No, you never do," Crystal mused, examining the card for a moment before looking back at Remy. "Do you suppose Sofia might be willing to take breaks from her life's purpose of annoying you and agree to work with me on my powers? I am perfectly capable of learning on my own, but it is generally more efficient to learn from someone who is already skilled."

"She might. I'm told bribing her wit' shoes is highly effective." Remy rubbed his chin for a moment. "However, it will have to be low key. Wit' dat wedding coming up, you and you sister going to be very high profile, and I can't risk my people showing up in de back of some tabloid photo for de public."

"You do not believe everything you read in the tabloids, do you?" Crystal smiled slightly. "But Yes, Medusa is engaged now. However, unless you have reporters and members of the paparazzi constantly camped out at the Snow Valley building, I think it will be fine. I can take different cars, leave at different times, even wear a wig if necessary."

"It might be. I know dat you normally don't have crowds of paparazzis around you, but a royaly wedding makes de public go crazy, and everyone connected wit de bride and groom are going to get attention for months. Might be a touch overly cautious, but Remy rather cut down de risk. If Sofia says yes, I'll have Frost's people come up wit' some kind of official reason incase you do get spotted coming in." Remy said. The chances were that the precautions were unnecessary, but it was better to not take chances with their office. If anyone connected X-Force to Snow Valley, then the entire anonymous structure Wisdom had come up with would collapse.

"Oh. I see." Why couldn't anything ever be simple? "An internship?" Crystal suggested. "I would be training, just not the way people would think."

"Dat could work. Run it through de school and Frost's company as de cover, and it's boring enough dat de media wouldn't care who you were doing it wit'." Remy nodded. "I like it. If Sofia says yes, we'll work something out 'long dose lines."

Crystal gave a nod of her own. "I have to be getting back now, and I know you have your own work to do. Thank you for the coffee and for taking the time to speak with me. Oh, and for the card trick, too." She smiled and held up the card; immediately it and her hand were hidden by a small cloud of steam. The steam dissipated quickly but the card was nowhere to be seen.

"Bein. De day you want to learn how to do dat wit'out de steam, you give me a call." Remy said, as he opened his laptop up and went back to work.