log: amara and jean-paul

[x-volcanic.livejournal.com]

Jean-Paul saves Amara from almost killing herself on the rowing machine in the gym, and they talk a little about her joining the X-Men and turning her talents towards terra-forming.

"Do you need a hand?"

Jean-Paul wasn't normally the kind to seek out damsels in distress, but sometimes they were rather hard to miss, particularly on the way to his morning swim. He headed toward the blonde struggling with the rowing machine. He tried to look confident, but he still hadn't figured out quite what she was trying to accomplish by the time he reached her.

Well, she was trying to do some sort of work-out. Which clearly wasn't going very well, because she hadn't quite figured out how to adjust the settings so it was at a level she could handle. She might be fairly fit for a girl her age, but she honestly didn't have a lot of strength behind her.

"Yes please," she said, relief obvious in her voice. "I'm not entirely sure how to reset the machine so that I can actually use it."

Jean-Paul glanced down at the digital interface, brows rising slightly. "At that level of resistance, I'm not sure who here actually could use it." He had offered to help, but he still felt at a disadvantage when dealing with anything electronic. Fortunately, the interface was relatively intuitive and, after a false start, the two of them managed to adjust the machine to more useful levels.

Amara laughed a little at that. "Maybe one of the crazy strong people have been in here playing around... but that does make sense as to why I couldn't get it to work." She tested the level they set it at, and grinned up at Jean-Paul. "Thank you so much... that is definitely a lot better."

"Well, that is a relief. For a moment I thought I'd run into another who decided to become an overachiever after Arcade's little game." Jean-Paul was getting better about it; now mentioning Arcade's name only made him want to beat the man severely, not kill him.

"No, nothing like that. I was actually talking to Scott about joining the X-Men before all of that happened, but I have realised since then that I could do with a little work in the gym." Compared to the rest of the team, she was pretty sure she lagged seriously behind in that area.

"Oh, yes?" He gave her a quick glance. Fit, certainly, but not very toned. "It could not hurt," he agreed. "What made you decide to be fitted for leathers?"

"I want to be able to do more to help. I've learnt a lot while I've been living here, about how to control my powers and not hurt people with them. But after what happened in New York, I realized there's a lot more I could be doing to help people. And that I wanted to be able to help them."

"Being an X-Man is one way to do that." A very neutral response. "You're another pyrokinetic, yes?"

"Yes!" She said with a smile. "Amongst other things. I can create and manipulate lava as well, and set off earthquakes." She looked pained for a moment. "Tends to be very easy to cause a lot of damage."

"Or prevent it, depending on the situation. I'd imagine you could create your own island chain, given enough time."

"I supposed I could," she said with a bit of a smile. She'd only ever thought about her powers in relation to how much damage she could cause and how careful she had to be. "And I suppose if we ever wanted an island retreat, I could start working on creating one for us."

"A mutant school operating out of a secret island base in the Pacific." Jean-Paul pretended to consider. "There, see? Perfect reason for you to be on the team."

"Well, you never know when we might need an international annex," she said with a bit of a laugh. "Maybe I should pitch the idea to the Professor, see what he thinks."

"Just let me know before everyone packs up and moves," the speedster requested, rising to his feet. "If I have to fly there myself, I will be very unpleasant compny."

"I think we can give you enough warning." Though Amara did pull a face at the thought of flying after smiling over to Jean-Paul. "Thank you again for your help." Amara didn't want to keep Jean-Paul from his work-out for too long.