Nathan and Adrienne- backdated to Saturday evening

[x-adrienne.livejournal.com]

When a meditation and shielding lesson tanks, Nathan and Adrienne head to Harry's to discuss Rachel, the business of weaponizing children, Sebastian Shaw, and ambition.


"I'm sorry, I don't think I can keep going on right now," Adrienne
apologized, huffing out an annoyed breath and running fingers over her
temples. She'd been trying to have a lesson in shielding with Nathan,
but was finding herself too distracted on her issues with
Garrison to focus. "Think we could skive off the rest of the lesson
and get a beer or something?"

"I don't know," Nathan said in the driest tone imaginable. "If I was
your sister, would you suggest that?" He was mostly just giving her a
hard time; her focus clearly wasn't there today, and the practice
wasn't quite so critical as to force her through it when her mind was
elsewhere. "I think you're taking advantage of my good nature, Frost."

"I have no answer for your question," Adrienne pointed out, "as I
would never be training with my sister. I think we'd kill each other
if we were ever in that situation. I don't take direction well in the
best of circumstances, as I'm sure you've discovered by now, and I
don't believe she tolerates insubordination. Not like you," she
simpered. "You have the patience of a saint. Beer?"

"Beer might be acceptable." Nathan rose from his crosslegged position,
trying not to groan as his hip, ribs, and back all protested at once,
and loudly. God, he was old and decrepit. "You're buying, though. I'm
not feeling that charitable."

"I'm alright with that arrangement," the brunette agreed, smiling. She
winced as Nathan stood. "You're going to have to stop going on Elpis
missions soon, old man, in favour of keeping your health," she teased.
"How are things at Elpis, anyway?"

"It's not Elpis missions that are leaving me creaky and sour," Nathan
said, not quite dryly. "And they're fine. You wouldn't want to up your
donation, would you? We can always use more money..." It was fairly
rough-and-ready as fundraising appeals went, but then, this was
Adrienne. "New projects, you knew. Cute mutant children with big
eyes."

Leading the way towards the garage and waiting Driver, Adrienne
nodded. "My personal donation, sure. As for the corporate, I'll talk
to accounting. Wouldn't want to contribute to your sourness. So has
there been any progress on the weaponization front?" she inquired,
very interested in the issue because of Sebastian Shaw's possible
involvement.

"Oh, good. Very good. Rachel took over a small South American country
the other day. Slightly underwhelming performance, but we figure she's
scaling up to Bolivia."

Adrienne giggled in spite of her low spirits. "If I didn't think it
was entirely possible for her to do exactly that, I might be less
terrified," she quipped. "You know that's not what I meant, though. Or
is your daughter one of the things that isn't Elpis but is leaving you
creaky and sour?" There was a hint of concern in her voice.

"Goodness no. She is the very light of my life, even if she's taken
to swearing like a trooper. Moira is not pleased."

"Where the fuck would she have learned that from?" the brunette asked
with a raised eyebrow.

Nathan gave her a very dry look. "I don't know. It's a mystery." He
deliberately diverted the conversation onto talking about some more of
Elpis's recent projects, chattering away in a very un-Nate-like way
(and barely allowing Adrienne to get in a word in edgewise) until they
were actually at Harry's and seated.

"Well, I have to say it sounds very ambitious to me," Adrienne replied
when Nathan finally stopped for a sip of his drink. "I'm definitely
willing to get my money behind that and see what you can do with it.
You never answered my question from before about what's making you
creaky and sour," she pointed out, downing some of her beer. "Not
Rachel. Not Elpis. Not Moira, I hope?"

"Well, she's not thrilled at me for jumping out of a helicopter and
divebombing a building-" Oh, for the opportunity to have found the guy
with the cell phone and shoved it where the sun didn't shine before
leaving Budapest. "-but no, not Moira." He shrugged irritably. "What
you asked about," he finally said. "The weaponization issue. No, there
is no progress, at least as far as I know. Though I doubt I'm going to
be asked in to consult again anytime soon, after how the last time
went."

"Even after that info I gave you about the Serpent Society offering
Tabitha up as a gift for Sebastian Shaw's 'breeding program'?"
Adrienne asked, wrinkling her nose in distaste. "Here I would have
thought their offer would imply some degree of guilt on Shaw's
account." She knew, from her readings, that Shaw was guilty, but
because her knowledge had been gained under less than reputable
circumstances, Adrienne knew there was nothing concrete to pin on
Shaw.

"You would think that Shaw would be guilty of many things," Nathan
said. "I mean, he is, but even if he was involved in this he hasn't
lasted this long without being able to cover his tracks. As for the
info itself... not much I, or even Elpis, can do with that. Although
the thought to pass it along was appreciated." He smiled a bit sourly,
sipping at his beer, and decided to say it. "I don't know if I'd be
trying to be an irritant to Shaw, if I were you. He tends to take
steps against irritants."

Nodding, Adrienne tipped her glass towards Nathan in a gesture of
gratitude for his concern. "Don't worry about me. I figured Shaw out
the moment I first saw him. His reputation precedes him, anyway." It
wasn't as if Nathan was the first to warn her about Shaw. "Besides,
Shaw and I are like this," she assured him, crossing two fingers.
"Emma and I play public enemies at the Hellfire Club, and since Emma
and Shaw are enemies, that by the old adage makes Shaw my friend." She
was being deliberately flippant- she was no closer to being Shaw's
friend than Nathan was, if Shaw even had friends- but Adrienne liked
to think she'd been making some inroads towards establishing a rapport
with him.

Nathan just raised an eyebrow. "Right," he said, not quite
skeptically. "You have him wrapped around your little finger.
Defanged, friendly, and absolutely harmless."

"I still have some work to do with him before we get to that stage,
admittedly," Adrienne smirked. "I am being careful, though. I don't
underestimate Shaw, Nathan. Don't worry about that. I've read the
files on what he's done to the mansion residents."

Nathan gave her a very level look, then mentally shrugged. "Just watch
it with the information-passing, if you get any deeper into this. The
last thing you'd ever want is him tracing something back to you.
You're not precisely helpless, but I don't think you'd like the
measures he might take."

"But you're a telepath," Adrienne reminded him. "Anything I pass to
you could have been extracted from my head against my knowledge- Shaw
wouldn't blame me, he'd just blame you." She grinned to show him she
was kidding. "I'm a survivor, Nathan. I'm not reckless about how I get
my information, who I tell, and how I cover my tracks. I am extremely
careful where Shaw is concerned. You two go back a long ways, don't
you?"

Nathan just grunted. "Once upon a time, I was an irritant. Then I
graduated to punching him in the brain, which is still a very fond
memory."

"Telepathy's a gem, isn't it?" Adrienne mused, downing her beer. "Or
did you punch him in the brain literally?"

"No. Unfeasible given his mutation. I found that out when I blew him
through the wall."

"I wish I could've seen that," she smirked. "Say, you don't have
anything you were wearing that day, do you?"

"Wearing? No. And I don't think you want to touch my psimitar. It's
been some pretty dire places. Would probably knock you on your ass as
badly as my memory crystal did." Nathan snorted, savoring the truth of
the statement somewhat wryly.

"I believe you," Adrienne nodded. "I think I'll pass on that one. Oh
well. At least let me buy you another beer for punching Shaw in the
brain," she grinned.

"Question for you," Nathan said, lifting his beer again. "Why the
Hellfire Club? You're hardly unfulfilled, professionally speaking. And
you're not just going for the parties, you're getting involved with
the Inner Circle. Your life not exciting enough for you? Needs more
danger?"

The question surprised Adrienne into stopping mid-sip and setting her
beer down. "The Club has professional connections outside of my usual
circles," she answered after a brief pause to gather her thoughts.
"I'm a greedy bitch; I want the power that comes in those circles with
being a member. I want the connections. And I'm not getting
involved with the Inner Circle," she said in a very slow, deliberate
manner, making sure Nathan understood that any involvement she might
have with the Inner Circle was strictly hush-hush. "I'm Switzerland.
I'm completely neutral. I hate my sister which means I could never be
a part of the White Court, and Sebastian Shaw doesn't trust me." She
gave him a tiny, slightly diabolical smile. "Plus, everyone knows
Inner Court members are the ones who have the dangers. Us lowly
Switzerland-types who aren't allied with either side are the safest of
the bunch, so long as we use our wits and wiles and don't turn our
backs on anyone." The psychometrist shrugged. "Please don't tell me I
don't know what I'm getting myself into. I'm perfectly aware. Maybe I
do need more danger in my life. Maybe you're rubbing off on me," she
smirked.

"Maybe," Nathan said, not smiling, "but maybe not. I don't seek out
danger for personal gain."

"That's true," Adrienne admitted. "You're right, you don't. Sorry."
She wasn't going to contradict him. She was doing what she was
doing for personal gain. It was how she'd lived all her life.

"I just keep wondering why you feel you need this. You've got one job
where you help create beauty. You've got another where you're
responsible for working with all these fresh young minds." There was
maybe a touch of sarcasm to the later comment. "And yet, you also need
to be a social climber in an environment where the ladder is hanging
over a shark tank. Ah, well. Human beings are generally perverse."

Her mouth opened, but closed again as Nathan's words struck her a
little bit dumb. Joining the Hellfire Club didn't really make any sort
of sense when he put her life that way, yet she did need to be
a social climber, and had since she'd been a child. She was a Frost!
Brooding into her beer for a long time, Adrienne scowled, but not at
Nathan. "I'm not going to argue with that," she answered finally.
"What can I say? I'm a product of my upbringing, I suppose. I'm a
Frost. Never was strong enough to buck the genetic conditioning," she
said with a wan smirk. "Or never wanted to try." There was no point in
making excuses, so she didn't try. She liked to think she wasn't the
same person she'd been when she'd been married to Steven, but
obviously she hadn't changed very much at all. It was a little
disappointing.

Nathan raised both eyebrows, and didn't respond for a moment. "One of
these days," he finally said, "I'm going to tell you the story behind
Elpis, and you're going to look back on this conversation and laugh.
Seriously. Because there's no such thing as genetic condiitoning, and
sometimes the best thing you can do, for yourself and for everyone
around you, is to tell your family legacy to go fuck itself."


Adrienne laughed at that, mostly because she couldn't imagine herself doing it. For all she pretended she didn't care about her past, she also believed she could never be free of it, only try to cope with it. "Well, I'm not planning on endangering everyone around me, if that's what you mean by shirking my Frost-ness," she said to Nathan firmly. She'd come to care too much for the people at the school too much to do something stupid that would hurt them. Not that she was going to tell Nathan that. "But whenever you're ready to tell me, I'll listen, and we'll see if when you're done I run over to Emma and tell her to fuck herself."