Morgan and Jake - early Saturday morning

[x-courier.livejournal.com]

Morgan runs into a one-armed Jake on his way out for coffee. Powers are discussed and plans are made.

(Posted early due to who the hell is up that early on a Saturday?)



Morgan blinked rapidly, as if to wake herself up more than she was but she'd been up for almost an hour. She'd even spent most of that time in the gym so she was alert and coherent. But there was Jake without an arm and obviously she had to be seeing things because she never saw him without his arms, even if she intellectually knew and understood that the other shapeshifter had lost it. "Uh, sorry. Didn't see you on the other side of that corner and...uh...sorry, but don't you usually do the two-limbed thing?" She resisted the urge to poke at his shoulder.

Jake blinked back. "No coffee," he mumbled. As a contrast to his usual suit-and-tie self, he was wearing a rumpled t-shirt and a pair of jeans that looked like they'd been dug out of a pile on his bedroom floor. Which, well, they had. He ran his remaining hand through his sleep-mussed hair. "Didn't feel like dealing with it, and the stoner bakery doesn't pay attention to how many arms you have."

"There's a stoner bakery?" Well, it was the safer thing to focus on, right? Morgan wrinkled her nose, not particularly fond of stoners or other sorts of non-prescription drug users. Of course, her eyes kept staring at the sleeve of the tee shirt that just sort of hung there like a curtain. "It takes that much effort to have an arm that coffee's required?" Her tone was oddly polite and curious rather than the sarcasm she likely would have used under normal circumstances.

Jake gave her a strange, slightly stunned look, not realizing that it was likely to be misinterpreted as offense at her question about his arm. "Baked," he replied. "Jubes and I'll have to take you there sometime--it's our favorite. And yeah," he wrinkled his nose. "I can't just...pop it out or anything. Bones are hard."

A hand raised and once again Morgan reminded herself to not poke at the armless shoulder. "Of course bones are hard, they're made of calcium." She thought about that for a second and then scrunched up her face. "Aye, but you didn't mean it like that, huh? So, how do you pop it out? I've never actually known other shapeshifters but I know you don't do it like I do. It's kind of interesting. In theory."

He blinked again. "Coffee," came the reply as he eyed her raised hand warily. "Buy me coffee and I'll tell you anything you want to know. But I'm not nearly awake enough to try to explain this."

"Such a bloody addict," Morgan muttered and spun around with an arm extending out to gesture Jake forward. "C'mon oh hopeless one, in search of coffee we go. Can I trust you to lead the way or will you get us turned around and lost?"

He smirked. "I could find it in my sleep. Which is good, because I'm only half-awake."

Jake made her buy his coffee, but bought her a pastry in return. "So, the easy answer is that it's complicated," he said as they settled in a booth tucked in a corner, one that offered a good view of the bakery but still felt private enough that they didn't have to worry about being overheard. "I have complete control on a cellular level, right? So in order to change anything, I have to get the right kind of cells to the right place. Skin and muscle are easy--just a matter of putting everything in the right place. Bone, on the other hand, involves structure and strength and..." He waved his hand around absently. "It's kind of a big deal if I fuck it up. Plus they're not the easiest cells to move."

Morgan's eyebrows crept upward a bit as she listened to that. That sounded annoying. After taking a bite of her danish, she thought about that. Really thought about it and how much concentration that must take. "Do you have to keep them there? Like keeping a leash on 'em sorta? Or's it just set up that sucks?"

He shrugged. "Mostly the set up. I mean, yeah, I have to pay attention--I lose the arm when I sleep, for instance, and it's harder to maintain when I'm drunk. But it's not like I have to keep thinking about it." He frowned, thinking; this wasn't something he had to explain very often--most people were satisfied with 'complete control on a cellular level.' "It's like dressing up, right? When I'm...this--" he gestured at his face and body, "--it's like hanging out at home in pajamas, or your favorite clothes. It's comfortable.When I change the way I look, it's like wearing an uncomfortable suit. It changes my posture, makes me think about what I do and how I move. Does that make sense?"

"Yeah, kinda." She kind of wanted to pull a mimic off him so she could understand the way he explained it better and figure out how he used his powers. It wouldn't do anything more than sate some curiosity for her, but she thought it'd be useful information to have. Or useful to have two people who could shift at will, unlike herself. Still, it sounded like a lot of work. "I think I like my version better, drawbacks and all."

He grinned at that. "It's not too bad, once I settle in. I'm not real excited about being low on calcium all the time, though. In fact, I'm pretty much over that." He rubbed at his tingling lips reflexively. "But I've always been able to do this. What about you? When did you figure out you could shift?"

Yeah, because this was going to be great breakfast conversion. Morgan snorted softly. "When I was fourteen. I'd manifested physically first. The first shift happened while my first John was inside me. Got a bit...awkward."

That earned her a raised eyebrow. "Yeah, I can imagine it would be." He smiled then, suddenly sheepish. "I'm told my bris was rather interesting."

"Were you an it?" Morgan had a mental image of Jake coming out shifting between male and female, blonde and brunette.

He laughed at that. "Nothing quite that exciting. More that by the time the mohel was done, I had already grown back what he'd cut off."

"Awfully attached to that bit of yourself, weren't you," she asked, laughter lancing through her words.

"I was eight days old!" he protested, laughing. "Some strange man was trying to cut off bits of me. I think it was perfectly reasonable." He finished his chocolate croissaint, the mirth fading as he regarded Morgan, clearly trying to decide something.

"You can watch, if you want," he said finally, after he'd washed down his breakfast with a generous swig of coffee.

"Well, I guess you might've missed it if you didn't grow it back." But it was still damn funny. Who knew an infant could be so protective of his foreskin?

The offer caused first one eyebrow and then the other to migrate upward. "Uh, you don't look too comfortable with that offer."

Jake squirmed a little, looking out over the bakery. "I haven't let anyone watch yet," he admitted. "I don't exactly know why, especially when a couple of people have seen it disappear. Although that's because I couldn't really help it at the time." He rubbed his mouth again. "But you...I think you would understand."

"Sorta an odd thing for someone else to watch anyway, innit? 'Hey, wanna watch me grow an arm?' just doesn't seem like the sort thing you ask a person, generally." She chewed on her lip, eyes watching Jake and she broke the staring to take a sip of her coffee. "I'd be interested to watch, yeah, not gonna lie. The differences in how we shift is sort of fascinating and I'm sure you shifting is nothing like when I do probably, even from the outside. But, seriously, if it's an uncomfortable thing for you I'm not going to ask you to let me play voyeur despite it."

He shrugged. "It's probably something I should get over," he said, although he still hadn't met her eyes. "I'd hate to have performance anxiety at an inopportune moment."

"I could offer a bit of 'if you show me yours, I'll show you mine,' but the only genetic material within touching distance is, well, you. And that creeps people out." And since she'd be working from genetics the Morgan version of Jake would have two arms. She didn't think she needed to go and have his other arm in his face.

He looked at her finally. "So you'd look like me? Hmm." He finished off his coffee. "That might be interesting. If, admittedly, kind of creepy." A sudden smirk crossed his face. "Then I wouldn't have to
show you, though--we could grow our arms together."

"Well, only if you want to hang out holding hands for about an hour and a half or so. I can pick up your mimic, the straight physical copy of you from your DNA in less time than it takes to shake your hand. But if I want your thought processes and mutation it's something like ninety minutes minimum of continuous physical contact. Only two people have willingly chosen that one so far. Also," she paused and chewed on her lip, "I'm not sure if I'd have the arm or not. Sometimes I pick up scars and stuff, which isn't genetic, and I pick up things like hair length, also not genetic. Your genetics would have two arms, but I guess it's possible I could end up with one."

"Thought processes?" He frowned at that. "What do you mean, exactly?"

It was Morgan's turn to frown. "It's sorta complicated. If I take a good enough copy of you to take your powers I can also take a mental imprint. It's like your brain's fingerprint in a way. If a telepath brushed against my mind they wouldn't know the difference between us unless they went digging around for memories and other things that only the real you would have, knowledge and that sort of thing. But the other thing it does is sort of lends me your reasoning ability. I can understand things as you'd understand them and I'd be able to think things through as you would. I lack your knowledge, experience and memories but if you'd understand a decompression chamber's construction then if you explained it to me while I had your mental imprint so would I. If that makes sense to you."

"Weird." He tried to take another sip of his coffee before realizing that his mug was empty. "Is that the part that creeps people out, or is it more looking at themselves walking around?" It certainly made him feel uncomfortable.

"The walking around looking like them. I'm a good judge of character and a thorough study of people. It takes more than appearance to be someone believably. Besides, I don't tend to go for mental imprints unless I have to and people don't usually know about that bit anyway." She shrugged and finished off her own coffee.

"Huh." He glanced up at her. "So...Don't hit me for asking, but is that something that you control consciously, or do you pick up people if you sleep with them? In the sleeping way, not in the sex way."

"Honestly?" She took in a breath and exhaled heavily. "Depends. Normally? I can control it and it's a totally conscious decision. But if I bounce from one set of people clothes to another pretty quickly some bad shit can happen on my end. If they're people I'm nabbing mental imprints of that I'm bouncing between I've been known to start to get lost in there. Once that starts happening I might pick up mimics of people without meaning to. That's why I showed up at Xavier's last year. I was picking up mimics accidentally and stuff."

He nodded in sympathy. "That seems to be the path to Xavier's for us shifters," he said with a small smile. He wrinkled his nose. "I was stuck as a girl."

"I...can't imagine you as a girl. Especially not willingly." This from the woman who wandered around the office wearing Daniel and flirting with unsuspecting cute girls while doing it.

"Girls can get into a lot of places where guys can't, and vice versa," Jake shrugged. "But I'm much happier as a guy." He pushed his empty cup and plate away from him. "So. Wanna go play with our powers?"

Morgan stood up and held her hand out to Jake. "You're on, lovie. But if I'm playing Jake dress up when you have to agree to not get squicky over the idea that I know what you look like naked." And suddenly all she could think was that Jake was the penultimately well-endowed man, because he could will himself whatever size he wanted to be. "Okay, bad thought," she said aloud and hit her temple with the heel of her hand.

Jake grinned. "Hasn't anyone ever told you I'm shameless? I'd be disappointed if you didn't look."

"I suddenly like you so much more than I already did."