xp_logs | Jay & Lex

Jay does some grueling work that he promised Ororo ages ago when Lex sees him and startles him. Introductions are made and uncomfortable questions are asked by the newcomer.

Jay stood on the tailgate of his truck, shovel in hand, hauling soiled off the end into a pile in the wheel barrel. There had to be an easier way to do this but he hadn't thought of it yet and sweat poured off him in buckets until he paused to wipe it away with the bandana that hung from his back pocket. He hated doing this but he had promised he would help out with the greenhouse and garden, obliged to keep his promises as he was taught to.

The obligation was slowly becoming a tender ache in his muscles and it forced him to stand, pushing his hair from his face and give some relief to his body. He let his head fall back on his shoulders, wishing he was doused in a cold shower from the hose and for once, contemplated whether or not he should have worn shorts and not the typical torn at the knees jeans that he wore day in and day out.

Lex was enjoying the breeze, fresh air was exactly what he needed. He was fairly happy with how the mansion had received his luau and now that he was starting training with Nori he felt a renewed sense of purpose in the world. His step was lighter and he held himself much better than he had for much of the past week. When he saw the blue man standing next to the truck he was a bit surprised, he hadn't expected people to be out in this heat. Out of shear curiosity, he decided to go over and see what the man was doing.

He approached and kept silent, realizing he had no idea who he was walking towards. He stood there awkwardly for a moment while trying to figure out how to break the silence. "Hey."

Jay startled and his wings were out within a second, ready to lung but the loss of balance had him stagger back and instinctively drive the points of his wings down, slamming into the bed of the truck.

The shovel fell down and clattered to the pavement, but it was barely noticed as he tried to recover from the surge of adrienaline that hammered at his chest. "Jesus Christ--" he cursed.

Damnit, Lex thought, feeling a bit like an ass, I really need to get to know these people. I seem to run into more and more unknowns every day. "Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you. I just saw you over here and was wondering what you were up to." He extended his hand, "I'm Lex."

One wing was jerked free of the truck and Jay frowned at the hand, but he didn't take it. Instead he half turned, curling his wing and tried to twist it free. "Yeah well, Lex, next time don't go sneakin' up on people--" the wing broke free and snapped plastic with it. "Aw fuckin' hell," he turned around and raked his fingers through his hair, staring down at the two holes his wings made before crouching down. "Ugh! Look at this! This is shit."

"I didn't sneak up on you, I just walked over."Lex said as he moved a little closer to inspect the damage. There were definitely two huge holes in the truck bed. "If you want help fixing them, I'd be more than willing to lend you a hand."

He arched his wings back so he didn't smack Lex in the head and thumbed the liner, knowing it wouldn't take much for it to warp. Blowing out a sigh, he crouched there for a minute longer, stressing over the fact that he had to put money out to make this look like new or have Forge fix him a brand new one. Either way, it was going to cost him for parts. "Sorry but hell no. Ah don't need no home style fix-it-yourself job done on mah Chevy." He glanced over his shoulder, giving the older man a once over before he stood up and dropped off the truck onto the pavement. "You're lucky Ah didn't chop off yer head." He'd already done it once. No need to repeat that.

Lex thought about it, the speed with which the man had jumped probably could have taken him out unawares, but he was pretty sure he'd have reacted fast enough to keep his head. With no real response, he moved around the man to look over the truck. It seemed to be decent, but Lex wondered if it was customized like Amanda's 'Broomstick.' Shaking his head, he said, "Suit yourself." He was starting to figure out that the less he spoke the better he'd fair when meeting new people at the mansion. He seemed to have the uncanny ability to piss people off.

Again he ran his hand through his hair and hung it off the back of his neck, staring at his truck. Really, he was thinking about what he said to the other guy and sighed tiredly, turning to gesture helplessly. "Sorry, mah manners have been real bad as of late and Ah don't mean to be a jerk about it. Ah'm Jay, resident fuck up."

Lex laughed, "There are some who'd disagree with that statement." He thought about them, and knew he still had a lot of ground to make up before he'd feel able to really consider himself part of the team. "As I said, I'm Lex, and I meant what I said about helping you, even if it's just buying parts."

"Nah, don't worry about it. Ah ain't gonna ask you to pay. Especially not when Forge might be able to do somethin'. You've met him right? He fixes everythin'." He shrugged even though he didn't feel it wasn't that small and turned around, leaning his wings into the tail of the truck, quietly wishing they would tuck themselves away. "Yer really new here right?"

"Yeah, I'm the new guy." Lex said, "and I work in the garage, for now." He thought about his prospects at the mansion. He didn't know if being an X-man was a full-time commitment or if he'd have to find something else to occupy his time. "As for the truck, the least I can do is buy you a six-pack."

"It ain't yer fault, it's mine." He shrugged and casually gave Lex a once over as if he was seeing him for the first time. "New guy's pretty ripped. Sure you can buy me a beer but Ah'm gonna warn ya, Ah don't get drunk." His signature lopsided grin fell into place and he pushed off the tail of the drunk, pulling out the bandana again, brushing the sweat from his face.

"Another one? Interesting." He looked at the man's wings wondering how extensive his mutation was, "Are you a feral, or do you have a weird power like Cammie where you get off on drinking toxic sludge?"

"Uh." That stumped Jay but he smoothed it over, and his fingers pulled at the hollows of his cheeks, drawing the hesitant question off his face. It wasn't that he couldn't answer, it was that he was unsure how to answer it. Everyone automatically saw the changes, those who knew him before knew what was different. Now he wasn't sure how to tackle the whole 'what's your powers' situation with someone new. "Ah'm uh.. somethin' like that. You?"

And so it was Lex's turn to be stumped. The longer he spent at the mansion the more he found himself wondering just what the full extent of his powers were. "I can't really say how mine works... I can only tell you that I can control certain electrical systems, and I can create an energy spike from my skin." He hoped that Jay could understand what he'd said, because if he prodded more Lex would have to admit to being clueless.

"So somethin' like an elemental right? You get all bad ass and things start gettin' screwy around you?" He pushed off the truck, his wings giving him that extra thrust and gestured for Lex to walk with him down the path towards the mansion.

"Um... I'm not sure I understand what you mean? To both questions." He cocked his head to the side and looked at Jay. To Lex's knowledge his powers didn't go haywire when he kicked ass, it was more dependent on how familiar he was with the systems. As for the energy he didn't know how it worked, nor how powerful it could become.

"Oh well, Ah meant that when you use yer powers, things go a little weird. Guess it ain't like the others. Ah dunno, Ah'm just talkin'," he shrugged awkwardly. "An elementals like someone who's got control of one of em elements. Like water, earth - dirt whatever, electricity or fire, wait. no wind is there somewhere, not electricity - oh hell, Ah dunno. Ah ain't anyone yer suppose to be talkin' powers with."

"I gotcha. I didn't mean to put you on the spot, I was just curious as to the terms your using. Remember, I'm very new to this whole 'we all got powers' thing." He quirked a half-hearted smile, wondering when he was going to get beyond being the new guy. He knew it would be when he started taking on missions, which reminded him about seeing something on the journals towards Jay joining the team.

"Ah'm better with the whole music thing and shovelin' shit off the tail of mah truck than we all got powers thing. You didn't just manifest did you?" he asked. "Thought that whole thing with manifestin' came around puberty."

"No," Lex laughed, he could definitely relate to the idea of being better at mundane tasks, "I manifested when I was young. I've just hidden my mutation from everyone for so long that I never really spent the time to master it. Now, knowing about the X-Men and the mansion in general I'm starting to regret it." He looked at the man, wondering if he should bring up his decision. He decided to let it lie unspoken, if Jay wanted to bring it up then they could discuss it.

"Well yer here now so that's gotta count for somethin'," he said, gesturing for Lex to follow as he headed down the path. Still shaken from being startled, Jay's wings pulled back and he was very aware of exactly where Lex moved and his reactions to the smallest detail. It was the attention he was giving into that was putting him off and he tried to inwardly focus himself on his destination rather than the man behind him. "There's lots of probs in the mansion, so, someone's prolly already warned ya but you can't take everyone's attitude to heart. If ya do, yer gonna be a wreck. Lots of em folks are tryin' to deal with their own shit. yanno?"

"So I've found out." Lex watched the man's metallic wings and spine as he followed him. He was very curious as to exactly how they worked, wondering if they were indeed biological or biomechanical. "Not to pry, well actually I think that's exactly what I'm doing... but are your wings natural or a construct that meshes with your mutation?" He wanted to know because he had ideas pertaining to Forge's unique abilities, and possibly making him something to help him focus his powers to better serve the team.

"Uh..." The feathers on the wings rippled in annoyance and shifted as he scratched the back of his neck. "Organic?" He didn't know how to answer that because he'd never been asked and never thought to ask. Infact, he listened to Paige very little about the dynamics of his wings, said nothing when Jean told him about his healing factor and didn't even want to hear it from Forge when his friend picked apart how they functioned. "They ain't mine, Ah mean, they don't... they ain't.. Ugh, it's kinda complicated."

Lex could tell he'd agitated the other man, and decided that he didn't need to know just now. "It's alright, I was just curious. I was just wondering if Forge could make me something external that I could power with my mutation. I didn't mean to put you on the spot." He shook his head, "but how do you use them if you don't, well, know how they work?"

"Ah dunno. They just kinda react, yanno, to me." He shrugged. "And they kinda do what they want when they want. ah dunno. Ah can't explain it," Jay turned around and stopped. "Look, Ah didn't look like this before. Ah had red wings, normal wings, green eyes, skin like yours and then me and a couple others got ambushed. Shit went down and now Ah look like this. Some guy did this to me 'n that's what Ah'm talkin' about. Folks got their shit to deal with here. Most of 'em don't like too many questions but since yer the new guy, Ah don't feel so bad explain' to ya cause ya don't really know any better."

"Oh," Lex said, he hadn't known Jay was talking about himself when he said people had shit to deal with and, realizing that, he felt like a complete fool. He stared at the man for a moment, trying to figure out what to say. "I'll keep that in mind. It's just really hard for me to not ask, since I'd never seen another mutant in the flesh before coming here. Hell, Morgan damn near made me piss myself when she told me she could steal my appearance."

"Yeah, well, they ain't all nice and stuff, yanno? Some powers can be used wrong." He knew that better than any and turned, heading down the path. "Just, yanno, don't be so niave. people come in here and they ain't always nice and stuff."

Lex nodded and continued to follow the blue man. He couldn't remember the last time he'd been called naive, it must have been shortly after basic when he asked his CO when they'd get to see action. The older man had scowled, telling him to hold onto his britches and relax. It took almost a year to realize why the man had talked to him like that, but during their first firefight he realized just how needed those down times were. Thinking about their origins Lex wanted to ask Jay why he joined the X-men, but decided it would be better saved for another time. So he continued on in awkward silence, wanting to speak but not daring to.

"You really never seen another mutant before here?" jay threw over his shoulder. "It ain't like we're in hiding or anything." He couldn't fathom not being around mutants anymore than he could fathom life without flying. It never dawned on him up until this point that he was never grounded for very long and flight was his way of forgetting.

"Um... Yeah. I knew there were others out there, but I didn't go searching for them. I wanted to live a normal life, so I tried to keep it a secret from everyone but my parents. They helped me cope with it, for as long as they could." He wasn't going to get into how they'd stopped being able to cope, because he wasn't sure he trusted Jay enough to let him in.

"Personally, Ah think mah whole family's got the mutant gene in 'em. Paige is here at the school and so is Sam. You prolly heard about him, he just got suspended or something from the team for doin' somethin' stupid or suspended from being a teacher, something like that. Then there's me and then the rest of mah family back Kentucky." He shrugged. "It's like a big family here. Everyone gets on each other's nerves and you know, it's always about who's goin' down on who."

"Yeah?" Lex's asked, keeping his voice devoid of interest. "Well, I think I'm gonna try to keep my head out of that one, cause I've not got the best of luck with women. I think I'll stick to being a part of the team, maybe try to find some way to teach the kids how to take care of themselves. Otherwise, I'm sticking to fixing jeeps and cars, not relationships."

"That's what alotta people do now these days," he said, rounding the corner and pausing to open the door for Lex. "Everyone hides from somethin'. Some do it in the woods, some in the garage, others on the roof - pick your spot. There's lots of em."

"Well, I already use the woods and the garage," he said laughing, he guessed Jay hadn't been paying attention to his fiasco the other weekend. Either that or he was too preoccupied with his own journal failings. He wondered where they were heading, he didn't have anything planned for a while, but if he was going to be shooting the shit with the newest recruit he'd like to have some control over what environment he put himself in.

"Try the roof sometime," he said, following Lex into the greenhouse and heading down the aisle. "Jean-Paul put his ol' couch up there. It's pretty comfy, especially if you just wantin' to get away from the rest of the world, or the mansion.Turn left here and go through that door. There's a fridge there. Ah think someone's left some juice in there, unless you really wanna buy me a beer. Seems a bit outta the way for a drink," he said.

Lex laughed as he thought about the other guy's offer, he wasn't a big fan of juice. "How about we stop by my room on the way up to this couch? I don't mind buying you a beer, but I have mine stored in a mini-fridge because it's frowned on for me to share it with my underage roommate and his girlfriend. We can chill out, away from everyone, and you can tell me what's got you so high-strung." He nodded, and shrugged, hoping the other guy understood he wasn't one to take offense at an outburst.

"Yeah sure, That sounds fine."Jay let Lex lead the way and head up to the stairs leading to the main house. Through two doors that attached the greenhouse to the mansion and jay paused to brush off his converse on the mat before following. He wasn't sure why he was coming with Lex, maybe it was because no one was really talking to him at this point and he to them, but that a stranger's company was perferable to any one else he knew right now. Whatever the reason, he let Lex lead on without even the faintest interest in checking out the package from behind.