xp_logs | Julian & Doreen: Dairy Queen

Julian and Dori go for comics and ice cream in honor of their friendiversary.

Dairy Queen didn’t have the best ice cream in the world, but it was still good. Doreen was working on a huge sundae that resembled strawberry short cake. It was good and she had to keep from eating it too fast to avoid the dreaded brain-freeze. She looked up at her friend, “Thanks Julian,” she said brightly.

"Yeah, no problem," Julian said, taking a lick of his ice cream cone- twisted vanilla and chocolate dipped in butterscotch. "That looks really tasty.”

“It is!” Doreen promised, “You want to try some? You know, I think I like the ice cream out here better.”

"Better than the stuff that they bring back to the mansion? Perish the thought," he chuckled lightly and took bite of the hard outer-shell of his. "Happy with the comics you bought?"

“Well… no, but that’s not what I meant,” Dori said, sticking out her tongue, “And yeah. I like the few books I got.” She paused and had a stroke of genius, “You should totally be a Green Lantern for Halloween this year!”

"Um..." Julian paused, trying to call up what he could remember of that particular spandex clad super-dude. "Isn't he black?"

“Jon Stewart is,” Doreen said, “But Kyle isn’t. Neither is Hal. There are a LOT of Green Lanterns,” she explained, “It’s not just one guy, but a whole group of them.”

"Oh," he took another, much larger bite of ice cream, a few seconds later wincing at the inevitable brain freeze. "Ouch, um, wouldn't Victor be a better fit for the whole, you know, green thing?" He slowly massaged his temples, trying to reduce the searing, cold pain that was striking his frontal lobe.

Doreen bristled, her tail puffing out some, “No! Just because you’re green doesn’t mean you have to be a Green Lantern!” she bent down and fished through her bag and pulled out one of the comics, flipping to a page that showed Kyle glowing green and doing something Julian-like and thrust it towards him, “See? You.”

With a shrug, the pain passed and Julian nodded, "Okay, I see the resemblance. Is he a telekinetic?"

“…Kind of?” Doreen said after she thought about it, “Basically Green Lanterns have these rings, and these rings let them do things with their minds that most people can’t. It can be TK or they can make objects out of energy and they can fly and do a bunch of other things. I guess it depends on what all you can do with telekinesis,” Doreen said, “They’re sort of like… well, they’re a military corp. but not like military here, you know?” she said, putting the book back, “Their whole history is kinda odd.”

"Hmmm," Julian pondered, "and who would you be dressing up as?"

“…I dunno,” Doreen said, “There isn’t much that goes with the tail and the claws.”

Julian smirked, "Maybe you could dress up as the Invincible Squirrel Girl, with her side kick, the Ninja Monkey Squirrel of Doom." He chucked nodding at Monkey Joe.

Doreen laughed, almost snorting ice cream out her nose while Monkey Joe was oblivious, “Yeah, but I’m not a real Superhero though,” Doreen said. “Besides, I can’t go as myself, that’s against the rules! …Though maybe I can get Victor to go as himself too and then it won’t be so bad,” she said the last in a rush, a bit of red staining her cheeks before she shook her head, “No. Going as yourself is against the rules.”

"It's Halloween, the only rules are that you come celebrate my birthday with me a couple days beforehand," with a shrug he took the remaining top off his cone with a single bite. "Other than that, there aren't any rules- right? I mean, aside from Trick or Treat, that's a sacred and binding contract." Was she blushing?

“You can’t go as yourself though!” Doreen said, still blushing a bit but managing to carry on without thinking about Victor. Too much, anyway. Back home if she went out on Halloween around people who didn’t know her everyone assumed she was wearing a really good costume. It was kind of annoying, “And I totally will! You know I wouldn’t miss it!”

"Good," he said with a smirk, taking a bite of cone. "Seriously though, let's see...who could you be for Halloween...I mean, at least no one will assume your tail is part of your costume this year, right?" A funny image popped into his head, "What if you dyed your hair and tail black, and got all emo?"

Doreen snorted at that, “Emo? You mean like a Goth kid?” she asked. Some of the Valley Girl hadn’t ever left despite all that happened, “That won’t work… I can’t even picture it,” she said laughing.

"I think it'd be hilarious," he pointed to the comics, "besides, aren't there goth girls in the teen titaniums or whatever?"

“Titans,” Doreen corrected, “The Teen Titans. And only one, really. Raven. And she’s not even really ‘Goth’ her father is this big huge demon guy so that really doesn’t help things.”

"Wow, sounds like her dad is worse than either of ours then, hmm?" he winked- conscious that she may react poorly only as the words left his mouth. Internally, Julian kicked himself.

Dori’s face fell visibly for a moment before the happy mask slipped back into place. She was trying not to think about Dad and the fact that during the whole time he hadn’t even made eye contact with her, “Yeah, it’s pretty bad. There are a lot of really weird story lines about it.

"Ah, geeze, Dori, I'm sorry," he reached out and put a hand on her shoulder. "I didn't mean- you know- that you're dad is a bad guy, he's just...confused, right?" He hated filling her with false hope, but it would have been equally bad to try and shake her out of her delusion. In truth, Julian knew her father would probably never be back.

“…Yeah, I guess. And the liquor can’t be helping any,” she muttered, looking down at her ice cream. Dad had smelled like that the whole time to. Was it only obvious to her? The smell of expensive Scotch… and he had still managed to get Ryan. “That trip wasn’t like going home at all.”

"You remember what I said to you that one night?" He gave her shoulder a squeeze and took a crunching bite of his cone. "Home is where the heart is...and for me that's at Xavier's, with good friends like you...and even Monkey Joe."

Doreen nodded once, “I… I know. And I know that Mom staying with my Grandpa is good, because Grandpa is cool and… yeah. I really, really hate that smell,” she finished, back on the subject of her Dad. Then she bounced subjects again and smiled, “There was a time you would’ve have been caught dead with me,” she pointed out. Avoidance for the win.

Despite the sudden surge of guilt that his him, Julian managed to stammer out, "Being afraid to be seen with you wasn't being afraid to be around you, Dori. You know I wanted to help you and...I'm sorry that I didn't sooner." He had to look away, taking his hand off her shoulder. "I guess I'm no better than that son-of-a-bitch Blake."

Doreen shook her head, “No, that’s not what I meant! I’m sorry,” she said, “You are better than them,” at least he hadn’t treated her like a freak of nature. “You’re the best friend I have,” she pointed out, “and during most of high school my only friend. None of my old friends ever even talked to me.”

It didn't make him feel any better, but he felt her concerns were more important than his own at the moment "Dori, they're idiots for having turned their back on someone as wonderful as you."

Doreen shrugged, “I can kind of see why. I mean, it’s a pretty startling change,” she said. If you compared pictures from before and after the difference was enough to floor even her. “I can’t really blame my friends for being… upset.”

"I can," Julian said with conviction. "So you changed, you got even more awesome and can talk to squirrels!" He nearly dropped his ice cream as he made a rather large gesture with his arms. "Dude, seriously, it's not like you asked to be a mutant and if they're too dumb to see that you're still the same uber-nerd that you've always been," he shrugged, "I'm just saying."

“Well… I did kind of always want super powers so I could fight crime and stuff. But since getting super powers, I haven’t fought crime. That’s totally irony,” she said, thinking about it.

"So fight some crime," he said facetiously. Before she could even consider it, "No, wait, don't that just leads to trouble. Trust me." He leaned forward, "You could join the X-Men in a couple years, they're pretty much like Super-Heroes, right?"

“But I wanna beat up bad guys!” Doreen whined, more as a joke than anything else. “Yeah, they are, but that’s like two whole years away. Are you going to? I mean, you’ll be eighteen. Your parents can’t stop you.”

"Yeah, if they'll have me," he smirked and held up his hands, the ice cream cone now vanished to be digested. "I'm not exactly the most useful with my powers...did you hear how Nathan has me practicing now?"

“You are so lucky,” Doreen said and then shook her head, “No. How?”

"What do you mean, lucky?"

“Duh. You don’t have to wait two years. Now how does he have you practicing?” Doreen said, popping her spoon in her mouth once more.

"Oh, I thought you meant..." he shook his head, "never mind." With a wry smile, Julian continued, "Eggs."

Doreen tilted her head to one side for a moment not sure what he thought she meant and then tilted it to the other side as Monkey Joe decided her sundae was his, “Eggs? How do you train with eggs?”

"Same way I trained with rocks down in the quarry," he smirked at the ridiculousness of the visual she must have been getting. "Not smashing them together necessarily, but floating as many of them as I can for as long as I can."

“But… the rocks were more fun! How am I supposed to help you with eggs?” Doreen lamented.

"You don't want to dodge eggs?" Julian smirked again, "Actually, I got in a bit of trouble for our last training session."

Doreen shook her head. Dodging eggs brought back bad memories of the months after Julian had gotten shipped off. But she didn’t need to tell him about that, “You got in trouble?! Why?”

"Unsupervised training where you or Em-Jay could have gotten injured," he shrugged. "Just a little scolding from Nate, who made me promise not to do it again. Sorry."

“But… it’s not your fault! It was totally my idea! I’ll let him know, okay? You shouldn’t have gotten in trouble for that!” Doreen said, as Monkey Joe stuffed a strawberry into his mouth.

Julian shook his head and held up a hand, "It's really okay, Dori, he just warned me not to let it happen again. Frankly, talking about it now, might just," he shrugged, searching for a word, "exacerbate things." Score one for watching Sean of the Dead instead of doing English homework.

“…You’re sure?” Doreen asked, as Monkey Joe literally stuck his nose in her ice cream and pulled it away trying to shake it off, “I’m sorry. I didn’t think you’d get in trouble. I still say I should be in trouble too.”

"Maybe I chose the wrong words, I'm not necessarily in trouble, like grounded or anything, but if it happens again...oh yes, Nathan will probably have me washing cars every day after classes until I graduate." Julian smiled and held a napkin out to Monkey Joe, "Don't even worry about it, Dori."

Monkey Joe took the napkin and tore it apart while walking backwards until he fell off the table. Doreen looked over at him and sighed, [You are such a spaz,] she said, picking him up and putting him back on the table, “I guess if you’re sure.”

"You okay, Joe?" Jules asked, ignoring her last comment. "That's for wiping the ice cream off, not...whatever it was you were doing."

“He knows what a napkin does. He’s just being a spaz,” Doreen said lightly, “I think we’re done with the ice cream anyway. Oh! What are we doing for your birthday anyway!”

"I dunno," he sighed, "didn't do much of anything last year. I came out right before it, kinda...messed things up for the party I had planned." Julian offered Dori a weak smile that was transparently there to placate her worry, "Maybe we can make a cake or something," he looked at his watch. "Want to head back to the mansion, watch some Avatar or something?"

“Yeah, I remember that,” she said. Though she wasn’t going to press if he didn’t want to talk about it. She could respect that, “That sounds great! I hope we make a big cake. I like cake. For us, the cake is not a lie.”

A quirked eyebrow was his only response until, "Um...yeah. And when we need to break eggs into the mix or whatever, I'm all over that." Julian smiled genuinely and looked at the freezer case, "I'm going to grab dilly-bars for the freezer, just in case someone wants a little frozen treat. Can you help me carry them?"

“Monkey Joe might eat them,” Doreen said solemnly. “Is that a risk you’re willing to take?”

Looking at the squirrel, "I'll have to cut him off from my Snickers stash if he does that...is he willing to risk that?"

Doreen laughed, “No. No he isn’t.”