Adrienne & Jean-Paul, Thursday Evening (backdated)

[x-quebecois.livejournal.com]

Adrienne's pre-cogging for information about Garrison and finds out Jean-Paul's back instead. She pays him a visit.


Most of the time, Adrienne considered her powers to be a burden. Sure, they had helped her out through high school, where she had no qualms about cheating, and through university and the early days of struggle with her company, before she'd grown into her sense of morality and realized that using her powers to cheat her way to the top was wrong, and not as much fun as using your skills to get there. When she'd turned over her leaf and become an honest businesswoman, the powers had become nothing more than a temptation, one she fought against indulging nearly every day.

She'd seen some horrible things in the past with her powers, been forced to relive some of her worst nightmares and visualize her own death, and seen things happen to other people that haunted her dreams and would never fade. Yet there were times when she wouldn't trade her abilities for all the money in the world.

"I know you've come back, Beaubier," she said as she knocked on his door, struggling to keep her voice down as she remembered what Morgan had said about his desire for privacy. "I was pre-cogging the hallway," to try and get a more precise idea of when Kane was coming home, "and saw you sneak in. Can I come in or should I pretend I never saw you?"

Jean-Paul narrowed his eyes at the door, considering it carefully for a moment before moving toward it and opening it. His expression wasn't entirely welcoming as he gestured for her to come inside. It occurred to him, then, that many people probably knew of his return given their mutations. Many people that he did not want to see.

"It's nice to see you back," she smiled, entering his suite. Adrienne wasn't a toucher, as he would know, so she made no move to hug him. "The new look is... not enough to get me to stop pestering you about modeling underwear for my agency," she teased. "Though I may hold off on my serious offers until you put a couple pounds back on." She'd never gone in for the heroin chic look.

Closing the door behind Adrienne as she walked in, Jean-Paul moved toward the open window. It was easier, having open space close by - the promise of escape, if he needed it. "You have been speaking with Morgan?" The metamorph had commented on the weight he'd lost as well.

"Morgan?" Adrienne perched on the arm of his couch, as she had often in the past. "Sure, I speak to her all the time," she answered innocently. "Best friends, remember?" Assuming he wouldn't appreciate her pretentiousness, however, she shrugged and added, "She was upset over... something that went down regarding you. She told me about it, and that you were back. I thought you wanted to be alone so I didn't contact you. Sorry; I thought it would be best that way." Well, that had actually come from Morgan, but she didn't add that.

"Oui, thank you," Jean-Paul said, nodding slowly. He didn't know what else to say. "You have been well?"

"No dead husbands returning from the grave trying to suck my energy so they can return to corporeal form," she grinned. "I did break my nose, but it's better now. 'Learned better than to mouth off to bikers in a biker bar when I'm not wearing leather." She could joke about it now, though her hands still flexed in a distracted, uneasy motion as she spoke to indicate that the fear of abusive men which had affected most of her adult life, though it had been retreating since her time at the mansion, had flared up again. "I need to play more Wii Boxing, clearly. How have you been doing?"

Crossing his arms over his chest, Jean-Paul rested against the window frame, letting it dig into the skin between his shoulder blades as he replied, "Fine." Which was a lie, if ever he'd told one, but it wasn't like he could sit there and pour his heart and soul out to this woman. "Your nose - I am glad it is well now."

"Thanks," she nodded. "You say 'fine' like you really mean that, Slick," she added with a smirk. Oh wait, Kane had gone from Boy Scout to Slick and they both couldn't be Slick so she needed a new nickname for one of them... "Is that why you're back? Because you're doing so 'fine'?" The fact he was nearly out the window wasn't lost on her, but she wasn't sure if it was a fear of her or a fear he would develop an urge to do something to her, whether through a powers glitch or something psychological that had him so close to an escape route.

"Yes," Jean-Paul said. "That is the trend here, is it not? People are 'fine' and so they stay for long periods of time." He kept his arms crossed, physically closed off as he tried to follow the shaky jumps his memories were making from one thing to another where she was concerned.

"It's true. I intended to stay for a month or two, until I was actually fine, but it's going to be two years soon. And if anything, my powers control is only getting worse. I suppose it's a good thing that the majority of people around here are not entirely unbearable," she added ruefully. "How's my former roommate?"

Roommate - roommate. There, that was the memory. "Also fine," Jean-Paul said, though he hadn't actually been in contact with his sister or Doctor MacTaggart in months. He assumed they were both doing fine - whatever had shifted in his head that changed his mutation so this shockwave affect was possible seemed to have damped his sense of his sister, but Jean-Paul was certain he would know if something had actually happened to her.

"Why were you using your powers in the hallway?"

Adrienne's gaze went to the floor guiltily. "Looking for Kane. We're... dating now." She wasn't sure how interested Jean-Paul would be in that fact, but since her last boyfriend had gone from her to Jean-Paul, she felt like telling him that she was dating Kane now and thoroughly over Jake. "He's away in Israel but he's been gone a little longer than he said he would be so I wanted to see if I could figure out when he was going to return. I'm just being stupid." She returned her gaze to Jean-Paul's, but the sweep upwards had her noticing something. "Why did you take all the stuff down from in here?" He hadn't taken it when he left, had he?

Jean-Paul didn't think it was stupid to worry about someone when they weren't where they said they'd be, but he also wasn't going to really address that, given their history, such as it was. What he could remember of it, anyway. "Things that are not on the walls cannot fall."

"Uh... interesting deduction, Sherlock. Why are things going to fall off the walls, exactly? You planning on having some really rough sex with someone or something?" She waggled an eyebrow at him, smirking.

"Yes, because there are so many people here that I would find interesting enough to push up against a wall," Jean-Paul said, snorting softly. "I am having trouble with my powers."

He had a point- most of the interesting homosexual men were absent from the mansion right now, it seemed. "Morgan and I will have to find you a boyfriend, then," she announced cheerfully. "Since she's interested in moving into my office penthouse, I can have her spy on my male models and find some candidates for you." The powers trouble comment sobered her up somewhat. "Aren't your powers super speed? If you're having trouble... you're not going to lose control of your legs and crash through a wall or something, are you?"

"No," Jean-Paul said. "It is... a different aspect of my powers that causes me trouble now." Something new, something he'd never dealt with before. Something damaging. "Please, do not bother with the models." They were probably all half his age, anyway, and they'd have nothing in common - not to mention the fact that the thought of sleeping with someone, just sleeping, while these power blasts were still uncontrollable made him uneasy.

They were strong enough to knock people away from him - what if they got stronger? What if he actually hurt someone? It was safer to be alone.

Adrienne gave him a 'boy you've been away too long if you think I was serious' look. "You've been away too long if you think I was serious, Monsieur. So what's this new aspect of your powers, if I can keep being nosy? Something concussive, since you look like you've prepared for an earthquake?"

"Concussive?" Jean-Paul considered that for a moment, then nodded slowly. "Oui - something that pushes people away. It is dangerous." He tried not to think about that motel in Boston again, but his arms tightened across his chest despite himself, knuckles whitening where they were hidden from sight.

"Sounds like bad shit," Adrienne commented sympathetically, noting his arms tightening around his chest. The significance of his posture, one so familiar to her, struck a chord. "I'm sure the doc here and the Professor can sort you out pretty fast though. If they can make a radioactive kid safe, surely a Quebecois like yourself isn't a challenge," she teased. Waggling her fingers at him, she added "would you like me to give this place a quick read, see if you end up doing any danger to anyone?"

Jean-Paul arched an eyebrow at that, since he hadn't expected the offer, but he nodded. "Oui - please." Perhaps, if she saw something, he might be able to keep it from happening. Or he might end up causing it, the way Greek tragedies always had their heroes causing their own downfalls. Poor Oedipus.

Giving him a reassuring smile, Adrienne placed a hand on the wall.

Smoke was coming from the kitchenette, Jean-Paul jogging over from one of the bedrooms. "My kitchen! What have you done to my-" he paused to cough. "You have destroyed it!" Adrienne pushed to the limits of her range to try and see who he was talking to, but the person wasn't visible. She made a note to go read the kitchen later, though it would probably tip Jean-Paul off that something was up.

She jumped slightly forward on the timeline to hear someone, a voice she vaguely recognized but couldn't place, saying, "And aren't you supposed to try to liquor me up first?" Followed by the sound of a bottle connecting with the counter top, and Jean-Paul's voice saying, "Et voila."

The next showed Jean-Paul hanging up paintings, paintings she had never seen before and could guess were original, and then going to answer the door.

And then Catseye flopping on him in BigCat form while he was asleep on the couch.

Adrienne pulled her hand away from the wall at that, grinning. "Well, at least you didn't explode anything," she grinned slyly.

"I did not?" Jean-Paul's brows rose at her expression, suspicious of its cause considering she'd been reading the common room of this suite. "Did someone else?"

"No," she giggled. "All perfectly normal stuff. You settle in. Hang some paintings- do you paint? It looks like you made them. Sharing wine with someone... someone I think I recognize but can't put my finger on the voice..." she trailed off in thought for a moment but shook her head. "Someone set fire to your kitchen but it seemed accidental and you saved it. And the purple puma was sleeping on you. Possibly suffocating you. But suffocating with love, I'm sure. You're obviously going to be alright, Beaubier." Normally she wouldn't say anything like that out loud after a precognitive reading, since the future was so incredibly malleable, but it seemed like the right thing to say to Jean-Paul in the circumstances.

"The purple puma - Catseye? Sleeping on me?" Jean-Paul sighed. At least it was in the common area. Perhaps he would be able to discourage her. Then one of her questions registered and he shook his head. "Non, I do not paint." And he didn't know why he'd start hanging things up in here... unless he finally picked a room or had a roommate foisted on him. Both of those were possibilities. "But I like the artwork others make." Then he turned his eyes toward the kitchenette and eyed it for a moment. If anyone actually set his kitchen on fire, he would be most displeased.

"Well, maybe someone made them for you," she shrugged. What did she know about art? "I'm not sure who, but maybe that means you don't stay cooped up in here forever being a scruffy hermit. You hungry?"

Running his hand over his jaw, Jean-Paul considered that. Another person saying he was scruffy. He supposed he was. And another person offering food. He wasn't sure he wanted Adrienne to cook for him, though. He didn't have any specific memories of her burning his kitchen down, but who's to say she wasn't the one in the scene she'd described? "Would you be doing the cooking?"

"Uhh... do you have a death wish? You forget my fights with food poisoning? And I thought you loved cooking? But... I can if you want?" She wouldn't say no to him if he wanted her to cook. She just couldn't guarantee his safety.

"Non, I was making sure - " I remembered correctly. But that didn't necessarily mean that Jean-Paul would remember the recipes, even if he'd remembered that she wasn't a chef. He wasn't sure what he should do, but she had done a favour for him and he wanted to return it, in some small way. "I have nothing here. We could go to the main kitchen, oui? And see if there is something to be made." Something that didn't actually require cooking.

"Sounds good, Monsieur, Adrienne answered with an easy smile. "Just stay away from unmarked fish. It's good to have you back, Beaubier."

Unmarked fish? Jean-Paul wasn't sure what that meant, but didn't want to make it obvious, in case it was something he should have known and the memory was just... misplaced. "Merci." He couldn't say it was good to be back, but he supposed that was fair enough. "Come, we will see if I can find carrots."

"Oh... kay. Carrots sound great. Love carrots. Why carrots?"

"They are more effective at crunching when eating vindictively," Jean-Paul replied without thinking. "Celery is also good."