xp_logs | Julian & Dori: Post Kidnapping (Backdated to 1/12)

Julian seeks out the reclusive Doreen Green whom he hasn't seen much of since the incident in Los Angeles.

Backdated to the night of the 12th due to computer error.

Nico was actively going out of her way to ignore Julian- which perplexed him to no end. To attempt to get a handle on the situation he attempted to seek out the advice of their mutual friend, Doreen, but she'd been strangely quiet too as of late. Knocking on her suite door, he adjusted his green hoody and thrust his hands into his pockets.

Doreen didn't look up from her computer screen, she couldn't, not really. The bosses in the heroics were just that hard. She was thankful to be with a guild group instead of a pug. Pugs were horrible for this, "Come in," she called, navigating her 'lock around some particularly nasty AOE.

Julian opened the door and made his way to Dori's room, not bothering to knock again as he pushed the door against the begrudging mess inside. "Hey, Squirrelly, haven't seen much of you lately. How's Cataclysm?"

"It's really good," Doreen said, "Really hard in some ways," she noted, "But really good."

Monkey Joe was asleep on the pet bed that Callie had bought for him, which was casually placed on a chair next to the computer. The only other place to sit was on her bed, "Haven't seen you too much lately."

"Had to get to eighty-five," Doreen said. And avoid telling her friends she really wasn't planning on going to college for various reasons. Besides, she hadn't been able to do anything to help Julian, and that had hurt. Especially after all he had done to help her.

"Hey, take a break for a sec, okay?" he put his hand over her's on the mouse, hoping not to get slapped across the face for his efforts.

Dori looked up and hit a button quick, "I need a few minutes, guys," she said into the mic and then looked up at Julian expectantly.

They sat there in silence, Julian looking slightly amused and Dori slightly perturbed, for almost a minute, before Julian said something, "How are you holding up?"

Doreen shrugged, "I'm doing okay," she said, "Really."

Julian smiled and simply responded, "Bullshit."

"No it's not," Dori said, her tail bristling, "I'm fine. You're fine. Everyone is fine."

"I'm not fine," Julian said honestly. "I know Nico isn't...even her royal highness seems subdued. So, tell me again that you're fine."

"You didn't trust me to help you out!" Doreen snapped, "How am I supposed to feel about that?"

"Hey!" Julian snapped back, "It had nothing to do with not trusting you."

"Than what was it about?" Doreen asked, looking right up at him, "If I can't help you out when you always were there for me, what does that say about us as friends?!"

"It obviously says that I don't want to see you get hurt," Julian said as he stood up, towering over his feral friend. "If you were to get hurt because of my baggage..." he let the statement stand in the air, crossing his arms in front of his chest.

"It doesn't matter. You don't just stand by while your friends could be getting hurt, even if it's not your baggage. You just don't," Doreen said firmly, her tail bristling.

"Doreen!" Julian shouted, bringing a silence to the room as he paused for a moment to consider things, "For a long time you've been the only family I've had. If you had gotten hurt by Gordon or his gang...you don't understand what it would have done to me. I needed you," he held up a hand to silence her before she could retort, "I needed you safe so that I could focus on saving my family. You don't have the same training that I do and once you do, I'll be glad to have you at my side, but until then, you need to use your head."

"I am using my head," she returned, "I can do stuff like this. You don't know what I can do because you've never seen me in action before." Sure, right now it was only hand to hand training with Kyle ~~heeeeee~~ but it counted. And she could hit, and hit hard. Having a command of urban squirrels didn't hurt either.

"I have, actually," he smiled. "You've got potential, Dori," not that he was much more advanced than her, hell, he didn't have full control of his abilities yet. "But you're not on the team yet."

"But I am your friend," Doreen pointed out.

"That you are," he offered her a hug. "And if it's any consolation, I ended up getting you kidnapped, so...yeah, I suck?"

"You don't suck THAT much. Just don't brush me off again," Doreen said. No one could resist hugs. Not even Monkey Joe, who woke up and jumped on Julian. Either glad, or upset to see him. It was hard to tell.

Julian squeezed her and placed a kiss on the top of her head, "I'll do my best...and to be fair...it wasn't totally my choice."

"Yeah? Whose was it?" Doreen asked.

He rolled his eyes, "Doesn't matter. But you must realize that your phones provide a way for Dr Grey or Dr McCoy to track you."

Ooooooh yeah, Doreen thought silently, but didn't say a that, "I knew that."

Her older friend chuckled to himself and broke their hug, sitting back down on the bed and plucking Monkey Joe off his shoulder- placing him on Dori's head. "We cool?"

"Yeah, we're cool," Doreen said, pulling Monkey Joe off when he started chewing on the headset she still wore. There were rulers in the desk drawer for that. For him and for her, "Just don't take off without me again. Or I'll kick you. I kick hard."

"Deal. Now how about you show me around the ruins of Azeroth?"

"I think I can do that," Doreen said, pulling out one of the rulers and setting it in front of Monkey Joe. She wasn't going to chew on anything in front of Julian. Some things she still didn't do in front of friends, "I should warn you though, I'm very cute there. And really kick ass."