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xp_logsFollowing their latest journal spat, Amanda takes Marie-Ange and Jubilee in hand and does some conflict mediation. Backdated to April 29.
Jubilee slumped in the office chair, glaring at Marie-Ange before she slid a set of files over to Amanda. "I still don't know what it is you think we've got to talk about, dude. Marie-Ange being a heinous bitch to me is pretty standard behaviour on her part, afterall."
"That is a lie." Marie-Ange said, calmly filing a fingernail. "Amanda, I told you she would try to make excuses and refuse to acknowledge anything." She was only doing this because she liked Amanda, and because she did not want Wrath of Amanda. "I am awful to you when you deserve it."
"According to that logic, I must deserve it basically 24fucking7 with you," Jubilee replied, fingers tapping against her thigh. She'd told Sofia that she would attempt to deal with Marie-Ange, and whatever problems they were having, but it wasn't easy. "The fact you totally think I'm here just to dodge the issues is like, totally an example. What the fuck, dude? I mean, why are you even here if you're not expecting me to be open about this shit."
Amanda resisted the urge to bang their heads together. Instead, she pulled out her cane, a plain instrument of solid black wood, and laid it pointedly on the table between her team mates.
"Right," she said, with forced calm. "We're here because we're all on the same side here, not that you'd know it with the way you two have been carrying on. You've both got issues and you've both got complaints, but what we don't have is actual talking. So we're going to do this civilized-like. Angie, you get to go first. You get as much time as you need to tell Jubes plainly, without name calling, what's bugging you. Then Jubes gets to do the same. Once you both know what the deal is, we talk about how to deal with it." She tapped the cane. "And if you start fighting again, so help me I'll bust your heads with this before you can blink." She looked at the pair. "All right?"
Right. It would not be prudent to point out that she could run before Amanda could get up and hit her. Marie-Ange was too stunned by Amanda's sudden transformation into Peter Paul Wisdom only with blonde hair and breasts to really think it through much anyway. "It is simple. Jubilee acts like an idiot and if she is going to keep acting like an idiot despite being told that we know better, I am going to treat her like the idiot she wants to be.." She ticked off points on her fingers. "You prance about and act like a child when none of us can afford to act like children anymore and have temper tantrums when you are told you are acting like a child, you complain about everything including waking up in the morning when you know there are people who get up after no sleep and still do their jobs without complaining, you steal food which is just rude, and you think it is funny to be annoying when it is just annoying but asking you to stop does not work."
Marie-Ange was just a little out of breath after all that, and slightly surprised with herself. She hadn't set out to say quite that much.
It was quite a list, and Jubilee wasn't entirely sure which to respond to first. Instead she simply took a deep breath and waited to see if Marie-Ange had anything else to add.
Amanda turned to Jubilee. "Your turn. Don't worry about reacting to what Angie said, just focus on what ticks you off about her, same way as she did you."
"She's judgemental, and holier then thou, and totally all about how she's so much better then I am. It makes me want to poke at her, because who the fuck wants to be judged constantly?" Jubilee admitted, reluctant to talk at all.
"Oh for..." Marie-Ange did not make fists, but the flat hands she pressed into the table looked like they could become fists at any second. "I am judgmental because you think annoying me is funny, and because you think stealing food is funny and because you think wasting everyone's time is funny." And of all the idiotic things to say... "And it is impossible for me to be holier than anyone. I am more responsible than you because I do not steal food and I do not act like an idiot when people depend on me, yes, but never holy."
"Okay, hold it there," Amanda said, holding up a hand before Jubilee could retort. "So, we have stuff that Jubes does that drives you nuts, and you think she does it because she thinks it's funny. So, let's hear it from the horse's mouth. Jubes, why do you do that stuff? 'S not an attack, just a question, yeah?"
"Depends, sometimes it's good training, sometimes I'm just bored, sometimes yeah, I think it's funny, or because it annoys the hell out of her," Jubilee replied with a shrug, her own hands lying against the arms of her chair, attempting to keep still. "It's not like everything I do is about her though, and I'd stop if she'd just give me an inch now and again. Why she thinks I'm not dependable because I make stupid jokes though is beyond me, dude. How does differing senses of humour have any reflection on my actual character?"
Again, Amanda repressed the urge to sigh. Could Jubilee honestly not understand? "It's about trust," she said quietly. "We need to be able to depend on each other. When you act like a bored kid, it makes it hard to believe you're dependable. And when you break into our apartments, it does come off as a bit like you don't respect anyone else but yourself, yeah?" Seeing Jubilee's expression, she went on. "'S nothing to do with your sense of humour being different, Jubes. It's more about being able to take each other seriously. And when you put on that front of yours, the whole silly California mall rat thing, even with us, it makes it hard, yeah?"
Jubilee sighed, and ran a hand across her face to give herself time, there were...words at the tip of her tongue, Marie-Ange had certainly never made it easy for her, not since they were teenagers, and that wasn't so long ago that Jubilee didn't remember. But then again, Amanda did have a point, and Sofia had pointed out her issues with being open to people more then once. Jubilee just wasn't that trusting of a soul, and it showed even with the people she was meant to trust.
"I can see that," Jubilee finally replied, being careful not to fold her arms, no matter how defensive she might feel. "She doesn't exactly make it easy to trust her sometimes."
"Hello, I am right here." Marie-Ange said. "I have never done anything to cause distrust, do not be rude. There is trust, and there is like, and if I do not do anything to make you like me. I have not yet done anything to cause distrust." She paused, and then just could not resist adding. "Actually, you are sleeping with the person on the team everyone distrusts, so perhaps you should reevaluate your definition of what causes someone to be trustworthy."
"Now who's being childish," Jubilee responded, raising her eyebrows as she sat back. "Hate to break it to you cupcake, but you can't tell me I've broken 'friend code', and then say you've never done anything for me to like you. Which exactly is it? Either I'm a bad friend, or you've got absolutely no reason to expect me to tell you anything."
"Your own personal logic is showing, Angie," Amanda said with a wry grin. "Let's get one thing clear, for both of you. Trust and friendship are two different things in this line of work. I trusted 'Yana to have my back in a job, but I wasn't exactly mates with her, and I'm pretty sure the feeling was mutual. So whether you two are friends or not really doesn't matter. What does is knowing we can trust each other to do the job we're here for. Angie's said why she doesn't trust you, Jubes, so how about you explain why you don't trust her?"
"It's the attitude, honestly," Jubilee replied after a long moment, trying to vocalise something that wasn't anything she'd really thought about before. "Instincts tell me not to trust you, Marie-Ange, that someone like you isn't going to have anything good in mind for me. You act like everything I do is simply to annoy you, and you don't feel shy about saying so. You say you'll treat me like a child cause I act like it, but then expect me to trust you at my back. You say liking has nothing to do with that, Amanda, and that's fine, it doesn't. But you gotta trust that someone thinks you can do your job, and won't second guess everything you do."
"Your memory is so short I should have you checked for mad cow disease, and you are not Captain Kirk, stop calling people cupcake." Marie-Ange said. "I will remember that you think I have nothing good in mind for you the next time I rescue you from a bar when you have drunk yourself into a stupor. On top of everything else, you are a liar. You certainly thought I had good intentions when you called me to get your contact out of Egypt. Your lack of consistency is astounding, are you sure you do not have a brain disease?"
"I never said I didn't give you chances, or that you hadn't earned my trust at times, but you just keep shoving it back in my face. Every single time I trust you, you start on at me, either on the journals or in person. Trust doesn't continue forever, just because I trust you once or twice doesn't mean you get it for all time," Jubilee replied, glaring at her. "How the fuck am I meant to let my guard down with you when you take every single chance to put me down?"
"And how am I supposed to trust that you will do your job when I need you to, without complaining about how hard it is to get up in the morning when every time I turn around, you sound more like a child than a grown woman?" Marie-Ange pressed the heel of her hand into one eye. "Jubilee, I do not -care- if you hate flying coach or if you had to get up at two in the morning to steal something and I do not care if you stand out in the cold and the wet because all of us have to do those things sometimes."
"For fuck's sake, dude," Jubilee clenched her fists before placing them back down on the hand rests of her chair, not giving into the urge to slam them against the table. "I'm not complaining, it's only you that actually takes that seriously. Do you honestly fucking think I would do all this if I really actively felt so fucking miserable about it? What exactly is it you expect me to put on the journals? How I had to make sure I had a dental dam cause I needed to blow at least five guys the other day as part of a cover, or maybe how I had to burn some bastard's corpse to fucking ashes so it couldn't be traced back to us? Maybe how I helped Sarah torture the fucker to death first to get the information we wanted, that'd go down a treat, I bet. I can just see the Prof. lining up to give me a medal for that one. I know we all do shit jobs, I know you have just as shit a time of it as I do. I deal with it by making stupid inane comments about shitty travel on the journals which I don't actually believe, and if you knew me at all you'd ignore it, but you don't because you're so fucking fast to pass judgement about how you think I am. It keeps me in touch with people, because that's shit they can talk to me about, and make jokes and be normal about."
She fell back against her seat, breathing deeply, she hadn't even known that was going to come out till it had all spewed out all over the place.
"Do you listen to yourself after you talk, at all?" Marie-Ange asked dryly. "Again, it is how hard your life is and how many awful things you have to do, and how you just -have- to act like an idiot because you have a very hard job. You have a very hard job, you cannot afford to act like an idiot. Do you ever think about that? Do you stop and think that everyone else manages to talk to people without acting like an idiot who complains about the sun coming up? Yes, I was excessive. Yes, I was bitchy, as you say it. But you still act like an idiot, and when you do, I tell you. When you do not, and when you are good at your job, like in Egypt, I also tell you that."
"While still insulting me," Jubilee noted, running a hand through her still blonde hair, something she needed to see about eventually. "I don't think you've ever actually told me anything good ever without some kind of qualifier. I think it might actually physically hurt you if you did. You think it's acting like an idiot, I'm saying that I think your view of my behaviour is biased. You don't see me calling you an idiot for getting tipsy and talking about fucking Garrison, do you?"
Marie-Ange raised an eyebrow. "Ah, but my post simply reminds everyone that I am an adult and irredeemably awful, which is not the same as acting like a child. Do you really need me to pat you on the head and give you a cookie every time you steal something?" She examined her fingernails for a moment, and waited for Jubilee to open her mouth to try to reply. "Fine, and only because I want to see you in pain, clearly. When I say you make an excellent lemur, I mean that because you are a good thief and have tiny tricky hands with which to steal all manner of things. Now will you please stop trying to educate me on Chinese culture and stop stealing my food from the refrigerator? Also I have the last box of those cookies from the Girl Scouts in a box in my office, and you may have one. One cookie, not the entire box. I need the rest to bribe Doug."
"You were the one asking about whether Chinese people actually had middle names, sue me for not getting the joke late at night, I was busy," Jubilee replied, a smile twitching at the side of her mouth despite herself. Much as she would never admit it to Marie-Ange, sometimes she really did need the reassurance, stupid as that was. "Yes, I'll stop stealing from your refrigerator. What kind of Girl Scout cookies?"
"Brilliant. We're up to cookies and deals." Amanda had sat quietly while they'd argued, knowing they needed the chance to blow off steam and actually communicate. "How about this? Angie, you give Jubes some leeway on the journals. Stop jumping on her for making jokes and try to judge her on the work she does instead. Ignore her posts if you have to - 's not like we pay attention to every single person on the system any way, yeah? And Jubes, back off on the poking at Angie. Find another hobby other than baiting the pre-cog with the scary brain and you'll both be a lot happier." She looked at Marie-Ange, then Jubilee. "That a good enough deal?"
"I'm good with that," Jubilee replied, sitting up in her chair.
"The mint ones, and I reserve the right to ask Sarah to throw you from a building if you forget and annoy me on purpose." Marie-Ange said. "I promise it will be a short building." She added, before Amanda's hand could tighten on the cane. "But she can keep on with the crochet animals." It was just that the damnable things were actually cute. "But if you say I said they were cute I will call you names again."
Jubilee slumped in the office chair, glaring at Marie-Ange before she slid a set of files over to Amanda. "I still don't know what it is you think we've got to talk about, dude. Marie-Ange being a heinous bitch to me is pretty standard behaviour on her part, afterall."
"That is a lie." Marie-Ange said, calmly filing a fingernail. "Amanda, I told you she would try to make excuses and refuse to acknowledge anything." She was only doing this because she liked Amanda, and because she did not want Wrath of Amanda. "I am awful to you when you deserve it."
"According to that logic, I must deserve it basically 24fucking7 with you," Jubilee replied, fingers tapping against her thigh. She'd told Sofia that she would attempt to deal with Marie-Ange, and whatever problems they were having, but it wasn't easy. "The fact you totally think I'm here just to dodge the issues is like, totally an example. What the fuck, dude? I mean, why are you even here if you're not expecting me to be open about this shit."
Amanda resisted the urge to bang their heads together. Instead, she pulled out her cane, a plain instrument of solid black wood, and laid it pointedly on the table between her team mates.
"Right," she said, with forced calm. "We're here because we're all on the same side here, not that you'd know it with the way you two have been carrying on. You've both got issues and you've both got complaints, but what we don't have is actual talking. So we're going to do this civilized-like. Angie, you get to go first. You get as much time as you need to tell Jubes plainly, without name calling, what's bugging you. Then Jubes gets to do the same. Once you both know what the deal is, we talk about how to deal with it." She tapped the cane. "And if you start fighting again, so help me I'll bust your heads with this before you can blink." She looked at the pair. "All right?"
Right. It would not be prudent to point out that she could run before Amanda could get up and hit her. Marie-Ange was too stunned by Amanda's sudden transformation into Peter Paul Wisdom only with blonde hair and breasts to really think it through much anyway. "It is simple. Jubilee acts like an idiot and if she is going to keep acting like an idiot despite being told that we know better, I am going to treat her like the idiot she wants to be.." She ticked off points on her fingers. "You prance about and act like a child when none of us can afford to act like children anymore and have temper tantrums when you are told you are acting like a child, you complain about everything including waking up in the morning when you know there are people who get up after no sleep and still do their jobs without complaining, you steal food which is just rude, and you think it is funny to be annoying when it is just annoying but asking you to stop does not work."
Marie-Ange was just a little out of breath after all that, and slightly surprised with herself. She hadn't set out to say quite that much.
It was quite a list, and Jubilee wasn't entirely sure which to respond to first. Instead she simply took a deep breath and waited to see if Marie-Ange had anything else to add.
Amanda turned to Jubilee. "Your turn. Don't worry about reacting to what Angie said, just focus on what ticks you off about her, same way as she did you."
"She's judgemental, and holier then thou, and totally all about how she's so much better then I am. It makes me want to poke at her, because who the fuck wants to be judged constantly?" Jubilee admitted, reluctant to talk at all.
"Oh for..." Marie-Ange did not make fists, but the flat hands she pressed into the table looked like they could become fists at any second. "I am judgmental because you think annoying me is funny, and because you think stealing food is funny and because you think wasting everyone's time is funny." And of all the idiotic things to say... "And it is impossible for me to be holier than anyone. I am more responsible than you because I do not steal food and I do not act like an idiot when people depend on me, yes, but never holy."
"Okay, hold it there," Amanda said, holding up a hand before Jubilee could retort. "So, we have stuff that Jubes does that drives you nuts, and you think she does it because she thinks it's funny. So, let's hear it from the horse's mouth. Jubes, why do you do that stuff? 'S not an attack, just a question, yeah?"
"Depends, sometimes it's good training, sometimes I'm just bored, sometimes yeah, I think it's funny, or because it annoys the hell out of her," Jubilee replied with a shrug, her own hands lying against the arms of her chair, attempting to keep still. "It's not like everything I do is about her though, and I'd stop if she'd just give me an inch now and again. Why she thinks I'm not dependable because I make stupid jokes though is beyond me, dude. How does differing senses of humour have any reflection on my actual character?"
Again, Amanda repressed the urge to sigh. Could Jubilee honestly not understand? "It's about trust," she said quietly. "We need to be able to depend on each other. When you act like a bored kid, it makes it hard to believe you're dependable. And when you break into our apartments, it does come off as a bit like you don't respect anyone else but yourself, yeah?" Seeing Jubilee's expression, she went on. "'S nothing to do with your sense of humour being different, Jubes. It's more about being able to take each other seriously. And when you put on that front of yours, the whole silly California mall rat thing, even with us, it makes it hard, yeah?"
Jubilee sighed, and ran a hand across her face to give herself time, there were...words at the tip of her tongue, Marie-Ange had certainly never made it easy for her, not since they were teenagers, and that wasn't so long ago that Jubilee didn't remember. But then again, Amanda did have a point, and Sofia had pointed out her issues with being open to people more then once. Jubilee just wasn't that trusting of a soul, and it showed even with the people she was meant to trust.
"I can see that," Jubilee finally replied, being careful not to fold her arms, no matter how defensive she might feel. "She doesn't exactly make it easy to trust her sometimes."
"Hello, I am right here." Marie-Ange said. "I have never done anything to cause distrust, do not be rude. There is trust, and there is like, and if I do not do anything to make you like me. I have not yet done anything to cause distrust." She paused, and then just could not resist adding. "Actually, you are sleeping with the person on the team everyone distrusts, so perhaps you should reevaluate your definition of what causes someone to be trustworthy."
"Now who's being childish," Jubilee responded, raising her eyebrows as she sat back. "Hate to break it to you cupcake, but you can't tell me I've broken 'friend code', and then say you've never done anything for me to like you. Which exactly is it? Either I'm a bad friend, or you've got absolutely no reason to expect me to tell you anything."
"Your own personal logic is showing, Angie," Amanda said with a wry grin. "Let's get one thing clear, for both of you. Trust and friendship are two different things in this line of work. I trusted 'Yana to have my back in a job, but I wasn't exactly mates with her, and I'm pretty sure the feeling was mutual. So whether you two are friends or not really doesn't matter. What does is knowing we can trust each other to do the job we're here for. Angie's said why she doesn't trust you, Jubes, so how about you explain why you don't trust her?"
"It's the attitude, honestly," Jubilee replied after a long moment, trying to vocalise something that wasn't anything she'd really thought about before. "Instincts tell me not to trust you, Marie-Ange, that someone like you isn't going to have anything good in mind for me. You act like everything I do is simply to annoy you, and you don't feel shy about saying so. You say you'll treat me like a child cause I act like it, but then expect me to trust you at my back. You say liking has nothing to do with that, Amanda, and that's fine, it doesn't. But you gotta trust that someone thinks you can do your job, and won't second guess everything you do."
"Your memory is so short I should have you checked for mad cow disease, and you are not Captain Kirk, stop calling people cupcake." Marie-Ange said. "I will remember that you think I have nothing good in mind for you the next time I rescue you from a bar when you have drunk yourself into a stupor. On top of everything else, you are a liar. You certainly thought I had good intentions when you called me to get your contact out of Egypt. Your lack of consistency is astounding, are you sure you do not have a brain disease?"
"I never said I didn't give you chances, or that you hadn't earned my trust at times, but you just keep shoving it back in my face. Every single time I trust you, you start on at me, either on the journals or in person. Trust doesn't continue forever, just because I trust you once or twice doesn't mean you get it for all time," Jubilee replied, glaring at her. "How the fuck am I meant to let my guard down with you when you take every single chance to put me down?"
"And how am I supposed to trust that you will do your job when I need you to, without complaining about how hard it is to get up in the morning when every time I turn around, you sound more like a child than a grown woman?" Marie-Ange pressed the heel of her hand into one eye. "Jubilee, I do not -care- if you hate flying coach or if you had to get up at two in the morning to steal something and I do not care if you stand out in the cold and the wet because all of us have to do those things sometimes."
"For fuck's sake, dude," Jubilee clenched her fists before placing them back down on the hand rests of her chair, not giving into the urge to slam them against the table. "I'm not complaining, it's only you that actually takes that seriously. Do you honestly fucking think I would do all this if I really actively felt so fucking miserable about it? What exactly is it you expect me to put on the journals? How I had to make sure I had a dental dam cause I needed to blow at least five guys the other day as part of a cover, or maybe how I had to burn some bastard's corpse to fucking ashes so it couldn't be traced back to us? Maybe how I helped Sarah torture the fucker to death first to get the information we wanted, that'd go down a treat, I bet. I can just see the Prof. lining up to give me a medal for that one. I know we all do shit jobs, I know you have just as shit a time of it as I do. I deal with it by making stupid inane comments about shitty travel on the journals which I don't actually believe, and if you knew me at all you'd ignore it, but you don't because you're so fucking fast to pass judgement about how you think I am. It keeps me in touch with people, because that's shit they can talk to me about, and make jokes and be normal about."
She fell back against her seat, breathing deeply, she hadn't even known that was going to come out till it had all spewed out all over the place.
"Do you listen to yourself after you talk, at all?" Marie-Ange asked dryly. "Again, it is how hard your life is and how many awful things you have to do, and how you just -have- to act like an idiot because you have a very hard job. You have a very hard job, you cannot afford to act like an idiot. Do you ever think about that? Do you stop and think that everyone else manages to talk to people without acting like an idiot who complains about the sun coming up? Yes, I was excessive. Yes, I was bitchy, as you say it. But you still act like an idiot, and when you do, I tell you. When you do not, and when you are good at your job, like in Egypt, I also tell you that."
"While still insulting me," Jubilee noted, running a hand through her still blonde hair, something she needed to see about eventually. "I don't think you've ever actually told me anything good ever without some kind of qualifier. I think it might actually physically hurt you if you did. You think it's acting like an idiot, I'm saying that I think your view of my behaviour is biased. You don't see me calling you an idiot for getting tipsy and talking about fucking Garrison, do you?"
Marie-Ange raised an eyebrow. "Ah, but my post simply reminds everyone that I am an adult and irredeemably awful, which is not the same as acting like a child. Do you really need me to pat you on the head and give you a cookie every time you steal something?" She examined her fingernails for a moment, and waited for Jubilee to open her mouth to try to reply. "Fine, and only because I want to see you in pain, clearly. When I say you make an excellent lemur, I mean that because you are a good thief and have tiny tricky hands with which to steal all manner of things. Now will you please stop trying to educate me on Chinese culture and stop stealing my food from the refrigerator? Also I have the last box of those cookies from the Girl Scouts in a box in my office, and you may have one. One cookie, not the entire box. I need the rest to bribe Doug."
"You were the one asking about whether Chinese people actually had middle names, sue me for not getting the joke late at night, I was busy," Jubilee replied, a smile twitching at the side of her mouth despite herself. Much as she would never admit it to Marie-Ange, sometimes she really did need the reassurance, stupid as that was. "Yes, I'll stop stealing from your refrigerator. What kind of Girl Scout cookies?"
"Brilliant. We're up to cookies and deals." Amanda had sat quietly while they'd argued, knowing they needed the chance to blow off steam and actually communicate. "How about this? Angie, you give Jubes some leeway on the journals. Stop jumping on her for making jokes and try to judge her on the work she does instead. Ignore her posts if you have to - 's not like we pay attention to every single person on the system any way, yeah? And Jubes, back off on the poking at Angie. Find another hobby other than baiting the pre-cog with the scary brain and you'll both be a lot happier." She looked at Marie-Ange, then Jubilee. "That a good enough deal?"
"I'm good with that," Jubilee replied, sitting up in her chair.
"The mint ones, and I reserve the right to ask Sarah to throw you from a building if you forget and annoy me on purpose." Marie-Ange said. "I promise it will be a short building." She added, before Amanda's hand could tighten on the cane. "But she can keep on with the crochet animals." It was just that the damnable things were actually cute. "But if you say I said they were cute I will call you names again."
