Garrison and Adrienne at the bookstore

[x-adrienne.livejournal.com]

Adrienne causes Garrison to lose Man Points.



"I think you're stalking me." Kane said as he collected the newest Sports Illustrated from the stand. It was mostly in jest, since most of the mansion came through the Salem Centre Books at one point or another. The owner had originally worked on the grounds of the mansion as a teenager, when it was still simply the Xavier Estate. He'd been an early supporter of the school, perhaps drawing on his own experience growing up as part of the only Greek immigrant family in the town, and in turn, Xavier ordered most of the school's books through his store, allowing him to compete against the massive box book store on the other side of town.

Once a month, Kane came through for a stack of magazines and a refill of mindless paperback mysteries to churn through. He found them soothing; the impossibly clean and logical progression of their clues was a nice contrast to the much muddier real world.

"Just came to get a book, deal with it," Adrienne muttered in a singsongy voice, shrugging as she strode past Garrison towards the history section. She couldn't tell if he was joking or not so she kept her tone light but his choice of words definitely hit a nerve after all they'd been through with each other since her return.

"That's a good story. I think you just can't bear to let a gorgeous guy like me out of your sight." Kane stopped and shook his head. "Sorry. Fell asleep watching 'Empire' last night. I think it's rewired things in my head."

"What's 'Empire'?" Adrienne asked offhand as she scanned the shelves of the history section.

"You're kidding, right?" Garrison said, stunned. "Empire Strikes Back. Episode five. The best of all the Star Wars films?"

Adrienne shrugged, pulling a title off the shelf by its spine and reading the back jacket. "Jean told me there's a green Muppet thing called Yoda in Star Wars but that's about all I know. Something about 'the force' and a guy named Luke and the bad guy's named Darth Vadar and something about Pizza Hut? Oh, and I know there's a chick called Leia with Hellabun hair?"

The expression on Kane's face was that of horrified shock. "You can't be serious. How do you not- I mean, how- Pizza Hut?"

Adrienne missed the expression as she was still browsing the shelves. "What's so great about Pizza Hut that my not knowing it was mentioned in a movie is a big deal?"

"You must be kidding me. One of the major cultural movements of the last fifty years, and you've never seen it? I just don't understand how that's possible."

"Pizza Hut's a major cultural movement?" Adrienne inquired in the same distracted tone she'd been using, holding the book up to hide her smirk.

"You know, I don't even think I can talk to you any more. You have to have lived in a cave not to know Star Wars." He threw up his hands. "A very small cave at that."

"I agree," Adrienne answered, figuring she should put him out of his misery... or maybe her competitive streak was just kicking in and she'd had enough of being thought ignorant about Star Wars. "It's almost like I've been living in Yoda's hut on Dagobah to finish my Jedi training. Or, no, it's more like I've been living inside a dead tauntaun? Or held in carbonite in suspended animation at Jabba's! Or no, I've been in the Great Pit of Carkoon!" Surely that reference was obscure enough that he'd know she had just been messing with him and actually knew Star Wars quite well.

Kane blinked twice slowly. "You bitch. You just set me up." He shook his magazine at her. "I hope you're aware that now I have to get revenge in some fashion, Frost. Otherwise, my stats go down. See what you've done?"

"You make it sooooo easy," she chuckled, going back to her search. "But hey, don't blame me. Blame the power." She waggled her fingers in his direction. "When I was in college I'd Read the screen at the local movie theatres so now I have every movie they showed up to that point in my head. Of couse, for every good movie like Empire I've got ten pieces of shit like Phantom Menace that I can never forget, so it wasn't necessarily a good idea, but it does give one lots to talk about at parties."

"Doesn't that kind of miss the point of watching the movie though?" No one really understood how Adrienne inputed the information that she received. "Is it the same as sitting there processing it, or, you know, is it just 'bam', and you remember it?"

Adrienne looked around to make sure there wasn't really anyone around to listen to the conversation since she was a little wary about discussing her mutation in public, then shrugged. "I process it all. I think the thing that's tripping you up is the fact that time moves differently in Readings... or rather, that time doesn't pass at all for me in the 'real world'," she used air quotes, "while I'm doing a Reading. So I could Read three hundred years' worth of something's history in the time it takes you to blink."

"Yeah, but how do you retain any of it? Your memory isn't all that good, Adrienne. I've watched you try and remember groceries without a list."

Adrienne whacked him upside the shoulder with her book and snorted indignantly. "That's because groceries aren't important enough to remember!" she muttered, though she smirked while she said it. "I don't know how I retain it, honestly. It's just always there, anything I Read with my powers. I can never forget it. Maybe I should ask Jean or Hank to look into it, they're pretty smart," she mused aloud. "So what did I cost you in stats by playing you on my Star Wars knowledge?"

"I lose man points." Not like he needed them anyways. Thanks to Amanda, Kane couldn't get laid in New Orleans during Mardi Gras if he was wearing a bead tuxedo. "Lots of them. They'll take away my Leafs TV and replace it with Oprah."

"I've never known you to be insecure about your tally of man points before," Adrienne pointed out cheerfully. "Don't you have enough stocked up what with being a Mountie and an FBI agent and an X-Man and incredibly hot and, I mean, c'mon, surely your man points are secure enough purely for subscribing to 'Leafs TV' that you can endure whatever 'they' may try to do to you?" She wrinkled her nose as an afterthought. "Although Oprah is a bit scary, I must admit."

"You don't understand the powers 'they' have. Next mistake sees me in dresses for the immediate future. Really not cool."

"Did you want to start practicing with a pair of my high heels?" Adrienne inquired with a raised eyebrow, feigning seriousness. "We could maybe get you a cute little Greek-style sundress to go with them? You totally have the butt to pull off that look."

"You know what? I'm going to buy my magazine, and pretend this entire conversation never happened. And then I'm going to watch American pussy football and drink beer. Likely fart in public and talk about tits a lot. That will protect me."

"Tits and Star Wars? Oh wait, that was how you got set up into losing your man points in the first place, I forgot," Adrienne countered innocently. She took her book over to the counter, eying his magazine. "Is there anything in there about how much the Jays are going to suck this year?"

Garrison opened his mouth and closed it again, simply gesturing at her with his magazine before walking away.

"That's right G-Man, flee quickly before you lose any more points!" Adrienne cackled after him, thoroughly enjoying herself. She could tell from his body language that he wasn't actually angry with her and was glad that his 'storming off in anger' phase seemed to be over. "And don't worry, maybe you can earn some back by eating really spicy chicken wings tonight!"