Lorna and Adrienne - New Recruit

[x-adrienne.livejournal.com]

Lorna visits Adrienne to pick up a jacket Adrienne designed for her and ends up joining X-Factor Investigations.



"Miss Frost?" Lorna knocked on the door with her free hand and a plate in the other. They had already agreed to meet at this time as Adrienne had something to show her. Out of everything that had happened in the past several weeks, meeting one of her favorite fashion designers was definitely a plus. "I brought you an omelette."

Adrienne opened the door to Kane's suite to admit Lorna, shoving the cat out of the way first. "Watch him," she warned the other woman, "he's getting to be a bit of a mooch. Thanks for coming! Ooo, omelette." She took the plate from Lorna excitedly. As usual when she was wrapped up in a design, she couldn't remember the last time she'd eaten. "And please, call me Adrienne. Or Adri," she added, pronouncing it the way Kane and other East-Coasters did, with a hard A to make it Add-ree. "Or Adri." This time she pronounced it the way West-Coasters tended to, with the A like the letter of the alphabet when doing a-b-cs. "Or Adri." Now she said it the way she liked it best- the way Rogue pronounced it: 'Audrey.' "I've heard it all."

"I said that I would make you one. Not that great of a cook but never heard a complaint yet. Okay, Miss- I mean Adri." Pronouncing it like A-Dree, with her own California accent. She smiled brightly trying to hide her inner squealing.

Adrienne padded off towards the kitchenette to grab a fork for the omelette, leaving Lorna alone in the common area of the messy suite. Adrienne wasn't staying in the suite she'd had with Tandy, and was finding due to her work with X-Factor that she wasn't spending as much time as she'd anticipated at her penthouse in the city, so a great deal of her stuff had taken up unofficial residence at Garrison's. Meaning there were clothes, shoes, magazines, blu-ray cases, paperwork, and half-finished design projects all over the place. The heated jacket she'd been working on for Lorna was on the couch. "Can I get you anything?" she called out to Lorna from the other room. "Drink, maybe?"

"Water would be fine. Thank you." Lorna said back as she looked around at the mess. It seemed that Adrienne was a very busy lady - or Lorna had walked into a hurricane aftermath. She focused her attention back to Adrienne, hoping that she wasn't caught gwaking at the mess around her.

Adrienne tried not to read too much into the fact that this version of Lorna was apparently a water drinker. She returned with a glass, a fork, and the omelette and cleared away a portion of junk from the coffee table so she could set the glass and plate down. Then she cleared some clothes off the chair for Lorna and sat on the couch herself. "I'm finished the jacket," she told Lorna proudly, then ate a large forkful of omelette, cutting off an explanation as to what she meant. But she assumed Lorna remembered.

"Thanks." Lorna sat down in the chair and raised an eyebrow. "The self-heating jacket? Really?" Her eyes traveled to the couch were a jacket was lying. She wondered if that was it. "I didn't think it would be possible."

"Why wouldn't it?" Adrienne asked with a grin. "It's just a battery pack, heating pads and wiring. No big deal. The trick was to design one that didn't make you look like you were a construction worker or big game hunter on the North Sea oil fields." The phrase probably made no sense but Adrienne didn't think too much about it. "I hope you like it." She set the omelette down top of a pile of papers on the coffee table since there was no empty space and lifted the coat up, rising from the couch so she could stand and hold it out at its proper height. She'd put the heat packs into a lined knee-length double-breasted black military style wool coat.

"It is beautiful." Lorna put it on without hesitation and then did a little twirl. "How can I repay you? I mean seriously. I need to make it up to you and an omelette will not do."

Adrienne pondered that question with a delighted look on her face. "Well. I wouldn't say no to a bunch more omelettes. Cuz this one's really good. But I feel bad asking because you've already told me you're not a chef. So what is it you actually do around here?"

"Well..." Lorna bit her lower lip. "are I don't do anything anymore. I used to... until my sister had to get me out."

"Ah." Adrienne nodded and took another bite of her omelette. "That seems to happen a lot around here. And so that means that's my cue to offer you a job. That happens a lot around here, too," she smirked. "Although until Rogue fucks up royally, I don't have a position that needs filling at Meridian. Have you ever heard of X-Factor Investigations?"

"A bit. My sister said that a bunch of teams based around here. I used to give intel...I used to be with the Brotherhood and then I turned spy for Wanda." She lowered her head.

"Any contacts nationally?" Adrienne inquired, eyebrow raised in interest.

"A few yes. Some of them the Brotherhood doesn't know."

Adrienne ate more of her omelette. "If my sister- and yours- haven't already snapped you up for their intelligence squad, you could think about working for X-Factor," she suggested. "We're a local- for now- detective agency, helping mutants and their families. These days, people like- like you," she corrected, barely stopping herself from saying 'like us' but not wanting to reveal her own mutation to Lorna just yet, "sometimes aren't afforded the full protection and diligence of law enforcement. They're being left to fall through the cracks, so to speak. X-Factor tries to find whatever they need. Justice, answers, whatever. We help find runaways, bring them to safe places like here. And we make a little money doing it. That doesn't suck," she smirked. "Your contacts might make you valuable. And, you seem to already have some experience with sneaking around..."

"No. They haven't." Lorna said. She knew the intel she was giving to Wanda was benefiting the team that she was associated with. "Help people?" Lorna perked up. That is what Lorna wanted the most, to help others. Not the dream her father wanted.

"Yeah, help people," Adrienne confirmed with a nod, sensing that Lorna was intrigued by the prospect. "You interested?"

"Sure. I am interested. It doesn't bother you I have a past with the Brotherhood?"

"I don't see why it should," Adrienne answered with a shrug. "So does Wanda, and I trust her. Christ knows I have a shady enough past myself, what with working for the Black Court of the Hellfire Club. Truth be told I'd rather have someone who's been to the Dark Side and come over to us rather than someone who's always been on the straight and narrow and sits every day wondering what the Dark Side might be like, you know?"

"You worked with the Hellfire Club?" She sounded impressed. "The Dark Side isn't that great. Lots of guilt trips and regrets."

"Not so much 'worked with' as 'am a member of and was once massively fucked over by the Black Court.' Which is why I'm a member of the White now. Like you say," Adrienne grinned wryly, "lots of guilt trips and regrets." She finished up her omelette and flipped open her computer to find the employment information for XFI. "It sounds like you're going to fit in quite well."