xp_logs | Log: Maya and Adrienne

Backdated to before Adrienne left

Maya made a disgusted noise as she looked through the cupboards in the kitchen. She'd been missing home especially hard this morning and all she really wanted was some coffee and some fry bread. But could she find anything in this place? No.

Dressed in a skirt, blouse, and stilettos with four-inch heels, Adrienne juggled two travel mugs of coffee as she came into the kitchen, foraging for a piece of fruit. A young person, probably a student, was rooting through the cupboards. Adrienne had never seen her before. It seemed every time she turned around there were more kids, and she couldn't keep them all straight. "Can I help you find something?" she asked from a few feet behind the kid as she did her own search in the fridge for something edible and vaguely healthy.

Maya continued to look through cupboards, seemingly completely ignoring Adrienne's words. In reality, she simply hadn't heard, as she wasn't currently wearing the outward parts of the implants that allowed her to hear.

"Who the hell designed this place? Can't find anything," Maya muttered to herself, moving to the lower shelves. "You'd think rich people would at least be organized."

Adrienne snorted in bemusement at the comment. She was momentarily put off by the fact that she'd been ignored, but then remembered being told that there was a hearing impaired student kicking around and assumed this was the one.

Biting her lip, she searched her mental repository. After she'd returned to Harvard from rehab she'd used her powers to catch up on the information she'd missed in her classes. But Reading lecterns and whiteboards and desks had given her knowledge not only of her own business classes, but everything that had been taught in the same classrooms. Rogue and Garrison liked to tease her about her knowledge of Flower Arranging 101, and she'd deleted a lot of the useless classes from the arts department like Comparative Literature and 'Dreams and Dreaming' which, as far as she could figure, was some sort of religion course, but she'd kept a couple of the more useful subjects that she'd seen taught. One was a first year American Sign Language course. It was rudimentary at best, and since she'd never checked out the actual textbook she only had access to what she'd seen the professor and students do, but she assumed it was better than nothing.

Moving into the girl's peripheral vision, Adrienne gave a subtle little wave to say hi, not wanting to startle her.

Maya noticed the movement in her peripheral vision and turned around, using the ASL for 'Hello' as she looked the woman over curiously - she hadn't seen her before.

"Help?" Adrienne signed, though she wasn't sure how to sign a question mark and tried to turn it into a question with a raising of her eyebrows and a gesture towards the cupboards.

"Thanks. Do you know if there's any fry bread?" Maya signed, then gestured to the cupboards. "I'd make it from scratch but I can't find anything."

Struggling not to look panicked, Adrienne swiped two fingers over the countertop and Read Maya's signs in her head so she could get another look at them. She still didn't understand a bunch of the signs in there. Damn. Okay, plan B. She pulled the notebook and pencil she used for investigations out of her bag and flipped it to a clean page. Sorry, didn't catch all that. Only know a little. What kind of bread? she wrote on the pad in her scrawling but legible script, showing it to Maya and setting the pad and pencil on the counter.

"Give me a sec," Maya replied verbally and fished the implants from her pant's pocket before attaching them. "There, now I can hear you - although if you can still face me it'll make it easier."

Maya tended toward a combination of lip reading and the implants to make sure she caught everything that a person was saying.

"I was talking about fry-bread. Néške'éehe used to make it every morning as part of breakfast."

"Cool," Adrienne nodded when Maya explained about the implants, making sure she was facing the teen. "What's fry bread? Is it like french toast?"

"More like dough you fry in oil," Maya explained, her eyes darting between Adrienne's mouth and then looking her squarely in the eye. "It's great with bacon and eggs in the morning or with pudding or corn soup. Well, it's great with anything really."

"Sounds good. I hope you find a place around here that has it," Adrienne told her with a nod. "Or, maybe someone could make some for you. There are some great cooks here. Unfortunately I'm not one of them. I can barely manage coffee." She gestured to the two travel mugs. "You want coffee?" she asked before she thought to ask how old this kid was.

"Spirit, yes," Maya replied - making gimme gestures as she wondered who these cooks were and if she'd already alienated them. "Does this place have a coffee machine or anything?"

Normally they'd made do with instant at home, or picked up drive threw coffee on their way to dropping her off at school but that didn't mean she couldn't appreciate the finer stuff.

Adrienne handed over the travel mug she'd poured for Rogue. She'd get her PA another one on her way to the office. She took a sip out of her own mug, giving Maya time to take a sip of her own so that she could take her eyes off Adrienne without missing any conversation. "I think most suites have their own personal brewers these days," she told Maya once the teen was looking at her again. "Those keurig or tassimo things, y'know? I've got two in my suite, actually, since I just moved in with someone recently. I can bring one to you this afternoon if you'd like." She didn't have two. But they were cheap these days- well, cheap to someone who wasn't a high school student. She'd just buy Maya one.

"I don't think we've got one, unless one of the other's have been holding out," Maya replied, thinking for a moment. "You sure though? You don't even really know me. I could be a disruptive element."

Adrienne smirked and gave Maya a shrug. "Weren't we all, at one time or another. As long as you don't go around physically harming or verbally harassing people, you're fine by me. Though people enjoy telling me that the Professor wouldn't allow people to live here who weren't, y'know, reforming or whatever, even if they had been evil or something. I think this place actually attracts disruptive elements, though, to tell you the truth."

Maya paused for a moment, rubbing a hand across her chin as she watched Adrienne. Did she mention the whole issue with random attacking of people who startled her? Or the fact she was just a tad bit of an asshole to a whole bunch of people who had the misfortune of interacting with her at, let's be honest here, any time of the day when she wasn't feeling up to best behavior.

"Um...I'm kinda an asshole," Maya admitted after a moment of debate. "Sort of all the time."

Adrienne shook her head. "Not the kind I mean. Because you can admit it. If you were the kind I mean, you wouldn't ever admit it. You probably wouldn't even realize it. I'm talking less 'asshole' and more 'monster.' Monsters never admit they're monsters. Trust me on this one," she said with a rueful smile.

"Guessing by that you've known a few?" Maya asked tentatively. She'd seen the type of people Adrienne talked about. People in authority a lot of the time, but others that just looked the other way too. "Sorry you had to deal with that."

Not that the woman needed her understanding, she was only a kid still but you did the work that was in front of you and when she wasn't letting herself get in her own way, compassion wasn't a lot of cost to give.

Adrienne took another sip of her coffee. "Daddy dearest and the man who made me Mrs. DuClos made hardened criminals look like nursery school teachers." She shrugged off the memories, refusing to dwell on the past. "Thanks. It fucks you up in some ways. But it makes you stronger in others. I mean, you've gotta believe that or there's no point to carrying on. And everyone has their own shit to deal with."

"I always figured anyone who was going to pull the 'There's starving African orphans crap was too much of a complete asshat to care about anyway," Maye noted, shrugging. "It's kinda sign one of it, that whole 'other people's problems mean you can't have any' crap. Glad it made you stronger though, even though I could ask the spirits for you if you wanted one of them to develop foot fungus or have their dicks drop off or something. It totally wouldn't work, cause they don't really do that sort of thing - least not that I've seen but I could still ask."

"They've been... taken care of," Adrienne shrugged again, "but thanks for the thought." She took another sip of her coffee. "Do... spirits do things for you if you ask? I mean, is that your power?"

"It's not really speaking," Maya explained, trying to figure out how to put into words what had just always been. "It's mostly feelings and sometimes images if I get a good connection. My Meeme can do more, he's a real Shaman, I'm just sensitive. But if they like me enough, they'll do things for me. But it's mostly things like pointing out trip hazards in the woods or showing me the best place to sleep, that sort of thing."

She paused as she thought about Adrienne's second question - she didn't think spirits were her mutation, she'd always had the spirit thing. The rest hadn't come about till the car accident.

"My mutation is something else, though we haven't figured out exactly what yet. Wade said I could get Rogue to help me once her brain is back working right."

Adrienne looked intrigued and curious about Maya's spirit sensitivity, particularly when the teenager admitted that her mutation wasn't connected to it. Adrienne had encountered a ghost before, so the idea of helpful spirits didn't floor her, but it was still pretty cool. "Talking to Rogue's a good idea," she agreed. "That's a great way to find out what you can do. Hopefully her brain will be working right soon." Adrienne would certainly appreciate it, that was for sure. "She's getting my sister to help her, so I'm sure she'll be sorted out rather quickly. But, if you don't mind my asking, how do you know you have a mutation if you don't know what it is?"

"Medical testing - Clarice did the honors," Maya wrinkled her nose, she hated giving blood. "Came back positive for mutancy, we just don't know what."

Thinking that she was wrinkling her nose about Clarice, Adrienne snorted in amusement. "Huh. I didn't know you could test for mutancy here," she admitted, "I thought only Canada had it." Her phone went off and she dug it out of her handbag. "Shit. I'm late for a meeting. I'd better run. I'm heading into the city," she told Maya. "You want a ride? 'See if you can find some fry bread somewhere?"

"Hmm. I'd love to but Wade's got me grounded right now and I kinda want to avoid giving him any reasons to send me back to my Dad," Maya admitted, with a wry grin. "And, well - unless you've got a bike, I can't really accept anyway - cars don't agree with me."

"I've got a bike," Adrienne told her, "a Ducati 1100. But," she added, looking down at her skirt and heels, "I can't bike like this. And I don't have time to go change. Next time, though? As long as the weather holds out?"

"Cool," Maya replied.