Log: Sydney/Jubilee

[xp-changeling.livejournal.com]

Jubilee and Kevin talk about X-Force, marriage, and the future.

Backdated to the 13th



“Okay with company?”

Jubilee grinned down at Kevin, and gestured to the seat beside him, they were in the main room of the ski lodge that they’d currently all retired to for what had been stated as ‘team bonding’ but was mostly just an excuse to get out of New York and relax for a while.

"That depends. If you want to sell me something or talk to me about Jesus, no." Kevin said, not looking up from his newspaper. A snifter of brandy sat at the small table by his elbow. "Anything else, I'm game."

“Well, my parents were Confucian but I’d probably be a deep disappointment to them, given the career and all,” Jubilee noted, flopping down into the seat and putting her feet out in front of her – she was wearing bright yellow Ugg boots. “Anything good?”

She’d have gestured to the paper were he looking at her, but she figured his answer either way would at least be amusing.

"Giants are looking at shit for their draft. So now we're likely stuck watching Washington winning the NFC East next year. That's slightly less enjoyable than a damn root canal."

“Is that basketball?” Jubilee asked, uncertain which particular sport he was talking about – her idea of sport to watch was slightly different to everyone else’s ideas. “Or football?”

"It's football, Lee. And Washington is to football what, I don't know, young women are to cocktails. A horrible representative."

“Poor thing, did a young woman throw a cocktail in your face?” Jubilee asked, swirling her own brightly coloured drink. “So given that I know nothing about football, I’m sure that’s all horrible for you. Why are you going to watch it if you don’t think it’s going to be enjoyable?”

"I've had many cocktails thrown in my face. And thrown a few myself. But no, it's because young women are traditionally bad at holding their fruity drinks. As for why I have to watch, if you know nothing about football, there is no answer I can give that will make you understand. Water is wet. People Lie. I need to watch the conference play."

“Just as long as you don’t play Air Supply when whatever team you’re following loses, you’re one up on a lot of the sports fans around here,” Jubilee replied with a shrug, taking a sip of her banana daiquiri. “You actually ski by the way?”

"Yes. But I do so when I need to, as opposed to recreation." He held up his drink and jiggled it, so the ice cubes chimed. "This is recreation. Where's your fiancé? Why didn't you bring him up for a little chalet naughtiness?

“Because if I had, I wouldn’t have been talking to any of you for the duration and like, I have to get to know you newbies sooner or later, might as well be now.” Jubilee remarked, taking a sip of her drink before leaning back. “Besides, we’ll have more than enough time to laze about on the honeymoon.”

"Allow a... newbie to give you a little advice. Never put off the chalet naughtiness. It is amazing how quickly that can turn into a routine.... and then a chore. Just a little marriage advice."

“You been married then?” Jubilee asked – glancing at him in surprise. Although she supposed she shouldn’t be, there’s wasn’t exactly a sign that married or possibly previously married people wore that said so. “It’s just this once, anyway. I’ll more then make it up to him when I get home, believe me.”

"Of course I was married. It's what you did in my era. Especially if you worked for the government." Kevin flipped a page. "She was a daughter of New York society. Talented opera singer. Not star diva quality, but the right voice and name for solid support at the Met."
“Did she know what you were?”

This was as much as she’d gotten him to talk about himself since they’d met – she’d have been a poor observer of human nature if she didn’t take shameless advantage of his current mood.

"What I was? What was I, Lee?"

“A mutant?”

She looked at him then, a small frown furrowing her brow before sudden understanding dawned. She didn’t meet many long lived mutants, Logan, Wade and now Kevin were the only ones she really knew besides Cain – and he hadn’t been around for a while. And that had been another kick to the heart in and of itself, not that she’d have ever admitted it to the guy.
“So wait, like, you guys didn’t know anything about mutants back then?”

"Nope. The reason we split was because I can't have kids. The mutant thing didn't sink in until the 80s, really." He shook his head. "It was a different time. And a very different way of looking at the world."

“I getcha on that, dude. I’ve been kinda lucky – Kurt and I got the kids talk out of the way awhile ago, even if we had compatible genealogy and there were no complications at all, I’m not the type of person that can do this work and look after a small human.” Jubilee noted, folding her knees under on her seat and getting more comfortable. “So – you said you used to work for the Government, any interesting stories that I couldn’t find by paying Doug a lot of reeces, and/or tacos and my theoretical first born?”

"I spent 46 years with the CIA, and then one year of retirement before they had me killed." He waved for another drink. "Which is why I'm a little concerned about this group."

“That we’re gonna get you killed, or that we’ll make you retire?” Jubilee asked, curious. She knew they were a young group in terms of how long they’d been working at this, they had enough talent combined that they were able to come out the other end relatively unscathed, recent history notwithstanding. “Or that you’re gonna have to kill one of us, maybe?”

"No. That this is the MiniPops of the intelligence world." He held up a hand, forestalling the objection. "You're talented. Some of you are actually properly trained. But from the top down, this is a place that is doing everything on a wing and a prayer. Institutional experience is important, and the team as a whole is mostly too young to have it."

“Not entirely, no,” Jubilee admitted – she couldn’t help but admit it since it was true. “But there’s not a lot we can do about it in the short term, other than hiring people like you. Why, you got some thoughts on that?”

"We re-align. You've got a hodge-podge in here. Instead, we start looking at different expertise and field talent."
“Change the sort of jobs we do, or change the image we project?”

Jubilee herself had no real ways to fix what were concerns, other then what she’d been doing since they got to this world, which was trying to gather what parts of the network she could and somehow make herself into a person who could at the very least command enough respect that they’d talk to her. She hadn’t always been one hundred percent successful in that, and they’d certainly lost groups that she knew they would have held had Pete or Remy still been with them.

"Both. It's time for people like yourself to become fully rounded intelligence officers. To train up people like Artie and Gabe. And to make people who want to be leadership to understand what that actually means."

“Never trained anyone before, not even sure I’d be any good at it,” Jubilee admitted – a brief moment of nerves running up her spine before she shook the feeling off. “Not that I ain’t willing to give it a shot.”

"I think you need your own training first. From everything I've seen, you're a great operative. And if there were, oh, a hundred of us working here, that's all you'd need to be. With our numbers this small, everyone needs to be both field agent and analyst. Other than the odd note, I don't think I've seen your name in those areas yet."

“Sitting still and finding the one piece of obscure information needed was never something I was interested in doing, but I get your point,” Jubilee replied with a sigh – it always came back to doing things because they needed to be done and you were the person in front of the problem. Whether you liked it or not, whether it interested you or not, so much of what they did required you to simply get on with it, personal preferences be damned. “So, I guess I’ll be talking to Marie-Ange when we get back – I hate you for bringing this to my attention, by the way, just so you know. I’m pretty sure there’s some form of revenge crotchet out there somewhere.”

Jubilee’s grin belayed the possible harshness of her words however, she knew he was right and she didn’t really resent the reminder – she just hated paperwork in all its forms.

"I doubt you'll be the only one. With a team this small, you all are going to have to be able to do a little bit of everything. That's going to involve a cultural change as well. How that happens... that's up to you."

“Oh no, dude. You and Dom are part of this team now too, any changes, you both get a say as well,” Jubilee noted, taking another sip of her drink. “I mean, we won’t be for a while, you guys are pretty new still, but I consider the people I work with here family, so you’re just gonna have to get used to being involved, yeah?”

"That remains to be seen. Institutional experience takes a long time to build, for any group. We're going to need it."