xp_logs | Jamie and Nathan, Tuesday evening (Reply)

Nathan goes looking for Jamie to deliver a gift from Santorini. They talk a little about Kitty, then about the Askani's interest in HeliX. Askani herself comes out to talk to Jamie, and the two of them have a friendly philosophical chat which concludes in Askani more or less declaring Jamie a part of the Clan.

Nathan poked his head into the rec room, spotting Jamie sitting on the couch and channel-surfing, apparently aimlessly. Probably wouldn't mind an interruption then, Nathan reasoned, glancing down at the small, heavy box in his free hand and then hobbling forward into the room, cheerfully noting that he was having to lean a little less heavily on the damned crutch with each passing day.

"Hey," he said as Jamie looked up at him. "Mind if I sit down?"

Jamie grinned. "No, not at all." He waved the remote. "Three hundred gazillion channels and there's still nothing on, somehow. How was Greece?"

"Beautiful, quiet, and did I mention quiet?" Nathan said with a grin as he settled himself on the couch. He set the box down beside him. "Of course, I did have to tackle Moira a couple of times in order to forcibly apply sunscreen... it's a hard life, I tell you."

Jamie snickered. "Yeah, I'll bet you just hated having to do it. What a chore." His expression turned curious. "What's the box for?"

"You, actually," Nathan said happily, handing it over. "Careful, it's heavier than it looks. Moira and I picked it out during one of our numerous shopping trips."

"Oh, wow. You didn't have to do that." Jamie made remarkably fast work of the packaging despite this disclaimer, and his eyes widened as he lifted a statue out of the box, a dolphin in mid-leap carved out of lava stone. "Oh, this is just . . . this is really _neat._ Thanks! Have to track down the Doc and thank her, too--geez, you guys really didn't have to."

"We didn't, but it was fun," Nathan said, grinning at Jamie's obvious appreciation for the statue. "We found that in a little stall in the market. There were the black ones out of lava stone and white ones out of alabaster. Moira thought getting that one for you and one of the white ones for Kitty would be a nifty idea."

"Yeah, she'll love it." His face fell slightly. "Too bad she won't see it until probably September."

Nathan, who had quite deliberately brought Kitty up, on Moira's suggestion, nodded, his smile fading a little, turning wistfully. "Ah, well. It'll be something to welcome her back with, right?" he asked lightly.

"Yeah. Rather she was here instead, though."

Nathan leaned back into the cushions of the couch, propping his cast-encased leg on the coffee table. "I imagine," he said, opening his shields as much as he dared and listening for anything Jamie might let slip. "I remember I used to hate having to leave Muir... well, not that I was admitting to myself back then that it was leaving Moira I hated."

"She writes every week, and we talk on the phone, but it's not the same." Jamie smiled crookedly. "Guess I got a little spoiled having her right next door practically every day since I've been here."

"It's understandable," Nathan said gently. "But the summer won't last forever. Might feel that way, but it won't." He changed the subject, figuring that he had enough to tell Moira. Why she'd thought it was a good idea for him to do this, he wasn't sure. She had just chuckled, patted him on the cheek, and said that there were some advantages to using one's loyal minion, especially when said minion was a telepath. "I had an ulterior motive for coming to find you," he confessed. Only one he was going to admit to, at least.

Jamie gasped in mock surprise. "Oh no. Now all my illusions are shattered." He grinned. "What's up?"

"Well," Nathan said a bit hesitantly, not quite sure what sort of reaction he would get to this. "I was reading the journals today, your post about HeliX, particularly..." He trailed off, grimacing a little. "Um, several someones sat up and got abruptly interested."

"The, um . ." Jamie waved a hand vaguely in the direction of his temple. "Those someones? Huh. Hadn't figured on _that._" He cocked his head. "Interested how?"

"Those someones," Nathan confirmed with a wry smile. "They got all... giddy, actually. Apparently they see the work you're doing as precisely the sort of thing that leads to their sort of society, as opposed to the Canaanite model." He stopped, unable to help a snort. "They weren't happy that I couldn't tell them all the details - they were quizzing me rather relentlessly."

Jamie laughed. "We're a long way off from that--bunch of teenagers talking in a coffeeshop, is all. I've got some ideas, though." He grinned. "Did you want me to take over the quizzing, or something?"

Nathan waved a hand. "They were using all kinds of extravagant metaphors about seeds and rainstorms and, um, grazing animals. Not quite cows... they didn't have cows two thousand years from now." He blinked and shook his head. "And I'm rambling. Are you okay with them - well, one of them, rather, coming out to talk to you?"

Jamie blinked. "Yeah, I guess. Although, y'know, that's very weird."

"Tell me about it," Nathan said with a brief smile, and then closed his eyes for a moment. When he opened them again, Askani was sitting on the couch beside him, dressed in neither of her usual robes, or the armor, but in a startlingly low-cut green shirt and what really did look like leather pants. He blinked at her. "All right, what's with the fashion choice?" he asked, a bit quizzically.

"Casual clothing for casual situations," she said, far too brightly. He had learned not to trust her when she was too cheerful. "Greetings," she said, turning a dazzling smile on Jamie.

Jamie's eyes widened slightly at the outfit, but he recovered fairly quickly. "Uh--nice to meet you. I'm Jamie--guess you know that, though, what with the being in Nathan's head."

"Indeed," Askani said, rearranging herself elegantly into a cross-legged position. Nathan studied her suspiciously, not precisely sure what was going on. If he didn't know better, he'd think she was trying to charm Jamie. She swatted at his knee, a light blow he actually felt, and never looked away from Jamie. "Your consciousness-altering fascinates me."

Nathan frowned at her. "You make it sound like he's pushing drugs."

Askani glanced at him, then looked thoughtful. "Resolving of social dichotomies, then?"

Jamie shrugged. "I'm just trying to help people understand. We're not really all that different." He snickered. "Well, okay, apart from most people don't get the chance to talk to a dead woman who won't be born for centuries, but . . . we're all people, is what I'm trying to get at. And I thought if we got to know each other, that'd be easier to remember."

"The young are more flexible, as well," Askani agreed, giving him a keen look. "Although that can be a disadvantage. You spoke of..." She grimaced, making a helpless gesture. "Friends of Humanity, Nathan said?"

Jamie frowned. "Yeah. They're only friends to themselves, really. Bunch of mutant-hating bigots. But . . . I can think about how to handle them, at least. Better them than the other end of the lunatic fringe, that way."

"Those who feel themselves at a disadvantage can learn to trust," Askani said, "given time and reason. Those who perceive themselves as stronger, who believe that gives them the right to rule..." Her expression hardened. "I wish that I had an answer for that problem, I truly do. If I had, I would have used it in my own time."

Jamie nodded heavily. "I'm just going to deal with the problems I can deal with, and . . . I don't know what, for the rest of them. I can't even--" He shivered. "Magneto scares the hell out of me, and there's not a lot that does that anymore."

Askani looked away, her hair falling forward to hide her face, but Nathan's eyes narrowed as he sensed the drain on his powers increase, just a little, as if she was instinctively drawing in strength... wishing she could lash out with it? She certainly didn't approve of Magneto, but he hoped she didn't have any plans to forget he wasn't there and lose her temper.

#You give me no credit at all,# she sent sharply.

#I give you as much credit as your past behavior warrants,# he sent back, just as brusquely.

"I have a suggestion," Askani said, smiling a bit faintly as she looked back up at Jamie. "For your work. A strong focus on cultural matters can only be productive. It was one of the great binding forces in my clan."

Jamie considered that. "Makes sense, I guess. I'm trying to come up with a shirt design--want us to start doing things as a group just for fun, too. Stuff like that?"

She nodded. "Art, music, words. They are all forms of communication that transcend differences, whether real or merely perceived." She made another gesture with her hands, this one more graceful. "Prejudice is a product of both the intellect and the emotional self. To resist it, you must engage both."

"This is the sort of thing that goes on in my head a few times a day, Jamie," Nathan said with a soft laugh. "These philosophical debates. They can be pretty interesting, once you get into them."

Jamie snickered. "And you without my multitasking. Must get a little distracting." He returned his attention to Askani, thoughtfully. "I think it's more the emotional than the intellectual, though. Hate and fear aren't very rational."

"The emotion provides the impetus," Askani said, her eyes brightening, and Nathan got the very distinct impression that she was enjoying this again. Her mood swings were a little precipitous at times. "The intellect provides the structure, the justification. The material for propaganda, if nothing else."

Jamie nodded. "That makes sense. But that's not everybody, though--the guy I ran into the other day, he was just spouting back what he'd been told. Emotional as heck, but no real thought behind it."

"Those," Askani said with something close to relish, "are the easy targets."

Jamie smiled wryly. "So I maybe should't've sent him off with a bug up his butt? Wasn't much in the mood for reason right then."

"You cannot convert anyone," Askani said with a gentle laugh. "The most you can do is provoke thought, or evoke feeling. It's up to them to do what they will with it."

"Heh. Well, I evoked feeling, all right. I think it was probably 'oh no, it's a disgruntled mutant that can hide in a crowd of normal people,' but it was feeling."

"What would you do if the opportunity came again?" Askani asked.

"I don't know." Jamie brushed a hand back through his hair thoughtfully. "We just kinda ran into each other in the middle of a convention, so there wasn't an opportunity to sit down and see if I could get him to think. I maybe could've been less confrontational, but I'm . . . a little hair-triggered on the whole anti-mutant, anti-human sentiment thing right now."

"This is perhaps why you should focus on the... fun," Askani said with a smile that Nathan would almost have termed 'endearing'. "For now, at least. Until your vision has cleared and you see more opportunities than obstacles. And there will be further opportunities, little brother."

Nathan blinked at her. "Jamie," he said dryly. "You've been adopted."

Jamie cocked his head, a little confused. "Uh . . . that's good, right?" He flashed a quick smile at Askani. "Not that I don't appreciate it, I just don't know what it means."

"Nothing alarming," Askani said, swatting Nathan again. "Merely... approval. Support, if you wish it, of the sort that we 'ghosts' can give."

"Well, from what Nathan's said, you guys had the kind of society I'm looking toward--I've actually got more ideas, for what I wanna do after college, sort of subversive movies and TV, only not preachy." He grinned. "So I _definitely_ appreciate the offer of help. And approval is always good. Well," he amended, "for good things, anyway."

Askani smiled. "We will talk more," she said, then glanced back at Nathan. "We could have talked more now, if someone had slept an appropriate length of time last night," she scolded, then dissolved into sparkling light that hung in the air for a moment before it faded.

Nathan tried not to roll his eyes. "Nag, nag," he muttered, then smiled at Jamie. "She mothers me shamelessly. She may not look a hundred and twelve, but she certainly acts it at times."

"Definitely doesn't look it." Jamie shook his head. "She's impressive."

"That's one word for it," Nathan said with a chuckle, then sighed, aware of a mild, if pervasive sense of fatigue that hadn't been there a moment ago. "Wears me out a little, though, having her or any of the others out and wandering around like that. She still hasn't figured out precisely how I'm doing this. Apparently it's a new trick for them, too." He reached out for his crutch, lifting his leg down off the table carefully. "Anyhow," he said briskly, "I have other gifts to deliver, so I should go make use of the rest of the evening. When you'd like to talk to her again, though, let me know. She can borrow my voice more easily than she manifests, but she wanted to talk to you face to face today. So to speak."

"Well, thanks, for the dolphin and the conversation. I think I'd like to talk to her again sometime, definitely." Jamie smiled. "And I'll see you in class, I guess. Should I call you Professor?"

Nathan gave him a pained look as he hauled himself back to his feet. "Please don't," he said with a chuckle. "I'll start looking around to try and figure out who you're talking to."

Jamie snickered. "Don't encourage me."