Wednesday evening, Moira wanders down to the kitchen

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and finds Jamie eating leftovers.



Moira: Moira paused by a door and frowned at it, tapping one foot. Well, it certainly smelled like a kitchen...but then again, the other few doors she had tried had their own particular smell to them as well. Shruging, she figured the worst she could do at this point was barge in on some poor beleagured student who was attempting some last minute studying, and she nudged the door open, keeping her sealed bag of coffee in the other hand.

Jamie: Jamie put the last of the chocolate chip cookies on top of a short stack of foot-wide pancakes, but the door opened before he could start ladling syrup on top. "Oh, hey, ma'am. Coffee work okay earlier?"

Moira: "Oh," she blinked, "ye must be Jamie." She grinned tiredly at him, setting her bag of coffee on the counter. "Aye, tha' it did...though I prefer my coffee jus' a wee bit stronger." She stretches, eying the rather large pancakes. The food that Essex had given her the other night had only just reminded her of how much weight she had lost thanks to stress in the last few weeks.

Jamie: Jamie blinks and grins. "Stronger? I must not be making it right, then. Filter was too new or something. Nice to meet you." Jamie notices her look. "Want some? There's plenty."

Moira: "Aye, lad, tha' be perfect." Pulling up a chair, she slumped into it, fiddling with her sweater. Years of constant lab coat wearing made it difficult to be without one. "Jamie..." She brightened. "Tha's it...yer tha' Miss Pryde's boyfriend, aren't ye? Essex mentioned the two of ye."

Jamie: Jamie cuts the stack in half and transfers one of the halves to a different plate, grinning when Kitty's name comes up--but the grin freezes when Moira mentions Essex. "Yeah, we've been going out for about two months now. Do you talk to Dr. Essex a lot?"

Moira: Moira attacked the stack whole heartedly. "Well, considerin' I'm the second in me field and Essex is number one, aye." Taking another bite, she sat back. "We like ta keep in touch with each other's work and he helped me when me Research Facility was bein' ransacked by those blo..." Coughing, she continued, "...the government. I speak to him pretty much as I still keep in contact wit' Charles these days. Why?"

Jamie: Jamie shrugs and offers Moira the butter. "Just curious. He's been working Kitty pretty hard since a little bit after he got here, and I think he pretty much stays in his lab almost all the time."

Moira: She chuckled. "Aye, tha' sounds like him. Is Kitty likin' the extra tutorin'?"

Jamie: "Most of the time. And she's doing a lot better in biology."

Moira: "Tha's a good sign. An' no one likes everythin' 100% o' th' time, trust me...I had a husband once." Pausing to inhale the rest of the food on the plate, she finished and pushed the plate back. "But I couldna help but notice yer reaction to Essex's name...is there a problem I should be aware of? I am his guest and dinnae care ta see shi...stuff roll down hill onta me."

Jamie: Jamie shrugs again and takes a big bite of pancake-and-cookie to buy a little time. "Mr. Summers doesn't like him very much. And he gave this lecture when he first got here where he said some things I didn't agree with." He opens his mouth as if to continue, but takes another bite of pancake instead.

Moira: Moira quirks up an eyebrow. "Well, tha's fine...God forbide everyone agreed on everythin'. I don't agree with Xavier sometimes." Easing off her chair, she heads to the coffee machine and starts to brew up a pot. "What didn't ye agree wit' him about, if ye don't mind me askin'?"

Jamie: "Some stuff about how we're beyond regular humans and we need different ethical standards. It was a while ago, I don't remember exactly."

Moira: "Mmm." She nodded gently, pushing the buttons to make the coffee machine start. "Well, speakin' as a regular human, I'd happen ta agree wit' ye." She leaned against the counter and looked at him. "I admire Essex, an' he's been there for me when push comes ta shove...doesn't mean I agree wit' everythin' he says. In fact...mind if I ask ye a few things about the school, Jamie?"

Jamie: "Yeah, no problem. Want some more syrup on your pancakes?"

Moira: She grinned. "Well, if ye're feedin' Miss Pryde like this, she'll make sure she ye stick around." She eyed the coffee, not done yet. "Jus'...are ye happy here? There are other questions, but it's th' first one."

Jamie: "I haven't tried Kitty on cookie pancakes yet." He grins. "And yeah, I'm happy. Made a lot of friends, and the classes are interesting. A lot more to worry about, but--I dunno if you know, but my parents home-schooled me after we found out I was a mutant, and I didn't get out very much because if the wrong thing happens it's kind of hard to hide. So being here with all these people and not having to worry about it is really nice."
Jamie: He pauses. "Also there's Kitty. I really wasn't expecting to meet anybody like her." He grins and pops a syrup-coated cookie into his mouth.

Moira: "I can see that." She laughed. "Aye, I've heard a wee bit about Miss Pryde an' everythin' good." Moira took a few more minutes to finish brewing the coffee and finally sat back down with a full mug. "I'd offer ye some but...well, I dinnae want ta be responsible for ye stayin' up fer th' next two days." She took a sip and sighed heavily. "Heaven. And...about yer powers, has anyone really started trainin' on how 'em?"

Jamie: "I don't drink coffee, I just make it. Growing up on a farm you learn how to wake yourself up early." He blinks. ". . . I don't really need training with my powers, I don't think. I mean, my parents and I managed to figure them out pretty well, I think--I can always reabsorb a dupe when I want to now, and--" He pauses. "One sec, before I get too confusing. Did they tell you what I do?"

Moira: She blinked at him, curling her hands around the steaming mug. "No."

Jamie: "Okay. You should probably know about that, then, otherwise explaining how we figured them out won't make any sense. Can I demonstrate? I don't blow anything up or anything."

Moira: "Well, if'n there's no property damaged involved, lad, feel free."

Jamie: "Right." Jamie grins. "Might want to put the coffee down, it kinda surprises people the first time."

Moira: Tilting her head at him, she did as he suggested and folded her hands.

Jamie: Jamie puts his fork down, stands up, bangs himself on the hip--and suddenly there are two Jamies. "I can get up to about a half-dozen of me before it gets too hard to keep track of everything," one says, and the other continues "but it's pretty handy for making sure I have a lot of free time to get everything done. And I don't usually have the dupes finish each others' sentences unless I'm demonstrating. It's all my mind, though." One Jamie taps the other on the shoulder, and the second one vanishes with a soft pop.

Moira: Moira, who's fairly used to mutant powers of all kinds, felt her eyes slightly widen. "Great jumpin' Jehosaphat..." She shook her head. "Well, tha' certainly could come in handy..." She grinned to herself. "I was jus' wonderin if the professors had gotten around ta workin' wit' ye at all wit' them. There might be more ye could do but if not...practise never hurt anyone."

Jamie: "Well, I've been practicing some on my own, because I'm trying to get it so where I can absorb a dupe and then make a new one in the same place, really quickly. I have this idea about going as Agent Smith from the Matrix for Halloween. But that's just to see if I can--all the hard stuff, like, I used to not be able to absorb them back, when I started out, and it took a while to make them do different things at the same time, I was Stepford Jamies for a while. But all that stuff my parents and I figured out on our own. They had me read two different books at once and quiz me, stuff like that. So I've got a good handle on them already--they mostly sent me here because after everybody got those headaches they figured it'd be safer here in case somebody figured out I was a mutant."

Moira: "Aye, tha's a fair assumption. I'm just...ta be honest wit' ye, I'm just a wee bit worried about what Essex told me over dinner. And I wanted ta see if I could find out what's goin' on. One of the major things is professor's not really teachin' th' students about their powers, good skills wit'em not wit'standin'."

Jamie: "Ms. Blaire's been working with Terry, because Terry's power is in her voice. And I'm pretty sure Ms. Frost's been working with Jono--she made these shirts for him, that help him not blow stuff up, most of the time. And Mr. Summers teaches the, uh, 'energy projectors.'" Jamie frowns. "Dr. Essex has been pushing Kitty with hers. Which is what she wanted, but . . . he's pushing pretty hard sometimes."

Moira: "Sometimes it works, though I understand why ye're worried. Sometimes ta get beyond a block or a power level, ye really have ta push yerself. It may be a power block or it may be that ye jus' didn't know ye could do somethin' an', therefore, never tried." She blinked. "Ach, sorry 'bout tha', lad, I tend ta delve back inta me therapy sessions wit' -my- students sometimes."

Jamie: "It's no problem. I hadn't really thought about it like that. But that's what she's doing, figuring out what she can do--she walks through things, and she was trying to find out if she could take other living things with her." Jamie frowns again. "Except one of the first times she tried, she dropped the mouse halfway through and it died, and Dr. Essex was pretty much, oh well, next session is tomorrow. But she was pretty upset."

Moira: Moira winced and looked away. "Essex is...well, Essex is like tha'. I can understand her takin' it hard, though." A dark look crosses her face. "Jamie, there's really one last question. Have ye..." she blew out some air "...heard somethin' about a...student/teacher relationship? Truthfully. An' if ye hadn't, please dinnae talk about this."

Jamie: "Relationship, like . . . relationship?" Jamie looks more than a little sick. "No!" He pauses. "Well . . . except John said a couple of things to Bobby on the journals once, but they pretty much hate each other as far as I can tell, and that was while John was still off at terrorist summer camp. I figured he was just being an asshat." Jamie blinks. "'Scuse my language, I didn't mean to say that."

Moira: "...asshat? Well, tha's a new one." She grinned slightly. "Dinnae worry 'bout yer language, I've been tryin' ta watch mine. An'...thanks, I needed ta know tha'. I dinnae mean ta worry ye or, well, worry ye. I jus'...I'm worried." She reached over and patted his hand before putting the dishes in the sink. "Jus'...no mention o'this ta th' other students, aye? I'll talk ta th' teachers when I get the chance, I jus' figured some of th' students would o'heard first." She stretched. "Thanks fer breakfast..dinner...whatever the blasted thing was, 'twas a nice change. An' it was nice meetin' ye, but I think I must go find th' labs."

Jamie: "Yeah, I won't, trust me. And I could be wrong about what he said, I kinda skimmed that stuff when I saw it was John and Bobby swearing at each other again. You're welcome for the food--and the labs are, basically you find the stairs and you keep going down until one floor past where you don't think there are any more floors."

Moira: "Thank ye." She smiled and, after grabbing her coffee mug possesivly, headed out the kitchen.