xp_logs | LOG: Jubilee and Forge, after dark (Reply)

Looking for some fresh air away from the feral roommate, Forge finds quite possibly the only person in the mansion with a shorter attention span than Kyle. Social interaction and teenage awkwardness are had.

Jubilee was sitting cross-legged on the front porch when she heard a thumping sound behind her. Turning, she noticed a kid she'd never seen before and then recognized him as Forge, the new guy.

"Hey, dude." she said, in way of greeting.

Forge looked down at the Asian girl sitting on the porch. She'd looked to be in the middle of some weird meditation thing, so he figured he could find somewhere else to clear his head.

"Sorry," he mumbled, turning to head back inside.

"Hey, s'cool. You weren't interrupting me. Just finished, to be honest. You're that new kid, Forge, right? Saw your post on the journals." She wasn't going to stop him from leaving if he wanted to, but she didn't want him to be scared away just because she was out here. Wasn't like she owned the place anyhow.

Forge shrugged and pulled his ball cap down a little tighter. "Yeah," he answered. As long as he didn't seem to be interrupting, he figured he'd take the moment to get a grasp of the outside. He'd spent most of the day inside the mansion, and one more hour in a room with Kyle's scratching and snorting was going to drive him insane.

She shifted till she was leaning up against one of the railings. She gestered to the steps beside her, in case he wanted to sit down. "So, you got given the official tour, right? Chuck usually makes sure people can find their way around pretty quickly. This is a great place, although it takes a bit of gettin' used to."

Forge kept standing against the rail for a while, eyeing the girl who from his estimation had to be Jubilation - Jubilee, she'd said. While it seemed that she leaned more to the Clarice end of the spectrum than the obviously bitchy-and-hostile Illyana end, he wasn't yet sure which he'd actually prefer talking to.

"I found, um, the kitchen," he admitted. "Clarice. She, um, walked me there. Then, well, boom."

Jubilee grinned suddenly. "Clarice is...bouncy." she replied. "But then so am I, sometimes. Depends on the occation. The boom was Shiro, I think. He's powers have something to do with the sun. The docs could explain it more.

Jubilee stood, brushing off the dirt that had stuck to the underside of her pants. "I can show you around the outside a bit, if you like. I'm thinkin' that if you're a 'genius', you can pretty much work out where everything is inside." she said, a twinkle in her eyes.

So, it was probably rude to tease the new kid but he'd seemed so sure of his own intelligence on the journals she couldn't help but do it a little.

Forge just cocked his head at the girl, he figured she was maybe his age, could be a bit older. A tiny buzz from his pocket caught his attention just at that moment and he drew his PDA out. Thumbing through his email, he snickered. Tapping out a quick reply to Paige, he dimmed the touchscreen and slid the device back in his pocket.

"Got a pretty good view from my room," he mumbled. "Lake out back, big lawn. Fountain, real pretty." If he actually thought that, it didn't show in his voice. It sounded more like he was reading the phone book.

"Not into the nature aspects of life, hey?" Jubilee replied, looking out over the front lawn. "So, what do you find interesting?"

She was pretty good at picking up tone and body language. Not anywhere near Doug's level, considering she was as far from his ability as Jupiter was from the Sun but she got by. And this kid was as nervous and tense as anyone she'd ever seen.

With a shrug, Forge jammed his hands in his pockets, leaning over the railing. "Dunno. Stuff." He looked up at the sky for a moment, absently wondering where the day's grey clouds had gone to. "Can't see this many stars back home," he remarked. "Too much light from the city."

Jubilee raised her head, tracking the constellations she knew. "It's great most nights. Storm tends to keep the skies fairly clear around here unless we need the rain. Although, Dude, when she's in a bad mood you've gotta watch out. If you've got a pair of binoculars, the view of the sky from the Flyer's platform is fantastic."

She glanced at him sideways. "Unless you're a telescope kinda guy. People tell me you can see further with one of those but I kinda like havin' both eyes on the sky, ya know?"

Somehow, Forge figured he ought to be taking more notes. "I'm sorry, Storm? Flyer's platform? Should I have a handbook or something?"

She giggled, shaking her head. "Sorry, I keep forgettin' how confusin' this place can be when you're new. Storm is one of the teachers here. She can control the weather. Makes for an interesting week when she's PMSey, I'll tell ya. And the Flyer's platform is upstairs, we've got a couple of people who can fly here so they get training with that. I think Haroun teaches that at the moment but don't quote me on that, hey? You been around other mutants, much? Your journal entry seemed kinda surprised about the whole 'powers' thing."

Forge snorted briefly. "I know about mutants. I've read through Dr. McCoy's Nobel treatise enough times, seen all the Discovery Channel specials. It's just biology, really." He turned up his nose at the mention of biology. Biology wasn't as precise a science as mechanics. Not his specialty. "But if I'd been to school with them, it's news to me. Definitely wasn't anyone purple at my old school."

"Readin' is one thing, Dude. Seein' is believin' though. Lot of stuff books can't tell ya. Purple isn't the strangest mutation though. Although the physical ones can be a bit startlin' if you ain't used to it. We got a lot of different powers here. Telepathy, empathy, all kinds of energy powers. Mandy uses magic, although, don't believe anything about me she says. Her and me don't exactly get along, although we've got a truce these days. Kinda had to, after you blow up a room, people tend to frown on you bitchin' at each other anymore. she said, watching Forge's face as she talked.

She'd been trying to place his nationality for a few minutes now. American obviously, but with a bit of a twist that she couldn't place. Not that it mattered all that much but sometimes you could tell what a person's attitude was going to be by the culture they were brought up in. Manny was certainly a product of his culture, as was she herself when she really thought about it.

"Mandy?" Forge pulled out the PDA again and scrolled through. "Sefton, right? The..." he raised an eyebrow. "Witch." Rolling his eyes, he tilted the device at Jubilee and took a quick digital photo. It'd help him keep everyone straight in the first few days. "So, um, like flying on a broomstick, all Harry Potter and stuff?"

Jubilee laughed. "Oh God, I dare you to say that to her face. She'll hate you for life. Nah, she's got real magic. Seen it myself. She hates Harry Potter though, somethin' about magic not bein' like that. You saw the stuff between her and Illyana on your journal? At the moment Mandy's all convinced 'Yana is evil and some kind of Demon Queen. 'Course, a demon did come and try and carve 'Yana up but considerin' no one else got hurt, I'm leanin' on the side of givin' her a chance, considerin' she's one of my suitemates and a friend besides. As for the flyin', she could do that once but not with the broomstick. She ain't got the power for it anymore, least that's what she says. She went a little wacky woo woo with the magic and had to cut back on it. You been doin' any backreadin' on the journals? Might give you a bit of an idea of what this place is like."

Forge nodded, waggling his PDA. "Took a few hours. Had to take a break, so," he shrugged and gestured to the porch where he stood. "Seems, well... like high school and then... not." He shrugged and checked his email alert again, a look of confusion crossing his face. "Does Paige really put oatmeal in people's shoes?"

Jubilee's eyes widened and then she started laughing, holding onto the porch banister for a second while she got herself under control. "Dude, who'd she oatmeal this time? She's my roomie, by the by. And yeah, she does. Usually she does it these days if people are fightin' and not doin' anything useful but snarkin' at each other. I think Amanda and I kinda scared people a bit when we had our little beat down session. Paige is...well, a genius. But she's also got this whole perfection thing going too. She pushes herself too much but I so am not about to say that to her out loud. We've only been roomies for a little while, so I don't know her too well yet but she's fun. She's goin' out with Jono and Angelo."

Forge found himself laughing along with Jubilee. It had been a while since he actually let out a laugh with someone else in the room. "Illyana, it seems," he relayed, scrolling through his email. "She do... Jono and Angelo? That's..." he tapped a few more times on the screen. "The skin guy and the... sparky guy?" He shrugged. "So much for genius."

"Hey! No insultin' my roomie. I'd have to defend her honor and all, ya know? Roomie code, that is. Angelo and Jono are okay. Not my type but they're loyal and they treat her right. Don't talk much to Jono, he's got that whole Prince of Darkness thing goin' on. Although, I did kinda totally re-decorate his room in tinfoil right before he came back."

Jubilee paused for a second, remember with a broad smile the way Jono's room had looked after she had finished. A prank very well done, if she did say so herself. Of course, she's also had help from Angelo and Clarice on some of the other touches.

"Did anyone warn you about the pranking, by the way? Doug and Jamie have had this prank war goin' on for awhile but there's always the occational foray by other people. Oh, and the sock wars tend to bring in all comers, just in case, you know, you can't find your socks and wonder where they went."

In response, Forge just lifted his artificial leg, bending at the knee and waving his featureless plastic foot back and forth. "I don't think I have to worry much about matching pairs," he quipped. Remembering his earlier troubles with the limb, he squatted down cross-legged on the porch and removed a small multi-tool from his back pocket.

Adjusting a few screws on the shin of the prosthetic, he realized that this was twice today he'd had a legitimate, face-to-face conversation. With a girl. Two girls. That effectively... yep, doubled his previous record since maybe age ten. Looking up briefly, he noticed Jubilee looking intently at him working. He thought to make a bitter comment, but realized the look on her face was more curiosity than anything else.

"You guys here sure accept a whole lot that's different from out there, huh?" he asked rhetorically before cinching down one last adjustment screw before standing up to place his weight on the leg again. "Much better," he declared.

"Sorry if I'm bein' all nosey but, does it hurt? The leg and that, I mean. I knew someone once that used to get what they called 'Phantom pain'. He used to beg for money outside the mall where I lived for awhile. Really nice guy, taught me a bit about how to watch people, the way they talk without ever openin' their mouths. People tend to not see people like him, or if they do they kinda get all uncomfortable about it. Me, well, I tend to go on what people say or do, not what they look like." she said, her eyes drifting back to his face now that he had finished working on his leg.

Forge blinked. The only people who'd ever questioned him directly about his deformities before had been doctors. His parents pretended nothing was different. Now, twice in one day? "Nope," he explained again, pointing out the series of transistors and thick cables winding up the central piston of his leg to terminate in the collar around his thigh. "I feel what I used to through it. Read up on that phantom pain stuff, and figured that if I could trick the nerves into actually responding to the prosthesis..." he rapped his metal knuckles on the steel knee joint with a hollow sound. "They actually work off nerve induction instead of muscle contractions like regular artificial limbs." With a small laugh, he sneered slightly. "But the feedback, that's my design."

Jubilee studied the boy, he looked fairly close to her age, although she'd never been particularly good at guessing games. He seemed a little cocky about some things but then again she was probably about as cocky about some things herself. She wasn't sure what the sneer was about, could he not like his powers? Hmm...it didn't seem that way, since he seemed pretty proud of his abilities, maybe it had to do with something else.

"That's pretty damn cool. Lot of people'd kill for somethin' like that. You ever think of givin' out the design?" she asked.

Forge barked out a quick laugh. "Not likely. Just trying to go through the patent process would hit a wall with my being a mutant. I was reading up on stuff like that. You know that if you try and patent something that you acquired by means that aren't available to other people, that the government can turn you down and claim your work without compensation?" He babbled off the charge like a litany, just one of the things he'd picked up in the year since his accident. People were always quick to jump on the mutant rights bandwagon when a kid got lynched in the bayou or kicked out of a country club. But no one looked at the subtle legal stuff that kept working its way through every day.

"Besides," he continued, "I like my gear. It's mine."

"I didn't know that. Seems kinda a stupid law, wonder if Chuck knows about that. But, well, all the people you could help, do you really need the patent?" Jubilee asked.

Forge looked at Jubilee like she'd suddenly grown a second head out of her neck. "What do I look like, a philanthropist? No, I'm going to make a living off of this stuff once I can. Aeronautics, transportation, communications..." He laced his fingers together and rested his chin on them, looking up into the night sky. "I'm going to revolutionize the entire engineering industry once I get going." His voice was for once confident, full of promise.

Jubilee grinned suddenly at the look Forge had given her. "It's hangin' around Chuck. He's got this whole dream thing going and it's kinda easy to start thinkin' like him after awhile. Nothin' wrong with wantin' to make money outta your skills. So, Mr. Smartypants, how ya gonna revolutionize the entire engineering industry?"

She pushed herself up and back till she was sitting on the porch railing, swinging her feet back and forth. It'd been awhile since she just talked to someone, no major damage or history revelations required. It was somewhat nice, she had to admit.

Forge found himself wanting to grin back, despite it feeling like the most unnatural thing in the world. It was incredibly unlikely that this girl knew the first thing about mechanical or electrical engineering, but she was easy to talk to - and that counted for a lot all of a sudden. "Lots of things," he explained. "Better ways of construction. Automating everything from factories to distribution to transportation. It can be done, just that no one THINKS of it." He removed his hat briefly to brush a hand through his close-cropped hair and chuckled. "I found a group that was willing to act as a middleman for some patents, Advanced Idea Mechanics. But I figured, I can wait and make it on my own once I'm 18. That way, I get to have a say in how my designs get used."

Another buzz from his pocket made him instinctively check his PDA. Reading swiftly, he scowled in frustration. "Jesus, do those two EVER stop?" At the moment, for as much as Jubilee and Clarice were working to convince him that Xavier's would be the ideal place for him to be - Illyana and Paige were doing their best to prove that petty teenage cliquishness existed everywhere.

Jubilee looked quizzically at him. "Which two?"

"The, what did Jamie call them? Petty blonde bitches. Illyana and Paige, again." He stood up, stretching and listening to the slow, nearly inaudible sound of his prosthetic's servos engaging. "Hungry," he mentioned, suddenly feeling the self-consciousness coming back. He took a step towards the door and paused for a second.

Ask her if she wants anything, you dork, he scolded himself. Almost as quickly, his mind brought up all the likely scenarios. Laughter. Scorn. Sarcasm. Disdain. Yeah, right, he thought back. And as abruptly as he'd come out onto the porch, he was back inside.

Jubilee stared after him, somewhat surprised. She wondered if she'd said something to offend him but then he hadn't sounded offended.

'Not a people person?' she wondered and then shrugged. 'Oh well, I'll ask him about it later.'

She jumped off the railing and walked back inside. If Illyana and Paige were still going at it, she'd probably have to go say something. Otherwise she'd have to deal with all the stoney silences in her suite and that would be boring.