xp_logs | Jean and Nate talk TK

x-jeangrey.livejournal.com posting in

And Jean gets to meet Mother Askani, and doesn't even ask if she can call her 'mom'.

He'd hoped that his fine control over his TK would return fairly quickly, but he hadn't expected it to be improving by leaps and bounds overnight like this. Right now, he was cooking lunch without actually being in the kitchen - a necessity, because the wheelchair, though it fit into the kitchenette, didn't turn around comfortably.

Brunch, really. Rather than lunch. He had arranged to have the long-overdue long talk with Jean today, and had promised her a meal to go along with it. And he'd missed cooking, so he might be overdoing it just a little.

Jean tapped on the door to Nathan's rooms, feeling that he was awake and up to something but not quite able to make out what it was now that his shields were at least sort of back. "It's me, Nathan," she said.

"Come in, Jean," Nathan called cheerfully, eyeing the fruit salad as it assembled itself. He heard the door open, but didn't look around. Trying to do all of this out of line-of-sight was expecting just a little much yet, he suspected. "I hope you like French toast..."

Jean caught sight of the fruits flitting about and slicing themselves and blinked before shutting the door behind her. "Ah, so that's what TK 'sounds' like," she mused aloud. "Are you supposed to be doing that and/or do you want some help?"

"I think I'm fine. This is all light-weight stuff, anyway," Nathan said. Fluffy slices of French toast glazed with cinnamon levitated themselves from the pan where they'd been keeping warm to the pair of plates he'd set out a few minutes ago. A few slices of bacon apiece joined them, and a thick slab of Brie. "I actually was going to use the Brie in the French toast," he admitted, "but I make it a habit not to sample new recipes on anyone except Moira."

He levitated the two plates over to the table, where he'd already set out glasses of orange juice. The bowl of fruit salad finished making itself and floated over. "There's maple syrup and blueberry," he said cheerfully. "Coffee or tea?" He realized that she was giving him something of an amused look, and grinned back, sheepishly. "Okay, so I probably won't eat more than a little of any of this, but come on, humor me... I'm trying to be all hospitable. Just because my stomach's still getting used to having solid food in it doesn't mean you can't enjoy yourself."

Jean chuckled. "Coffee, please, and I appreciate the effort. It all smells wonderful. Moira is doubly lucky, you know, experiments or no."

"I can get back to keeping up with her cravings now," Nathan said, feeling a surge of pure happiness at the thought. "Which are many and frightening, by the way... I need to make another chocolate jalapeno cake, I think." He shook his head as he levitated a cup of coffee over to Jean as she sat down. "And now I'm babbling. I seem to either have more energy than I know what to do with or none at all since I got out of the medlab. It's odd."

Jean grinned at the joyous thoughts the slipped through his shields. "No, it's perfectly normal," she told him. "You've been unable to move for a very long time so you have a great desire to move about and do things again, but no real reserves built up anymore."

"I've been just crashing after the rehab sessions," Nathan confessed, pulling the wheelchair up to the table. "I suppose that's normal, too."

He took a careful sip of his orange juice, watching her as she tried the French toast. "I really appreciated everything you did for me while I was down there, by the way," he said lightly, but sincerely.

"Perfectly," she told him, taking a bite. "God, Nathan, this is wonderful. Better than it smells. I'm impressed. And I'd say 'helping is my job', but it's also a pleasure. So you're welcome."

He relaxed a little - or as relaxed as the back brace would let him get, at least. "I know I wasn't the easiest patient," he said, a bit wryly. "I never am. But you wouldn't believe how much I've improved. I used to have..." He paused, then shrugged mentally. "A phobia about doctors, a phobia about drugs, and don't even get me started about being restrained."

"Then I would say you have improved considerably, yes. And, when it comes to phobias, I hear you're one of the people to speak to about not being thrown in the lake. Me and large bodies of water don't get along terribly well these days." Jean offered him a wry smile, and served out some of the fruit salad, gesturing with the spoon to ask if he would like some.

Nathan nodded with a smile. "Don't worry about me and the lake," he said wryly. "I did that once, and apparently I'm never going to be permitted to live it down. Never mind that I hadn't slept in a week at the time and... well, never mind. No need to dredge up past history."

"Ah," Jean said. "Well, that is frequently the way it is with stories around here, but you reassure my mind. Especially since it already came up with Cain." She spooned some fruit onto his plate. "But if that's history, then my training will be the future?" Jean couldn't quite keep the hopeful note out of her voice.

"Absolutely. More than you know," Nathan said with a perfectly straight face. "Jean, I know you've read my medical file... the sections on the Askani, as well?"

Jean got the feeling that there was a pun there she had walked straight into, but until he mentioned the Askani she wasn't quite sure what it was. "Yes," she said slowly. "And I'd have been inclined to say it sounded crazy, except everything we do sounds crazy and Moira's notes were too precise."

"Set your orange juice down," Nathan suggested, and waited until she did before he closed his eyes and sent an invitation.

In the third, empty chair, the sunlight seemed to coalesce and shimmer, taking the form of Askani, in her white robe - thankfully, Nathan thought dryly. She smiled at Jean.

"Greetings."

There was a relieved thought from Nathan, but she was too distracted by the redhead who had appeared in the chair. Jean blinked at her, then realized she was being rude. "Hello," she said. "I'm Jean Grey." There was something very familiar about the woman...

Nathan raised an eyebrow, telling himself that the fact that they were both redheads... green-eyed redheads... didn't mean anything. One of those funny coincidences, that was all. "Jean," he said, "this is Askani. Askani, Jean." Less formal an introduction than he'd been planning, but something made him want to keep this as relaxed an atmosphere as possible. He didn't want to scare Jean off. The Askani training could do her too much good.

"I am honored to meet you," Askani said, sounding composed but sincere.

"And I, you," Jean said, nodding her head slightly. "Pardon me if this is rude, but I thought 'Askani' was the name of all of your people?" The question was equal parts addressed to Nate and the woman.

"They named themselves after her," Nathan explained easily. "She stopped using her own birthname when she was eighteen years old. Askani, in their tongue, means 'outsider'."

"I am certain Nathan will make his historical files available to you," Askani said. "Simply put, my time was dominated by a clan-based caste system. I chose to put myself and a small group of fellow refugees outside that system." She smiled. "We did not remain small."

"It sounds fascinating. Confusing, but fascinating."

"You can read what I've compiled so far of their history," Nathan said. "Right now, I think we've got more important things to discuss."

"You are working with Xavier to regain control over your abilities," Askani said, crisply but not unkindly. "I wish to offer you the opportunity to work with us, as well." She smiled at Nathan. "It has benefited him, enormously. Much of what we do, our psionic arts, complements what Xavier has been teaching him. And the mutation the two of you share, telepathy combined with telekinesis, is the mutation for which our methods were originally devised."

Jean blinked. Wait, someone was offering her yet another way of possibly regaining control and they weren't sure she'd jump at the offer? "I would love to," she said without hesitating. "Any and all help you could offer would be greatly appreciated."

"Excellent," Askani said, sounding pleased. "We will of course consult with your Professor... I am very used to doing that, after this one." She gave Nathan the closest thing to a fond grin he'd seen from her in quite some time. "He was very often a trial."

"Love you too," he said dryly, then looked back at Jean, taking a very small bite of his French toast. "We can do it quietly, too, so that you don't have to deal with the slings and arrows of those who think the Askani are either a mass hallucination or brain-sucking parasites. Although there are fewer of those around than there used to be."

"I would appreciate that, yes. Charles has been my mentor for a long time and knows my powers inside and out." Jean raised an eyebrow at Nate. "Brain-sucking parasites? Is this like how Joh... Forge thinks you are a ninja?"

"In a way. The problem is... well, I am technically possessed," Nathan said a bit ironically. "So it's kind of hard to say I'm not. I'm the one making the decisions, though, although she and I did have our head-butting moments early on."

"Oh?" That sounded like the beginning of a story and Jean was very curious.

"When I died," Askani said, "I was a hundred and twelve years old, accustomed to receiving unquestioned personal loyalty from almost three million people. I had commanded my troops in battle for nearly eighty years." She smiled, then shrugged. "It took me some time to accustom myself to being merely a voice in Nathan's mind."

"Good heavens." Jean's eyes widened. "Yes, I can see how that would be a bit of a change."

"Hence the head-butting," Nathan said dryly, then grinned at the psionic ghost. "We're getting along much better now, though."

"So long as you cease getting yourself mauled, we will continue to," Askani said, with an arched eyebrow and an expression that seemed somehow imperious. The sparkle in her green eyes gave her away, though, and as she turned back to Jean she was smiling. "It will be something of a laborious process," she said more briskly. "Nathan... absorbed much that he needed to know directly. You will have to start from scratch, as that saying of this time goes."

Jean sighed. "I am starting from scratch on a number of things these days. One more is not such an additional burden, especially not if it gets me to the end result faster."

"It all begins with patterns," Askani said, then gave Nathan a pointed look. "Meditation. Perhaps as soon as the two of you have finished eating."

"Yes, ma'am," Nathan said with a brief smile. His head was starting to ache a little, though, and he picked at the French toast. "What about teaching her like you taught me?" he asked. "In dreams, I mean."

"Is that something you would wish?" Askani asked, turning back to Jean.

"I would not object at all," Jean said, "but currently I've been sleeping with an inhibitor - it would not do for a nightmare to either activate my telekinesis or project to the school at large."

"Hmm. Problematic. We'll have to wait, then, until you've gained basic control." Askani laughed softly. "It is the advanced techniques that are best taught in the compressed time of REM sleep, so that is not an obstacle."

"That sounds like the beginnings of a plan, then, and we can see how things develop. Thank you so much."

"I should be thanking you," Askani said quite seriously. "The opportunity to pass on something of what we were, to another who, like Nathan, can put it to use in the best of causes..." She smiled. "It is a great comfort, you might say."

"I will do my best, I promise." For everyone's sake, really.

Askani looked as if she was going to say more, but then gave Nathan a narrow-eyed look. "Perhaps a nap, after the meditation," she suggested.

He rolled his eyes at her. "Don't fuss."

"I'll fuss if I choose to fuss."

Jean managed not to grin, although her eyes danced with amusement. "You almost sound more like his sister than his teacher," she told Askani. "I promise if he seems overtired I'll put him to bed afterwards."

Askani's eyes glowed with mischief. Literally glowed, Nathan thought with a trace of wariness. "You really must read his historical and cultural files, Jean," she said. "You don't know how right you are."

Nathan waved a hand at her, then tapped his temple. "Hop back in, okay? You're giving me a headache staying out here."

She actually stuck her tongue out at him, and then vanished. Nathan rolled his eyes and looked at Jean. "She really was a hundred and twelve. And probably more powerful than you and I put together."

Jean laughed out loud as the other redhead vanished. "I'm not sure I can imagine, but I think the files must be fascinating reading."

"Very. You should hear their music." He smiled. "You will hear their music, actually. It's part of learning the patterns."

"Sounds lovely. Music as training can't be that bad." She turned back to her french toast which was almost all gone. "What other things can I expect?"

"Do you draw? Beyond stick figures, I mean..."

"Some," Jean admitted. "I'm not good by any stretch of the imagination, but I've got some drafting experience and can do tolerable freehand work."

"You'll need to be able to draw the patterns, too," Nathan said. "Or at least the simpler ones. They're spiral-based, most of them..."

Jean nodded. "Well, I'm willing to try, certainly. And it's sounding like these 'patterns' are really rather important?" She raised an eyebrow, smiling slightly.

"It's all based on patterns. All of their psionic arts," Nathan said. "I have to admit that it creeps into everything after a while. The patterns start showing up everywhere. The world around you, human relations..."

"Well, that would at least be a change from the chaos," she said.

"It... makes things make sense," Nathan said a bit hesitantly. Not sure he could convey it in words like this. "You start seeing connections, get a sense of how everything is balanced against each other..."

"Sense," Jean said wistfully, "I miss having the world make sense. I think, even if it wouldn't help with my powers, you'd have sold me right there."

Nathan speared a piece of fruit salad with his fork. "I need to show you something, too," he said, a bit abruptly. "Mostly because I need to know whether it's familiar to you or not." He reached out his free hand. "Trust me?"

Jean gave him her hand without hesitation.

Nathan established a very gentle link with her mind - and let then his perceptions slide downwards, until the world around him took on that interior sparkle, as if dancing light laid beneath the surface of otherwise prosaic matter. Patterns of light shimmering through the air, arching from spot to spot on paths that were seemingly random, but were really anything but.

#Have you ever seen this before?#

Jean blinked, startled, although, as the 'view' was in her mind, it didn't go away when her eyes closed. #Yes,# she thought, knowing he'd be able to hear her. #At Alkalai.#

#I suspected you probably did.# He moved up and down the various levels - down to the lattice that he had torn in desperation back on Muir, setting the air afire around Proteus, then back up again. He didn't want to go much deeper than that, remembering how badly doing what he had done for Cain back in December had hurt. #Working at these levels is dangerous,# he sent, #but valuable. It's how we can consciously manipulate energy, and once we can do that... well, energy-projectors become much less of a threat when that happens.#

Jean remembered the 'battle' with Scott - it had been all instinctual, and she had no idea how she had accessed these layers of power, but it was clear that Nathan could do it intentionally, which was a hope. #Yes, I think I can see that.#

#I started doing this after a training accident,# he explained to her. #It... well, you remember me telling you that my telekinesis was damaged from overuse? I was having episodes of blindness - Charles had to help me install a psionic circuit-breaker. But then something happened to burn out all the psionic scarring, and between that and the pattern-forms... this became accessible again. Easy, even.#

#Fascinating. Not the method I would like to go by, but fascinating.#

He brought both of them back up, all the way, but didn't cut the link just yet. Reaching out, he traced one of the basic patterns in light in her mind. #A first step,# he said, silently encouraging her to follow it with her thoughts. #A foundational pattern... a calming one.#

Indeed, as Jean's thoughts traced over the pattern she could feel how it would provide a stable base, of sorts. She could even see how it would be possible to follow the pattern with her powers, once she could touch them on purpose again. #Thank you.#

Nathan severed the link very gently, leaving her with the pattern. "You're welcome," he said aloud, and frowned at the way his hand was shaking as he released hers. His head was throbbing now, too, not just aching, and the less said about how his back felt at the moment...

The pattern in her mind distracted her for a second, but her eyes refocused at a wayward thought from Nathan's mind and she quickly took in his condition. "Right. Naptime."

"I'm all right... just catching up with me a little, I think," he said a bit hazily, one hand pressed to his temple. "I wasn't supposed to conk out ten minutes into brunch. Bad host."

"Luckily you're playing host to one of your doctors, who will not be at all offended and will, in fact, tell you to take a nap."

Nathan mustered a smile. Pace yourself, he thought. Like Jack said. "You'll finish your French toast? If I go nap, I mean..."

"I will," she promised. "I even promise to be a good guest and not do all of your dishes."