2009-07-23: Unenthusiastic

Players:

JeanPaul_icon.jpg Eddie_icon.jpg Skyler_icon.jpg

Summary: Jean-Paul returns to the school and meets up with two students in the kitchen.

Date: July 23, 2009

Unenthusiastic

Rating: PG-13


Xavier Mansion - Kitchen

This kitchen was designed to feed large numbers of people, and looks it with its bright white walls and stainless steel appliances. The stove, refrigerator, and dishwasher are all larger than normal. There is an island with stools around it for people to sit and eat around along with a table for twelve by the windows in back. Along the wall is a hole in the wall looking into the dining room so food can be passed back and fourth. Anything you want to cook or eat in the kitchen you will find the food and supplies to do so.


It may be night at Xaviers but this place is always active. In the kitchens, Eddie Parker-Mayfair is making a sandwich. Peanut Butter and Jelly to be specific. Dressed in jeans and an X-men t-shirt, Eddie's humming as he works.

As Jean-Paul enters the kitchen, he first glances around. He notes Eddie, listens a moment to the humming, and allows his slight frown to transform into the arch of an eyebrow as he heads for the refrigerator. He does not hum. Pulling open the refrigerator, he pokes through it. His greeting is grudging courtesy: "Evening."

Eddie jumps, letting out a startled squeak and accidentally tossing a jar of peanut butter into the air. Thankfully, it's closed. And even more thankfully, he catches it. Taking just a moment to be surprised at himself, Eddie looks around quickly and pauses when he sees Jean-Paul. "Wow…Umm…Hello, sir," he says, smiling.

Jean-Paul shifts, eyes tracking that leaping peanut butter. As Eddie recovers to catch it, he turns his attention back to the fridge. "I have seen post-traumatic rabbits that are less easily startled," he says, tone a little dry. He pulls a bottle out, turning to give Eddie a closer look. His choice of drink is boring: vegetables and fruits blended and colored to resemble none of the drink's constituent ingredients.

Eddie cringes and sets the jar on the counter. "Sorry. I'm still kind of a jumpy guy," he admits, a bit embarrassed. He glances at the drink but makes no comments on it. "I'm Eddie," he introduces himself as soon as he remembers he hadn't yet.

"Yes. You are." Jean-Paul's agreement is entire. There is a pause as he breaks the seal on the bottle, twisting off the cap and taking a sip. Juuust when it seems like he will entirely neglect to introduce himself, he says, "Mr. Beaubier, if you are in any of my classes." He takes another sip. "I suppose it is still Mr. Beaubier if you are not."

Eddie grins and nods quickly. "Yessir. I know," he says. "I umm…I'm sort of a fan," he admits. "Got a copy of your book back home," the power booster adds. He will be in one of Jean-Paul's classes when they start back up again.

Apparently no one has ever told Jean-Paul that smugness is not an attractive trait, because he can't help but look ever so slightly self-satisfied at recognition. A slight curl touches his lips before fading. "Good. One thing to speak well of you, at least." Obviously Eddie has GREAT taste in reading material.

Eddie blushes faintly and chuckles a bit. "My brother's a fan too but more for your athletics than I am," he remarks. "Which classes are you going to be teaching, Mr. Beaubier-sir?"

Jean-Paul stands near the fridge with a bottle of juice in his hand, and Eddie is a short distance away, near a jar of peanut butter. Jean-Paul inclines his head to something that Eddie just said, and then answers, "Business and economics," he says, and then adds, in the proper language, "French." If his accent is more Quebecois than Parisian, who here really knows the difference?

Eddie nods quickly. "Oh cool, I'm taking French this year," he says. He's rather pleased with this news. "Are you going to be joining back up with the X-men too or just teaching?" he asks curiously.

Shifting his weight back on his heels, Jean-Paul gives Eddie a look meant to quell. "Do you ask so many questions in your classes?" he asks, eyebrows briefly arching before he relents and answers with a nod.

Eddie chuckles a little. "Depends on what's going on in class at the time, sir," he answers honestly. "Will you be running Danger Room sessions too?" now there's a hopeful tone in there.

Jean-Paul reaches up and rubs at the back of his neck, expression sardonic as he recognizes that hope. "Training injuries are that exciting, are they?" His tone is condescending, all Aged Wisdom speaking down to Youthful Enthusiasm. He shakes his head, negation slight. "Perhaps. Perhaps not."

Eddie shakes his head quickly. "I'm not worried about getting hurt, sir. I've already almost died a couple times and I'm pretty good at dodging and diving out of the way of stuff," he says. "Plust my brother has healing powers and I can mimic someone with healing factor if need be," he adds. "Alright," he says, slightly disappointed. "I'll be looking forward to one if you do decide to run them."

Skyler wanders into the kitchen for a late dinner after being out and about in the city doing god knows what. She's been scarcely at the mansion since her last abduction, and the fact that she's copied the likeness of her abductor has lead to rumors that she's planning on infiltrating the organization that took her to take back her friend. What this means is that currently she looks very un-Skyler like: An older woman, blonde, lithe, and in fairly good shape, and wearing nice comfortable business clothes in a neutral color. "Ah," she says, when she sees that the kitchen is occupied. "Hello, Eddie, and … er…"

Jean-Paul's expression tightens and he gives Eddie a longer look. There is a hint of anger to his posture as he gives a sharp shake of his head. The anger is not specifically aimed; it seems more general, closely tied to exasperation. "You need only be too slow once." He glances over in the direction of the recently entering woman, chin lifting in an acknowledging gesture. His eyebrows arch as she trails off. In introductions, his silence implies, 'Ladies first.'

Eddie winces at the look on Jean-Paul's face. He looks down a moment, expression a bit more serious as he looks up. "Yeah…I know," he says softly. "I've spent enough time in the MedBay and seen enough of my friends down there to know. I jusr prefer to think on the more optimistic and hopeful side. Gotta have some faith…it's what my power's all about after all," he says, smile returning. He blinks as Skyler enters, looking her over a few times before it clicks who it must be. "Hey, Skyler!"

"….. yyyoour not going to tell me your name." Skyler finishes for herself. With a shrug she easily dismisses the new guy and turns to Eddie. "How's it going," she asks, moving to the fridge to pull some kind of frosty beverage out of it.

Unbending when Eddie gives a name for the woman, the introduction, "Jean-Paul Beaubier," follows from said man. He looks back at Eddie, giving him just a slight shake of his head. It is more rueful than anything else. Optimism, hope, and faith indeed. He confines his commentary to a mild, "There's a time and a place for that, I suppose."

Eddie smiles, eyes flickering blue a moment as he accidentally flicks on his powers for a moment. "With me, it's often and anywhere I bring it, right Skyler?" he chimes. "Going okay for now. How about you?"

Skyler finds a can of coke, and pops it open with a nod to Jean-Paul, paying attention to him now that he's introduced himself. "Nice to meet you. I'm Skyler St. James." With a small shrug she sighs. "I think we're about ready to go find Robin. Time's running out and we need to get her before they decide to finish her off."

"How do you do." Jean-Paul nods in response to her introduction and then lapses into silence. He looks between Eddie and Skyler, turning the bottle of juice on the palm of his hand. He frowns at her words, but doesn't interrupt — or ask any questions. Obviously, he missed something.

Eddie looks down with a sudden frown. "Pallaton and I have been looking for where they're holding her but so far no luck," he says. There's a sudden little 'eep' as he looks up at JP. Eddie's not exactly told any of the teachers he was doing that. Until now.

Skyler gives Eddie an evil grin, "Yeah, but you don't look like one of them, now, do you?" She blinks when eddie eeps, and looks back and forth between him and Jean-Paul. "Ah. I take it you're new staff, then."

Jean-Paul's frown shifts to a bland expression, and then inverts as his eyebrows lift with a glance down at Eddie. He folds his arms over his chest, attention turning to Skyler. "Returned, rather," he corrects. Grudging, he adds, "Recently." Very recently. It takes a moment more before he asks, "What's this about?"

Eddie makes a face. "I never said I was planning on going in," he says, knowing that idea would be veto'd on multiple fronts even if he did ask first. "We're doing recon so a whole team can be sent in," he says.
When Jean-Paul gets all teachery, Eddie sighs then takes a deep breath. "Long story short, MGH dealers kidnapped people, I've been trying to help find them. Skyler was one but his group escaped. One student is still captured and we're trying to find her…well…help find her."

Skyler takes a sip of her coke, before nodding. "I went through Dr. King's condo the other day and found a lot of useful stuff. I swiped her hard drive from her personal computer, too, so somebody who's more computer savvy than me can take a look at it and see if there's anything more we can find out." She shakes her head. "I still say I can do this with just me, one more mutant and Rob. Be in and out before anybody will notice."

Enthusiastic is not the word for Jean-Paul's expression. Unenthusiastic might be. Maybe. "A student recon project?" he asks, midway to a glower as his dry tone sharpens toward a more pointed sarcasm. "Who is in charge of this?" He glances at Skyler, all older womany and adult-like. "You?"

Eddie shakes his head. "Yeah. YOu go in and get Robin but I really don't think we should just…let these jerks go. Especially not with any data they collected on you all," he says. "It's too dangerous," he concludes. Then there's Jean-Paul's reaction, Eddie frowning deeply. "No one's really…in charge of it, sir…"

Skyler shakes her head at the Canadian. "No, nobody's in charge, really. The faculty were a little…. slow in getting us out, in that we had to get ourselves out, and we haven't heard from them any plan to get Robin out so we decided to take matters into our own hands." She nods to Eddie, "I know, but I'm more concerned with Robin's welfare than with the information they gathered on us. One thing at a time."

Jean-Paul can match that frown, and then some. "Even Alpha Flight has better organization than that," he says to Eddie, perfectly happy to take his own potshots at the Canadian team. "If no one is in charge, put someone in charge. Preferably an adult," he adds, a little acerbic. "Leadership and communication are important, even in relatively small things — especially if there are lives at stake." You can tell he's a teacher form the way he falls into a lecture at the drop of a hat.

Eddie looks down a moment. "Two separate ventures. I suppose I'm in charge of the recon operation while Mr. Weyrin or Skyler would be leading the infiltration and recovery mission," he says eventually. "The strike team will likely be Mr. Summers…or maybe Julian if X-Force goes in. I may also signal the Avengers to help if that'd be a better option."

Skyler shrugs dismissively. "I've just been doing this on my own because I just couldn't sit by and twiddle my thumbs." She chuckles ruefully, "I've got unique talents that makes infiltrating things easy for me."

Jean-Paul arches an eyebrow, listening, and then nods at Eddie. "Good," he says. Grown-ups /and/ a plan. He lifts his chin, giving Skyler a nod. "I can understand that." He invites further elaboration on the last with an inquisitive noise — "Ah?" — but does not go so far as to make a question of it.

Eddie nods. "Skyler's a shapeshifter. Can copy anyone touched. Powers too," he chimes. "And my powers…well…kinda lame. I can boost peoples abilities based on my faith in them. And I can mimic powers of others. We may not be X-men yet but we're not completely useless."

Skyler nods at Eddie in agreement. "I mimic things on the genetic level," she explains. "Somehow I even mimic things like retinal patterns and fingerprints. About the only thing I don't get from that person is their memories." She shakes her head at that, "Which is a shame, since it would make this much easier but…" She thinks about this for a second or two, "Now that I think about it, I'm kind of glad. I don't want a ton of people's memories knocking around in my head."

"Useless is not the word that I would use," Jean-Paul says, sibilants sharp. "Dangerous, untrained, and vulnerable: those would be closer." Despite that, he shrugs, and lifts the single-serve bottle of juice to finish it. "Those states are remedied with time and training. If you need the help—." He breaks off, offer open-ended, and adds, "I hope the last student is recovered swiftly." He crosses to the sink to rinse the bottle and then toss it, an air of parting to his last words.

Eddie frowns again. "I'm not untrained…been training since before I even got here," of course his pre-school training wasn't much more than exercise and researching heroes. "Not really all that dangerous without others on my team either," a small sigh. No comments on vulnerability. "Yessir. We'll call the moment we need any kind of help."

"So do I," Skyler says, echoing Jean-Paul's parting thoughts. "So do I."

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