Luornu and JM, Shinobi's Party
Oct. 25th, 2014 04:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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om_mainAfter she slaps Harry, Jeanne-Marie knows Luornu is just the kind of girl she needs to befriend. The feeling is mutual!
Harry Osborn. Here. Lu was torn between forming fists over his presence and smirking over finally having had the opportunity to slap him, but fortunately the dichotomy wasn't enough to trigger a split. All in all, she was pretty satisfied over how the confrontation had gone.
That didn't stop her from making a beeline towards the bar, however. If nothing else, she figured she'd earned one.
Jeanne-Marie took the moment as an opportunity. She'd seen the slap--several people in the room had, no doubt!--and though she had no particular problem with Harry Osborn, she was far more interested in the girl who'd had the guts to smack him. She approached the bar with a wry smile, setting her empty glass on it and smiling at the bartender. "Very nice technique," she said to the girl, first. "Lu, isn't it?"
"Lu," she admitted, then shrugged and smiled. "And thanks. Not exactly something I'm in the habit of doing, but - well, let's say he had it coming?" She looked at the older girl curiously. "Jeanne, right? You're the TA in the language classes?" She was also, Lu knew, the one who'd come out on MTV a year or so ago as a mutant, but she didn't see any reason to bring that up. Jeanne probably had everyone commenting about it as it was.
Jeanne-Marie smiled at the shortening of her name. Lucrezia called her that, and she thought it was quite sweet. "Jeanne-Marie, but you may call me that, certainly. I am the TA--and I love it. I've only just graduated though. And you? I hope you don't think it impolite, but Bobby told me you are some kind of heiress or...?"
Lu laughed and shook her head. "Honestly, I still have trouble thinking of myself that way - and if he doesn't think I measure up when the time comes, Dad will probably shut the company down rather than just let me inherit it." She said it fondly, though, because she had every intention of that not occurring. Making RJ proud meant everything to her. "My dad adopted me a few years ago," she explained. "I'm still getting used to some of the...conventions of the trust fund set." With that, she glanced over her shoulder, making a face in the general direction of where she'd last seen Harry Osborn before she turned back to Jeanne-Marie and smiling.
"You're dating Bobby DaCosta though, right? I've met him a few times - he's always seemed like a nice guy."
Jeanne-Marie grinned knowingly at the look Lu sent Harry Osborn--she didn't know a thing about him except what was in the papers, and that was an explanation in itself. "Yes; I'm afraid I'll never get used to the trust fund set and their conventions, since it's so different from how I grew up," she admitted. "But he does his best to get me used to being treated like a princess, anyhow.
"But you were adopted--I didn't know. Were you orphaned as a child? My brother and I were."
Lu shook her head and grimaced a little. "No," she admitted. "My father...hasn't been in the picture since I was really small, and my mother - well, my grandmother had custody until she died." She shrugged and smiled. As far as she was concerned, there was no reason to make things awkward and describe what had happened after that, considering how well everything had turned out. "RJ Brande took me in and adopted me not long after that. I was really very lucky."
She leaned against the bar and smiled. "But tell me about you and your brother - if you don't mind, I mean. I know a little from your appearance on MTV," she conceded, "but I'd definitely be interested in hearing more."
Jeanne-Marie didn't know if she'd made Lu feel awkward or not with her blunt line of questioning, but the apologetic flash in her eyes was shortlived, either way, since Lu moved on quickly--pleasantly. She was always perfectly open about her past; one of the first things she and Doc had worked on--not to mention Xavier when she first arrived--was that Jeanne-Marie had nothing to be ashamed of. Her circumstances had not been any fault of hers--not through her actions or in some other, more esoteric sense, and she'd always clung to that. "Well, we met here at Xavier's--after both living difficult young lives in Montreal, not knowing the other existed. It's so strange, isn't it? Now, we have a kind of psychic link to each other, but I think it must not have happened until we both manifested. A year or two later we both ended up here, and voila."
Lu smiled. "You've gotta love when things just happen serendipitously, don't you? It's like they were just meant to." She cocked her head. "You've got a link with your brother, though? What's that like?" She smiled and shrugged lightly. "I've got a link with myselves, but I'm guessing it's got to be different when it's with someone else."
The way she talked about her power was so interesting; Jeanne-Marie had a thousand questions. But Lu had asked first, so Jeanne-Marie responded, "It's comforting in a way, sometimes. Mostly it only flares into effect when we're very near or when something very emotional happens." She bit at her bottom lip. "Which can be a little awkward, now he lives next door to me. With his boyfriend. But, ah, I have been working on my shielding so it is not so bad!"
Luornu winced sympathetically. "That would have to be awkward. At least when I get it, at least I know it's me. I don't have a brother, but I'm pretty sure if I did I wouldn't want to, umm, eavesdrop on that."
Jeanne-Marie smiled, but it was a little harried. "I learned quickly how to shut it out, let's just say.
"But I am very curious about your--ah, other selves? You have a link, when separate, but you all exist in your...?" She gestured at Luornu's head, not really knowing how else to describe it. Her English was impeccable, these days, but some concepts were just... difficult.
"Pretty much," Lu admitted. After years of psychiatric care, talking about it really didn't bother her, especially here where everyone (so far) had been really nonjudgmental. "Most of the time when we're combined, like now, I'm pretty much all three at once, at least since I've been able to split. I'm guessing there's more than the average conflict, but I really don't have any basis for comparison. Cal might be able to give you a more objective point of view, but I think he might still be feeling a little awkward about having mimicked me." She grinned just a little sheepishly and shrugged. "Part of me isn't exactly the best with impulse control, and it's apparently contagious." Or, more accurately, part of Cal apparently wasn't either, but she was okay with taking the blame for it if there was blame to assign. She really should have explained it better from the start.
Jeanne-Marie blinked. "You mean--did they do something?" She covered her mouth--an old habit from years of being told not to laugh that she didn't even think about nowadays--and burst out laughing.
Lu nodded and laughed along with the other girl, but then wagged her finger at her. "Not a word to him," she said, trying to look serious but unable to completely erase her grin. "I think he's feeling sort of weird about it. If he wants to pretend it didn't happen, I'm willing to play along."
"Not a word," Jeanne-Marie promised with a quiet giggle. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't gossip, but I can't stop myself sometimes. Superpowers make for such interesting stories."
"Oh really?" Lu grinned, waving aside Jeanne-Marie's apology. "Tell me! I like gossip," she admitted. "Are there any really good ones I should know about?"
Jeanne-Marie laughed out loud this time, without the hand over her mouth. "I don't know, off-hand! Well, they usually start out as disasters and then are funny in the aftermath. Like the time my brother and I accidentally blinded Xavier. Temporarily!"
"Oh my god, seriously?" Lu laughed outright, squashing down a horrified protest on Orange's part. "How mad was he? And what happened?"
"He wasn't mad, just a little concerned, I think." Jeanne-Marie tried not to keep laughing but--in retrospect she was glad she could. "We didn't know! We just hugged for the first time and our light exploded."
"Sounds like the kind of thing that happens in a Disney movie," Lu observed, still giggling. "Minus the blinding, anyway. You guys really had no idea, then?" Remembering why she'd headed for the bar, she helped herself to a Coke, then held another up in silent inquiry.
"If only I'd thought of it at the time, we could've broken into song." Of course, Jeanne-Marie hadn't actually seen a Disney movie before coming to Xavier's, so there was that. She nodded for the coke with a little, "thank you" before going on: "We had never met before, though, so we didn't know our powers were like that."
Lu nodded understanding. "Was it strange to find out you had a brother after so many years?" she asked, popping the top on her soda. "It seems like it might be a little overwhelming."
Jeanne-Marie opened her soda too, smiling contentedly at the recollection. "It was very overwhelming. I came from such an isolated, conservative place, before, to suddenly be introduced to so many new perspectives, to find that I had a family, it was all so incredible. I feel like I was a different person, then."
"I'm glad it all worked out," Lu said honestly, taking a sip of her soda. "Where did you come from, if you don't mind my asking?" She grinned a little, and added, "And how does the new you feel about dancing?" Granted, she might not be very good, but given the amount people around them seemed to be drinking? She really doubted anyone would notice.
"Mostly group and foster homes around Montreal," Jeanne-Marie said easily. She grinned right back. "And even that me loved to dance."
Lu gave Jeanne-Marie a sympathetic look - she'd heard enough horror stories about the foster care system to be very relieved she'd never ended up in it - but then laughed and set her soda down on the bar, trusting that it would be fine there until they got back. "Want to, then? We can always talk more, after."
Jeanne-Marie held out her hand. "Absolutely!"
Harry Osborn. Here. Lu was torn between forming fists over his presence and smirking over finally having had the opportunity to slap him, but fortunately the dichotomy wasn't enough to trigger a split. All in all, she was pretty satisfied over how the confrontation had gone.
That didn't stop her from making a beeline towards the bar, however. If nothing else, she figured she'd earned one.
Jeanne-Marie took the moment as an opportunity. She'd seen the slap--several people in the room had, no doubt!--and though she had no particular problem with Harry Osborn, she was far more interested in the girl who'd had the guts to smack him. She approached the bar with a wry smile, setting her empty glass on it and smiling at the bartender. "Very nice technique," she said to the girl, first. "Lu, isn't it?"
"Lu," she admitted, then shrugged and smiled. "And thanks. Not exactly something I'm in the habit of doing, but - well, let's say he had it coming?" She looked at the older girl curiously. "Jeanne, right? You're the TA in the language classes?" She was also, Lu knew, the one who'd come out on MTV a year or so ago as a mutant, but she didn't see any reason to bring that up. Jeanne probably had everyone commenting about it as it was.
Jeanne-Marie smiled at the shortening of her name. Lucrezia called her that, and she thought it was quite sweet. "Jeanne-Marie, but you may call me that, certainly. I am the TA--and I love it. I've only just graduated though. And you? I hope you don't think it impolite, but Bobby told me you are some kind of heiress or...?"
Lu laughed and shook her head. "Honestly, I still have trouble thinking of myself that way - and if he doesn't think I measure up when the time comes, Dad will probably shut the company down rather than just let me inherit it." She said it fondly, though, because she had every intention of that not occurring. Making RJ proud meant everything to her. "My dad adopted me a few years ago," she explained. "I'm still getting used to some of the...conventions of the trust fund set." With that, she glanced over her shoulder, making a face in the general direction of where she'd last seen Harry Osborn before she turned back to Jeanne-Marie and smiling.
"You're dating Bobby DaCosta though, right? I've met him a few times - he's always seemed like a nice guy."
Jeanne-Marie grinned knowingly at the look Lu sent Harry Osborn--she didn't know a thing about him except what was in the papers, and that was an explanation in itself. "Yes; I'm afraid I'll never get used to the trust fund set and their conventions, since it's so different from how I grew up," she admitted. "But he does his best to get me used to being treated like a princess, anyhow.
"But you were adopted--I didn't know. Were you orphaned as a child? My brother and I were."
Lu shook her head and grimaced a little. "No," she admitted. "My father...hasn't been in the picture since I was really small, and my mother - well, my grandmother had custody until she died." She shrugged and smiled. As far as she was concerned, there was no reason to make things awkward and describe what had happened after that, considering how well everything had turned out. "RJ Brande took me in and adopted me not long after that. I was really very lucky."
She leaned against the bar and smiled. "But tell me about you and your brother - if you don't mind, I mean. I know a little from your appearance on MTV," she conceded, "but I'd definitely be interested in hearing more."
Jeanne-Marie didn't know if she'd made Lu feel awkward or not with her blunt line of questioning, but the apologetic flash in her eyes was shortlived, either way, since Lu moved on quickly--pleasantly. She was always perfectly open about her past; one of the first things she and Doc had worked on--not to mention Xavier when she first arrived--was that Jeanne-Marie had nothing to be ashamed of. Her circumstances had not been any fault of hers--not through her actions or in some other, more esoteric sense, and she'd always clung to that. "Well, we met here at Xavier's--after both living difficult young lives in Montreal, not knowing the other existed. It's so strange, isn't it? Now, we have a kind of psychic link to each other, but I think it must not have happened until we both manifested. A year or two later we both ended up here, and voila."
Lu smiled. "You've gotta love when things just happen serendipitously, don't you? It's like they were just meant to." She cocked her head. "You've got a link with your brother, though? What's that like?" She smiled and shrugged lightly. "I've got a link with myselves, but I'm guessing it's got to be different when it's with someone else."
The way she talked about her power was so interesting; Jeanne-Marie had a thousand questions. But Lu had asked first, so Jeanne-Marie responded, "It's comforting in a way, sometimes. Mostly it only flares into effect when we're very near or when something very emotional happens." She bit at her bottom lip. "Which can be a little awkward, now he lives next door to me. With his boyfriend. But, ah, I have been working on my shielding so it is not so bad!"
Luornu winced sympathetically. "That would have to be awkward. At least when I get it, at least I know it's me. I don't have a brother, but I'm pretty sure if I did I wouldn't want to, umm, eavesdrop on that."
Jeanne-Marie smiled, but it was a little harried. "I learned quickly how to shut it out, let's just say.
"But I am very curious about your--ah, other selves? You have a link, when separate, but you all exist in your...?" She gestured at Luornu's head, not really knowing how else to describe it. Her English was impeccable, these days, but some concepts were just... difficult.
"Pretty much," Lu admitted. After years of psychiatric care, talking about it really didn't bother her, especially here where everyone (so far) had been really nonjudgmental. "Most of the time when we're combined, like now, I'm pretty much all three at once, at least since I've been able to split. I'm guessing there's more than the average conflict, but I really don't have any basis for comparison. Cal might be able to give you a more objective point of view, but I think he might still be feeling a little awkward about having mimicked me." She grinned just a little sheepishly and shrugged. "Part of me isn't exactly the best with impulse control, and it's apparently contagious." Or, more accurately, part of Cal apparently wasn't either, but she was okay with taking the blame for it if there was blame to assign. She really should have explained it better from the start.
Jeanne-Marie blinked. "You mean--did they do something?" She covered her mouth--an old habit from years of being told not to laugh that she didn't even think about nowadays--and burst out laughing.
Lu nodded and laughed along with the other girl, but then wagged her finger at her. "Not a word to him," she said, trying to look serious but unable to completely erase her grin. "I think he's feeling sort of weird about it. If he wants to pretend it didn't happen, I'm willing to play along."
"Not a word," Jeanne-Marie promised with a quiet giggle. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't gossip, but I can't stop myself sometimes. Superpowers make for such interesting stories."
"Oh really?" Lu grinned, waving aside Jeanne-Marie's apology. "Tell me! I like gossip," she admitted. "Are there any really good ones I should know about?"
Jeanne-Marie laughed out loud this time, without the hand over her mouth. "I don't know, off-hand! Well, they usually start out as disasters and then are funny in the aftermath. Like the time my brother and I accidentally blinded Xavier. Temporarily!"
"Oh my god, seriously?" Lu laughed outright, squashing down a horrified protest on Orange's part. "How mad was he? And what happened?"
"He wasn't mad, just a little concerned, I think." Jeanne-Marie tried not to keep laughing but--in retrospect she was glad she could. "We didn't know! We just hugged for the first time and our light exploded."
"Sounds like the kind of thing that happens in a Disney movie," Lu observed, still giggling. "Minus the blinding, anyway. You guys really had no idea, then?" Remembering why she'd headed for the bar, she helped herself to a Coke, then held another up in silent inquiry.
"If only I'd thought of it at the time, we could've broken into song." Of course, Jeanne-Marie hadn't actually seen a Disney movie before coming to Xavier's, so there was that. She nodded for the coke with a little, "thank you" before going on: "We had never met before, though, so we didn't know our powers were like that."
Lu nodded understanding. "Was it strange to find out you had a brother after so many years?" she asked, popping the top on her soda. "It seems like it might be a little overwhelming."
Jeanne-Marie opened her soda too, smiling contentedly at the recollection. "It was very overwhelming. I came from such an isolated, conservative place, before, to suddenly be introduced to so many new perspectives, to find that I had a family, it was all so incredible. I feel like I was a different person, then."
"I'm glad it all worked out," Lu said honestly, taking a sip of her soda. "Where did you come from, if you don't mind my asking?" She grinned a little, and added, "And how does the new you feel about dancing?" Granted, she might not be very good, but given the amount people around them seemed to be drinking? She really doubted anyone would notice.
"Mostly group and foster homes around Montreal," Jeanne-Marie said easily. She grinned right back. "And even that me loved to dance."
Lu gave Jeanne-Marie a sympathetic look - she'd heard enough horror stories about the foster care system to be very relieved she'd never ended up in it - but then laughed and set her soda down on the bar, trusting that it would be fine there until they got back. "Want to, then? We can always talk more, after."
Jeanne-Marie held out her hand. "Absolutely!"
