Summary:A group of well-meaning mutants meet at the community center. Log Info:Storyteller: None |
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Since she left Xavier's for college in the big city, Jean's involvement in the larger world of mutants has been…irregular. She travels back to the school on weekends when she's not busy studying or hanging out with the friends she's made here in the city, and she does her best to help out when things seem to be on edge, but she's taken something of a break from the hero business. Or rather, she had, until recently, when the looming specter of graduation reminded her that she was going to have to actually do something with the rest of her life. It's reminder her of old times, so she's sought out an opportunity to take some action.
Tonight, that action takes the form of volunteering at the Mutant Town Community Center. Wearing jeans, sneakers, and a faded blue sweater, she's taken up a spot outside the kitchen where she can pass bowls of stew to the people coming in for a hot meal to chase off the chill outside. She has a warm smile for each person and a few friendly words, even if she doesn't look like a mutant.
Elmo drifts in, hands stuffed deep in the pockets of his peacoat. He doesn't look like he's on the street or in need of a meal; he also doesn't look like a mutant (although he's sorta funny looking, short and skinny and bearing a magnificent schnozz). Instead of joining the line, he just kind of loiters around anxiously for a few minutes, debating with himself whether or not to go talk to Jean.
Doug on the other hand, is passing out new packages of socks and sanitary products. They're two of the most important donations you can make to the homeless, after all. He's still dressed for work, which makes him look absolutely *pressed*, as he murmurs quietly to the individuals who pass through the queue.
Scott, too, is a regular at the Mutant Town Community Center, often volunteering his time as an aid, or to help with youth activities. Sometimes, he just brings some blankets and coats over from Xavier's. Whatever he can to help and to contribute to the mutant community as a whole. Today, is such a day. Just outside the center, Scott is withdrawing a large, beat up old box with splitting sides from the trunk of a glossy black 1967 Impala. Lightweight fleece blankets practically spill out in a variety of colors. Lighter than the heavy wool things brought around at the start of winter. Perfect for the warming days leading in to spring.
With the box in hand, and half wedged under his chin, Scott uses his free hand to shut the trunk, and then shuffle the large, unwieldy box back into a good, low hanging grip.
Of course, to most people, Scott doesn't look like a mutant, either. He looks, maybe, like a bit of a douche bag. Brown leather racing jacket, with red stripes on the sleeves. Blue jeans. Flannel. Sunglasses with metallic ruby lenses. Even at night. He'll say he's sorry, but he won't take off his sunglasses.
Ian isn't a mutant. He looks totally normal. He's just not acting normal, because he's totally stalking Doug Ramsey. He has sunglasses on too!, his hoodie up…and also hiding his tactical gear under it, which makes him look more bulky than he is, black jeans…some sneakers. He looks like any 20-something guy, on the short side. He tries to mill around, poking at this and that, eyes the big box Scott is bringing in, and glances towards Doug now and again.
Thea's been here before, wandering around this part of the city. She's seen such places before, in other countries, for mutants, or various ethnicities. This is different. This is her hometown, such as it is, this is where she could have been, if circumstances had been only ever so slightly different. She tells herself that is why she's here again, despite the …incident last time she was in this part of the city. A peacoat that goes to mid thigh, over jeans and boots that end just below her knee. Caramel blonde hair hangs loose over her coat, allowed to wave naturally as she makes her way inside the center. She will step aside just within the door to get a feel for the place. She needs to ascertain someone not here for the food or the goods, but who volunteers and knows the way around.
Her eyes will catch on the young man in the hoodie, a curious tilt of her head and a narrowing of her eyes. She would not have anticipated to recognize him here.
"That's great news," Jean says to the young woman she's passing a bowl to, smile flashing. "If you need some help getting paperwork together before you start, I hear they have people here on Tuesday nights to help out with that." She gives the other woman's shoulder a squeeze, chin tipping upward as she glances toward the door. Just before Scott gets there, she pushes the door open with her mind, making room for both man and box. "Hey Doug, do you have a shampoo kit for Deanna here? She just got a job at a diner and she starts next Friday, so she'll need to look her best."
A quick scan of the room notes Elmo's nervous stance and she smiles over toward him, friendly. "Hey there," she greets. "Can I help you with something?"
Elmo turns an ear towards the sound of the Impala, interest lighting his curious features. Cars, aw yeah. He startles a little when Jean addresses him even though he was clearly trying to think of a way to talk to her. Moving aside so he doesn't risk Scott or Ian bumping into him, he says to her, worried, glancing at Doug too since he's there, "Uh, well, more maybe I can help you with something. It's your generator. Not doing so hot."
Doug has turned, and he's looking at a flickering light, and frowning, as he taps it. Tap tap. Tap tap tap. CRACK POP! He winces, and flinches as the bulb burns out. Then he looks to Jean and shrugs, before he goes back to handing out baggies of sanitary supplies. A woman says something to him in an Eastern European language, and he gives her a quick smile and a reply in the same. If he's notice he's being stalked, he's not saying anything.
Scott does pause just outside the door when it opens for him, with just those reflective red glasses peeking out over the stack of blankets piled up in the box. From somewhere behind there, his deep, throaty voice calls out a "Thanks" as he steps inside, sort of awkwardly having to half shimmy through the door with how wide the box is. He manages, though.
Setting his burden aside, Scott brushes off his hands. He doesn't really call attention to the box. People know the drill here already, and Scott doesn't look for praise for his actions. It's not his style. Instead, he just gives a cursory glance about to see what familiar faces, other than Jean, he might catch. Some old, some new. Thea. That charming woman that was with Warren the other day. When Scott was making a damned fool of himself trying to court a celebrity. Instantly, he feels the flush of color and heat rise up on his cheeks, but he pushes it down. And then, talking to Jean is that timid man from that night, as well. The one who remained on the periphery almost the entire time. Scott's brows furrow together in a thoughtful scowl as he considers him, but for now, he'll remain silent, just quietly approaching where Elmo and Jean are, while trying, perhaps, to keep a low profile so that Thea might not remember Warren's fumbling idiot friend that she was very kind to.
|ROLL| Ian +rolls 1d20 for: 7
Ian also recognizes Thea and realizes…he's probably been made. Its only a matter of time, now. He leans back and puts his hands in his hoodie-pockets, looks left then right. Then he gives her a little wave and an actually fairly decent-looking smile before he jogs over to where Doug is and says, "Hey…looks like ya got out of the office. What is this? What's with all the free stuff?"
Thea will move around the edges, quiet, keeping to herself.She's not trying to draw attention, but she's not hiding, either. She's checking the place out, seeing what the offer other than something like a soup kitchen and someone handing out socks and necessities. Then there's a tug at her powers, her head turning slightly to catch something that had been only in the periphery of her vision. The height, the glasses, the unusual biosign. Scott just can't hide from someone with radar.
There's a big smile, as she will walk that way, carefully picking her way around people so no one is jostled. Oh good, he's heading for the redhead, so maybe she can kill two birds, with one stone. She waves to Iana, smiling still, though she wouldn't have blown his cover! Everyone has reasons to hide, sometimes! But then the room is crossed. "Hey, Scott."
"Oh yeah?" The corners of Jean's eyes crinkle as her smile deepens in Elmo's direction. "I have to be honest and tell you it's not my generator. I'm just helping out today. But if you're a good hand with them and you're offering to help, I happen to know that Ethel's not too proud to accept a little help where she can get it."
She perks a bit when she catches someone else speaking familiarly to Doug, especially about his job. Coworker, maybe? Could it be…a friend?! "Hey, Scott," she echoes just as Thea says it, brow quirking with a teasing look for Summers as she looks between them. "Hi," she adds, waving to Thea briefly before returning her attention to Elmo.
Elmo twitches one narrow shoulder, almost smiling back at Jean. Almost. "Eh, whoever's generator. Think its battery's in not so great condition. I, uh…" People are converging towards Jean. Elmo gets distracted by Thea and Ian and Scott's weirdly-familiar metallic red shades, where has he seen those recently? He knows he has. "Anyway, yeah, I can fix it. Probably needs some connections tightened up, stuff like that, then maybe—" he nods in the direction of the light bulb that popped, "that won't happen so often. Even out the current, yannow?"
Douglas Ramsey looks up at Ian, as if to say 'Really?' Then he opens one of the plastic bags, revealing that it's full of sanitary supplies, including tampons. "Socks are one of the commodities most asked-for by the homeless." Doug says, "And homeless women can't afford to buy sanitary supplies, but it's vitally important they get them." If Ian was stalking Doug last night, that's why he went to the drug store and bought all those tampons.
He goes back to handing them out, before he says, conversationally, "You know if you wanted to hang out with me you could just ask. Why are you stalking me, Ian?"
Scott has just about made it to Jean and Elmo when he hears Thea greet him. He freezes in place for just a moment, his hands coming up, doing that snap and clap thing together, as he makes a pained, wincing smile. And sloooowly turns around to face Thea, giving her a finger gun. "Heeeeeey… Thea. Good to see you again. How's Warren?"
The discomfort in that smile is legendary. Scott Summers looks like a man being pressed against a bed of nails but trying to put on a good show for it. When Jean likewise greets him, Scott lowers his head and nods, before sidestaring at the redhead psion and speaking with a sigh, "Hey, Jeanie."
A pause. Pregnant. Not at all awkward.
"Who's your friend here?" Scott asks of Jean, before turning his ruby-eyed stare on Elmo, and with a depreciating smile, remarks, "You planning on working on the generator? I've tried fixing up that old thing before, but I'm more handy with a combustion engine than with electronics. Got myself a good jolt for my efforts, and Ethel won't let me go near it again."
There's a lift of her eyebrows. "Nice to see you too. Are you doing it again? I don't see the brunette around." She's teasing. "As far as I know, Warren's fine. I haven't really talked to him since skating the other night." There's a shrug of one shoulder, before he's turning to talk to the guy from the other night whose name she hadn't been able to catch. So, she'll offer Jean a smile, a hand. "Hi. I'm Thea. Since Scott was bringing things in, I was going to ask him, but… if you have a moment, maybe you could help me out, instead?"
Ian lifts his shoulders in a non-commital shrug. "I just like doing it. Its fun to follow people when they-" Ian pulls his sunglasses off and squints his eyes. "Probably that's for my inside voice to say. So, you're just being nice to homeless people." He bobs his head some.
"This is Elmo," Jean introduces the young man to Scott. Just how she got the name is a mystery, at least to people who don't know her. "And maybe if he goes with you, Ethel'll let you near the generator again," she grins, reaching up to try to ruffle at Scott's hair in a fond gesture. "I'm Jean," she replies to Thea, taking her hand in a warm, comfortable grip. "It's nice to meet you, Thea. And for a friend of Warren's I'm sure I can help with something."
"Jolts, I can handle. Don't scare me," Elmo says to Scott, a little cocky if we must be honest. He's eyeing him, still not sure why he's so familiar. "You do engine work? Hey, me too—" Then his eyebrows pop up as Jean introduces him without him needing to go through the trouble. He turns towards her, sharpish. "You — how'd you — !" Brainpower kicks in and he makes a kind of 'wait wait don't tell me' gesture at her. "You read it from me, right? Like a nametag." Oh right, this place IS full of mutants!
Doug gives Ian a flat look, and then he says, "Well, yes. Those who have much, must give more. Look around you, Ian. These are all mutants, like me — but they don't have the advantage I do. People who meet me on the street would never know I was a mutant. But inside, we're the same. So I have to help where I can. Everybody who needs it."
"Doing what? I'm not doing anything? I don't know what it is that you're talking about. You barely know me," Scott replies to Thea, syllables spoken through an uncomfortable chuckle, his head bobbing back on his neck in that "Fffttt what?" kind of gesture. "Her name is Zatanna. Which is apparently a name I should have known. But hey. It is what it is, and I'm not a guy with a great grasp of pop culture."
The comment about having not spoken to Warren since that night has Scott turning his head to one side. He had gotten the impression that Thea and Warren were pretty close. At least talk on the daily kind of close. Curious. But for now, Scott will let Jean and Thea introduce themselves. He'll smirk at Jean's comment about the generator and Elmo, and when she ruffles his hair, he lowers his face, chin tucked to his chest, as a genuine smile arcs the corners of his lips.
"Don't take it personal, Elmo. The lady's not able to help herself sometimes. I promise she won't get too invasive or anything," Scott offers to Elmo, because having your name given and realizing someone can just read your mind is always a spooky feeling, no matter how you slice it. It's a good way to make people paranoid, at the very least. "So Elmo, you have some kind of electrical power? Or maybe some kind of machine ability? Technopathy?"
Ian looks around him when he's told to and considers it all fairly flatly. "That's…really good of you. I'm not a mutant. And I don't need any emergency wound packs." He makes a slight face. When someone mentions machine ability and electrical power, it draws Ian's gaze for a moment, and he stares at Scott and Elmo.
There's the soft curve of her smile lingering. "Oh, you know Warren, too?" Thea asks Jean. "Did you all go to school together after he left our old high school? Warren mentioned it, but truth was I had already left for education overseas, so I didn't know about it until we ran into each other again when I got back to the city a couple weeks ago. It's been nice to pick up with an old friend again, and catch up when we can make a little time here and there. Between his family company and my just coming back to town, it's hard to match times." She will shake her head. "Anyhow, my own schedule being insane, I wouldn't feel like I could commit fully to volunteering here, but surely there's a use for donations of money, or goods if that's easier."
She will arch a brow at Scott. "Might want to breathe between sentences, Scott." She'll tease softly. "Though seriously, Warren did have some fun stories I could tell you, sometime." There's the smile. "He'd sputter and pretend to be furious, but he'd get over it when I suggest Chinese and a movie marathon next." She will smile and glance from Scott to Elmo to Jean.
Jean winks at Elmo's question. She's not admitting to anything while there's someone from Doug's work hanging around. For some reason people in the spy business get all kinds of spun up about the ability to read minds. "Yeah, we went to school together," she nods to Thea. "Although Scott and a few others were a few years ahead of me, so I'm pretty sure I'll be their little sister for eternity," she chuckles, rueful. "Small school though, so we knew everyone. Doug was there too," she nods toward the blonde brave enough to hand out feminine supplies. "To be honest, Scott knows better than I do what they need most here. I've been busy with school lately so I haven't had as much time to help out as I should."
Elmo blushes, winked at, and drops his eyes. "Somethin' like that," he says, about his ability. "Okay, something exactly like that." Raising his left hand (the palm is bandaged in gauze), he spreads long fingers. A crackle of electricity leaps to life, crawling up between his fingers like a Jacob's ladder, popping harmlessly into midair. Elmo tucks his hand back in his pocket.
"We call that tikkun olam," he then says to Doug and Ian, and now he does manage something of a quirked smile. "Fixin' the world. World, it needs a lotta fixin'. So I'm here to do some of that fixing, too. Starting with the generator." Now that Thea's paying attention to him too, he gets flustered. "I don't know your name," he tells Jean, joking, "ain't fair, is it?"
Doug gives Jean a little smile, and then he looks to Ian. "We do the right thing not out of expectation of recompense or reward, but simply because it needs doing. The hungry must be fed, the naked must be clothed. It is by those actions that society perpetuates itself." He gives a wan smile, and then looks up at the others, perhaps letting out a small sigh. "Thank you for having lunch with me, by the way. I appreciate the company."
"I just happen to have a very developed lung capacity, thank you very much," Scott quips at Thea with a lopsided smirk, before briefly turning his attention back to Elmo as he gives his small demonstration of his powers. His lips purse, issuing a low, quiet whistle sound, before he nods, and says, "That's a cool trick. Cool ability. It's… you know. Useful. You can really help people with a power like that."
As opposed to Scott's own, which is primarily only a force for destruction. In many ways, Scott is the quintessential mutant that is used to spread fear of mutants. A living weapon of mass destruction who could just be anybody on the street, looking just like everyone else. That fact isn't lost on him. Far from it.
Taking the moment to be distracted from that troubling line of thought, Scott turns his attention back on to Jean, after she mentions being the little sister. The look on his face is one of sarcastic incredulity. Shaking his head, the bespectacled mutant scoffs and says, "You know that isn't the case… I don't think of you like that."
Thea snorts at Scott. "Going to turn my head, Scott. I have a secret weapon against you, after all." Meaning Warren, of course. Brows are a little lifted at the neat electricity show. "But when you're done blowing up the generator or having him stop you from breaking it, Jean mentioned you're the man in the know about things needed around here." There's a glance at Jean, as if to female solidarity about 'men'.
If there's anyone whose mind Jean can track, it's Scott. And by the time he's going down that self-deprecating road, she's got a hand at his forearm, a gentle mental nudge away from those thoughts on to better ones. And if it gives her an excuse to look away and maybe even hide a slight blush (as much as any redhead can hide a blush), well, all the better. "Sorry," she laughs to Elmo. "I forget sometimes. I'm Jean. And it's a pleasure to meet you properly, Elmo. Like I said, I know Ethel would be grateful for the help with the generator. She mentioned earlier that the stove'd gone out when she thought the stew was simmering and she was not pleased with the results. Doug's pretty read into what the place can use too," she adds to Thea, dipping her chin toward the blonde again with a fond smile. "He can be a little shy sometimes," she adds in a lower tone. "But his heart's in the right place."
Ian nods a little, but his empathy skills are not great. He doesn't offer to help. He glances back to Doug and clears his throat. "Yeah…I like sitting with you for lunch. I'm not sure about all this though. But, it does explain your grocery trip. Ah…I guess you are busy for a while. I'll…see you tomorrow?"
"It's nice to meet ya, Jean," Elmo says, smile going lopsided. "You guys are doing the Lord's work." He doesn't offer to shake hands. He glances shyly up at Scott. Way up, he's short. "Thanks. It's uh, yeah. Pretty useful." He seems to want to say more, but gets all awkward and goes quiet. Until Thea gives Scott a ration about the generator. "Heh, I can show ya if you want. It ain't hard. Electricity's like light, or water, it wants to get out wherever it can. Except it also wants to kill you. Well, it doesn't want to kill me. It likes me." He quirks an eyebrow at Ian, the guy in the room with worse social skills than him, but it's friendly enough. Hey, other guy who's also bad at this kinda thing.
Doug looks up at Ian, and he says, "I know things like this are a challenge for you, Ian." He says, before he puts his hand on the man's shoulder and gives it a squeeze. "Thank you for coming out." He gives the other man a smile, and then says "I'll see you at work tomorrow." Then Doug turns back and returns to the line, not lavishing an excess of affection on Ian, instead returning to passing out socks and supply bags from the pile.
"I have no idea what you mean," Scott deadpans at Thea, sliding his thumbs into the belt loops of his jeans and adopting a sort of devil may care posture at his staggering six foot and three inches of height. Decising not to take the bait, Slim considers for a minute, and then nods his head. "Well, clothes are always good. Doug has it right when he brings personal care products. That stuff is always needed in mass quantities. Food. For obvious reasons, non perishables are a premium. Canned food. Low sodium. Healthier stuff, even if it is still going to be processed goods. Money is good, too, obviously. Hiring contractors who don't mind where the work comes from is also nice. Plenty of renovations to be done around here. Like Jean says, Doug knows a lot, too."
The hand on his forearm had done well to get Scott pulled back in to focus. Afterwards, he reaches around, draping an arm across Jean's shoulder and drawing her in against his side for just a moment, as his fingers give her shoulder a gentle squeeze. A simple gesture of thanks, before he's letting her escape from his grasp, and instead glancing at Elmo.
"Oh, I'm not bad with it. In most circumstances, I could probably fix the generator on my own. But this thing has had so many years, so many hands, and so many ad hoc patches that it's officially a frankengenerator, at this point. You might even have your work cut out for you."
Glancing over to Doug and Ian, Scott gives a small smile. It's good to see Doug interacting with people. It's even better to see him having a moment of affection with someone. Even if he's not lavishing it in excess. It's still something. "Hey, Doug! This fine young lady named Thea wants to know what else we could use around here. Care to help us out? You can bring your friend over and introduce us, too."
Thea will look up into Scott's glasses a moment. "Right. So money works, because it can be used to get the rest of everything, I would assume. " Her tone has lost the casual warmth and friendliness as she's taking mental notes. " More things? I'm not in Warren's tax bracket, here. Take it easy on a girl's bank account." She will joke lightly, glancing over. "That's the young man I ran into at the skating rink. Literally."
"Man, I missed you guys, but I can't say I missed the shop talk," Jean teases Scott, returning the arm around her shoulders with a quick hug around his waist before releasing him in turn. "If you're looking for someone to talk shop with, Elmo, you could do worse than this guy. I'm pretty sure he could talk engines until the cows came home. And there are no cows." She winks, stepping back to get a better look at Doug's friend before he can escape. "We're always interested in meeting your friends," she adds to Scott's invitation, smile warm.
Ian ducks his head a little and puts his sunglasses back on. "Maybe on another night. I gotta get back to base." And then he slips out!
Douglas Ramsey watches Thea walk away, and then Ian walks away, and then he's standing there, feeling like a dork. He rubs the back of his neck. "Ah, maybe another time I guess? Ha…!"
Elmo, hearing what a problem the generator is, perks right up. "That sounds fun as hell!" Jean has to wink at him again and it turns him red again like a switch. Thea and Ian head out, and Elmo doesn't even glance after them. There's a generator on his mind. Still, he cautiously observes Jean and Scott, and Doug, gathering information with which to form a hypothesis. The hypothesis is: they all know each other. It's risky but he thinks he can make it work.
"You could always give me something else to talk about, you know," Scott fires back at Jean with a single brow raised from behind the glossy reflective glasses, with just a hint of a smile dimpling his cheek. Glancing back to Elmo, Scott shrugs in response to Jean's talk of his love for engines. Compelled to explain, he says, "I love mechanics, in general. Love vehicles. Especially motorcycles, sports cars and classic muscle, and fixed wing aircraft."
Looking back at Jean, Scott smirks, and pointedly says, "But they're not my only interests."
He looks up, just in time to see Thea heading out, and Ian ducking out like a squirrel right after her. Scott frowns for a brief moment, before turning his attention to Doug and doing that gesture where one shrugs with their hands turned up as if to ask "what was that about?".
"What, and ruin all your fun?" Jean grins back at Scott. "Perish the thought. Besides, the truth is I don't really have anything fun to talk about," she admits, looking around to take a quick measure of who's left in the center and what they're waiting on. "I finished midterms a couple weeks ago. Spring break should be up in a couple weeks, so there's that. Not that I've got any plans to go anywhere fun. And then graduation in a couple months as long as I don't ruin anything, and then I'll be checking in with Doug for advice on how to live in the real world like some sort of adult or something, I guess."
"Ba… ba…" Doug says, before he clears his throat. "Really? You know I live in an apartment with a tortoise, right? I keep a photo of my tortoise on my desk at work. In my OKCupid dating profile I'm holding up a sign that says 'Swipe Left'." Doug says, looking surprised, "Maybe you should learn how to adult from somebody else."
Elmo snorts, taken completely off guard by Doug, and starts laughing helplessly into one gauze-swaddled palm. "Brilliant. Why didn't I think a that."
"Not everything has to be fun to talk about. Sometimes, I just want to hear about what's going on with you, or what's going through your mind at the time. Sometimes, it's fun to talk about nothing at all," Scott replies to Jean, shrugging his shoulders and sighing. He takes a quick glance around and finds a nearby empty, steel folding chair. Hooking it with the toe of his boot, he swings it around so that it scoots across the floor and centrifugal force forces it to whip around with the seat facing him. Straddling the seat, he folds his arms across the back of it and rests his chin on his leather clad forearms. "You should go somewhere fun. You deserve it. Get out. Away from here. Someplace sunny and warm, where you don't have a worry in the world and can just unwind for a minute. Decompress."
When Doug kicks in with his commentary about his lifestyle, Scott's grin grows from ear to ear, and he shakes his head. Chuckling despite himself, Scott sighs and says, "Yeah… I don't get it. You both know that you can live with us in Salem Center. You have a home already. It's just there, waiting for you to come back."
Holding out one hand to gesture to Doug, Scott then comments, "On the other hand, at least Doug has a dating profile on an app, so maybe he does have it more together than me, huh? I can't even."
Scott's comment on hearing things gives Jean a moment of pause as she goes still. "You know, you're…right," she says slowly. "I'm sorry. I guess, just overhearing it all the time, I never thought other people might need to actually hear it." She smiles faintly, a little sheepish. "More talking, then," she promises, leaning against a repurposed booth as she takes a break. "And I know the school is there, I just…I don't know. It's different for you guys, you at least had a little more normal life. I was eleven when I moved in. If I go back, I want to know that it's because I chose it, not because I wasn't sure what else to do or because I was afraid to look anywhere else. I want to know that I lived and tried things and had experiences." You know, aside from fighting giant killer robots, or aliens, or the other things. "Is swiping left good, or bad?" she asks, looking between Doug and Elmo for an explanation, since Scott's already professed ignorance. "Because if you're telling people to ignore you Doug, that's not going to help."
Doug can only flush, look away, and diddle his fingers together. Seems Jean has him dead to rights. In his head, he's just making the Possum Scream noise. 'aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa'
Elmo is trying to stop laughing but he's anxious and he can't. Caught in a feedback loop! "It's, it means, 'nah not this one'," he attempts valiantly to explain to Jean, grinning stupidly. "Sorry, pal—" His apology to Doug gets broken off because he's laughing again, turning red.
Scott listens to Jean, offering up a flash of a smile to cover up a sting of sudden pain and rueful bitterness that arises when she mentions that he had more of a normal life. It's easy to forget that the people he grew up with still don't really know too much about his life before Xavier's. They don't know the details of everything he went through. The trauma. The manipulations. The experiments. And Scott has a good deal of his own psychic noise to prevent those thoughts from seeping out into the open airwaves, for that matter.
So he just smiles and nods his head.
"I get that. I do. I just… I guess I realize that nothing I'll ever be able to do out here, in this world, will ever be as important as what we do there. There… we're building a real, legitimate better future. For the world. And for the children that we're teaching."
Scott isn't going to talk about how much a secret paramilitary strike force that operates on an ideological and political agenda can or will change the world out in the open like this. Not with Elmo over there splitting at the seams, at least. The skinny little man's laughter makes Cyclops start to chuckle. Laughter is, after all, contagious. What Elmo says has Scott looking at Doug curiously, as if to confirm or deny Elmo's claim.
"Doug!" Jean exclaims, laughing. "That's not how you do any of it. That's like putting on there that you live in your mother's basement and she insists that you go out on a date once a year or something." She shakes her head, then holds out her hand. "Phone, please. We're finding you a better picture even if we have to take it right now. Actually, we should take it right now. Then you can even prove that you have friends. Who are awesome and agree that you're awesome."
Doug takes his phone out and looks at it, before he switches to thinking in Wakandan, but it's mostly babbling. "I uh." He looks at his phone, and moves to stick it back into his pocket, "I gotta go." Of course, Jean is a telekinetic, soooooo…
Elmo manages to sputter to a halt, one hand over his face. The awkward-nerd quotient is high tonight. "Aww, he could have a better picture if he wanted." Now he's defending Doug. "He likes the one he's got." Elmo looks at Doug, eyebrows tilted up, amused in a with-you-not-at-you kinda way. "Okay, I'm, uh, gonna get to work," he adds, suddenly anxious again, and goes out.
Somewhere along the way, Doug manages to pocket his phone and escape, before Jean can tinker with his OKCupid profile.
"Hey, where are you- What even is- Is that Wakandan?" Jean calls after Doug, squinting suspiciously as he tries to make his escape. "It's just a picture! I promise I'll make sure you look good! And why are you hiding what you're thinking!?" She doesn't stop him from leaving, but she gives his back a narrow-eyed look. "I bet your profile is public!" she shouts as he escapes.