Summary:Jean and Rachel go for ice cream, only to find the god of ice cream payments already in attendance. Log Info:Storyteller: None |
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"Look you've studied your hardest, done your best. Trust me, there is absolutely nothing you can do at this point. I learned a long time ago that when things are out of your control there's only one thing you can and SHOULD do: Relax." Rachel urges Jean along, flashing her a friendly enough grin even if she had minor ulterior motives. "Besides. I haven't gotten to explore the city much and I've heard about this iced cream stuff. I want to try it." A gesture is made to the shop they approach, and Rachel opens the door letting her step inside. "Doug's internet says this has the best ratings in the city."
Let go? Oh, Rachel. You have no idea how much trouble that's going to cause your mother.
But for now, Jean is willing enough to take a break for ice cream, even if the whole idea of going out with her future daughter who's older than she is makes her head hurt a little bit. "No ice cream in the future, huh?" she asks with a wry smile as she steps inside. "Sounds like we've got some serious work to do. As long as it isn't because it was legislated to keep people from getting fat, because that's an entirely different game-plan. You know, just for planning purposes."
Ice Cream is the well known prefered payment for doing the gods-well, the Norse gods-well really just the /one/ god-well, the one /diet/ Norse god really, a favor. Therefore it should be a surprise to absolutely no one that, were one to be the sort who was exceptionally perceptive, nay, paranoid, one might notice that in the back corner of the otherwise well lit and cheery ice cream parlor there is a corner that is somewhat /less/ well lit. Also somewhat less cheery. Also occupied by a blind hipsteresque man currently trying to attack a double scoop of mint chocolate chip in a waffle cone wtihout getting in his beard.
He is not entirely successful.
"Ugh, no fresh food really. It's all canned, freeze dried, or dehydrated," Rachel explains with a mild look of distaste. "I remmeber one time Kate found some dandelions and made this …" Her hands wave around trying to be descriptive. "Thing with it and some oil and vinegar. It wasn't great but it was fresh. It was the best thing I'd had in forever. Then the coffee Doug made while he was questioning me… Oh *man*. I'd only had freeze dried before. You have no idea how great this place is."
Her gaze was already flitting over the menu though that little darkness in the corner draws her attention. She was still in that tense, paranoid, ever-vigilant state she was in from her own future. A glance is cast toward Jean with an eyebrow lofting high as if silently asking… wait, yeah she does ask silently via telepathy That normal around here?
"Cool. So. Glad to know the future goes that bad, that fast," Jean grimaces, looking over the menu in search of something that can cheer her up from that mental image. At Rachel's question, she glances toward the shadowy corner, sighing when she confirms her suspicions. "A normal type of unusual, at least," she answers out loud, pausing long enough to order herself a complicated peanut butter and chocolate sundae before she steps away from the counter. "That's Hod. He's part of the Norse pantheon. I've been sort of helping him with a whole…thing."
Hod shakes his head, "Not any more I'm not." he correct Jean, as if he could hear her from across the room and over the sound of canned prepacked 00's inoffensive teeny pop music playing over the speakers. He returns to attacking the ice cream with limited victories. This war will take it's toll, clearly.
Rachel Summers lifts an eyebrow. "That explains the general aura of doom and gloom," she reasons with a shrug. Her own order is put in, something about an 'icecream flight' that lets her choose several flavors to get the most options. While waiting on it, she steps over toward Jean again with a small hum. "So you're the current thorn in my mom's side, huh?"
"He's not a thorn," Jean notes, though there's a hint of amusement in her voice as well. "He's just…you know. Hod. He didn't entirely ask for help so much as I offered, so I can't really blame him for what's happened." She pulls out a chair, settling into it to wait for her ice cream. "Glad to see you made it out of the square all right. Your brother looked like he wasn't going to let you get away with getting yourself killed."
Clearing her throat, she pauses for introductions. "Hod, this is Rachel. Rachel, this is Hod. I did get that picture for you, by the way," she adds to Hod. "Let me know where you want me to send it."
Hod sighs, "Gloom I can't help, doom is thrust upon me and me, being the generous sort that I am choose to share that doom with others. I'm awesome like that." for a Norse god he's very much not with the 'thees' and 'thous' that most of them still affect. And he dresses like a person. A real one. Not a Ren-Faire reject.
He makes a face at the mention of his brother and stops attacking the cone on the eastern front, "Yeah… he's a jerk like that, always being caring and considerate and generally a decent person. It's infuriating." he sucks a breath through his teeth, "Also now he knows I'm alive. So that's just… great. Just… great." the words are seperated by long pauses that make one think he isn't that sincere in his affirmation. "Rachel, the future kid you havn't yet been knocked up with by that one eyed loser who's got the thing for the magic lady who removes marks?" he asks flatly. "Cool. Pleasure to meet you." Jean mentioned something about Rachel and Nate in passing, Hod put together most of the rest from tone and intonation. Also Jean's really not that hard to read, ironically. "I'll take about 100 print outs, wallet sized please. Maybe 200. Just in case." he pulls out a wallet and fingers his way through it until he finds a couple of bills folded into triangles which he then holds out towards Jean, a minty chocolate chip sticking to one of them, "Couple hundred bucks ought to cover the cost?" it's more question then not. He's blind. Doesn't have a lot of call for printed material, he's no idea what a Kinko's costs.
Rachel Summers glances aside at Jean with a bit of amusement when Hod rattles off everything about her. "Potential future daughter. I'm not sure the timelines line up properly anymore. Last I knew dad didn't have enough 'game' to get another woman interested in the first place." She pulls out one of the other chairs and sinks down to sit, leaning it back on the rear legs casually. "No offense, Jean. I mean I know he's my… but so far here he's just kind of a jerk. Maybe he's nicer to people he doesn't think are spies." GLancing at the exchange between them she asks, "What's the deal with the pictures?"
"He's…The whole thing with Scott is very complicated," Jean sighs, shaking her head. "And lately it seems like everything I try to do to fix it just makes it worse, so I'm trying to leave it alone. Which is probably also making it worse, but I literally graduate in like a week, so I'm just not going to deal with it until then."
When Hod offers the bills, she takes just one and shakes her head. "Maybe forty dollars, honestly. At most. For two-hundred pictures. If that. So if you've got something smaller…" Hey, at least she's honest. "And don't call him a loser," she adds, belatedly.
Hod tucks the remaining bill back into the wallet, hopefully not the one with the ice cream drop on it, and tucks the wallet away, "They're of a man I 'saw'," he literally air quotes with his cone, "in a vision of an event that may or may not eventually lead to the end of the world and the destruction of my family wholesale." he states matter of factly, "So you know, I kinda wanna find him and ask him a lot of questions. Pointy question." he makes a jabbing motion with the cone in Rachel's general direction.
Then he nods in sympathy towards Jean and the area around him dims just enough that clearly seeing his expression is slightly harder, "I'm betrothed to a goddess of death who's seen to it every woman I've married and every child I've sired was dead in short order, so you know, relationships are a motherfucker." he says as he dips his head back down into the ice cream, "The guy has infinitely more eyes then me and can't see what a catch you are. Show me a bigger loser, I'll redefine my possition." he adds after a moment's thought.
Rachel Summers just spreads her hands with a little bit of a 'what can you do?' shrug when Hod stands up for Jean in regards to Scott. "I can't really pipe in here. I mean, genetic donor and alla that. Speaking of, I haven't seem my little brother in awhile. I wonder if he's off moping or something." Eh. Who knows. More importantly though… "You mind if I have one of those pictures, too? I'm kind of against the whole 'end of the world' thing having almost seen the end of mine."
"Might as well spread them around as much as possible," Jean shrugs, tucking the money away. "Anyone who can let us know if he shows up is one more person looking out for him." At first, it seems as if she's going to object to Hod's comment, but as he finishes, she softens. "Thanks, Hod. That's sweet. But…I don't know. I just can't let it be my first priority right now, so. I feel like stopping the end of the world is probably a little more important. Hey, speaking of. Did you ever find out what started that brawl in Times Square?"
Hod points at Jean, "Ask your Mom." he says, letting all the fun implications of that statement work for him with minimal extra input, "You're currently negative 42 years old or something, might be to young to save the world from evil wizards and interpantheon wars." lick. The ice cream of course. Lick. "Oh I agree. In fact, if you'd stop thinking about One-Eye entirely that would be awesome. I'm not sure and all," he waves a hand in front of his face to highlight his issues with certainty on the matter, "but you seem attractive enough if the whispers when entering the room are any indication. You're educated, powerful enough to make members of a pantheon your bitch, kind, and almost humorous on occasion. One-Eye to threatened by that then find someone who isn't. I don't suggest anyone claiming a godhood, generally we're a buncha dicks. Except Baldur. Don't crush on him. It would make having you help me kill stuff super awkward."
Lick. "Yes I did. Egypt and one of the Native American groups got into it. Egypt and the Aesir have had a few long running, um… rivalries is a good way to put it. The People have always been more to our way of thinking, we mesh well culturally for the most part, get along even. Some insults were shouted, gods took offense, that sort of thing gets old school real quick in my old circles. This is the sort of thing that'll start happening more and more often if we don't put a lid on this and fast. And just to be clear, those were all minor players, light weights. I mean, I'm stripped down to my godly skivvies here and I could take them one on one, maybe a couple if was I creative and luck went my way. That was… the equivilent of a school yard fight between third graders."
Rachel Summers shrugs a bit indifferently at that. "So I'll take one of the photos then. And that never stopped me from helping," she points out with a shrug. "I used to be the physical embodiment of a universal being, but it had to go merge with the one in this timeline, so…" Her hands spread in another shrug. "How underpowered are you these days? I mean, is there a way to build your power back up? Or work around it? You learn to adapt but if you haven't fought in awhile you get rusty."
"I keep wanting to be offended, but you're being unusually nice," Jean smiles ruefully to Hod, standing up as their orders are called at the counter. It only takes a moment for her to collect them and pay, then she's coming back to the table to set Rachel's in front of her while she settles in with her own.
As she settles back in, something Rachel's said seems to settle in her mind as well. "What do you mean, physical embodiment of a universal being?" she echoes, starting in on her ice cream.
Hod pauses and turns his head to 'stare' at Rachel for a long moment, the ice cream melting slowly as he does so. It's weird having sunglasses pointed at oneself like gun barrels, but there they are, just… oogling. So to speak. "Wow. Blunt aren'tcha?" he asks after a long pause before jerking a thumb her way, "I like this kid, kid." he says to Jean, "You should keep this one. The other one? Still havn't met. Judge later." lick. "I don't know if you have a frame of reference for what I am, honestly. I am still incommand of one of my gifts, more or less fully, the others are…" he pauses, frowns, then shakes his head, "Parlor tricks." he holds the ice cream up for her to inspect, and it … reverse melts. Flowing back up the cone, into a neat mostly eaten pile atop the cone, and then a coating of frost rolls over it like a blanket, "There was a time little girl, where I was a thing to behold." his lips quirk at the corner in a bit of a smile, "I was a warrior, even among the Aesir I was …" he lets out a breath, "Bah. Old news. Father stripped me of a great portion of my strength. I am more or less one of you really." He doesn't mention that for all his lack of power he's actually /better/ with his spear then he ever was before.
He points the refrozen cone at Jean, "I'm always nice, your problem is you're from this soft cuddly generation that thinks honestly is best coated with soft fuzzies and lies so that no one's feelings are hurt. I'm old, very old, kid. I don't do niceties unless required. Besides, I'm the badguy remember? I start acting /actually/ polite and people will think I'm up to something." he glances at Jean, then Rach, then Jean again (more or less), "She doesn't know?" he asks rhetorically, "She smells like fire." he says to Jean, "Faintly. Not /literally/ but uh…" he holds up a hand and sort of holds it out towards Rachel, "Around her. You can feel the residual heat, like a forge gone dormant for the night."
Rachel Summers turns her gaze down to the tabletop when Jean glances her way questioning. Then when Hod describes how he 'sees' her she can't help but smile. A wistful, tired smile. One that didn't belong on such a young face. She had seen far more than someone her age ought to. Done her fair share and more. "There were a lot of revelations going around. This didn't seem so important once it was gone." A deep breath is drawn, and she glances at Jean with a small smile. "You saw when I arrived. The Phoenix that engulfed me. That… That was it. A remnant of it. There's only one per dimension. That's how I know I'm off-step from my own timeline. I would still have some thread of connection to it if it were the same." Her eyebrows draw together in a small frown as she lifts a hand to glance at it. "I was once so much more. Could reach so much farther." Her fingers curl and she murmers, "The flames of a dying star about to be reborn."
Rachel shakes her head firmly to rid herself of those memories. "I swear sometimes I can still feel it like some distant echo. It feels odd being just one being again."
Jean Grey seems uneasy, her spoon forgotten in her ice cream. "I thought I was imagining it," she admits, voice low. "I thought maybe…" She grimaces, then scrubs a hand over her face. "I've had nightmares about that thing, since I was- Well, almost since my powers manifested, honestly. I thought maybe it was just a symptom of- Of everything. Something my mind came up with to help try to make sense of all the voices and feelings and everything that I couldn't handle. But the professor's been starting to remove the blocks, so I thought maybe…"
She leans back in her chair, shaking her hands as if she can just shake off the idea of the Phoenix like droplets of water. "Whatever it is, Rachel, maybe it's better that it's not here. There's such a thing as too much."
Hod grows quiet as Rachel talks and unwittingly his face takes on a similar expression, "I could touch the heart of winter, summon the very essense of the void…" he sighs softly, "Girl," he says, nodding Rachel's way, "I comiserate."
He shoots a look Jeans way, then back to Rachel, "I feel like we've slipped out of my area of expertise." he admits, "Cosmic stuff… that was more my world when I was-" he waves a hand, "Want I should ask about?" he offers.
"No," Rachel says quickly glancing back to Jean to offer a reassuring smile. No, there were reasons that having the Phoenix Force here and now might not be good. "No it's okay. Thank you Hod," she offers back looking to him again. She reaches out instead to rest her hand on Jean's giving it a reassuring squeeze. "I'm sorry. That may be partly my fault for coming back in time. I know it was looking for a good place to put me. It likely touched on your mind in various points of your life using you as a point of reference it was familiar with." It made sense at least. Ripples through time often did such things. "It's far away though. Universes away. Let it be free in it's original form as it was meant."
Even before Rachel turns down the offer of help, Jean is shaking her head. "No, it's okay. Thanks, though," she adds with a small smile for Hod. "We've got enough trouble to deal with without bringing a giant cosmic firebird into things." Besides, Rachel definitely knows more than she's saying. The thing is, Jean is perfectly happy not knowing the details just yet. So she's just going to happily go along with that little fib.
Instead, she goes back to her ice cream, mixing it up a bit to get all the chocolate and peanut butter bits properly mixed together. "All right. So I'll get these printed and meet you at the library with some double whoppers and you can start papering the sidewalks with pictures of this guy. And maybe if we're lucky, he'll be someone we can properly destroy."
Hod snorts, "You picked up a measurable percentage of 5th Ave and thwapped a couple of gods with it. The odds of us being able to destroy a thing have gone up exponentially. I just sort of," he pantomimes, "poke things and look like a cosplayer fell backwards into a D&G store." he lets the girls have their refusal without comment. He's old, peoples business is their business, they'll ask if they ever feel the need. Or won't and then die horribly of bird burns… or uh… whatever it is one dies from when dealing with cosmic flying firebird things? He has no idea what's going on. Not even a little.
Rachel Summers turns her attention to her mostly ignored icecream… Which was a bit melty but oh well. She digs in finally making a few appreciative noises, and taps her toes on the floor in a happy, childish manner. Hey it was her first icecream. Even kind of melty it was good. "Mmyeah, we can handle stuff," she agrees between bites.
"Yes, well. I only buried them in the mess they'd helped make, so. They did it to themselves," Jean sniffs, eating a spoonful of ice cream. She's fought enough things and spent enough time with Hod to grasp that at least some of her success came from surprise. She's not counting on that working again. At least not quite that well.
When Rachel tries the ice cream, she looks over with a small smile. "Yeah. Ice cream is pretty great. Doug show you pizza yet?"
Hod tilts his head as he listens to Rachel's enjoyment, he hides a smile behind his cone, nibbling at the waffely edge of it a bit. "In the future, if you're going to put on a ridiculous get up complete with mask intending to hide your identity, you're going to need to let me know." another hand wave in front of his eyes, "Secret ID's… jeez. People are so gullible."
Hod has finished the key parts, is doing background work now.