2019-06-28 - How to Interact

Summary:

Nate and Jean Grey catch up. Awkwardness insues, but they work it out.

Log Info:

Storyteller: None
Date: Fri Jun 28 06:05:08 2019
Location: Institute - Rear Grounds

Related Logs

None

Theme Song

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nate-greyjean-grey

It's summer time at the school, and while Xavier's tends to have a slightly higher population than most schools over the summer due to parents that don't understand their childrens' mutations, it's still a quieter time than the rest of the year. Jean isn't in residence at the moment - she's staying mostly in the city, working her waitressing job - but she still makes regular stops to check in on things.

At the moment, she's sitting on the end of the pier, looking out over the lake. Chances are she has her mind ranging, but there's nothing else that seems to have her attention.

As Jean sits over the pier, Nate Grey seems to be looking for his 'mother'. Well, she's technically his mom. He was partially made with her DNA, not the….ahem, old fashioned way. But nevertheless, Nate lands on the ground about 20 feet behind her.

He straightens out his brown jacket and makes sure his shirt is at least somewhat presentable. But, he approaches and he stops a few feet away.

"Uhm, Hi again. I uh….realize we should probably talk and that you have, might have a good deal of questions. And uh…I always..uhm." okay, he's really shitty at this.

HELP.

"Hi." is what that amounts to. He's nervous! cut him some slack.

Jean looks up at the sense of someone approaching, a faint smile tugging at one corner of her lips when she recognizes the new arrival. "Ah. Yeah." She moves slightly to one side, patting the pier next to herself in invitation.

"Well, you know. I get where you were coming from, but your revelation kind of…broke Scott a little bit. And things have been crazy, or I probably would have reached out sooner. Sorry about that." She tucks one foot under herself, half turning to face him. "Are you…settling in okay?"

"Yeah, thats uh…my fault." Nate rubs his neck. "Sorry. I thought it best to just tell him rather than play cat and mouse with it. I'm a very…rip the band-aid off, ya know?" Nat then approaches at the invitation, sitting down beside her as he looks at her. "I'm settling in fine. Kate's been wonderful at that, I feel."

Kate Bishop. the girlfriend.

"But thank you for asking. I'm sorry I broke da-er…Scott."

"Right, Kate. Well. I like Kate." Jean pauses a moment, lips pursing before she chuckles. "This is weird, right? You and me. Just…talking. I'm not exactly sure how I'm supposed to talk to you or Rachel. I mean, look at me," she says, rueful. "I've hardly got my own life together. I'm sure as hell not qualified to mother people who are older than I am. Although Hod seems determined to make me try," she muses.

"Pretty sure that's at least part of what set Scott off. Though I think there's something more, but…that's a part of his life he hasn't even shared with me, so."

"I'm pretty happy you like Kate, I like her too." of course you do, Doofus Nate. But, he seems to just chuckle a little bit. "Yeah, awkward. I didn't think I went back far enough to…you know, meet you. and well….ugh." Nate puts his face in his hands for a minute, like this was frustrating.

"I just don't know how to talk to you. Or Rachel, my….sister, for that matter. Time has a hilarious sense of humor if we both showed up in the same timeline." he shakes his head.

"Who's Hod?" he asks curiously. "But…I'm sorry if I kinda fu-" LANGUAGE. "Messed things up between you and Scott."

"Well, at least we're on the same page with not having a clue how we're supposed to deal with each other," Jean chuckles, shaking her head. "It's okay. Seriously. I kind of feel better that it's weird for both of us, frankly."

"I wouldn't worry about Scott either," she snorts softly. "Things were already pretty weird. See, I hadn't told him how I felt, and apparently he hadn't told me how he felt, and by the time I brought it up, he'd started seeing Zee, and…"

Trailing off, she shakes her head. "Scott's problems have always been largely self-inflicted. Which means they're pretty much only fixable by him, so. Hod's one of the Norse pantheon. Kate got wrapped up in the whole thing too."

Nate seems to 'oh' for a brief moment as he hears about Scott's current…situation. Though he's worried for a brief moment that he might never exist, he then remembers his specific origin. Whew, okay. No weird timey wimey stuff in this neighborhood! (that hasn't already happened, anyway).

"Sorry to hear that he kinda…well." she doesn't need to be told that, certainly. After all, Jean's a strong independant woman with kickass mental powers. "Chronologically? He's always been one to overthink everything. So..maybe he just needs a good smack in the head or a good pulling of the ear." when he learns about who Hod is, he nods.

"Is that the egyptian stuff? She mentioned she got a few gods mad at her."

"He'll figure things out eventually." Although Jean sounds more hopeful when she says that than certain.

"Yeah, Hod was involved with the Egyptian stuff. But it finally got handled, so everything's good there. For now. And the whole…Well, Kate should be good," she summarizes with a wave of her hand that's meant to be reassuring.

"What about you?" she asks, quirking a brow. "I'm guessing you're not in a rush to get back where you came from."

Nate nods lightly. "He usually does." but then again…it IS Scott Summers. But as Jean elaborates that the god stuff got seriously handled, Nate seems to sigh very softly, in relief. "Good. I offered to help her out three times, but she said she had it. Good to know that she wasn't trying to just make me not worry." Came in the job description of boyfriend, unfortunately.

Though he seems to smile. "Well, not so much as that I'm in a rush, but I literally can't get home. Whatever brought me here ain't lettin' me get back. Though I can tell when temporal stuff happens. Neat side effect, shitty usage." he shrugs. "So…guess that means your stuck with me."

"On the up side, I don't have to change your diapers." Jean winks, leaning back on her hands. "I call that one for the win column." She falls silent then, smile wry as she mulls it over. "Yeah. Nope, it's still weird to think about having kids. So, good news, regardless of how things work out, it's probably going to be a little bit. I mean…"

She looks around, then shakes her head. "I still keep going back and forth with myself about even settling down here, you know? I love the school. I think it's important. But I think it's important to be in the world, too, and I'm just afraid that I'll end up spending my whole life here."

"Heh, yeah. Just be happy I passed through time and not the other way around or…hell, I could've been a baby." Nate seems to chuckle a little bit. "But, thankfully for both of us, we got lucky." he smiles a little bit.

"Well, maybe you can kinda….I don't know, part-time it? Maybe you can help out with the younger kids at the school but also maybe have more than a few days off to allow for travel or adventure or what have you. I don't think they'd make you stay there permanently." he smiles.

"and…you don't have to treat me like your son. Maybe…just friends, for a starter." he seems to smile lightly, apparently trying to help deal with the awkwardness.

"Yeah, I'm not even remotely qualified to treat you like a son, so." Jean smirks, leaning over to bump a shoulder against his. "But friend sounds good. Maybe if you're good, brother-ish. I'm pretty practiced with the brother thing," she adds ruefully, gesturing toward the school. "I practically grew up here, with the boys."

"Friend is good, brotherish if earned. I can agree with that." Nate chuckles a bit. "Yeah, I can tell. You seem to have a big deal of history at this place. If I were younger, I'd probably attend but…well, the school doesn't need a possibly unstable telepath in his halls." he chuckles a little bit with a shrug.

"So then, lets say you don't stay here at the school. What would you want to do?"

"Make a difference." That part, Jean doesn't even hesitate on. "I want to make things better for everyone, not just for the people we can find and bring here. I want to make it so we don't have to bring them here. So we don't have to hide. And that's what it feels like to me," she admits.

"I guess…it makes sense. I came here when I was ten, and they'd just started trying to make people register. I was hiding here for most of my life. So yeah, I associate it with being in hiding. But I don't want to spend my life hiding. I want to be…free. I want to be bold. I want to be-" The bright, shining light that Scott sees her as.

"Hold up, unstable how?"

Nate looks at Jean as she seems to want to take the heroes path. To make the world a better place is an exceedingly noble goal that Nate seems to absolutely support. The smile on his face making that fact very evident.

"I approve, not that you need it. But…its very noble of you to want to make the world a better place for everyone."

He smiles warmly as she seems to explain what she wants to be, before she asks the question. "The time traveling messed up my powers a bit. It weakened me from what I was, and…well, some things are still a bit crazy, but I have a handle on it. Though I'm told that I sometimes reach out if I have nightmares."

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