ax_main | Jean and Warren, October 19

Warren introduces himself and Jean is convinced to party like a mutant.

Warren looked around for JP or Simon, but not seeing either, he made up his mind to talk to someone new. He needed to gauge some reactions anyhow, and he'd lost track of all the new kids. After piling his plate with pizza, he spotted a redhead--not Terry, the new girl. Perfect. He smiled and walked right up to her, gesturing to the spot across from her. "This seat taken?"

The girl looked up from her sandwich. Blinked at his wings. Mouthed a "wow". Then snapped back to her senses.

"Um! No, go ahead and sit. If you want. Hi. My name's Jean."

Warren's grin went huge at her reaction. Kind of a shame he was always wearing shirts these days, now it was getting colder--but he would've anyhow in the cafeteria. He sat and settled his wings behind him. "Warren Worthington. Nice to meet you. Seen you around but haven't had a chance to say hi."

"Yeah, it's been a crazy week, huh?"

This was so mortifying! Had she practically drooled over Shen's wings? No!

...but then, she'd seen Shen without them first. Maybe that had something to do with it.

"The craziest so far, which is saying a lot. You got here just in time." Warren's grin softened. "Threw you right in the deep end, huh?"

"Yeah. I was only worried about classes when I got here!"

God, she was cute. Warren couldn't help but smile hugely at her. "So tell me, as a new student, what did you make of all that Brotherhood-Magneto-X-Men talk this weekend?"

"I think..." Her smile faded a bit. "I think I won't know what to think until I've had a talk with the Professor."

Warren felt bad for making the smile fade but kept his in place. He'd get her back there. "Same. And a lot of the other students. It freaked everyone out. I was especially wondering what the effect was on someone new, though. That's a lot to come into."

"Yeah. But I guess I'll have to learn to cope. I need to be here." There was a quiet, earnest stress on "need" that hinted at something beyond just powers control.

Warren nodded, picking up on the hint, and let it lie for the moment. She seemed like she'd be okay to talk, but he didn't want to make assumptions like that right after meeting someone. Everyone here had their stories--stories that rarely led to simple motivations. "We're all going to have to learn--old and new students." He sighed a little. "Not that there are any really old students here. July was pretty much the beginning. Still, at least we're all together."

"There is that," Jean agreed. "Still. We were just getting settled in, and now we have to rethink our relationship with the school and Xavier."

"Unfortunately true." Warren's smile went a little crooked. "How did he recruit you, anyhow?"

Jean's smile faded entirely. "I'd... rather not talk about it in public, if you don't mind."

"Subject officially closed." He held up both hands in surrender. "Sorry about that. The weirdest conversations go on here."

"It's all right. Just not something I want to get into over lunch, you know?" The poked at the mound of fries on her plate. "Maybe we can trade origins stories later?"

"Later," Warren agreed. "Lunch is for talking about hobbies and classes and stuff. What about you? What about music? We've been planning parties right and left here--what do you want to hear? And most importantly: do you dance?"

That was an abrupt change of topic. Jean gave him a Look.

"Are you looking for a date to Shinobi's birthday or something?"

Warren laughed and winked. "Got one, thanks--but if I didn't, that'd probably be why I was asking, so good catch. Was mostly just trying to see if you were into the party thing."

"Oh." Way to sound full of yourself, Jean. "Sorry. I guess I should go. It would be good to meet more people outside of class."

"I recommend it," Warren said easily. "The last one was fun, but I know Shinobi Shaw, and he knows how to throw a party. I mean, if you can handle karaoke."

"Well..." Jean considered. She hadn't been to a party since... God, probably since Annie had turned twelve. "Karaoke doesn't sound so bad."

“Shinobi makes a lot of things tolerable. Not my singing voice, but no one’s perfect.”

Jean laughed. Warren was selling this thing hard, but he was being just the right level of charming to keep it from being pushy. "You make a strong case."

Honestly, Warren had the feeling Jean, for all her beguiling preppy pretty girl-ness, had some dark something hanging over her--and a party would do her good. "We can all use some unwinding. Glad we have excuses. Not that we couldn't just make some if we needed to, but still. Helps keep things from feeling weird and tense, you know?"

"Now there's a point. Annnd I can think of someone who could use help unwinding once in a while." Because there were only so many walks in a hedge maze a guy could take, surely. "All right, I guess I will be showing up."

"See, there's your date." Warren grinned. "We have a few of those too-serious types. I'll drag one. You drag one. Eventually we'll get them all there."