3974/Late Night Snacks

Late Night Snacks
Date of Scene:	29 October 2020
Location:	Main Kitchen
Synopsis:	Wade is diagnosed brain worm free! Wholesomeness, hot chocolate, relationship advice, nachos, and planning of the Liberation of Jean Grey...
Cast of Characters:	Wade Wilson, Jean Grey

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Wade Wilson has posed:
It's late, but Wade is depressed for a variety of reasons.

Well, mostly one reason, technically two.

Either way, the smell of ground beef and sharp cheddar is likely going all through the mansion, and there's an entire bowl of tortilla chips that get this pot of beef and cheese poured onto them, as well as chives and chili powder and other nice little additions to the cheese sauce blend.

The chef tonight is Wade Wilson, aka Deadpool. He's wearing one of Scott Summers' sweater vests, and Scott's jeans, but thankfully spares his shoes and is wearing a beat up pair of white Nikes. On his face he simply has the Deadpool mask, though the rest of the outfit is absent. His scarred hands and neck are the only part of his skin really visible, and a little bit of his ankles. "Xavier's Mansion, the one place you can count on when you feel like complete shit."

Jean Grey has posed:
Indeed, on such a late autumn night, the Mansion is mostly quiet, save for the rustling of the wind outside, where a small storm shakes the autumn leaves. Above it, another sound is barely heard, the carefully-muted and yet still impossible to fully conceal sound of the Blackbirds engines as the distinctive stealth jet makes a surreptitious return. A mission, at this hour?

Some time passes, enough for whoever was aboard to disembark, debrief, come back upstairs, and change. Because Jean does all of those things before ambling into the kitche, dressed as she was before she was called out, in a dark green sweater and Jeans. No doubt, this is more of a hot cocoa and cookies late night comfort sort of visit, so the fact that the kitchen is in full swing comes as a slight surprise.

"Oh, Wade, hello... what is, what is all of this?" she wonders, slightly astonished, yet not TOO astonished after she's realized who it is. Even if his monologue was for his own benefit, heck, even if she missed it entirely, she couldn't possibly miss his mood. "What's bothering you?"

Wade Wilson has posed:
"Oh, you know... I feel in love with Harley Quinn and a woman from another dimension with six-arms, assumed both of them rejected me, and then both of them actually //did// reject me because I tried to solve the problem by tricking them into group therapy, except //I// got tricked into a hidden camera therapy TV show and now I'm alone forever because I suck." Wade pretty much rants that all out at once, digging in to grab a chip full of cheese and meat.

The bottom half of his mask gets rolled up so he can eat, then slides the large bowl over in case she wants some. "Maybe I have brain worms. Can you use your powers to check me for brain worms? There might be a little residue from the cosmic horror that got into my brain the other day, but that's not what I'm talking about."

Jean Grey has posed:
Listening as a good listener should (she's a telepath AND a Psychiatrist!), Jean walks closer, navigating the familiar kitchen in equally familiar fashion toward one of the cupboards, lifting a hand to gently pass on the offered snack along the way. Reaching the destination, she takes the slightly lazy approach, TKing the cabinet open and gathering the needed mugs, mix, kettle, simultaneously. "Oh, Wade, we ALL have days like that," she begins to answer, and then laughs. "I don't mean literally, of course, very few people have days exactly like what you just described, but they have ones that make them feel that way. Spontaneous crushes, rejection, disappointment. But very few end up alone forever because of it."

As she talks, she fills the kettle and gets it going, and then turns around toward him again. A hand is lifted to her temple, the classic 'focusing her powers' pose, and after a moment she declares: "You don't have brain worms." Whether she actually used her powers to reach that conclusion or not? Who knows. However, when he mentions 'residue', her brow does furrow as if concentrating a little harder, to try and make SURE there's really nothing terribly wrong with him.

Beyond... all the usual, anyway.

Wade Wilson has posed:
Wade is free of cosmic residue, though there is the distinct sign that something horrific and downright Lovecraftian was recently in there. Someone of her calibre will likely be able to tell that the reason he isn't entirely thralled to a cosmic horror is because his brain has almost entirely healed from whatever caused it to begin with, given the strange pathways that his own brain tends to perpetually form as it constantly heals itself at all times in cancer's constantly losing battle.

"So, mostly the usual.

"I'm insecure, that's the real problem. If I didn't just //assume// they didn't like me, none of it would have happened. Well, I'd have probably still fell in love with them both, but you know, maybe I wouldn't have screwed it up!" He turns to her, pointing. "Aren't you always in a love triangle or something? I don't keep up, I just assume everyone likes redheads."

Jean Grey has posed:
"There might have been some damage," Jean declares after a few moments of scrutiny, sounding just a little more concerned... but still probably not as much so as she would if anyone else came in like that. Because Wade is sort of on a different... medical standard? "But I think you're healing from it. If you're actually feeling not yourself, we can get you an examination, but the symptons you're describing don't really sound anything like that. They sound pretty normal."

She turns to pour some of the cocoa mix in the mug, and wonders idly, "Tell me a little about these women? I think I've heard that name on the news. She might have even- no I'm sure I saw her somewhere once, at an event." It might not have been an exactly wonderful meeting. But Jean keeps an open mind. Its sort of part of that job description/power set, too!

Eventually, the kettle is hot enough- she doesn't really need it all the way -and she grabs it to pour some water in the mug. This is definitely the low-class version of the drink, but good enough on short, late-night notice. "It sounds like you've sort of figured out your own problem already," she finally declares. "Easiest job I've ever had." Then she gives a little laugh. "Always? Hardly. But, well, I do have my own issues, although they're more... I don't know, doubt versus certainty, that kind of thing? When you meet your own children from the future but you haven't had them yet, it can sort of throw a loop in how you think about relationships. Compared to me, your issues might even be pretty normal."

Wade Wilson has posed:
"When it first happened I was able to see into distant galaxy and saw a horror with infinite beautiful eyes, but then it wore off and now I don't see or worship it anymore. Hey I guess that kind of makes us Phoenix twinsies!" Wade says with some excitement as he continues to shovel chips into his mouth.

"Harley, she really doesn't bat an eyelash if you just start firing a gun into the air, she thinks I'm funny, I think //she's// funny. It's true that she's a bit insane, but she's also a psychologist! So that kind of cancels it out, right?" he wonders, walking to one of the chairs to take a seat, bowl in lap.

"The other, Spiral, she's from another dimension where I think everything is a TV show. She's very insecure about her six arms. She says she's always being watched by someone from another dimension, so she tries to get high ratings. I'm not sure if that's true or if she's also insane. But we really relate on the whole being insecure about our looks thing!" He listens to her and about the whole children from the future thing, munching and nodding.

"Hey, //fuck// destiny! You don't wanna pop out Scott and/or Logan's, or maybe Piotr's kids, not sure which one, then you don't have to!" He encouragingly points a chip at her, in a show of support. "You pop out any kids you want, or no kids! You want me to go stab Destiny? I'll go literally find Destiny and stab it!"

Jean Grey has posed:
"It sort of does," Jean admits. Or at least she doesn't argue the point! "Although if your experience was anything like mine was, I imagine it's good that its worn off. We're not meant to know power like that." And certainly her tone is a touch more serious as she says as much.

Picking up the mug and summoning a spoon from another drawer, she's soon giving it a nice stir while occasionally blowing on the liquid, again using the little bit of prep as an opportunity to listen. There's a lot there. "You do sort of sound like you have some things in common," she agrees about Harley, albeit on that fairly limited 'guns and insanity' basis of knowledge. But then, she has to go and be a little more serious and responsible: "I wouldn't say it cancels out. It's pretty hard to be objective in treating yourself. So it probably would be better if she saw someone. We all have- there's nothing wrong with being atypical, but its important to understand your condition, manage it."

Not really Harley's 'thing,' probably. But Jean gives her best all the same!

Spiral's situation is obviously even more obscure, so here, Jean pivots back to Wade himself. "I think that's only natural. After all, you see so much of that here at Xaviers. We're all different, and most of us have suffered trauma because of it, at one time or another. So it's not unusual you have a lot of people who end up feeling safer, more comfortable, more understood, with someone who's shared that."

Finally, she's ready for a good sip of her cocoa, or at least, a tentative one to test the heat. As usual, it still comes out just a little too hot. But she's left smiling at Wade's bold advice. "No, on this count, you're absolutely right. I can't live my life thinking about those things or... try and live up to some other, different, future life. It would be a terrible basis for a relationship, let alone for having a child."

Wade Wilson has posed:
"I didn't even get new powers from it! But adamantium katanas are really the only power I need. That and the eternal hell of immortality." Wade listens, but then shakes his head. "Harley really hates other psychologists."

He reaches into his pocket and takes a camera out, snapping a photo of her making the cocoa. "Sorry, I like to take pictures of wholesome Jean Grey moments, they make the everyday suffering of existence bearable."

"Okay, here's what you need to do..." He sits his bowl down, stands up, walks over to her, and starts to motion his hands toward her repeatedly as he speaks, a very inspirational speech manner. "You should defy fate, scratch all this wholesome business except for when I need a small reminder that life is worth living, and then go find, I don't know, //Hercules//, and then //smash//. It's time to liberate, it's 2020!!! It's the year of Wokepool!"

Jean Grey has posed:
"Sounds like a defensive mechanism," Jean observes, with all too much dry certainty. And... it is no doubt exactly THAT KIND of observation, with that sort of sure attitude, that makes psychologists dislike each other. Especially if they're also deranged sometimes-criminals.

The photo only seems to surprise her a little, although no doubt that very slight widening of her eyes only adds to the appeal of the particular composition he's going for. It is rather wholesome. Nor can she help but smile, albeit a little helplessly, at his explanation. "That's... sweet. Weird, but sweet." Another few puffs of breath, and she takes another sip of her chocolate, longer this time, as the temperature has become managable.

As he queues up for some life coaching, Jean makes as if to listen more carefully, taking a spot across the little kitchen aisle, with her elbows propped on its surface and the mug held between both hands, close to her face. She listens, listens... and then laughs, a bit more abruptly at his ultimate conclusion. "Hercules, hmm?" She looks thoughtful, although her thoughts are almost certainly not so lurid as Wade would think appropriate to the moment. "It's not bad advice, Wade. In general, I mean, not quite so much in the specific. But I do want to treat my life... like my life. Live it for me, a little more. I'm not sure quite what that should look like, but I can figure that out as I go."

Wade Wilson has posed:
"Okay, so maybe not Hercules. He's a bit hairy for you." Wade considers with another munch of a chip. "Okay, so my love life is fraught by insecurity, your love life is fraught by being so important the universe spits your kids out at you in reverse. I'm of questionable mental stability, you're a very sane psychologist. The answer here is clear..."

He digs up a large heap of beef and cheese on a particularly wide chip, as if to somehow emphasize his point. "I need to break you out of this mansion, and we'll have a wild night in New York, going to clubs, being badass. Who needs to endlessly worry about love lives! I'll show you how to //live//, like someone who isn't a nerd! And with you around, I probably won't do anything stupid and screw everything up!"

Jean Grey has posed:
"I don't know if -that's- the problem with Hercules." If -Logan- somehow isn't an automatic pass, could hair really be the deal-breaker? Anyhooo...

Sip, sip.

For most people, Wade's lead-in might successfully lead comedically to the wrong conclusion, but Jean cheats enough, even when she doesn't mean to, that she can tell where it's going before it gets there, or at least, that he's not leading up to some grand romantic proposal in the kitchen. Those are sort of hard to sneak up on her.

Which means, instead, that she greets his ultimate (and suitably impressive chip-accompanied) plan with a surprising degree of acceptance. "That sounds great. Although if you mean to break me out -tonight- I'm going to have to give it a pass. I just spent the earlier part of the evening fighting grab-happy trees with my mind, and all I want to do now is crawl into bed with a good book and my hot chocolate." There's that wholesomeness again!

"But how about a rain check?" she proposes instead. "There should be some fun stuff going on in the city around Halloween, and you know it's the perfect excuse for everyone to dress up how they'd normally never dare." A slightly different calculation for a group of people who wear spandex on a regular basis, maybe, but still...

"Anyway," and she hoists the cup. "I'm gonna find that book. I hope you feel better, and if there's any sign of those brain worms, you let me know right away, OK?"

Wade Wilson has posed:
"Alright, but as soon as you can, you're getting hammered and laid, we're even taking Bad Jean back from Phoenix! Get ready for the Liberation of Jean Grey arc!" Wade calls back to her, grabbing and holding his nachos close.

It takes him a moment, as he considers the entire setup he made, then stares down into the nachos themselves. "Fuck, I could have gotten laid, I really am an idiot!"