Jean Grey is a marvel (phoenix_down_) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2013-12-22 22:10:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, jean grey (phoenix), ororo munroe (storm) |
Who: Jean Grey and Ororo Munroe
Where: an ice rink
What: chatting about the dream
When: December 14
Warnings/Rating: no warnings
Status complete
Jean was happy to be doing something normal with a friend. Other than Bruce, Ororo, and Ezio almost everyone she interacted with on the valarnet had some kind of weird expectations of her. She didn’t want to disappoint, but she couldn’t live up to their idea of who she should be all the time. She was looking forward to cutting loose and just enjoying herself.
She looked around the ice rink for Ororo, her skates slung over her shoulder.
Ororo did own ice skates - a relic of growing up in the northwest - but it had been some time since she’d used them. After her dreams that morning, she’d needed this badly, just cutting loose with a friend in the real world. She saw Jean’s hair before the rest of her and waved, smiling. “Hi, I hope you haven’t been waiting long.”
The red hair was great for being spotted in crowds. Jean waved back, smiling brightly. “Not at all, I was about to say the same to you.” She chuckled and looked around for an unoccupied bench to switch into her skates. “How’ve you been? I feel like I’ve been running around nonstop since last time we talked.”
“Until this morning, not too bad. Had a few more dreams, and they were ... so great that it’s awful, I guess.” She smiled a little. “You look good, though!” She followed, seeing kids in snow pants walk by. “Feel like I should have padded my ass before I got here, though; it’ll be on the ground a lot.”
Jean nodded and smiled at the kids. They were so cute! “I’m sure your butt will recover, though you might want to sleep on your stomach tonight.” She teased. “Want to talk about the dreams?” She plopped onto a bench and began pulling her shoes off.
“Yes and no? I’m sure it’s all you do all day.” Ororo shook her head, following suit. “Plus, honestly, it really hurt. I went from murder to romance. Like, romance novel romance.”
“I wouldn’t do it all day if I minded.” Jean said, smiling softly. “That sounds like a pretty interesting shift. You can’t leave me hanging with a beginning like that.” She was glad she could take a less professional tone, at least. She felt like she couldn’t express herself much in her sessions, but a friendly discussion was different.
“Okay, fair.” Ororo smiled, managing to tie up one skate tightly before looking over at her friend. “The killing, I don’t know, I was in the desert in Egypt - where dream-me lived - and this guy was with me, and he tried to rape me. I just stabbed him to death.” She shook her head, looking down, making sure her voice was quiet - no need to scare any of the kids around. “I hated it - I swore even there that I’d never take another life. But then I got to a place called Wakanda, and I met a man.” This was ridiculous - it even hurt to bring it up. Why did she care about a man who was likely a phantom?
“Wow, that’s a pretty big shift in tone.” Jean noted. That must have been a terrible dream, no wonder Ororo looked a little shaken up. “Where’s Wakanda?” She knew about it, vaguely, from her own dreams, but it was supposed to be very isolated, and she didn’t remember that much about that world’s geography.
“Central Africa. Scott said he’d heard of it, too.” Ororo replied, closing her eyes. “I think you might have something there, though - it wouldn’t have even been so difficult if I’d just met a man, fallen in love and then woken up. On top of that, oh, hey, some guy tried to assault me in the dream before.” She smiled sadly. “Felt like deliverance, then it was gone.”
Jean nodded. “I can’t imagine how all that must have felt. Such strong emotions, fear, anger, love. They’re the most central to our emotional wellbeing. It’s a lot to take in all at once. Was the man, I mean, is he part of the network?” She was almost afraid to ask, because she already had mixed feelings about Scott and she only knew for certain that she had touched his mind in the dreams and wanted to get to know him.
“No. At least, I haven’t seen him, and Scott hasn’t either.” Ororo took a breath, expelling it slowly. “I mean, there’s nothing I can do, I know that. It just ... the first dreams were weird and scary, but they didn’t hurt like that one.”
Jean nodded. “I guess that makes sense. It’s not very fun, though, so I’m sorry you have to go through it.” She felt a little sorry for herself, too. If Scott was even half right about the things she would go through it would be a rough experience. “Maybe you’ll feel better if you get moving and clear your head?”
“Yeah. It’s one of the reasons I came anyway, figuring it might help.” Ororo forced herself to smile. “What about you, are you doing okay? Any good stories, anything new?”
“Oh, not really. No more dreams, and other than a new patient - actually I had dinner with Thor Odinson on accident last week.” She chuckled a little and offered Ororo a hand up. “I was having a cup of coffee at a diner after work and he happened to show up. He’s surprisingly nice, for a famous guy.”
“Did you.” Ororo had heard of Thor Odinson. “Stroke of luck. He’s hot.” She smirked a little. “I’ve only ever seriously been with one white guy, but he’d be a second.” It wasn’t a question of preference, just of what had happened when it happened. She got to her feet with Jean’s help, remembering to keep her weight on the balls of her feet to stay upright.
Jean laughed. “If you had to pick one I wouldn’t blame you for that choice. He’s really hot in person, and he’s enormous.” She giggled like a schoolgirl at the implications of his size. “Extremely nice, too. I was impressed. Other than that not much. I’ve been out with Bruce a couple times, but we’re both so busy.” She didn’t mind terribly. They both loved their jobs.
“Is he?” Both to the nice and the enormous. Ororo smirked, but it lessened somewhat when Jean talked about Bruce. “Bruce is your boyfriend, right? That’s a shame that you haven’t had much time together.”
“Yeah.” She nodded. “We expected it going in, and I’m okay with things going a little slow. I’m a little bit of a romantic, I’m afraid I’d let myself get in too deep too fast if I had endless amounts of time with him.” She smiled softly, and made her way out onto the ice, keeping an eye on Ororo.
“Oh?” Ororo couldn’t help but be a little amused. “If you don’t mind my saying, that’s a very cautious way of going about things. You don’t have to talk about it, but I hope it isn’t because of experience.” Jean was sweet. She didn’t want there to have been bad things in her past.
She got to the edge of the ice, and laughed, taking a breath. “Here goes nothing.” She stepped onto the sheet, praying not to fall, and having it granted, at least for the first five minutes or so.
“Oh! Not really. I mean, I’ve dated before, but I don’t think my heartbreaks were too extraordinary. Usually I broke up with them because I didn’t have enough time to date and do whatever I was doing. It hurt, and I hated to do it, so I’m hoping that the fact that he’s got the same devotion to his work will help things a bit, but I’m staying cautious until I know it will.”
“That makes sense, I guess. I’ve always kind of gone whole hog, but it’s just a difference in style. Yaagh!” Ororo let her weight go backward, and she had to grab the side to stay upright.
Jean laughed and moved forward to help Ororo, and nearly lost balance herself. “Are you okay?” She asked, moving to grab the wall as well.
“Yeah, saved it.” Ororo had to laugh. “I think the wall will be my best friend.” But it was still kind of fun, honestly. There was something about skating rinks that was nice and normal.
“That’s okay, we’re not at the Olympics.” Jean said with a laugh. “You’ll get the hang of it soon, I’m sure. Did you go ice skating a lot? I noticed you have your own skates.”
“I did when I was younger. I had a boyfriend in college who was on the hockey team, so I wound up a rink rat.” Ororo smiled. Damn, he was cute. She still thought about him. “Just sort of got out of practice.”
Jean laughed. “There are worse reasons to get into it. So you did more sporty things with it, huh? I took a figure skating class for a while when I was a kid. I wanted to go to the Olympics and all that stuff.” She laughed and shook her head. “That was between wanting to be a ballerina and wanting to be a model.”
“For a little while, yeah. It was a lot of fun while it lasted, actually.” Ororo chuckled. “I totally wanted to be a ballerina when I was a kid, though. I think that’s universal. Almost every girl likes dance.” She tried to skate without the wall as a help, and managed for a little while longer.
Jean nodded. “I think so. They’re pretty much an archetype of everything that we encourage in women. Tiny, strong, silent, graceful, in revealing and sparkly outfits.” She chuckled. “I didn’t have the patience for it.” She skated next to Ororo, smiling softly. Going slow was good, because it meant they could talk.
“It’s true.” Ororo rolled her eyes. “I grew out of that phase when I got a little older. Saw some of the crap that goes down in the world. Then I turned into a little social justice warrior - hopefully not the annoying kind you see online now - and found a little more meaning.”
“I’m glad you did. You’d be a beautiful dancer, but your work is so important.” Jean appreciated the connects she’d made with other people involved in social services (even if the jury was still out on whether psychiatry counted as a social service or not).
“I love my work.” Ororo had to steady herself with hands outstretched, but she still managed to stay upright. “I really do. We save lives. So do you, I’m sure.”
“Yes.” Jean said with a nod. “I’ve seen a few of my patients through some very difficult times.” She was happy to do it. Psychiatry really was her calling. “It’s a good feeling, knowing that you’re helping people.”
“I hope you’ve got somebody to see you through the very difficult times.” Ororo smiled. Jean was so giving - she’d talked Ororo out of her funk, mostly - that she hoped there was someone who could do that for her. “Everybody needs someone, I think.”
Jean giggled and blushed a little. “Bruce is pretty good company. He was there when I had my first dreams.” Granted, they hadn’t managed to have sex by then, but they’d fixed that later in the night. “I’m more worried about you, actually.” Because of course she was.
“I have friends, and I have Smoke. Though this morning when I woke up she was awfully confused about why I was crying.” Ororo almost never cried. But she had to joke. “Until Idris Elba moves to Hollywood, I think I’ll live without a boyfriend.”
Jean laughed. “If he does, you should hang out at diners and hope he joins the Valarnet.” It wouldn’t be the strangest thing that had ever happened, she was sure. “I’m sure Smoke is better company than Jacob.” Birds were nice, but they weren’t exactly cuddly or empathetic.
“Your bird, right? I don’t know, birds at least talk.” Ororo smiled.
“Yeah. He knows a few words, but he’d much rather scream or sound like my alarm clock.” She laughed a little. “I saw a little songbird habitat in the hospital where I did my residency, but I wanted something a little friendlier. Unfortunately he’s not very soothing, so he has to stay at home.”
“Oh, jeez.” Ororo winced, laughing as she wobbled again, needing the wall. “That might not be very restful, yeah. I want it known that I haven’t landed on my butt yet, by the way.”
“You deserve an award for that. Thank goodness nobody’s bumped into us.” She said with a laugh. “I think we’d both go down.” Her hips were going to be sore tomorrow, but she didn’t care. “So what do you do for fun on the side, other than hang out with people and play with your cat?”
“I’m ashamed to admit, not much.” Ororo laughed, shamefaced. “We just have so much to do at work. More often than not I’m too damn tired when I get home.” Especially since David had moved out.
“I know that feeling.” Jean said with a nod. “I’m exhausted when I get home anymore. The Valarnet has increased my practice by a lot.”
“I would think so. I mean, let’s face it, most of us need a shrink.” Ororo joked, but it was mostly true. At least, with the people she’d met. “Some of the people I’ve met would be pretty special even without the dream wrinkle.”
“That’s true.” Jean said with a nod. “Almost everyone I’ve talked to has a pre-existing condition that the dreams make worse. I’m fond of saying we all need help sometimes, and that’s definitely coming in to play a lot with the dreamers.” Herself included.
“Yeah.” Ororo nodded, and would have expounded more, but the motion of emphatic nodding took her off her feet. She grabbed for the side wall, but missed, and landed half on her butt, half on her side. “Crap, I had a streak going.”
Jean stopped and offered Ororo a hand up, giggling a little. “You were doing really well. I think you’ll have the hang of it again soon.”
“Hopefully. And hopefully my butt doesn’t hurt too much in the morning.” Ororo took a breath, trying to start again, keeping her weight forward. “I’m just glad you’re laughing! You look so serious most of the time.”
“I’m sorry.” Jean said with a laugh “I hope I don’t come across as too serious.” She offered Ororo her hand. “Here, this way we’ll hit the ice together next time.”
“It’s okay, on both counts. I’m not finding fault with you, hon; I just like it when people smile.” Jean had such a good heart, from what she could tell, but she needed to kick back every so often. Ororo resolved to try and help that as much as she could.
Jean nodded. “Then I’ll try to do it more often.” She knew she needed to get out more. She’d have to see if Ezio wanted to spend some time out and about soon. “So what do you think about Scott? Does he seem weird to you?”
“Scott? Weird? Yeah. But I don’t think it’s a dangerous weird.” Ororo would have shook her head, but apparently that movement upset her balance. “I think it’s a passionate weird. A slightly obsessed weird. It could get ugly, but it isn’t right now.”
Jean nodded. “Yeah. He told me a lot about the dreams, and honestly it’s pretty intense. I wish I’d been sober enough to give him the number for a friend of mine who’s a psychologist. He doesn’t seem like he’ll hurt anyone, but he’s so intense, and he has this. . . he seems weary, when you get him talking.” She shook her head. “Not much different from the mind I touched in the dreams, unfortunately. It makes me sad.”
“Touched his mind?” Ororo echoed, curious. “That sounds very intimate.” For lack of a better term. “Are you two lovers or something like that in the dreams? Or just on the same wavelength?”
Jean blushed. “Uh, it was very intimate, and I think we do end up together. Telepathy is a hell of a power, and I’m honestly not sure I want that kind of intimacy again. But no, at the time I’d never met him before. I don’t know how I managed it. I just felt. . . a presence, and then I knew I was in his mind, seeing the world through his eyes. It had only happened like that once before, and that was pretty horrific.”
Ororo winced. “That sounds really overwhelming. I’m sorry - I’m having a hard enough time with somebody I’ll never meet.” Well. Unless miracles came true. “Maybe it was meant to be there, but I kind of hope for your sake it doesn’t happen here.”
“Yeah. Even if he wasn’t married I’m not sure I’d want to date someone because I really liked them in the dreams.” She made a small face. “I just wish I could stop thinking about it. What he said really got to me, I think.”
“What’d he say? Do I have to hit him?” She got the impression that Dream Ororo was someone people listened to. In all honesty, she might like that. The kids listened to her here, but not so much the adults.
“No. Not if what he’s said is true.” She shook her head. “Unless you want to. I’m not attached to him.” She grinned at Ororo to show she was joking.
“He’s been kind to me.” Ororo said, shrugging. “What did he say to you?”
“He just told me what the dreams would be like. It’s. . . I don’t want to believe him. It’s easier to think negative things about him than to accept I’m going to be used by a psychic entity to eat a sun and destroy a solar system. I can’t even conceive what that would be like, and I don’t want to.” She stepped off the ice, because the conversation was becoming one that wasn’t safe for public discussion, and she was having a hard time keeping her voice down.
Ororo followed carefully, feeling bad for bringing it up. “I’m sorry, honey.” She rested one hand on Jean’s shoulder. “I shouldn’t have asked ... and he shouldn’t have told you something like that completely out of the blue!”
“No, I wouldn’t have mentioned it if it wasn’t bothering me.” Jean took a deep breath, then exhaled and smiled at Ororo. “Thank you for listening. It was my fault for asking him, and I probably could have stopped him but I was too busy trying to get drunk before everything he said sank in.”
“It’s all right. Listening is kind of what I do.” Ororo shook her head. “Honestly, I kind of wanted to get drunk at first myself! Hearing what happened to me in the dreams - Logan didn’t even tell me all of it!” She still worried, but now wasn’t the time to dump that on Jean.
“I don’t know if knowing ahead of time is great.” Jean noted, scrunching her nose up to show her distaste. “But I guess we’ll just deal with it. Want to get some cocoa?”
“Now that sounds good.” Ororo smiled. At this point she was more worried about Jean than about her own woes - which might be a good thing for her. She was good at mothering people. Looking after herself, not so much.