12778/Welcome to Emotiontown

Welcome to Emotiontown
Date of Scene:	02 March 2021
Location:	Campsites - Breakstone Lake
Synopsis:	Jean and Logan have a much needed chat by the lake. They share the guilded Cage!
Cast of Characters:	Wolverine, Phoenix

---

Wolverine has posed:
What a huge train wreck a situation can have on an individual. Logan has spent the day away from the Mansion, which isn't surprising, except that he skipped his classes. Calling it a Me Day. Which he never really takes, so he didn't feel too terrible about it.

It's also a big glowing sign pointing anyone who might be looking for the wild man to the Cabin. Sitting in his single recliner with a cigar burning between his meaty fingers, a glass of straight bourbon sitting on the table beside that recliner, and the Canadiens/Senators pre-game on the small television.

There's a fire burning in the stone fireplace, hat hanging on the hook beside the door over his usual flannel coat.

It looks picturesque, except that he's obviously troubled. Deep into his own mental cups, as it were. Rubbing at the side of his stubbled face with the end of his fingers.

Phoenix has posed:
Sadly Jean is not so free to take off. Not that she hasn't, but those usually come about when someone is fearing the imminent combustion of their person or surroundings. Not that she wasn't upset either, but, not to that degree. Fortunate for all.

The work day was a welcome distraction and let her focus on other things, but as the day ends and work with it, she's left to start stewing. Times like that called for a walk, and in a grey shirt, green flannel, and black pea coat she set off from the mansion.

She'd actually meant to head towards town, but with her awareness deep in her own ruinations and no doubt subliminally honing in on the cause of them, she finds her feet coming to rest near the shores of the lake down at the campground. The ice has begin melting, showing off a craggy shoreline of dark water that tries to reach her toes but falls just short.

Her eyes cast towards the cabins and the smell of woodsmoke coming from one. With a soft exhale that frosts on the air, she sends out the softest nudge of her thoughts. Like a polite mental knock at the door, Jean simply lets Logan know she's near. It's a wordless invitation to talk if he wanted, but she neither prods nor insists.

Wolverine has posed:
The gentle scent of an approaching Jean would usually be enough to alert him of her proximity, but Logan was so drawn into his own thoughts that it barely registered. Which is saying so much without saying anything at all. Sucking down his bourbon until ice clanks against his lips, he bites down on the cigar and slowly, deliberately, sets the glass down without throwing it against the wall.

Things had ended amiably, sure.

There hadn't been any break down of communication, but there's something that he's keenly aware that's different in the air. Pandora's box had been opened. Everytime he thinks about it, it washes over a new wave of anger at himself. Just like now. Right up to the point he feels that gentle nudge from nearby of an all too familiar presence upon his mind.

Sharp eyes slide sideways towards the source of that proding, only barely aware that he's standing up and heading towards the door before his mind catches up with his feet. Hat on his head as he exits into the cold, sliding his coat on almost as an after thought with boots crunching into the recent snowfall towards the edge of the frozen lake and the fiery pheonix who waits near the shore.

"Hey." He grunts, wishing something more elegant had come out of his mouth, but unsure that he can trust his mouth to proper vocalize his inner monologue right now.

Phoenix has posed:
Her arms are crossed to ward off the breeze coming in off of the lake but there's nothing on her head to shield from the cold outside of that sheet of free-falling copper hair. Jean waits. When Logan has things on his mind, even she knows not to intrude on his space or expect him to speak until he's ready to. She knew that he knew and then she withdrew from his mind, content with that much.

In short order she hears him and the smile that touches the corner of her mouth is a bittersweet one. "Hey." An equally eloquent response.

She turns away from the lake to close some of the distance. Some, not all. "I needed a walk. I wasn't sure if you wanted to come along. We don't have to talk if you're not up to it, just... well, I figure you'd appreciate a night like this."

Clear and dark, still quiet with the silence of winter. Nothing but lakes, trees, and stars. "I realized I'm overdue for some fresh air."

Wolverine has posed:
Logan takes a step up beside Jean, hands in the big pockets of his heavy coat. Not that he's particularly affected by the cold, persay, but sometimes the chill does hit his bones when the breeze kicks in just right. Something about tonight felt like he needed it, though. Internal frost to match the outside world? The irony of a poetic thought crossing his, of all peoples, mind is not lost on him.

It's almost humorous really.

He chuckles, at any rate.

Usually he'd apologize for the out of place expression, but with Jean he rarely needs to. She can read him like a book... she's always been able to, with or without psychic abilities. "It's beautiful." Jutting his chin out to the lake and the little flurry of snow blown across it by the East to West winds. Otherwise a clear night save those gentle flake falling down from the sky.

"Yeah, I'd like that." A walk, amongst the stars. "And yeah, you are. We both are, I think."

Phoenix has posed:
"I love this place, but," Jean begins to say as she glances towards the mansion glowing serenely in the distance. She can just about hear the noises of people finishing dinner and the kids in the rec room. "Sometimes it's a cage. One I chose, just... well, I know you get it." She adds quietly with a glance back towards him before she starts heading towards the trail that circles the lake.

"For all I miss you when you leave, I've always envied you for it too." She admits after a few paces as she tucks her hands into her pockets. "That you have the freedom to walk away and go collect yourself. Just go live your own life for awhile. Granted, I realize that you're not always just taking a vacation. You have your own business to work out."

Wolverine has posed:
Logan walks through the snow with a sure footing, boots crunching through as effortlessly as flat ground beside Jean's equally sure foot. Listening to her explain the predicaments of their existance here at the Mansion and how they differ dramatically, he can only nod his agreement at parts.. and cant his head at those bits that are ragingly different. "Part of me wonders if I should just leave, sometimes." He admits, nothing new under the sun. A concern he's had for as long as he's been here.

"My past always comes back around to haunt me and puts those I love in harms way.. Victor.." Who, well.. There's no love lost there no matter what the mans change of minds might be this week. He spares a glance at Jean, "There's only a few reasons I couldn't do that.. Jubilee. That kid would be lost in the woods, blame herself probably." No mistaken the grin for a kid whom he's more or less adopted in so many words. Certainly taken on more than others.

"You." The smile can't survive that. Not after last night. "Ironic isn't it?"

Phoenix has posed:
"That's just life, really." Jean shrugs as she walks, the path familiar enough that she can spare a look up to the sky as she goes.

"I was dealt hands that I never wanted. I was trained to be a child-soldier, I made enemies across the world and probably off of it, I watched people close to me die, and this life even killed me. Now I have some being in me that's beyond what I can possibly try to understand and something that could destroy everything and everyone I can about."

"I'm sitting around and talking about getting married and buying a house and trying to live a normal life, but I know how this will play out. There will never be a normal. I can try to life a different life, but this one will always be there and there will always be something pulling me back. Because, like I told Scott, I couldn't be happy living if I knew it was at the expense of someone I cared about. And for all it hurts sometimes and it scares me and it's hard as hell, I wouldn't pick a different life because it'd mean letting go of all of you. I can't do that."

She gives the wild man a gentle smile as she looks down from the sky. "And I think that's why you keep coming back too. Probably part of why we've always seen eye to eye. We know we can't escape this life, but we can fight tooth and nail to make it one we want to live."

Wolverine has posed:
Logan's usually quiet. Standing in the back of the room letting others fill the void of silence while he watches and waits like the predator he is. Some would say he's a beast, not one on par with the entity that lives inside Jean, but certainly dangerous in its own right. A monster that could unleash if he lets the chains go, tear a hole through most of the school without ever blinking an eye.

While those days might well be behind them and he may have gained a measure of control over those vicious instincts, it still exists there, deep down in his core. A reminder of the man he could have been without this place and the people who live here. Without Jean. So he nods to what she's saying, understanding fully the sentiment.

Even grinning side long at her when she brings it back around to them, "Yeah." He starts rather simply. Rolling the cigar he'd kept in his teeth to the otherside with the tip of his tongue. "As much as I'm genuinely... afraid... of what I might do or what my past might bring down on the school, I can't help thinkin' that if I did go, something could happen when I'm gone. And I wouldn't ever be able to forgive myself for that."

Phoenix has posed:
"The good old damned if we do, damned if we don't scenario." Jean laughs quietly, but the sound is a sad and tired. "We're just two idiots caught in the black hole of fate. You know, though, that I always have your back. No matter how much we may drive each other insane sometim-- a lot of times, I am there to stand with you no matter what ugly comes out of your closet. Just know that you don't have to fight any of it alone."

"Though I still think we need to move the base away from the school, but I keep getting outvoted. It'd just take some concerns off my mind and have one less security issue when pasts come knocking. Anyway, that's off topic." She mumbles as one hand withdraws from her pocket to wave away the thought. "Point is, we're in all of this together. I don't know how we're going to navigate the broken glass on the ground right now, but we'll figure it out one day at a time."

Wolverine has posed:
It's good to think about something other than the night before. Logan always does better with distractions, at least of the emotional sort of problems. He's not built for dealing with those in a constructive nature. Suffice that when things come back to the broken glass, he can only smile tightly across his fanged teeth.

Visible around the nub of a cigar tucked between his lips.

"Listen... About that. You know.." He furrows his brow, the little curve of his snout tightening as he works through how to voice the concerns radiating in his brain meat. "Whatever.. I feel. What we feel.." Sparing her a glance, then forward. No absolution of shoulder this together, "..I'm not a monster. I'll never stop thinking you belong with me, but I respect Scott enough not to shit on his sunshine." There, he said it.

And sighs heavily with it off his chest.

Phoenix has posed:
"I know you're not." Jean's voice says barely above a whisper, but it still feels entirely too loud in her own ears. "And I never should have even suggested that. I went too far. I know I apologized, but I'm still sorry. I certainly wouldn't be happy hearing that said about me." And she has. And wasn't. Those were some awkward conversations with Emma.

She doesn't linger on it beyond that as she puts her hand back in her pocket to shield it from the cold. "Anyway. I..."

Hate that you said that? Mourn it? Am relieved by it?

"Understand, and I wouldn't ask you to think otherwise. That wouln't change where I stand. You're an important part of my life and I want you in it. I want you here, even if it's asking you to suffer this cage with me sometimes."

Wolverine has posed:
Logan nods, shivering even if he's not cold, and looks straight ahead rather than at Jean as she begins to explain her thoughts on the matter. "I needed to hear it." He did, that much he's come to terms with. Like Scott accepting certain things weren't likely to change, so too must the Wolverine.

"No matter what happens, though. I'll be here. This is home, even if it is full of ungrateful brats." A sideways glance over his shoulder, then over at Jean with a wink. "We've got the stars, a lake, and a nice cold night. Good company and a trusting friend at our side... I'll always suffer with you, Jean. That, is a promise."