8938/So, About That Clone Thing ...

So, About That Clone Thing ...
Date of Scene:	24 August 2019
Location:	Kitchen - Xavier's School
Synopsis:	Laura and Logan 'discuss' the father-daughter dynamic. Jean stops by to catch up.
Cast of Characters:	Wolverine, X-23, Phoenix

---

Wolverine has posed:
The kitchen at the Mansion is empty. In part because class has started so life has become more regimented, but also due to students being afraid of breaking another appliance being sent to the Headmistress' office like Noriko Ashida had been. But Logan is there, a cardboard crate of Molsons sitting on the bench as he whistles to himself and moves bottle after bottle into the empty spaces of the refrigerator.

"Once I was winnin'," he breaks off the whistling to half-sing to himself in an off-key croon, clinking another bottle into a space inside the door and reaching for another, "dum dum dum ... one rich man in ten ... duh da dum dum dum dummm."

X-23 has posed:
    Laura hears the voice, but it's the scent that tells her who's there long before she passes through the door. She reaches the doorframe, and looks over at the scene as she arrives. "I don't know why you bother with that." she says. While terse, it's fairly sociable as far as Laura goes.

Wolverine has posed:
"Huh?" Logan glances up from the fridge, brow furrowing. He'd picked up the scent himself a little while ago, but he had stayed right where he was. This is what he'd been hoping for, in truth, and it shows in the moment of relief coupled immediately with an obvious tension as he rises to his full - if not overly intimidating - height.

"The fridge, you mean? Or stockin' it?"

X-23 has posed:
    "The beer. You can't get drunk. Not off /beer/ in any case. Not unless you drank more than your body weight of it in an hour. And it tastes horrible. Why waste the time and the money?" She hasn't moved from her position. Just at the doorframe, so she's symbolically NOT in the room. There's meaning there, certainly.

Wolverine has posed:
"Somethin' t'do?" Logan's answer to the question is a mediocre one, and by the sound of it an answer he's given many times before. He ceases with loading up the fridge, stepping away from it to lean back against the counter and cross his arms over his chest. His brow furrows at Laura, clearly grasping for words he either can't think of or can't throw together in a way that suits him. Eventually, he just speaks without pretense.

"How're you doin', anyway? No trouble?"

X-23 has posed:
    "It just seems like if you're trying to get drunk, it should be stronger. If you're not, pick something tastier. Or less expensive." She's silent a long moment after he asks her that. When she finally replies, it's the more formal speech she used when she got here; her precise, very curt, mission-report style of conversation. "Does that actually matter? Or are you just making conversation?"

    They haven't exactly had the warmest relationship.

Wolverine has posed:
"It matters!"

Logan is frustrated, there's no denying that and it's evident in the way he throws up his arms and pushes away from the countertop where he's leaning. But it quickly subsides, and he brings up a hand to rub his face and then scratch at the back of his neck with a sigh and a shake of his head.

"I haven't ... look, I haven't done right by you," he admits with a sigh, "An' I ought to. I ain't pretendin' that I know some secret way to make you not look at me like I kicked yer dog, but I'm gonna try. An' I'm askin' you to let me try."

X-23 has posed:
    Laura's face is unreadable. She has probably the best poker face at the mansion, largely because she's spent the last year learning HOW to show emotion. She really didn't before. And this is very clearly not New Laura, this is Old Laura.

    "I did let you try. I came all the way here from the Facility, with my mother's last words and the few photos she sent me. You were more interested in working on your car. When I left the mansion with no home to go to because things were too dangerous, and the woman who took me in had to come ask you why you were neglecting me. When Mr. Summers promoted me to the X-Men, and then you /finally/ had something to say to me, and it was not to congratulate me for standing up for what I believed in, or for being promoted, but to question me on what it meant to me, and why I took the stand I did, and then to imply that my commitment was insufficient."
    There's a LITTLE emotion in there, despite her best efforts.

    "I believe there is a saying about three strikes?"

Wolverine has posed:
"An' I'm out, yeah, right," Logan shakes his head, pinching the bridge of his nose and resting his elbow in the crook of his other arm, "Kinda turned off baseball as a' late, if I'm honest. Waitin' on hockey season."

He realises immediately what he's doing. Deflecting, changing the subject. He's been doing it for years. He clears his throat, looking back at her with a furrowed brow and a frown.

"Yer right, y'know. Prob'ly right. But I spoke t'Diana. 'Bout some things that've been weighin' on my mind. Namely you an' ... "

A sigh, he sinks down against the counter to sit on the floor, "Look, I know mistakes. I make 'em a lot. My life's - what I remember of it - it's full of 'em. But I know about makin' 'em right, too."

X-23 has posed:
    She hasn't moved. Still in the same position. She looks back at Logan with that same inscrutible expression, and she's silent a very long moment.

    "People make mistakes. I have made more than my own share. Mostly by listening to people who did not have my best interest at heart for a very long time. I am...not certain how to respond to you. Thus far, you have made it very clear that my presence here is an unwelcome distraction at best, and offensive at worst."

Wolverine has posed:
"You remind me of pain," Logan explains flatly, just putting it out there, "Not physical pain. Pain in the soul. Carin' about somethin' only to have it ripped away because some mean son of a bitch decides he don't like it when yer happy. All I ever thought was you were in danger, or maybe just a reminder of people usin' me."

"But I spend a lotta time thinkin' out there," he jerks his head backwards in the direction of the distant cabin he occupies, "Realisin' yer no more you out of choice than I am. You had as much a choice 'bout bein' a weapon as I did. An' it ain't right to hate you for it."

X-23 has posed:
    She looks down at him, at where he sits on the floor. "The only difference between us is that you had a life before becoming a Weapon. I was made to be one. They trained me to kill you, you know. Well, they trained me to kill everyone. But especially you." Finally, she takes a step into the room. "When mother...died, the only thing I had to go on was the photos she gave me. The Professor. You. Here." She looks down, and takes a deep breath. "She wasn't dead a week when I got here. She was all I'd ever had. That was the only world I'd ever known. And I made it here. And I found you."

    She makes it through that much with some semblance of her emotional control. Till then. And now, it's something only a very few people here at the mansion have ever seen; the Laura behind the mask, and behind all the emotional control. "And you were too busy with a /car/. You barely spoke to me. You barely /looked/ at me. I had never needed anyone or anything in my life. I was never /allowed/ to be vulnerable. I needed you, and you...acted like I didn't matter."

Wolverine has posed:
"If it helps," Logan explains, the corner of his mouth quirking up slightly despite the obvious disappointment in his eyes - at himself, more than anything else, "I wrapped that damn car around a tree on the Sawmill River Parkway 'bout two months back."

A joke. Not a great one. He presses on.

"You said I had a life before I was a Weapon," he nods his head, "S'true. But I don't remember it. Not at least in any way that makes a difference. Might as well be someone else's life, for as much of a claim I can make on it. So I guess I know how that is ... in a way. An' if, when I came here, I'd been received the way you were? Shit, I'd have gutted that ol' cueball and gone back to the Rockies."

He turns his eyes back up to her: "I'm not sayin' we're goin' to the daddy daughter dance or anythin' like that. Jus' ... I wanna know you, kid. If anyone in the whole world knows what it's like to be Wolverine, it's me. An' like it or not, it's you, too. Lemme ... I dunno ... lemme take you to a movie or somethin'."

X-23 has posed:
    Something about THAT particular suggestion hits at just the right way. It's a tension breaker. Because she certainly needed one. She lets out a sound that's one part laugh, one part cry, at the suggestion of going to a movie. But the taut readiness in her muscles fades some.

    "Fine. What do you want to know?"

    Simple words, but at least it sounds like an honest offer, not bitter or laden with sarcasm. It's a beginning.

Wolverine has posed:
"I'm not interrogatin' you, kid," Logan slowly rises to his feet, rolling his shoulders as the tension uncoils, "I jus' wanna talk. How's school? How're yer friends? You met this Ashida girl? Jeani -- Miz Grey sent her up to my cabin for some weird form a' detention. That's one messed up kid."

#1576ogan moves over to the fridge, opening it again to peer at the beer he's stocked it full of and glancing back at Laura, "I prob'ly shouldn't be fillin' the fridge with beer in a school full a' teenagers, huh?"

Phoenix has posed:
Jean senses a very unlikely, but very promising couple of presences within close proximity. Hopeful that things are turning for the better, she decided to ever so quietly venture towards the kitchen. Not for any ulterior motives, of course, just a glass of water. Unfortunate that these two, happen to be the most difficult to sneak up on.

"I would say keeping outside of the Mansion's kitchen is a safer bet, Logan, I'm sure you have a stash or three?" Jean muses, shaking her head very lightly, though there is a light smile on her lips. So maybe she's not all cross, it is after all a simple mistake to amend.

X-23 has posed:
    "School is...getting better. Slowly." Laura admits. "I still think it's horribly mismanaged. But my opinions aren't exactly standard. As for Noriko, I cleaned up trash in Mutant Town with her and Doctor McCoy. She is...interesting. Her choices of phrase especially so."

    She looks at the fridge. "The chances are high they'll steal it. I won't. It still makes no sense to me." When she catches the scent on the air, it's enough to get one of her very rare actual smiles. Her favorite person at school. "Hello, Miss Grey." She turns to look at the redhead's approach.

Wolverine has posed:
"Hi Jeani - Miz Grey," Logan corrects himself, maintaining propriety before a student even if that student is a direct genetic relation, "Jus' shootin' the shit with the kid. An' unpackin' this beer some inconsiderate soul left in the fridge. Tsk."

The Canuck begins taking bottles out of the fridge just as easily as they went in, depositing them into the cardboard case on the counter with the clink of glass on glass.

"I met yer Ashida girl, too," he says to Jean, "The one you sent for a nightcap. Gave her half a stogie and she threw up on my lawn. Hope that's what you meant."

Phoenix has posed:
"She has her own demons," Jean offers to Laura with a much warmer smile, offering a wave of her hand. "I'm glad to see you and Logan managing and actual conversation," she adds, before offering more sharply to Logan, "about time you had a change of heart."

Reaching to fill herself a glass of water, she asks Laura casually, "I'd discuss with you how to better run the school, but first, did you have any success with the last assignment I gave you? I've been thinking, if you give me one good example, I'll let you have a chance to teach me in turn."

"I probably wouldn't use the term 'shooting the...' by the students, I know some of them use bad language, but the least we can do is serve as a good example and role models?" Jean chides Logan in a friendly manner, soft tone, and relaxed inflection. "Oh, Noriko is quite a handful, isn't she?" Jean muses, turning to look intently at Logan, "so she did go ahead with that? Good, I trust you taught her a good lesson?" She laughs as Logan shares the cost of Noriko's folly, "I obviously didn't mean for you to teach her how to properly taste whiskey, that's for sure."

X-23 has posed:
    Laura will turn, and if Jean doesn't stop her from doing so, the redhaired teacher is going to get hugged. Jean remains the only person at school who Laura shows any real physical affection for; even her ill-fated attempt at having a boyfriend was incredibly awkward.

    "It's funny you should ask that. I just got my first volunteer about two minutes ago." She nods to Logan. "As far as the running of the school...I didn't mean it as an insult. There's just...not enough emphasis on survival and combat, in my opinion. Yes, the X-Men do. But training the students to use their powers should involve training them to survive in a world WITH those powers. There's too much segregation between the two sides of the school. And I say this as the person who likely stands the most on both sides of that line.

    This is more words than Laura's said at one go, /ever/.

Wolverine has posed:
"I taught her that some bad habits are jus' bad with no silver linin' - she ain't gonna smoke a cigar again, I'd guess. As for whisky? Ehh," Logan holds out a flat hand, waggling it back and forth, "Somethin' tells me she already had her own ideas 'bout hooch before I gave her any."

Jean's chastising of him is received, and while physical cuts heal in an instant these emotional ones sting and don't go away so easily. He nods his head in agreement, but says nothing more about it as he continues to unload the fridge to let Laura and the Headmistress talk.

While he tries not to interrupt, he's never been good at not speaking his mind when he feels the need to: "Kid's right, Jeanie. I un'erstan' its a school for children an' all, but they're children in a dangerous world."

Blue eyes flick from Laura to Jean and back, "What'd I volunteer for?"

Phoenix has posed:
Jean looks thrilled when Laura moves to hug her without Jean moving to do it first, returning a warm, loving embrace to Laura after putting her glass aside on the counter. "Thank you, Laura," she says affectionately, "I really needed that." She doesn't explain why, but she sounds genuine enough rather than patronizing. The tone of voice remains neutral, if affectionate when she speaks to Laura.

"I'm not as fragile as I look, Laura, I can take constructive criticism without breaking apart," Jean notes, before beaming at hearing that Laura found her first volunteer, "that's wonderful. When you're ready to give me your first input, I will let you teach me something too." Jean keeps her suggestion of a teaching exchange. Making things less one sided between Laura and herself. "Thank you for sharing your assessment of the school," Jean says, even though any other student may have gotten reprimanded, Laura isn't exactly every other student.

<<You keep treating Laura like she's your daughter, at the very least someone you care about, and I'll forgive you, Logan...>> the voice of Jean would echo in Logan's mind, something she prefered not to say out loud with Laura present. She leaves it to Laura to elaborate what it is Logan volunteered for.

X-23 has posed:
    "Going to a movie." Laura explains, looking to Logan. "Hence the laugh earlier. You just filled Miss Grey's homework assignment for me." She releases the hug after that, taking a step back. "You are very welcome. For both." The hug and the assessment. And true enough...Laura may be a student, but her tactical assessments are likely among some of the best here in the school. She's sort of an expert on that.

    "I am not certain there's anything I could teach you, though. You have battlefield experience, and our skillsets and abilities have little overlap. I do thank you for the offer, however." She seems more relaxed than she usually is, now. Certainly more than she was at the start of her conversation with Logan.

Wolverine has posed:
<<I'm ready t'help, Jeanie,>> Logan thinks in Jean's direction, confident she'll pick it up out in the ether, <<Been worryin' about my own shit too long. Ain't no use to any of that if I'm the only one left standin'.>>

Logan's eyebrows raise when Laura explains the homework assignment, pausing in loading the case to point a fear at Jean and raising his eyebrows: "Ain't you meant t'be the psychic one?"

Then his attention returns to his - for all intents and purposes - daughter, and a genuine half-smile tugs at the side of his lips: "I'm lookin' forward to it. Do I get t'pick the movie? They're playin' True Grit down in the city - saw a flyer for it. I think I was an extra in that. Or the Conqueror. Somethin' with John Wayne ... "

Phoenix has posed:
<<Good. That's more like it.>> Jean clearly is quite receptive as she answers Logan's thought with a thought.

She grins as Logan makes his quip, "well, now you know how it feels," she adds a playful wink. "True Grit is what I'd name a movie based on your biography, Logan," Jean offers all too sincerely.

Her eyes turning to Laura, she smiles at the input offered, "I really do wish more students were capable of being more mature, that was a very humble thing to say, though I trust there are things you can teach me. Even without overlap." She then taps at her temple, "besides, smart people realize that there's a lot they don't know. Being open to learning is a good choice. It's foolish people who think they know everything."

Taking her glass of water, Jean heads out of the kitchen, "I'll let you two get back to your conversation, didn't mean to interrupt, besides, I need to get some sleep...busy day tomorrow, good night."

X-23 has posed:
    "I have not gone to a movie before. You can pick whatever movie you like." Laura answers Logan before looking amused. "WHICH movie was not part of the homework assignment." She'll give another quick hug to Jean before she departs. "It was good to see you again. Sleep well." she tells her as she exits.

Wolverine has posed:
"Well, it's gotta be a good movie," Logan insists, "elsewise yer just gonna get bored. But trust me, I think you'll like True Grit. My kinda movie so I guess it's your kinda movie too, in a way."

He doesn't tug on that thread, letting it fall by the wayside as Jean bids them a farewell, "Night, Jeanie. Give 'em hell."

When he looks back to Laura, he's talking about True Grit again, "Yer gonna love it." He throws back his head, bellowing at the top of his voice in his best John Wayne impression in a school in the middle of the night, "'Fill yer hand you sunnuvabitch!'"

When he's done, he moves over to stand near the doorway that Laura occupies. Not too close, but making a point of closing the gap that was between them both physically and personally.

"I mean what I'm sayin'," he tells her quietly, "I'm gonna do better. You don't have t'believe me, 'cause I'm gonna prove it."

X-23 has posed:
    Laura looks surprised at the sudden impression. "I think there is going to be a lot of explaining going on. But I'll try to hold my questions until after the movie." She doesn't retreat as he closes, but nor does she close further herself. "Let's hope it works." She says, leaving it clear that the jury may be hearing arguments, but verdicts certainly haven't been given yet. "Let me know when."

Wolverine has posed:
"Tomorrow," Logan says quickly, "Or sometime soon. Before the end of the week, for sure. But I'd rather it be sooner 'n later. I know you have class an' all, so you tell me when y'ain't studyin' or bein' a tactical genius, okay?"

The Wolverine fetches the case of beer up off the counter, propping it onto his shoulder and then walking back past her out the door. He gives Laura one more look and adds: "Yer a good kid, y'know that. Wish I didn't have my head so far up my own ass I didn't see it earlier. G'night."

He doesn't wait for her to give a response, not expecting one and not needing it. He's been honest, and she's heard him. There's been volumes spoken in the margins of their meeting. He disappears down the corridor, and a moment later he's gone.