Log Title:
Pardon My French
Characters:
Jeanne-Marie, Cyclops
IC Date:
October 12th, 2011
Location:
X-Mansion, NY
Brief log summary::
Jeanne-Marie set a meeting with Cyclops, X-Men Team Leader, hoping to force an apology from Dr. Nemesis
Rating:
pg
There is no TS in this log::
Yes
Post your log::
After a rather unpleasant meeting with Dr. Nemesis while
seeking the X-Men's assistance, Jeanne-Marie was livid and made up
her mind to complain about him. She eventually scheduled a meeting
with an X-Men Team Leader in Cyclops, and arrives promptly on the
dot to the X-Mansion's Foyer, wearing a rather displeased look on
her visage.
Unlike Jeanne-Marie, Cyclops is late. Whether the meeting
slipped his mind, or whether he intentionally delayed going
downstairs to listen to someone complain, the end result is the
same. However, he is apparently too conscientious to blow the
meeting off entirely. A voice comes over the building's somewhat
infrequently-used intercom system, the weariness evident in the
voice's tone. "Aurora, this is Cyclops. I'll be down in a few
minutes." And with that, the intercom is silent again, leaving no
clue as to where Cyclops is, or what he was up to.
The longer she waits, the more Jeanne-Marie's patience runs
out. At first she just stands there, then she crosses her arms, then
she starts tapping her foot impatiently. By the time the message
transmits over the PA, she's starting to pace back and forth in the
room, her visage twisted in an even more displeased state. "W'y
offened me on top of being late…" she mutters to herself, visibly
agitated by being called Aurora.
About ten minutes later, Cyclops makes his way into the
foyer. Although dressed in his uniform, he looks as if he's just
finished a workout. Perspiration clings to his forehead, and he
carries a half-empty water bottle in his left hand. The smile on his
face has just a hint of sheepishness to it as he looks at (or at
least turns his head toward) Jeanne-Marie. "Sorry about that Aurora,
I had a bit of a schedule overlap." As he strides across the foyer
toward the young woman, he takes a long draught from his water
bottle.
Jeanne-Marie looks a bit taken back when Cyclops finally
comes down and looks as if he's just been working out, she does hold
from snapping at him, although she does hisses under her breath,
"you're extraimly late." It is, however, when he mentions Aurora
that her eyes glower angrily at him, "Jeanne-Marie, Cyclops, and zat
is w'y I sc'aiduled zee meaiting a'ead of time. To zee mattair at
'and, I want to complain about one of your taim, Dr. Nemaisis, 'es
tairribly rude. I come to ask zee X-Men f'r 'elp, an not only does
'e make lig't of me, 'e also littairs zee sc'ool, t'rowing apples on
zee floor. I 'ad to pick it up f'r 'im…" someone as she speaks one
cannot help but get the image of Jeanne-Marie as a stern teacher
infront of a classroom. Something in her nature.
"Right. Jeanne-Marie." Cyclops' tone is conciliatory, but
it's clear his interest in Doctor Nemesis' alleged rudeness is very
slight. He does, however, seem very wary around the cranky Canadian.
"I'm sorry, I don't really know Doctor Nemesis very well, but I'm
sure you must have misunderstood. He seems like a decent enough
person." He turns slightly away from Jeanne-Marie, glancing toward
the door. Another long draught is taken, leaving his water bottle
nearly empty. "The X-Men don't turn away requests for help. Maybe
you could explain what exactly you needed help with?"
"D'accord, Jeanne-Marie," the French Canadian woman says
while maintaining that rather unpleasantly scolding look at Cyclops.
"'ow do I misundairstand w'en 'e t'row apples on zee ground? Do you
encourage teac'airs to loitair around zee sc'ool? 'ow about asking
fer zee X-Men assistance, only to 'ave 'im mock my accent?" Crossing
her arms, Jeanne-Marie proceeds to look at Cyclops as if she half
expects me to just get Dr. Nemesis in there, pull him over his knees
and spank him. "I explained everyt'ing to zis so called Doctor, 'e
zaid 'e will leave a message on your fridge…zen 'e tells me to go
to dry cleanairs. It eez ridiculous, absolument ridicule."
"You still haven't told me what you need help with. Unless
you're seriously suggesting that I go check the refrigerator for
messages." Even though Cyclops' visor covers up a fair amount of his
face, enough of his expression is visible to make it obvious that he
would much rather be somewhere else right now. Pacifying borderline
hysterical women has never really been considered one of Cyclops'
skills. If anything, he tends to bring out the crazy. "Can I get you
a bottle of mineral water? I'm getting the feeling your pH level
might be a bit out of balance."
"Selene, s'e came ovair to Canada, town of 'afford, made
everyone t'ink zey wair living in zee 1950s. In City 'all, s'e 'ad
more people wit' 'er, only zey wair t'inking zey wair living in
Ancient Rome. Pagan times." Jeanne-Marie seems quite distraught as
she decribes the experience of having witnessed that, "s'e zen
suggested it all 'ad somet'ing to do wit' Belasco. I came 'ere to
look fer 'elp, Shaman was not available at zee time." She was about
to simply stress how she wants Dr. Nemesis reprimended or at least
be made to apologize to her, when Cyclops himself starts to offend
her quite a bit. "Excusez-moi? Are you suggesting t'ere eez
somet'ing wrong wit' me?" Jeanne-Marie all of a sudden looks a fair
bit more menacing as she takes a few steps towards Cyclops' personal
space.
Cyclops has to listen a bit more attentively than usual in
order to catch everything she's saying. To his credit, he manages to
get it all without having to ask her to repeat herself. He
occasionally nods, and looks appropriately concerned. But as Jeanne
-Marie begins to invade his personal space, he leans forward to
assume a slightly more aggressive stance. Putting his free hand on
her shoulder, he applies pressure that could best be described as
gentle but firm. "You've clearly been through some stress, but we
won't be able to act on this information until you've been fully
debriefed. For the sake of expediency, I can have one of our
telepaths…" Cyclops pauses for just a second "… read your mind
so that we don't miss any details. Just for the record though, the
situation has been resolved, right?"
Jeanne-Marie may not be able to appreciate the effort it
takes from someone not used to her accent, but Cyclops is doing a
remarkable job catching it all on a first try without having to ask
her to repeat, which no doubt would have evoked more anger at this
point. When Cyclops lean in an assertive posture towards her
approach, Jeanne-Marie pauses her advance, and her head then whirls
to glare at the hand on her shoulder, "do not touch me," she snaps,
looking quite alarmed, as if there was something extremely wrong
with any physical contact with her. "Oui! Oui! Oui! Zat is not zee
issue anymore. W'at I want is propair reprimand fer zat Dr.
Nemezis!"
The hand is snapped back quickly and held in the air for a
brief second. It's almost as if Cyclops had gotten snapped at by a
dog and was holding his hand in place to show that he meant no harm.
"I'm going to be perfectly honest with you. What you're asking for
is pretty… unlikely." As his hand lowers to his side, Cyclops
relaxes his posture a bit. It doesn't look like he's in quite as
much danger of getting bowled over as he appeared to be a minute
ago. "Doctor Nemesis is an adult, and adults are allowed to be rude
in America."
"Unlikely? Et puis zut!" Jeanne-Marie snaps, quite
displeased with what Cyclops has to offer, "w'at kind of sc'ool are
you running 'ere zat staff like zat Dr. Nemezis can loitair, mock
people, and be altoget'er rude! C'est la folie!"
"A pretty good one, actually, when it isn't being attacked."
Cyclops pushes the bridge of his glasses up a bit and stares at
Jeanne-Marie with what could perhaps best be classified as an
impatient expression. As he lets his hand fall to his waist, he
glances at the wrist of the falling hand as if to check his watch.
But he isn't wearing a watch. "We're actually in the process of
retooling the school a bit, we could always use someone with a
teaching background to make sure the little scamps learn how to
read." He glances toward the door, almost as if he were hoping
someone would save him from the increasingly awkward conversation.
"Something to think about…"
"I am a vairy good teac'air, and I can teach geography,
religion, and bien sur, francaise." Jeanne-Marie says, for a moment
appearing like she'd actually consider it, after all it's been a
long time since she last taught and she loves doing that. However,
the matter at hand is too much of an insult, denying her actual
consideration of this offer, "'owevair, zis outrage I cannot stand
fer! Ou est la moralite!? I cannot teach a sc'ool zat does not 'ave
morals. I am a good Christian woman, and w'at you are teaching 'ere
is sin!" Her somewhat biggoted opinion given, Jeanne-Marie turns to
walk away, realizing she will not be getting any apologies after
all, and that Dr. Nemesis will not get any reprimand of any sort.
She is furious, but she can recognize a lost cause, having
determined morals are not in the curriculum at Xavier's School for
The Gifted.
Okay, well… thanks for coming by." Cyclops' eyes roll
partially behind his mostly opaque glasses. He makes no effort
whatsoever to stop the crazy lady, or to push his offer any further.
"Feel free to visit anytime." The last sentence is said with a bit
of forced cheeriness that manages to come off as almost completely
devoid of sarcasm. However, before she has made it to the door,
Cyclops has already turned around and started heading to the nearest
exit with the confidently purposeful walk of someone who has left a
cake in the oven too long.
Jeanne-Marie doesn't turn back, she maintains her persistant
withdrawl from the X-Mansion, throughout muttering incessant curses
in French under her breath. No doubt she was not at all pleased that
her complaints went unheeded.