11/11 Issue: Bad Trip

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Slarti
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11/11 Issue: Bad Trip

Post by Slarti »

Timelined Friday, April 21, 2023

Jean: Jean played catch-up on Redd's day off, and she was already caught up. Break time! Sitting at the counter, Jean sipped her cold brew and played on her phone.

Chris: Chris looked pulled up to the store and parked. He told Jamie he'd check out his girlfriend's store and here he was. He shut off the engine and got out to head into the store. It looked like the other dispensaries he'd been to.

Jean: That was a loud car. It didn't sound quite like Jamie's and she could sense him across town anyway, so Jean leaned to see the - oh, nice! A man got out and she did the quick inventory. Also nice.

Jean: When he opened the door, she cocked her head. Why did he look familiar? "Welcome to Phoenix Pharms. Let me know if I can help you with anything."

Chris: "Well your boyfriend sent me your way. Said you're better than the trash dispensary I go to." Chris laughed a little. Hmm she looked familiar too. God, did everyone he ever met live in Boston now?

Jean: "Oh! You know Jamie?" Jean hopped down from her stool and came around the counter.

Chris: "Yeah, met him a while ago. Ran into him at the grocery store and ended up catching up over a few beers."

Jean: "Ahhh, cool." Why was he familiar? Jean reached to toy with her hair and searched her memories. She debated searching Jamie's, too, but sometimes that ended up with their brains a little too smooshed. "Where'd you guys meet?"

Chris: "In a shitty situation that I want to make up for." Chris sighed a little. "I apologized profusely before we ended up getting beers."

Jean: Jean's finger stopped twirling her hair and she cocked her head. Jamie wouldn't be drinking beer with cannibals, so it was something else. Hmm. "Did you go to Xavier's?"

Chris: "Went and taught." Chris smiled a little. "Can't believe they hired a weirdo like me to teach. But hey I think I did pretty well."

Jean: "Oh! Okay... shit, I was thinking you looked familiar but I was like... wait, what'd you teach?"

Chris: "I had more tatts and piercings back then." Chris laughed a little and ran a hand through his hair. "Art, marine biology and an independent study no one ever took for metallurgy."

Jean: Well I definitely never took marine biology or... metal? ....did I have you for art?" God, was her memory that bad? Shiiiit. Anyway! "So, nice to meet you... again? Jean Grey," she said, holding out her hand.

Chris: "Probably? Do you remember the paintball final?" Chris laughed a little. "Chris Nord." Chris gave her hand a shake.

Jean: The touch made her pause. Wow, his shields were absolute shit. Just beneath the surface of his thoughts, Jean saw snow, and blood. Blood on his hands, and... a creature?

Chris: "Pretty sure I'm gonna earn Jamie some brownie points with ya." Chris gave her a smile. "Healing factor makes me burn through a lot of stuff."

Jean: "Oh yeah?" He... didn't notice all this shit in his head? "Jamie's already got a lot of those," she giggled, straightening her not-engagement ring. "I do have some stronger stuff with higher THC content that I keep around for these occasions."

Chris: "That sounds awesome. Am I allowed to buy your whole stock of that?" Chris laughed a little.

Jean: "You might be. I can always get more, after all." She wasn't snooping, but now that she'd noticed his shields, she couldn't NOT notice them. It was like his fly was open.

Chris: "Well then, if I'm allowed to, then I'll go ahead and do that." He grinned. "I'm going to end up lighting my ass up huh?"

Jean: "Depends on how good that healing factor is, hot shot," she giggled. It was really distracting! How did he not hear that screaming?!

Chris: "It's pretty damn good. Otherwise alcohol poisoning would have dropped me a long time ago." He laughed a little.

Jean: "I learned my lesson with too much alcohol. Also, I don't want a fat ass." Jean had to know now, so she poked at the remains of his shielding. Smelled like Rachel. Yikes.

Chris: "Try working in a forge. Any excess weight will drop right off ya. If I didn't eat more than a body builder I'd probably be skin and bones." Chris gave a little shrug. "Though I've always worked out. Used to be pretty big into martial arts."

Jean: The pieces fell into place. "You're the X-Factor guy!"

Chris: Chris cocked his head. "Huh?"

Jean: "Fight Club." Jean did not care about the boy rules about not talking about it.

Chris: "Oh, yeah. That was me. If it's any consolation I got my throat ripped out afterward. That hurt." Chris pulled a pained face.

Jean: Jean made a matching face. "Okay, yeah, your healing factor is good then. Glad... that wasn't Jamie." She shivered and swallowed hard, seeing blood for an entirely different reason.

Chris: "Yeah, I'm glad I didn't actually hurt him too bad." Chris ran a hand through his hair. "I still feel like an ass for how that all went down. I figured bad guy, go all out. Not, hey, actual person..."

Jean: "Me too. I kinda need him in one piece." She paused to think about that. "You know what I mean. He was never a bad guy, though."

Chris: "Yeah, I get that. And I know. Hindsight is twenty-twenty right?" Chris frowned. "I definitely wouldn't have done any of that the same way if I had to go back."

Jean: "Hindsight is totally twenty-twenty," she agreed. "All that was before I met him, but yeah." His Rachel-made shields were bleeding his guilt now and she winced.

Chris: "Hey as long as you learn from it I guess it all works out huh?" Chris gave her a little shrug. "And I promise I won't try to break your boyfriend again. Scout's honor."

Jean: "Yeah, whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger and all that shit, right?" Jean realized that was probably a statement she should never make to Jamie. Yeah, no. She shook it off.

Chris: "You hit the nail on the head with that one for me." Chris laughed a little. "Makes me glow too."

Jean: "I do that, too, sometimes," she giggled. Also, fire. ....this guy saw fire, too, which made her lick her lips. "Hey, uh... this is super awkward, but do you, like... want some, uh, help... with your..." Jean waved vaguely at her head, "shields," she finished with a wince.

Chris: "Huh? Oh shit... sorry I haven't been around telepaths in a while. Didn't know I was bleeding." Chris chewed his lip a little and tried to remember what Rachel had taught him.

Jean: Understatement. Dude was hemorrhaging. "Yeah, I'm a telepath, telekinetic... um, empath, too, so..." She gave him a concerned look.

Chris: "Sorry, I'll try and work them back up before I come back again. I'm basically a brick wall that rebuilds itself so I wasn't ever really the best on shielding unless it was being a meat shield." He laughed again. "I can just buy up your stock and head out if it's bothering you."

Jean: Meat shield made her think of the cannibals again and her nose twitched. "It's not bothering me, it's just... like..." She sighed. "You know I'm Rachel's cousin, right?"

Chris: "No, had no idea." Chris chewed his lip a little. "I'm sorry." He didn't know why he said that, but felt it needed to be said. "I went to school with her. She's the one that taught me my shields. Hope I didn't stir up bad memories."

Jean: "No, it's not that. I can just tell she helped you with your shields." She shrugged. "She taught me, too, when my powers decided to make life entertaining.

Chris: "Powers can be a bitch sometimes huh? Though for the most part mine have been helpful. I have had to invest in more durable coffee mugs though."

Jean: "I used to randomly burst into flames," she chirped. "Aaaaaanyway, if you want... help with that? Just let me know, 'kay?"

Chris: "Well that's a new one. I think I'll be okay. I remember most of what Rachel taught me." He gave her a smile. "Thanks though."

Jean: Jean's eyebrow quirked as she looked him over. "Okay." Sure you did, dude. Whatever happened to him was awful, or he'd done something awful, or both.

Chris: "You and Jamie should come over for dinner sometime. We've always got the barbecue going."

Jean: Oh God. There was no way she was taking Jamie anywhere near open flame and a guy who'd tried to kill him at the same time. Jean gave him a nervous laugh. "Thanks for the invite!"

Chris: "Alright well I should probably give your books a good healthy influx of cash and get out of your hair."

Jean: Jean's laugh became less forced and she flipped that hair. "Okay, let me go grab your order." She turned to head for the locked cabinet and reinforced her own shields, because wow.

Chris: Chris waited patiently and tried to work at putting his shields back up again. Damn it had been a while since he'd done this. The memories really weren't making it easy. Trying to put up the shields just brought more and more of them to the surface and he started to get anxious about them bleeding out. If he'd known they already did, he would have left already.

Jean: Wow. He was fucking terrible at this. Jean packaged up the weed, noticing her own hands were shaking a little from his struggle bus shielding. Alaska? Blood and snow and... "Fuck," she muttered, dropping one of the glass containers she used to weigh orders. The beaker shattered before she could catch it with her teke.

Chris: Chris heard the beaker shatter. "Everything okay back there?"

Jean: "Shit." Jean floated the glass shards up and dumped them into the trash can. "Yeah," she called, finishing up quickly and going back to the counter to ring it up. Still shaking. Great.

Chris: "Alright..." Chris frowned and went back to trying to put those shields back up. Fuck it wasn't ever this hard.

Jean: She twisted her ring, realizing she could develop a whole new nervous tic now with it. "A-are you sure you don't want me to help you with the shields? 'Cause I probably could, but..." Don't say it, Jean. But the blood... uuugh. The screaming!

Jean: "Okay! Yeah, so... you, um... this is gonna sound really rude but you might run into somebody else who could pick up on this and it would really freak them the fuck out 'cause fuck you have some dark shit in your head." She paused to breathe on a gasp.

Chris: Chris froze up. Oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck. "I'll get it figured out." He was starting to turn really pale. "I'll just pay for my stuff and get outta here." Chris pulled out his wallet and dropped way more than the pot was worth before grabbing it and heading towards the door.

Jean: Still mentally smacking herself for that word salad, Jean's mouth opened, then closed at the money. "O-kay, um, just-" Well, fuck. She grabbed the wad of cash and bolted around the counter. "Hey! I'm not, like, pissed or anything, and this is, like, way too much!"

Jean: He was already out the door, and she was hardly gonna go chase him into that Corvette. She looked down at the money and blinked. “Whoa.”
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Re: 11/11 Issue: Bad Trip

Post by Esynthia »

Silly Chris, trips are for non-Godzillas
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