The X-Project

Manuel and Valentia encounter Adrienne in the boiler room. They talk about terrible singing, Jake and current interests.

The weather was becoming nicer but it still wasn't warm enough to tan, so Adrienne was taking some time off of her exercising and work to visit Boiler Beach, with only her radio, a lounger, a beer, and a bikini . The time out alone to be in her own head was supposed to be helping her sort out her feelings for Jake, but she wasn't coming up with any answers, listening to the radio and not thinking much of anything at the moment. "At first when I see you cryyyyyy, yeah it makes me smiiiiiiiile, yeah it makes me smiiiiile. At worst I feel bad for a whiiiiiiile, but then I just smiiiiiile I go ahead and smiiiiiiiile..."

"Good lord," a voice came from the other room. "What is that terrible noise?"

Valentia rushed into the boiler room, landing on her knees in a little black bikini, followed by Manuel who was also clad in black, a speedo that left nothing to the imagination except revealing the lengthy scar down his thigh. Dropping his shorts on the lounge chair next to her, he shook his head, spreading out his towel.

Adrienne grinned at Valentia and gave the small person a wave even as she crossed her legs to hide the scar on her own thigh as her eyes were drawn to Manuel's. It wasn't as if they hadn't seen each other's scars before, since they swam together fairly often, but sitting around in one spot was different than swimming. She continued singing, louder and more deliberately off key. When the song was over, she turned the radio off, not sure how Valentia felt about it, and turned to Manuel. "Working on your tan?"

The nice thing about swimming was that the water hid the physical tarnishes to the body, though Manuel was clearly not repulsed by hers, nor afraid to show his own brand of the sort. "I thought I would find a beautiful burnette in here that I might sway to sleep with me," he replied drily. "Alas, all I find is a vixen with vocal chords like a banshee." Nearby, Valentia scooped up some sand in her bucket and turned it over into the sand while Manuel watched on, taking seat next to Adrienne.

"And one who's not going to sleep with you," Adrienne grinned sweetly. "And hey, my roommate happens to be a siryn, how can I compete with that?" She pulled her sunglasses off her nose and onto the top of her head so she could see Manuel properly. "Are you looking to sway someone to sleep with you?"

"Let's not have this type of a conversation while my sister is present, yes?" He wasn't inclined to talk about his sex life to her. "Perhaps we could talk about why we're reeling so much in emotions lately. Positive ones."

"You started it," Adrienne protested. "I didn't even know she could understand us." She pulled a beer out of a cooler she'd brought with her, and a bottle of water, held them out to Manuel. "Why are you reeling so much in positive emotions?" she questioned sweetly.

"She can't," he ignored her mockery and took the bottles. "As far as I can tell, however she is picking up an understanding." With that, he swung his legs over the side and picked up his cane, opening a bottle and walking over to Valentia, offering it to her. As an after thought, he crouched down in the sand before an ache set in and slowly, he was forced to kneel.

"You never did tell me about your date, or do I not want to know?"

"If you don't want to know, why are you asking?" Adrienne asked with a smirk. "It seems to me like if you don't want to talk about 'this type of conversation' in front of your sister, we shouldn't talk about my date and should talk about the weather or sports or the Club or something." Her tone was all sweetness and light, but she was enjoying poking holes in his curiosity. She knew it was his role in the Hellfire Club to gather information, and that he was very good at it, but his interest in Jake made him come across as a nosy teenager in Adrienne's eyes.

"Ah I see now. The date was fine, if not a bit awkward because you, yourself, are awkward with men. Perhaps he struck you as interesting but not vice versa? And the night ended in a quick kiss, though I would say cheek more than mouth, however if it was mouth, it would have landed you in the bedroom had you not been so uptight and a prude." Manuel smiled back at her, just as sweet. Bitter bitter sweet.

Adrienne harumphed at this, knowing that Manuel was just trying to needle her but annoyed that it was working. "I don't read emotions the way you do, but I'd say he found me interesting. Why wouldn't he? I'm an interesting woman." He'd asked her to call, after all, and he'd seemed interested enough during the date. "And the night did end in a kiss. After quite a lot of hot jungle sex." Uptight and a prude, huh? Let's see what he does with that one, she thought to herself, smirking inwardly.

"Lying to me is like trying to sweep sand off a beach." He quirked a brow and Valentia smirked back. "But... you can try." Pushing up from his seat, he gestured to his sister. "~Here, give me your bottle,~" he said to her in Spanish. "~You need to add water to make it strong~." He took the bottle and dumped some water into the sand, then took up the bucket, scooping it up and packing it. Samson, whom he planned to see soon, told him to play with her more, relate to her and to Manuel, showing her how to do things right the first time so she was not showing fault was important to him.

"~See?~" he asked and she gestured a sign. Instead of getting up, he stayed where he was, stretching out on the warm sand.

Since she had read a bottle of water before coming down to Boiler Beach and had a suspicion that Valentia and Manuel might show up, Adrienne had packed extra water and she pulled two more bottles out of the cooler now and held them out to Manuel. ~Are you making a castle for a princess?~ Adrienne asked the small person. Her Spanish was badly accented- she'd learned French officially, and only knew what she'd picked up over the years, and she was mostly guessing since she knew a lot of words were similar. "Why do you care what I'm doing with Jake, anyway?" Adrienne questioned Manuel, switching back to English

Valentia shook her head but since she did not know how to convey in sign language what she was building, she merely shrugged dramatically.

"Call me one part jealous, three parts amused. I did not think you date," he replied evenly, taking the bottles from her with a thankful nod and tucking one under his arm so he could loosen the other. Both were set aside as soon as they were opened, using minimal of water for the second bucket she was packing.

"Jealous that I'm not going out with you?" Adrienne joked, knowing neither of them shared any sort of sexual attraction to each other, "or jealous because I have a very cute man at my disposal, to do with as I please?" She hadn't thought Manuel would really go for Jake's type of cute. Of course, he'd been involved with Amanda, so what did Adrienne know?

"Both perhaps?" he replied, distracted in making the sand castle or whatever it was she wanted to make. "You would get bored of a simple man, might I add. You require someone as complicated and as passionate as yourself." Excluding him of course, but he could think of a few people that fit her standards.

She grinned at his comment about being jealous she wasn't going out with him, but Adrienne wasn't sure Manuel's assessment about her type of man was sound. Not that she was interested in another relationship, but even if she was, Adrienne wasn't sure if passionate and complicated would work better than simple. Complicated and passionate hadn't turned out very well last time. Not that simple seemed any more attractive- she still couldn't figure out what Morgan saw in Sam, after all. "Jake doesn't appear to be simple to me, but then again I don't know him terribly well yet. Who would you recommend, oh great and powerful Eros?"

"If you were going for safe? Bishop. If you were going for wild and passionate, anyone else," he waved dismissively and leaned over to help Valentia turn over the bucket quickly, dropping it down with a muffled thud.

"Before it was complicated and passionate, now it's wild and passionate?" Adrienne asked with a raised eyebrow. "And, are you limiting me to men or does your 'anyone else' include literally, anyone?" she inquired, curious.

"Depends on your preference I suppose." He found a small shovel and handed it to her, making a face when sand bits stuck in between his fingers. With the shovel, Valentia started to carve her sandcastle while Manuel shook a hand out. "Do you like women?"

"I like to look at them," Adrienne said guardedly. She didn't seem to mind explaining to Manuel, though- it was almost welcome, being able to explain rather than just playing on everyone's assumptions based on the image she tried to possess. " I used to like them for a lot more than looking, but then I sort of, I'm not sure... grew out of it, almost? Women just suddenly didn't do anything for me in bed. And then I met my husband, so it didn't matter anyway. Do you like women?" she countered, eyebrow raised.

Manuel nodded his understanding, briefly flickering his gaze to her, then back to being his sister's helper and went quiet before he answered. "I do not differentiate between the two. I tended to lean towards women because it is socially acceptable. Emotions are all the same. It is the individual that makes them." He considered their relationship and it was very similar to how he handled things with Amanda, so he didn't feel that what he was about to confess would be told to anyone else. "I think the control of my powers has everything to do with my lack of libido. Because I am starting to be.... interested."

The psychometrist nodded in understanding. "Makes sense. Now that you have control, you aren't at the whim of what everyone else is feeling and can begin to feel for yourself. Not that I know anything about that," she smiled, sighing dramatically. "I have no emotions. Only calculated responses and poor imitations of feelings I once knew how to express."

"You are very convincing," Manuel said, laced with sarcasm. "Perhaps we should explore that over dinner sometime?" Padding down his sand, he realized how that may have sounded and gave her a look that said it was not meant as it had come out. "Though if you are still hermiting, I completely understand."

"Definitely not hermiting," Adrienne answered, thinking of her latest encounter with Jake. "And I'd love dinner, as long as you and I aren't cooking."