6929/What's Up With Laura

What's Up With Laura
Date of Scene:	17 March 2019
Location:	Unknown
Synopsis:	Summary needed
Cast of Characters:	Phoenix, X-23

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Phoenix has posed:
Jean has felt something disturbing about Laura, and decided to go about having a one on one with the girl. She looked for her about the Mansion, before inviting her over to the privacy of her room, so they won't be bothered. "Laura, I'm sorry we're not getting to spend more time together, but I'm sure you understand better than others, how much we have to deal with..." as they walk into the room, Jean motions for her bed, or the chair by her desk, "please, feel free to sit, wherever you feel comfortable. This is my room, and you're always welcome to find me if you need me."

X-23 has posed:
    Laura looks a little bothered by the summons. A response she hasn't really shown before: feeling guilty? It's one thing to understand things on a rational level. But it's these pesky, stupid /emotions/ that keep getting in the way. And it doesn't take a telepath to tell Laura's are all messed up, even with her attempts to never show it. "It's all right. You're busy." Laura says. Contractions. That's new too.

Phoenix has posed:
"Quite...but not because I choose to, because I have to, you know that much, right?" Jean asks, peering curiously at Laura, and noting that the girl hasn't elected to sit down, she moves to sit down on her own bed, before looking over at Laura and asking, "would you rather remain standing, or would you care to sit by my side?" She pats the empty spot next to her.

X-23 has posed:
"Yes. I understand." She looks at the empty spot, seems torn a moment...and finally walks over to sit on the edge of the bed, next to Jean. There's a momentary spike of emotion in her, almost ruthlessly quashed immediately. "What is this concerning?" Did her classmates rat her out? When /she/ was the one ratting out others to Kitty, it seemed perfectly logical. It seems less so on the receiving end.

Phoenix has posed:
"Good, I'm happy you do, because you're not like the other students, you don't just live in your own little world. You know how dangerous it is out there," Jean starts, before offering with a weak smile, "for a while you were some of what's dangerous out there, weren't you?" When Laura sits by her side, Jean waits a moment, before informing Laura, "I am going to hug you, please allow it," as she slowly moves to wrap her arm around Laura, embracing her to her side, showering the girl with affection. Perhaps intending to make it clear this is not a scolding conversation, so much as honestly seeing how she was doing.

X-23 has posed:
"I do. And I was." Laura doesn't know if Jean's aware of her vigilante activities when Jean was away from the school, but she might be. The warning about the hug is probably a good idea, because once she gets hugged, /that/ seems to crack an emotional dam. She shudders once, and then throws her arms around Jean, hugging very tightly. Emotions are swinging wildly. "It's so HARD dealing with all these people." she all-but-wails.

Phoenix has posed:
Jean reaches to turn towards Laura, bringin her other arm over to hug Laura more closely, pleased to see an emotional response from the girl. Even if Laura was taught to repress her emotions at all time, it's not a healthy thing, and Jean would like to show her emotions are normal. It's better when it occurs naturally, even if in odd swings. "Life is hard Laura, for all of us, people tend to respond to their level of awareness. You suffered a great deal, more than anyone I know," Jean concedes, "but to a student whose only suffering was not getting paid their allowance as punishment, or not being allowed to party because of a curfew? Well, to them it's the same suffering, because they don't know any better. Everyone thinks the trouble they face are the worst, because those are the trouble they know..." Jean quiets down for a moment, meaning to focus more quietly on her embrace with Laura, glad to be able to give the girl a physical contact that doesn't have to do with fighting. "Mind telling me which people are giving you the hardest time when dealing with them?"

X-23 has posed:
There's a sudden surge in Laura's memories, a scene not very unlike this, with little Laura trying to lay her head in another woman's (presumably her mother) lap, and being rebuked for it. "It's not their fault." she replies. "Mostly. I don't like Rachel. I don't like Rachel AT ALL." Indeed, there's a sudden surge of an almost murderous anger there. Laura's tight control on her emotions is bad for her, but usually good for the people around her. But she can get her father's feral rages when she gets going, and the emotions regarding Rachel seem close on that.

"Andrea's my friend, but when I told her I was leaving to help people, she got angry with me, and said I was betraying people here." The confusion in Laura's mind is very clear. Her decision to leave was a tactical one, and a moral one. She expected her friends to support her, and got the complete opposite. Given her extremely limited friendship skills, there's some emotional trauma.

And THAT trauma evokes a brief image of Laura sitting in her room, drawing her claws down her own arm, feeling the pain and blood, and the annoyance as Negasonic, Rachel, and Erika were outside her room, demanding she open the door and come out.

Phoenix has posed:
As the sudden memory jumps to the fore, Jean is unable to not see it, quite vividly too, which brings her to slowly take Laura's head, and guide her to rest in her lap, should she care to do so. If she resists, Jean would ease the motion. "That's alright, all of us at some point like or don't like someone." Jean shows no signs of anger, even though technically, Rachel is her daughter. Even if from the future. "Laura, can you tell me why you don't like Rachel? Did she do anything to you?" Jean is cautious at a potential berserker rage breaking up, and tries to use her empathic powers to tone down the spiking rage, not so much that it's noticeable to Laura, but to avoid her losing control and potentially stabbing Jean.

"Okay...so that's something Andrea said," Jean notes, "did Rachel say something similar?" But as the next image pops up, Jean opens her eyes wider, and reaches with her hand to brush along Laura's arms, not that she expects to feel anything, as Laura heals faster than Logan, but more reassuringly. "Laura..." she asks quietly, "do you ever get so angry that you cut yourself?"

X-23 has posed:
The suppression is probably a good idea. The anger ramps down, though not before there's a very vivid splash of Laura visualizing putting her claws through Rachel's head. "She goes in my head when I don't want her to. And she kept trying to get in my room and I didn't want her there. She wouldn't listen when I told her to go away."

No signs on her arms. The girl's regen is spectacular. Which means the only scars are inside. She hesitates, and it's very clear in her mind for a moment; she doesn't want to answer Jean. Because Laura is very bad at lying, which means the only way to not tell her is to literally not tell her. But Jean is the maternal center of her world, and when she moves her head to her lap, there's a painfully sharp yearning as she clearly mentally associates this moment with the one where her actual mother was rebuking her. "...it's not always because I'm angry." Sometimes it's because it lets her feel. When she's not supposed to feel. She's been doing it for years, and she can't hide it with her emotional walls in such an open state.

Phoenix has posed:
Jean is well versed in mindscapes, so violent visuals are not something that easily shakes her, even if it's Rachel being the victim. She's seen more than once what some creeps and psychos imagined doing to her, she's quite hardened to those images, plus she knows there's a world of difference between thinking and enacting. She does, however, looks incredibly displeased as Laura describes why she hates Rachel. "You know, Laura, those are all very good reasons to be upset with Rachel. I can understand your anger, and if you don't mind, I would like to talk to Rachel about it. She can't do that to you, it's disrespectful...and maybe it's about time she learns a thing or two about how we carry ourselves. I know her childhood was a harsh one, so maybe she's missing some important lessons."

"You don't have to tell me why if you don't feel comfortable telling me...but I do want to work with you on that," Jean explains to Laura, "it's not healthy...not because it's lethal, I know you heal faster than you can hurt yourself, but because it means you're damaged...and I want to heal that." Jean continues to caress Laura's arms, before moving to brush her hand through her hair affectionately, "whatever Andrea says, or Rachel says, I want you to know that I understand you. I accept you. And you are not a traitor. You are the most mature girl I ever met, but you had to grow up in hell, and knowing Illyana, growing up in hell changes you, scars you, and it's something normal people don't understand."