8189/Kneadful Things: The Sequel

Kneadful Things: The Sequel
Date of Scene:	06 July 2019
Location:	Great Jones Day Spa, Greenwich Village
Synopsis:	Rogue and Kitty return to the day spa, this time with Betsy and Ororo.
Cast of Characters:	Shadowcat, Rogue, Storm, Psylocke

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Shadowcat has posed:
The trip to the spa that Rogue and Kitty had courtesy of free tickets won at the Yankees game had gone so well, they had made plans to do it again. And then of course promptly forgot about it. Until Kitty was moping about her room the other day, and Lockheed finally had enough of it. He flew over to her desk and dug through some papers on it, flying back over and dropping in Kitty's lap the pamphlet that she had brought back from the luxurious Manhattan day spa.

Gotta love that dragon.

And so a trip was arranged, with Betsy and one or two others invited to join Kitty and Rogue this time. Kitty's already sitting in the lobby when anyone else arrives, having had a short trip over from Bleecker Street. The experience has already begun once she got in the door, as she's relaxing in a soft leather chair and enjoying a fruit smoothie.

Kitty gives her butt a little wiggle. "Ok, this isn't bad," she comments to herself as she looks at the chair. "Very soft and comfortable. But not obscenely comfortable like those chairs in the Avenger's den," she comments to herself. She forgot to find out where they got them from before leaving too. Oh well, an excuse to stop back and seen Janet another time.

Rogue has posed:
Rogue is standing near a table loaded with magazines and she's flipping through one that is resting on the top of the table. Wearing jeans, a tank top and a pair of leather boots, she looks over to Kitty in her chair wiggling around in it. "You're not gonna start rubbin' yourself against it are ya?" Rogue asks with a hushed voice since they're in a public place. "You're gonna get us kicked outta here if ya do. This ain't the kinda place for that sorta behavior, Pryde." She chides her good friend.

Second later and she's looking back to her magazine with the models in it and all the advertisements trying to get / sell things to people here. "I really just wanna sit in the sauna all day. Why does the school not have one'a those?" She states while picking the magazine up and turning to go sit down on the chair beside Kitty's.

Storm has posed:
"Marie, sit down, and get a pedicure," Ororo says to the ceiling. She has to say it to the ceiling because thin cucumber slices are covering her face and she's got a pale green facemask applied to her skin. A beautician's doing the laborious work of removing the beads from her hair and putting them carefully aside so the plaits can be untangled, and someone else is working near her feet.

She curls her toes in at the feel of a rasp to her soles, and lifts a cucumber to look down at the beautician. "Just the high spots, don't take the calluses off," she bids her. The woman gives Storm a befuddled look-- who WANTS calluses? But she shrugs and sets about polishing and smoothing instead of trying to strip down the old skin.

Ororo reaches blindly for her hot tea and lifts it to her lips, her bathrobe'd shoulders wriggling into the seat.

Psylocke has posed:
Fashionably late is what they call it, and Betsy wouldn't dream of doing anything so unfashionable as show up on time. Still, when she's late it's only by a few minutes and she has the sense to look sheepish about it. She wears a denim skirt artfully ripped and frayed here and there, a loose-fitting white tee and an open blazer tie-dyed in a dozen different shades of purple and violet.

Even as she hurries through the door, she is careful to be quiet about it and not interfere with the calming atmosphere the place is designed to elicit. Her phone immediately disappears into the inside pocket of her blazer, gone and out of the way. She glances around, sticking out her bottom lip and nodding appreciatively: "This is nice."

Shadowcat has posed:
Kitty Pryde climbs to her feet as Betsy arrives, but not before laughing and sticking her tongue out at Rogue. "It's like... a quest I'm on now. To find the perfect leather chair," she says. Before Kitty gives a sigh and a, "Well, alright. Actually the quest started with noticing the perfect leather chair. It's more about obtaining for myself now," she concedes. "Besides, I just have that old chair in my room. I don't have that sweet one you stole from the office everyone forgets about," Kitty continues.

She grins to Betsy, offering the model a quick hug of greeting. "Glad you made it. Ororo's already getting started," Kitty says as the ladies are greeted by a hostess and conducted over to where Ororo is being de-beaded and pedicured. "We got massages last time which were amazing," Kitty says. "I'm open for whatever you all prefer," Kitty says as Rogue brings up the sauna. "I don't know, you'd think we'd have one though, wouldn't you? At least for staff use? Would be perfect come winter. Maybe we could build one down by the lake?"

Rogue has posed:
A quick grin is given to Kitty before Rogue's eyes sweep over to the arriving Betsy who gets a nice and big smile from the southern belle. But its Storm's words that ultimately draw her gaze. "I can't." She says quietly to the other "None'a the little 'tools' and such work on me. I gotta use special stuff, which is all back at the School."

Rogue stands then and she drops the magazine she'd been holding onto a stack neaxt to the hair she'd been in. Within a moment she's sweeping over to Betsy to grin at her. She points toward Kitty. "She's on a mission t'find the most comfy leather chair in the whole wide world. But I'm tellin' her, comfort is based in a momentary reality. What ya find comfortable one moment, you'll most certainly find uncomfortable shortly there-after. Its just how people are."

A second there-after and Rogue is hovering over near to where Storm is, grinning at her, just toying with the teacher that she officially assists while watching her. She finds a place to leand down onto her elbows and prop her head up by the palm of her hand holding her chin. "You look relaxed." Rogue will then say to Storm, voice calm and collected, seductive and playful, as well... because thats her style.

Storm has posed:
"I /feel/ relaxed," Ororo assures Rogue. "I'm relaxed because I'm letting the experts do their expert work. Why not try a hot mud bath?" she inquires, turning her head a blind fractional arc towards Rogue. "Or try to relax and let them walk on your back. It's not the same as a massage from Superman I'm sure, but I imagine it would do the job?" Her rich accent gives her words unexpected emphasis.

The sound of Betsy's voice piques her attention. "Elizabeth, glad you could make it. I don't suppose you can think of something Marie would enjoy? Watching us get pedicures is probably a little boring for her."

Psylocke has posed:
"Hullo, Kitty," Betsy returns the hug, leaning past her slightly to give the leather chair a critical eye as though just looking at it may reveal any deficits in comfortability that make it less than perfect. But a moment later her attention is back on her friends as they're ushered to where Ororo is enjoying the luxuries the spa has to offer. As they walk, she raises her eyebrows at Rogue and her brief treatise on the fleeting nature of comfort and the human experience.

"That was rather profound, Marie dear. If we're not careful, you're going to set up a hermitage on a mountain somewhere and we'll only ever see you when the mystical veils part."

She raises her hands, wiggling her fingers as though to add arcane emphasis to her words. As they arrive, Betsy listens to Ororo's question before lifting her shoulders slightly: "The mud bath sounds divine. Maybe a little backrub?"

A flash of violet frames her face like the wings of a butterfly, and she reaches out telekinetically to give Rogue's shoulders a squeeze and emphasize the point. Her telekinesis is more brute force than anything else, but not strong enough to cause any discomfort or injury. The act is more to give her friend a little jump scare than anything else as invisible hands momentarily knead her shoulders before disappearing.

Shadowcat has posed:
Kitty shakes her head to Rogue. "Oh, no, believe me I can stay comfortable in the right seat. I once spent an entire day in a hammock just because I could." The brunette pauses, looking wistful. "God those were the days," she says, remembering youthful times where there weren't jobs waiting for you. Or students. Or super villains. How peaceful it all was. Yeah, she'd probably go nuts from boredom if Kitty went back to those days.

"I think one of those massages like last time is what I'm in the mood for," Kitty says as she looks around the room that the four women have been given, with facilities there for most any need they have. Kitty walks over to reach down and rub Storm's shoulders as the woman gets her pedicure. "Ororo, it was like having all of the bones in my body removed. I was just a puddle. A happy, well-massaged puddle," she says with a laugh.

One of the attendants smiles to Kitty and motions to a screen where she can go slip out of her clothes and come back out wrapped in a towel. She gets on the table and the woman goes to work, eliciting a deep groan of satisfaction from Kitty.

Rogue has posed:
Rogue is just leaning over on the back of a chair and watching Storm. When the mud bath is suggested the young Mutant girl just shows a sly grin. But its the interruptive 'mental massage' that hits her from Betsy that makes Rogue lower down on the chair, bent over it she lays her face against her right bicep, not fearing touching her cheek to her own skin and she just grins. "Quelqu'un est dans ma tete et je l'aime." She states in her husky hued voice while letting her eyes slip shut, talking about someone being inside her head and liking it.

After a moment, with a smile spread over her lips, Rogue's eyes open again, shrouded in black eyeliner, their pale green pupils stand out even more. "Un bain de boue? Je suis juste heureux de vous voir tous se detendre." She's gone into full French mode, intended as a Jump Scare, received as anything but!

A second later though and Rogue is standing back up at her full height. "I just like seein' the rest'a ya'll havin' fun." She says, switching back to her native tongue. "Place like this? Ain't really made for a girl like me... with problems like I got. Havin' someone walk on your back? Ain't as much fun if their feet are wearin' crinkly plasticly socks."

Storm has posed:
Ororo laughs gently at Rogue's plaintive French. "Oubliez les hommes, concentrez-vous sur le massage," she suggests. "And stop speaking French around Katherine, it's rude to exclude someone from a conversation," she adds a beat later.

The masseuse is listening to Rogue's complaints and considers the woman, then beckons her to sit in a chair. She starts pulling over what looks like a deep cycle marine battery hooked up to an EKG monitoring system. "Let's try this," she says, her English carrying only a slight accent. "Please. No charge if you don't like it." She tries to urge Rogue to the chair without touching her, clearly recognizing the woman's aversion to physical contact.

"Try some of this sangria, Betsy," Ororo says, and rattles ice cubes and red liquid at Betsy. "It's delicious, like something right out of Morocco. I haven't had sangria this fresh in ages."

Psylocke has posed:
Betsy grins at Rogue's reaction to the telekinetic back massage. When the most refined aspects of her psionic abilities is generally limited to blasting apart cinder blocks, it's a nice thought to put it to a less destructive use with the nigh-indestructible Southern Belle.

When the masseuse steps in to test radical relaxation technology on Rogue, Betsy follows Kitty behind the screen. After replacing her own pricey threads with a warm and fluffy towel in turn, she steps out and scoops up a clinking glass of sangria. She plants both hands on one of the massage beds and lifts herself up onto it, sitting there for a moment and taking a sip.

"Merveilleux," she murmurs, because she's not going to be left out of the impromptu Francaise. Placing the glass on a nearby table, she lays face down on the massage bed and lets out a similar groan to show total agreement with Kitty's evaluation, "I live here now ... "

Shadowcat has posed:
"And stop speaking French around Katherine..." Kitty says as if they were her words and not Ororo's, before trailing off and chuckling softly. "Oh... right there... below my shoulder blaaaaaaaaaa-" she says, the word trailing off as the masseuse finds the spot Kitty was trying to direct her to.

Melting has officially begun.

Kitty just goes limp on the massage table. The warm massage oil comes out and Kitty's lightly tanned skin soon starts to take on on a sheen as the fragrant substance is used in the deep tissue massage. "You're very toned. Are you an athlete?" the masseuse asks Kitty. The brunette responds, "And compliments too. I think I'm love." She delivers it in the kind of tone that makes it easy for the masseuse to laugh off.

"I think I need a long straw for the sangria," Kitty says, her head resting face down on one of those oval cutouts, leaving her mouth exposed but not really being able to drink in that position. The masseuse hands her a glass though, Kitty lifting her head to take a sip before handing it back. "In fifteen more minutes, I won't have enough functioning muscles to lift my head I think. It's like turning back into a baby, this massage," she tells Betsy with a grin.

Rogue has posed:
"Katherine doesn't need t'speak french t'know that I love her more than life itself." Rogue quickly quips right on back about that subject. She glances over to see Kitty and Betsy disappear into that other section of the room where the massage happens, where the 'most dangerous' section is for a girl like Rogue with a mutation like hers.

She does move around the chair though to settle into it and grin over at Storm. "Forget men?" Rogue asks her friend. "I think you've forgotten who you're speakin' too, Oh'Queen'Oh'Mine." Rogue says to the Affrican goddess. She flashes her a quick grin as she crosses her legs at the knees.

A heavy exhale later and the Belle is looking over toward where Kitty and Betsy have disappeared to, though she can still 'hear' them.

Rogue's pointed chin is planted into her upraised palm and she looks down at the person before her, the employee. "Believe you me, sugah. Ain't nothin' in this world would please me more if'n you could touch me and I there-in wouldn't drop your butt inta a sudden and strong coma. So if you're comin' all up on me? Best do it with some self restraint. Cause there's some _serious_ consequences for barkin' up -this- tree." Rogue grins then before playfully adding. "Woof woof." And a little wiggle of her foot crossed at the knee over her other leg.

Storm has posed:
The woman stares at Rogue with a clearly exasperated expression, and reaches for a pair of gloves on the cart. Heavy, heavy duty electrical gloves, the sort used for handling high voltage. "You think you're the only metahuman we got in here?" she demands, her voice crisp and accent coming through with frustration. "Look, no touch, I see, now shush and give me your arm!" She reaches for the electrodes, slaps two on Rogue's arm, and backs waay up before she hits the switch. There's a faint *hum* of electrical power and the electrodes create a silent frisson across Rogue's forearm. It stops a second later, leaving the muscles feeling tingling and relaxed all at once. "You like, ya?"

Ororo just grins to herself and sips her refilled Sangria. "If that feels good, Marie, we can make arrangements to fling you into an active lightning storm once a week," she offers.

"As soon as my nails are done, I'm coming in there to join you," Ororo advises the two girls on the other side of the partition. "A good massage sounds divine."

The manicurist is hard at work excavating dirt from under good gardener's fingernails, and the stylist is trying to figure out what to do with Ororo's now-untamed white mohawk as she combes it out and it stands straight upwards again. "You want this straightened or au naturale when I'm done?" she inquires of Ororo.

Psylocke has posed:
Betsy, known for her eloquence and refined way of speaking, merely turns her face to Kitty with half-lidded eyes and makes a noise best transliterated as: "Errruuuhhhuuuhhhmmm." Truly, she is channelling the greatest and wittiest of her countrymen in this very moment.

As she lays with her face through the cutout in the massage bed, she ponders bringing the glass of sangria over with telekinesis. A mental image of the glass exploding like an airborne grenade dissuades her and instead she simply sighs wistfully and waits for enough strength of will to return to momentarily end the massage for another drink.

"Forget men," she repeats Ororo's words in English, sighing wistfully and aiming to do just that. She turns her head the other way to watch the electroshock treatment in progress, "Be careful with that. If she likes it too much we may have a blackout."

Shadowcat has posed:
Kitty gives a soft sigh as she hears the direction of the conversation. "Sometimes easier said than done," she says, quietly enough that the words might not have made it very far away from where the massages are being given. The woman working on her back seems to hear it though, getting more oil and turning the massage into less of a deep tissue one, and more of a gentler, soothing feeling.

Kitty gives a little bit happier sounding of a sigh at the adjustment. "So, Betsy... I always hear how celebrities have it rough with not having any privacy in public. People interrupting while you're eating dinner out, wanting a photo. Do you run into that kind of stuff? And is it really annoying? I think Janet van Dyne is probably my closest friend with your level of celebrity. And she'd just eat it up. But then she's like this energetic dynamo that just feeds off such energy."

Rogue has posed:
"Okay, yeesh." Rogue responds to the pushy Spa employee demanding her arm. She drops her left arm down and watches the other. "Ya don't gotta wear gloves THAT strong. I mean just the standard latex gloves will do the trick. Don't gotta wear _Falconer_ gloves." She flashes the employee a big grin before she feels what they're starting to do to her with the little electrical waves. Rogue's eyelids subsequently flutter, flutter fast and many times. She leans her head back on her chair and just stares up at the ceiling. "Ya...." she replies to the person's question as to whether or not she likes it. "Science is great." She quietly adds.

A few moments after the others speak, Rogue is just shaking her head side to side. "No blackout." She states in a spacy sort've voice. "Nice. Good stuff..." She sounds horribly distracted as the electrodes send sensations through her. "Should take this machine home... yeah. Home. Storm'll help me take it home."

Its possible that the southern belle has checked out a bit at this point, apparently enjoying having electricity massage her, if human touch can't do it!

Storm has posed:
"Haha, I knew you'd like it," the little masseuser says, and starts hooking the electrodes up to major muscle groups. Back of Rogue's neck, forearms, shoulders, trapezius. "We start with this yah? Little bit, not too much," she warns Rogue. The controller is handed to her. "Here's the override. We don't take that off, very dangerous," she advises Rogue. "But, can't control you what you do with it, right? You sit and enjoy, let me know if you need more paddles," she says. Rogue's arm is given a pat and then the woman sets up a pair of 'WARNING: HIGH VOLTAGE' portable paddleboard signs near Rogue. And then stays well away from her!

Ororo gets to her feet and is assisted into the massage room. She sheds her robe, leaving her in brief grey underthings that contrast with her darker skin, and leans against the chair supports while the masseuer gets to work on her back.

"Hnhnhnhnhnhnhnhn," she says, articulately. "I spoke to Janet briefly when she and Captain America visited," Storm tells Kitty. "I was minding the monitors. She seems... a little fussy," she says, brow wrinkling.

Psylocke has posed:
"It's rather the double-edged sword," Betsy answers, turning her head back to make eye contact with Kitty between the tables, "Better to be noticed than not to be. If they left me alone how would I /know/ I was a celebrity? That said, you end up with more than a few people who think you're the best of friends because they clicked the little ?heart' icon on a photograph. That's a bit uncomfortable."

When the masseuse stops suddenly, Betsy clutches the towel to her chest and props herself up on one elbow to stare at them pointedly: "Not you, you're not uncomfortable. You keep going."

As she lays back down and the massage continues, she once more turns her head to Rogue and the incredible wonderful electrical massage device: "Well, a car battery and some jumper cables. Christmas gift bloody /sorted/."

Shadowcat has posed:
Kitty Pryde begins giggling softly as she watches Rogue with the electrical machine on her. "She's sort of like a dog when you're scratching behind the ears," she says of Rogue's state right now. She flashes a warm grin over to her former roommate, and then gives Ororo a thumbs up for having suggested it.

"She can be a little fussy. But she has a heart the size of the room," Kitty says. "The people that work for her love her, even though they work pretty hard." She muses. "Well, except for Raoul. He wants to do his own designs but I get the feeling they aren't that good and everyone knows that but him. I admit, Stark's got more fun tech to play with, but I miss working over at JVD though it was only a few week contract."

Kitty looks back over to Betsy and flashes a smile her way. "Doesn't even have to be a new battery," she says in a loud stage whisper so Rogue will hear it. "We can just steal it out of her car. And then not only did we get her the electric massager, but solved her need for a car battery."

Rogue has posed:
When you can't feel pain, there are other sensations that you equally don't really feel either. Rogue didn't really notice this until she had these electrodes hooked up to her like this. It created feelings in her that she suddenly didn't really know how to comprehend so when the... sensations build up enough the southern belle suddenly opens her eyes and she starts to swipe the electrodes off of her skin, like she's slapping at gnats in a sweltering outdoor scenario!

She leaps up out of her chair and flies up into the sky! Up near the ceiling, Rogue is panting, her chest rising and falling inside of the dark green tank top she's wearing. She's panicked like she's forgotten where she even was. Her eyes dart this way and that...

She sucks in a deep breath and then drops down out of the sky to land on her booted feet with little squeaky thuds upon the floor. "I'm gonna be... out... there, for a bit." Rogue finally says as she starts for the exit from the room.

Storm has posed:
The room attendants look shocked and alarmed, backing away towards a door as well. When Rogue starts making a beeline for them they scatter. Only the senior attendant seems to understand Rogue's plight, and the look on her face is positively impish.

"Marie? Are you... coming back?" Ororo inquires, looking up at her friend with some concern on her face.

Not a lot of concern. The expression on Rogue's face doesn't look claustrophobic or destructive. Just... overwhelmed.

Psylocke has posed:
"I met with Janet just the other day, actually," Betsy tells Kitty, "we're trying to arrange /something/ where we can work together. We had a bit of a distraction come up at the time, though." A certain web aficionado. Betsy frowns slightly and lets that go. Not worth talking about.

The joke with Kitty about the battery elicits a grin from Betsy, but it fades again as something tugs at her mind. An uncomfortable level of distress rising over the general 'sea level' of ambient thought that she just ignores. She takes a moment to try and work out where it's coming from, shifting on her elbows to look at Rogue just in time to watch her shoot into the air and out of the room.

When she thinks it over for a moment, she raises her eyebrows and turns back to Kitty to make a 'well then' face, calling back to Ororo: "I think it was just a little more excitement than expected."

Shadowcat has posed:
Kitty Pryde looks up as Rogue has the reaction to what she's feeling. Kitty sits up quickly, getting the towel about herself only as a second thought as she sees her friend's reaction. As Rogue heads out of the room, Kitty slips off the massage bed. "Thank you, I'll just be a minute," Kitty tells the masseuse.

The brunette spots a nice plush white robe, moving over to it and slipping it on before shedding the towel beneath it. Kitty smiles to Betsy and Storm reassuringly, but goes out to check on Rogue. Kitty will step outside, traces of worry gone from her face, just looking casual. She'll wander over towards where Rogue is and just find something to lean against, not saying anything for the moment, just being there for her former roomie.