xp_logs | Logs: Fear Itself - Dani/Manuel and Dani/Forge

Dani's powers continue to get further out of hand when she and Manuel scratch an itch. Warning: disturbing imagery.

Manuel was casually hanging out in the hallway that led to, among other places, Danielle's room. She was out with Forge right now, but he was having a _itch_ and he felt like getting the Indian girl to scratch it. So he casually waited, juggling his memory-crystal of Amanda absently in one hand, rolling it back and forth, seemingly impossible tricks.

"Bored or do you want something?" Dani asked without preamble as she spied Manuel lurking. He didn't normally hang around near her room now that she was rooming with Meggan.

Manuel grinned at Dani. "Maybe." he said with a slow, evil smile. "Busy?"

Raising one eyebrow, she eyed him critically. "Gimme a minute," She said finally, disappearing into her suite and closing the door on him.

Manuel spent his time waiting for Danielle with a grin on his face and more than just a little happy-to-see-her in his pocket. He had _things_ he wanted to do to the Cheyenne girl, things he was pretty sure she'd find endlessly arousing. Besides, he wanted to break her to the things he liked best, and there was no time like the present. He liked the noises she made, the needful look she got when she was lost in her own little world, the little protest-noise she made when he was finally too far gone to continue.

"Okay," Danielle opened the door to let him in. She'd thrown a few of Meggan's toys in the closet and made sure her roommates weren't around, shockingly they weren't. She'd also freshened up a little and had changed into the lingerie set Manuel had bought her, even if it was currently hidden under her clothing. She wasn't going to be blatantly obvious, even if he was. "You can come in."

Manuel walked into her room and then leaned against her wall. He took a quick look at her emotions before buttoning himself up tight - yep. She was headed for the right mood all right. Excellent. "How was your dinner out?" he asked her, looking her over. He was really starting to develop a raging appreciation for the lusher end of the species. He'd had it with skinny bony beanpoles for a very, very long time. "Did you change your hair? It looks different."

"I wore it down instead of braids," it was a statement, but Dani phrased it as a question, unsure if that was what he meant. She had brushed it as well in her mad dash to get ready, but that shouldn't've been obvious. She reached out to brush her hand against his shirt, silk. She liked it. "Dinner was fine. You eat?"

Manuel paused to try to parse her Oklaholma, and then gave it up as a bad deal. Instead, he stepped up next to her and let her hair spill through his fingers. "I like your hair." he told her in a low voice.

"You like to hide in it," Dani whispered smiling, her forehead touching his as her arms wrapped around him. Gasping slightly, she tensed, eyes wide. Behind her, two orderlies began to approach.

Manuel picked a bad time to close his eyes and nuzzle into her neck - he completely missed the orderlies, but he did NOT miss the spike of WTFBBQ?! from her mind. He just chose to ignore it in favor of looking for that one _really_ sensitive spot she had.

"Mmm," she whimpered, both from pleasure and from surprise at what she was seeing, "Manuel?" she whispered, trying to get his attention.

Manuel finally lifted his head, and then _froze_. He knew those uniforms, but this was impossible. He didn't even know her then, so how was it possible that Amanda was dressed as an orderly from the asylum and approaching him here, now? Unfortunately for Manuel, reason was starting to break down completely as fear flooded his being, the dark places of his soul sending its nightmarish cockroaches everywhere into his psyche. His hands on Danielle's skin twisted into claws, heedless of any pain he might be causing.

"Let go!" Dani screamed, trying to wrench free of Manuel's grip. He held fast. "Let me go!" she struggled, breaking free and trying to figure out how to stop the mental onslaught of Manuel's fears. She couldn't think.

Manuel was already beyond reason as he reverted back into Asylum behaviors. Be small. Be obedient. Do what they tell you. Don't stand out, don't catch anyone's eye. He hunched down, almost dragging Danielle down with him. He kept his face hidden and his expression went absolutely blank with terror.

Manuel was as tall as Danielle and weighed more than she did, forcing him off her was easier said than done. Struggling she pushed him away and ran out the door, ignoring her shirt which was now half-off in the struggle.

Manuel had nowhere to go and nowhere to hide. The Amanda-orderlies picked him up effortlessly - far more easily than the real Amanda could have done. She reached out with a very familiar smile into his chest, and just as her fingers clenched around his very heart Danielle's illusion snapped.

Manuel took about ten minutes or so to have the terror, the sheer blinding wetting-himself terror subside enough to permit rational thought. When his senses returned, he found himself curled into a ball in the middle of Danielle's floor, soaked in his own urine, reeking to high heaven, and no Danielle to be seen anywhere. That's when the word dissolved into a film of red rage held back by control one slender thread thick. Snarling, he divested himself of his pants and used Danielle's towel to clean himself up. Then he wrapped it around himself and stalked back to his room to put on some unsoiled clothes.

Dani was kneeling in the living room, unsure if she was going to throw up or not, her long hair acting like a veil to hide her face. Her hands shook even as she tried to steady herself on the floor.

Manuel stalked past Danielle, not even acknowledging her existance. He made a comical sight indeed - silk button-down with a few buttons undone, a garish hot-pink far too small Disney Little Princess towel wrapped around his waist, and fiercely burning red eyes. He slapped aside any attention or wonderment in anyone who saw him until he got to his room to change.

Ten minutes later, Manuel came stalking back to Danielle's living room. "What the _hell_ was that?" he asked, voice colder than Doctor MacTaggert's special medical equipment.

"I don't know," Dani whimpered, looking up with red-rimmed eyes. "What did I do?"

Manuel stared at Danielle. "What you _did_, my dear, is rape my mind." he said coldly. "Just reached right in there and brought out the absolute worst in me for everyone to see. Did you enjoy it, Danielle? Did it make you hot to watch me piss myself on your floor?"

"Do I look like I enjoyed it?" she asked, standing up carefully, "Do I look happy to you? Do you think I did it on purpose? I want nothing to do with your mind!"

"Nothing to do with it, eh?" he said nastily. "So I'm just supposed to let this go? 'Gee, Dani, I'm sure you're real sorry about all that, and I promise that I'll never, ever do that again!'." he said mockingly.

"Again? I didn't want to do it in the first place!" standing had erased her fear of what had happened and replaced it with anger, "I don't want to hurt people much less you!"

"Well, that's comforting." he shot back. "I'm sure that will come as a very great relief to the next poor fuckstick you mutilate, Preying Mantis-style."

Dani didn't reply at first, ashamed. "I'm here because I don't have control! I never pretended otherwise! What am I suppsoed to do, move back to OKlahoma and be a hermit? I'm sorry I hurt you, I didn't mean to and I'd redo things if I Could!" tears continued to run down her cheeks unheeded.

Manuel was too pissed-off to cover the fear that still cored him like an apple to feel properly bad about that. Still, he felt a twinge. "You need to start sucking it the fuck up, dearie." he said mockingly. "Or your bed's gonna be a cold and desolate place if you can't even get a hug without jumping straight for the greatest fear." he said with a near-snarl.

Whether he meant to or not, he just voiced her greatest fear.

Manuel, being an empath, could see the spike in her own fear. "Ponder that one on your cold and lonely lights. Maybe I'll buy you a little something to tide you over." he said musingly, finally letting the anger start to drain away. As the anger started to fade, so did his energy levels. Even standing was getting to be a mite tricky, so he let himself fall into one of the chairs in the living room. "I'll even spring for batteries."

Taking a deep breath, Dani turned and ran out of the room, leaving Manuel to his own problems.

"Not that simple." he said, grabbing out for her mind empathically and compelling her to return to him. "I'm not finished with you yet."

"Yes, you are," Dani hissed, trying to force herself to turn around. Her head hurt and she was terrified she would hurt him again, or worse, he would hurt her, "And don't touch me!"

"What, you want me to touch you after the little stunt you just pulled?" he said disbelievingly, and then laughed. "I don't think so. Not unless you do something _really_ spectacular. And I'm jaded, so you're really going to have to outdo yourself if you want any more of this." he said, gyrating at her for a second or two. "And you should really clean up your room before your roommate comes back."

Control restored, Dani turned and ran back out of the room. "You be gone when I get back!" she ordered Manuel before disappearing.

Manuel was actually looking forward to a little solitude - his shields were shit, the world was pressing in, and he was going to have some skull-tearing nightmares tonight. He could tell already.

After leaving Manuel in her suite, Dani runs to Forge's room for comfort. He does everything but try to help and only makes everything worse.

Dani ran blindly from her room leaving Manuel. "Forge!" she screamed, trying to open the door to his room, frustrated when it wouldn't open.

From the bathroom, Forge paused, toothbrush in mouth. Hearing Dani's voice, he spit his toothbrush into the sink, dropped his towel, and wriggled into a pair of shorts as he awkwardly hopped towards the door. Cracking it slightly, he took a step back at Dani's panicked look. "What the... what's wrong? Are you okay? Another nightmare?"

Mutely she shook her head, holding him tightly, sobbing. She tried to explain what had happened, but her voice was muffled by her head being buried in his shoulder.

Carefully, Forge wrapped an arm around Dani and led her to his couch. As he wandered quickly about to throw on a pair of sweatpants and grab a towel for his dripping hair, he sat on the couch by her. "You want to talk about it?"

"Nooo," she moaned, curling up almost in his lap, "It was so bad. And it's all my fault!"

Ah, shit, Forge thought. This was another one of those comforting things that he wasn't any good at, and a crying girl to boot, which he was even worse with. "You, uh... broke something? Said the wrong thing to someone? Help me out here."

Dani hiccuped, and tried to explain, even as she didn't want to, "I was with Manuel and we were..." she paused, gesturing with her head, "And then something happened and I...my powers...he hates me."

Blinking, Forge tried to comprehend. "Wait, Manuel? You were what?"

She looked at him stupidly, unable to understand how he couldn't get it, "You know...we were..." she didn't want to say it to Forge. "Having sex. Almost."

"Oh." Then it sunk in. "Oh. With Manuel." Manuel the smooth operator. Manuel the seducer. Manuel the empath, the manipulator.

Calmly, Forge got up from the couch, walking over to the refrigerator. Removing a small rack of three glass capsules, he sat down on the floor. Opening a panel in his mechanical leg, he carefully slotted the capsules into a loading mechanism then slapped the panel shut. As he stood, he winced slightly as the hisses of the automatic delivery mechanism sounded like small pops.

"Manuel." he said flatly. "You and Manuel."

"You were gone," Dani replied weakly, gesturing randomly, "And Amanda and Manuel broke up...it ain't like we're dating." Why did she feel the need to defend herself?"

"You know what he does," Forge's voice was strained, the growing pit in his stomach being evened out by the medication hitting his system. "And with your powers doing what they do, you mean to tell me you're absolutely certain you were in control the entire time?"

If looks could kill, Forge would have been stone, "I make my own choices, John-Henry. And I know I Wasn't in control tonight, but neither was he."

"Not an excuse," Forge said, leaning over behind a chair. When he stood up, he was holding a foot-long crescent wrench in his hand, hefting the weight. "This'll do."

"No!" Dani jumped up to block Forge and try to take the wrench away, "Don't you get it? I projected his worst fears! I hurt him! I did it! He didn't do anything! He couldn't do anything!"

"You're telling me you're crying and panicked because YOU screwed up?" Forge gripped the wrench in his prosthetic hand, taking a resolute step towards the door. "Tell me, if your powers hadn't gone haywire, what would you be doing right now?"

"Forge!" Dani begged, blocking the door, "What I do and who I do it with is not your business! I hurt someone Forge! I hurt someone!"

"Well, maybe you shouldn't be the only one!" he shot back at her, shaking the wrench. "You wouldn't even have been in that situation if it wasn't for him taking advantage of you, screwing around with how you feel! Don't tell me you actually think that's what you wanted to do."

"And you know what I want? Until last night, you barely spoke to me since June! How dare you!" Dani's eyes flashed as she screamed at him, "You think I'm some pure, chaste virgin? I knew exactly what I was doing! And I don't regret it!"

Gritting his teeth, Forge spun around, throwing the wrench into the couch, hearing it bounce and clatter off somewhere in the vicinity of the bathroom. "Manuel!" he repeated in a loud growl, anger creeping up through the numbing effect of his meds. "You don't think you're better than that? That you deserve better? Is being lonely that bad that you'd just - ah!" Forge pounded his fist into his thigh, turning to pace across the common area. "Jesus, how do you trust him? How... how can you?"

"Never mind," Dani's face crumpled. There was nothing she could say so he'd get past her sleeping with Manuel, "Forget I ever came here or said anything."

Slumping down into the chair, Forge shook his head, thumping his fist into the arm of the chair. "Damn it, Dani. You're better than that. You're better than having to get it from someone who's incapable of caring about you, just because you're frustrated and--"

You're such a fucking hypocrite, the voice in the back of his brain reminded him.

Dumbstruck silently by his own conscience, Forge slumped back into the chair. "Forget it. Just forget it."

"You are..." Dani looked at him incredulously, "I didn't WANT him to care!"

Gesturing in frustration, Forge looked away at the wall. "Then you're using him as much as he's using you. That being the case, I'm sorry. My reactions were inappropriate. You ought to go."

Dani calmly leaned her forehead against the wall before she fell over. "I reached into his mind, found his worst fear ever and projected it. He was on the floor pissing himself when I was done. And you don't understand why I'm upset?" Carefully, she turned around to face Forge, "Screw you."

"I can do better than de la Rocha's leftovers," Forge snarled back. "Go to the Professor, to the medlab, wherever. I can't help you here."

Dani's mouth opened, but no sound came out. Sighing, she turned and headed out of his room. She still had to clean the floor in her room.