LOG: [Jennie, Crystal, Marius] Pouring

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Crystal convinces Jennie to visit Marius. It was a nice thought, but unfortunately for all three students Marius is having some . . . problems.





Jennie sucked in a deep breath as they rounded the corner to Marius' Medlab room. This was a bad idea, she knew it was a bad idea, and yet she was here anyway. Especially with Crystal. The younger girl flashed her an encouraging smile, and Jennie could only offer a small twitch of the lips. As they got closer Jennie could hear Marius as his agitated voice, muffled and hollow through his respirator, carried down the hall. She put a hand on Crystal's shoulder.

"Hold it." Jennie said to Crystal. "Wait a minute."

Crystal stiffened and a few light, brief gusts of wind travelled towards Jennie. "Is something wrong?" she asked her roommate. Marius didn't sound very happy, but perhaps a visit was just what he needed to feel better.

"Maman, ca va!" Rapid French floated through the open door, insistent and steadily rising. The harsh rasp of the respirator was audible even from the hallway. "J'ai t'ai deja dit que tout va bien. Non, ce n'est pas nécessaire, tout est sous controle. Ah non, je ne veux pas parler a papa -- mais veux tu bien m'écouter? J'ai dit de ne pas venir ici, tout va bien!"

Before either girl could make a move, the conversation was terminated by the impact of a cellphone slamming against the opposite wall.

Jennie flinched as the cellphone hit the wall. "He was talking to his Mom," she said to Crystal, calmly, as if she hadn't seen the outburst through the open door of his room. She gestured to the cellphone. "It was the French that clued me."

"Yes, and apparently he is none too pleased with the outcome of their conversation. Possibly, he needs a new cell phone," Crystal commented. So Marius didn't want his parents to visit. Hopefully, he'd be ok with a visit from them. At least he couldn't throw his cell phone at them.

Jennie put her hands in her pockets gestured that they should enter with a jerk of her head. "Hey man," she said softly, as the pair crossed the threshold. She nodded towards the phone in the corner. "That went well, I take it?" Normal, keep it normal. Don't flinch, but oh my fucking God...

Marius jerked from the unexpected voice as if physically struck, then straightened his back and turned around. Most of the remaining skin on his face had flaked away now, half of it intentionally peeled after the acid-soaked rag had loosened everything around his nose and mouth. What remained was dark and leathery, seamed with fine hairline creases. Barely recognizable.

The instinctive panic was viciously fought down. Marius looked at Crystal, then at Jennie, gaze never wavering. Visitors. Right. He could take visitors now. Because everything was under control.

"Oi, Jen, Crystal," Marius said, keeping his hands to his sides and pointedly not tearing another madly-itching patch of skin from his forearm. The words came out thicker than usual; he was still getting used to moving his tongue around the narrow breathing tube that ran along the side of his mouth and down his throat. Forge had adjusted the design as much as he could, but it was still awkward. "Apologies. Would've freshened up a bit if I knew I was in for company."

Crystal took in Marius's new appearance with barely a passing glance. She had seen worse. Not by much, and in a different way, but from what Jennie had told her about Marius's condition, she had prepared herself to be ready to see anything. "Hi, Marius," she said. A "Greetings, Marius" was a bit too formal for this situation. What to say next? How are you feeling? That was pretty obvious. Crystal held out a small bag. "We brought you a bottle of orange Gatorade." I would have liked to bring something else, but I didn't know what else you would feel like.

"Ah, cheers. One must keep one's electrolytes balanced, gut-twisting physiological changes notwithstanding." A few steps saw Marius across the room and into arm's reach. His naked hand stretched out to accept it, white teeth flashing bright against the grey. "Drink this later, shall I?" he said, turning to deposit the bag on the bedside table. In truth the argument with his mother and scorching, acrid air of the breathing apparatus had him desperate for a drink, but there were some problems associated with doing that around the respirator. It was not a sight he intended to share with company. Instead Marius settled on his bed, the movement unsettling minute fragments of skin on the sheets. "So, here we are. Do you come bearing news? I miss another kidnapping?"

Jennie rocked back on her heels. The atmosphere was so tense, in spite of the cheery, normal conversation. A thousand things were buzzing in her brain, but they all seemed so trivial at the moment. "No, no kidnappings. Nobody went evil, and nothing blew up. You missed nothing." Her voice remained light, conversational, in spite of the fact her hands were clenched into fists inside her jacket. "So, how's your Mom?"

"Fine," Marius said, a little too shortly. He turned his attention to Crystal in a way that clearly communicated this was not an open topic of conversation. "Ta for the other day, by the way. Normally I'd say I owe you a dinner to express my gratitude for the timely saving of my life, but you know. Not quite presentable at the moment. Maybe I'll cook you a meal once I stop leavin' skin everywhere. Bit unsanitary."

"Oh, I'm glad I was able to help." I actually thought I was going to end up killing you somehow. "I'm sure I'll take you up on that offer, though. I'm, ah, still avoiding the dining hall as much as I can. I don't trust a few of the people who frequent the kitchen." It was silly and Crystal knew it, but who knew what Jamie or Lorna might try to get the kitchen staff to put into her food?

"Ah, like myself, they are in actuality quite fluffy and harmless. However, I happen to be a superior cook. I'll make you dinner. Without the romantic candlelight, alas. Can't have people talking." The banter was automatic. While he joked he could almost forget the furnace-heat of the respirator scouring his throat and lungs, or the fact he was beginning to realize he couldn't make out her face as well as he should. Flirting was safe, mindless. Just the same, just the same.

Jennie fought down a bubble of vexation at being blatantly ignored like that. “Why won’t you answer me, Marius? It’s a simple enough question. I could hear you yelling down the hall, and I don’t speak French.” Don’t avoid me, not me, please.

The sharpness in her voice was jarring. Marius' eyes snapped back to her, hyper-focused on her movement. He stiffened, hands clenching against the sheets.

"It occur to you maybe I use the French for a reason?" he asked tightly, his voice almost a growl around the plastic. "My family's none of your business, an' I'd thank you to stay out of it. Believe it or not, I'm perfectly capable of seein' this sorted on my own."

“Really?” Jennie said, her voice going soft with anger, her tone matching his. “That looked ‘nicely sorted’ there. Things all hugs and puppies? Because that looked like a big fight there.” She waved a hand at the remains of his phone. “But since you seem to be the expert on dealing with families and everything, I’ll defer to your judgment.” The sarcasm leaked heavily into her voice.

Now was definitely not the time for Crystal to reveal that she could understand and speak French. Marius would probably end up discovering this fact at some point, and Crystal would deal with it then. Addressing both Jennie and Marius, and in the calmest manner she could muster, Crystal said, "We all know that the last few days have been, ah, trying, and unusual, and... I understand that you're both on edge, but can we please just calm down?" Without waiting for an answer, Crystal turned to her roommate, "Jennie, if he doesn't want to talk about it now, don't make him, please." She was sorely tempted to say something else to Marius, but in his condition she just didn't have the heart to do so.

The boy ignored her, keeping his eyes fixed on Jennie. "When you're qualified to comment on how a family works," he growled, "I'll take your advice. Until then, shockingly, I'll survive. So stay. Out." He didn't understand it even as the words tore out of his mouth. He was snapping again, just like he'd done with Forge, and he never snapped. But Marius was angry, furious, suddenly, and there was nowhere else for the anger to go but out -- and that alone enraged him.

Jennie flinched like he had slapped her. She didn’t even register that Crystal was in the room anymore. “You are so full of shit. You haven’t a fucking clue about a real family either.” Jennie couldn’t control herself, that had been such a low blow. “Daddies just don’t throw money at problems to make them go away.” Then she noticed his eyes, hot, angry, and orange. A brief spasm of fear crossed her face.

"An' you would know, would you?" Marius shot back. "At least mine sodding cared enough to acknowledge my existence!" But for how much longer that would be, Marius didn't know. The expression that had flashed across Jennie's face only made the hot, twisted feeling in his gut worse. Cartier had sent his son to Xavier's to get better, not to become . . . whatever this thing he was turning into was. How long? came the treacherous thought. Cartier had already disowned one son for being a disgrace to the family. How long will I have after he finds out?

Trying to remain calm was not working for anyone in this room. Marius and Jennie were figuratively at each other’s throats, and Crystal was not about to stand by and idly watch the situation continue to escalate. She had to fight to keep herself from tossing them both to opposite sides of the room. “I don’t know what you two are talking about, and right now I really don’t care. Just. Calm. Down. Now. At this point, neither one of you is thinking straight. Now is not the time to lash out at each other!”

Jennie rounded on Crystal. “Just stay out of this!” She snapped, furious. “And, you,” she turned back to Marius. “Fuck you!” She screamed. Hot, angry tears stung her eyes. She struggled not to cry in front of Marius, but the breaks in her traitorous voice gave it away. “You’ve been so pampered and babied your entire life, that you don’t know how to handle reality. Welcome to the real world Marius, it sucks a whole fucking lot.”

"Reality? Reality?" Marius thrust out one arm, palm-up, exposing the ring of teeth. As Jennie watched he slit the nails of his opposite hand beneath one of the few remaining olive patches of skin on his forearm and tore, hurling the castoff to the tiles. "Tell me how to cope with this, Jennie! Since when is this fucking reality?"

Jennie's eyes didn't waver, sky-blue on dull-orange. "Since when is seeing someone I care about butchered reality?" She snarled. "Since when is coming home to find the whole place reeking of blood reality, seeing flies in her eyesocket because I stayed out too long and didn't come home soon enough? At least you're not a stabbed, bloody mess on the kitchen floor! At least you're still fucking alive!" She grabbed his forearm tightly.

Crystal gasped in horror as Marius tore off his own skin. Jennie's words shocked her to the core and she fought to keep herself in check. I will not... I will not... Crystal tried to stop the winds that threatened to break loose. You didn't have to have any sort of telepathic or empathic abilities to feel the emotions in the room. Crystal's own conflicted feelings showed themselves in the form of a rainstorm in the Medlab room. When I want rain, I get a few drops. When I want nothing, I get a downpour. Great.

"Marius! Jennie! Please... just stop this!" Crystal cried out. "Stop saying all these things! You know you don't mean them! You know you don't want to be saying these things!"

The rain was barely noticed. For a long moment Marius just stared up at Jennie with a gaze that was running to amber, unblinking.

"Get out." The words were uttered almost in a whisper as water began to stream in rivulets through his hair and into his lightening eyes, coursing around the plastic lip of the respirator. Artificially assisted breathing rasped. Marius pulled his arm back and pried her fingers away slowly, inexorably. Grip broken, he resettled his hands on the bed beneath him, fists closed.

"Just get out."

Jennie stared at him, stunned. Her hand retreated, clenched into a fist, and she held tight against her chest. Oh God, it's happening. I'm losing him too. Tears leaked out of Jennie's still angry eyes and her lower lip trembled. "All right then." She said quietly. "If that's what that is."

Jennie turned and fled, and mercifully didn't start crying until she was out of the mansion and on her way to the woods.

Crystal shook her head as she watched Jennie run out of the room. With a sad look, she turned to face Marius. "That... I... We... I'm sorry for making it rain in your room." Crystal was sure that the rain couldn't be helping Marius, and she was not in any condition to make it stop. "I'll just go and take it with me." Shaking her head and sighing, Crystal left the room.

The precipitation lessened, then ceased. Marius didn't even bother to look up. He sat on his bed in silence, dark hair dripping, eyes fixed on the puddles forming on the too-clean tiles as the last few drops of water tumbled and fell from the ceiling.

Now he needed a new cellphone