xp_logs | LOG: [Laurie, Haller] 'Tis the Season

Laurie pays the school counselor a visit after a hectic week and does what any true Xavier’s resident would do: dodge the issue with food.

Laurie paused outside Haller's office door to get a better grip on the box of chocolates she was carrying before reaching up and knocking on the door. Her arms still ached in a dull fashion from the cuts but they'd heal in time. Amelia had said she was lucky they weren't much worse, along with several other things about hero complexes.

She had given Laurie some Scooby Doo bandaids for her finger cuts though, so she assumed that Amelia didn't think her completely stupid.

"Mr Haller?" Laurie called out. "I come bearing gifts of food."

"Oh, Laurie, come in." Jim set his pencil aside and folded the pad shut over practice-sketches of the school's facade as the door opened. He wasn't that worried about using office-hours to draft his holiday gifts, but doing it while someone was talking to you was a little impolite. The telepath glanced at her hands as the blonde girl entered, though the box she held wasn't the focus of his attention. "Hey, how have you been? How are your hands?"

"Good, and healing. The lecture from Amelia was more interesting then the wounds, I think." Laurie replied, smile bright as she put the box down in front of him with a flourish. "Ta Da! One present from my mother faithfully delivered and nothing missing, Scout's honor...even if I never actually was a Scout."

"Being prepared is a pretty good strategy if there's a chance you can get 'surprise, volcano!'" Jim grinned and took the box from her. It had a gold bow wrapped around it, which was possibly Laurie's mother's version of a tamper-proof seal. "How was Hawaii, anyway? And thank you. This was really nice of your mom, even if you were mostly trying to stop an uprising in your kitchen. Also, chocolate I don't have to sit through dreidel for is automatically better."

"Hawaii was...weird, hectic as anything, and I managed to sober up some drunk guy simply because I was wanting him to stop being an arsehole really, really hard." Laurie replied, leaning her hip against the side of the doorway to get more comfortable. "Also, kids seem to love me."

Jim smiled. "Kid-love is one of the world's underrated talents, which becomes really, really obvious once you have to deal with a ton of them in a crisis. Although I hope this isn't like how cats love the professor, since love kind of sucks when it leads to hives." Jim glanced at the filter hanging around her neck, then back up to the girl's face with one eyebrow raised. "Your pheromones can actually sober somebody up? That's kind of interesting. Has anyone been able to explain how that works yet? And by that I mean 'explained already so you can give me the small words version because I lose at science.'"

"Well, from what they tell me, it has something to do with the endocrine system. Sort of like...Truthfully? It was all over my head too. It's why the Biology classes, I guess. So that one day I will understand, and that should lead to the whole 'better control of my powers' thing." Laurie replied, fidgeting with the air scrubber. "It kinda sucks having a power you need a degree in science to really understand and use properly, but I suppose it's an incentive to listen carefully in class."

"I don't know if you technically need it, but having the background would probably help. Having the science can be a shortcut. And it's pretty normal to specialize in your area of interest, which powers sometimes kind of force. That's why the million psychology books." Jim dropped his hand from the gesture at the bookshelf, noticing the slightly anxious edge to the girl's movements. "How's your actual training, anyway? The physical stuff? Or have you been working mostly the theory?"

"Um, well, Scott's been working with me on range." Laurie replied, somewhat nervous about this line of questioning. "And I've been working with Yvette a little, our powers kinda work well together since we can see the effects. But mostly it's theory otherwise, there's some things I think I could do but it wouldn't be nice to try on someone else. Right now, I can only do things on the macro level, and I've only recently figured out what my powers feel like when they're turned on. Kinda...tingly, it's weird."

"You can feel it now? That's great. It's not easy to find ways to train powers that aren't physically aggressive. At least if you're an energy projector something either blows up or it doesn't. If you've got one of the more intangible ones you just have to kind of . . . guess." Jim studied the smaller girl, a little concerned by the signs of obvious discomfort. The amount of eye-contact between them had just hit the bare minimum. That hadn't been there the first time they'd discussed her powers.

"Working with Yvette is good," he said slowly, setting the box of chocolate down on his desk, "your specific concerns sync pretty well. But would you be more comfortable testing things with a teacher? I mean, specifically for the less pleasant stuff." The man gave her a slight smile. "I mean, just a guess but some of that may be better to deal with under controlled circumstances than accidentally finding out on your roommate."

"Oh yes." Laurie replied, curious despite the anxiety she was currently feeling regarding her powers. "Were you volunteering?"

"Maybe," Jim smiled. "I mean, usually I just handle the psi-overflow from the professor, but your power's got this emotional component, so maybe we can fake something out."

He wasn't very comfortable with teaching, particularly outside his experience, but Jim had to think this might be worth the effort. If not because Laurie deserved another opportunity to train than because it had to be hard to have a power that could only be used on others -- especially if there was a chance of hurting someone. That he could understand.

I might never have learned to use telepathy if we hadn't had any other choice.

"I'd be grateful." Laurie replied, somewhat distractedly but then focusing fully on Haller again. "I'm scared of it sometimes, of hurting someone and not meaning to. Even the nicer things aren't always welcome."

Laurie thought of Jennie's response to her enquiry about not wearing the scrubber in the suite. Not everyone was comfortable with outward influences, even if said influences had benevolent motivations.

She didn't hate her powers, indeed, in the case of Yvette they'd proven helpful but she sometimes wished they were easier. Flight, or elemental control seemed so much more definite in its application.

'I'm scared of it sometimes.' Jim restrained the reflexive twitch of an eyebrow. There was something there. More than the initial experience that had brought Laurie to Xavier's. But for now, the counselor only nodded.

"I'll try to grab an intermittent Paige or Dr. MacTaggart. We'll work something out." The quiet statement turned into another lopsided smile. "You know, now that there's a little less bringing food to me in the infirmary."

"Well, if we didn't keep an eye on you, you'd be all skin and bones." Laurie replied with a grin, happy to be on somewhat safer ground. "Besides, who would we experiment on foodwise without your willingness to trust anything we give you?"

Jim's smile turned wry as he reached down to tap the box of chocolates. "Yeah. You don't need to worry about no one understanding you when you talk about the endocrine system. At Xavier's you'll always be able to fall back on the shared bond of force-feeding."