xp_logs | Genosha: For Free Trade

Laurie curled into a ball at the back of their cell, her arms clasped tightly around her knees as cramps, alternated with bouts of hot and cold sweating, wracked her body. Her power was so intrinsic to her body, that having it turned off caused no end of problems with her biology. She was currently cataloging how long she'd last before suffering serious damage to internal organs, and hoped that rescue would happen sooner rather then later.

"Adrienne?" she asked after a time, having waited for the guard to hopefully be far enough away that a low voiced comment or two wouldn't attract attention.

The psychometrist- well, former psychometrist- was sitting on the slab rubbing her fingertips together. They felt like they were freezing, she couldn't get them to feel warm no matter how much she rubbed or where she stuck them. It was possible, she supposed, that they weren't really cold at all, that she'd just gotten used to them being warmer than normal because of her powers so now that she was without her powers what was actually normal felt cold, but whatever the reason she couldn't seem to stop rubbing them. Never mind the fact that being able to actually touch things now just felt incredibly odd.

Laurie's voice snapped her out of the reverie she'd been in, though she didn't stop rubbing her fingers together when she got up from the slab and went over to the fetal ball that was her cell mate. "Yeah, Lor?" she asked, kneeling next to her. "You okay?" She stroked Laurie's hair, something she hadn't been able to do since she was eleven without her hands covered.

"Mentally? Determined not to give them any reason to hurt us, which I think is what they're looking for," Laurie responded, looking up at Adrienne when she felt the touch on her hair. She smiled slightly, thankful for the gesture of comfort. "Physically the changes in my body chemistry may prove less then ideal over time."

It helped to break things down into a clinical discussion of cause and effect, meant she wasn't so concentrated on the fact that she might well die if left without powers for too long. Organ failure of one type of another was definitely on the cards if this went on for more then a few days, although possibly not before her muscles would start feeling the effects.

Adrienne really didn't like the sound of that. She sat on the floor, drawing her knees up to her chest, and kept stroking Laurie's hair. "Don't worry about 'over time,' sweetness," she said, trying to keep optimistic. She patted Laurie's back, rubbing in small circles. "We're not gonna be here that long. They're coming to get us. XFI, the Trenchcoats, the X-Men. This is why we're so damn nice to people, right? So they'll rescue us when shit like this happens!"

"I hope so," Laurie said, a smile that became a grimace, as another shudder hit her nerves, ghosting across her mouth. "Think the reason they've got us all naked is they're losers who can't get a real date?"

She didn't let on that their guard had come to look in on them again, keeping her gaze on Adrienne. While she might outwardly cooperate in order to avoid more injury, that didn't mean she was happy about their situation. A chance to needle their captors was not beneath her.

Being a champion antagonizer, Adrienne had no trouble needling their captors. "I think that's exactly why," she answered with a sage nod, her tone light. "I think this is how they have to get their rocks off because they're bottom-dwelling shit-eaters no woman-or man- would touch with a fifty foot pole, and they're too fucking broke to buy porn. They couldn't watch it anyways because they all live with their mothers. And when they don't have people kidnapped to watch naked in cells, they have to sneak into their mothers' rooms at night and take peeks under the covers. Except they're too unimaginative to think up sex fantasies so they have to picture their mothers when they jack off."
"I think maybe neither of us really needed that image," Laurie replied, wrinkling her nose. "How are your hands?"

She'd seen Adrienne rubbing them, and thinking about something else that didn't have to do with her own problems would honestly be much preferable then sitting here dwelling on issues she could do nothing about.

"Cold," Adrienne answered, frowning. "And itchy. They're driving me nuts. Or maybe I'm just obsessing with them because it beats obsessing about what the fuck's happened to us," she added in a wry tone. "It's so weird, being able to touch things without getting the history beamed into my brain. And even weirder realizing I miss it."

"It's a useful skill, even if the implementation by your genetics was problematic," Laurie noted, smiling after a moment when she realized how clinical that sounded. "It's a part of you, part of your sense of self, having it taken away forcefully is a violation of that self. So missing it is not so weird."

"Wow, I just got a flash of Doc Jean there," Adrienne grinned at Laurie. "And I mean that as the utmost of compliments." She was still stroking Laurie's hair and back. "You wanna try to sleep on the concrete slab?" she offered. It probably wouldn't make much difference but at least it was a little further from the toilet than they currently were.

"Sleep would be good," Laurie admitted, looking at the slab with an air of uncertainty. "I think maybe sleeping in shifts will be safer, just in case they try to pull some sort of fast one in the night."

Adrienne nodded. That had been exactly what she was offering- to let Laurie sleep while she kept watch. "Sounds like a plan. I'll even let you use me as a pillow if you want," she added, even managing a grin and an eyebrow waggle as she said it, trying to make light of the hellish situation.

"I'd just make your legs fall asleep," Laurie pointed out with a soft smile but she hefted herself slowly to her feet, holding onto Adrienne for a moment as her legs protested the weight of her body. "I hope nobody in the rescue party wants me to run."

"My legs have been through worse," Adrienne shrugged in response to the comment about making them fall asleep. She helped Laurie over to the concrete slab, a pang of worry making her stomach clench at Laurie's last statement. It wasn't so much the fact that Laurie couldn't run during the rescue Adrienne knew was coming that made her nervous, it was being reminded of the fact that being without her mutation was making Laurie this ill. What if they could never get their mutations back after their rescue? What would happen then to the people like Laurie whose mutations affected them so much they couldn't live without them? She bit her lip at the thought. A guard stared in at them and Adrienne flipped him off silently. "There are a lot of really smart, capable people coming to get us," she finally said to Laurie in an attempt to address both Laurie's statement and her own unsaid questions. "They'll figure something out. They'll make sure we get out of this."

Genosha: For Free Trade - Lost and Forsaken