LOG - Manuel and Kitty - "Sanatarium"

[x-empath.livejournal.com]

Who: Manuel and Kitty
Where: Student Lounge
When: Saturday evening, around 8PM-ish
What Happens: Manuel asks Kitty to do him a favor. She refuses.
Rating: PG-13



After dinner, Kitty wandered back towards the rec room. Jubilee had wandered off some where, but chances were good there'd be something worth watching on tv, or failing all else she could pop a movie in. And who knew, someone might be around. She hadn't seen most of the rest of the students yet, since they'd only been back a few hours.

Manuel, for his part, was dressed all in his usual black, and haunting the darker, unlit corners of the Rec Room. He had his iPod on, music blaring, and at the sight of Kitty he stepped a little further back into the comforting darkness, just watching her with dull, lifeless eyes.

Not expecting anyone to be sitting in the nearly dark corners of the room, Kitty assumed no one was here. With a quick motion she hoped over the back of the couch, crossing her legs as she settled down and reaching out for the remote on the table, bending over nearly in half as she stretched to grab it.

Manuel, even through the darkness that his days had become, smiled thinly as Kitty stretched. Content for now to watch her watch TV, he racked his admittedly poor memory to remember who she was.

Turning the television on, Kitty began to idly flip through channels, not really looking for anything, just browsing - clearly she didn't have any idea what would normally be on tv on a Saturday night and so had no real desire to see something specific.

Manuel racked his memory while Kitty channel-surfed, until finally a dim recollection came to him. Jamie's woman. The one who walked through walls. He seemed to remember something about her and a laptop ... that she had destroyed by using her power on it. On his wrist, his power-dampener seemed to warm in retaliation to the direction of his thoughts. He cleared his throat loudly, to get her attention.

At the noise Kitty started, her head whipping around, eyes wide. "Who...?" she started, then spotted Manuel. "Oh, hello. I didn't know anyone was here."

Manuel stepped forward, into slightly better lighting. "Good evening." he said, his accent nearly destroying his words. "You are ... Kitty, yes?"

Kitty nodded. "Yep. Manuel, right?" Not that there was really in question in her mind - between his accent and his thinness there wasn't anyone else he could be.

"Si, si." he said in Castillian, forgetting himself slightly. "I am Empath. Tell me something, if you would. You are the girl who walks through walls, si?"

Kitty nodded. "Yeah, that's me. We've not really met before, which I should probably apologize for."

Manuel waved that away as inconsequential. "I have not introduced myself either. There is no slight or fault." he says, struggling with his English a little bit. "Am I interrupting you?"

"Nope, not at all. I hope I wasn't disturbing you," she adds, gesturing towards the tv, curious about why he had been off in the corner of the room.

Manuel shook his head slightly. "No, no. It is ... OK. I was just ... thinking." he says slowly. "How was your trip?" He then stares at her rudely, like he's trying to ponder what she'd look like in the nude.

The look unnerved Kitty, but doing her best not to show it, Kitty said, "It was fun. I got to show Jamie around my old stomping grounds at home, and we got to met a friend of his in Minnesota."

"You feel like you had a good time, so that is good." he said as he stopped staring so creepily at her. "Very happy colors, lots of bright reds and pinks and yellows."

"Oh?" Kitty asked, cocking her head. "That's what you were posting about the other day, right? Being able to 'see' emotions is one of your powers?"

Manuel nodded by way of answer. "I'm an empath. I can see emotions, and when permitted to, alter them however I wish."

"However _you_ wish?" she asked, the inflection slight but noticable.

"Yes. I can suppress them, exaggerate them, or change them. It's rather complicated. Or, at least I used to be able to. Now I can only see them, and not very well at that. The colors are all smudged and faded." he offered by way of explanation.

Kitty nodded, slightly wary. "Well, I'm sorry to hear you're still having trouble then."

"I ... have my good days and my bad days." he said casually. "Which is why I wanted to talk to you. I'm glad I found you here."

"Oh?" She raised an eyebrow, the wariness increasing slightly. "Well, I'm listening."

Manuel, even as fuzzed and muted as he is, can see the wariness. "You have nothing to fear from me." he says dismissively. "I can see your fear, but I can't do anything about it. This is why I need your help. Kind of."

That got the second eyebrow up. "Oh yes? Do tell."

Manuel twisted his lips into what might, charitably, be called a half-smile. "I need my power in order to think straight. When I'm blocked like this, I fall into terrible depressions and I find it very hard to think or to remember. You can help me with this problem - if just for a little while."

"Oh," Kitty said, a hint of sympathy in her voice and her aura. "What do you want me to do, though?"

Manuel looked around, as if looking for anyone who may be watching. "I want you to help me remove the bracelet for just an hour. Just so I can feel again, and take a breath of free air. Then you can put it back on my wrist, and I will go back to being blocked like I am now. Will you do this for me?"

Kitty furrowed her brow. "What do you mean? If it comes off you can take it off, if it doesn't I can't help."

"No, it's electronically locked. That's where you come in. You're skilled enough to be able to disrupt the lock and not the dampener itself. Just for a little while, please. I'll do whatever you want." he said urgently.

Kitty's eyebrows went back up. "No, probably not," she said frankly. "I doubt they're on seperate power sources, so if I disrupted one the other would go too. Besides, if none of the doctors have said it can come off... no deal."

Manuel's expression fell like he'd been kicked. "Do you want me to beg? I will. Please, take this thing off of me. It is suffocating me, I cannot be _me_ with it on!" And then he drops to both knees, still facing Kitty. "I will beg, if you want me to. Please."

Kitty's eyebrows shot up. "No, no. I don't want you to beg, but I _can't_ do it."

"Yes, you can. You're supposed to be some sort of electronics genius. If I have it, it is yours. Name your price. I have a laptop, a synthesizer ... they're yours if you will do this for me." he replied, still on his knees, face turned up to look Kitty dead in the eye.

"I'm not _bargining_, Manuel. That thing's on for a reason. If Dr. Samson thinks you're ready for it to come off it will."

"Samson sees a life on Easy Street dissecting my power. He doesn't care about me - he is jealous. I know, I've sense it. Please, I am begging you. Remove this thing from me, for just a few minutes. Five minutes, that's all I ask. What harm could there be?" he pleaded.

Her eyes narrowed. "Dr. Samson's _not_ trying to use you, Manuel, and I'm telling you that if I shorted the lock the whole thing would short. I'm _not_ doing it."

Manuel tore his fingers through his hair, gripping it and then releasing it. "You don't understand what I am going through here! You know what it is to have your will taken away! This _thing_ is draining my will, my very ability to _be_." His hands reflexively clenched into fists at his sides. "PLEASE. You talk about wanting to do good, to help people? Help me, here, now!"

"I'm sorry," she said, her voice small, her eyes dropping to the ground. "No. I... I can't second guess them. I can't say what they're doing isn't the right thing, isn't going to help you. Not again."

Manuel seemed to collapse inward upon himself, wrapping his arms around himself and hugging tightly. "I ... see. So Empath does not deserve help. He is beyond contempt. I am sorry to distress you with my problem. I will leave you be."

"Manuel, no!" Kitty's eyes flew back up, filled with tears. "No. I... I... I _can't_! I can't do it again. I was _wrong_, and Betsy..." And then she stopped, staring at him. "You..."

Manuel looked back up at Kitty, his own eyes red-rimmed with tears. "I ... what?" he asks, voice cracking.

She shook her head, although her whole being was filled with doubt. Not answering his question, she said, "No, Manuel. I won't help. If you honestly don't trust Dr. Samson talk to Ms. Frost, or Dr. Mactaggart, or someone with the authority to do this."

Manuel blinked his own tears away, then nodded once. "I see. I dared to hope. I should know better by now." He then rises to his feet awkwardly, and bows to Kitty like a courtier. "Good day, Katherine." he says before slumping towards the door.

"I'm sorry, Manuel," she said softly, head bowed.

"Not as sorry as I am." he said without turning around, before he slipped out of the Rec Room.

As his footsteps headed down the hall, Kitty brought a hand up, brushing away the tears that were forming in her eyes, then flipped the television off, curling up in the corner of the couch just staring into space.