15059/MEIYO NO SAIKEN: Mezameru

MEIYO NO SAIKEN: Mezameru
Date of Scene:	01 June 2023
Location:	Medical Lab
Synopsis:	Logan wakes up from his coma and Jean fills him in on the details.
Cast of Characters:	Logan Howlett, Jean Grey

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Logan Howlett has posed:
Logan has been largely unresponsive since he was brought back from Japan. He'd been given the full medical examination, of course, and he was in fine health. His mutant healing factor had taken care of the wide variety of injuries he'd sustained and even seemed to be running more efficiently now. The reason? Well, they'd somehow removed the Adamantium from his bones. Without that constant source of poisoning to contend with, he healed much faster.

But still, he wouldn't wake up.

He lays unconscious in the medical lab beneath the X-Mansion, somewhere he can be monitored easily for any change. The beard he came back with has grown thicker and coarser in that time, and he show the limited amount of brain activity one might expect from a long-term coma victim.

There's a plate of untouched food next to his bed. Someone looks to have stopped by with high hopes.

Jean Grey has posed:
Logan isn't someone you worry about the same as... well, most other people. Still, Jean worried.

The condition he was returned in was rather unprecedented. Trying to reason through the medical possibilities of removing those 'enhancements' he'd suffered so much for, well, only points to a failure of medical reasoning. Jean isn't exactly the sort to jump to thinking about magic or other esoterica where science will do... but then again, she's been known to go a little esoteric herself, from time to time. "What on Earth could have done this to you..."

Yes, she's in the room, in this case, taking a watch. As a matter of record, she hasn't kept an eternal vigil, because her schedule hardly allows that kind of thing in the best of times, and they've been facing down an alien invasion. But she does check up on him. When she has idle time, or time she'd rather spend 'alone,' she takes the opportunity to visit.

And of course, she has Hank on orders to let her know if anything changes.

The plate she checks on, but since it's gotten cold, she starts cleaning up, idle fussing, mostly. She continues talking to herself: "I really hope you're not going to make me go in there."

Logan Howlett has posed:
Logan's head wasn't somewhere the Mansion's bevy of telepaths ventured. Full of unpleasant memories as it was, it was also surrounded by a barrier that made such visitations difficult. At least, it used to be. Now, he's as open as anyone else.

Perhaps that's why the flutter deep inside his unconscious mind, something barely detectable as it is, is detectable all the same.

Flashes of surface thoughts. Unbearable pain, sustained over hours. Days. His mind almost shutting off. Shutting down. As though that may, in some way, protect him. Burying the 'who' of him away in some deep, dark place that now opens up, blinking in the sudden light.

" ... keep yer ... brain t' yerself ... "

He mumbles. It's barely audible. His eyes still closed. Instead, he sniffs the air for a moment.

" ... dreamt I was in Japan ... "

Then, his eyes open and he looks blearily around himself at the medical lab.

" ... shit."

Jean Grey has posed:
Although Jean is chattering away, she truly does expect to be doing it alone. So it's quite a surprise that she gets any kind of answer. "Logan?!"

The plate is set where it was, forgotten, and she hurries back to the bed, looking between the medical monitors and the man himself. The first is more a practiced reflex from her training, as they haven't been showing anything too useful in days. So her attention quickly shifts, as she leans in slightly over one side. "Hey, you awake in there? Keep talking, bub." There's purpose to the banter, from her limited medical training: keep the patient talking, give them sounds to follow. Instinctively, she double-checks things telepathically, though without pushing any deeper than what seems to want to come to the surface.

"Wasn't a dream. Some old friends of yours showed up here, made a big mess. You did the 'heroic decoy' routine and they carted you off. So we sent some people to bring you home."

When his eyes open, they'll be met by the no doubt irritating flash of a small pen light, that Jean waves back and forth, to check his vision. "Gave us a scare, you know. Not a lot of things that can keep you down more than a couple hours."

Logan Howlett has posed:
"Don't ... 'member that ... " Logan admits, wincing against the harsh light of the medical lab and taking in the solidifying-but-blurry image of Jean, " ... bein' a decoy ... gettin' rescued ... "

He moves to sit up, and despite grunts and groans there's nothing in the way of injury or ill-health to give him discomfort. He takes a deep breath, rolling his shoulders and looking down at his arm with a critical eye.

"Didn't mean to worry you, Jeanie, just ... "

He trails off, shaking his head and looking back down at the same arm.

"Somethin' ain't right ... "

Jean Grey has posed:
"Give it a while, maybe some of it will come back to you." It's a fairly big 'maybe,' Jean knows. Memory like swiss cheese, this one...

When she's satisfied that his immediate physiological responses are, indeed, basically all physically 'fine,' she clicks off the light and steps back to give him a little more space, air. "It's alright. Comes with the territory, you know? Not the best part of the job, but it is what it is."

While he re-orients to his surroundings, Jean is silent at first, but closely observant. She knows, or at least has to imagine, that he'll realize something is wrong, but the exact 'how' of it is another one of these things beyond normal medical boundaries. How does one experience their own metal bones? Though in his case, she's always assumed the answer was 'painfully.'

After a moment, when it seems like he's catching on, she takes another step back, meaningfully shifting herself out of the way of some of the many monitoring screens up in the room. They've done X-rays, other scans. "I didn't know how to break it to you, exactly, if that's even the right word. But everything we looked at seems to confirm it."

Logan Howlett has posed:
" ... huh ... "

Logan's reaction isn't one of immediate panic or even loss. The metal was never something he wanted. It was a literal and figurative weight on him. But now that it's gone, well, he doesn't remember a time without it. Not really.

" ... mean, I guess ... yeah ... guess it's gone."

He lets out a heavy sigh, leaning back a little into the pillows and looking up towards the ceiling. He holds his hand out before him, turning it about as though seeing it for the first time.

"Funny. Didn't think I'd be ... I dunno ... happy to be without it. I'll miss the claws, tho - "

Flexing as though by muscle memory, there's a brief spurt of blood as claws of bone - not metal - emerge from his knuckles.

"Well, shit, look at that ... "

Another long, pregnant pause follows before his eyes turn slowly back to Jean.

"Can't just ... let 'em keep it, can I?"

Jean Grey has posed:
"It's good that you're taking it well. I wasn't entirely sure what to expect," Jean admits. "Of course it was never something you asked for or wanted, but still. We're creatures of habit. People grow accustomed to the familiar. Something that's been with you, a part of you, even if you didn't welcome it in the first place..." Oops. What were they talking about?

Regardless, Jeans double-checking another one of the displays when he double-checks that claw function, causing her to quickly look back, blinking.

"Well, now you've made a mess." So now she's off to grab something to help clean it up. "We saw the structures on the X-rays, weren't sure how functional they'd be... But I guess that answers that. Seems that part of you's all mutant."

She returns with some towels and sterile wipes, possibly overdoing it a bit, and leans over to help. "Here. I know you'll heal it just fine, but it's gross sitting there in the mess." This is possibly a way not to answer the question right away, or just more of her fussing.

She takes a breath. "Well, I assumed you'd want to do something about it, yes. Even if you're happier without, it's still... a theft, a violation. As for what they want it for, or what they could do with it? I don't know. Nothing good, obviously, although being honest, on the hierarchy of worries, 'ninjas with REALLY good swords' doesn't exactly top my threat-o-meter."

Logan Howlett has posed:
Logan is reluctant at first, the claw retracting and the injury knitting closed quicker than ever before. But he lets her dab away at the blood, cleaning it up as he sits there in thought with his hand partly in hers.

"God knows it feels like there's plenty of the stuff out there," he admits, "Cap's shield's made of it. Or leastways partly made of it. But, you're right about it bein' a theft ... no matter how it came to me, it came to me."

He takes another deep, thoughtful breath.

"Everyone who knows how to put it back the way it was is dead, far as I know. Or not in the business of tellin' me. But even if it's just a fancy paperweight for your desk, I think ... well, I think I need t' get it back."

He lifts his eys to Jean's, rubbing his thumb over the back of her hand through the towel for a moment before drawing it away.

"Y'know, I'm gonna have to learn how to balance all over again."

Jean Grey has posed:
As Jean plays nurse, she elaborates on the analysis playing out with only a very light 'mmm-hmmm.' She listens, but in this case, she CAN predict pretty well where things are going...

"Right." Of course he wants to do something. "Well, I could use a fancy paperweight." She gives him a slightly wry smile, but no fight or argument against it. To her, it probably isn't really anything more than stolen scrap metal, salvage. But it's the sort of thing...

She takes her hand back, still smirking, and jerks her other thumb back over her shoulder. "Well, Danger Room is just down the hall. I'm sure you'll get back in the swing of things in no time." A thoughtful pause. "Don't people do that kind of thing to build up strength? Work with extra weights on, resistance? Might end up you beat some of your old scores."

Of course, there are things it loses him, and they both know that. Positive thinking, for now.

"Alright." Stepping back, she puts her hands on her hips, looking him over on the bed. "I'm sure you're going to say you're feeling fine now, but no need to rush. Someone-" she has guesses! "-brought you down dinner, but it's gone cold. I'll toss it in the microwave, grab you a few things, alright?"

Logan Howlett has posed:
"Hurry back," Logan calls, settling back into the bed a little and appearing at least a little relaxed for the first time since he woke up. He takes a look at the cold dinner thoughtfully, as though trying to work out where it came from himself.

"Last face I can remember is this ugly summbitch glarin' at me in a glass tank. You're a step up from that for sure."