15308/Talking Things Through

Talking Things Through
Date of Scene:	04 July 2023
Location:	Monet's Room
Synopsis:	Jubilee comes to check on Monet and M reveals a painful secret.
Cast of Characters:	Monet St. Croix, Jubilation Lee

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Monet St. Croix has posed:
It's the next day after the fireworks. Monet has essentially entirely disengaged from everyone as soon as it was over. It's in the summer, there's no immediate field missions or training after a holiday, and very l ittle is going on. Normally M would take the chance to fly out to somewhere more spectactular over than Westchester, as she would no doubt say very often. But these last few months she's rarely gone out. Her presence has been very, very minimal. Occasionally leaving her room while at the Mansion, or when there was training or a field imssion. Otherwise, spending no time there. Yesterday had been the first time other than a random social event she had done something planned almost all year.

So, on this day in the early evening Monet is just sitting over in her room, brooding. She's not gone out since she shut herself in the night before. No leaving the Mansion, nothing grandiose.. Nothing in particular at all. The girl was taking being a shut in even more than usual instead of 'gracing' everyone with her presence and making sure she was appreciated.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    Jubilee took notice of Monet's behavior at the fireworks show last night, there's no doubt about it. Monet had been, actually, somewhat pleasant towards her. That's highly suspicious. But, she just spent a few minutes with her ear pressed up against the door to the apartment she used to share with Noriko, wanting to figure out if she was home or not. Two necks, one bite. Once that nonsense fell through, Jubilee made her way to Monet's room in the south hall.

    The knocking is rapid and unyielding, almost incredulous. How dare this door be between me and Monet? I came to talk to her!

    "Monet, it's Jubilee," she explains, though the knocking continues.

Monet St. Croix has posed:
There's a sigh from M as her solitude is intruded upon. "What /is/ it?" While there's an ongoing.. Antagonism between the two, Monet has never seen Jubilee do something purely for the sake of attacking her. So there's a level of trust in some ways. Or at least acceptance. Monet goes to open the door after a moment, gesturing at Jubilee. "You may come in." Permission was required - likely something more formal than just acknowledging the girl. What's a surprise about M's room is that it's..

Spartan. None of the massive displays of extravagance that one would think she would have. Closet overflowing wiht clothes, wardrobe and dresser.. But the room itself was empty of any sort of character.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    Jubilee actually smiles a little as Monet immediately invites her in. "Thanks, like, normally people make me stand out there for a little while before, you know, inviting me in..." she says. It's just one of the indignities of being undead.

    "So, uh..." Jubilee's train of thought is interrupted by the room, now that she's inside it. "...You, like, moving out?" Jubilation slowly looks around for any evidence of that. "....or...in?"

    Jubilation reaches out and picks something up -- just some item, something personal no doubt -- and inspects it for a moment. Just a little moment of making herself at home before putting it back down.

    "So, uh, like... You seem off, Monet," is what Jubilee leads with. "Last night... You were kinda nice to me. I thought maybe you might have a brain parasite or something."

Monet St. Croix has posed:
What Jubilee picks up over from the dresser where it had been haphazardly set - likely what Mone thad been looking at before Jubilee had come in.. It's a picture of two young, identical girls that look to be somewhere around ten, maybe eleven. The same complexion as M, dark hair.. Likely her sisters.
    "What brought you by here? And I'm not departing anytime soon." Her tone having an 'I wouldn't do you that big a favor' tone of voice to it. Then Jubilee oges to make her inquiry over and Monet goe sto let out a sigh.. Her expression souring as she can be almost seen trying to figure out how tog o about replying..
    "I haven't the energy." To be smug? To be superior? To lord it over some of the others wiht how perfect she was?

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    "You haven't the energy..." Jubilee repeats. Something about that draws out a frown. Or is it simply thought? Is Monet's natural state /not/ being a total See You Next Tuesday? Does it require energy?

    "That's weird!" Jubes decides simply. It's just something she announces while idly wandering around the room, looking at this, poking at that, just like she owns the place. Eventually, she finds herself back at the photo.

    "Is this you?" she asks, poking one of the faces in the photo with her finger. "...Or is that you? Who's that? Who's this?"

Monet St. Croix has posed:
There's a look of pain that flashes over M's face. It's buried quickly but Jubilee's enhanced vampire-senses can pick it up. "My sisters, Nicole and Claudette." Seeing that wouldn't likely explain things. "They're twins. Claudette has.. Low functioning autism and is non communicative." The light hesitation in her voice before it seeps away is in the 'something bad happened to them' expression. That's very, very quickly smoothed over like it was never there.
    "They remain with my family over in Morocco." That bit is flat enough that it's easily trackable as a lie.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    "Ohhhh," Jubilation replies, making a point to move the photo a little bit, unnecessarily so, perhaps as an overt bit of contrast to Monet herself. Jubilee is a little like a gas in that she'll expand to fit all containers if there's a chance it'll get her some attention.

    "Like, I'm not calling you a big, fat liar or anything... But that's all B.S., isn't it?" Jubilation just comes out and says it, as though the thought was too big for her brain to keep to itself.

    Now seated on the bed with her legs dangling over the side, Jubilee raises both eyebrows and tilts her head forward. "I don't wanna freak you out or anything, but I can literally hear your heartbeat right now. And, like, I know I'm lookin' good as hell these nights, but that heartbeat sounds like a liar's heartbeat."

    Jubes makes it worse by pointing a finger.

Monet St. Croix has posed:
There's a look over on M's face that's one of total pain and agony for just a passing moment over as exhaustion sets over her. Of something long since held back finally collapsing over. "Since you really want to know." That should be accompanied with a 'I'm going to tell you since you made a big deal out of it' according to how normal-M went. But none of that is there.
    Her tone goes completely flat. Completely passive and neutral with no emotion over to it. "They have been kidnapped by my brother whom is torturing them and using them as meat puppets. He has stated very clearly if I or anyone goes to rescue them he will kill them both." Ther'es no sort of elaboration on that. No buildup to it. And total sincerity on her face - well, as much emotiona s there can be with her expression looking like it's on life support.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    "First off, don't say 'whom'... it's a made-up word that's, like, never correct," Jubilation points out, sounding totally sure of herself. "Second..."

    Her voice trails off. But, she finds it.

    "...He's gotta sleep, right?" Jubilee asks, standing from her seat on the bed. "...Like, he can't be...uh... 'meat puppeting' 24/7, right?" And there she is. Jubilation 'Ride or Die' Lee. It took a sentence, maybe two, before she starts coming up with plans. And she doesn't even like Monet that much.

Monet St. Croix has posed:
Monet St. Croix would shake her head, "He.. Does not. He's a potent psionic that has crafted himself a separate dimensional plane." Why does she speak like she knows exactly what it's like and what her brother is doing?
    "He kept me the same way for several years. Now he's doing the same to my sisters." Somehow she's not at the point of emotional and physical collapse despite the weight of the words. It's something she's long since buried and reinforced her walls to not do so.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    "Oh... Well, what about..." Jubilation can't argue with a separate dimensional plane. She couldn't argue with it even if she understood what it was.

    "Look, it's been a while for me, but I'm pretty sure that he's gotta eat, right? And if he eats, he's gotta.... You know..." Jubes tilts her head a couple times in the direction of the bathroom. The thing she doesn't do anymore.

    But, it's hopeless. She knows it's hopeless. She can hear it in Monet's tone and in her chest. "...Oh..." she quietly mutters in response to the additional details. "...So, like, that's why you're...uh..."

    C'mon Jubes, don't ruin this...

    "...Miss Congeniality?"

Monet St. Croix has posed:
    Taking a deep breath, "He's a psionic vampire who absorbs the life force from mutants. He feeds.. In not the same way that you do." By that she meant 'by blood'. "He's nowhere close to human. His physiology has been altered so much he's.." An abomination? Well past it?
    She goes to at least break into a small, timid simle at what Jubilee is saying. She's taking it as a joke. Which by the look on her face she really, really needs right about now. Her expression smooths over and goes to move bck towards neutrality. "I can't risk him coming to the Mansion. Or to Genosha. Or to Bushwick."

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    "Woah, woah, woah..." Jubilee tries to stop Monet at the first indication that there's a comparison being made. "I'm gonna just, like, take all that as 'Hey, Jubes, my brother is a real a-hole and isn't anything like you, in fact I don't even know why I'm bringing you up!'"

    She gives Monet a sideways smirk. It's the expression of someone who wanted to glare but also keep things friendly.

    And here comes Jubilee's lesson in defense mechanisms.

    "Okay, so, like, you've got all that on your shoulders... and, like, you can't do anything about it, right?" Jubes continues. "I mean, that's what I'm hearing. So, you act all...." Jubilee squints one eye and opens her mouth, trying to make a ghoulish sort of face. "..bleeeeehhhhh...."

    "Right?"

Monet St. Croix has posed:
Whatever sort of risk of further loss of self control was there, Monet's face has reassembled itself along with it and has gone back to her normal sense of neutrality. There's none of her normal smugness there or irritability. "My sisters are being tortured, there's no way for me to rescue them without them being killed. I just can't.."
    Jubilee may or may not know (or care) but it took a lot of energy to be as indifferent to the world as M was. So at times when total exhaustion hit.. "I thought the event would be a nice change of pace." But she's not saying or not whether she enjoyed it or regretted it. "But thank you for coming to check on me. It is appreciated."

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    "Well, lookit..." Jubes begins, now starting to pace around the room a little. "You don't need to, like, be all happy and all that if you don't want to. But, like, if you're thinking you're doing a bad thing by sitting down on a picnic table and having a good time with your friends... you know, because your sisters can't... That's not how it is."

    Jubes picks up another item, looks at it, puts it down. She does this a few more times. "...Because if they're stuck like that... and you can't do /anything/ about it... then you might as well live for all three of you. I mean, every once in a while." She shrugs and moseys over to the door, picking up on Monet's use of the universal 'thank you for coming...' social cue.

    "It wouldn't make you a bad person to have some fun every once in a while," Jubes adds, shrugging again to downplay her own point a little bit. Best not to push it too much. She lingers by the door for a moment before reaching for the knob.

Monet St. Croix has posed:
    By the way that Monet's face would contort, what Jubilee was saying didn't make sense. Not in a completely snippy and dismissive way, but in a genuine look of confusion over on it. Like someone had just told her something that she had never encountered before.
    "I.. It feels like I am doing them a disservice while I celebrate while they suffer. I know how they must feel. I.." Her shoulders slump as she composes herself. "Thank you for.. Coming and for caring." It is more than most do. And it's also a large part of why she presents herself this way. It keeps people emotionally away.
    She glances over at Jubilee with appreciation on her face, even as she just looks like she's holding herself together to not cry.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    "Yeah, like, I get it... I mean, a bunch of us here probably get it. Whole lotta orphans in this place," Jubes reminds, saying it as casually as she can. They may be having something that resembles a heart-to-heart, but Monet is an Outsider and, so, she gets 'Jubilee' and not 'Jubilation.'

    "I'm just sayin... if you can't change it... you might as well have a good time when you can." She shrugs again and opens the door. "Doesn't mean you're doing them a disservice... /ACTUALLY/...." Jubes steps through the doorway. "...I bet they'd be glad to know you got to go down the Crocodile Mile a couple times." Another shrug.... and then she's gone!