4139/Debfriefing Emma Frost

Debfriefing Emma Frost
Date of Scene:	15 November 2020
Location:	Security Center
Synopsis:	Jean plays inquisitor, Emma faces her actions, and her student victims ponder what it means - and takes - to forgive.
Cast of Characters:	Jean Grey, Emma Frost, Kitty Pryde, Noriko Ashida

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Jean Grey has posed:
Since their return from the facility, Emma has been a 'guest' of the Xavier School and the X-Men. Already, this raises questions: they are an educational institution first and foremost, and while the X-Men may fight for justice, they are ill-prepared and philosophically disinclined toward becoming a prison or other sort of correctional facility. If Emma is truly a criminal, their only recourse will be turning her over to the proper authorities. In the mean time, she's been given a relatively comfortable guest room but also has retained the inhbitor collar and kept under monitoring.

Now, in the aftermath of the rescue and with a good night's sleep to recover from the incident, Jean has Emma brought for a debriefing- alongside her victims.

"This seems the fairest way to handle this. We'll give you a fair hearing, Miss Frost, but we'll also hear both sides. You've taken friends, students- but there's evidence that you were a victim of things as well. So why don't you explain to us what happened." Then she glances at her fellow X-folk. "Feel free to jump in and add or correct anything that you don't find suitably factual. Although I warn you, Miss Frost that with that collar in place, your defenses should be little match for me."

Emma Frost has posed:
    Emma sits down, and crosses her legs at the knee, pressing down the borrowed clothes and making sure there's no creases or seams in the grey Xavier's sweatpants she wears along with the matching hoodie, at least helping to distract from that awful awful collar. "I took no one. Let the record reflect that truth." She says, lacing her fingers and resting them on the underside of her knee as she rocks softly in her uncomfortable chair. "I was tasked with erasing the minds of those that had been selected to be in the Hellfire advancement programs."

    Emma holds up a finger, knowing someone will take exception to that statement and condem her just for that, but she continues. "I wasn't doing that, but I was locking away personalities to be unlocked by myself or any other suitable telepath that could save the minds later. I didn't know these people were being killed." She says sharply and with conviction.

Kitty Pryde has posed:
Kitty still has a few bruises from her capture, from the struggle during the moments between when she was hit by the tranq dart and when the drug had finally done its work. The dehydration wasn't too hard to overcome, given the relatively speedy rescue by the X-men that kept the captivity numbering in just a few days.

That doesn't do anything for her attitude though. She's sitting in a chair, a glass of juice in front of her that was forced on her by one of the medical staff. Lockheed is sitting on her shoulder. His eyes have been pretty intently on Emma the whole time. Reading the expressions of extra-terrestrial dragons can be difficult, even for the telepaths with working powers given he has never been readable by them. But if one wanted to attribute that intent look to a desire to flambé Emma, they probably wouldn't be far off.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
Noriko's certainly looking better than she was when being held captive.  In fact, she's bounced back rather quickly with only bags under her eyes and her non-electro energy sort of flagging like anyone who had little sleep.  With her gauntlets destroyed, it hasn't been uncommon for her to take tiny breaks to slog to somewhere she can discharge and keep everyone safe by keeping everything low.

Nori's arms are folded, one leg bent to cross her other at the ankle as she leans back against a wall off to the side where she can clearly see Emma and the profiles of some of her elders.  Although her healing is sped up by her metabolism, Noriko has been subject to some of the same medical treatment as Kitty.  Only she's drinking juice casually out of a Big Gulp.  Currently, she's got an effortless poker face as if she were turned off by something.

Jean Grey has posed:
Jean rolls her eyes a little at that 'let the record reflect.' "We're recording, so it will reflect everything. But this isn't a court room. There aren't any charges. All we're deciding, myself and the other senior faculty by whatever standards we see fit, is if we feel you were more the victim than the villain. Compassion is Charles Xavier's -foremost- belief, and if you deserve it, then we'll offer it- we've helped troubled mutants before. If not? You'll get a formal legal process when we hand you over."

That said, she concedes: "But alright, you didn't do any of the physical abductions. You were -aware- of them, however? That these people were hardly volunteers? I think you'd agree that constitutes a certain degree of complicity, yes?" She gives Emma a moment there, her expression expectant. "Explain the operation, to the extent of your own understanding of it. Why were you locking them away, what was the end goal, the purpose of the whole thing?"

Here and there, she glances at Kitty and Noriko, monitoring their reactions, searching if she sees any reaction or desire to speak up further. And after a little more, she wonders of them, "Did either of you see much of what was going on? Or were you largely unconscious or locked out of sight?"

Emma Frost has posed:
    Emma takes a breath, okay, not a court session, she doens't need to keep the legal face up, but it- no, she needs to be vulnerable, and play into that desire for compassion and faith. Emma takes another deep breath, and rubs at the arm of her hoodie. Itchy materials. Frustrating. She frowns and looks towards Jean and those brilliant eyes.

    "I was aware, but they were only temporary, and it was supposed to be a means of protecting us more than harming them. We were copying the genomes of the mutants to ensure they will live on, and maybe even be cultivated into second, third and fourth generation mutants with desireable ... parental combinations of abilities. If that makes sense. We were going to be breading the best. The people who would truly lead mutants into the top of the world." Emma says, biting at the inside of her lip and frowning. "I was told we would copy their genomes and then release them once the DNA has been mapped. But... then... then I saw the bodies and I knew... I just knew Shaw and them had to be stopped. They're in the wrong." Emma says, a single tear lingers in her eye, but doesn't fall, not yet.

Kitty Pryde has posed:
Kitty's arms are crossed, and if that actually is not the body language sign that people commonly think it is, in this case it definitely does signal her feelings about Emma Frost. "We could see the others in the cages, see them taken down below, but didn't know what for," Kitty tells Jean, and glances to Noriko if she wants to add to that. "When... Miss Frost arrived, she didn't seem surprised to see us in cages. And she selected me to 'be next' and they started getting me out of the cage. Which is when she saw a cart of dead bodies brought out. Which she seemed surprised by and reacted negatively too. Which is when they collared her and gave her her own cage," Kitty says.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
No prior history with Emma and pretty much no understanding of anything most people seem to be familiar with such as Hellfire club, or other words that make her eyes float over to the others for some sign of recognition.  Her eyes settle on Jean.  "All I know is what I saw."  Noriko looks over to Kitty and nods.  "That happened.  I also saw that she looked worried at some point...when she came in.  I think before the bodies came out?  I was kind of getting woozy."

Jean Grey has posed:
<<Everything about you may be artificial, Frost, but don't think you can fake your way through this.>>

A reminder, to go with that first warning. Collar. Emma's tremendously disciplined, but without proper psychic shields, Jean is already there, in her head. She can't get at everything... not yet. But she's pushing, peeling away the layers of mundane mental discipline and not being especially polite or respectful about it, the way she normally would be. Her voice is a reminder, tinged with more anger than she would normally let show, the meaning clear: These are her people, and Emma's hurt them.

Externally, however, Jean maintains her poise, although her expression certainly shows outward disgust at what is being discussed, divulged about the Club's little project. "Eugenics, in other words. Meddling in the very evolutionary processes that have already given us such gifts." And then, with a touch of sarcastic humor: "I didn't know that was a specialty of your 'social club.' Did you have outside contacts? You and Shaw have always seemed very friendly in public, surely you saw more of the inner circle's workings than most?"

Kitty's report, soon bolstered by Noriko's, also gets a confirming nod. Her expression is dark, to say the least, no doubt particularly so when it comes to imagining how close Kitty might have come to ending up like some of those others. Yet... "That does suggest she at least has /some/ kind of doubt, some hint of a conscience."

Emma Frost has posed:
    "It was supposed to be a currated, careful version of planning for the future, and if you think the humans aren't doing the exact same thing to try and stay ahead of us, you hold them in much higher regard and at a greater distance than I." Emma retorts, though this doesn't need to get into an ethical debate. It's about keeping herself alive, and out of jail, and there's that desire she has always felt. She obviously cares about mutants and their future. "Of course there's contacts, and I'll feed you all I can, but Shaw and Selene. They were careful to not ..." She stops and looks towards Kitty and Noriko with a look back to Jean and a though <<I don't feel safe telling you these things in front of the children.>> Emma does feel care for others. She doesn't want to put this on the kids, even though they've already been in it and delt with it.

    "I'll give you the contacts I have, and I do want to rip Shaws head off, and burn that club to the ground... But, I understand where you're coming from."

Kitty Pryde has posed:
Kitty's lips are pressed into a thin line, the muscles in her jaw visibly tight. Her expression is nothing compared to Lockheed's intent stare though. "You seemed quite willing to erase me as a person. Yet were far from willing to make the same sacrifice for 'the cause'. So don't give me this bullshit about there being anything noble in what you were doing," Kitty says.

She leans forward, setting her hands on the table. "You were doing that, to kids. I grew up hearing stories from relatives who survived concentration camps, and I found it difficult to contemplate that level of evil. I don't need to contemplate it any longer, Miss Frost. I've encountered it, and those who enabled it. And don't for a moment think enabling it makes you any less responsible for not having been the mastermind of it."

Noriko Ashida has posed:
"There's no way to know what she would have done, but it wouldn't have surprised me if she prioritized saving her own skin.  I mean that's what I would do."  Which, immediately sounds bad, and Noriko pushes her mouth to the side in thought.  "I mean, to get backup."  But this is all conjecture, and the teen doesn't really know it's probably not helpful.  She quiets up again, settling into that pouty perturbed look, slitted eyes.

When Emma looks her and Kitty's ways, Noriko just keeps edging toward a look of constipation by adding some disgusted confusion to the mix.  "Why couldn't you just ask people for consent...like a contract or something? Seems kind of...extreme.  Seems like the fact that they wanted your powers involved was the first smelly thing that it was something horrible.  I don't know."  More thinking aloud in possibly inappropriate places.  She lasted a little while at least and has enough sense to shut up and let Kitty speak.

Jean Grey has posed:
The fact that Jean would not prefer a debate on that topic is at least one thing she shares in common with Emma. Of course, she has a somewhat unique view on the meaning of evolution when she's housed its avatar in her own flesh, listened to the song of-

A gesture assents to move on to other topics, and Jean leashes in her own wandering thoughts to focus on the moment. And while Emma could presumably tell Jean all those secret, not-for-kids details in the moment, she doesn't press for any more telepathically, either. "It goes without saying that if we're giving you a chance, it's conditional on that assistance. You will be expected to give us everything you know and help us root out the organization, or at least, these parts of its operations engaged in this sort of thing." She recognizes they may be dealing with a foe of particular scale, and the school is limited in its resources. "But we'll handle all of those details in the relevant mission discussions."

As the younger pair unloads with their many observations and complaints, she gives them room to speak, to lay it all on Emma. In fact, it's purposeful, because inside Emma's mind, she's observing her reactions, hunting for the sense of genuine guilt that would suggest they're dealing with a person and not an icy, calculating simulacra of the same. "We're not going to make a decision today, obviously. We'll take this and discuss it among the faculty, taking the students feelings into consideration."

Which does prompt a question, and a serious one from Jean, to them rather than to Emma: "Do you think its possible for her to make it right? People do terrible things, in this world, for all kinds of reasons. Evil, sometimes. But also for survival," and she seems to acknowledge Noriko's own little 'slip' here, "Or just plain stupidity. Some refuse to admit to their errors, and double down. But others do eventually repent. Should we treat them the same?"

Emma Frost has posed:
    Emma's mind is quickly trying to come up with ways for her to put Kitty down, about how several things today wouldn't have been possible without the Nazi's, about how they are the worst of humanity, but also how humanity did benefit in no small way from things that came of the atrocities. But she quashes that an a wave of sin washes down from Emma's shoulders down into her back, resting in her belly. "Do not confuse me for such filth. I was not sacrificing lives and I was putting my own at risk by not." Emma wants to stand up, but she remains seated, fighting to fight against such appaling words and yet, the child isn't entirely wrong and Emma feels it. She messed up. She screwed up. ... What would Janet think... Janet...

    Emma sucks in a harsh breath, but falls silent, ignoring Jean's last statements, or at least not responding to them, as she feels like she's being given no other options.

Kitty Pryde has posed:
Kitty Pryde looks over to Noriko as she speaks. Kitty's reaction to what Noriko said isn't one of condemnation, and Jean at least might pick up Kitty thinking about how it wasn't until she was put in a position of having to choose that Kitty found out such things about herself.

The question from Jean draws Kitty's eyes back to the woman that she's looked up to since that day Jean appeared in the attic Kitty was hiding in after the X-men who came to recruit her were abducted. "I've asked myself that so many times," Kitty says. "Erik," she adds, and a hand moves unconsciously to the necklace she wears with the Star of David hanging from it. "And I still don't have an answer."

The stare that Kitty gives Emma though probably signals that she doesn't think there's any confusing going on in the comparison. "I don't trust her Jean. You can tell better than I what is in her heart," she says, the latter statement said in a way that suggests Kitty is fine with Jean making the decision here. She rises then, picking up her juice and moving away further in the room. Not leaving, but for the moment removing herself from the center of the conversation.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
It's not that Nori isn't chewing through some of the more complex and fiery, deeper emotions...it's just that, okay she isn't.  She's not processing them fast.  She's just skipping over them like she does most of any trauma /she/ has to experience.  Her mind is already grasping at other avenues to express it, to exercise rising demons by shoving them in with the rest of her less painful feelings.

"Seems like a dumb way to do it."  Nope.  No rationalizations for Emma.  No sugarcoating.  Ah, that's the good old classic Noriko.  The angry lines in her features soften radically at Jean's words.  Nori knows she's had more than a few slip ups before coming to the School.  "Yeah.  If they turn from whatever they did, don't do it again," yes that's what repent means Nori, "People change right?  Sometimes people are something different all along, but just never got to be that."  But then her mind snaps back into the moment.  "I fucked up.  I hurt someone.  It was an accident...but the fact I was there wasn't.  I was going to steal the money no matter what.  It was something I thought I had to do, because I had no other options.  I don't think we know enough about her character from what we know happened in this situation to judge yet, but if you guys didn't believe in that, I probably wouldn't be here."

Jean Grey has posed:
"Probably because there isn't an easy answer out there," Jean concedes to Kitty, still addressing her students rather than the subject of their inquiry. "Or that maybe the answer's something more like 'it depends.'" There's no certainty in her own voice. Maybe Charles would have some grand thesis to offer, but she's still working through all the same questions herself. Yet Noriko's example proves instructive. "But I do know that many come here with stories like that. Rogue could have been a villain. Logan a weapon." She makes a circulating gesture. "It's a familiar story."

Which brings her back to Emma, and Kitty's doubt. "Trust, in this case, will definitely have to be earned, rather than given. Whether she's capable of that, we'll have to see."

With that, it seems like they've reached some natural point of conclusion in the whole discussion. Emma doesn't offer too much more of a defense, aside from the squabbling with Kitty. Nor does Jean the Inquisitor have any more useful questions, at least beyond those that will have to be discussed with the X-Men leadership as they figure out how to pursue the Hellfire Club.

"I think this is enough for now. You two can head back up, and I'm excusing you from your normal responsibilities for the rest of the day." It may be the weekend, but the students still have routines, chores, and so on. "And we'll review how you're feeling through the coming week." She takes mental health seriously. "Miss Frost, as I've said, this isn't a decision I'm prepared or even qualified to make by myslef. You remain confined to the grounds until we've made a decision. I'd use the time to explore what we've built here, and consider your past actions."

Noriko Ashida has posed:
Right, chores Nori didn't race through when she got back as per usual because, well, sometimes one needs to take a break after repeated kidnappings.

"I really need to get better at not getting kidnapped.  Do we have a class on that?  Because if that's a section we covered, I'm failing," Nori prattles on to no one in particular while leaving as if she never checks her grades, trying to retreat into her casual, safe little world of speed of thought and distracting curiosities.  "So far, my weaknesses are tranqs where I'm not looking and cell phones that somehow suck me into the internet.  I wonder if I can get into the internet again.  Maybe I can go faster," she ponders, hoping it was something leveraging her powers.  "Skip over all the awful stuff."

Nori tries to leave all the heavy stuff behind, Jean's heavy words, the weight of what she asked of Kitty and her, but she has to bury it.  She has to dig a hole and bury it.  "Let's go eat our feelings and punch some crap or something," is the last thing that can be heard.