2018-10-29 - Night Terrors

It's a few days - maybe a week later. Tessa probably hasn't been out over and conducting her calculations. It may or may not have lead to anything. Jean has brought up that sometimes taking a rest can lead to production. So now, she's going to be trying to help Tessa actually sleep. And dream.

Gabby enters Danger Room - Xavier's Institute - North Salem from Sub-Level 2 - Xavier's Institute - North Salem.

It's a few days - maybe a week later. Tessa probably hasn't been out over and conducting her calculations. It may or may not have lead to anything. Jean has brought up that sometimes taking a rest can lead to production. So now, she's going to be trying to help Tessa actually sleep. And dream.

Having chosen the danger room for this was Tessa's choice. Why exactly is uncertain, but she was firm about it. Given that literally half of her brain is currently filled with things along the lines of:

5/5ths with 3/5ths over 1 to become a fraction with fractal output to the orbit of Y given accuracy with a level of 7

Tessa is largely distracted. And honestly, that's never happened. "See, I've been working within the ratios but it has to end up with a chaos numeral system. Inputs should create outputs that develop the next inputs within the system, but your problem seems to have different results for each one. I'm looking at the possibilities of each choice actually affecting the next. It's not showing patterns yet though. I might need a larger sequence."

So, basically mathematic technobabble.

Jean Grey just tries to parse all of this as she rubs her head, "SO just by attempting to calculate them it's shifting them and.." Mathematics aren't quite her strong suit then as she takes a breath. "or just by the fact of observing it it's changing the nature of them?" The HEisenberg Uncertainty Principal, albeit of a more cosmic incarnation. "So you're oging to want to go ahead and see it again?"

"Yes, and I should give you credit for spotting that. We're dealing with a mathematical system that draws itself based on the viewer. It isn't static. I don't know if that's ever been encountered before. I'm certain that the best way to gather data is to experience it myself. Though I'm told that if the answer ends up being forty-two I owe Gabrielle a chocolate sundae. The reference is amusing, I may allow it."

She's still standing, pacing the room slightly. "I should warn you. I've never slept before. If my heart stops beating, please do something about it. I'll keep the glands and side systems on basic life support."

Jean Grey mms, "I can always just maintain your heart and lungs for you if I have to. That's simple enough to do autonomously and then I can bring you out of it." The math part of Tessa's brain is still firing and the answer is 42 as Gabby insisted. But, Tessa is going to get to actually sleep. Which may be even scarier that she has both come to the point where she needs it and is giddy at the math not actually eing solvable.

As Gabby and Emma arrive, Tessa and Jean are in the Danger Room. Talking about math. And life support functions. Which means there's likely an explanation, but it's going to be wierd. You paged Jean Grey with 'Yep. I'm going to bring out one of my other personalities as soon as Tessa's asleep. :)'

Gabby steps through the door with her hands spread wide in a helpless sort of shrug. "So his friend closed down the shop to help us hide out, and after all the trouble he went through I thought it was only fair I pay him for any lost earnings," she reasons to Emma. "THAT'S why there was a $10,000 charge on the card for Elvis' Huang's House of Matrimony and Funerals."

Emma looks wide-eyed as she enters, apparently having been on the reveiving end of a story that stretched her credulity. And it seems a single point keeps sticking.

"You were in a wedding chapel. With Remington." She says this, voice flat, but eyebrow raised thoughtfully. "And this to hid..." She notices the other pair, then, in the danger room and stops dead in her tracks.

"Oh, Tessa. Jean. Sorry, we didn't realize the room was booked. I wanted to practice hand-to-hand and knife technique with Gabby here."

She must be rattled. She didn't say "young Gabrielle".

"You're welcome to do so Emma," Tessa says idly before turning back to Jean. She gives Gabrielle a nod. Keepin' it professional in front of the young lady. "I normally regulate all of the functions that most consider automatic. Given that I have never slept before, I can not guarantee safety when it begins. Whenever you're ready though."

Apparently she plans to ...take a nap? Standing up. Then after a moment she raises a hand, and says in Gabby and Emma's direction, "The charge shouldn't have been ten thousand, Emma. If you'd like me to review their daily profit and loss statements I can do that after. If I survive."

Back to Jean. Shall we then?

Jean Grey goes to wave her fingers over at Emma, "Hello Emma, Gabrielle. And do I.." She figures she'll read the debriefing later. "Tessa, first get comfortable. And I'm going to have to nudge a few bits of your brain that don't ordinarily do this, so give me a few moments." Jean goes to focus on Tessa's mind. Or her 'minds' of however many there are. And then Jean starts to work on gingerly shutting them down in small clusters. Moving to start putting them through the paces of an REM induced state.

Consciousness by consciousness, or whatever personalities that spring to activity or otherwise processt hings. For each of them, Jean starts to wind down the processes, slowing down the overclocked capacity of Tessa's constantly churning mental scape to start to wind it to the process that her mental inductions of putting the other woman to.. Sleep, hopefully might work.

Gabby blinks in surprise at seeing Tessa here. Jean she halfway expected to always be here, it seemed, but it wasn't often she even got to see Tessa anymore. Just in passing here and there. Breaking a grin she greets the pair with a little lift of her hand, "Hey! What are you two working on?" An eyebrow raises a bit, and she tips her head curiously. "Oh I wasn't sure what to put on there so I figured a round number would work. Plus weddings are expensive aren't they?"

Her attention shifts back to Emma giving a shrug. "Well he was poisoned at the time, but the owner was a friend of his from the last thirty six times he got married while on a bender." Gabby adds with a laugh, "Actually it's kind of funny thinking about it now. When he first saw us come in, he thought Remy was intending to mar--" She pauses, realizing she was running her mouth a bit TOO much. "Oh, what's Jean doing?" Yes, distraction!

Emma is REALLY stuck on that given point. "Tell me, Gabby..." Yeah, she's rattled. "...you didn't..." She pauses, trying to figure out how to put this delicately. Then decides not to. "You didn't have sexual relations with Gambit and then get married, or vice versa, did you?"

There. It's out in the open, her fear. And maybe, sure, she's projecting a bit, but Gambit *is* attractive and very good at seduction. It's not out of the realm of possibility, right?...

"I promise I won't get angry, Gabby," she lies. "Just ... you'd tell me if you did, right?"

Tessa sits in a lotus, her black slacks not keeping her from the simple motion. "Jean, you'll need to explain." No apology, she's apparently in the middle of something here. This is going to be a bit complicated.

Tessa is able to override Jean's actions to speak to Gabby, but for once she chooses to let Jean do the explaining. She watches what Jean's doing to her mind, from the inside, and within a few seconds she's actually helping. Flicking things before Jean has to do so. Then without warning her entire frontal cortex shifts to the left. Metaphorically. Not literally, that would suck. But it feels like that, to both Jean and Emma. Kind of like that moment when the roller coaster drops from under you.

And Tessa's eyes snap open. She looks around the room, fast asleep. But also wide awake. But with her defensive walls dropping into place like bunkers.

Jean Grey goes to take a breath, "Uhm, Tessa's doing me a big favor and.. Well, in return she wanted to see what sleep and dreaming are like. And.. Emma, if you want we can let someone else debreif Gabrielle if you feel it's necessary so you can save the time and worry and after it's done just get right to planning out who you're going to need to have killed. IF that's a timesaver and helps you avoid starting to go grey."

Jean takes a moment, and focuses over as Tessa's brain shoots to the other 'side' in the literal context and Jean goes to start helping ease it down to shut down. Making sure lightly that it's willing and that it's going slowly, and that she's not having any defense mechanisms engage.. And that Tessa's not keeping on shifting things to other parts of her brain. Jean is shhing, trying to ease Tessa to that zone where mental defenses are still up, but her mind is willingly shutting down. Even if she has to do it bit by bit through her consciousness, leaving those walls up but firing up hormonal glands, tweaking neurons, and having electrons charged by chemical firings then to start inducing the sort of synaptic activity of someone starting to breathe more shallowly and easing to sleep.

"What?" Gabby looks askance at Emma realizing just how worried the woman was. Before she can properly reply though, something... changes in the room. She was no telepath, but she had certainly been around those trained to a point of it being reflex most her life. Something about the sudden way Tessa's eyes pop open like that, seeing but not, has her freezing in place with eyes staring riveted at the woman.

"Jean, what did you do?"

Laura has arrived.

Emma stares at Jean, wild-eyed, then runs her hand through her hair. "Are you saying I'm already turning gray?!" she asks, clearly not following conversations today, with her head still stuck on that little Gabby thing that's been bugging her.

Then the Tessa thing happens and snaps her out of it. Her own shields slam down and every sense, psychic or otherwise, falls on Tessa. Emma's eyes, inner and outer, inspect what Jean has unleashed, while her body tenses. Something doesn't feel right and it doesn't feel right from the wrong angle.

"Jean, what have you done?"

"Lovely question, Ms Frost. What have you done 'Jean'?" Tessa does air quotes with her fingers, something completely out of character. Her eyes turn and fall on Gabby though. And they're not the same eyes. These are alive, passionate, and somehow mean.

Jean, in her mind, is being systematically blocked out. Like a machine is putting barriers into place, and Jean has to speed to keep up with them. But just barriers; none of the subtlety that Tessa normally uses. No misdirection or beauty in it. Just brute force.

When those eyes flick to Emma, there's something familiar in it. Something that reminds Emma of a chess piece. A bishop, to be exact. "So, let's see what we have here. Far too much power to play with all at once." She starts looking at the room, as if looking for data. Details. Or an exit.

It takes two of the other people going 'what did you do' that has Jean's attention snapping up and over. Looking from the life support equipment, to Tessa, to Emma and Gabby both speaking in synchronicity. "What?" It takes her a few moments to confirm that as far as she knows Tessa is still asleep. Then her eyes snap over to Tessa. Then she's pushed -out- of the mind over before she can so much but breathe. "What the hell.."

It takes a moment for Jean to recalculate, and she leans back as if slapped in the face. "Who.. Am I speaking to over at the moment, then? If you don't mind explaining youreslf? Because I'm not sure if we've had the pleasure of being formally intorduced." Jean knows there are awlays a few people over inside of Tessa. She's guessing by the sudden shift in body language, tone of voice, and expression that this is -one- of them.

"You're speaking, Jean, to the Black Bishop. The personality from the Hellfire Club." If Emma's hackles could raise like Gabby's they'd be sticking straight out. "And if you don't undo what you've started, we're in a great deal of trouble. She has no fondness for me, nor for this institute. And if she can get the information from her other partitions without their personality, she can do incalculable harm to all of us."

Emma moves to position herself by the exit. "Young Gabrielle," she says, voice with a rare snap of command when addressing her step-daughter, "she is not to leave this room. At any cost. Up to and including her life. Jean and I will try to prevent it from reaching that, but you are the final hope here if we fail. Stop her. At all costs. From exiting this room."

Gabby regards the woman that was not Tessa with a perplexed expression as she slowly starts to realize by tone and actions that this was a definite, different person in the familiar face and body. Maybe she was quicker to pick up on it for having been around those that looked like, but were vastly different, all her life. Maybe it was just some innate sense of 'danger, Will Robinson!' that had been activated by her very recent life-threatening adventure in Madripoor. Either way her response is simply, "You're not my Tessa."

Then she nods to Emma solemnly as she steps back to guard the door with arms crossed over her chest and feet spread apart stubbornly. She really did look as if she were the least powerful one here. Really. Except if she had any inkling of Tessa's memories she might know ... She was still the least powerful one here.

Tessa turns her neck slightly. It pops, as she does a minute adjustment. Then she rises to her feet, an absolute regality in posture that she's lacked; an arrogance and haughtiness that cascades off of her in waves. "You can relax," she lies with perfection. "There's nothing to fear. Though given the events of the last year, I suppose there's no reason to pretend to that title, and your Tessa is asleep. I've always fancied Lady Brittannia myself."

She removes the glasses from her pocket and tosses them to Gabby; the red ruby glasses that Tessa had never explained how they work, what they did, or even that they were truly special. "If I were a threat, you'd not be holding those. They function as a celphone, after all. A peace offering."

LIES! Deception! But damn, she's good. "This mind has a multitude of pre-programmed people in it that it's created over the years. Putting the main personality to sleep allowed me to speak up for once. And I do not like being put down."

Okay, that one was true.

Jean Grey gives a light nod at Emma. Confused over. But accepting Emma's esense of paranoia and the shift of Tessa's body language. "I see then." She answered back, "So what part of Britannia are you from? THe one that Lord British is from? I must say that's very, very far away." She goes over and whether or not she senses that wahtever incarnation of Tessais speaking to them is lying is hard to tell given it's so smooth - both the comment and the benignment of Jean's expression that is either completely taen in by it or completely playing it straight.

Then Jean goes over to speak, "So what are we due your presence, then? As far as what has you waking up and coming to talk to us? I haven't gotten to speak to you at large before, so what's the occasion for it?" Jean's not moving to activate any emergency suppression systems or blockages - aware that the other womn can possibly readily bypass them. "I do have another question, if it's all right."

Gabby reaches out to catch the glasses lobbed her way with her expression remaining serious even as her curiosity is piqued by this rather odd 'peace offering.' As far as she knew this wasn't a phone. But... who knew? She considers it a moment, and purses her lips together. "I'm going to wait outside, Emma. Just in case." Just in case she needed to do something like activate the Danger Room security protocols. ... It had those, right? Probably. Yeah.

~Jean, that thing you did to smooth yourself over. That thing I made you swear never to do again. Do it. Now. To her. Cut off the blood supply to her brain or we will all be paying for this!~ Emma's communique is razor sharp, laser focused, and flooding with panic. ~She needs to be reset like my computer this morning!~

Then her mind switches to probing assaults on Tessa's defenses, needle-sharp tests for chinks in the mental armour. Bludgeon-grade assaults to shatter them. Anything possible to distract Tessa from what Jean is about to attempt.

There's a lot going on, given that Tessa's had a good minute to think. She says, "I'm not from a video game you dolt," to Jean. Rather not like the Tessa we all know and ...well, put up with. "I'm here because you removed the primary control. Obviously." Like she's speaking to someone beneath her, which is exactly how she's always been. Bit of a bitch really.

But she's standing now, and stretching, given that Emma is trying to penetrate her mind...and finding the walls that shouldn't be there. They fall to her power, but somehow it's too easy. Too simple, given Tessa's planning skills.

And given that her glasses are on their way out of the room. Such a simple action, but when Gabby gets near the exit...there's a spark between those ruby toys and the computer controls. Then Emma is attacking a mental image that's left behind, as Tessa dives past everyone at lighting speed, heading for the way out! And her wire frames give Gabby a solid taser jolt just to make sure she's got an avenue!

Oh, she's GOOD.

Jean goes to throw up a telekinetic wall over in front of Tessa if she can. THen Jean goes over to try and do what she's been prepping for the last few desperate moments then. In Tessa she tries to put in a meme to induce calculatory. Dangling the thought problem that primary Tessa had been working on. That math, that desperate sort of problem that defied calculation over. HOping that the instinctive 'calculation' would kick in and Tessa's automatic inception to looking at problems would start in.

And presuming it did actually work and Tessa's mind would start factoring in the problem and parsing it.. It would hopefully be like dividing by zero. Her mind would try and calculate it and solve the issue, but the variables and equations would keep on changing. So Tessa would have to deovte more of her 'mind' to figuring it out. Or at least she would have to consciously shut -down- what Jean had taken was how her mind handled those things before all of herthought processes were devoted to it. And that would probably mean having to rewire her brain on the fly. Which she could do.

But would hpeflly slow her down by a few billionths of a second. Enough for Gabby to hit it.

It's a really odd sensation; being shocked when you don't have any sense of pain. It was just a weird... tingly energy in Gabby's hand that causes her to glance down at the glasses she holds. The spark seen in them is obvious enough though. It makes her realize that this 'peace offering' was a trick. One which she lobs at the ground quickly as she dives through the door with a hand outstretched to hit the 'emergency lock' button that was presumably there. Yep.

Olivia Newton-John enters the picture as Emma switches to glass. Let's get physical. She runs to tackle Tessa while telling Jean, in an unnaturally calm, albeit loud, voice, "Jean, that thing? Now. We have no time for niceties. She must be stopped."

Then it's time to try to grapple Tessa to the floor, using superior strength and invulnerability against superior intellect and a lot of long planning.

"Now, Jean."

Suddenly a few things become clear. First, that spark that went from the glasses to the door controls? Hacked the controls, the door refuses to seal for Gabby. Second, tazers don't function on pain receptors. They deactivate the flow of electricity through neurons, making the body not function for a moment. Which works on anyone with neurons.

Third, as Tessa manages to move past Gabby and Emma with apparent ease, she's WAY BETTER THAN SHE ADVERTISES! She predicts both of their motions like playing pattycake with ten year olds, and is framed in the doorway when her overmind kicks in, seeing the chance to lose the connection to the Problem, and Tessa stumbles.

Long enough for all three of the other ladies to dogpile. Though her mind is fighting back, that wouldn't be apparent to anyone but Jean right now.

Jean Grey is struggling with holding Tessa down - but what she can do is keep on throwing in more and more things to analyse. More data, more calculations, more things to have to process through. While all the same time trying to use whatever mental tricks, traps, and snares she can to not let Tessa shut -down- the part of her mind that is analysing the data and redirect it. THe more attention she has to do to that, the less she can fight, and the more hopefully Tessa will come 'to' and restart herself. Admittedly probaly wondering why she's being smothered by Emma.

And Jean is trying to telekinetically pin Tessa down to the floor, as if making a giant press atop her and throwing up another mental wall in front ofTessa and covering the forced open door - it's hard to maintain both pressure and mental blasts at the same time, but she's just trying to -slow- Tessa. Not stop her. That's what Emma and her several hundred pounds of organic diamond are for.

You paged Emma Frost with 'You could go pure force on me. But that'd prob leave me braindead.' Long distance to Emma Frost: Tessa has no illusions. YOu've got me in a real fight. Emma Frost pages: If I went full metal telepath, yeah, I'd erase her. But that's not the goal. Emma, though she'd never admit it, values Tessa and wants her back. :P

"Now is the time to surrender, Tessa," Emma says calmly as she applies her brutal strength to pinning Tessa to the floor, limbs behind her, bent in exceptionaly uncomfortable angles. Seems she has practice in causing pain to Tessa... "You made a good run, but it's over. Please don't force it to a choice between killing you or not, because you know in this form I'll make the unemotional decision to end a threat by whatever means are necessary." Pause. "I will kill you, Tessa, if I have to, to stop you, and no emotional manipulation will work on me now. Surrender."

This last paired with a brutal twisting of an arm that dislocates a shoulder.

"The next shatters a bone."

With both Jean's considerable TK, Gabby's talents, and Emma's power holding her down, it's rather unsurprising that Tessa doesn't get up. She actually sighs when Emma dislocates something on her, rather like when a parent is tired of their child's antics. "And you know that I don't register pain, Emma," she says.

But continues with, "I'm deleting Lady Brittannia permanently. Feel free to keep me confined, it's the right step at this point. Especially since you can't guarantee that I'm Tessa and not her. But if Jean wouldn't mind checking for delta waves? Falling asleep let her take over, and you can verify that I'm awake at least."

All of this said calmly, as if she were sitting on a chair and not being pinned down by enough force to decimate a nation.

Jean Grey letsout a sigh then and goes to start to sweep as she can, "AT the very least Tessa, let it be said that you do have some rather interesting nightmares. So does this qualify over as one by your standards? ANd did you have some interesting dreams?" She crosses herarms over then and goes to keep Tessa pinned underneath Emma. "And I think that we're giong to have to ask Charles to come on down and talk to her before we can let you go. Sorry Tessa, but we're going to have to put you under house arrest for awhile. If Emma's all right with it we can ask Gabby to come down and keep you copmany for a bit." Probably being given a threatening look by Emma, complete abscence of any sort of emotion beside.

"It's not a question of feeling it, Tessa. It's a question of debilitating injury. You cannot move or fight at full effectiveness with dislocations and breaks. You of all people should understand that I don't do things out of anger or fear or petty revenge even in this form." Emma's glassy stare takes in the other. It then looks up at Jean. "I forbid it," she says simply. "Tessa is too devious if that personality is still in control. Gabrielle is too ..." She strains for a word. "... soft. Soft-hearted. She can be manipulated by a master-grade manipulator. She should be kept isolated until such a time as we deem her harmless."

The eyes swivel back to Tessa. "Do you agree with my assessment, Tessa?" she asks.

It's a trap!

Tessa turns her head to look at Jean. Then at Emma. She says, "Honestly, you two are going to have to figure this out without my input. But yes, Jean. I had a nice dream." Then she turns to look at the floor quietly.

Which is bullshit, because inside her head she's holding Lady Brittannia by the throat. Not even metaphorically speaking; her life is in Tessa's hands. ~So. A bit more lively than I'd expected then.~

~Fuck you. I get bored.~

~We can't have threats like this.~

~I know that. So what now?~

~Good question...~

As Tessa lets a small part of her brain go back to the Problem. We have new data after all. Because Lady Brittannia experienced the dream in another way entirely..and she can't afford to delete the bitch yet. She needs that data.

Jean Grey goes to sigh, "And it might do her some good to hve someone soft and.." But, ultimately the call is Emma and Gabrielle's, not her's. And Jean tracks the back and forth rpaidly - amongst what she presumes is Emma trying to avoid throttling Tessa and herself thinking this is her fault. And she muses over. And then finally speaks.

"So Tessa.. And Lady Britannia.. Just what are you indulgent in that has you so bored?" ANother light offer put out there. But Jean is definitely up to something. That casual question is far, far too easy then given the circumstances. Even in not being sure which she is addressing.

Emma stands up, still in diamond form. She casually picks up Tessa and then, with a swift move, resockets the shoulder. "This will hurt for a few days," she says, "but I am well aware of your capacity for..." Perhaps enjoyment of? "...pain. You should regain full function soon enough. You are, however, stripped of all movement privileges until such a time as Charles, Jean, Becky, and I are convinced that you are hale once more. If you're the real Sage, you will understand and approve. If you're not, you will feign approval. The result will be the same.

She is not returning to flesh and blood...

Given that Tessa is dedicating even less attention than normal to what Emma and Jean are doing, it should really be considered a sign of trust. Trust that they can handle this part of things while she works on the stuff she has to do. However, she's quite certain that it will not: she'll be branded with yet another sign of fear and distrust. She can live with it, and this gives her time to process. Time she desperately needs for once.

So as Tessa basically ignores both Jean and Emma's actions and words, she waits to be incarcerated. And goes about her merry way, calculating odds and figuring equations. As she gets a few days off duty just when she needs it most. Almost like she's planned it all along. Jean Grey glances down to Tessa. Then to Emma. And then over at Emma. Finally she goes, "... All right, good talk." She takes a breath, "An we'll have Katherine come down to look at the hardware and if necessary reset it." Remembering that -something- had sparked over to the door and wanting to have it looked at.

"And come on, Emma, it's not -that- bad. I mean, who hasn't had evil alternate presonalities try to come and take control of thier minds?" Emma is probably staring at her even -in- diamond mode now.

"... What?"

"Jean, if you wouldn't mind, I think it best if Charles gave you a looking over as well. I fear that Tessa may have contrived some way to damage your brain and ensuing mental facilities."

Emma's not supposed to be able to joke in this form, right? RIGHT!?