(no subject)
Three days: patrols for two, no use of my mutation, no use of my mouth, which he directed me to seal shut for the duration. I believe that this can be managed. So much use of cellular manipulation has become reflex over the years -- a test of discipline, if nothing else, which I apparently sorely lack (thrice-damned pride). Without expending power, my metabolic rate should slow down enough where three days without food is manageable. Hydration will prove problematic. I assume that since I may not use my mouth nor my mutation that hooking myself up to a drip while I work is not an option, either. 12 hours of patrols over three days, without food or water --
I will let it be a challenge to me.
I assume that the restrictions against using my mutation will be lifted at least from healing my comrades should anything especially untoward occur. I am no true medic, beyond first aid and what I have managed to learn -- without my powers I am functionally useless as a healer. Cross that bridge when I come to it, I suppose -- he is nothing if not practical, I will not concern myself overmuch with these things, and if permission must be begged, I can beg with a pen as well as with a tongue.
No blocking myself from sweating to keep from dehydrating, come to think of it. No regulation of any kind.
... I cannot cease monitoring. I don't know how to not monitor. I just will have to keep from altering anything, that's all.
Self-control. Discipline.
If I can keep myself disciplined, I can learn to control my damnable temper.
Brooding, silent, and alone, Magneto's face is shadowed and largely unreadable in the steril white light of his office. Seated behind his desk in a chair that still bears a few of the deeper scratches and gauges earned in its recent adventure as a form of anger management, his posture borders upon the relaxed - legs apart beneath his desk, shoulders slouched as he eyes the half-open door.
Finally yielding to her... particular lacking over the past few days, the girl's nude dehydrated form is even more bony then usual. Raidha's skin seems to have constricted around her once understated muscles, which bulge out at odd angles - looking to be only held on by the visible web of veins that pulsate around them. Her skin has settled on an almost translucent powdered white. Her wheat-colored hair hangs in oily waves over her features… or lack there of. As she knocks and inevitably moves into the room, her image flickers as if there might be some sort of glitch in the observer's eyesight or... perhaps she's teleporting. In one moment she is in the doorway... in the next, she's further into the room with her head tilted limply to the side. Her wide, glowing honey-colored eyes, peering out in a crazed spooked fashion.
It's a brisk, hurried stride that carries Ellen down the hall to Magneto's office. Neatly dressed in white sweater and dark slacks, she slips in through the open door, a knock at its front to announce her presence - perhaps unnecessarily, but certain articles of courtesy are ingrained habit. Erect of posture, hands clasped tightly behind her back, she barely awards her naked comrade a glance; her somber attention is for the figure behind the desk alone.
Mystique stands, unmoving and unspeaking, behind and to one side of Magneto. Her posture is entirely still, her expression serenely blank. She's just watching.
Magneto's brows lift. Really, while he takes a moment to calculate the reason that there is a nude young woman in his office, that's all there is to do. And then slowly, the pieces begin to fall into place. "Matilde. Ellen." From the former to the later, the cold and mildly startled irritation in Erik's glare shifts. "Repair her mouth. And anything else you might have altered."
Matilde vanishes from sight, only to appear after a few silent graceful steps around Ellen, on the woman's other side - facing Ellen's profile. Her hand moves stiffly to part the waterfall of blonde hair, moving it away from the blank slate of skin where her mouth once sat. No amusement rests in her expression, just a particular forceful urgency for nothing in particular.
Ellen inclines her head, wordless acquiescence, and turns -- to find Matilde absent. Face impassive, she pivots swiftly on her heel to face the girl, and reaches out to catch her wrist with one hand. Barely a blink later, the extraneous skin regresses and recedes, revealing the mouth. Ellen lets go and turns back to face the desk again.
Warily, Erik looks back to Raidha - cool gaze taking in the alteration in a manner that's all business, and not particularly approving. "When did this occur?"
Raidha runs her small hands over her mouth, feeling over her jaw as it flexes and her tongue once against tastes air. She turns back to Magneto as the question is asked, "Two days...?" She asks Ellen in a whisper, looking to her expectantly as one might look to their savior. She nods once to herself, her fingers running over her freshly uncovered bottom lip. "Yes." She flickers out of sight, and appears almost two feet away, having moved away laterally from Ellen before reappearing.
Ellen's wary glance flickers, following Raidha's progression. "I believe," she says, very mild as her gaze returns from whither it went, "it was three, sir." Her hands retreat to clasp behind her again.
Magneto nods once - slowly, as his head angles towards Ellen. Eventually, his glare follows, rolling from one woman to the other with a level of cold indifference that either has likely never seen. "Very well. You are dismissed. I'll send for you in time."
Mystique remains silent and still in the background. Only yellow eyes move, from Ellen to Raidha to Magneto and back.
Ellen blinks once -- a flicker of her eyes towards Raidha -- and then nods her head once, briskly. "Yes, sir." She turns on her heel and leaves, as dismissed.
Raidha doesn't turn to observe Ellen's entrance. She simply fixes her eyes to the desk in front of Magneto, folding her own arms behind her in a stiff soldier-like pose. She gulps, shimmering over with a distinctly more yellow-ish tint.
Magneto doesn't move again until Ellen is gone. When he does, it's to pull the sweater he's wearing up over his shoulders and head as he grates his chair back and pushes up onto his feet. The dark grey sweater, warm, coffee-scented, and somewhat abrasive in its ribbing, is tossed across the desk at Raidha in such a fashion that it'll likely fall over her shoulder even if she makes no effort to catch it. Erik, in turn, smoothes a hand over the tucked in black shirt that remains upon his own person. "Put that on. You're naked." This, of course, to Raidha, Erik turns back enough to arch a brow lazily at Mystique. "Are you aware of where her medication is stored?"
Mystique's eyes flash back to Magneto. She hesitates for half a second, and then nods. Another half, and then she's striding from the room, presumably in search of it.
She catches it perhaps remarkably to him... with little to no effort anyway, bringing it up to her face and feeling and smelling the fabric before slipping it on over her head. She says nothing, though she was perfectly aware of her lack of clothing - there's no way for her to be sure whether or not he's talking down to her because of her mental state, or simply because she's a subordinate.
The sweater, fitted though it is, should be oversized enough to provide...if not adequate cover, certainly more than she bore upon entry, given Erik's height and weight advantage. Another nod cast after Mystique, he simply eyes Raidha from where he stands, arms folded across his chest as he watches her. "How long before the medication is operating at full capacity?"
Raidha answers him, still unsure of whom he is directing his question now. "Not long." She offers, vaguely at best in a whisper. "With your permission, Lord Magneto..." She offers a bow of her head and a slight curtsey with the aid of the shirt out of respect, "I would like very much... water...and to be able to take it... ...with your permission." As her voice rises from its whisper it becomes hoarse and dry. She flickers, vanishing and re-appearing in the blink of an eye a few times before settling.
Mystique reappears shortly, with a bottle in one hand and a tall glass of water in the other. She pauses just long enough to raise her brows at Erik and then steps round Raidha to extend first one, and then the other.
"Mystique is bringing both." Voice low and even, Erik glances to the door before moving around the desk to get a better look at the girl's condition, flickering and unsteady as her visage is. And then, of course, there is Mystique, and he straightens.
Raidha takes the water with a shaky hand, her tight grip looking as though it might simply shatter the glass. She tosses back her head and tosses a few pills into her mouth before downing the entire contents of the glass - the water dribbling down her neck and under the sweater. "Thank you." She says softly afterwards, gulping. Her state is rather well... considering. She has the combined appearance of a zombie and a very small body builder.
"Once you're in a more stable condition, I may ask you again, but until then, I want your version of the events that led up to your current state." Erik mutters, his annoyance at the dribble crushed reluctantly as he glances back up to the girl's face.
Mystique's gaze on Raidha is coolly even, and she steps back to take up position behind Magneto again, silent.
Raidha catches her breath from the long drink, looking to Magneto while still overcome with the joy of being able to drink once more. "I was baking cookies in the kitchen." She says in a whisper, "She came in. I offered her one. But she didn't want it..." She just stares at the man for a long moment before quickly looking down, running her fingers through her hair and sighing. "I believe, sir, it was her way of punishing me." She runs a hand up her neck to dry it, "She had my wrist... she wanted me to do something... and I said I wouldn't..." She muses at her last words, smiling weakly, "But I did. I tried to throw her away from me... and the next thing I knew... I couldn't open my mouth." She touches her lips.
Magneto arches a brow, one hand finding it's way onto the girl's shoulder, where it squeezes lightly - a gesture that should be comforting. Should be. "My dear, given my knowledge of Ms. Dramstadt, something or another tells me that you might be leaving out details signifigant to the story as it stands currently. I trust that you will be more inclined to remember once you've had time to recooperate. Otherwise, if you're going to use it to lie to me, I see no reason why I should be inclined to keep your mouth in operation. Am I understood?"
Behind Magneto, Mystique looks briefly disdainful.
Raidha nods slightly, "Yes, sir. ... She made a crack at me, sir." She states quietly, "So, allowing my own ego get the best of me, I reciprocated. She didn't like the taste of her own medicine. Though I think I might have been rather harsh." She says softly, "I was punished, for having the audacity to be as rude to her as she was being to me." Her hair shimmers over black, her sunken skin tanning. Her eyes gleam jade. "I don't know if that is what happened..." She adds, looking down and shaking her head, "But that's what I believe happened." She bows once more, gulping.
"Mmm." A glance pushed back upon Mystique, Erik seems content enough with that explanation. Some of the tension eases out of his back, anyway - a temporary effort pushed toward ease as his grip on her shoulder slants into a pat, and he turns to stride past Mystique, back for his desk. "While I should hope you've learned your lesson as it applies to taunting mutants with an inclination towards violent action, I will say that punishment is not to be doled out to recruits by other recruits. Ellen will be punished. But you have suffered punishment enough, so far as I can judge for the time being." Drawing to a slow halt behind his desk, Erik lowers himself into his chair without allowing his glare to deviate. "I want you to spend the night in the infirmary."
Raidha nibbles her lip, bowing once more, "As you wish." She complies softly, looking down and waiting to be dismissed.
"Possibly tomorrow night as well, if your reintroduction to food and fluid goes poorly. I may seek you out again in a few days, regardless." Easing back against the steel and leather of his chair, Erik looks her over one more time, and sighs. "You're dismissed."
"Thank you." She nods to the two, stiffly turning around and swinging her hips out of the room, her feet hardly making a sound. She tugs on the sleeves of Magneto's sweater, batting her lashes as she steps out in the hallway.
Mystique moves only once Raidha's gone. Several strides carry her to the edge of Erik's desk, where she perches and crosses one leg over the other. "While I'm certain it can't have been pleasant," she begins in distaste. "Must she be so /dramatic/ about it?"
"She has a condition." Erik replies flatly, despite making no effort to keep a fair amount of resignation out of the lines around his faint scowl. "Are you going to fetch Ellen for me, or shall I send someone else?"
Mystique flicks her eyes upward in short irritation and then rises and disappears out the door without a word.
Shepherded by Mystique, Ms. Dramstadt makes her return: her movements are quiet and precise, her glance only a little skittish, as she reenters Magneto's office.
Magneto is still sitting, much as he was upon Ellen's initial penetration, sans his sweater. He looks marginally less comfortable in the short-sleeved black shirt that remains, or at least, less relaxed, as the wirey tension in his folded arms is made all the more evident. Chin lifted at Ellen's entrance, it bows again quickly enough. He lifts a brow. And he waits.
The silence draws onward for inexorable seconds as she stands perfectly still with her hands clasped neatly behind her back and her spine as stiff and straight as an iron rod. Finally, ever-so-slightly, Ellen lowers her head. "Sir." Quiet penitence enwreaths the single syllable in her cool alto, but she does not continue.
Mystique moves around, once more, to take up silent position behind Magneto.
For whatever purpose that pause was meant to accomplish, Erik seems to have deemed it done to his satisfaction, for the silence on his end is broken mildly a moment after that single syllable. "Explain yourself."
Ellen raises her eyes to seek his face, her expression held to perfect grimness. "I lost control," she says, a frisson of disgust slipping through the words, however still she might hold posture and expression, "of my temper, sir, and behaved as recklessly and impulsively as the -- child I sought to punish."
"Matilde insinuated that she was provoked into whatever exchange occurred." From all outward appearances, Magneto is unaffected by her demeanor. His glare remains cold and harsh - his tone low and even.
Ellen's gaze hardens and she raises her chin, just a little. "Matilde ... strongly implied," she intones with careful delicacy, "that I chose to alter my appearance," and she reaches with one hand to tuck a few dyed-dark strands behind one ear, while the other curls into a tight fist at her side, "to better resemble Sabella."
Bland startlement is reflected clearly, if briefly, in the blue ice of Erik's eyes. His brows give a twinge downward, and then it's back to business - a light shift of posture the only indication of any discomfort. "We will get to Matilde in a moment."
"Very well, sir." Ellen moistens her lips. "She was baking cookies in the kitchen when I arrived." Utterly mild, she notes, "She must have taken offense when this led me to inquire after her medication. She made her -- comparison," the word spoken with extreme distaste. "I demanded to know her reasons for seeking to infuriate me. She suggested that my reaction to a discussion of ... cosmetics was unwarranted. I closed her mouth and told her I would allow her to speak again when she had learned to consider her words."
To that, Erik nods, jaw clenching and unclenching as he continues to watch her. "I knew when I made the decision to cut your incarceration short that there might be issues with your temper." A short pause is inacted to allow her to consider that, one way or another. "As this is your first major transgression, I am trying to maintain patience, but understand that any unordered attack upon a fellow mutant within the confines of this facility is not a matter I have ever taken lightly, regardless of whether or not you believe it to be deserved. As a recruit here, it's hardly your concern who is punished, and for what - and while you are a valuable asset to this organization, you are hardly so valuable that I will not remove you personally if I perceive you to be more of a threat than you are worth."
Still and silent, she stands watching him for a long moment before she moistens her lips and swallows. "Yes, sir." Ellen speaks in a low voice, her eyes dropping from his face to an unspecified point on the floor between them. "I hope that that will not prove necessary."
"So do I." Again, there's a pause, and again, a shift as he sits up a little straighter in his chair. "Raidha will be spending the night in the infirmary. You will assume her duties in addition to your own for the next three days, and you will do it without benefit of a mouth, or any tampering on a cellular level." Pausing to study any subtle change in her exterior, Erik finally unfolds his arms to stand. "In the meanwhile, I suggest you familiarize yourself with the idea that sleeping with me will have consequences that extend well into the recruit ranks. Irritating as speculation and rumor can be, they are hardly worth the trouble we're all having to go through now."
Mystique, behind him, doesn't try very hard not to smirk.
Ellen inclines her head ever-so-slightly, the barest twitch of her lips into something like a grimace before her expression smooths back to blandness again. "Yes, sir."
"All right." Brows knitting at the order that's doomed to follow, Erik rolls his shoulders back and glances past Ellen to the door. "Seal your mouth, and you're free to go."
Ellen's mouth quirks, ever-so-slightly. She blinks at him, once. Then she licks her lips and seals them over.
Again, Erik sighs, a lazy swing of his left hand echoing a flat, "Dismissed."
Ellen nods once, and leaves his office on smooth, swift strides.
I will let it be a challenge to me.
I assume that the restrictions against using my mutation will be lifted at least from healing my comrades should anything especially untoward occur. I am no true medic, beyond first aid and what I have managed to learn -- without my powers I am functionally useless as a healer. Cross that bridge when I come to it, I suppose -- he is nothing if not practical, I will not concern myself overmuch with these things, and if permission must be begged, I can beg with a pen as well as with a tongue.
No blocking myself from sweating to keep from dehydrating, come to think of it. No regulation of any kind.
... I cannot cease monitoring. I don't know how to not monitor. I just will have to keep from altering anything, that's all.
Self-control. Discipline.
If I can keep myself disciplined, I can learn to control my damnable temper.
Brooding, silent, and alone, Magneto's face is shadowed and largely unreadable in the steril white light of his office. Seated behind his desk in a chair that still bears a few of the deeper scratches and gauges earned in its recent adventure as a form of anger management, his posture borders upon the relaxed - legs apart beneath his desk, shoulders slouched as he eyes the half-open door.
Finally yielding to her... particular lacking over the past few days, the girl's nude dehydrated form is even more bony then usual. Raidha's skin seems to have constricted around her once understated muscles, which bulge out at odd angles - looking to be only held on by the visible web of veins that pulsate around them. Her skin has settled on an almost translucent powdered white. Her wheat-colored hair hangs in oily waves over her features… or lack there of. As she knocks and inevitably moves into the room, her image flickers as if there might be some sort of glitch in the observer's eyesight or... perhaps she's teleporting. In one moment she is in the doorway... in the next, she's further into the room with her head tilted limply to the side. Her wide, glowing honey-colored eyes, peering out in a crazed spooked fashion.
It's a brisk, hurried stride that carries Ellen down the hall to Magneto's office. Neatly dressed in white sweater and dark slacks, she slips in through the open door, a knock at its front to announce her presence - perhaps unnecessarily, but certain articles of courtesy are ingrained habit. Erect of posture, hands clasped tightly behind her back, she barely awards her naked comrade a glance; her somber attention is for the figure behind the desk alone.
Mystique stands, unmoving and unspeaking, behind and to one side of Magneto. Her posture is entirely still, her expression serenely blank. She's just watching.
Magneto's brows lift. Really, while he takes a moment to calculate the reason that there is a nude young woman in his office, that's all there is to do. And then slowly, the pieces begin to fall into place. "Matilde. Ellen." From the former to the later, the cold and mildly startled irritation in Erik's glare shifts. "Repair her mouth. And anything else you might have altered."
Matilde vanishes from sight, only to appear after a few silent graceful steps around Ellen, on the woman's other side - facing Ellen's profile. Her hand moves stiffly to part the waterfall of blonde hair, moving it away from the blank slate of skin where her mouth once sat. No amusement rests in her expression, just a particular forceful urgency for nothing in particular.
Ellen inclines her head, wordless acquiescence, and turns -- to find Matilde absent. Face impassive, she pivots swiftly on her heel to face the girl, and reaches out to catch her wrist with one hand. Barely a blink later, the extraneous skin regresses and recedes, revealing the mouth. Ellen lets go and turns back to face the desk again.
Warily, Erik looks back to Raidha - cool gaze taking in the alteration in a manner that's all business, and not particularly approving. "When did this occur?"
Raidha runs her small hands over her mouth, feeling over her jaw as it flexes and her tongue once against tastes air. She turns back to Magneto as the question is asked, "Two days...?" She asks Ellen in a whisper, looking to her expectantly as one might look to their savior. She nods once to herself, her fingers running over her freshly uncovered bottom lip. "Yes." She flickers out of sight, and appears almost two feet away, having moved away laterally from Ellen before reappearing.
Ellen's wary glance flickers, following Raidha's progression. "I believe," she says, very mild as her gaze returns from whither it went, "it was three, sir." Her hands retreat to clasp behind her again.
Magneto nods once - slowly, as his head angles towards Ellen. Eventually, his glare follows, rolling from one woman to the other with a level of cold indifference that either has likely never seen. "Very well. You are dismissed. I'll send for you in time."
Mystique remains silent and still in the background. Only yellow eyes move, from Ellen to Raidha to Magneto and back.
Ellen blinks once -- a flicker of her eyes towards Raidha -- and then nods her head once, briskly. "Yes, sir." She turns on her heel and leaves, as dismissed.
Raidha doesn't turn to observe Ellen's entrance. She simply fixes her eyes to the desk in front of Magneto, folding her own arms behind her in a stiff soldier-like pose. She gulps, shimmering over with a distinctly more yellow-ish tint.
Magneto doesn't move again until Ellen is gone. When he does, it's to pull the sweater he's wearing up over his shoulders and head as he grates his chair back and pushes up onto his feet. The dark grey sweater, warm, coffee-scented, and somewhat abrasive in its ribbing, is tossed across the desk at Raidha in such a fashion that it'll likely fall over her shoulder even if she makes no effort to catch it. Erik, in turn, smoothes a hand over the tucked in black shirt that remains upon his own person. "Put that on. You're naked." This, of course, to Raidha, Erik turns back enough to arch a brow lazily at Mystique. "Are you aware of where her medication is stored?"
Mystique's eyes flash back to Magneto. She hesitates for half a second, and then nods. Another half, and then she's striding from the room, presumably in search of it.
She catches it perhaps remarkably to him... with little to no effort anyway, bringing it up to her face and feeling and smelling the fabric before slipping it on over her head. She says nothing, though she was perfectly aware of her lack of clothing - there's no way for her to be sure whether or not he's talking down to her because of her mental state, or simply because she's a subordinate.
The sweater, fitted though it is, should be oversized enough to provide...if not adequate cover, certainly more than she bore upon entry, given Erik's height and weight advantage. Another nod cast after Mystique, he simply eyes Raidha from where he stands, arms folded across his chest as he watches her. "How long before the medication is operating at full capacity?"
Raidha answers him, still unsure of whom he is directing his question now. "Not long." She offers, vaguely at best in a whisper. "With your permission, Lord Magneto..." She offers a bow of her head and a slight curtsey with the aid of the shirt out of respect, "I would like very much... water...and to be able to take it... ...with your permission." As her voice rises from its whisper it becomes hoarse and dry. She flickers, vanishing and re-appearing in the blink of an eye a few times before settling.
Mystique reappears shortly, with a bottle in one hand and a tall glass of water in the other. She pauses just long enough to raise her brows at Erik and then steps round Raidha to extend first one, and then the other.
"Mystique is bringing both." Voice low and even, Erik glances to the door before moving around the desk to get a better look at the girl's condition, flickering and unsteady as her visage is. And then, of course, there is Mystique, and he straightens.
Raidha takes the water with a shaky hand, her tight grip looking as though it might simply shatter the glass. She tosses back her head and tosses a few pills into her mouth before downing the entire contents of the glass - the water dribbling down her neck and under the sweater. "Thank you." She says softly afterwards, gulping. Her state is rather well... considering. She has the combined appearance of a zombie and a very small body builder.
"Once you're in a more stable condition, I may ask you again, but until then, I want your version of the events that led up to your current state." Erik mutters, his annoyance at the dribble crushed reluctantly as he glances back up to the girl's face.
Mystique's gaze on Raidha is coolly even, and she steps back to take up position behind Magneto again, silent.
Raidha catches her breath from the long drink, looking to Magneto while still overcome with the joy of being able to drink once more. "I was baking cookies in the kitchen." She says in a whisper, "She came in. I offered her one. But she didn't want it..." She just stares at the man for a long moment before quickly looking down, running her fingers through her hair and sighing. "I believe, sir, it was her way of punishing me." She runs a hand up her neck to dry it, "She had my wrist... she wanted me to do something... and I said I wouldn't..." She muses at her last words, smiling weakly, "But I did. I tried to throw her away from me... and the next thing I knew... I couldn't open my mouth." She touches her lips.
Magneto arches a brow, one hand finding it's way onto the girl's shoulder, where it squeezes lightly - a gesture that should be comforting. Should be. "My dear, given my knowledge of Ms. Dramstadt, something or another tells me that you might be leaving out details signifigant to the story as it stands currently. I trust that you will be more inclined to remember once you've had time to recooperate. Otherwise, if you're going to use it to lie to me, I see no reason why I should be inclined to keep your mouth in operation. Am I understood?"
Behind Magneto, Mystique looks briefly disdainful.
Raidha nods slightly, "Yes, sir. ... She made a crack at me, sir." She states quietly, "So, allowing my own ego get the best of me, I reciprocated. She didn't like the taste of her own medicine. Though I think I might have been rather harsh." She says softly, "I was punished, for having the audacity to be as rude to her as she was being to me." Her hair shimmers over black, her sunken skin tanning. Her eyes gleam jade. "I don't know if that is what happened..." She adds, looking down and shaking her head, "But that's what I believe happened." She bows once more, gulping.
"Mmm." A glance pushed back upon Mystique, Erik seems content enough with that explanation. Some of the tension eases out of his back, anyway - a temporary effort pushed toward ease as his grip on her shoulder slants into a pat, and he turns to stride past Mystique, back for his desk. "While I should hope you've learned your lesson as it applies to taunting mutants with an inclination towards violent action, I will say that punishment is not to be doled out to recruits by other recruits. Ellen will be punished. But you have suffered punishment enough, so far as I can judge for the time being." Drawing to a slow halt behind his desk, Erik lowers himself into his chair without allowing his glare to deviate. "I want you to spend the night in the infirmary."
Raidha nibbles her lip, bowing once more, "As you wish." She complies softly, looking down and waiting to be dismissed.
"Possibly tomorrow night as well, if your reintroduction to food and fluid goes poorly. I may seek you out again in a few days, regardless." Easing back against the steel and leather of his chair, Erik looks her over one more time, and sighs. "You're dismissed."
"Thank you." She nods to the two, stiffly turning around and swinging her hips out of the room, her feet hardly making a sound. She tugs on the sleeves of Magneto's sweater, batting her lashes as she steps out in the hallway.
Mystique moves only once Raidha's gone. Several strides carry her to the edge of Erik's desk, where she perches and crosses one leg over the other. "While I'm certain it can't have been pleasant," she begins in distaste. "Must she be so /dramatic/ about it?"
"She has a condition." Erik replies flatly, despite making no effort to keep a fair amount of resignation out of the lines around his faint scowl. "Are you going to fetch Ellen for me, or shall I send someone else?"
Mystique flicks her eyes upward in short irritation and then rises and disappears out the door without a word.
Shepherded by Mystique, Ms. Dramstadt makes her return: her movements are quiet and precise, her glance only a little skittish, as she reenters Magneto's office.
Magneto is still sitting, much as he was upon Ellen's initial penetration, sans his sweater. He looks marginally less comfortable in the short-sleeved black shirt that remains, or at least, less relaxed, as the wirey tension in his folded arms is made all the more evident. Chin lifted at Ellen's entrance, it bows again quickly enough. He lifts a brow. And he waits.
The silence draws onward for inexorable seconds as she stands perfectly still with her hands clasped neatly behind her back and her spine as stiff and straight as an iron rod. Finally, ever-so-slightly, Ellen lowers her head. "Sir." Quiet penitence enwreaths the single syllable in her cool alto, but she does not continue.
Mystique moves around, once more, to take up silent position behind Magneto.
For whatever purpose that pause was meant to accomplish, Erik seems to have deemed it done to his satisfaction, for the silence on his end is broken mildly a moment after that single syllable. "Explain yourself."
Ellen raises her eyes to seek his face, her expression held to perfect grimness. "I lost control," she says, a frisson of disgust slipping through the words, however still she might hold posture and expression, "of my temper, sir, and behaved as recklessly and impulsively as the -- child I sought to punish."
"Matilde insinuated that she was provoked into whatever exchange occurred." From all outward appearances, Magneto is unaffected by her demeanor. His glare remains cold and harsh - his tone low and even.
Ellen's gaze hardens and she raises her chin, just a little. "Matilde ... strongly implied," she intones with careful delicacy, "that I chose to alter my appearance," and she reaches with one hand to tuck a few dyed-dark strands behind one ear, while the other curls into a tight fist at her side, "to better resemble Sabella."
Bland startlement is reflected clearly, if briefly, in the blue ice of Erik's eyes. His brows give a twinge downward, and then it's back to business - a light shift of posture the only indication of any discomfort. "We will get to Matilde in a moment."
"Very well, sir." Ellen moistens her lips. "She was baking cookies in the kitchen when I arrived." Utterly mild, she notes, "She must have taken offense when this led me to inquire after her medication. She made her -- comparison," the word spoken with extreme distaste. "I demanded to know her reasons for seeking to infuriate me. She suggested that my reaction to a discussion of ... cosmetics was unwarranted. I closed her mouth and told her I would allow her to speak again when she had learned to consider her words."
To that, Erik nods, jaw clenching and unclenching as he continues to watch her. "I knew when I made the decision to cut your incarceration short that there might be issues with your temper." A short pause is inacted to allow her to consider that, one way or another. "As this is your first major transgression, I am trying to maintain patience, but understand that any unordered attack upon a fellow mutant within the confines of this facility is not a matter I have ever taken lightly, regardless of whether or not you believe it to be deserved. As a recruit here, it's hardly your concern who is punished, and for what - and while you are a valuable asset to this organization, you are hardly so valuable that I will not remove you personally if I perceive you to be more of a threat than you are worth."
Still and silent, she stands watching him for a long moment before she moistens her lips and swallows. "Yes, sir." Ellen speaks in a low voice, her eyes dropping from his face to an unspecified point on the floor between them. "I hope that that will not prove necessary."
"So do I." Again, there's a pause, and again, a shift as he sits up a little straighter in his chair. "Raidha will be spending the night in the infirmary. You will assume her duties in addition to your own for the next three days, and you will do it without benefit of a mouth, or any tampering on a cellular level." Pausing to study any subtle change in her exterior, Erik finally unfolds his arms to stand. "In the meanwhile, I suggest you familiarize yourself with the idea that sleeping with me will have consequences that extend well into the recruit ranks. Irritating as speculation and rumor can be, they are hardly worth the trouble we're all having to go through now."
Mystique, behind him, doesn't try very hard not to smirk.
Ellen inclines her head ever-so-slightly, the barest twitch of her lips into something like a grimace before her expression smooths back to blandness again. "Yes, sir."
"All right." Brows knitting at the order that's doomed to follow, Erik rolls his shoulders back and glances past Ellen to the door. "Seal your mouth, and you're free to go."
Ellen's mouth quirks, ever-so-slightly. She blinks at him, once. Then she licks her lips and seals them over.
Again, Erik sighs, a lazy swing of his left hand echoing a flat, "Dismissed."
Ellen nods once, and leaves his office on smooth, swift strides.