Mess Hall Fuckery! [OTA]

[and_intothefire]

Jean was currently positioned in the middle of the mess hall. Her mind was wide open, her eyes closed softly, and she was listening. The din of psychic voices around her was soothing, feeding her a nearly giddy energy. She wasn't honing in on any one thought, just loving that she had the ability to sit there, free to dip into any open mind that

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[intangibleuse]

Kat meandered into the mess hall, her dark hair pulled into a tight ponytail behind her head, her sleeplessness showing in the dark circles beneath her eyes. She wasn't hungry, but she needed food, so she grabbed a banana and a cup of coffee before making her way to a table and sitting down.

It was hard not to notice the redheaded woman. That color of hair couldn't be real. Raising an eyebrow, Kat pursed her lips. "Sorry if this is rude, but do you dye your hair?"

[and_intothefire]

Jean looked up, cocking her head to the side slightly. "No, I don't," she said, giving Kat a smile. She was really in an uncharacteristically good mood, and it showed. Her foot pushed the chair across from her out as Jean narrowed her mind into Kat's.

My, she was stir-crazy. And my, she was pissed off at her boyfriend.

It wasn't what was going on with Kat's main thoughts though. Something was very off inside this girl's head. "I'm Jean." She sipped her coffee, studying the brunette across from her.

[intangibleuse]

Kat grunted softly under her breath, surprised. "That color's not really natural. Or rather, not too common." She shrugged a shoulder, suddenly feeling a bit defensive for having asked that question. It was rude, wasn't it?

She gave Jean a small brief smile, one that didn't reach her eyes. "Kat."

[and_intothefire]

"I'm fairly unnatural, so the hair just comes along with the package," Jean replied with a smile. She watched Kat, then nudged the chair across from her out a little further with a gentle flick of her finger. "Sit, please." Jean wanted to figure out what the hell was going on inside this girl's head that was feeding her such a broken vibe.

She wasn't crazy; no, she was perfectly sane. Jean moved to her memory center, feeling along until she bumped into something very wrong. It was like the memory had been ripped it half, part of it taken out, before being sewn back together. "Nice to meet you, Kat," Jean said, her eyes on Kat's face but her mind completely elsewhere

[mad_asahatter]

Ophelia was at the far end of one table, a spread of odd foods in front of her. She'd already spread peanut butter over a slice of bread and strawberry jam over another. Gherkins were added to the jam slice, and broken pieces of biscuits to the peanut butter slice. All around the Mulberry Bush, the monkey chased the weasel. She hummed along while singing to herself, carefully placing chocolate buttons on her peanut butter and biscuit bread.

The monkey stopped to pull up his sock, POP! goes the weasel. She giggled aloud, a smiling face sitting in her peanut butter. She licked the sticky mess from her fingers before slicing a banana carefully and covering the jam and gherkin with it.

All around the Mulberry Bush, the warthog chased the weasel. The warthog pulled out his elephant gun. POP! goes the Weasel. Ophelia wasn't rightly aware that anyone would be listening in on her thinkings. Emma had done it once, and once only. Ophelia found that while the telepath was clever and pretty and felt so very much, she wasn't too keen on the

[and_intothefire]

A song floated into Jean's head, a familiar song. Jean cocked her head toward the direction the song seemed to be coming from, her eyes narrowing on the bottle-job redhead at the end of the table.

She watched her movements, feeling her stomach turn a little at whatever the girl was putting together as a sandwich. Jean knew mental instability when she felt it. It was like someone had taken the girls thoughts, laid them out on a table, then chopped them up and pushed them back into her head.

Jean slid down the table until she was seated across from the girl. "I thought the monkey chased the weasel," she said quietly, "not the warthog."

[mad_asahatter]

Studying the woman carefully, Ophelia thought little of her knowing what had been sung inside her head. "Indeed he did, but that got old. The monkey grew up and had to be sold. Warthog was young, and full of fire. Poor weasel met an end so dire."

People knew things, that she understood. This woman knew it, and she had an aura of complexity about her. It was hard to get a good feel on the emotions; pride and power ran hand in hand, a darkness that felt cold and hollow.

"Strange it seems, but sense it makes. The monkey won't chase less you raise the stakes." And Ophelia took a bite of her sandwich happily, smiling closed mouthed at the woman.

[and_intothefire]

Jean smiled lightly, pleased with the girl's reaction. The rhyming, however, was a little strange. Jean nodded, leaning forward into the table a little bit. There was definitely intelligence there, an undercurrent running behind the breaks in her thought processes. Jean had encountered strait-up insane before, insanity with no intelligence behind it. That was not the case here.

Then again, there was the rhyming. "So what does the monkey need to chase?" Jean lifted a brow, a smile coming across her lips. She wasn't going to go delving into the girls head outside of the general feel she'd gotten for it already. Yet. But a little bit of questioning never hurt anyone.

[cover_your_ears]

Jessie went to the mess after visiting Jack. What a fuck up this all was. She made herself a cup of chocolate, and sat down at a table in the corner. She wasn't really interested in the drink, or anyone that was in the room. Her heart and mind were in such turmoil. It would be so much easier if she could let Jack go. It would be so much easier if she didn't love him.

She felt so alone, isolated. She had no one else here she was close to except Jack. Obviously, she couldn't talk to him about this. She so desperately needed to talk to someone. Jessie hadn't seen Edie in days. Perhaps she had scared the other girl off by sharing too much. Domino was busy with her own problems. And Jessie was doing so well at making new friends herself. She was not one bit closer to finding out what Stryker was really up to.

She was so frustrated, and angry, she wanted to cry. Even though she knew feeing sorry for herself was a complete waste of time, Jessie felt like wallowing for a while.

[and_intothefire]

Jean picked up on the upset from the girl as she walked past her to take a seat a few tables away. Even if Jean couldn't sense emotions, she could get a generally good idea of someone's emotional state from the way their minds read. This girl's was flashing back and forth between images of people she cared about, and flashing quickly.

Sure sign of someone with something bothering them.

She made her way over to the girl, sitting down quietly. "Why so glum?"

[cover_your_ears]

Jessie's mind was so wrapped up in her own problems, she didn't even notice the new woman sit down at the table with her. Until she spoke. Jessie blinked, startled. "Uh, I'm sorry." The first thing she thought was *Wow, she's gorgeous.* It was awfully convenient that she had been wishing for someone to talk to and this new face just popped up out of nowhere. Jessie decided it would be best to be careful what she said to her.

She smiled weakly. "It's nothing a few pictures of margaritas and six months of psychotherapy wouldn't cure."

[and_intothefire]

To think that Jean might have been drawn to her out of concern was definitely wrong. Jean had no concern for the girl. She was there to pick up what she could from the girl's mind and move on. If she found something interesting, entertaining, and good fodder for own own agenda? That was just a bonus.

She let her mind open to the girl, picking up the mental images more quickly. A man, two women (one of whom she'd seen reflected in Logan's mind), and a general worry about herself. Hmmm.

Jean returned the smile. "If you get your hands on some margaritas, please let me know." She extended a hand across the table. "I'm Jean. I just got here a few days ago."

[createdevidence]

Nicky headed into the Mess Hall with Razi tagging along at his heels. He was hungry again and Jason was refusing to share any of his candy stash with him. He pulled a sandwich together before getting a cup of coffee. The caffeine didn't really do anything for him but it was hot and he liked being warm.

He saw the new woman sitting with her own coffee but wasn't sure if she'd want any company or not.

[and_intothefire]

Jean felt the boy staring at her, and was feeling uncharacteristically nice today. Well, not so much nice as entertained. She was never nice. She offered him a polite smile and a small nod.

"Aren't you a little young for coffee?"

[createdevidence]

He gave her a polite nod back before shaking his head,"No. It's a warm drink and it's cold here. The caffeine doesn't really do anything to me."

He took a bite of his sandwich chewing happily.

[and_intothefire]

Jean sipped her own coffee, staring at him. Jean didn't like children. They'd been around, always around, at the mansion, screaming, kicking, throwing both mental and physical tantrums.

At least this one seemed quiet.

She simply nodded at his statement about the coffee, then turned her attention elsewhere.

[hunt_the_devil]

John didn't bother with walking around the base anymore, there were so many mutants with different powers that he was learning to relax and not worry about hiding his powers so much. So unlike most other people who walked into the Mess hall John just appeared in the kitchen right in front of the coffee machine.

He was smiling a little, his thoughts going over how much better he was sleeping now that he and Fred had talked over the dreams which had been plaguing his friend. Despite being stuck indoors John felt pretty positive.

Training in the gym, reading books, chatting with the other members of the team and cooking. All things that John was more than happy to do, especially if it meant he didn't have to kill anyone.

[and_intothefire]

The sudden arrival of a very positive thought flow was jarring to Jean. Most thoughts were focused on cabin fever, small pockets of self-induced drama to break the routine, what the next step was, and on and on. Instead, this mind was content.

It was so out of the ordinary of what was flowing around her that Jean searched it out. There she saw John in front of the coffee machine. She glanced at her mug and saw it was nearing empty, so she got up, sidling up to the man and smiling at him congenially. "Is there enough for 2 cups?"

[hunt_the_devil]

Taking the cup from from her John smiled, a genuine and honest smile. His thoughts wandered for a moment puzzling over when the newest addition had arrived and where did Stryker keep finding all these charming and attractive women.

"For a lady like yourself there is always plenty of room for two coffee cups. Just don't go tellin' the others I'm makin' you a mug of else they'll all be expectin' me to be the tea boy. For some of them it ain't already enough that I do the cookin' round here." Pressing the various buttons John waited for the coffee machine to whir into life before holding out his hand.

"John Wraith an' may I be so bold as to ask who you might be?"

Manners, always being polite and considerate, John gave everyone a chance to prove that they were a decent individual before he decided if they were trustworthy or not. Nothing against all the new additions but it was hard to know who to trust in a job where guns were handed out left, right and centre... along with all those mutations.

[and_intothefire]

He was not only positive and upbeat, he was polite and charming. She held the smile on her face, even though she was feeling slightly nauseated. He was reserved in his trust though; that at least made him slightly acceptable to be near. Had he immediately told her his deepest darkests, she'd have thrown her arms in the air and walked away.

She shook his hand, trying to keep the smile in her eyes. "I'm Jean, it's a pleasure to meet you John." Jean studying him for a quick moment. He couldn't really be that nice, right?