The Fear principle (Accepting)

It would have been so easy for Mason to at least TRY to ignore the feel of her poking around in his head if only she would just. Shut. Up. Digging the heels of his palms into his eyes, he drew in a deep breath and welcomed the green shapes that shifted behind his eyelids, the pressure a welcome change because it was something he was doing to himself, not something that was being done to him by some b**ch on a power trip who wasn't even in the damn room.


Mason heaved a deep breath and began to try as hard as he could to ignore her, though it was nearly impossible with the way it felt in his head and the lack of anything to focus on in his cell. Did the place have a library? He'd never been much of a reader, but hell, he'd try to pick it up now if it would just make everything quiet for a while. Of course, he doubted that Jaguar would tell him, so he'd have to ask around during lunch.


No, he wasn't going to let her win. There had to be some way to keep her out of his head, at least when he's not OBLIGATED to let her in.


--------


Bailey raked her fingers through her hair as she walked toward the elevator, picking absently at the seam of her shirt. She stepped into her office and let out a breath, pulling Matthis's telechip open. Her eyes roamed over the information on it and she cleared him for access to general population or recreation and mess hall during meals.


He was not going to make this easy for her, that much had been apparent from the moment she'd stepped into his cell and his reaction to her using her ability on him proved that. She'd have to talk with Jeremiah, and, maybe Jaguar if she could work her way back into her good graces on how to proceed. Slowly would be the most obvious answer, and of course, that was Bailey's plan to begin with.


Perhaps she should just go in for another meeting with him after he'd had more time to adjust and gotten out of his cell for a while.
 
"Yeah...real cute..." Jack continues to watch Mason as he heads off, chewing on the straw she had jammed into her carton of chocolate milk. After the twins had left at the other inmate's approach, she had realized something must have been up and stayed quiet while he sat with them, not trusting the new guy one bit.


Granted, his looks worked for him, but then again, she had learned to use her own for similar advantages. She didn't like the way he had talked to Rinji, if there hadn't been guards around she would have done something about it. Making a metal note to question Jaguar about him at their next session, Jack reaches over with out giving it any thought and squeezes Rinji's leg.


"Just watch it around him a'right?" Her face had gone serious and her whole posture was tense. Sliding from her perch on the table top she eyed the clock and made a face. "I gotta head back to my cell...should be having another meeting with your favorite person soon...save me a seat at lunch?" Trying to smile, Jack winks at Rinji and ignoring the looks from a few of the guards, pushes past them, taking the long way to her cell.


Taking her time down the men's quarters, she let her hand trail along the wall, against the doors to the cells and hummed softly, looking around. She could sense the new inmate was close and stopped outside of his door. Knowing that the locks were still down, she kicked the corner of it so that the outer door opened, revealing the one made of bars behind it.


"We didn't get introduced," she drawled, unsure of how Mason would react to the intrusion, but not really caring. She was prepared to go into his head if she really had to. Leaning against the bars, she grinned, trying to appear girly and sexy as she batted her eyelashes at him, her lower lip pouting slightly. The pressure from the bars caused the hem of her top to ride up slightly. "I'm Jack..." She let her eyes scan his cell, and shrugged, seeing that it was no different then her own.

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"Okay, bye Jack! Have a good time!" Rinji accepts Jack's exit with good grace, although this leaves her sitting alone at the table.


She waves goodbye to her and even blows her a kiss, smiling, before getting up and roaming the area, interacting with other prisoners until their breakfast hour is up. As she walks back to her office area she is humming lightly to herself, her hips swaying side to side as she walked. To Rinji, even with her remnants of a hangover, she's had another great morning and has noticed nothing amiss between the prisoners she has spent time with.


**


Mason is good at hiding himself from her. He had had years of practice at burying fears, and for most, it would take more than one or two tries to even begin to scratch the surface. She hadn't expected Mason to be any different. Still, the force with which she is trying now to dig past his mental walls is considerable, and she can see nothing more than the surface levels.


"You're hiding, aren't you?" she asks him as she presses harder, harder, probing quickly and with strength against his blocks to see if there are any weaknesses she can exploit. "People who are really so strong and manly surely don't have to hide from a woman, would they, wouldn't a chauvinist child-abuser like you think that makes him weak? You're not weak, are you, Mason...or are you?"
 
((Should we do lunch or 'yard' time maybe? I don't want this to die and my people are either inmates or sleeping right now lol))
 
(Yard time, sure, but it's indoors, remember. And I do want to finish with Mason and Jaguar before Jaguar moves on. And I want her to see Jack)
 
((I know, I just wasn't sure what else to call it besides 'workout room' lol I can wait 'til you and Mason are all done. Just wanted to keep it going since no one had posted in a while))
 
Weak. She was certainly one to talk, given that she was tormenting him from somewhere else in the building while he was trapped like a rat in some damned cell. At least Mason had the stones enough to take care of his business in person, and not hiding behind whatever kind of smoke and mirror job the empaths had running in this place.


The footsteps sounding down the hall brought him to sit upright. For a moment, he'd wondered if it might have been Jaguar, but since that didn't seem to be her style, his eyebrows inched upward until one of the girls he'd been sitting with during breakfast was resting against his bars. Jack, that's what the blonde had called him, and it was further reinforced when she gave him her name herself.


Mason's eyes searched her body briefly, noting the way her shirt had ridden up before he took to her face and smiled at her. He leaned forward at the waist, letting his elbows fall to rest on his thighs, "Mason." He replied, clasping his hand together. Having a distraction made the digging in his head that much easier to tolerate, the fact that the distraction was an attractive - hell, who was he kidding, sexy - young woman, well... he could handle that just fine. "How long have you been here?"
 
"Long enough..." smirking slightly, Jack ran a hand through her hair and sighed, looking down the hallway again before resting her cheek against one bar, continuing to eye the other inmate.


"She's in your head ain't she?" her chin jutted out slightly in his direction. "I can tell, you got that look...most of the thunder-tw*t's victims usually do when she starts pushing her way into places she doesn't belong..." Frowning, the empath clicked her tongue against her teeth. "Alth.ough I gotta admit, she seemed pretty rattled after you arrived...I should know..." A smirk returned to her lips and her tongue ran against the lower one before she laughed, looking almost smug. "What'd you do? It's obvious she's met you before...you forget to return her pen in some lecture...never called her back?"


She continued to smirk and ran her nails along the bars, the tips clicking against the metal there. If he was in fact an enemy of Jaguar's, then Jack planned on being as nice as possible to the guy. It seemed that they had a thing or two in common...
 
(guys...there are no bars....they are in rooms. Rooms with doors. The most they could see of each other would be through a tiny window at the door...)





Jaguar could tell when Jack had come to visit Mason not because of any specific thoughts of his, at least at first, but because of his distraction. He no longer seemed preoccupied by her nor as vengeful or enraged in thought; in fact he seemed suddenly focused and interested on something other than Jaguar and her presence in his mind. But what could that be, exactly, if Jeremiah had locked his cell today so no one would be able to have access to the codes to get inside? Who was he talking to?





She continued to lurk about in his thoughts, figuring out from the pieces she could see after several moments that based off his impression of looks and mentions of tattoos, it must be Jack he was talking to. Jack, who wasn't supposed to be allowed to wander freely? There was no telling what he was saying to her...








Suddenly dreading the scenario she was about to face, Jaguar abruptly pulled herself from Mason's brain, not caring that it would likely be an unpleasant or painful sensation for him as she started immediately towards the elevator. As she jabbed the buttons, impatient to be released out onto his floor, and then strode down the hallway, calling Jack's name, she realized that her hands were slightly sweaty.





(Rinji visit the twins maybe?0
 
((We could do that, but I'm actually not here for more than a few minutes right now, so I'd have to respond in a few hours.


Also, I thought Izabella said something about the door being left slightly open since it was still meal time? I don't know. ))
 
(Mason is not supposed to be let out of his room though due to Jeremiah's locked access codes...but he did already leave for breakfast...so we already broke that rule. I think once they left cafeteria they would be escorted back to rooms and locked in ordinarily though, so maybe they both slipped away somehow? I don't know. Guys, can we avoid further posts that are entirely ooc with no in character post as well in the future though, please? Make a conversation thread if you have a comment or question)
 
((Ack, sorry about Mason leaving. I derped, apparently.))


Mason kept his eyes trained on Jack through the window, eyebrows still raised. Did he really want to tell her the bug Jaguar had up her a*s for him, when he could potentially even team up with someone else to torment her? Outside of The Eyes of Man, teaming up with her would be the last thing on Mason's mind, though it would be possible for him to gain her trust through it, so...


Rising to his feet, he walked over and stood before the door, meeting her eyes. A smirk crept onto his lips as he answered her, "I think for now, I'll keep that between thunder-tw*t and myself."


But then, something in his brain seemed to clamp down and he cried out in surprise, clutching his head as he kneaded his temples with the heels of his palms. A loud string of curses flooded from his lips before he could think to even stop, not that he could hear them through the ringing in his ears, anyway. "What the f*ck was that?!" He groaned, voice hoarse as though he'd been punched in the gut.


Moments later, he heard a voice, distinctively Jaguar even through the thickness of the door and walls around him and he sucked in a breath through his teeth, trying to straighten himself up as best as he could. "Well, speak of the devil."
 
((Sorry for the OOC, Faith. So, Rinji's visiting the twins, right?))


Crane was long gone. List had known the moment it happened, when Crane stopped moving altogether and just let himself slump against the wall, eyes cloudy and staring straight ahead. List had waved a hand in his face and gave him a gentle shake, as per usual, but there was no response and there wouldn't be. List did his best not to worry, just drew his brother down flat on the bed and rested the other boy's head on his lap, carding his fingers through Crane's hair. Not even that made Crane look at him, the empath staring straight up at the ceiling and seeing nothing.


List hated it when Crane got like this. Crane had little to no control over his abilities, as it was, and when he branched out without thinking much of it and felt all the other beings around him he just got lost. It took anywhere from minutes, to hours, to days, for him to eventually come back, but it hadn't happened in this place before and List didn't like that. The only other times it had occured was when they were on their own and List could take care of him, keep him safe. Trapped here, he wasn't sure how much he could do, and he hated it.


When a light above the door indicated someone opening it, a faint hiss following as it unlocked and slid aside, List's fingers curled tighter in Crane's hair, his free hand resting at the center of the empath's chest to be sure he didn't suddenly wake and start flailing, as he had a tendency to do. Though he was still ready to defend, as was his instinct, List was surprised and almost relieved to see that the person entering was Rinji. He wasn't sure why she was here and it bothered him. Wasn't she just a clerical worker? Why would she be told to visit them in their cell? Or had she come on her own? List had never liked the amount of questions that always formed around this woman.
 
Jaguar smiled to herself somewhat grimly as she heard Mason's curses ring out through the hallway, even from the distance she remained from him. No doubt this was a result of her pulling out from his brain, and it sounded as though she had definitely shocked or at least hurt him. Good. He deserved it, and she would have to do this as often as she could manage to keep him off balance.


"Jack," she repeats as she draws closer to Mason's cell, seeing that the other woman is standing in front of it still. "You have finished your meal, it seems. Looks like you've found yourself on the wrong floor. Forget to read the elevator numbers?"


To Mason, she says with exaggerated politeness, "Hello. I really would like to have another pleasant chat with you, but it seems I can't get to your room today once you're inside it. Perhaps we can find a way around this."


**


(No, Rinji would not be given access to the cells. She wouldn't be allowed inside, she would stand outside them and talk through the door.)


Rinji is already wearing high heels, but she nevertheless stands on her toes to see within the tiny window of the room which houses List and Crane, nearly pressing her nose against the thick panes of hard plastic. Seeing the boys lying down together, Crane appearing listless, almost lifeless, Rinji frowned, concerned, and knocked lightly on the window.


"Hello? It's Rinji. Fogden?" she elaborates, as though there may be many Rinjis they are familiar with. "Is Crane sick? He looks really tired...sort of like I felt last night only I don't think they let you drink here. Other than water and stuff, of course. Do you guys want to talk? He looks like he could use some cheering up."
 
((Oh, oops. When you said visit I just assumed that meant inside :( ))


List ran his fingers through Crane's hair again, looking briefly down at his brother and noting the state of inaction as he had before. "No," He called back to her, because he knew she probably wouldn't leave until he replied, "He's not sick. . ." He looked back at Crane. "Just lost." Rinji was at once very frustrating and, at times, oddly comforting. It was easier for Crane, being here, when he could occasionally see someone that didn't want to just pick apart his brain.


"I don't know that even you can wake him." List continued, shaking his head and looking at the window in the door Rinji was peering through. "Especially not through that door." They were too far away, and moving Crane now would just upset him later, when he woke to find himself somewhere different from where he'd fallen into this state.


To be quite honest, List worried about him, more than he had the other times. They were in the middle of a relatively new place, filled with criminals and empaths and lots of thoughts and emotions List didn't want Crane touching. Crane wasn't a killer. That had been List's job, while they were on the run, protecting Crane as always, and List didn't like that he couldn't do it now. He didn't know what state Crane was going to wake up in, after getting lost in all the other inmates' thoughts and feelings for so long.
 
"Lost?" Rinji is puzzled, tilting her head slightly as she frowns down at List from behind the window. "How can he be lost? He's right here. He knows where he is. I can see him."


She squints her eyes, looking at him more closely. "He's asleep? He doesn't look asleep...Crane, are you asleep?"


Distracting her own self, she segues off into a Rinji-ish musing. "It's funny how you both have word names. Like a list of groceries and a crane vehicle. Or like a bird. Jaguar has a word name too, hers is a big cat. And Jack! Because that's a card. And Jeremiah is a bullfrog, but I think it's just in that one really old song, probably. I don't think most bullfrogs are called Jeremiah."
 
Jack could sense Jaguar's approach and rolled her eyes, merely flinching at Mason's bark of pain, knowing exactly wat had happened and not envying him one bit. It was rather painful when someone suddenly ripped free from ones mind after having their latches in so deep.


She didn't even turn as the other woman came up to her, still eyeing Mason through the tiny window. "We'll finish this later hot stuff..." she whispered.


Winking, she finally turned, a smug smirk tugging at her lips. So, the good ol' doctor had a weakness after all...and it seemed it might be something that Jack would be able to use to her advantage later on. She wasn't exactly sure what the deal was just yet, but she knew it was only a matter of time before she found out.


"Forget? Nah...my heads been a little bit fuzzy since the last time you...came to visit me...haven't been able to focus and all that..." she continued to smirk and pushed back from the door, coming face to face with Jaguar.


"Guess I'll be seeing you a little later huh? Gonna try to get in the ol' noggin to see what we were just talking about..." she tapped a finger against her temple. "Maybe this time I'll let you in..."


With a low grunt, she headed in the direction of her own floor, a satisfied smirk remaining across her lips the whole way, remaining there even as she got locked in.
 
List sighed quietly as Rinji started to rant and waited for a short break for breath to speak up and interrupt her. "If it makes you stop doing that, List is just short for Alistair." His parents had had a strange taste in baby names, but then, they'd had strange taste in everything. "And cranes are his favorite bird." It had also helped, when they'd decided on their new names as children, that Crane's legal name contained many of the same letters.


List shook his head slowly. "He's not sleeping. He's very awake, but he's not . . . here." He waved a hand vaguely in the air around them. "He's an empath. He's sort of everywhere, right now." Except in List's own head - he'd gotten used to being able to sense Crane there, almost all the time. It felt strange to be missing him now. "I don't think you're going to be able to call him back any time soon."


But List was proven wrong a moment later. Crane did come back, with a violent start and a quick upward jerk that had him sitting up straight, panting a little. List's hand fell from where it had been resting against Crane's chest and brushed the empath's arm, thus drawing his attention, and Crane spun and tackled List down onto the bed. List landed flat on his back with Crane hovering above him, the empath staring down at him with crazed, still hazy eyes and his hands around List's throat. He was doing it wrong, not pressing hard enough in the right places, but List could still hardly draw a breath, but the elder twin didn't fight. List could never hurt Crane, so he just held on to Crane's wrists and made sure there wasn't quite enough pressure to kill him, resolving to find a way to shove Crane off the bed, should List begin to pass out. This wasn't good. He'd been inside the minds of too many criminals and List had to find a way to wake him up.
 
"Fuzzy, huh?" Jaguar says skeptically, eyebrows raised, but she doesn't press Jack any further. In fact, she smiles at her as she partly leads, partly follows her down the hall. "Maybe if you didn't fight it so hard, it wouldn't be so disorienting later."


Jack is joking about letting her in the next time, but Jaguar takes it seriously even as she smiles aimably back at her. She knows that Jack even joking about such a thing is a good sign, a step forward in their relationship, even if it is a backhanded approach of addressing fear. She should take the opportunity to address her now while she is so apparently relaxed...Rinji must already be working a number on her.


Jaguar follows Jack to her cell and lets herself in behind her, leaning at a wall a good distance from her and crossing her arms as she faces her.


"You'll let me in, huh? Prove it?"


**


"Those are funny names," Rinji nods as List explains them to her, never mind the fact that she had changed her own name and people mind find it "funny." "Maybe I'll just call you Paper and Bird. You know, like List and Crane, only easier."


It's hard to tell whether she's serious or not. When Crane jolts awake, grabbing List's neck, Rinji gasps, widening her eyes as she knocks lightly on the glass. "Crane! Don't do that, you'll hurt his neck like that! You know, guys, that's why you're here, so you won't hurt and kill people anymore, right?"
 
List does his best to keep Crane from doing anything too rash, ignoring the idiotic screaming from the other side of the door. Did she really think it was going to stop them, yelling at them from there? She would be better off shouting for guards, though List doubted she would be able to think of that and didn't want the guards to hurt Crane anyway.


"Crane," List grinds out through his teeth, pushing at his brother with his knees to try and lessen the pressure. The added motion makes Crane's grip slip fractionally and when he fixes it List chokes on nothing and has to truly struggle under the weight now pushing down on his Adam's apple, closing his airway.


List gags painfully, and renews his grip on Crane's arm, hoping he's not going to leave bruises behind, and knows that if he lets this go much longer he might just stop breathing altogether, and Crane wouldn't be able to live with himself if that happened. List hooks a leg along Crane's side and shoves until he's gotten Crane onto his back, the other boy's hands still tight around List's neck but with less force now that their positions have switched.


"Crane, it's me," List's chokes out again, fighting his gag reflex so that he won't just desolve into a coughing fit and not be able to speak. "Stop. I've got you. Just stop."
 
Taken back by the sudden invasion of her space, Jack turns around, one eyebrow arced as she glares at the other woman. "Excuse me...did I invite you in again? What is this? Just barge on in every time you need to feel something?"


Dropping down in her cot, she moves the pillow over to hide her book and crosses her arms over her chest, very aware of how this pushes them out against her shirt more, but not caring if this makes her any more inviting towards the other woman. "You really think I'll ever willingly let you into my brain?" she snorted and shook her head. "You're delusional lady...aint never gonna happen...no matter how many times you try to get into my pants..."


The corners of Jack's mouth twitched upwards and she got on her knees, her body bouncing slightly as the cot creaked, protesting at the added weight with each bounce. "You're not a bad kisser by the way...for a goody goody..." She wanted to get under Jaguar's skin.


"Maybe I'll get the chance soon to see how you compare to that Mason guy..." her eyes widened slightly and her tongue snaked out against her lower lip.


"I know he's the reason that you...jumped me like that. It all adds up, he shows up here and suddenly bam, we're swapping spit til your boss man walked in...but hey...' she shrugged and spread her arms. "-if that's what you need to, I don't know, feel more in control or whatever then hell..."


Jack trailed off, but it was more then obvious where she had been going with this. She wasn't going to admit the feelings she had had when the other woman had kissed her, and it was very clear that if Jaguar tried something like that again, that she wasn't going to stop her.
 
Her nose practically touching the window now, Rinji watches the twins with growing anxiety, one hand absently tapping against the door as she calls to them again. They look to her like they're serious, like List is really getting hurt by Crane, and it's upsetting to her. Rinji, who hates even horror movies because they involve people getting hurt, can never quite imagine or believe that other people really, TRULY want to hurt others, and so when she witnesses it, it serves to briefly shake up her view of the world. Violence and hate to Rinji is remote and unreal enough to be almost nonexistent.


"Crane, come on now, he asked you to stop, and you're hurting him," she calls. "You don't want to hurt him, he's your brother and you love him. Maybe even in the lover kind of way. And that's looking beyond the lover kind of choking to me....can't you stop now? List, can you reach him? Maybe if you kiss him he'll stop."


She's very serious with this suggestion.


**


"No, you didn't invite me, but that usually doesn't stop me," Jaguar replied lightly to Jack, giving her a smile as she remained leaned back against the opposite wall, not yet moving. "Maybe it's impolite, but I've never been one to follow laws of etiquette."


She carefully noted Jack's posture, seeing that she was in fact seeming to be baiting her sexually once again, and arched an eyebrow, pointing it out mildly. "I'm aware you have breasts, Jack, most females do. I'm sure they're very nice ones, but we have more interesting things to discuss today than those. As for the mind thing...you may not ever willingly, but it will happen all the same, and it makes it so much easier if it was willing for you. But today, that wasn't part of my plan."


No, today was intended to relax Jack, to feel out how much damage the day before had caused in her. Just talking would be more than enough.


But then Jack is saying something that is of more significance to Jaguar than what it tells about Jack...Jack is talking about HER. About her and Mason...connecting dots, drawing conclusions between her behavior with Jack and her having just left Mason.


Jaguar tenses ever so slightly but keeps her expression still as she responds to her, lightly probing the outer membrane of her feelings just to see if she was trying to invade her own thoughts. Surely that wasn't how Jack had come to that conclusion, Jaguar would have detected her.


"I'm in control, Jack, but thanks for the worry. We aren't here to talk about Mason today.'
 
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