Participants:
| Scene Title | A Lesson Not Learned |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | A captive Elle is knocked around by Jessica. |
| Date | September 21, 2008 |
Somewhere in Brooklyn
The window that Huruma had been leaning against last night is bare, sunlight filtering in through the twisted frame of the fire escape. Somehow, Elle had dropped off— though badly— following the events of the previous night, probably out of exhaustion. Adam's blood may have mended her broken feet, but even that does little for fatigue and more emotion-related symptoms. Right now, it's still early. Eyes closed, her head lolls a little, turned sideways just off her chest.
Jessica wanders in…and proceeds to make with a necessary ritual: The Dousing Of The Elle. After all, no one wants lightning girl to dry off. So she comes in, bucket at hand, and proceeds to dump it atop her lethargic form.
The pouring of cold water on her skin awakens Elle with a start. More than ever, she resembles a wet, stringy-haired dog as the tub around her fills in again. Groggy, hate-filled eyes flick upwards at Jessica with a snarl. "Fuck—."
The other blonde looks down at Elle. "Morning to you too." she says, with dry amusement. "Glad to see you awake and enjoying our hospitality."
A sputter comes to Elle’s mouth, twitching an extra drop of water off her lips. “When I’m out of here, there isn’t a word to describe how much pain you’ll be in when you die.” Riling up Jessica to inflict more injuries? Undoubtedly. At least there is no Huruma around, however, to wreak havoc with her emotions again. The sting of humiliation is still there.
Jessica looks back down to Elle, and smirks. And just for amusement's value, swings the thin metal pail to smack Elle in the face with it. She doesn't use her full strength, as that might crush her skull…but she makes sure it's going to hurt. "Seeing how you've been trying to kill me from moment one? You don't think I recognize how you were trying to play Niki?"
The hit makes Elle duck her face away just before she sees it coming, but it still clips her. Acidity drips from her voice when she turns her head back to face Jessica. “If I’d been trying to kill you, I would’ve done it a long time ago. Get that through your schizo head.”
Jessica chuckles. "Oh, I don't doubt you wanted Niki alive. To use her. But you wanted me dead. Bitch." She seems amused. "She still trusts you, that's the funny part. You should hear her bitching about all this."
If this is news to Elle, it’s impossible to tell from her half-lidded glare. “Stupid! Niki wants you just as much as I do. Didn’t you hear her? ‘I don't want her to come back. Period. Ever.’ “ The last phrase is mimicked to be as irritating as possible, at least to Jessica.
Jessica smirks. "But here I am. And with you around, you can bet I'm going to be around a while. I don't trust you around Niki. She can't see through your little manipulative shit."
Annoyance makes Elle thrash. There is a thump against the tub as the upper of her two feet kicks it, a reminder that both are whole again. “What would be I manipulating you for? I didn’t even know who you were before I was sent out looking for you. What’s in it for me?”
Jessica looks back. "For whatever your little company wanted, daddy's girl. You're just a flunky, in the long view. And I'd rather get my hands on your dad.. But you'll do to get him."
"We wanted Niki to be able to function without you," Elle answers sourly. The reasons are obvious. Jessica is a menace to society, etc. etc. "It's amazing how you can have two personalities but only half a brain."
Jessica shakes her head, amused. "You know, you'd think that someone who's already been tortured once would realize it's stupid to mouth off to the person who did it the first time." She reaches down, trying to grab a good long fistful of Elle's wet hair. Assuming she gets it, she proceeds to haul her up by it, letting her dangle at full arm's extension from her own hair.
In that respect, it just seems Elle never learns, doesn’t it? She takes in a shrieking inhalation as she’s hauled up, her heels finding intermittent purchase on the non-slip surface stretching across the tub’s bottom right before she’s lifted right off it. “Aaagh — go to hell—” Even as she struggles to reorient herself, her lips lift themselves in a leer.
Jessica's doing all this one-handed, so far. That leaves a hand free. "You just don't learn, do you?" She growls. And with that, she smacks Elle in the chest with an open palm, letting go of her with the other hand. The combination should send her flying across the room.
Elle 's back hits the opposite side of the room with a crunch; her slim form slides to the floor in a crumple. The bounds around her hands and feet make it impossible for her to put out a hand to stop herself, and it's her shoulder — twisted — that meets the ground first. Her mouth stretches in a soundless grimace as soon she's just laying there, eyes blinking shut momentarily.
Jessica moves over towards Elle. She smirks a bit. "What's the matter? Cat got your tongue?" And that seems to give her an idea." She moves over towards where Elle is crumpled there, and reaches down to grab her, as she crouches down. Specifically she's trying to pull her jaw down, and reach in with the fingers of her other hand to grab her tongue. "Or will I?"
Tongue is slimy. And slippery. Before Jessica can dig her fingers too deeply into the flesh, since that’s what she’ll have to do to keep a firm hold, Elle (disoriented as she is) jerks her head diagonally so her upper row of teeth will meet the back of that hand. It’s impossible to use her jaws normally, since Jessica is holding them there.
Jessica yelps, and gets bitten. She snarls, and glares back at Elle. "Do it again and I break every damn tooth out of your head." She'll make another attempt to grab.
It’ll probably work, too, since Elle has nothing to stop Jessica with. But in that tiny space between the end of Jessica’s comment and the beginning of her grab, the agent fights her physical pain to add a bitter snipe of her own. “…very sisterly. Role. Model.”
And that actually gets her to pause. Just barely. But instead of keeping her grip on Elle's face, she moves to shift it to her shirt, to pick up the blonde, and lob her back across the room into the tub.
There isn't much of that shirt that isn't bloody, wet, or simply trailing loose ends. There is no wall to stop her skidding trajectory; though Elle and the long container meet, it sloshes several inches of water outside of the tub as her limbs fall into it. The back of her head clashes badly against one of the metallic ends. This time around? Jessica can do what she wants, because Elle doesn't look like she'll be moving.
 September 21st: Give and Take |
 September 21st: Regression |