The X-Project

When: Friday April 27th 2007 Time: 12 noon
Who: Haller, Laurie, Jean
What Happens: Haller decides to use movies in order to get a baseline for where Laurie's involuntary powers use is at. Jean is there to monitor them both and record the results.



It was a little inconvenient to occupy the TV Room for a few hours, but a step down from what would have been caused by monopolizing the Rec Room. This had to be done in a controlled, comfortable environment, though. A certain emotional baseline had to be established, and from personal experience Jim knew a small, impersonal white room in the medlab wasn't going to provide that. And the TV Room was used primarily for classes -- which this was.

The counselor finished taping the makeshift "In Session" sign to the outside of the door and shut it. "Okay," Jim said to the room's other occupants, "I think we're set."

Laurie adjusted the small monitor hanging from her hip as she made herself comfortable on the couch. She clutched the bowl of popcorn that was sitting on her lap and gave Haller a small smile. "So, what movie did you pick?"

Jim smiled and lifted the DVD case to her as he walked towards the player. "A really depressing Robin Williams one. You're doing well with voluntary application. I mean, you can make people sober or knock them out -- calming Yvette enough so she could be treated. Now we've got to work on involuntary."

"Both your monitors reading clean, and we've got steady readings right now for comparison. Although if you've brought that horrible Patch thing that Williams did, I may never speak to you again. Talk about a bad adaptation." The TV room wasn't really set up for medical experiments, but one of the small tables worked to hold the display for the monitors and Jean had pulled one of the arm chairs over so she could get a good view not only of it, but also of Laurie, Haller and the tv.

"Don't worry, it's What Dreams May Come. Since we're doing a training session in controlling emotional responses I think it's kind of in everybody's best interest we stay away from the clown place." Jim gave Laurie a slightly apologetic grin as he opened the player and slid in the disk. "Sorry, this is a little arty in an on-crack way but I think Dead Poets' Society is an advanced course." Finding something 'just far enough' had been harder than 'okay, definitely too far.' Judging from what he suspected of Laurie's sensitivity level he thought they'd better save things like Dancer in the Dark for the equivalent of a final exam.

"I think I've heard of this one, although never seen it. I liked him in Mrs Doubtfire though, but I'm assuming this is more of the 'bring the tissues' sort of thing?" Laurie replied, grinning.

She was slightly nervous about this whole experiment, she wasn't used to having her scrubber turned off after so long relying on it to keep the non-voluntary side of her power controlled. But she supposed that she did need to learn control, especially considering that she couldn't stay at the school forever. Besides which, if the scrubber suddenly stopped working, she could be in a lot of trouble depending on what she was feeling at the time.

"Yes," Jean agreed, "I'm afraid it is on the tissue side of the spectrum. You both ready to get started?"

Jim nodded, taking the DVD remote with him to the nearest chair. He glanced at the redheaded doctor for confirmation, then back to Laurie. "Okay, we're going to start the link to monitor everything. Are you ready?"

Laurie nodded, emptying her mind in order to make the link easier to establish. She was neither a sender, nor a receiver and as far as she knew had no psi talent at all but both the Professor and Nathan had shown her a bit about making it easier for a psi talent to connect with her if needed. "I'm ready when you are." she replied verbally.

Jim met Jean's eyes and nodded slightly. There was some slight awkwardness involved in being on strictly the receiving end of a monitoring link, but a lack of Jean's years of experience isolating and identifying subtle physiological shifts aside, Jim knew it was also not a stellarly good idea for the proctoring telepath to also be the test subject.

Even so, preparation for this session had involved some careful wall-building and settling of the outer reaches of his mind. With the resolution of the major conflict a few weeks ago he was feeling more secure at the concept of outside contact, but he also knew that if his crazy ended up dominoing a coworker's he was never going to live it down.

At Haller's nod, Jean reached out; her touch was subtle and unobtrusive as she settled in, gauging the base state that the bio-monitors were already reading from an emotional and mental level. "So," she said when the contact was firm, "let's get comfortable and fire her up."

Laurie settled back and offered Haller some popcorn as she watched the lights dim around them. She'd always loved the fact that the TV room had remote controlled lights. 'Focus' she thought to herself as she turned her attention to the screen. "I don't know how good I'm going to be at this, I've never really tried to control my subconscious before."

Jim nodded as the mindlink settled over him. "It's more about cultivating a generalized state of mind, or something deep and meaningful. Really all it means is practice and acclimatization." He added with a private smile at the other teacher, "In serious cases, maybe a monastery."

Jean grinned. "But if it comes to that," she said, "I promise, we'll find you one where they speak English. Tibetan sounds lovely, but several months with no one to talk to is difficult."

"I'm not entirely sure I'd be good for the monks, unfortunately. One cute boy and it could all go horribly wrong." Laurie replied with an easy grin, watching the beginning scenes of the film. It was certainly interesting visual wise, she'd give it that for a start.

Jim settled in, since for at least half the student body a movie of this length would have been as much a test of attention span as powers control. He let his mind separate itself into two spheres: that which monitored the movie and Laurie's reactions to it, and that which paid attention to his own body. Jean's presence in his mind was deft and barely noticeable, though as always he was slightly startled by contact with a technique very obviously honed under Charles' instruction. It was also a good distraction from the weird reassessment he would otherwise have had to do about Laurie's personality after that comment about monks.

The first part of the movie was calmly taken. The funeral, the flashbacks to the family, the reunion with the daughter. Jim sensed the slightest rising of tension during the trip across Styx, but it was normal background; barely noticeable.

And then Robin Williams and Cuba Gooding Jr. faced the gates of Hell.

Laurie had been okay to that point, watching the movie while attempting to keep her reactions to what was going on to herself. She'd managed it as far as she could tell. That of course, was until they got to the gates of Hell. She couldn't say why this moment affected her more then any of the others but the love inherent in being willing to go into Hell itself for your family, she could feel the tears running down her cheeks as she watched.

It had occurred to Jean that the only way for her to stay completely objective during these tests would involve a gas mask, but she was far enough back from the couch that she could observe the effects on Laurie and Jim before Laurie's powers reach her. She jotted a few notes quickly, noting how for Laurie, the emotion and physical reaction were simultaneous, but in Jim the monitors were registering physical reaction full seconds before she sensed the emotional feedback which tied into it. She sniffed quietly, brushing a quick hand across her cheek to wipe away the tears that were now starting to blur her own vision.

For someone who had spent the majority of his life in a some degree of dissociation, physical reactions without an apparent emotional catalyst were not a new experience. Even so, Jim's furiously streaming eyes and the urge to degenerate into gulping sobs were a little distracting. There was also a slight embarrassment factor that it was happening in front of a coworker and a student. However, he focused on the positive. They definitely had their baseline now -- that point Laurie would be working up from. Judging from his physical responses she was also still distraught. Experiment or not, there was really no reason to let her stay that way.

"It's okay," Jim said, reaching out to touch Laurie lightly on the arm in the hopes it would offer comfort. Then he realized belatedly, Oh yeah, it's worse when it's tactile.

Laurie started slightly, and then realised what must be happening when she saw the tears sliding down Haller's face. "Oh, oh, I'm so sorry." she said, sniffling as she tried to get herself under control. She offered him a tissue from the box she'd been holding, looking somewhat sheepish.

Jean curbed the impulse to stand up and lay a comforting hand on Laurie's shoulder as she picked up the thought from Jim's mind. Observer. Uninvolved. Right. She sniffled again, then telekinetically swiped one of the tissues from Laurie's box. "It's all right, sweetie. This is part of what the experiment is for. Do you want to keep going with the movie?"

Jim gave Laurie a sympathetic smile. Then, despite the obvious side-effects, reached out and gave the shaking girl a light, intentional pat on the back.

"Up for it?" Jim asked Laurie. His tone was completely normal, though his eyes were now extremely red and an internal agreement had been reached that Lorna would never have a certain comment about crying at movies validated.

Laurie smiled, knowing that touch for telepaths was not something lightly undergone and that it probably took a lot for Mr Haller to do so. It made her want to be worthy of that effort, and so she'd continue, even if she was a little frightened by how easily her powers took a hold of people. "I'm up for it. It's just tears, right?"

"It is," Jean agreed, smiling slightly. "And the movie ends well, I promise."

Jim nodded. "We might be able to get a baseline for happy-crying, too. Research and posterity and . . . things." He gave Laurie another one of the more apologetic kind of smiles. "Although I think this is the only powers-session I've ever done that probably warrants consolation ice-cream."

"Just so long as it's choc-banana flavoured and not like redbull flavoured or something like that. You can never tell what you're going to get around here icecream wise." Laurie replied with a watery grin. "Happy-crying is the best kind of crying, even if they both leave you blotchy and with runny nose ickiness."

"I'm pretty sure we can find some tasty ice cream for this one." Jean smiled, then pointed past the two on the couch to the television screen, where the movie had continued while they talked. "Do we need to rewind, or are we just going forward?"

"Forward! Spartans never retreat!" Laurie cried, grinning and then grabbing hold of her popcorn bowl before it could tumble from her lap. "Well, okay, so we're not Spartans but I totally have no desire to rewatch the depressing bits. Onward to the happy bits!"

"Yeah, forward. Forward is always better." Jim's smile at Laurie's enthusiasm went beyond the fact her powers were tied to her emotions. Gathering a handful of popcorn from the bowl, the counselor sat back into the couch for the rest of the movie, feeling his eyes finally beginning to dry. "I think we already hit 2007's Spartan quota anyway."