1964-05-23 - Memory Break
Summary: Maximus finds a love lorn and upset Lorna and offers to make it all go away.
Related: None
Theme Song: None
lorna maximus 


The sky was bright, cheerful, and sunny. The perfect near summer day. Birds chirped in the air, the flowers buzzed with bumblebees and the distant sound of children in the back of the manor could be heard— along with more interesting mutant gifts and cheers.

Lorna, for her part, however, had curled up off to the side, away from everyone. A pile of books beside her forgotten, as well as several used tissues. Lorna had been crying. The green haired mutant had hidden herself away at the base of a large oak with a stone bench, which had once been used to view flowers but had been ignored and now was surrounded by a tangle of weeds and wild plants.

The young girl looked all the more poetically placed with her floral white dress covered in red roses. A sun dress that had clearly been meant to enjoy the good weather, and instead was now crushed beneath her and covered with used tissues.

*

Maximus is here, as usual, to try to see Crystal. But Lorna is all in his way with her trail of white-girl tears and tissues all over the place. UGH. He tromps up closer to her and then crosses his arms, "Ohhhh…what now? I remember being a teenager and I was never this dramatic." That's a lie and a half. He literally staged a successful coup out of teenaged petulance.

*

Lorna nearly jumped up and off the bench as Maximus addressed her and comically ended up catching herself against the oak tree at her back. She yelped, flushed furiously, and stood. "It's nothing. Go away Maximus. Please. I-I'm not in the mood." She hiccupped, and plopped back down to the stone bench heavily. She reached for another tissue, and blew heavily, her eyes red rimmed.

At least there wasn't anything obviously metal around for her to fling his way this time.

*

Maximus draws in a deep breath and then lets it out, "What could possibly be making you cry? Did someone make fun of you for being shy?" He grins crookedly. "Did someone kill your father? That would be convenient. I hate that he's with Crystal, you know. UGH."

*

Lorna scowled, crumpling the tissue in her grip as she glowered up at him from her spot on the bench. "No! No one here makes fun of me 'sides you, Maximus. Gosh!" She sniffled, and fresh tears welled up from her eyes.

"And it's not my father, he's fine." She huffed, rubbed her nose and crossed her arms in a huff, before breaking down into more tears. Her hands clapped over her eyes and she curled up. It was rather pathetic.

"I-I.. J-ulian s-stopped answering my phone calls."

*

"Of course he did, because he got a new girlfriend. He's rich, and you wouldn't let me dress you up. But, who cares…because he was also a terrible person. Worse than me." Maximus tells it brutally straight.

*

"He was not a terrible person! He was a good one that just had trouble with his temper and his powers. So what? I have a temper!" She snapped back, throwing a crushed tissue at Maximus.

"He's not worse than you either." She sniffled and rubbed at her eyes, scowling at the former Inhuman king. Then tears came afresh and she rubbed at her eyes, and broke down into a coughing fit. If there had been metal in the area, perhaps whatever was on Maximus, it was doubtlessly magnetized by now.

*

Maximus has many metal things on him, including a mysterious cylinder. "Oh, my dear, careful…" he widens his eyes and backs up a pace. "If you continue to use your powers like that, I am not certain what my device will do under pressures." He makes a wincing face and draws it out. "YOu will find someone new. It will be fine. It's only terrible people like me who cannot get a date."

*

Lorna blinked, and looked somewhat surprised as Maximus told her to be careful. She sat up, sniffling, and wiped her nose with another tissue. Then she realized what he meant and she blushed. "S-Sorry." A hiccup followed as she blinked up at him. "I-I didn't mean.. to…to do anything. I-I.. my powers are tied up with my emotions. I-I'm not as good as my father at control." She waved a hand and whatever magnetic pull had been, faded.

Another pause followed as she sniffled.

"I've never h-had a boyfriend before.. a-and eve-everyone runs 'cause of my father. He stopped calling after he met my father a-and no one will date me now." Her lower lip wobbled.

*

"Then don't tell people until later. Deception is quite literally the basis for any relationship. Just how long can you delude another person into thinking you are the best when you are really riddled with problems." Maximus chuckles. "I could make you forget him for a while though, if that helps."

*

"I thought communication was the basis for a relationship?" She muttered, sniffling and rubbing at her eyes.

Silence greeted his words for a long moment and her hands lowered from grabbing another tissue. She blinked, brows furrowing as she stared up at him. "Wait. What? Yo-you'd.." She turned her gaze down at her lap, biting her lower lip and then glanced back up at him.

"You can do that? How do I know that that's all you'd do?"

*

"I suppose you do not. But, I would find it hilarious to imagine you wandering around the mansion with amnesia for a few days. Everyone /worried/." Maximus chuckles at the idea. "And it would come back in a couple of days."

*

A slight scowl of distrust pulled at her lips as she watched him, his words about her losing all memory distinctly made her frown. "But it's only for a few days?" Her brows wrinkled, "But how will that help me? I'll just be sad in a few days.." She blinked up at him, but she hadn't said a flat no either. She'd had telepaths poke around in her mind between the Professor, Emma and Jean.. but she'd trusted them..

"Would it erase everything about him or just that he.. he.." She looked down and pushed her hair back from her face.

*

Maximus lifts his hands. "Its a stall. I'm not pretending it's anything different. You'd forget /everything/. I'm told that it's like…a vacation from problems." Maximus tilts his head.

*

Lorna shifted, looking down at her hands as she twisted the tissue between her fingers. She'd never run away from her problems before, but neither had she'd suffered a boyfriend up and leaving her suddenly. She knew the lecture she'd be given if the Professor found out, or if her father. Something about building character for sure. And she knew she'd have to face it anyways, it was only for a few days..

"It .. it won't hurt will it?" She asked, arching a brow as she glanced back to him, biting her lower lip.

*

"No, but…get up, you need to be close to the door, first. I do not want you rushing off into the woods." Maximus demands of the girl. Not the first time he's done some…mercy-forgetting in people.

*

A blink and Lorna got up, picking up the tissues and shoving them into her pockets. "The door? What?" She stood, brushing off her sundress and then rubbing her cheeks clean of the tear stains there.

"Why would I go into the woods?" She bit her lower lip, her brows furrowed as she waited. "Also if something goes wrong, you know Miss Crystal won't stand for it.."

*

Maximus snorts, scoffs, all of the above at the mention of Crystal. "I know what I am doing. You will forget everything for a few days and then you will find that it all trickles right back in. You will be just fine." He waves his hand to casually dismiss the idea of anything going wrong.

*

Lorna exhaled a slow breath, "Everything about Julian, but not.. everything everything right?" She felt the need to reaffirm that he wasn't just playing a trick on her. Though, at least if she did end up wandering around without memory.. there was Professor Xavier. He should be able to fix everything if it didn't last for a few days, right?

Lorna let her hands fall back to her sides.

"Right. Okay.. uhm.. door.. w-what else?"

*

"Everything. That's why I'm putting you by the door. Otherwise you'll end up in the woods, like I said." Maximus clarifies, with a sound of exasperation.

*

A blink and Lorna stared at him, as she came up beside the mansion. A look of hesitation pulled at her features and then she shook her head. "No, I don't think that's .. that's no. I.. I don't want to do that. Actually.. I think that's uhm.. No.." She bit her lower lip.

"I-I think I changed my mind. Thanks fo-for offering and all.. and it's really nice of you to offer, really. But uhm.. I-I don't … I .." She fidgeted, she was on the door steps at this point.

*

Maximus makes a hissing sound. "FinnnNNNnnneeee." He exasperates, then turns around to head back to his caddy. "Wallow, then!"

*

Lorna lurched after him as he made to leave. “Wait!” She didn’t think as she bit her lower lip, squeezing her eyes shut as she swallowed down a lump in her throat. Impulse drove her, impulse to forget Julian and all of the stupid feeling he’d given her and then left without a word.

She hadn’t wanted to be this hung up on a boy but here she was, and she hated it.

“Just do it.” She mumbled.

*
The moment she says yes, she is assaulted. But, it's a simple thing to do because he has seeded her mind before. If her mind is a library, filled with the books of her memories, back when they first met, he placed his own book there, nestled in among the others, easy to miss.

Harmless.

Now, it lets him in and it's as if he took almost all the books off the shelf and dumped them into an unorganized heap in 'book returns'. It'll take days to sort out this mess! However, he does leave a few volumes like…language skills, primal functions, like using the toilet and knowing that fire is hot. But everything else…gone. She wouldn't know who she is, but the primal senses like that the school is safe, would remain.

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