ArchivedLogs:In Which Mutants Are Not Successfully Dissuaded From Their Holiday Cheer, Despite (Questionably) Valiant Attempts

In Which Mutants Are Not Successfully Dissuaded From Their Holiday Cheer, Despite (Questionably) Valiant Attempts
Dramatis Personae Blink, Flicker, Rasa, Taylor
In Absentia	Christmas Day "Keep the /X/ in X-Mas."
Location <NYC> Evolve Cafe - Lower East Side
Spacious and open, this coffeeshop has a somewhat industrial feel to it, grey resin floors below and exposed-beam ceilings that have been painted up in a dancing swirl of abstract whorls and starbursts, a riot of colour splashed against a white background. The walls alternate between brick and cheerfully lime-green painted wood that extends to the paneling beneath the brushed-steel countertops. There's an abundance of light, though rather than windows (which are scarce) it comes from plentiful hanging steel lamps. The walls here are home to artwork available for sale; though the roster of prints and paintings and drawings and photographs changes on a regular basis it has one thing in common -- all the artists displayed are mutants. The seating spaced around the room is spread out enough to keep the room from feeling cluttered. Black chairs, square black tables that mostly seat two or four though they're frequently pushed around and rearranged to make space for larger parties. In the back corner of the room is more comfortable seating, a few large black-corduroy sofas and armchairs with wide tables between them. There's a shelf of card and board games back here available for customers to sit and play. The chalkboard menus hanging behind the counter change frequently, always home to a wide variety of drinks (with an impressive roster of fair-trade coffees and teas largely featured) though their sandwiches and wraps and soups and snacks of the day change often. An often-changing variety of baked goods sit behind the display case at the counter halfway back in the room, and the opposite side of the counter holds a small selection of homemade ice creams. A pair of single-user bathrooms flanks the stairway in back of the cafe; at night, the thump of music can be heard from above, coming from the adjoining nightclub of the same name that sits up the stairs above the coffeehouse. The sign on Evolve's door still reads CLOSED -- though a cheerful and brightly coloured signboard outside announces dinner to come soon -- ALL WELCOME. Within the largely-deserted cafe is quite a bustle, volunteers preparing the dinnertime feast, setting the tables, checking the supplies. With warmth and food promised very soon there are already people milling around the block outside -- kind of a line but more of a cluster, waiting to get in. Taylor is dressed sharply in a very deep crimson and black suit with a faint satiny sheen to its lapels, clearly specially tailored for him given its accommodation for his many arms (two off which are currently shorn off to short bandaged stumps). He moves between the tables, setting brilliantly coloured glassworked flower arrangements down in the center of each before slipping towards the door to open it. A string of star-shaped fairylights is in his (scarred and healing) tentacles, that he carefully starts to hang above the doorway. Flicker is not yet inside. Or, not /currently/ inside, at any rate -- there earlier to help with setup, now out in the alley outside the doorway chatting with a scarlet-skinned teenager with long brightly purple-dyed hair and a jittery bounce to her posture. His claw-tipped prosthetic is painted in metallic blue, silver snowflakes spotted over it. He wears heavy boots, dark pants, a sturdy black X-insignia'd jacket. The soft purple glow swirls in the air and expands rapidly into an oval portal on the sidewalk near the gathering crowd. Out hops Blink, dressed in a black hooded cloak with pointed hems and purple satin trim. Pushing back her hood, she glances around as she joins the disorganized queue, waving to people she recognizes, Flicker included. Her black and magenta hair has been braided with more care than usual and decorated with bright red holly berries. "{Thank you} for your patience, everyone." Taylor's smile is bright when he turns from his light-stringing. "We'll be opening up real soon, okay? Is there anyone here who needs to get off their feet or get out of the cold real bad? Can come get a seat, yeah?" Most people stay where they are, though one young woman with a cane (whose handle has been designed to look like a lightsaber, el wire glowing down its length) steps out of line to accept Taylor's invitation, soon followed by an older man (heavily bundled) with green and black scales rippling down his face. A cluster of youths are ambling down the alley, now -- at first seemingly to join the pseudo-line, though they don't linger in it long before making their way further forward. "Shit, you got that dinner soon, right?" "{Hey!}" Flicker's smile is bright and immediate at Blink's wave. He separates from the red-skinned teen after a quiet exchange, a short flutter-jump bringing him closer to the other teleporter. "It's good to see you. You staying? Dinner smells amazing in there. Probably because I had /zero/ hand in making it." His eyes track the newcomers briefly, an easy nod given to the question. "Soon! Until nine. Plenty of food for everyone." Blink dips her head in a small bow when Flicker approaches. "It's good to see you, too!" Her eyes skid aside to the door of the cafe as Taylor opens it, her shy smile spreading wider. "Oh, yes, I'm looking forward to it. Alice invited me to a Christmas party with her classmates but...I don't think it's really my scene." She only glances at the newcomers, her smile a bit more reserved to them but still friendly. "Oh, and they just said anyone who needs to sit down or get warm can go in early, if you need." A tension grips Taylor's shoulders, shortly after the group of young men stop nearby him. His brow furrows, eyes flitting between the group as several of his arms drop behind his back. "Soon, yeah," he agrees, one arm still resting on the doorway after he's admitted the other two from the line. "Everyone's welcome. We're just trying to provide a welcoming place for people to spend the holiday." "Welcoming?" Towards the front of the small knot, a thin man with dark brown hair is giving first the sign -- then Taylor -- then the waiting line a skeptical smirk. "I don't think you'd like the kind of welcome we'd give." "You know nobody wants you freaks in this neighborhood, right?" a stockier blond beside him adds in. "Why don't you just crawl back to your sewers, have your dinner there." The scarlet-skinned teen Flicker had been speaking with earlier looks a little wide-eyed at this, shoulders hunching down into her (shabby) (none-too-great-smelling) jacket. "Alice? Not your scene? Do you mean too human or too /boisterous/?" The amusement in Flicker's expression -- doesn't really /die/, as he watches Taylor's creeping tension. Does mute slightly, though. "Oh. Here we go." Not particularly surprised. "Looks like we're getting a little of both here anyway." He skirts around the gathered people, approaching the group with a slight clearing of throat. "We're not really looking for any trouble, tonight. If you're not here for dinner, it might be best to just. Let the rest of us enjoy the holiday quietly." "Both, I guess. She'd give an earful to anyone who bugged me, but I don't want her to have to do that." Blink shrugs her narrow shoulders, not seeming particularly concerned. "Besides, it's still not comfortable being in a full of humans who are trying to out-progressive each other." She looks back at the newcomers, frowning now as she adds in a low voice, "Humans who are trying to out-/regressive/ each other aren't fun, either." There is a figure coming up from behind the crowd of people, looking to join the back of the line, but when voices start rising, ze skirts out to the side. Wearing an oversized heavy winter coat in gray and black and jeans that may fall off at any time, the figure is not distinct. A cap is pulled down around hir face, with a gray, clammy skin and dark eyes. Hands stuff deeper in hir pockets as ze starts to plod toward the main entrance to Evolve and the commotion, head tilting a little. "A welcome, eh? Cool, cool," Hir voice is gruff as ze starts to size up the others for a moment. "I could use a welcome. How about I take you all down to a bar, buy you a drink, give you a chance to enjoy the holiday right." "Fff." The blond man's short hiss comes between teeth and lower lip. "Anyone /not looking for trouble/ wouldn't start a freak cafe in our backyard." "This place burned once," says a pudgier man beside him in a red and green knit beanie. "What kind of morons would open it up /again/?" Taylor has shifted squarely between the door and the group of men. "I think you all should go. -- Everyone, come on inside, yeah?" One tentacle is gesturing to the crowd. "I think probably. Waiting inside is -- best." "/Hah/." The first man to talk, tall and thin, still wears his smirk -- turned on Flicker, now, somewhat derisive. "Like some freaks and cripples are going to tell us where to go in our own neighborhood. -- Fuck off." It's taken him a moment to size up Rasa, but when his attention turns on hir it comes with a firm backwards shove. "Enjoy the holiday better with you all gone." "Maybe we should have a theme next year." Flicker is musing more to Blink than the hostile knot of people. Behind him the line starts to edge towards the door -- cautious at first. Keeping wide of the hecklers. "Keep the /X/ in X-Mas. -- Don't." Now his smile has faded. "Touch anyone." Blink's sidelong smile at Flicker is only a little tense, though her eyes stay firmly on the troublemakers. "Well, you've got that part covered," she indicates his jacket with nod of her head, "without resorting to a cheesy graphic t-shirt." When the thin man pushes Rasa, Blink takes a small, subtle half-step to the side. "You alright?" directed at Rasa. Rasa is unphased by being shoved back, hir mood still relaxed and hir body limber. "Yeah, yeah. I'm fine. Kid pushes like he doesn't mean it." The person who shoved hir finds out quickly that ze doesn't at all feel as light as ze looks. "Yeah? Not into drinks? Too bad. I don't think you're going to get anywhere making noise the way you are. You should just go home. Go open some presents. Hang out with loved ones. Get laid? Something other than bitching at people in the cold wanting to get together to eat. Don't you have any Christmas Spirit? Did you get coal in your stocking?" Ze steps between the youths and the line of people hoping to distract from those entering the establishment. "Blasphemer." Taylor is still -- quite tense! But shoots Flicker a quickly amused look. Just as quickly unamused when a rock flies towards the line from somewhere in the pack. Then another, bigger. "Fucking mouthy." "Give you some goddamn coal --" (This is lies; no coal, instead it is a broken half-a-bottle aimed squarely at Rasa's chest this time.) There are a few uncomfortable murmurs from the line -- people now hastening toward the door. With an irritable grimace, Taylor steps a little farther /away/ from the door, all his limbs splaying in a sudden writhing semi-wall between the hecklers and the incoming crowd of hungry mutants. Clunk-thunk. A rapid blur of motion -- the bottle and the first rock both never make their destinations. One batted down out of the air to the ground, and the other swatted back in the direction it was thrown. Displaced in a rapid shimmer, Flicker is now in front of the group where a heartbeat before he had been slightly behind. This time he says nothing. Brows slightly furrowed. Green eyes darting between the line and the crowd. There's a flare of violet light around Blink's right hand, which gestures at the empty air ahead of the second rock. A swirling portal appears in its path and another just a few feet away from all the people. The rock disappears into the first and comes out of the second, skidding harmlessly down the sidewalk. She says nothing more, but fans out relative to Rasa and Taylor, forming a sort of barrier between the hecklers and the people now crowding into Evolve. At the first hint of that bottle coming hurtling at hir chest, a change starts. Where gray human flesh existed before, clammy and unpleasant, there is now a hard, insect-like shell. It's irridescent green and blue catch the street lights. The change in physique remains despite Flicker's quick work... something that causes Rasa's now green blue eyes to widen slightly. Ze smiles and shakes hir head, glancing sideways at the others. << Taylor, if you want me to sit out, it's up to you and Flicker. Not -in love- with the idea of fighting, but I'll back you up if you need it. >> There are some dark thoughts in the back of hir mind, reflecting on the last few months of incarceration. << I don't want more trouble for you. >> Taylor's mental voice is uncertain. << They're more bluster than anything. >> He ushers the last of the group inside, though doesn't leave his post nearby the door. "Jesus /Christ/." Two of the men are backstepping quickly -- it's hard to tell quite at /what/ in the rapid activity, Rasa's unexpected change, the lightning-quick responses to the projectiles, the writhing mass of Taylor's tentacles. At any rate, much of the group looks kiiind of unnerved. "S'freaks aren't fucking worth it --" a voice is saying, even as another rock gets thrown. A heavy chunk of concrete to follow, though this is aimed toward a window now that most people have disappeared inside. "The fuck was that light?" is the tall thin one. "Come on," the man with the knit beanie says -- backing up, but keeping an eye on the line of mutants between them and the door. "You freaks had just better watch it. Lot of people would like to see this place burn again." Blip-blip; the smaller rock is knocked from the air as well. "Merry Christmas." Flicker's reply is -- bland. Quiet. His frown hasn't disappeared. Another portal intercepts the chunk of concrete only inches from the window. Its twin opens only a couple of feet from the ground and parallel to it, and the concrete smashes into the sidewalk, breaking into several pieces. Blink's hands are clenched as she watches the troublemakers go. "Does this happen a lot?" she asks Taylor. "This? This scared you? Sheesh." Rasa shakes hir head and exhales, not taking hir attention off of the would be assailants until they take off. << Eh, I steer clear of official authority figures, I'll be happy. Punks feeling their 'oats' >> ze definitely adds some innuendo to that term, << are nothing, in the end. >> "It does, sadly. The owners knew it would when it opened, but it's too important not to be open and stay opened." Ze frowns deeply, the color and hardness fading from hir exterior as the adrenalin of the moment fades. "All the time." Taylor doesn't /quite/ relax, even after the group has swaggered off (with a few parting curses.) "You should hear the death threats Shane gets on the regular. It's ugly. But --" He nods toward Rasa. "People need this place. We just try and make sure to have --" His eyes track to Flicker. "Folks around to look after it. Keep it safe here. As safe as we can. {Thanks, guys.}" "What I'm here for." Flicker is still quiet here -- if much warmer. "You think they'll be back tonight? I'm not going anywhere, regardless." He gives Rasa and Blink a somewhat crooked smile. "And I appreciate the help. Hope you all are hungry. /Maybe/ we can dinner in peace." /He's/ more or less relaxed again, anyway. "-- T. By the way. You're looking /sharp/." Cheer is back in his voice. He gestures the others inside. "That's sadly not very surprising." Blink's frown tugs at the purple markings on her face. "Especially not these days." She looks from Flicker to Taylor then back again as she turns to head inside. "You do security on the side or something?" She does a quick double-take at Rasa's shifting appearance, but then offers hir a smile. "I'm Blink, by the way. Pleased to meet you." Rasa sniffs quietly and heads in, hir hands stuffed deeply into hir pockets. "Rasa. Let's get to the more pleasant circumstances of the night." Ze clears hir throat as ze looks to Taylor and Flicker. "No Mongrels tonight? Suppose they do deserve a day off. Papa Santa Ion and all." Ze is very fidgety, slipping into the warmer environment and pulling off hir hat to scuff at hir hair. "{Thanks!}" Taylor beams with pride as he looks down at his suit. "Lyric made it for me. Got proper /church/ clothes now." His grin curls -- a little broader. "He /used/ to work security at Mendel before -- they were awful. Now I guess it's -- or something!" He has started to cheer up when he follows Rasa inside. "Well. Shane's working and B's looking after Spence and Ion is -- Ion?" SHRUG. Flicker brings up the rear, holding the door open till everyone else is in. "Or something," he agrees. The look he gives Blink is thoughtful. "Kind of a volunteer gig. You were -- really helpful." A faint flush darkens his cheeks as he closes the door to the cold behind them. "Let's eat."