Logs:Lying-ass Motherfuckers

Lying-ass Motherfuckers
Dramatis Personae Hive, Tian-shin
In Absentia	2022-02-26 "Everything I've heard says HAMMER is an entire bag of dicks. Wouldn't be surprised if they tried to fuck you."
Location <PRV> VL 403 {Geekhaus} - East Village
This is a small, two-bedroom apartment, the living room semi-open to the kitchen and dining area, a single bathroom situated between the doors to the bedrooms. The common areas are beautifully appointed with solid, matching handmade wooden furniture in intricate geometric mosaics. The kitchen table is ringed with coordinated but not identical chairs, two of them modular with low scooped backs, designed with winged bodies in mind. The wide, low coffee table fits neatly into the corner of a modular sectional couch, and the immense television is enthroned in an entertainment center that also houses various consoles and video games. The walls are lined with bookshelves laden with comics, roleplaying supplements, board games, speculative fiction, and a grab-bag of technical texts. The walls in between are adorned with some framed posters of classical science fiction and fantasy media along with a few pieces of gorgeous if unusual original art. Tian-shin is not fidgeting where she sits prim and upright at one corner of the couch. She's dressed casually, a purple-red-orange ombre top with sleeves that flare slightly toward the cuffs, slim but not skinny blue jeans, a jade bangle circling her left wrist and her long hair pinned up into a bun with a red lacquer hair stick. "Thank you, and again I hope I'm not disrupting any plans you had for the evening." She has set her sensible black purse down by her foot, and is trying to not dart it concerned glances. << Skye lives here, so electronic security is probably fine, right? (You're being paranoid the phone's been off they can't be following you everywhere) (of course they can) >> But her hands are folded together elegantly in her lap. She is not fidgeting at all. "They can totally follow you everywhere. Our security is fine, though." Hive looks far less put together than Tian-shin, casual in ancient faded bluejeans tatty and fraying at their hems and a red-gold Theta Tau sweatshirt that sits baggy on his skinny shoulders. He's scuffed his way off to the kitchen to prepare two mugs of coffee -- one is black and the other creamed and heavily sugared. It's the latter that he sets before Tian-shin when he returns, dropping into the other side of the couch. "Please. What plans." His voice is its typical gruff, pairing well with the scowl he is giving his mug of coffee when he takes a sip and immediately hisses through his teeth at the heat. The dip of Tian-shin's head in thanks for the coffee is deep and grateful, but she learns from her host's mistake and lets it sit for the moment. "Right, I just--the last couple of weeks have made the latent leftist anxieties kind of..." << Tangent! Bring it back, now. >> She shakes her head, blushing faintly. "Sorry. I didn't want to assume. I haven't seen much of your lately, but you can have all kinds of plans without leaving your home...or happening to show up where I've been." The polite, self-deprecating chuckle she'd planned on never makes it all the way to the surface. Her eyes have found the painting of the flicker of pink, purple, and blue color beneath its outstretched wings. It's a beat before she picks up the lost thread of her thoughts. "And feel badly this is the first time we've even talked in--months? And I'm here asking for your help." << For Jax. >> Hive drags his gaze up from his coffee, reflexively following Tian-shin's toward the painting. His shoulders hunch in a little tighter, and he sinks back more heavily into the corner of the couch, pulling his knees up to his chest. "Help. Me?" His brows hitch, though as he's returned to looking at his coffee rather than Tian-shin it's the rising steam that gets the benefit of his curious look. "'less they're gonna let me build him a cushier prison Skye's better with -- most. Things. What'd you need?" Tian-shin's eyes drop back down to her coffee mug, which she finally lifts though she still holds off drinking, wary of its temperature. "No, I'm not trying to--well...there are probably ways Skye could help me, too? I'm not sure. But the thing is..." She glances down at her bag again. "The federal agency that's in charge of Jax's custody--HAMMER--I do not trust them to heed any legal restrictions they think they can get away with ignoring." << Ta ma de {just spit it out >> "Such as letting me consult with my client in private." This gets Hive to crack one eye a little wider, his gaze flicking to Tian-shin briefly. "Everything I've heard says HAMMER is an entire bag of dicks. Wouldn't be surprised if they tried to fuck you." He rests his coffee on his knee, head falling back against the couch cushion. "They've gotta have psi shielding where he is, don't they? Then again, maybe not. He's not a telepath and if they're secure enough to think none of us are gonna get close --" His brows scrunch up slowly in thought. "I can't tell if there's psi shielding because I'm not a psi...psion? Psionicist?" Tian-shin finally takes a sip of the coffee, which brings not pleasure exactly, but a kind of comforting relief to the weariness she had come to accept as her new norm. "And...well, it'd probably come off a bit suspicious if I asked. But..." She hesitates, darting a concerned appraising glance at Hive. "I can bring other people with me to see Jax." "Oh!" Hive sits up a little straighter. "In person. That's different." Despite his evident surprise it takes him no time at all to decide: "I'll go." His fingers tighten around his cup, and, a little more hesitant: "Is it far?" Tian-shin blinks, though her surprise is sort of muted and distant before she shuffles it away, embarrassed by her lack of faith. "It's just far enough to make my job even more aggravating." << Islip, basically? {Ass end of nowhere...} >> She isn't so much worried about the distance, herself, as the potential danger to Hive. "It's just--I think it's important for you to know beforehand they might subpoena you. Because you're not protected by attorney-client privilege, and like you said, HAMMER is an entire bag of dicks. And they'll definitely investigate you." "They gonna subpoena me with a telepath in tow? One strong enough to get through my head? You even find one and maybe I'll start worrying." Hive's tone is nonchalant, though it sits in contrast to his still tight-clenched hands and the further inward curl of his hunched shoulders. "We can photocopy some of his fan mail. Let them watch us reading him the greatest hits." Tian-shin's lips compress. "Probably not, and even if they did, telepathic 'evidence' is not admissible in court." Her mind flashes through the extremely short list of telepaths she knows--hastily passing over the painful memory of her late father--and settles dubiously on Charles Xavier. << Maybe he isn't strong so much as just old and experienced? (Irrelevant he isn't working for HAMMER) >> "I have no idea how strong someone would need to be to--do that. I don't even know how to compare, but I trust you know your own strength." She wraps both hands around her mug and drinks deep, frayed nerves calming with both the caffeine and Hive's apparent confidence. "Thank you. I hate the idea of putting anyone else on HAMMER's watch list, but this is--it'll help. I'll put in the request Monday morning." "Shit, imagine the clusterfuck if it were, though. Government-certified teeps rooting through your thoughts. That day will be a nightmare." Hive grimaces down at his coffee, and finally chances another sip. More successful than the first, this time. "HAMMER is real fucking bad at their job if I'm not already on their list. Just let me know when we're going. I'll be there."