Logs:One of the Good Ones

One of the Good Ones
Dramatis Personae Jade, Toni
In Absentia	2024-11-17 "I just think the ones who want help should get it."
Location <NYC> Bronx Park
It's hardly deserted here, on this glorious crisp fall afternoon, but Bronx Park is large enough that it feels peaceful. There's plenty of space between the shady trees and quiet paths to find a nice secluded spot to sit and watch the river flow by or read or birdwatch. On this particular stretch of trail it could be quieter, right now, admittedly. There are two small preschool-aged children clambering up and around over a large and sprawling rock formation, laughing as they chase each other over the kind of precarious footing. The kids are dressed in rough-and-tumble-ready matching sturdy overalls, one with a soft green fleece and one a purple sweatshirt decorated with metal stars. Fairly nearby, keeping a wary eye on the kids at play, is a dark-skinned woman in immaculate makeup and colorblocked manicure -- brightly dressed in vibrant orange trenchcoat over a violet jumpsuit, pointy-toed flat-heel boots, her hair in myriad slender braids twisted into an intricate updo. She has a dog with her, an elegant pure-white Borzoi, long-legged and long-snouted and quite busy ruining her recent grooming by snuffling around in a large heap of muddy leaves near the river's edge. The woman looks away from the nearby kids to pinch her brows critically at the increasingly muddy-faced muddy-pawed dog: "-- boy," she's saying with affably feigned exasperation to the hound, "you want yourself another bath? I know you don't." 'It was quite a large park, but the majority of people had vacated earlier on in the day. So many trees to sit under, so many patches of grass to lay on, save for some of the big ant hills covering some of them. A woman dressed rather ignorantly for some cuddled her back up to a nearby tree, taking a book out of her bag. Usually she absolutely despised the loud rambunctiousness of most children, but something was different today. It could be the fact that it wasn't so loud as they might as well have been the only ones there.' 'Jade was reading for quite a while, before taking a break, closing her book with the bookmark so she didn't lose her spot. The alternative woman looked over to see a very short, but very good looking woman keeping a watch over the kids. She giggled and laughed quite loudly as she heard and felt the woman's toil as she tried to wrangle the canine as well as keep a watch over the kids, but it was the dog at this rate, making the woman's life a tad bit difficult. If the woman were to look at the other, she'd see a redhead, dressed in a black long sleeve top with a white butterfly in the center, some red baggy joggers, and some regular black sandals. Jade was sporting her usual smoky eye, black lipstick, and her jewelry. Namely, a pair of lightning bolt dangle earrings, her lip ring in the middle, a skeleton spine bracelet, and a skull ring on her left index finger. The woman had a homemade mani, panting her natural sharp nails black and red, whilst her exposed toes were painted black and white.' The dog has unearthed some sort of hopping bug from the leaves, and is trying to chase it down into the water. The woman wrangles the long pup back a little farther up the bank, twining the leash an extra time or two around her hand so the mischievous dog can't reclaim the ground she's just lost. After her attention turns back -- yes, good, kids still there, still have all their limbs, nobody is crying -- she takes another glance around her surroundings. Perhaps earlier she had not wanted to interrupt Jade's reading but with the book closed, now, she's offering a wide bright smile, a friendly nod. "Girl you rocking that hair, that eye, you got a whole look going don'chu?" Her own bright nails (long stilettos all of them, save for the first two fingers of her right hand which are trimmed short and rounded) flutter towards her own face in indication of makeup & jewelry as she looks Jade over with a cheerful approval. 'The woman was giggling as she saw the small woman trying to wrangle the dog back into some sort of obedience, but dogs will be dogs. She could see that the other really cared, or at least seemed to care about the offspring that were in her company. 'Shes the kind of person us mutants need, at least from what she's shown me so far.' the mutant thought.' 'She looked over to see the woman was smiling very brightly at her. Jade somewhat awkwardly nodded back and covered her mouth. She began replying to the compliment.' "Thank ya, it takes one ta know one." 'The redhead replied, giving her a thumbs up as she saw the other rocking her outfit in her own right. Jade loved how cheerful the woman was, it was exactly what she needed, even though she wasn't upset or depressed in any way.' "Why thank you." The other woman is making a small primping gesture in the air beside her neat updo. She's wandering just a little closer, still keeping the corner of her eye on the kids, who for reasons best known to 4 and 5 year olds have started to collect smaller rocks to heap in small piles at evidently random intervals upon the larger rocks. The dog is attempting, first to go back to the riverside and then when they move away, to go snuffle Jade, but her leash is kept too carefully in hand to actually let the muddy dog near enough to really bother the stranger. "Girl, you think she want your muddy nose all over that cute top, nobody want that." This is said quiet and chiding to the dog, who wags happily at the playful scolding. To Jade: "You really been getting into that book, huh? S'it a good one?" 'She smiled as she saw the woman sort of fluffing her hairdo, she was quite funny to her, in a great way she thought. Jade smiled as she saw the woman keep her eye trained on the kids as she approached her. She giggled as she felt the dog get closer to her and begin to sniff her a bit. Thank goodness most of what got on her top was flaky mud and could be wiped off without any muss of fuss.' 'The gothic woman looked up at the other as she inquired to how good the novel was.' "Ah think so, at least. S'called Amaris' predicament. S'based in a apocalyptic world, main characters tryna survive an atone for wat they did but he's trapped inna mansion, losin' his mind." "Oooh," says the other woman with a small widening of her eyes, "that kinda post-apocalyptic stuff always gets my heart fluttering -- seems we live so close to the brink half the time ourselves. Especially these days, y'know?" There's a kind of fatalistic cadence to the y'know, only too prevalent with liberals in the post-election landscape. She's turning her head slightly to get a better look at the book's cover, echoing, "Amaris' Predicament, I'll have to look into that." 'She smiled a genuine smile, as all of them were, as she saw the other woman was actually interested in the genre. The redhead mutant nodded and sighed a bit as she thought about the mutant part of it.' "Yeah, issa weird world nowadays, ain't it? Especially with the emergence of what they call mutants. I just hope they can get the help they need." There's a little bit of a fixed look to the other woman's smile, now -- it's still perfectly friendly, still perfectly easy, but there's something just a little keener in her eyes, studying Jade with a new thoughtfulness. "Yeah, people got all sorts of wild ideas when it comes to mutants. -- What kinda help you think they need?" 'Jade looked and knew what that new look on the other woman's face meant to a certain extent. This seemed like a look of someone who actually wanted to help the good mutants.' "I just think the ones who want help should get it, they shouldn't be chased outta they homes and screamed at, belongins thrown at em just because the other person don't know or understand em just yet. I believe the good mutants need help, and all the bad mutants don't define us-oh shit." 'Jade said, standing up and putting her book away as she accidentally revealed she was a mutant.' "Whew," says the other woman, some of her vigilant wariness easing again, "you know, I used to live right down the road from Freaktown before the cops did that place so dirty," she's gesturing -- kind of vaguely northwards, in the general direction of the neighborhood where for a few short but glorious years until its violent end at the hands of the police earlier this year, a thriving mutant community had taken over part of the Bronx and made it their own little mutant village. "Lotta good people lost their homes after that mess, just wasn't right. But living down the road from there, whew did I hear some people's loud wrong opinions." Her head shakes woefully. "Think plenty of your 'good mutants' is doing plenty to help each other," she adds, and then with a bright amused chuckle: "... plenty of your 'bad' ones, too. Toni," she's adding finally by way of introduction, fingers touching light to her own chest. "And this fairy creature," with a gesture to the dog, "is PointyBoy -- don't let the name fool you, she's a girl but let toddlers do your naming and well." "Oh, you use ta to live down there from tha town, yeah, heard bout that within the first few months ah got hea." 'The woman responded, looking in the north direction that the woman pointed to. It was so tragic, all the innocent killings of the mutants and any humans who also were unfortunate to be in the place at that fateful time.' "Yeah, I get that I heard a lotta opinions for the short time I was outed before coming here." "Yeah, even some of the bad ones do a little good for us every once in a while. Toni, I'm Jade." 'The redhead replied, touching her other arm and smiling a bit. She looked on as Toni began to introduce her to her dog.' "Nice name, even wit tha thing of tha toddlers namin' her. But yes, I haven' been hea long, but I heard bout it, I was part of the protests fa it. Thankfully it was humans and mutants there, so they surprisingly didn't arrest any a us. However, they did try an rough us up a bit." "Well, I still live there, just, Freaktown don't." Toni has a small wince as she says this, like there might still be a twinge of pain when thinking about what happened to the mutant town that used to be her neighbors. "Jade, nice to meet you. Sorry about the trouble they gave you. I've been seeing a lotta people the past year or so who --" Her head shakes in clear disapproval. "-- feels sometimes like the police go out of their way to make life harder. And," she's leaning just a little closer, voice just a little hushed, "you heard this new news about the rapid mutant detection that's gonna be coming? I'm getting pretty worried about what things will look like after that." "oh, ah see." 'The redhead said, noticing that there is still past pain from the event, even though she didn't exactly live in the neighborhood where the massacre occurred.' "Nice ta meet ya too, Toni. Ma bad, if ma accent makes it hard ta undastand me at times. Don worry, they can't do nothin' I ain't been through before." 'She assured, listening to her speak on how the police made the mutants lives. The alternative redhead leaned in as the other did, listening to the words she uttered.' "Nah, ah didn't. But it don't surprise me too much." "Oh, no, sugar, I grew up in Atlanta, I hear you just fine." Toni's smile has brightened easily again at at this. "It was a bit of a change coming north but people are way nicer than the stereotypes say, honestly. -- Well, real people, not so much the cops, they ain't hardly hospitable at all." She is digging in a pocket of her coat, plucking out a slim card case and slipping, from it, a business card. She offers the card out to Jade, pinched delicately between two fingers. "Here, I'm a lawyer and this is for my legal collective -- if, God forbid, the cops ever give you problems in future while you're out, we offer a lot of pro bono services to activists -- or just mutants who can't get a fair shake. Hope you don't ever need it, but can't be too careful, right?" "I'm from College Park. I'm glad, thought ya had a familiar accent." 'She smiled as she saw the woman's smile brighten more than she even thought it could at this particular point in time.' "Yeah, sides a few Yorkers, folks is pretty nice round here I seen. The cops is mostly what's unchanged." 'Jade looked as the other began perusing her coat pocket for something. She took the card with her right hand, also taking it by pinching it between her index and second fingers.' "Thanks fa this, Toni. You've gotta good spirit bout you. Yeah, ah'll pray that ah don't evah need it, but ya right, just in case." 'Jade replied, nodding her head and smiling, something flaring up inside her just a bit.' "Just in case," Toni echoes. She's glancing back towards the rocks, her brows furrowing -- "Amara those are not for food -- I'm sorry," she says with a small laugh to Jade, "I gotta stop my kids, we watched The Neverending Story recently and they aspiring to become Rockbiters when they're grown. Or now." She lifts a hand, waves cheerfully. "Stay safe, Jade. Hope the city treats you good." And then she's making her way off to go tend to her small troll children. 'She smiled as she nodded to the others short sentence this time. The woman looked and smiled as she saw one of the toddlers she was caring for that was attempting to eat rocks. It was a great film, the Neverending Story. She'd seen it quite a few times. The mutant woman waved to the other as Toni went to tend to the kids.' "You too, Toni."