ArchivedLogs:Two Bedrooms

Two Bedrooms
Dramatis Personae Fiona, Mai, Paige
In Absentia	2017-01-13 "Seems to be kind of the way things go in this city, lotta talk, not a lot of doing."
Location <NYC> Mai's Apartment - Chinatown
This apartment is not overly large, a short foyer leads from the entrance to a large room which combines living room and kitchen into one. On the left at the end of the foyer there is the door to the bathroom, otherwise that wall continues straight all the way to the sliding door near the back. A large portion of that wall is covered in black and red cloth, and on display on the wall is a collection of martial arts related weapons, a pair of butterfly knives, a tai-chi saber, a pair of tonfas, and a short spear. Below them, there are two framed photographs on the wall as well, pictures of a Chinese man and woman. The room expands to the right side instead, where there is first a small kitchenette, including a fridge, a stove, a microwave and a sink, and then after the corner, at the right side wall there is a long bookshelf, which has couple rows of books, most of them in Chinese, but some English ones as well, and a row of DVD movies, a larger portion of them martial arts related, especially Jackie Chan movies, but there is bit of everything in the mix. Also near the back of the room there is a tv. For furniture there is a small dining table, with couple stools around it, near the kitchen part, and at the back placed strategically around the tv is a comfy looking couch, and a few chairs. At the back of the room there are windows which give a view down to the street, although the blinders hanging front of them are often closed. At the left near the back there is a sliding door, which is usually open, leading to the bedroom, which consists of a bed that can either very comfortably hold one person, or two if they get along reasonably well. Judging from that there is a nightstand only on the left side, there is usually only one person sleeping there. There is another window to the street but the blinders on that one are pretty much always shut. On the windowboard there is a collection of geeky action figures, and there is also couple posters on the walls, of Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan to be exact. Mai's apartment looks a little like a kid's sleepover right now. Despite the lateness of the day, Fiona still appears to be asleep on the floor next to the couch, curled up in her sleeping bag and PJs. TOTALLY CONTENT. It would be a crime to disturb her; sleeping inside in the warmth and not keeping one eye open to avoid getting stabbed is /the best./ Her phone lays next to her, connected to a wall socket with a cord while the screen still flickers some random show. A pair of earbuds snakes out, one still left in her ear. The sun streams in weakly from outside. While she isn't likely to be stabbed, Fiona -is- being watched. Upon the couch, Paige lays awake though she hasn't actually gotten up and moving. She's currently garbed in a black t-shirt and her pair of leggings. Her head is turned slightly to the side (squishing an ear would hurt) as her somewhat tired eyes watch the dragon girl's sleeping form. A small smile plays on her lips as her ears flick idly. Mai is home as well, she is still kind of adjusting to this newest resident in her apartment. It is kind of funny, really, for long time she had nobody to talk to, and now suddenly there is two other people living there, its kind of like a dorm... but well, it is a bit crowded as the place isn't that big. She is sitting on one of the chairs next to the couch and reading a book, just kind of passing the time. "Does she always sleep that late?" she inquires from Paige, quite surprised as she hasn't ever been living together with anyone who does, before. There is movement within the bag! A long snoooore and then squirming and blinking owlishly at the sunlight streaming in. Stretching. Tail wriggle. Fiona finally sits up, hand sweeping around on the floor for her glasses, which then extends into the morning routine of looking at the floor REALLY CLOSELY to finally see where they are. She unfolds them and puts them on, squinting as her eyes adjust. "Morning. OH." The dragon girl grabs her phone, looking at the time. "Oh man, I slept super late again... I was out talking to Heather last night. Making plans." Then there's an audible tummyrumble. Fooood. Food now. "Mmm. It seems to be a habit," comes Paige's calm response to Mai. Her ears twitch when Fiona begins waking up. "Good morning," she directs towards the stirring mutant as she begins to sit up herself. "Maybe you should just try texting with her. It would probably make the conversation go a little faster. And I'm telling you that we should at least -switch- off between couch and floor." A pause. "What did you talk about?" Mai looks up from her book, which is in Chinese, when Fiona wakes up, offering a smile. "Morning. You did indeed. Might want to consider adjusting to a more normal schelude if you want to ever go to school or work." she offers with a light chuckle. At the mention of Heather she gives a bit of a look between the other two. "I hope you are not planning on inviting her over here too, as that would be pushing it in terms of space." She notes. "Maybe texting..." Fiona murmurs, shrugging, "We were talking about where to live and how to pay for it and... well, Heather thinks she can make money, but she needs people to do odds and ends for her that she can't. Like, anything that doesn't require being super fast, basically..." she trails off, yawning and stretching while still sitting on top of her sleeping bag. "She's gonna look at places in the Bronx and... well, maybe buying an old warehouse or something to fix up. It'll be a lot cheaper than living anywhere in Manhattan. Cheap is good, right?" Now sitting up, Paige regards Fiona with tired eyes. However, she responds first to Mai's question. "I -hope- not," she says, turning her head towards the apartment-owner. "I don't even know how to -begin- to understand her." Then, to the dragon girl with raised brows as she rubs the back of her neck, "-BUYING- a place? How cheap are we talking? How much 'fixing up' would we need to do?" Mai blinks at Fiona's words regarding buying and renovating a warehouse in Bronx of all neighbourhoods. "Really? You know what kind of neighbourhood that is, right? You would need to seriously barricade the place up just to keep all the weirdos out. And I can't imagine buying an entire building would be cheaper, even in neighbourhood like that, than an apartment in more decent neighbhourhood." "Nah, you buy it from an auction from the city. Like, when they sell off abandoned lots and stuff..." Fiona trails off, "I figure any weirdos come in and we run them off. I mean, aren't WE the weirdos? I don't think anybody will mess with a bunch of mutants," she frowns. "Maybe one lone mutant..." Paige laughs, an exasperated sound. "Four isn't a bunch of mutants, Fiona." She looks down at her hands as they steeple, tapping fingers against each other. "Mai's right. The Bronx is out of the question. We'll need to leave the place at least -some- times and we can't always be sure it'll be together. We need a place where we can, you know, walk around in relative, uh, safety." Mai is actually rather surprised that Paige agreed with her on something, as in recent memory its usually always been her trying to convince Paige on one matter or another, or other way around. "So did Heather check out the commons already? I remember she talked about doing that last time in that waffle place." She inquires. "I mean, maybe? I'm not sure. I guess I thought that place is pretty expensive. Like, Manhattan in general is really expensive... we found a two bedroom place in clinton for 1500 a month. Two bedrooms. For four people! That's crazy," Fiona shakes her head. "And the commons is like, super nice so..." she shrugs. "I don't know. I just don't see how we'd come up with that kind of cash... maybe between the four of us it's not so bad..." A flash of surprise passes over Paige's face as her ears twitch at Fiona's words. "Two bedrooms?" she asks with raised brows. "Two bedrooms sounds -glorious-. What's wrong with two bedrooms? I, uh, also have very little understanding of, you know, New York's geography. Do you know anything of Clinton?" This last part is directed towards Mai. "Wait, who was talking about the Commons?" The blonde girl blinks. "Why didn't -I- think of that? They're not--it's not--okay, I don't really get it, but I don't think you necessarily have to -pay-. At least, that's what I gathered after asking a bunch of times, you know? I think--well, we'd want to talk to...I guess Hive." Mai listens to both of the two others talking about various housing arrangements, giving a somewhat curious look to Fiona. "Uh, whats wrong with two bedrooms? Its only two people per room... thats like pretty normal?" she notes, shrugging a bit at Paige. "Well, it used to be called Hell's Kitchen, I guess that gives a pretty good idea about the neighbhourhood." she offers helpfully, before nodding to what Paige says about the Commons. "Yeah, I figured that you would know best about who to talk to there. I know I wouldn't be able to afford the rent there all by myself, but if its split between four people it shouldn't be that bad, right?" "Hrm. I mean the Commons seem cool, but I'm not sure it's a good idea to be dependent on them... though, sleeping on the floor at Mai's forever is maybe also not a great idea..." Fiona hugs her knees to her chest. "Is fifteen hundred not that bad? I guess maybe if the rooms are bigger... Everything is kinda small around here," she laughs. "I didn't know, though, I'll have to talk to Heather. Let her know we don't wanna do that." "Three people currently," Paige gently corrects Mai. "Me, you, Heather. Unless Fiona is planning on getting a job soon." Her tone is considerate, not accusatory or resentful. "What I'm saying is---Well, I think Heather had a way of putting it..." The goat girl leans back and places her hands behind her head. "Like some people provide services and others pay more. Example: Heather said she'd pay more than, say me, if she could have a hot meal three times a day. We could trade off like that, I guess, but not with, you know, an actual place. But I think that's how the Commons operates. Or something similar in that regard, you know?" Her hands now gesture idly over the back of the couch. "So, yeah, we'd talk to Hive. Then, if we're serious about thinking about it, Melinda." Mai puts her book away on the table as she listens to Paige curiously. "Hmm... I don't think I have met this Hive yet... at least the name doesn't ring a bell. But yeah, I guess we do have the bonus that you are already known to the people there, which should help in the negotiations?" well assuming Paige didn't do anything terrible that Mai never heard of during her stay there, but Paige doesn't do terrible things, right? "Well, maybe..." Fiona trails off. "They did sorta kick us out. Well, not for any HORRIBLE reason or anything though..." she trails off, shrugging a little. "I'm just a little wary of the whole place...I mean, they did treat us well. Hrm," she bites her lip, not sure of what to do. Everybody seems to want something different. "They didn't kick us out," Paige counters while she eyes Fiona skeptically. "We were guests. In their house, you know? We stayed under their roof, slept in their beds, ate their food. I mean, I know -I- didn't contribute anything. It was--It's like a paradise, you know? But like you don't want--I mean, I'm sure even Mai doesn't want us staying forever, right? I mean, not us -us-, but guests in general. Look, it's just a goal to work towards, but we're going to need to find out what work we're going to need to do in order to reach it. I don't know why I didn't think of the Commons before. I'm not saying we'll be able to -afford- it, but we should at least go in and try to get a ballpark, right? Then we'll know." The goat girl nods to herself as she says this. "And yeah, I'm, uh, 'known'. For better or for worse, though I hope not for worse. I really wouldn't be surprised if they think of me as a lazy freeloader, though, so...just keep that in mind." Mai listens the exchange between the two others, not really having anything to add to the topic of their departure from the Commons as she didn't have any part in it. She does however nod in agreement to what Paige says about the future plans. "Yes it is good to at least look into the different options, and I would say that the Commons would probably be the best option, if we can afford it, as there at least wouldn't need to worry about jerks who hate mutants." Fiona looks up at Paige, "I mean, yeah... I guess we were kinda guests... I don't know," she shrugs. "Whatever you guys think is best, really. I just. There's a lot of people there already and... it's a nice place, for sure..." Something she can't quite explain. At this point, the dragon girl gets up and wanders to the bathroom - there's the sound of running water and such, and then the shower running. Paige's eyes follow the dragon girl as she enters the bathroom and she lets out a somewhat loud sigh, shoulders slumping, when the shower starts going. "I'm trying to do this for her, you know?" she says quietly to Mai. "I don't really...get it. She seems all excited when we're talking about warehouses, but when we start talking about an actual place to live..." The furred mutant's ears flick up and then return to an idle position. She leans forwards, elbows on knees, gesturing with her hands. "She just seems really skeptical all of a sudden. Am I doing something wrong? Am I missing something? Did something bad happen there that I don't know about? Is it simply the idea of living on our own, making our own way -- or is it something else?" Mai tilts her head to the side as she watches Fiona hit the shower, giving a slight shrug at Paige's question then. "Maybe she just has a problem with large communities?" she offers in reply to Paige. "I know lot of people like to have more privacy, and Commons does sound fairly... well... communal." Eventually, the shower shuts off and Fiona reappears, clad in a fresh (clean) pair of jeans and... a Powerpuff girls t-shirt. She has commandeered someone's brush and is brushing out her hair. "It's not that exactly, it's just, there's a big concentration of mutants there already and... I feel like it might kinda draw attention. Like, if I were someone looking for a SPECIFIC mutant, that's the first place I'd check, once I found out about it. Yanno?" "I hadn't considered that," Paige comments to Mai, head in her hands. "Maybe." Ears twitch and she looks up as Fiona returns. "They have -- They have rules. -Especially- if someone comes looking for someone. Even if that someone looking is a mutant. They don't give out -any- information. Not even names. Not even a yes or a no, from what I understand. And, fuck, I didn't even think of that. I should probably be in a place where people won't be able to find me easily." Mai gives a somewhat surprised look to Fiona at her words. "Really? I would more think that there is safety in numbers." she points out, nodding in agreement at what Paige adds to the subject. "Yeah that sounds like pretty cool system... well uness your wanting to like find a friend from there or something, I guess." the last part offered with a grin in an attempt to lighten up the mood some. "Yeah... I guess it's probably pretty secure as well. The other thing is, it was just such a nice place... I have a hard time believing they would let someone like me live there. I mean, there's not really a ton that I can do to contribute to that kind of place, right? Like I looked at going to Xavier's and... I dunno. Maybe you guys should move there, and I will go to Xavier's. But it seems like that place is ALSO really hard to get into..." Fiona shrugs, looking rather worn out by the whole thing. At this point, she has finished the brushing and her hair is actually not a mess - it turns out when she isn't homeless it's less mop-like. She ties it into a ponytail with a scrunchie. "Yeah..." Paige responds distantly to Mai as she fails to pick up on the other girl's attempt at humor. She runs her hands through her hair again as Fiona speaks. Then she looks up, a surprised expression on her face. "I thought you weren't sure about Xavier's. And there's no reason why you couldn't live with us. We'd just get a small place, you know? We'd--I'd cover for you." Mai gives a curious look to what Fiona says regarding the xaviers school. "Really? I talked some about that with Marinov awhile ago, they told me that you can just like call the school and schelude an appointment and have some of their staff to talk to you if your interested in joining, you could try that." She suggests. "Yeah, you know, that's like, not the first time I've heard that," Fiona flops down on the couch next to Paige, "But I haven't had a whole lot of luck getting anybody to call me back..." she shrugs. "Seems to be kind of the way things go in this city, lotta talk, not a lot of doing." She yawns, "I'll give it another shot though." Paige scoots over to make more room for her friend as she sits down. "I'm sorry," she offers, looking rather ashamed. "I'm trying my best, but I don't think my best is good enough, you know? I can't make all this happen overnight. I can't just snap my fingers or something. It requires planning and finances and networking. And I'm really only able to do one of those things. Heather's taking care of the planning and there's nothing I can really do until two weeks from now when I finally have my updated registration card." Mai chews on her lower lip a bit as she listens to both of the others talking about problems with moving things along, trying to think of what she could say to help, but she really doesn't have much contacts herself to help with that. "Yes, it can take some time to get things moving, just need to have patience to keep going until you get there." She offers with a smile offered towards her friends. Fiona reaches over and hugs Paige. Not with super excited mutant strength, but just a normal hug. "I'm sorry. I kind of... I'm kind of being a brat, I guess... I'm not really used to things being hard like this. I guess my life back home was pretty easy," nods the girl, releasing Paige from the hug. "I think we should all just relax a little. We're not starving and ah, I guess I'm not really sleeping on the street anymore. So that's good, right? Progress!" Paige's breath catches for a just a moment before she leans a bit into the hug. "You're not a brat," she informs Fiona sincerely. She seems a bit more relaxed when she's let go. "Optimal result, you go to school, if you -want- to, Mai gets to stay here and not move, and I go to the sewers and st---I go to the sewers. Or maybe a shelter." It seems she's at least making some sort of concession. Then, mostly to Mai, "I've been good. I've been recovering." To Fiona again, "You won't be on the streets again so long as I have anything to do with it. -That-, I promise at least. Okay? And you neither." Now she's pointing at Mai. Mai watches the other two hugging, and is not really sure if she should move to join them, or if that would not be appropriate as she is... well different in a way since she looks normal. In the end she decides to play it safe and just stay sitting where she is. "I still don't think the sewers is a good idea, but I guess can't hurt to try what its like, you can always come back if it doesn't work, assuming you don't get eaten by a giant alligator down there." Somewhat surprised when Paige addresses her at the end, as she hasn't been under the living on the streets threat the whole time they have known each other. "I don't really know what I should do either... or well, thats not really true. I know what I would want to do, but not sure if I can afford that ever." Fiona turns to Mai, "Well, the way I see it you're basically fine, right? You have a job, and this apartment? Sure like, you could do better. But, I don't see any reason why you should move, I mean, unless you want to. Maybe you and Paige could get a bigger apartment? Or... something... I don't know. I mean, that's IF the whole Xavier's thing works out," Fiona nods, then looks over at Paige, "I don't think I could bear the thought of you living in the /sewers/ while I go off to some fancy boarding school, though." The dragon girl receives a pained look from Paige. "You don't need to bear anything. If you go to the school, I just wan--I just want you to, you know, be able to focus on that, you know? Don't worry about me. I'll worry about me. Besides, I've got Mai. And Marinov. And I guess Heather. I just want to...explore my options, right? I mean if you're going to Xavier's and Mai's got this place, I don't really see any real reason to force us to relocate as a group." Her head turns towards Mai. "Mai, I -really- appreciate your generosity and your help, but I can't keep staying here if I can't pay you. It's--It's killing me. I can't." Mai offers a smile to both of the other two. "I am sure you will get to the school Fiona, like its specifically made just for people like you, would make no sense that they wouldn't take you in. And Paige... I told you already earlier, you can pay me back later, after you have gotten a job and your life in order. No need to stress over the issue now. Things will work out in the end."