ArchivedLogs:Adapting

Adapting
Dramatis Personae Eve, Shane, Spencer
In Absentia	2017-08-18 "This is what people mean when they say 'community', I think."
Location <NYC> East Harlem
With the highest violent crime rate in Manhattan and a failing educational system, it is easy to overlook the charms of El Barrio. Amidst its problems, East Harlem is a place thriving with culture. Salsa dancing has a rich history in the neighborhood, and in the open-air markets a wide assortment of goods can be bought from the West African community there. August is augusting with a vengeance, today, muggy and hot and all the surrounding concrete /isn't/ helping matters, heat trapped and reflected to make the city kind of an oven. In true New York spirit some enterprising youths have orchestrated a do-it-yourself solution to the current dilemma -- on one more quietly-trafficked street a fire hydrant has been cracked open, an impromptu neighborhood gathering ebbing and flowing around the gushing water as folks of all ages splash in the street, duck under the spray, bat water at each other. A piragüero nearby with a brightly coloured hand truck is supplying sweet cold treats, and a pair of dreadlocked teenagers whose close resemblance suggests they are siblings are vending ice-cold drinks out of a wheeling cooler. Parked nearby the small festivities (someone else has just broken out a guitar, with MUSIC on the way this is turning into a Real Party) is a smaller-than-average silver and blue motorcycle; its licence plate says THING2 and it sports a BLUE LIVES MATTER sticker pasted above it. Leaning up /against/ the bike, one very tiny sharkpup; dressed in crisply tailored lightweight pale linen trousers and a short-sleeved seersucker button-down (blue, embroidered with a very faintly silvery-blue thread in an intricate vine-like pattern) and pale vest, Shane is /eying/ the water, the splashing. The piragua. "What do you think, melao maybe? Cereza?" His clawed fingers drum lightly against one pocket. One smallboy has recently emerged from some exuberant splashing in the makeshift fountain, somewhat paler than most of the participants but no less soaked. Spence is wearing a light blue How to Train Your Dragon t-shirt featuring Toothless in glorious flight, black cargo shorts, and very worn blue sandals that look like they might fall off of his feet at any moment. As small as he is, though, he still looks down at Shane when he comes to a skidding halt beside the sharkpup. "OhboyIcan'tdecide!" the words tumble out of him in an excited pile-up. But then he immediately puts the lie to his own statement of indecisveness with a gleeful cry of "Cereza!" "Cherry. Go with cherry." That's the unsolicited advice of eve. She's got a sort of turtleneck (IN THIS WEATHER OF ALL THINGS) on. At least she has a broad-brimmed straw hat to keep the sun off. And sunglasses. She's not sweating. At all. So she must be doing okay. At any rate, she's got a her own frozen treat and is munching on it with relatively good cheer, even if her expression is a little strained. She smiles to the sharkpup, having found a news stand to lean against it, and sighs. She offers,"Ever since El Sabor put up that sign, we've had an increase in mutant foot traffic." A pause, then, as she waves at Spencer and Shane, a quirk to her lips. She looks down at the younger boy then, and offers a toothy smile,"Havey you considered doing both at the same time? It tastes kind of awful, but..." She shrugs. Then she looks over to Shane again,"Hey. Um. It's actually really cool to find you two here. I don't suppose I could pick your brain about something that's been tickling my brain a little." Back to the young man,"I went nuts when that movie came out. I wanted a dragon friend SOOOO baadly." Shane's nose twitches, a moment before he looks over toward Eve. There's a beat, a small furrow of brow, but just as quickly these are displaced by a broad (bright, wickedly toothy) grin. "Yo! It's been a minute, huh? Christ aren't you fucking sweltering out here, I'm /basically/ a sharkpuddle. Not in the good way. I'm thinking some splashing -- /after/ the ice." Digging his wallet out of the pocket he's been tapping, he pulls out a few folded bills -- staaarting to straighten up from where he's leaning before he eyes the piraguero, bites his lip, hands the bills over to Spencer instead. "Coconut for me?" He glances over toward the bodega, smile twisting a little to the side. "I can imagine. I hope people aren't giving y'all too much shit over it. /We/ definitely appreciate it, anyway. Means a lot having spaces that are willing to be bold about that." Resuming his slouchy-lean on the bike, he gives Eve a nod, a casual shrug of one shoulder. "My brain? I mean, sure, you're welcome to ask. I make no promises about being a good help, my siblings got all the smarts in our family." Spence grins at Eve, waves (water flying from his hand). "It's a great day for a hydrant this is pretty much the best." He starts wringing out the hem of his t-shirt kind of haphazardly. "I /love/ that movie, have you seen the show? I know some dragons! I mean, they're /people/ but they're also dragons. /Kind/ of. Does that count? They're really cool whether or not they count. What sign did you put up did you say you don't serve Nazis or you /do/ serve mutants or HERE THERE BE DRAGONS?" He's literally bouncing up and down in place at these prospective signs. "Got it, BRB." He takes the cash from Shane and disappears -- -- reappearing next to the piraguero's cart. After some animated chatter and gesticulating that is probably far above and beyond what's necessary for ordering their ice, he blips back -- -- and hands Shane his perfectly plain looking shaved ice, keeping the bright red one for himself. "He's also /way/ smart actually," he adds, belatedly. "Yeah, I've been... uh... busy. And I guess that's kinda what I wanted to talk to you about." Eve blinks, pausing in her explanation, as the boy blinks around, and decides to interrupt herself to explain,"He's talking about a 'mutants welcome' sign. And noone's been too rough. The younger kids mostly are too busy doing their own thing. The adults... some of them can be crusty, but a lot of people here, they send money home, and our place charges the lowest transfer fees on the block. The most we get is grumbling because noone wants to start shit that gets the police sniffing around. That spells trouble for people who don't have papers, you know? And... well, actually frequently even if you don't. And it's not totally selfless. We're making money from it too. Besides, my parents were kind of already used to getting shit from the more conservative people. Because of... well... me." She waves it off, though she does look a little miffed. "You get around pretty well, huh, dude?" This directed at Spence. "Anyway, what I wanted your advice on was... well... I um... School is starting back soon and I am suddenly finding I have some issues to deal with that are likely going make going to school... Difficult. Awkward. You noticed I'm not sweating? It's because I'm not even remotely physically uncomfortable." She tugs the neck of her shirt down slightly to reveal what looks like a thin slit wrapping around it. Then she lets it pop back up. "People are used to me wearing high necked sweaters, but it's only one slip away from having a possible big problem." "{Fantastic, thanks!}" This in Vietnamese, bright and eager when Spencer returns with deliciousness. "And yeah Spence is pretty impossible to tie down." Shane licks at it, the gills on the sides of his neck slowly fluttering open and closed. "I'm glad. That it's not making trouble, that --" He stops, eyes wider (kind of disconcertingly so; they take up an uncanny portion of his face as-is and grow, here, to truly enormous pools of pitch-black) as Eve pulls down the neck of her shirt. "/Sweet/ is that a -- are you --" Reeling back in the brewing burst of excitement, he winces slightly. A darker purplish tint spreads through his cheeks. "Lo siento, I didn't mean -- that's probably scary. This is new? You didn't know before? Do you -- know what's actually /happening/?" He's speaking quieter, here, more thoughtful than his initial enthusiasm. Spence bobs his head. "That's a good sign to have! I'll tell all my friends to go there if they need something to eat up this way." This very /earnestly/. "Not just the ones who get kicked out of other stores I mean also some of them just like to /support/ places that don't kick out people for being mutants. My friends are /awesome./" He looks initially just somewhat perplexed by Eve's explanation of her difficulties, eyes blinking hugely. Then, when she pulls her collar down, his eyes go /even bigger/, though nothing like Shane's. "Oh! Oh! Um --" He kind of /flails/ a little. Looks at Shane. Looks back at Eve. Bounces up and down some more as if trying to contain his excitement by converting it to motion. "If you don't know but you want to we have friends who could probably help you figure that out, though." That olive skin darkens a bit, as she waves the apology off. Perhaps a little embarrassed by the sudden attention and enthusiasm. "I'm... I DON'T know. It's... actually really scary. Like... I'm already pretty different. And now this. I mean... it is what it is. But it's something I need to... plan for. Because I think it's only getting more... pronounced. At first it was little things, but now... I'm like... only sleeping every few days. I went jogging a while back and I stopped mostly because I got bored. Wasn't even breathing hard. Other changes that probably only I notice. I had a filling pop out of my mouth the other day. Just 'pop', like that. The hole it was in is almost gone." She shakes her head. Still, it's hard not to smile at the super-supportive Spence,"Um... Thanks. We'd appreciate that, actually. I have several mutant friends, you know. And I just talked to my parents, and I was like, I want them to feel welcome. They're still a little old fashioned in some ways. But they have a daughter like me, and they really just want me to be happy, even if they're not always comfy with things. They're... smart enough parents to place their kids' happiness over their own comfort. Honestly, these days, they're just happy I passed math. My tutor, Heather, I think, is who finally sold them on the idea that maybe mutants really are okay?" As for wanting to know, well... "Thanks, hun. I think knowing is better than not knowing, don't you?" "That's -- that's a lot to handle," Shane agrees slowly. "If there's so many different changes --" This time he interrupts himself because his mostly-neglected shaved ice is dripping, a small sticky melty trail trickling down his fingers. He dips his head to lick first at his fingers then at the ice itself. "If they need support, too, there's a group specifically for parents of mutant kids that meets a couple times a month at Evolve. Maybe help them navigate -- how to not freak out and how to be supportive and maybe find some support of their /own/, y'know?" His gills flutter faster, and he hesitates over his further response, licking slowly at his ice. "And we do know people who are real good at helping folks figure out what's going on with them. Could introduce you, if you like -- or," another stalling lick of ice. "There's also Xavier's. School not started for the year, and the place -- it's hella far from perfect, but they got more practice than anyone helping people navigate all this, you know? And you don't have to be worried about accidents at school fucking over your life like it might if you get outed somewhere else." Spence has been shoving shaved ice into his mouth, perhaps to keep it from melting all over his hand and perhaps to keep his mouth from blurting out impolitic words, but probably both. The bright red food dye smeared on his face and fingers looks comically /un/-like blood. His eyes are still getting wider, though. "Wow! That's /so/ awe-- uh, I mean -- lo siento." His eyes skid aside to his brother, his cheeks flushing. "New and confusing things are scary!" Anyway our pa is old fashioned about some things too. Old fashioned isn't always bad!" He nods sagely. Kind of boops himself in the nose with his ice, leaving a red dot on its tip. "OH! We know a lot of people at Xavier's, too." As if this should be surprising at all given the other things he's mentioned about their social circles. "There's /tons/ of cool people there and they have scholarships and stuff and also like a whole actual /lake/ you can swim in." The girl realizes her own treat is dripping now and leans down to bite off a mouthful of cherry flavored stuff. Once her treat is properly mowed down, she nods to Shane,"They already go to those... what are they? PFLAG meetings and stuff. Dad mostly just stands around uncomfy according to mom. To hear dad tell it though, mom just likes getting a chance to cook for everyone and help organize events. She loves that stuff. She'd drag him to those meetings. Anyway, isn't that place super-fancy? My grades are not, like, what you'd call very good. Plus... my parents wouldn't get ANY time off if I left. I work shifts, you know? Who's going to help them, or watch abuela when she has her spells..." She takes a deep breath. Apparently she gets a little anxious, too. Still, after a few deep breaths, she has her head mostly back on straight. "I think... maybe I'd like to ask you to make that introduction and go from there. And thanks, by the way. I know you don't know me super well, so... thanks. For being such a good person. This is what people mean when they say 'community', I think." The girl suddenly barks out laughter,"Who would've thought I might need to come out twice in my life." For some reason, this is funny. "Esta bien, dude." She waves her hand dismissively, then reaches out without thinking with her thumb to get that red dot,"You've got a..." It's an oddly almost motherly thing for one so young. "You are, like, exactly what I imagined have a little brother would be like. Man. The sad thing is, I think if I got into a fancy private school like Xavier's, my parents would literally forget everything else. They would be all: You're going to get such a good education! And be unable to think of anything else." "It's good they're trying. Uncomfy or not." Slurrrrp. Shane sucks down a larger mouthful of his melty ice. "I worked in the city even while going to school -- it's just north of the Bronx so it's not like /away/-away -- but it is a hell of a commute, that's for sure. And it's posh as fuck, yeah. They're used to people from hella different backgrounds, though. I'd never even /been/ to school before I started there. That's one thing I'll give them, they do try hard to work with people who are all over the map in terms of academics. It's different for us, you know? Like grades or not, there's only so many places we could even /do/ school safely. I think they get that." His smile is quick -- crooked. "And no problem. Hey make sure to give me your number? I guess I could get it from Taylor too if that's okay. Give you some intros to folks who could help you." A little softer -- a little warmer: "Yeah. I think it is what people mean. Probably the most important thing we can have. This world's hell on /everybody/ if we don't take care of each other." "Probably there's ways you could come out /even more times/ if you play your cards right." It's hard to tell whether Spencer is joking about this. He /sounds/ sincere enough. There's a very slight shift to his posture when Eve wipes the ice off his nose, a very slight tensing of his frame, although he breaks into a sheepish grin and a "Gracias" all the same before he returns to devouring his frozen (though rapidly defrosting) treat. "Commnity is important! And also /fun/. We try to make sure there's more community when we can, and it's not all about having places to go like Evolve, or El Sabor de Cuba. It's about /people/." He bounces up and down onto his toes again, eyeing the bright water still gushing from the hydrant. "I hope your stuff gets less scary, soon! Whether on its own or from you learning about them." Gulping down the rest of his piragua, he waves and leaps back into the spray with the others.