ArchivedLogs:Firefly
| Firefly | |
|---|---|
| Dramatis Personae | |
| In Absentia
|
20 May 2015 "We take care of our own. Sometimes that means learning how to take care of yourself." |
| Location
<NYC> Brooklyn | |
The most populous of the boroughs, Brooklyn has nothing if not character. With a thriving music and arts scene, and a distinctive New York slant to its stereotypical gritty accents, Brooklyn ranges from the high-cultured to the very much working class. From botanical gardens to beachfronts, Manhattanites might like to think their borough is the only one that matters, but Brooklyn has a lot to offer of its own. Mmm, the rain has cooled things off nicely and the spring breeze is brisk. Especially now that the sun is winking out, just a hint of crimson and violet bleeding out into the deepening indigo of the sky. With the change in weather, it's a little less unreasonable for Charlie to appear in her typical Out and About clothes: navy hoodie zipped with the hood pulled up tight, loose tan camping pants with seemingly oversized sneakers peeking out beneath them, a blue and white scarf concealing the lower part of her face. She is also equipped with a worn black backpack on her back. The cloth-muffled spray paint cans inside offer only a dull sound as she moves. The can in her hand, however? /Ssst. Ssst./ A sign in front of her used to read: "Warning, neighborhood watch program in force. We look out for each other. / Humans only." In the middle is a silhouetted image with horns and a tail in a red 'NO' symbol that is actively being blotted out by Charlie's paint. The message on the top reads the same now, but with an electric blue underline under 'We look out for each other.' The bottom 'Humans only' message has been replaced by equally electric blue stencilled words: 'This is our home'. Eloise is a homeless foreigner in a strange country. Moreover, she's an obvious target. As a rule, she tries not to stand out, and finds herself constantly weighing her safety against her dignity. The latter still matters to her, even with everything thats happened. She's clad as she usually is; in dirty clothes, partially concealed by a hooded parka. The parka's a bit warm, but not too bad for a breezy evening after a spring rain. Still...it can't entirely conceal her. Mostly because she's glowing. Literally glowing, like a lightbulb. New York City is rarely dark, but some parts are better lit then others. Regardless, no shadow or hood can completely conceal her glowing face and skin, standing out like a beacon. Even her long hair slowly pokes out of the hood, waving as if somehow magnetized. Usually, she tries to mind her own business. New York is a dangerous place for anyone, let alone an underaged mutant girl. But she notices the sign, and the vandalism, and walks over - with a bit more confidence then she would usually feel, given how much it pays to be careful. She doesn't say anything, but looks the sign over respectfully, and takes a glance at the hooded figure carrying the spray can. She glances briefly at her own hood. Hmm. Something in common, at least. The black silhouetted figure now looks like it is wearing a fabulous red /sash/, the rest of the circle covered over in white spray paint. Charlie turns to switch out the white can for a black one to finish obliterating the red. Her posture tenses before she can retrieve the second can, however, hare ears and nose sensitive enough to pick up someone beginning to approach, even if both are concealed under clothing. The hare girl lowers her centre of gravity as she turns, obviously ready to get into something or bolt if needed. Her features are well-shadowed in the hood, but with Eloise being a light source... Soft brown fur around her wide doe-eyes might be visible. Certainly the reflective /sheen/ in those eyes is. The glowing silhouetted figure, in turn, looks over the features in the hood, and the reflective sheen of the eyes. She clears her throat. "Ahem. Sorry," she says, politely, in a northern English accent. "Didn't mean to interrupt. Couldn't help but admire the sentiment, so to speak." She tries to smile reassuringly. After a pause, she glances around and pulls back her hood. Unlike the graffiti-artist, Eloise wasn't really doing a great job of disguising herself anyways, with the glow, so she figures she might as well sod it and be a bit more overt about it. Charlie's posture relaxes somewhat when the smaller figure seems unlikely to /attack/, at least. Her head tilts at the glow. Or maybe the words. Or both. “Hermana, you clearly ain't from around here. Careful with the 'S' word. Has a history of making zombies happen here.” Though the words themselves are admonishing, her tone is light. Almost amused. The amusement only grows when the girl's hood goes down. Charlie whistles low through her teeth. “Talk about hiding your light under a bushel, huh? You can put your hood back up if it makes you more comfortable out here.” In turn, the hare-girl does not pull down her hood. But she does tug the scarf off of her clearly lagomorph face. “I usually do the same.”
"S'okay. Pretty sure they don't even do anything anymore, but...better safe than the other thing." Charlie grins at that, a half-grin that only a lagomorph mouth could achieve. "Where I lived, we just stopped speaking English at all anymore. Not that different from before. Mostly just cut the Spanglish. Started pushing 2 on the phone menus more often." Her head shakes, grin only widening. "Not a thing wrong being different. Or looking different. It's the people that have a problem with it that are fucked up. You like a damn firefly, how awesome is that? So long as you take stupid people out of the equation, yeah?" Speaking of which... "One second." She grabs that black spray can to finish the job, then puts it back in her bag. "You into trouble or more of a stay out of it type? We can find ourselves a park bench or something, you wanna talk with less risk of...stupid people happening." Eloise tilts her head. "A firefly?" She purses her lips. "I never thought of myself that way. I just thought of it as...having turned into a bloody lightbulb. You know, I like that. It has dignity to it." She pauses. "Thank you, really." She glances back up at the sign, nodding at it. "I'm more of a stay out of it sort, but I can go with the flow. Adapt or die seems to be the lesson I've been learning in this city." "Lightbulb, nothing. Gotta wait for some guy to make a lightbulb. Hook it up to electricity. Turn a thing on. You got this natural, hermana. Give yourself some credit." Charlie's grin turns into more of an honest smile. Hefting her bag a little, she gestures for Eloise to follow as she moves toward the small neighbourhood park that the sign she doctored was apparently labelling. "I get it. I start some shit, but not everyone else gotta be stepping in it all the time." Eloise follows after Charlie. "Yes, well, you do have a good point there," she agrees. "I'm not sure the graffiti will change any minds, but...you have to do something to vent, as release, or it will eat you up. So I can't say I disagree, either. The world likes to tell itself it's come such a long way, because of science. But at its heart, it's still a barbaric place." Finding a vacant bench, Charlie sits herself on it, her bag to one side. A gloved hand pats at the other. "Don't know as I'm going for changing minds so much as...making a statement. Delegitimising these signs. They look too /sanctioned/ and /official/ when they're really just some bullshit some bigots started posting. Letting people know that's what they are. And we're not leaving." She sighs heavily. "I mean, things get a little better sometimes some ways. Civil rights are a /thing/, at least. Some places. It's just not fast enough or far enough to earn a lot of praise from me, you know?" Her shoulders rise and fall a little under her hoodie. "I don't know. You been here long? Me, I come up a few months ago from Baltimore. Not too far." Eloise sits down. "I came here with my da just before the...the outbreak." she explains. "I wasn't glowing then. He had work as an attache for a local diplomat. I was barely settled in when the virus hit." She shakes her head. "Well, I don't want to go into details. I don't like sob stories. But I'm here now, and trying to adapt as best I can. Best to look on the bright side, after all." “Oh man, you been here longer than I have, then. It's the accent threw me.” Charlie's cheeks puff out a little with a chuckle, nose twitching. The amusement fades as the girl continues. “Here now...you mean by yourself? You got people? Safe place to sleep? All that?” Her brows dip a little in concern. Eloise frowns slightly. "I..." She pauses. "I've been trying to adapt and keep my dignity," she says, simply. "I don't need to eat much. Or at all, sometimes. And I'm warm even when it's cold out. Makes it easier then it might be." She bites her lip. "Yes, I'm...by myself. My da died during the outbreak. I don't like to talk about it. Between that and the general confusion and the...glowing thing..." She shrugs. "But I'm fine, I'm fine. Really." She tries to sound confident. Tries. "Hey, that's pretty handy. Nice to have a place out of the weather and something in your belly now and then, though, right?" Charlie nods along with Eloise's story, her own recommendations casual. "That sign. Was a reason I left the 'We look out for our own' up there. 'Cause we do. I'm sure you're taking care of yourself just fine. But if you ever need a place to hang out for a little while? Or to hide out for a bit if there's trouble? There's safe houses around. For people like us. I could show you." "I didn't realise that." Eloise says. "Different culture, I guess. Never thought to look." She glances around at the area idly, and swats away a moth that keeps approaching her lit face. "Is there anything I should know about one of these...safe houses, first? Sounds good, but...you know, it's a dark world sometimes." "We can't exactly put up flyers and ads," Charlie admits a little dryly. "So it's word-of-mouth in the freak community." Okay, the moth... There is no way Charlie is /not/ laughing at that. It's good natured, at least. "Oh man, hermana, that happen a lot? Um... The houses. Just that they're full of us freaks, a lot off the streets. Kind of rough and tumble, sometimes pretty crowded...but there for /us/, you know? Food and a cot. Nobody throwing you out for glowing." "Yeah, it happens a lot." Eloise says dryly. "Sometimes it's more than just one, too. I have to watch when I talk on certain nights, lest enterprising, industrious insomniac butterflies get /ideas/," she says, slightly grumpily. "Well, I can understand that. I guess that does sound better then trying to nap in out of the way places, actually." "Oh man. That is not the way to catch your food." Charlie manages to be somehow tickled by this and sympathising at the same time. "Yeah, inside places. Better if only for fewer fluttery things trying to invade your face. Well...fluttery bugs, at least." Something about Eloise's grumping heightens her appeal to the hare-girl. A gloved hand pats lightly against the smaller girl's shoulder. "I like you, Firefly. You got a good...what do they say? Spirit, maybe. You let me know when you want, I show you a place. Some addresses on a couple others, depends where you hang out a lot. I'm Charlie, by the way." Better late than never on the introductions. "Eloise." the English girl says by way of reply. "A pleasure. And thank you. I'd love to see them. Not like I have a terribly lot of more pressing concerns right now." She gives a wry grin. “Yeah, you, too. You up for a trip? I'll take you by now.” Another chuff of laughter puffs Charlie's lips out. “Sometimes, that's a good thing, too. Plate clean. Good starting place.” "Yeah, sure." Eloise stands up. "Though, I have to admit...daylight might be a better time to show me. I tend to stand out at night. I wouldn't want to give you all away." "Oh man, hermana. You're not the most obvious of us freaks. And some of us? We're scary enough we don't bother hiding when we go out. /I/ usually go for this get-up 'cause everyone assumes...harmless bunny, yeah? I can hold my own and then some, but I don't want people starting shit /all/ the time. Cops ever get involved, you know how that goes when your freak is on your face." Charlie tugs the scarf back up over her mouth and nose before standing, too. "Up to you, though. I give you a phone number if you got a place nearby you get to easier for now." "Oh." Eloise thinks that over. "I'll just follow you now then. Perhaps I'm a bit more cautious. Firefly isn't exactly intimidating, either." “No problem. Anybody starts stuff, I got your back. And if it comes to it? I pick you up and run. Still faster than any human trying to catch up,” Charlie assures, her grin only a tugging at the scarf over her face as she leads the way. “Bunny might be harmless, but hare? There's a force to be reckoned with.” "Well, aside from vorpal bunnies, that is." Eloise comments. Hey, she's English. She's seen -lots- of Mony Python. "But yeah, I get your drift. No offense, but you sound way better at taking care of yourself than I am." “Got some nasty-big-pointy teeth, too. Not my preferred method of attack, though. Biting strangers, kinda gross.” Charlie seems overly amused at this. Likely there aren't too many rabbit references out there she /doesn't/ know after a lifetime of looking like she does. “What are you, fifteen? Sixteen? You figure stuff out after awhile. Hook up with the right people, they help you learn a thing, too.” "Sixteen." Eloise replies. "I don't think I'd really want to bite people either. Not even sure I'd want to hit someone, but...you know, if some guy comes at me in the dark, I'll aim for his boy-parts with my foot and then run away, I guess. Same as anyone else would do." "Groin's a good shot if you can get it. Can always stomp on the instep of the foot or crack into somebody's nose, too. Elbow to the solar plexus can take the wind out of someone easy." Charlie taps her stomach with the flat of a gloved hand. "People are pretty squishy and fragile, really. Running away is good. You inflict some pain enough to stun somebody and high-tail it? Not a bad plan at all." Eloise nods as she listens. "Yeah, pretty much. I mean, this is a dangerous city, and there are a lot of people more dangerous than me. So, I hit trouble - that's definitely the plan. Or...you know...pretend I have some dangerous powers and go 'Boo', I guess." She pauses. "But I'll remember the stomach bit." "Ha. The 'boo' bit'll work on anybody who wasn't really going to fight you to begin with. Less effective for the folks who are out to play get-the-freak. Not a bad idea you learn some, like...women's self defense class basics." Charlie thinks on this a moment. "Probably folks at the safe houses as would help, just... Don't ask someone 'til you get to know 'em first. Make sure they aren't a little cracked." Eloise nods her head. "I'd generally assume that, but...it's good to know how far the safe house thing goes. I'll be careful, I promise. I would like to learn more self defense. I wish I'd taken some before." “Hindsight's good for that sort of thing,” Charlie agrees as she walks. “But, yeah. We take care of our own. Sometimes that means learning how to take care of yourself.” | |
