ArchivedLogs:Family Talks

Family Talks
Dramatis Personae Dusk, Kay, Ion, Rasputin, Regan, Thea
In Absentia	2013-09-27 Post-Harlem raid debriefing.
Location <NYC> BoM House - Lower East Side
Tucked away off a little-used side street in the Lower East Side, sandwiched between a youth drop-in center and a taqueria, this narrow three-story townhouse has very little to catch the eye. Boarded-up windows, a door peeling its paint, shabby grubby brickface; from the outside it does not look like much. Inside someone has gone to great lengths to renovate the building into something more habitable. It isn't glamorous but it is comfortable, old furniture dragged in, the place generally swept clean. The first floor holds a large living room, a smaller dining room, a spacious kitchen, a half-bathroom. There are three bedrooms and a full bathroom on the second floor; the attic is just a large empty space crammed full of boxes with a window out to the large flat roof. The basement, much like the attic, consists of a lot of empty space. A bare concrete floor, no windows, occasional poles running up to the ceiling. A tiny half-bathroom down here, too. Not a whole lot else. It's been a day since the events of Harlem went down; enough time for Regan to bring her two stray Mongrels back to the safehouse a few blocks from the ruins of Evolve and hopefully enough time for everyone else to find their text messages or the notice on the common house's bulletin board that a meeting is in order. It's a comfortable informal sort of meetingspace, in the living room here; big couches, big armchairs, one enormous brown corduroy beanbag near the coffee table. There are currently -- donuts. And a large carafe of coffee, still hot, standing beside the mugs that have been set out. Regan has commandeered one of the armchairs for herself. She's long since washed the smell of smoke off her skin though hair tends to be more reluctant to let it /go/; underneath the faintly floral scent of shampoo, there's a lingering campfire smell. The rest of her clothes are neat and trim; dark grey pencil skirt, a blue blouse, dark blue suede flats. She looks much different than she did during the raid, her adopted appearance vanished in favour of her true one; her blonde hair is tied back into a serviceable bun. She claims a chocolate frosted donut for herself, as well as a mug of coffee that she tips a packet of creamer and one sugar into. Never far from subtly smelling of brimstone, Kay for once /isn't/ smelling of cigarette smoke. Instead, he gnaws a toothpick, pacing long strides along one side of the room with a a powdered donut held almost forgetfully under his nose - little pwuffs of white rise up from it when he huffs in exhale. Just... kind of pushing against walls, like he's testing their give. Kind of doing one-handed pushups against them. Touching things, until he eventually double backs for coffee. "You got milk?" His hand makes a rough squeezey-gesture at the air. Thea looks like she helped herself to the shower as well. She only had her grubby black tank top and olive cargo pants to put back on, but she looks much refreshed for the wash. Her long blond hair is back in a ponytail. She jogs down the stairs from the bathroom up there, long wings trailing behind her on the floor. She doesn't take a donut, but she does go to the coffee machine and pours herself a cup without adding anything else. She scans those present, and retreats to sit on the arm of a couch, content to sip without comment for now. Dusk has had time to get his shoulder sewn up, bandaged, and splinted; with his wing also splinted in place against it, it's hard for him to be particularly inconspicuous around the city, these days. He's dressed in a pair of faded old jeans and his comfortable Vans sneakers; shirts have proved somewhat impossible to manage without moving his arm /or/ his wing, and so instead there is currently a black knitted shawl draped over him to protect from the early autumn crispness in the air. Rolled into a small ball, Rasputin is also here, in cat form. Curled up on the beanbag, ze is awake, but resting. Hir tail sways, as ze looks up to the donuts in interest, but instead places hir head back down. When Kay asks about milk, ze also inquires. "Wait, is there milk? That sounds kind of good.". Maybe to balance out Thea, Ion is taking a donut but ignoring the coffee. Chocolate-frosted, as he drops himself -- /almost/ down onto the beanbag until Rasputin speaks. He fumbles his donut, catching it again a moment later and smearing frosting against his thumb. "Oh crap, sorry, vato, didn't see you there." He goes to drop down onto the edge of an adjacent couch instead, but is up again a moment later. "Oh, yeah, I think I had some in breakfast yesterday." He chomps a bite of his donut as he heads back to the kitchen, returning with a quart carton of whole milk. "Do you, ah, want a mug?" He eyes Rasputin uncertainly. "Yes, there is." Regan answers this question with a small tip of her head towards the kitchen, not bothering to get up when Ion does so for her. She nibbles a small bite of her donut, legs crossing almost primly at the ankles as she nestles into the seat more comfortably. "Ion brought Kay and I out of the church, after everyone was out," she explains by way of introducing the two newer faces, "they'll be joining us today. I'm glad to see you all back here in one piece." A flick of glance to Dusk. "More or less." "Yo," Kay knows - some? most? - of these faces passingly, from their mutual time spent in and out of the Harlem church, though few on any deep level. He'd spent most of his time prowling the windows and doors, or lurking higher in the belfry. He'd been fixing his eyes on Regan when she spoke, starting just slightly when Ion returns to his peripheral vision with - ohdelight. Milk. That'll go in his coffee. He claps Ion on the back for it, looking across at Dusk for possibly the first time, the restless /heat/ of him possibly relaxing some, "Tss - y'got tagged, bro? What's the warwound?" Thea reaches back and sweeps her wings out of the way before leaning back against the wall, still perched on the arm of the couch. She sips from her coffee and glances at Dusk as well when Regan mentions him, but still remains quiet. She just watches everyone with her unreadable, faceted eyes. "Had worse." Dusk shrugs his good shoulder, sitting in gargoyle-esque crouch sideways on the arm of the couch where his wings can drape over the side down towards the ground. "Sniper got my shoulder. Coulda been much worse. Already gotten most of the people out of the apartments by then, Isra took care of the rest. Where'd you guys end up?" He looks between Regan and Kay and Ion, brows lifting questioningly. "Jesus. We did all get out, didn't we. Have to say I didn't expect that." "It's fine, I kind of..blend in. No worries.". Rasputin smiles, as ze nods. "A mug would be nice, if you don't mind. I'd get it myself, but...". Rasputin flails hir paws in the air as a gesture. "Just uh, set it down nearby. I can lap out of it or something.". Ze then turns to Dusk. "I was a bit worried, glad everyone did get out okay!". Rasputin purrs a bit, as ze turns to Regan. "How about you..are you alright, Regan?" Ion pours one mug full of milk for Rasputin, setting it down in front of the beanbag. He turns the carton over to Kay, and leans in towards Dusk to offer one fist outward in greeting. "/Staten/ Fucking /Island/," he answers with a grimace. "Where'd you get patched up, they do you right?" He shakes his head at Dusk's surprise. "Gotta say I didn't either, man, but you people -- you know what you're on about, yeah? And Kay, hermano, without you half that building would be dead or in cages now." "We try." Regan has a small smile for Ion's praise. "I am fine, Rasputin, thank you. Pulling all of that off without any casualties -- that was quite a feat on all your parts. There are, though, now a considerable influx of mutants into the city without -- ah. Many safe places to take harbor. I suspect that much like our new friends here," her hand tips outwards to Kay and Ion, "we might be seeing many new faces, seeking a place where they can be the most help." Her lips press together thin, blue eyes flicking to Thea and then down to her coffee. "Your tunnels saved the lives of many people. Unfortunately, we're going to have to stay on high alert the next little while -- I was," her tone is exceedingly mild, here, "rather /clear/ about not wanting to give the police cause to search the underground again. I'm worried for the people with homes down there -- if the police use the ants as an excuse to go after them again, they're going to need all the defence we can muster for them." Thea watches the whole production with the milk with what might be a roll of the eyes, but it's hard to tell with her. She maintains an even expression, glances at Ion, and back to Regan again. "There wouldn't /be/ police reports of ants if /he/ hadn't stopped them. We were inside, no one would have seen. And they were /shooting/ people. I wasn't about to stand around and just let that happen. Besides, those psychos who live under New York deserve to be hunted." Thea stops her bitter tirade before it gets even more out of control. Her emotions are flowing, and no one has to be a mind-reader to see the contempt she has for the Morlocks. She closes her eyelids over the black orbs, and shakes her head. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry I went off script. But we have to have some flex here. We're not the fucking Marines, after all." She pronounces the word 'fucking' like she looked it up in a dictionary, and then practiced pronouncing it in a mirror to get it right. BAM. Kay slams down his coffee cup. Suddenly staring at Thea. Standing near him, Ion would be able to feel a slow, thick ripple of heat climbing off him. "-/deserve/ to be hunted?" He could make things better with silence - OR. He's suddenly pushing off the counter and /stalking/ towards Thea, "Bitch, you wanna run that by me again?" "Thea, if that's how you think --" For the first time, Dusk actually looks /angry/, narrowed eyes and his hands curling into fists; though he starts to move, too, it's halted by the sudden /wince/ he wears when he attempts to get up. "What the /fuck/ are you doing here?" His voice comes out through his teeth. "And are you really fucking stupid enough to think that /killing a bunch of cops/ wouldn't draw goddamn attention? -- But even if you are, you really shouldn't /be/ here if you think /any/ of us deserve that shit. You haven't seen what they do to us, but /we/ have. We've /been/ in the cages. And if you're sick enough that you think --" His jaw clenches, his head shakes. "/We're/ here to stand /up/ for all mutants. What the /fuck/ are /you/ here for?" When the arguing begins, Rasputin, who was lapping milk, visibly becomes upset and recoils, curling into a small ball. Rasputin quickly shouts out. "Guys, we don't need to fight. Thea may think that way..but that's not the way we think, and that's not the way we're going to around doing things..right?". He looks to Regan, trying to mediate the situation. "All mutants deserve equality, even the sewer dwellers. Sometimes, I believe they deserve it more than I do. And..and..I'm just making it worse, aren't I..". Rasputin curls into a ball, emotionally distressed, just listening to the conversation. "I'm sorry /what/? Woman, slaughtering a bunch of pigs would have turned this from a one-day standoff into a fucking witch hunt. /You/ might be okay with them rounding up mutants and slaughtering them and torturing them but the rest of us have some fucking morals." Ion's fingers clench hard down squishily into the chocolate frosting of his donut. "These men," he nods towards Dusk and Rasputin, "this people talk sense, yo, /I/ ain't here to throw nobody under the bus to save our own fucking skins." Regan sits quietly through the spiking tension in the room, watching Thea coolly over the rim of her coffee mug. Smallsip. Her eyes shift to Kay when he rises, regarding him with the same level gaze. Her hand lifts, and -- whatever answer Thea might have wanted to give is forestalled by the sudden /disappearance/ of her mouth, just plain smooth skin where her mouth once /was/. "I'm sorry you think that way," she says, mildly. "As the others say, we're here to fight for equality for /all/ mutants. If you don't have the fortitude to table your own issues and stand with everyone, I'll be more than happy to return you to where we found you. There is /no/ room in here for backstabbing our brothers. The humans take care of that for us more than adequately." She takes another sip of coffee, slowly. "All mutants deserve equality. And the ones in the hardest of positions are the ones," she agrees with Rasputin with a small tilt of her mug towards hir, "that we fight for the hardest. The orders I give I give for a reason. To protect /all/ of us, Thea, not just the ones /you/ find worthy. You're right, though, /you/ are certainly no Marine." Her eyes lower as she sips again. "/They/ actually stand for something." Thea scrambles up from her position to back away from Kay, heading for the top of the stairs to the best of her ability. She looks like she was ready to bolt, but she reaches up to her face when she gets to the stairs, and pulls up short. Her mind is an open book to Regan, of course, and where one might expect her mental stage to be full of rage, it is instead pure despair. << I'm sorry... they murdered my best friend... >> Her body sags against the wall, and she her expression fights between frustrated anger and resisting the urge to cry. << Will you let me apologize? Or should I just go? >> Of all the talking, Kay is least vocal. And most physical. When Thea retreats, he /pursues/, long long legs overtaking her with a hard rush of sprint and passing her by to slap a palm against the wall in front of her. Unknowing of the silent response the insectile woman is making, he's now pointing at Ion, "But more than all that? That guy /saved/ your ass back there. Not just just the sewer people. Not just the fucking mutant community. /Yours/." His fingers do a hard compress-and-shove against Thea's sternum. "You don't think they aren't already making a /file/ on you? You think they haven't collected every little bitty detail to come after you? You got an /MO/, lady. You leave a body count wherever you go, and you're gonna kill everything and everyone you /touch/." Dusk's eyes widen when Thea's mouth vanishes. His good wing flutters against his shoulder, his hand lifting to scrub palm against the dark scruff of beard shadowing his jaw. "Nobody deserves that," he says, quieter, now, and then lapses into silence. He gets up more slowly, but only to crouch by the table, awkwardly one-handed as he holds a cup beneath the coffee carafe, fingers stretching upwards to press the button on the spigot. "I'm not going to be great for fighting for a bit," he tells Regan, "but I'm good in the dark. I can take watches in the tunnels, at least. Or --" His lips compress. "I have a friend. Who could probably get to those cops and make them -- forget. Before this blows up anywhere." Rasputin doesn't speak, just listening. Ze sniffs the milk a bit, before lapping at it again, still visibly upset. When Dusk speaks, ze stops lapping and also speaks. "I could help take watch as well. I don't think, they'd be too suspicious about an animal? Especially if I was a rat or something?". Rasputin then just, curls up, resting and listening again. Ion's fingers unclench, his head dipping to lick chocolate off his fingertips. The anger in his face seems /slightly/ mollified by the responses from the other Brotherhooders, though his eyes are still narrowed on Thea. "I can fight. And a rat underground'd be the /least/ suspicious of things." He sucks more frosting from a finger, shifting his donut into his opposite hand. "Where did everyone head to? Does anyone know? Do they have a place? It would be terrible to have them back in the hands of the law now." "Someone to clean up that mess would be well appreciated. And no. They have no place. Those who want to stand with us, I will be glad to take. There are a lot who want somewhere to /direct/ their anger. I think there's a large well of untapped energy out there right now. And yes. Rasputin, Dusk, I'll find others to take shifts as well but until we know for sure the Morlocks will not be harmed, extra eyes are good." Regan's eyes linger on Kay, now, long and hard; when he hits the wall instead of Thea, though, the gaze shifts back to Thea with the faintest looser note to her posture. The covering on Thea's mouth vanishes again. Her hand tips in a sweep of allowance -- please, by all means. Thea winces when Kay shoves against her chest, and retreats a couple of steps down toward the door out, looking past Kay to address everyone. "Please, I'm sorry." Her voice is pleading, and sounds sincere. "I lost my temper when they shot Micah, but I would never sic the police on mutants. I was locked up /too/, ok? The Brotherhood are the only people who've ever helped me before." Thea glances down the stairs, and back up at everyone again. "Someone in the Morlocks murdered two of my oldest friends in cold blood, but I still wouldn't wish the NYPD on them. I don't even know who did it... And I- I didn't mean what I said before. I'm sorry. My people can protect those tunnels like no one else. Please let me help." "Yeah," Kay just as readily actually throws an arm around poor Thea's shoulders and /drags/ her back around, back into the room, "And the cops just killed /my/ fucking best friend. They shot her dead right in front of that god damn church. Christ, Briar was- But we can't /do/ it that way." His teeth are gritted, but not at Thea now. He releases her - pointing briefly at Rasputin and announcing, "/This guy/. I /like/ this guys." - and then striding back towards Ion, past Ion, clamping a hand on the other MC member's shoulder, squeezing it, moving on. Then wrapping his hands over the back of a table chair and compressing his weight down on it. "I can spell in the tunnels, too. The garage is probably already swarming with cops. No bikes, no headquarters. Do we know where Munch ended up?" "Went out the tunnels with everyone else," Dusk answers, "though I was, uh." His cheeks flush, briefly, twin spots of red in a /very/ pale face. "Not real conscious by the time we got out, I can't even remember getting to the Clinic. I don't know where people ended up that didn't need treating." His anger has subsided just as quickly with Thea's apology; he even reaches out a wing to brush lightly against her arm. "Cops shot my best friend, too," he says this with a crooked wry smile, "seems to be a rash of that around this city lately. And we can fight back -- we /are/ fighting back. But we start fighting each other and this is all gonna go to hell." Rasputin scratches hir head with hir paw, as Thea apologizes. "I accept your apology, Thea. But..how do you know it was a Morlock? I mean, from the rumors I've heard, there's all sorts of..things down in those sewers.". Ze then looks over to Kay, and smiles. "Thanks, you're pretty cool yourself.". Rasputin then turns to Dusk. "Cops shot uh..you? I think that's the best I can relate, sorry. But, I agree. If we fight each other, that makes us weak. We need to be strong for our cause, for all the mutants out there. I mean, we're all mutants here, aren't we?". "Whole houseful of freaks," Ion agrees with a fierce grin. He licks the last of the frosting off his hand before turning his attention to the squashed remainder of his donut. "S'good people here, I think. We need to be strong because one day, vato," his sharp grin turns on Rasputin, "one day the sanctuary we claim is going to be there for good." "We are, yes." Regan's lips twitch at Rasputin's comment, a nod accompanying the affirmation. She considers Thea a long moment, then tips her head in faint assent. "We'll need all the people we can get. The violence in the city itself hasn't entirely died down, either. In addition to patrolling the tunnels, we still need to watch the streets in the neighbourhoods where the attacks are worst." Her smile to Ion is small and quick. "One day, yes." Thea nearly jumps out of her skin when Kay throws an arm around her shoulder, but she steps back into the room with him, and just stands there for a moment, looking stunned. She nods sheepishly as each person accepts her apology in turn, and relates their own troubles as well. To Rasputin's question, she holds up a hand. "Two of my people escaped the attack, but that's not important right now." She turns and faces Regan, "I can canvas the tunnels day and night, working in shifts, but I wonder if it would create as much problem again, like you said before. If the cops see ants patrolling the sewers, they're going to work it out." She holds her hands out to her sides, open to suggestions. "We can always just ask 'em." Kay offers, kind of /brightly/ now even, behind his coffee cup, which he's returned to slurping. Aggressively. "And I mean, hell. The tunnels we got in Harlem - there any reason we /shouldn't/ just cave 'em back in? Or most of 'em?" "I asked them before. Could ask them again. But if we get to the cops in question it maybe won't matter. I'll get on that, yeah? And caving in the tunnels would probably be good either way, for when the church rubble's cleared up enough for them to search it and try to figure out what happened." Dusk returns to his perch on the arm of the chair, sipping very slowly at his hot coffee. "I'd do better in tunnels than outside, right now. Like this --" His good wing flares out wide and expansive. "I'd just /attract/ more trouble than I'd stop." Rasputin just lies there, listening, adding one thing. "You still haven't explained to me how the Morlocks were involved, Thea, but, alright, that's not important right now. I have nothing really else to add, though, to the subject at hand, apologies.". Ze nods hir head, and then lies back down, still watching and listening. "The cops spend a lot of time in the sewers usually? Think /keeping/ them from wanting to ever go down there is what we was aiming for." Ion shrugs a shoulder, polishing off the last of his donut. "What's important right now," he says after Rasputin, "is more fucking coffee. Cuz it sounds like we got a lot of work to do."