ArchivedLogs:Being Angry

Being Angry
Dramatis Personae Anette, B
In Absentia	2014-08-11 '
Location <NYC> BoM Safehouse - 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 early -- morning, not quite a proper /work/ hour yet. Around the safehouse things are as sleepy as they ever get, most of the current occupants still dozing -- there's few enough people who live here /and/ have jobs to get to on regular schedules. The front door is pushed open kind of tentatively, a tiny blue face peeking in before one very small sharkpup creeps quietly inside. B is wide-eyed, toting a backpack and a large suitcase; the teenager is dressed in black jeans and a purple-and-silver tank top, gills slowly fluttering at the sides of hir neck as ze looks around uncertainly. Closes the door behind hir, and sneaks off to a corner to deposit hir things somewhere out of the way. Indeed, it's quiet. So quiet that the owl girl who apparently was up last night watching TV dozed off and still hasn't woken up. Anette is still sitting on the couch, leaning back with her eyes closed and her wings spread out against the back. The TV remote still dangles loosely from her hand though either she turned it off before she dozed off or it was on a timer as it's no longer on. Despite B's attempts to be quiet, she does slowly drift awake, sitting up with a groan. "Wherram I?" she grumbles, clearly not a morning person as she takes a moment to fully regain her senses. B starts, black eyes opening even wider and hir head ducking sheepishly. "Um." At first that's hir only answer, blue cheeks tinting nearly purple with a sudden blush and hir fingers curling tight around the straps of hir backpack. "The -- living room?" Anette turns her head towards the unfamiliar voice, blinking a few times to clearly see you. "Oh...sorry. Don't usually spend time here. Just came here last night and...ended up passing out. Sorry, anything I can help with?" she asks, standing up and stretching her limbs back to life, wings included. She's still wearing yesterday's clothes, jeans and a tanktop with the back cut out for her wings. Her usual jacket is draped over a nearby chair and her hair is a frizzy mess. But it's too early to care. The fluttering of B's gills slowly subsides, hir eyes skating over frizzy hair and wings before ze manages a tentative smile. "I just, um. I needed a place to stay for a bit? And I. I've only really been here for Fight Club but Dusk said that. That they let people like us. Stay. Here. If we need. My place is kind of -- kind of --" Hir shoulders droop a little bit, sharp teeth dragging slowly over hir lower lip. "Terrible right now." Anette wipes some loose strands of hair from her face. "Yeah...yeah, they can do that. I don't know the specifics but...I doubt they'll turn you away." She makes her way towards the kitchen and begins making a pot of coffee, extra strong. "I'm sorry to hear...what's wrong, if you don't mind me asking?" "Oh. Good." B relaxes further at this small assurance, trailing after Anette towards the kitchen. Hir nose quivers at the smell of the coffee beans, smile returning briefly then fading away. "I know I'm just going to sound like a whiny teenager but my parents kind of don't --" Hir blush deepens /fiercely/ before ze manages the next word, tiny and self-conscious: "... understand." Ze rushes hastily into the follow-up explanation: "They invited this sort of horrible person into our home and it doesn't really feel safe there, you know? Not like I'm going to get /attacked/ or anything, just like. Living with someone who hurt a /lot/ of mutants isn't very. Comfortable." Anette offers a brief smile. "Most of us have been there. My parents shipped me off to Xavier's school once the wings grew. I think they tried to be supportive but it was pretty obvious they had no idea what to do. We talk but I haven't seen them in ages." She waits for the pot to fill with mediocre coffee. "Sometimes all you need is a place to remember you're not alone." She suddenly pauses and turns to hir with a frown. "Who did they let move in?" "It's just. It's hard. They're really great in a lot of -- ways, you know? I mean I /know/ they're supportive, they just don't." B presses hir lips together, slumping against the counter with elbows propped on top of it. "Maybe they're /too/ supportive. Like it's their /job/ to save /every/ single person and they don't really stop to think how it affects..." Ze trails off, head shaking quickly. "That woman from Themis House. Like I /get/ that they hurt her, you know? I lived through Prometheus. I was the first mutant Prometheus ever /had/. I /grew up/ in Prometheus, I /know/ how it messes with your head. But she knew. She knew what they were doing and she lied to everyone about it and she tried to -- to /feed/ us bits of other mutants. Bits of my /friend/." Anette grits her teeth and turns away. "I'm...I'm sorry," she says, reaching in the cabinet for mugs. She sets one down on the table and pours herself coffee with the other. "This whole thing is a mess...how could it have gone on as long as it did?" She takes a sip of the coffee, drinking it black without any cream or sugar. "Every time I hear about it, I just want to rip somebody's throat out. Nobody deserves what they've been doing. Especially mutants." B glances to the extra mug, hesitating a moment and only belatedly realizing it's meant for /hir/. With a brighter smile ze skitters over to fill it, adding sugar but leaving it unmilked. "I don't blame you." Hir voice drops quieter, gills fluttering again and hir tone a little guilty with the admission: "... I want to rip their throats out a lot of the time, too." Anette certainly doesn't stop B from pouring hirself a mug of coffee. "Despite what Xavier's tells you - you were a student, right? - despite what they tell you, not everything can be solved by sitting around talking. Fighting fire with fire has its moments and if taking care of Prometheus isn't it, then I don't know what is. And nobody could blame you if you...reacted to everything. You certainly have more reason to than me." B bobs hir head in a nod, webbed fingers curling around the mug. "I'm a student, yeah. My pa teaches there -- and I mean, he's. He's /great/, don't -- get me wrong, he's saved more people from Prometheus than -- he's nearly died at it so many times. It's just. Sometimes he." Hir gills flutter again, shoulders tightening. "I don't think he'd get it, exactly." Hir cheeks darken further, black claws extending slowly to stretch out long. "You don't win every war with /kindness/." Anette suddenly offers B a brief grin. "I like you. Not many people understand that." She downs a bit more of her coffee. "Kindness can only get you so far. Some people just don't listen to kindness and there's only so many ways to handle it. You...you seem like you're handling it well though. And if you need anything, let me know. Or anyone else here, really." She makes her way over to the nearest chair and sits down, setting her coffee down on the table beside her. "So, how long are you looking to stay somewhere else?" B blows at hir coffee, then takes a long drink. "I don't know. Until that woman is gone from my home, for sure. I'd say until it feels like home again but I don't really know if it ever will." There's a small delay, but then ze returns Anette's grin -- shyly at first, like ze's self-conscious of the sharp teeth that flash behind hir lips. "Thanks, too. It's nice to -- it's hard to talk sometimes. People don't always get --" Hir nose crinkles. "Being angry." Anette frowns slightly. "Well, my place isn't the most luxurious but it's got a couch. If this place gets too crowded, I can offer you some room." She shrugs slightly. "If you want." She shakes her head. "You know...I keep hearing about everything Prometheus has been doing, but what have people been doing in response? I know the raids but...is that it? Oh, and something about them finally getting arrested. Big surprise it took as long as it did." There's a little bit of /straightening/ to B's posture, a small note of pride in hir voice as she admits: "The documents from the lab that are getting people arrested, me and Dusk kind of. Were the ones who got those. I built the drones that he used to hack into their systems on that last raid." Ze hides hir smile in another swig of coffee. "I don't know what's /left/ to be done now. I think the whole project is going down. But. I still don't know what's going to happen to the mutants in there. And jail's kind of too /good/ for the people who were in charge." Anette smiles, almost with a sense of pride. "Very nicely done. Well...that's good to hear. I'm almost sad I wasn't a part of this but, well, it's probably for the better anyway. You're right is too damn good. Still, at least it's going down." She frowns slightly, looking down to her coffee. "That's a good point about the mutants. What's going to happen to them? I'm sure some will be...alright, but I doubt all of them will make it out...ah, completley intact. Combined with powers and...this is going to be interesting." "People tend to come out of there pretty broken," B answers quietly, gulping at the coffee again. "They're going to need a lot of help." Ze glances around the kitchen, thoughtful. "... probably going to have a lot of anger. Maybe need somewhere to /put/ it." Ze drains the last of the coffee, moving conscientiously to the sink to wash the mug and tip it up onto the drying rack. "I don't know. They're gonna need friends." Hir hand rubs against hir neck, pressing down at the gills that flutter there. "I should get to work." Ze sounds a little apologetic about this. "But I -- thank you. For talking to me. I'll -- maybe see you around here? Or down the street, my brother runs Evolve." Hir smile reappears, a little bit less self-conscious this time. "Maybe I'll get you a /better/ coffee." Anette nods. "Well, just the next stop in the process of taking Prometheus down I guess." Anette finishes her coffee and sets the empty mug down in front of her. "Friends. Yeah, I suppose that's the first step." As B excuses hirself, Anette smiles faintly. "Yeah, I should head home and get some real sleep. Again, anything you need anything at all, let me know." She laughs a bit at the offer for coffee. "Like that's going to be difficult." B giggles at that last comment, drying hir palms against hir jeans. "Thank you. I hope you get some good sleep." Hir small smile remains in place as ze scurries back out of the kitchen, nabbing hir backpack en route to the door.