ArchivedLogs:Experience

Experience
Dramatis Personae Dusk, Skye	2017-05-30 "I've just been /waiting/ for someone to say that to me."
Location <NYC> Queens
Home to the New York Mets and thus a fierce rivalry among baseball fans, Queens is the largest of New York's boroughs in size, and the most ethnically diverse urban area in the worlds. Many of the different neighborhoods in Queens reflect that diversity, and the various cuisines found throughout often are in keeping with the traditional backgrounds of the residents there. The apartment building is on the shabby side, but this close to the commercial center of Flushing, the rent was probably astronomical before the zombie plagues struck. Now it plays host to an eclectic mix of lower-income residents, heavy enough in Chinese immigrants that most of the building's signage is bilingual. The apartment is impeccably clean and currently filled with the smell of cheap Chinese takeout. Skye is in the kitchen, fixing a large bowl of rice and eggplant with basil sauce. She looks recently showered, her hair still damp, and is wearing a denim miniskirt and a faded black t-shirt that says '++ungood'. There's a soft thump somewhere outside, heavy footsteps -- not by the door, though. It comes from a window leading out to the fire escape. For a moment outside the immediate view is a little eerie -- the viewpoint mostly shows an expanse of something rough-grey-stonelike, myriad palmprints imprinted across its surface like so many hands dragging the rockface down. Clearly /not/ actually stone, though; a moment later the scenery is shifting quite organically, folding itself in along long bony spars as wings shift and fold and resettle. Dusk shakes his wings slightly as he turns around -- the ventral side of his wings are warm and textured like cooling lava, cracks of bright molten hue showing through wide fissures in the cooling surface. Save for this -- small detail, the young man on the fire escape looks altogether drab. Scruffy tousled hair and three-day beard shadow, Vans sneakers and black jean shorts and a green v-neck tee. There's a learge messenger bag strapped across his chest, and -- taptaptap -- one sharp thumbclaw knocking at the window. Skye freezes in place when she hears the noise from the fire escape, ducking her head and then moving sideways, careful and quiet, until she can see the window. Her eyes go wide-wide when she sees first Dusk's wings, and then Dusk himself. She doesn't actually stop staring until he knocks, then she blinks and goes to the window, unlatching it and pushing it open. "You must be Dusk." She steps back, pushes some limp hair out of her face, smiles self consciously. "Uh, who're you looking for?" Dusk's wings press tighter, wrapping close against himself as he stoops to climb in through the window. "Hola." His smile is warm and easy, friendly despite the long sharp fangs that gleam behind his lips. "I have some books to drop off for Jiaying. Is she still --" One talon gestures across the apartment. "You Daisy, then?" "Yo." Skye looks a little more at ease once Dusk speaks, her smile less nervous. "Xie xie," she bows, glancing at the door to her mother's room. "Yeah, it's pretty bad this time, but at least she's still eating. You can bring them in, she might not respond but I'm sure she'll appreciate them." Her mouth pulls to one side, her eyebrows wrinkling. "Call me Skye. It's kind of weird that she still introduces me as that, she doesn't even call me Daisy, face to face. You hungry? I got takeout." "That's something, anyway. Yesterday it was only tea for a while. Thought the books might --" Dusk shrugs, toes his shoes off once he's stepped inside, unclipping his messenger back and dropping it beside his sneakers with a heavy thunk. He opens up the bag to extract -- another bag, this one a cheap reusable shopping bag heavy with books. "Skye. Got it. Um --" His tongue swipes briefly across his lips at the mention of food, a very slight flush tinging his pale cheeks. "What you got?" "I think it'll help," Skye says quietly. "Oh, and I know it wasn't just you, but...gracias. For getting them out. I looked for so long, I was afraid I'd never see my mom again." She blushes. "Anyway uh, I got basil eggplant, mapo tofu, kung pao chicken..." Frowning, she peers into the bag and roots around. "...um, shrimp toast and hot and sour soup. There's also toast, off-brand fruit loops and some kind of fakemilk if you're into that sort of thing. And some condiments?" Her smile is both embarrassed and apologetic. "I really should pick them up some groceries." The flush in Dusk's cheeks deepens. His head dips in acknowledgment of the thanks. "I'm glad you found her. Glad she found you. That -- it can't be a good feeling. Not knowing." He wanders closer to the counter, leaning up against it and eying the bag. "Oh man I could kill some ma po tofu." His wings drape downward, talons clicking softly against the ground. "You weren't in New York before, were you?" "Especially with her powers...it was easy to keep hoping she was alive." Skye takes a deep breath and adds, more quietly, "Or keep /fearing./" Her eyes follow his wings. "No, I was...kind of on an extended road trip, I guess." She pulls another bowl out of the drying rack and scoops some rice and mapo tofu into it. "You do chopsticks? Spoon? Fingers?" Dusk's lips press thin and hard at that quiet addition, wings shifting slightly behind him. "Whatever's clean." He looks down at his hands as if suddenly remembering -- straightening again, he circles around to the sink to wash them. "Road trip? Anything interesting come of it?" "Saw a lot of places, met a lot of people." Skye shrugs, watching Dusk's wings sidelong as he moves. "Got pretty good at troubleshooting my van." She pulls a spoon from the drying rack, sticks it in the bowl, and holds it until Dusk is done washing before presenting it with both hands. "You want something to drink? We have some tea, kinda flat coke, and previously mentioned fakemilk." "Gracias." Dusk takes the bowl carefully in damp hands, eyes lowering to it as he leans back against the counter. A low rumble sounds in his chest, and his first bite is hasty. "I'm -- I'm good. On drinks. I didn't come to mooch all their shit. How's New York treating you, then? You actually manage to find parking for it on the regular, because I'm pretty sure /that's/ gotta be a superpower in itself." "De nada." Skye picks up the first bowl that she had set aside and digs into it with chopsticks, half-leaning half-sitting on the table so she can face Dusk. "It's not mooching, you're a guest. New York is..." She tilts her head back, as if looking for the right word on the ceiling. "...an /experience./ Parking not too tough out here, or down some parts of Brooklyn. Manhattan is another story, but I'm learning the tricks." She tilts her head and frowns at Dusk. "You alright?" "Oh -- yeah, I'm good." Dusk shakes his head briefly, allowing a brief flick of a glance over to Skye before turning his attention back downward to his food. "An experience." His mouth twists up, a little wry. "No kidding. But if you survive it you can add hella new merits. Planning to stick around for a while?" Skye perks up and smiles wide again. "You roleplay?" She scoops some more food into her mouth and wrinkles her brows in thought as she chews. "Definitely for summer and fall, at least. Once it turns cold, I'll have to see about housing, but I do want to stay in the area." Her eyes flick over to her mother's bedroom door. "From time to time." Dusk's brows lift as he casts a brighter look to Skye. "What's your usual poison?" His eyes follow Skye's over to Jiaying's door. "If you need any leads for housing that's not /the/ most shitty and full of bigots, I could help point you in the right places to look." His brows crease slightly, though. "-- Where you staying now?" "Oh, wow..." Skye brushes some hair behind an ear. "That's tough, but I think it's gotta be Shadowrun. Since I went travelling, I've mostly been playing online, but since I'll be here for a while, I'd love to find a tabletop group I can physically hang out with." She laughs suddenly. "My priorities, though! I guess some pointers on housing would probably be good, too. I'm living in my van for now and mostly popping in here when I need a shower or a kitchen." "Hey you said you weren't looking for a place till winter so your priorities seem /squarely/ intact to me. You could have /months/ of gaming before housing becomes an issue." Dusk's grin is swift, over the top of his steadily-being-devoured bowl. "The van been safe enough so far? -- And you looking for a group, some friends and I were about to start a new Shadowrun campaign. And if you're ever looking for other-types of shit and just want a place for low-stress gaming hangouts my house has a game night, Tuesdays on the regular." "Not to mention months of avocado toast!" Skye nods sagely. "But yeah, I've gotten used to the van, with all its inconveniences. People try the doors occasionally, but nothing actually dangerous." Her eyes get wider and wider as Dusk speaks. "Oh man, I am so down to check out your group, and your campaign, /and/ your game night. I haven't had much of a social life offline for a while, though, and might disappear into my laptop from time to time." After a moment of thought she adds, "Not literally." This draws a low rumble of laughter, Dusk's wings briefly shaking with the sound. "Being relatively securely home'd myself just know that I am two hundred percent down to donate to the avocado toast fund for any of us out there trying to work on finding a roof." Polishing off the last of his food, he skirts over to the sink to wash the bowl out. "Not a problem. Like I said, low-stress. Nobody's gonna care if you're chilling on the couch with a laptop -- or disappear off to the quiet room for a while." He dries his hands on his shirt, slips a phone out of his pocket. "Where can I reach you? I'll send you the info." "You are a true Millennial hero. I have a big appetite and very little shame, so watch out." Skye snaps Dusk a small and definitely not properly military salute. She has not finished her food, but sets it aside to pull out her own phone. She taps and swipes on the screen, then opens a window in the back of the heavy, no-nonsense case. "Gracias! I can beam you, if you're into that." She waggles the phone, though lets him see the screen so he can just copy her contact info by hand if he choses. "I live constantly on the generosity of everyone around me so I can feel that." Dusk's smile quirks crooked at the waggling phone. "I've just been /waiting/ for someone to say that to me." He taps at his phone, first, then holds it up to the back of Skye's. Skye waggles her eyebrows and taps her screen again to transfer her contact card. "You should see the rest of my rig sometime." Once the information has been sent, she puts the phone away again. "Look forward to hanging out with you and your friends. And Shadowrunning!" "Yeah? Some time, I think I'd like that." Dusk slips his phone back into his pocket, wing stretching out in an open invitation. "Be seeing you around, then -- Do you hug?" Briefly offered before he heads for the fire escape window. He squeezes his wings carefully through it to take off again just the way he came. Skye blinks at Dusk's extended wing, not understanding the gesture until the question that comes with it. "Oh! Um, yeah, I do." She steps into the curve of the wing and wraps one arm around Dusk, looking a little unsure how to negotiate a hug with this many limbs. But when she pulls back she watches him go with a smile. "See ya."