ArchivedLogs:Gauche

Gauche
Dramatis Personae Desi, Mai, Shane
In Absentia	2017-01-02 "Poor choice of words."
Location <NYC> Chinatown
One of New York's oldest neighborhoods and the oldest Chinese enclave outside of Asia, Chinatown is a vibrant ethnic community, which draws throngs of tourists annually as well. This neighborhood is packed with Chinese-owned businesses, from restaurants to groceries to theaters to fashion. The nighttime weather has finally taken a turn back for the cold. Cloudy, damp, unpleasant; it's not stopping Shane from lingering /outside/ a small restaurant with a very large container of dumplings. The restaurant itself looks warm and inviting! But out here he is, huddled under an awning in a crisp peacoat (unbuttoned over neat mandarin-collar black and silver dress shirt) and black slacks, munching on "... best goddamn dumplings outside of Queens," he's grumbling... kiiiind of guiltily. Really guiltily. Dipping one into its container of sauce and shoving it into his toothy maw before offering the container to his companion. Mai is walking along the street, hands tucked into the pockets of her leather jacket, which has been fully zipped up to fend off the cold just a bit more, though it does not help much when it comes to her mostly exposed legs, but as long as she is walking that wont be much of an issue, keep moving and the blood keeps circulating and they wont go all numb. She is just returning back home from her 'date' in the central park, but it really is not at all uncommon to see her walking on the streets in this part of the city as she both lives and works in Chinatown. She gives a brief glance towards the restaurant, likely one of the few businesses in the near vicinity that is actually open at this hour, she remembers having been there regularly with her parents, but lately, she has rarely had enough spare money to visit restaurants. She does also manage to notice the, fairly hard to miss, figure of Shane standing outside the restaurant, or... at least she -thinks- it is Shane, but her recent encounter with B makes her not sure... who knows how many of them there are around?! Beside Shane, Desi is wearing a pale green dress with an emerald satin corset under a lavender suede coat. Her scarf is a flimsy affair of dark purple gauze, speckled with silver, likewise her matching gloves, but the purple ombre watchcap on her head and the tall brown boots on her feet, at least, are a concessions to the chill. She receives the container and hums her agreement through a mouthful of food. "Worth it," she assures Shane quietly, once she'd chewed and swallowed, passing the dumplings back. Her eyes flick up to Mai as she nears, but do not linger, skipping to other figures walking on the street in constant appraisal. "When are you off next? Did you know there's this gorgeous skating rink down in Clove Lakes Park? I mean okay /Staten Island/ but maybe before school eats B again we could --" Shane breaks off with a small sniff at the air. Sniff, sniff, sniff. Though he isn't looking in Mai's direction, his shoulders sag. His next bite of dumpling is FIERCE. Mai makes her way over to the pair, well mostly because she was going to that way anyway, to be honest, but still, not recognizing the person who is with Shane, but assumes they are a mutant as well because, well Shane kind of gave the kind of impression last time that he would mainly hang out with other mutants. She is fairly certain it actually is Shane this time, as the outfit matches quite well to what Shane was wearing in Evolve. She offers a friendly smile towards the pair with hand lifting up to tip a non-existant hat in greeting. "Good evening. I hope you had a great new year?" "Oh! I don't think I've been to that one." Desi draws a slim smartphone from a pocket of her coat and consults a very colorful, very busy calendar. "I'm free most of Saturday...could also do Wednesday evening, if you wouldn't mind Alice tagging along." She tilts her head thoughtfully, turning off the screen. "You know, I'm not certain she knows how to skate!" There's more intrigue than disappointment or incredulity in this last. At the shift in Shane's posture, she looks back at Mai. Just in time to catch the invisible hat tip. Her lips press together and her free hand lifts to rest on Shane's back, just between the shoulder blades, a comforting pressure. "It was lovely, {thank you.}" The last word is in French. "And yours as well, I trust." Shane's gills flutter rapidly at the tip of the imaginary hat; one pair of clear nictitating membranes blinks rapidly shut across his eyes, his shoulders tensing minutely -- hard to see, but easy to feel beneath Desi's hand. His tongue swipes across his sharp teeth, licking away soy sauce still clinging to his gums. "This is the person who came into Evolve and harassed Taylor about his gross arms," he tells Desi, somewhat offhand. "Thankfully our New Year's party was /refreshingly/ free of anyone insulting my staff, glad you asked." His tone is dryyyyy. Dry, dry, dry. Mai listens to Desi's reply, not really fluent in French, but the specific word for thank you is one that most people probably recognize even without knowing much else of the language. "Oh yes, I went to Times square with a friend, the amount of people there was -insane.- We even got interviewed by some tv people." She explains happily, then goes more serious when Shane brings up -that- topic, well at least now she is SURE that it really is Shane. "I do realize that we did not exactly start on the right foot, and I apologize for it. It was a misunderstanding that got way out of hand. But, please, could we put that behind? I tried to apologize earlier... but then after doing so, I found out that it wasn't actually you... that was awkward. Anyways, I assure you that I did not mean anything malicious, I was just startled and... it was... very unfortunate choice of words. I am pretty new with this whole being a mutant thing, and still figuring things out, Paige is being huge help in that... just give me a chance, please?" "Ah." Desi nods, examining Mai more closely now. "Is that so?" Also dry. "I'm sure we can find somewhere better to enjoy our snack." She tucks her phone away and straightens up, quite ready to leave on the spot. At Mai's reply, she looks back at the girl, raising one eyebrow. Then the other. Then both, higher. "{Is there a /reason/ she's still talking?}" this is entirely in French, to Shane. Then, in English again, though still more to Shane than Mai, "It's certainly a very /involved/ startle reflex! Complaining to someone's manager because they wouldn't stand there and take their insults like a good servant." She tsks, shaking her head. Shane is standing. Patiently. Nibbling on a dumpling, offering the box up to Desi. Nibble, nibble, nibble. His gills open and close slowly as Mai speaks; there's a quiet hum in his throat. "Extended startle reflex, maybe? She seems to get those around freaks." His answering French is mild. He licks one long black claw clean when his dumpling is gone, dropping glibly back into English. "You called his manager out to try and get him in trouble, then lied to me about him harassing you. Then characterized him as aggressive when he'd done nothing aggressive whatsoever except, I guess, /exist/ while looking inhuman at you. /I'd/ say that's pretty out of hand." Mai sighs as it seems like everything she said is being completely ignored. "Please... I am serious. I did not lie about anything. I was hoping we could just forget that whole unfortunate incident happened and try with a fresh start. But if you insist, I can recount you exactly what happened. First, he started reading my thoughts, and responding to those out loud, which was rather startling, and right after that showing those tentacles, to which I replied that they were cool, but gross, by which I meant only that they weren't my thing, it was a poor choice of words, and I apologize for that. Then he started calling me a bigot, and calling Paige a freak, which made me angry, because, just like you, I do not appreciate my friends being insulted, that is when I asked to speak with you." She recounts the events in question. Taking a deep breath then. "I made a mistake, I admit it, and I apologize for it, and wish that we could just let it to rest, and try a fresh start. I learned the lesson and wont do that mistake again. There is plenty enough people out there hating us mutants without us needing to hate each other too." Desi lifts one thin-gloved hand to touch her cheek, her expression inscrutable. "{She's /still/ talking!}" There's a note of bored amazement in her voice. "I'd say you have an /interesting/ take on the sequence of events if it were in the least interesting," she finally address Mai directly again, "but it is not. You could at least /decide/ whether you want to rationalize or apologize, but trying to both--and poorly, at that--is just gauche." The hand at Shane's back rubs a slow circle, then hooks around his other shoulder. "{Come. There's no use wasting your breath on this one.}" "You know he's a telepath, right? You do know I /saw/ the entire exchange? Both from his memory and later, straight-up on the security cameras?" Shane's eyes are wide -- very wide indeed, enormous black pools that fairly dominate his face. His weight leans back gently into Desi's rubbing, his eyes slooowly closing. 'Poor choice of words,' he mouths to Desi, when he opens them. "I'll send you the security footage," he offers lightly. "Maybe it'll help you learn to make new and /different/ mistakes! I got faith." He turns away from Mai, his arm slinging low around the small of Desi's back.