ArchivedLogs:Official-Like

Official-Like
Dramatis Personae Dan, Mei
In Absentia	2013-06-05 '
Location <NYC> 201 {Dan} - Sunrise Apartments
Mei has been working pretty hard, on two things. One she's been studying English language books and watching TV to work on her English in general. She's gotten much better in a fairly short period of time. And the rest of her time has been spent playing with 'stuff' gotten for her by Dan. These items include an electronic scale, which really was meant to measure food but it works for her purposes, she doesn't need something super science-y. The other are small samples of 'stuff'. In particular she's been playing with sugar cubes lately, that and some magnets she asked him to get. She basically has been weighing each item, turning it to gold then re-weighing it and making a lot of notes in a note book, mostly complex numbers and Chinese notes, making it really rather impossible to follow. She's busy with this even though it's a Wednesday night, the TV on in the back ground as she waits for Dan to get home. Dan is not working at Molly's tonight, even though he's dressed for it in jeans and his white tank undershirt. Frank has generously given him the night off, mostly because the pub is being fumigated for whatever those multi-legged furry things in the back room were. So, he's home at a (reasonably) early hour, rattling the key in the lock before he slaps the wood and steps back to wait for Mei to open up, chewing at the cigar in his mouth. He has a couple of plastic bags in one hand, one with what appears to be second-hand text books, and the other containing a paper bag that smells of glorious Chinese food. He might actually be /humming/. What does one do with little cubes of sugar converted into gold? I mean, they crumble so you could fake gold dust, right? Maybe? Or is it a solid lump? Nope, solid. These are the things Mei is testing among other things. She's also worked on the basic tests to see what percentage of purity the gold is, which is a surprisingly simple test. When Dan gives the sign Mei hurries to open the door, baseball bat in hand of course, as she checks through the peephole then opens the door with the chain on it to make sure Dan is alone then opens the door completely for him, as she has been told to do. She grins, "Welcome home Dan!" She says cheerfully. Her science stuff still taking over about half of the kitchen table. Dan nods when Mei opens the door a crack, content in this ritual that keeps a level of safety around the kid. When she opens the door, he lifts one side of his mouth in a smile and pushes through the door. "Hey, kid," he rumbles, reaching out to ruffle a hand through Mei's hair. "You have a good day?" He keeps moving, on into the kitchen and nodding at the table. "Science time is over," he says with the tone of a Parent. "Clean off the table so we can eat dinner." He pauses, then, to look at the lumps of gold on the table, and his mouth presses into a thoughtful line as he moves to put the bags on the counter. "You're not making a lot of those, are you?" Mei looks at the science stuff then grins, "Yep, I am, but...." She hesitates then looks at one of the lumps of... well, gold but it used to be a sugar cube. "Wanna see?" She picks up the sugar-cube slash gold lump and holds it over a glass that has some water in it, maybe an inch. "I learned a new trick!" She says, as she concentrates and... well, the lump just kind of disolves... suddenly what appears to be water dripping from her fingers into the glass. "See? I can turn things into water!!" She says with some huge amount of pride. "So I can get rid of them without any trouble now!" She adds as she starts to clean up a bit. As she cleans up Mei keeps talking, "I got the idea from you. You kinda asked if I could turn things into something other than gold, and I started to think about it. I tried to.. um, think? With my um, mind-eye thing? I tried really hard to think of water, cause that's just two hydrogen and one oxygen in a simple... um, not puzzle, uh, pattern! Yeah, in a simple pattern, and water is a loose kind. So... I think hard and poof, water!" She says as she pours the sugar turned gold turned water down the sink as part of cleaning up, "Neat, huh?" She says, "So far just water, but maybe I can do more if I can think out more... stuff?" She says hopefully, quickly putting away all the bits of her science experiment, "Still not sure where the extra heavy stuff comes from. The 'mass'." She says, having had a chance to look up the right word in the dictionary Dan got her. Dan looks wary at the mention of a new trick, and he watches the demonstration with a furrowed brow. It /un/furrows when Mei turns the lump of gold into water, and he blinks in amazement. "Holy shit, kid," he says, blinking a bit more. "That -- is fucking handy. You figured that out today?" A question she's immediately answering, and he listens as he unpacks the food. He nods as she explains, and wrinkles his nose. "Well, I told you I ain't no scientist or nothin', but it seems to me that making something with two elements has got to be harder than doin' something with one, like gold." He frowns as he pulls out a box of egg rolls and puts it on the counter. "Could you just make the cubes oxygen?" he wonders as he unpacks a goldfish box that smells of freshly-made lo mein, followed by two styrofoam containers that smell equally tantalizing. "If you could do that, you wouldn't even have to worry about the water. Just – poof." Mei looks at Dan for a moment, with a rather dumbfounded look. "I... I don't know why I didn't think of that." She admits sheepishly, "That probably would be lots easier. I just was drinking some water and... was thinking of it, but it was really hard the first few times. I bet something like Oxygen would be lots easier." She says as she shakes her head, perhaps disappointed she didn't think of it first. "But, the first time I make something it's like... trying to figure it out. So... I couldn't do it now. I'd have to spend time working on it. Once I figure it out it seems not /too/ hard, on small things." She tries to explain. Then the food gets her attention and she sniffs curiously and grins, "Lots safer working with stuff that's not gold. Not hard to make go away, just down the sink. Only... gold is nice too cause we can sell some. But not good to trying things." Her English definately is not perfect yet but certainly has improved lots since Dan first met her. Mei goes to wash her hands and get the table set and all that good stuff, clearly eager to eat. Dan grins, and shakes his head as he pulls out a final styrofoam container and puts it on top of the others. "Don't sweat it, kid. Figuring out the water thing was a pretty fuckin' smart thing on its own. Now you just got a new thing for that super brain to chew on." He rumbles a chuckle, and moves to put the styrofoam containers on the table, eventually returning for the eggrolls and to dig out a couple of serving spoons from a drawer. "You need someone who can help you work on that stuff," he says with a small furrow of his brow as he returns to the table. "Someone who's good with this kind of stuff. It's way beyond my pay grade." He grins, and nods at the fridge. "Grab us some drinks, yeah?" He leans over and opens the containers, revealing one to be kung pao chicken, and the other to be sweet and sour chicken. The last is filled with delicately-cooked white rice dotted with green flecks of parsley. "Actually, I wanted to talk to you," he says as he puts spoons in the various dishes. "About selling some gold. For a thing." Mei goes and gets drinks, herself a soda, and Dan whatever he usually drinks at dinner. She gets anything else she might be normally expected to get then returns to the table, and puts the drinks down. She pauses then tilts her head, "What do you need Dan? You know I'd make any gold you need. You've been real good to me here and.... and I like being here with you. I like it... here. I dunno..." She hesitates, seeming unsure, "I mean... um, yeah, but..." She stumbles a bit over her words perhaps due to the emotional weight in admitting she likes staying at Dan's. She looks down and sits, "Um, but I'd make any gold you need. Just might take a bit if you wanted a /lot/ of gold. If I change too much too fast it gets me tired." Dan is a beer drinker, with his meal, and there's usually a six-pack cold that Mei's more than familiar with. He quirks a small grin at her assurances, and holds up a hand. "I like havin' you around too, kid. But I don't need the gold for me," he says with a shake of his head. "I need it for you." He frowns, and picks up his beer, tipping it to his lips. "What I mean is...you're gonna have to have papers, at some point. Like, official-type papers. And I know a guy who can get 'em, but he ain't cheap." He wrinkles his nose. "But for school, and stuff, if you want to go. They need shit like that." He waves his beer bottle at the food, distractedly. "Eat." There's another long pull at his beer before he speaks again, in a way-too-casual voice. "So, I was thinking we'd get you a birth certificate, a social security number, adoption papers...stuff that puts you here legally, and tells folks you're one of my kids." There's some hesitation from Mei, as if she's not entirely sure she heard Dan right. She looks up after a moment, a hopeful look on her face, "R... really? You'd... you'd do that? You'd... adopt me?" She says her voice just aching with hope, trying not to seem too eager but failing. "I... yes! I mean... if... if you'll... I mean, I know you have a daughter already and everything but... I don't even know if my real dad is alive anymore, and you've been really good taking care of me and all and..." She trails off. She clearly doesn't know what to say, and has this goofy grin on her face even as she reaches up to wipe away what might be the start of a tear. Dan rolls his eyes, scrunching his nose. "What am I gonna do, kid? Send you off to live with strangers, who'd probably use you like some kind of fuckin' golden goose?" He waves a hand at the door. "Hand you over to Murphy, who's crazy as a shit-house rat?" He shakes his head. "Nah. You've been living here a while, and you know the score." He sets down his beer. "I can protect my daughters better than I can some kid off the street," he says, looking at the label on his bottle. "And I like havin' you around. Colleen will love you, I know. Especially if you watch My Little Pony with her." He grins, and leans forward to reach across the table to follow her fingers with his thumb, cupping her jaw gently and warmly. "But I gotta warn you -- you're gonna get a shitload of family beyond me and her. There are a fuckload of Rourkes." Mei looks a tad confused as to just what unit of measure a 'fuckload' is but the general reaction is highly positive as she grins and nods to Dan, "No send me off, no strangers." She says firmly. "Murphy is nuts!" She must have picked up that little bit of slang from the TV. "I'll be your daughter then. I'll be like Colleen's older sister!" She says, clearly liking that idea, "Never had a brother or sister." She actually reaches for some of the food before it gets cold but nods to Dan, "We will be family, and it will be good." She says firmly, as if that settles the matter. Then she thinks a moment, "Alex be family too, yes?" She ventures. Dan nods. "Murphy is /fuckin'/ nuts," he corrects the girl, wagging a finger. "Do not get into a car with Murphy." More Parental voice with that edict, and the set of his mouth says he is being Serious. It doesn't last long, when Mei agrees, and mentions being a big sister to Colleen. His eyes crinkle. "Yeah, you should be a good big sister to her. She's gonna have a rough time of things. She'll need a tough chick like you watchin' her back." He chuckles, and reaches for the container that Mei isn't serving herself from. "It'll be good," he agrees with a bob of his head. The question gets a coughing sort of sputter, and Dan frowns at Mei. "I don't know, kid. Maybe someday. It's still early to think about that, though. Let's say for now she is, okay?" He colors a bit, his gaze going hard and thoughtful as he looks past Mei. Then he visibly shakes himself. "Okay. That's enough sappy stuff at dinner time," he decrees. "I don't know how we always end up here, but for the next week, we're savin' the syrup for breakfast." He points with the spoon at the containers. "Eat your dinner."