ArchivedLogs:Remembering

Remembering
Dramatis Personae Hive, Melinda
In Absentia	2013-12-23 '
Location <NYC> Montagues - SoHo
Montagues harkens back to the day when SoHo was filled to the brim with artists, with its mismatched furniture, all plush and decorated heavily with carved wood, but remains trendy enough to keep its newer patrons by making sure that furniture is clean, in good repair and inviting. The antique tables all have been reinforced to seem less creaky. The real draw of the cafe is the smell: fresh roasted coffee mingles with perfectly steeped teas. Spices from crisp pastries mingle with the tang of clotted cream but don't overwhelm too much the scent of chalk on the menu boards. It's not quite lunchtime, a bit after the rush that this tends to bring. Hive is a distinct /un/fan of mornings, though, so it's probably no surprise that /he's/ only just now rolling in for his -- wake-up caffeination. He's dressed as he usually is. SORT OF scrubby. Jeans, tattered old sneakers, a blue Grumpy Bear hoodie worn over a t-shirt of Zelda's Link sitting on the Iron Throne in Eddard Stark pose. His hair has gotten far longer than its usual shaggy mop, pulled back now into a short ponytail at the base of his neck. His hands are in his pockets, a habitual slouch to his posture. He makes his way towards the front with eyes heavily half-lidded and an unpleasant wince on his features as the myriad mental thought-streams of a busy city street wash over him. Staffing Montague's has been tricky as of late. A percentage of the staff was removed during the horrific events in November, leading a couple others to leave such a densely populated place as New York once the crisis was over. There is a glut of people out and around the city that need jobs now, what with some businesses closing down completely, but the fact that there are so many job openings out there has made retaining employees a little more difficult. Melinda is looking to do more interviews today after receiving someone's two week notice - Nancy has finally landed her dream job, now that all other previously qualified people have died or moved on. As one of Mel's first hires after the crisis, the manager is discouraged by the turn over. She is on duty at the counter, drifting between the register and the espresso machine in the quieter times, keeping things moving while the staff heads out to clean up after the breakfast rush. She is dressed in black and white, but the skirt she's wearing today is elastic waistbanded and something she swore she'd never wear again after losing her freshman fifteen. Her shirt fits a little more snuggly now, the return to more readily available, healthier food has put a little more weight on her form, most noticeably in her chest, showing the hints of cleavage where the top usually covers up. Over the top, she's wrapped a warm sweater that almost looks like a bathrobe. It's warm enough that Mel doesn't really need the sweater, but she keeps it pulled around her to fight off a chill. All of her thoughts quiet a little when she spots Hive approaching the counter, a warm smile follows, with a small question mark forming in her mind as she considers what drink he could want before he asks for it. "Hey, you. Is it raining out there yet?" "On and off." Hive's hands don't leave the pockets of his sweatshirt. He stops at the counter, one toe thudding against his opposite heel. "Not now though. Thank God. Heading to /work/, weird, huh. You don't still have breakfast do you?" At. Like. Three in the afternoon. He can hope though. "M'not awake yet can you give me all your caffeine?" He looks up to Melinda and -- doesn't /quite/ manage a smile, his expression still sleepy, but he does look less /surly/ than usual. Melinda pushes a small bowl of chocolate covered espresso beans out from behind the register in Hive's direction to start the 'all the caffeine' process. "How would you like your caffeine? Coffee, Tea, or Matte? And sure. I can get someone to make you up a breakfast sandwich. Did you want meat in it, or were you focusing on egg and cheese?" She lets out a little sigh and casts a glance over toward the kitchen and makes a mental checklist of who is free to cook up the egg portion. "This isn't your break? You're going to make me jealous with your ability to sleep past 4am and still keep a job." "Ohgodthanks." Hive grabs a small handful of beans to crunch them down. "Just coffee. Stroooong coffee. Black. Mnh. Egg and cheese, no meat. A bagel or -- croissant maybe, you have those?" He peers down at the display case. The comment on his schedule does draw a smile, hooking up lopsidedly at one side of his face. "Nah. Haven't started yet. S'the good thing about owning my own -- whatever, nobody can tell me when to start." He leans in to the counter to confide: "The bad thing about it is I don't get paid yet. Have to make money first for /that/." Melinda nods and punches a couple things into the register, then applies her manager's discount in the light of Hive's mention of not getting paid yet. She then hits the total and asks for the sum. She's distracted, already flagging someone over to prep the croissantwich while she makes a double red eye. "Well, I guess there are pitfalls to the pleasures of self employment. I'm kind of glad I haven't quite made the leap yet. Can you imagine me trying to get a roastery off the ground while zombies were coming out of all of the alleys?" She shakes her head and starts the espresso machine to pumping out the necessary shots for her friend's drink. "That'd be kind of hellish," Hive agrees. "Trying to do muchof anything through all that would have been kind of hellish." He digs his wallet out of his pocket, peering at the two singles that are all it holds and then turning his bank card over to pay with. "You still considering it, though?" He presses his mouth hard shut to stifle a yawn, shaking his head. "Didn't just come here to caffeinate though I need to talk to you. Or. Mess with your head. /And/ talk to you. When's your lease up?" Sandwich ordered, Melinda dumps the espresso into a larger cup, which she then fills with more coffee from the carafes on the wall behind her, the standard 'joe' swirling around the espresso and diluting it - or strengthening the coffee, whichever way pleases the customer to think about it. She draws in a deep breath when Hive poses the question, a quick litany of her pros and cons on the topic. She turns around and presents him with the cup, taking his card and swiping it as she organizes her thoughts. "Hey, Renee? I need a break. You mind?" Mel doesn't precisely give the woman a chance to object as she hands Hive his card back and takes him around to where the counter breaks. "Come on. We'll use my office." << I want to get out quite as much customer service and I would love to have a less front facing store so that I could hire more mutants and provide them with a more safe environment to work in. So yes. When things are a little more new business friendly. >> Hive takes the cup, lifting it immediately to take a sip -- a move which he immediately regrets, as evidenced by his hiss at the sudden burning of his tongue. He scowls down at his cup, but slouches his way around the corner. "We're all getting evicted, did you hear?" He sniffs at the coffee wistfully, but this time waits. << That'd be good. It's going to be /pretty/ shitty for us on the job market once registration hits. So what just like a coffee distribution instead of a cafe? >> His voice is back to its usual, a sharp stabbing /attack/ of mental energy. Melinda cringes at the fresh cut of Hive's words, but keeps moving, past the kitchen where his eggs are being gently cooked into an omelette for his sandwich. "Just bring that to me when it's done," she asks in passing, her voice a little thinner. << Right now? Fuck serving people face to face. I am so tired and so worn down by everything's that happened, I just want a customer service free environment for a while. >> Her thoughts are permeated with a discomfort that she can't put her finger on, but regards as temporary, at least. << We can reevaluate and expand if it shows to be a good idea. Until then, a tasting room. We'll see how much use it gets. >> Melinda's mind is utterly derailed when Hive mentions being evicted, stunned silence following, her words reappear soon after, covering up their simultaneous thoughts. "Evicted? When? On what grounds?" Soon she opens the door to the office, lets him in, and then closes it after. "Yeah, I hear you. I mean, can you imagine /me/ doing customer service? All your customers'd be gone in no time flat." Hive only answers once they're inside the office with the door closed, slumping down into a chair and lifting his coffee close to his face to evaluate its heat again. "Pretty much 'fuck people' is my general attitude." He shrugs a shoulder at the question. "Being mutants," he gives in bland reply. "Thinking of all gathering together to /buy/ a place. Or many places. Some hippie bullshit idea Jax and Micah have --" His head shakes, and he examines Melinda's face thoughtfully. "S'a lot of us getting evicted. Them too. And everyone in their apartment." "I don't think that's legal, but I don't know if that matters." Melinda grumbles and gives a soft groan as she settles herself into a chair. She takes a deep breath and settles, resting her arms on the desk in front of her. There are two more chairs in the tiny office, but it still gives a feeling of being cramped. There are also no windows. "As for your previous question: My lease is up in April. I'm guessing you're inviting me in on this buying a place deal? Seems the best thing for you guys." "Complicated. It's totally legal to discriminate for being a mutant, but probably not legal to break a lease after the fact over it? So -- not sure. Only got the notices over the weekend. Still gotta look into the legal shit." Hive shrugs, fingers drumming against his cup. "Jax and Micah were talking about buying property, starting some kind of -- co-op or cohousing or some shit. Buy up a /block/ of homes, people have their own spaces but then maybe some shared common space. A garden. Something /ours/." He shrugs a shoulder, looking up towards the ceiling. "And yeah, I'm inviting you in on it. If you're interested /and/ if we manage to find suitable property. Maybe if we can find a group of homes in need of fixing up, that'd be the cheapest." Melinda definitely mean the portion about the lease and mentally latches on to it when Hive verbalizes. Her work with the homeless tends to leave her very well versed in housing issues, but if they passed something new, she might have missed it. Shit's been crazy and she hasn't read all the documentation that's come up with the announcement about Mutant Registration. She tries to school her thoughts away from registration to actual legitimate housing as Hive continues talking drawing a deep breath to center herself again. "Well. That sounds lovely. I have wanted to stop renting for some time, but the prospect of opening a business would likely put that on hold for a while - at least singularly. I'd... have to hear more about this co-housing, but I am interested." "Yeah, I don't really know a lot about -- I mean, s'no details yet. Just kind of a pipe dream, but I started looking at property listings and I think it's actually feasible. Economically. B's actually got a few hundred thousand put a way -- fucking weird, huh? Gorramn sixteen year old's more flush than the lot of us. And Micah's got good credit and --" Hive shrugs. "We'll have to have a looot of talk about all the details but if you're interested I'll let you know whenever we -- I dunno. Have a fucking /meeting/ or something about it." He takes a sip of his coffee again, slow and cautious. "S'not the only thing I wanted to talk to you about though. I need to fix your brain. I should have done it a long-ass time ago, and I'm {sorry} as hell I didn't. I lost my brain for a while. Only kind of getting it back now." The apology slips reflexively into Thai, the word foreign but the tone no doubt understandable enough. Melinda's eyes widen at the description of Sebastian's cash flow, then blink rapidly as she tries to process that. "Huh." Her thoughts start revolving around Shane and hoping that he's okay making a /significantly/ smaller amount of money than his twin. Then, she wonders if she could give him a raise... but it certainly wouldn't come anywhere near what Bastian makes. A small grumpy expression wrinkles her nose as she commands herself to focus, as Hive's tone turns serious. "Oh. Fix my brain?" she is confused, but focuses on him again. "Oh, hon, it's okay. I've been okay. You had... a lot on your plate and mostly, I'm just glad you're back, up and around again." "He got a huge bonus from the clinic earlier this year, and got a promotion at Stark," Hive explains, "but mostly he made good investments with his clinic bonus and it paid out a lot." He shrugs again, sipping once more at his tea. "Shane's alright, don't worry about it. I mean, money-wise he doesn't give a fuck, at least." He sets his cup down on his knee, exhaling heavily. "Back -- a while back your roommate was in a shitty position with his family and after it all went down you asked for help forgetting about it so that it wouldn't put him or you in danger knowing where he is. But we -- cleaned up that situation. And I /should/ have fixed your mind but I --" His eyes lower, his head shaking; his jaw clenches but whatever upset he has here seems largely self-directed. "Everything was just really fucked in my head. And I shouldn't have left it for so long. I mean, thank you, for saying it's okay. But it's not okay, I really should have --" He draws in a deep breath. "Anyway I want to undo it now. It'll probably hurt just because -- it always hurts when I say things in your head. But it shouldn't hurt /more/ than that, alright?" And then the door opens. Hive's sandwich is held out for Melinda, who stands quickly to take it and hand it to Hive. "Thanks, hon. I think we're okay now." The door is closed again as the employee leaves. Melinda focuses her attention on the story, the programming in her head resisting the notion of it, stirring up her already distracted mind and making it harder to stick with the topic. "Um. Okay. You have to do a think. Maybe we should just... talk about it after." She gives him a weak little smile, her brows furrowed. "I don't know if it'll just be that. Stuff's going to change. I ... I could get a horrible headache or... I don't know. I think I might pass out." She has the vaguest memory of waking up in Tick Tock after her supposed appointment, having nodded off at a table. "Anyway. The office is good. There shouldn't be any more interruptions." "Okay." Hive nods, wincing slightly as the information already starts to slip out of Melinda's grasp. He takes the sandwich with a quiet thanks, setting it down on his lap. His mind reaches out to Melinda's, and as ever it /does/ hurt, a heavy bludgeoning thud against her mind as a predetermined phrase is delivered up to her. His eyes focus on hers, his /mind/ watching hers carefully after this. Outwardly, he just picks up his sandwich to take a hungry bite. Melinda sits and waits for whatever to happen to happen, her thoughts scattering as she waits. She can't remember what roommate at this point, running through everyone she's had recently, but the list does not include Tag. When the pressure of Hive's mind settles on hers, she stiffens, neck tightening and chin pulling back. The moment the command is deliver, all of that distraction shatters and Mel is left gasping for air. Like icicles melting in a microwave, memories of things that were observed before start to spread over memories she already had of events, filling in gaps like sealing wax. She groans softly, a curious feeling of nausea starting to well up in the pit of her stomach as she waivers between disbelief and acceptance of the new interpretations of events, how in some cases she was sitting in the same room as Tag and didn't notice or say a word to him. She focuses on her breathing and a cool darkness away from those thoughts, trying to let everything fit back into place without her attention, but it feels a bit like worms crawling under her skin. And then it's over. Mel's a little shaky when all is said and done, the odd sensations starting to dissipate like bad memories. She's left with a somewhat distracted mind - something about health concerns that are nagging at her but she can't answer yet - but free of programming. She glances toward a water cooler in her office and rises slowly to poor herself a drink. "Ahh..." she tests out her voice before speaking. "Um. Thank you." Hive watches all this quietly. Observing. Eating his sandwich. Licking croissant crumbs off of the corner of his lip. "Yeah," he finally breathes out, screwing up his face and seeming kind of at a /loss/ for the correct thing to say in this circumstance. "I mean. Yeah." He takes a gulp of coffee, fidgeting restlessly in his chair. "Can I -- do something? To help?" And then a frown: "Are you okay? I mean, healthwise. And brainwise." "Oh. Physically?" Mel's hand is a little shaky as she gets the water, but after the first sip, she calms a bit, the memory of the discomfort fading. "Nah. I... I don't know. I've been putting on weight weirdly and feeling a bit not myself. Can't say I was eating super healthy last month, not before you guys pulled us out, and certainly not exercising or being at all active, so it's probably just shitty ramen weight and stress. I've got an appointment to see a doctor next week." She returns to her seat and settles into it. "WebMD says it might be ovarian cysts... but the only reason I'm telling you all this is because I'm going to be thinking it anyway." She takes another long drink and looks over at Hive, her brows rising. "Hive, hon. You don't have to worry. I really don't think waiting on ... this," she gestures to her temple, "caused any long term issues. Yeah, Tag might've thought I was a jerk for ignoring him for so many months, but I think he'll understand." "Mmn. Okay. If you need anything let me know." Hive eyes her for a moment longer thoughtfully but the worst of the worry subsides from his expression when she says she's seeing a doctor; /fretting/ is not really his forte. "You should come over for dinner more often though," yes, he's totally inviting her to /Jax's/ place rather than his own: "Jax always has healthy -- tasty shit." He polishes off the rest of his sandwich in a couple quick bites, washing it down with a gulp of coffee. "I'll let you know what's going on with the housing stuff, yeah? And let us know if you know anyone who'd want to be in on it -- so long as they're awesome, I mean." "I'll definitely bring it up with my current roommates, but I don't know if any of them will be able to pay in to the same degree." Mel gets to her feet, brushing imaginary dust off her thighs and smiling over at Hive. "Thanks, by the way, for remembering me. I really do appreciate it." Her thoughts turn grateful and warm. Her eyes drop down to the plate and coffee cup in his hands before moving in to give him a hug. "Well, hopefully we can find somewhere not too /expensive/. Buying /can/ be cheaper than renting if you find the right place." Hive wraps one arm around Mel, his other just holding the cup. He squeezes, briefly tight, and stands once he lets her go. "Be seeing you. Soon." He tips his head up in a nod towards her, scooping up his plate and turning to go. Mel gives Hive a good squeeze before letting him go. She smiles, but her eyes are tired and half lidded. "Yeah. It really sounds great. Would be nicer to be in the same neighborhood with you guys too." She draws in a breath and turns to grab her water so she has something to do with her hands while he leaves. "Dinner. Soon. Yeah. I'll be around."