ArchivedLogs:The View

The View
Dramatis Personae Daken, Eloise, Ion, Omelette	2015-05-19 "Another world is possible."
Location <NYC> High Line - Chelsea
Built on a freight rail, the High Line once was a railroad and has been reclaimed as green space in the middle of the city. A park situated high above Manhattan, what was once a rusty industrial wasteland is now a stretch of peaceful space to lounge and relax among grass and flowers and plant life. There are restaurants, ice cream sandwich stands, a beer garden, and the view all along the elevated parkland is unbeatable. It has been maybe uncomfortably warm during the daytime but the refreshing coolness at night is luring out all /kinds/ of wildlife -- New York style wildlife, anyway. Which is to say that wandering the long pathway of the elevated park there is a shirtless musclebound man covered in intricately swirling body paint, roller blading (the wheels of his skates light up with bright flashing colors); a stick-skinny teenage girl walking about ten dogs that each probably weigh more than she does; a gaggle of people who have evidently dressed up in black tie solely for the purpose of having a picnic-style fried chicken dinner on the grass; an impromptu drum circle starting up on one patio; about seventeen zillion mosquitoes. And one Ion, dressed in jeans and tall shitkicker biker boots and a plain white undershirt, currently seated up on the safety rail overlooking the water. There's a babywrap harnessed around his chest -- though rather than cloth it is made out of thick padded leather -- bundling something small and grey and knobbly that wriggles against his chest. A claw pokes out from one side. A small horn-bud and one bulging eye from the top. In his hands there is a small black animal carrier that he is peeking into. "{What you think, huh, Gremlin?}" he's kind of half-cooing, in gravelly bass Spanish -- maybe to the animal carrier or maybe to the wriggling creature bundled to his chest. "{Think maybe today you'll have a dinnertime?}" One of the assorted bits of New York wildlife is a teen girl, wearing scraggly unwashed clothing and worn-out dress shoes underneath a full parka, despite the May weather. The parka is, perhaps, to cover up, or at least minimize, her most obvious feature - she's glowing. Skin, eyes, hair - her whole body. Like a lightbulb. She keeps her head down and the parka hood over her head, but it really can't fully hide it, as its rather obvious. Her hair even occasionally peeks out of the hood, rising upwards as if magnetically charged. She moves up towards the safety rail and looks down at the water, trying to stay away from others, but also not wanting to draw attention to herself, or look vulnerable. Daken is out and about too, dressed in a tank-top depicting the Imperal Rising Sun flag, tank cargo pants, and pair of red Osiris shoes. Oh, and apparently he also knows how to ride a skateboard. He almost rolls past Ion and Omelet, almost. The board is stopped, kicked up into his hand, and he makes his way over to the rail to take a seat as well. "/Hey, how's it going?/" Though his attention span is notoriously short, and he ends up looking towards the shiny new arrival. "Hey, you on drugs?" he calls asks, flashing a grin that shows off his inhumanly sharp canines. "Because I won't give you food money if you are." "Ey, fuckin' great. My night, yo, it really needed some /murder/ talk, that's what I was /missing/ good of you to show up huh?" Gravelly-deep English, now, though it's coated very heavily with a rough Argentine accent. Ion's crooked grin does not have sharp teeth. Just normal flattish white ones. His eyes skate towards the girl as she approaches the rail, brows hiking up and his grin only /widening/ -- though it comes with a short swat at Daken's arm. "Fuck's your problem, bro, you take asshole /lessons/? I didn't hear nobody hitting you up for /cash/. What'sit, someone can't just come enjoy the view?" Eloise glances over at Daken, her eyes wrinkling slightly with annoyance. "Oi, I don't need your money." she says, in an English accent. She nods at Ion appreciatively, then turns to look back at the water. "Its a good view. Wish I could say it reminds me of home, but thats what the rest of the city is for." "Don't have to hit me up for money, people gotta eat." Daken counters, taking the swat. Though it does cause his attention to fall to his shirt. "You know what's kind of fucked up? If I was born a day later, I'd have been exactly two months old when Hiroshima was bombed. Off topic, but interesting." He finally decides to speak to Eloise, "If you've already eaten, that's all you had to say." "You lived a longass time to still not understand people /one/ little bit, vato." Ion is shaking his head, lopsided grin still in place on his face. "Forgive mi hermano," he adds to Eloise, "he got all the manners of a fucking bull, yeah?" The baby wrap around his chest is wriggling again; the claw pokes out further, bringing with it the leathery tip of one batlike wing. A talon hooks over the edge of the wrap, tugging to pull upwards so that the Gremlin can shove their knobbly head out as well, bulging green eyes blinking at the nighttime park. A soft rapid clicking noise starts up in their throat as their eyes land on Eloise. Ion lifts a hand, half-shielding the huge peering eyes. "The rest this shithole reminds you of home?" There's a note of amusement in his voice. "Lo siento, what, you trade one dump for another?" "Pretty much, yeah." Eloise admits to Ion. "Though I had it nicer back home, London is even dirtier and more expensive then this city." She looks over at the ... little bundled thing, trying to decide if what she can glimpse of it is cute or not. She glances back towards Daken. "You look pretty good for your age. But I guess you get a choice of hiding who you are. I don't. And no, I havn't eaten. And I'm not hungry, but thanks." She glances down at the bundle. "Do excuse me but...what is that? Is that a bat?" "Solar powered, gotcha." Daken snaps and points at Eloise. "And why would I want to hide? Look around." He motions from the picnic, to the drum circle, to a couple making out not too far from where they are. "We're the future. Like it or not. I remember when believing we existed would get you locked up. And I know I'm going to live to see when every elected official is a mutant." "Man, you still fucking nuts, the government it gonna collapse before then. Country near shits itself over a /black/ man run for president, you think there /ever/ gonna be a day they elect a whole country of freaks?" Ion chuffs out a snort, his head shaking slightly. "Like maybe if you /kill/ all the damn flatscans for that, m-a-a-a-ybe. But then --" His cheeks puff out, breath expelled in a short-sharp 'pow'. "Collapse." He leans down to set the small animal carrier on the ground; the small creature strapped /to/ him cringes and turns their head when his hand moves from their eyes. The clicking noise grows a little faster, a little louder, close now to a growl. "London," Ion continues blithely as he straightens back up, "that is a far. Shot. You here for /good/ or just for the hell of it?" His hand lifts to rub gently between the tiny horns on the Eggling's head. "/Bat/, shit, no. Well yeah. This monster, he only part bat. Part gargoyle. Part fucking /dragon/, right? This," he says with a small proud FLOURISH as though this should explain everything, "issa Gremlin." Eloise nods her head, looking impressed. She totally buys it. I mean, mutants and zombies are real. Why shouldn't gargoyle, bat, dragons be real? Gremlin is as good a name as any. Heck, perhaps the fey folk of ancient legend had their roots in such things, if not ancient mutants. "I'd ask you if your having a laugh, but...color me impressed. Pretty cool." She glances back at Daken. "No offense, but your country still has issues with race, and gays, let alone mutants. I got no opinion on it past that." She glances towards Ion again. "Not sure. Had a bit of a cock up back during the plague. Whole situation is rubbish. I'd like to go back, but..." She shrugs. "Taking things one day at a time. You really think the government will collapse? Mutants can't be more disruptive then the printing press and electricity." Daken snorts a bit at all the doubt. "Magneto for president." he suggests quietly, flashing an easy grin before he decides to dig around in his pocket, retrieving a box mod with a large tank atop it. "Gotta have faith in something, and I have faith that we figure all this shit out. And if it does collapse, I call secretary of defense. And my first act would be to change the official title to War Chief." He clicks the box in his hand a few times so it powers on before taking a hit, the screen on it reading '100.0 W'. When he exhales, it's a cloud that makes it almost ten feet away before the wind catches it, leaving only a faint fruity scent behind. "Shit I can /dream/, can't I?" Ion says this with a bright spark of laughter in his voice, though his head is shaking. "Nah, naw, I don't /think/ it's gonna collapse I just think it more /likely/ than this dude's fantasy about the entire goverment being freaks. That ain't happening not in /ten/ fucking million lifetimes." He uses one arm to shield the Eggling's eyes again, and the clicking dies back down to a low thrum. "This country it got itself a whole fucking book of issue." His brows furrow slightly. "Shit, yeah, them zombies they didn't have /no/ respect for anyone's travel plans. Fucked more than a few situations I think. Still though. You manage to survive New York through /that/ shit, you probably doing okay now yeah? Seen one apocalypse then you can deal with any-damn-thing." Eloise shrugs. "Not so well at first, honestly. Went a bit blarmey. Mostly fine now. Wish I wasn't glowing so bloody much. Stand out in a crowd. Don't like the looks much. But it taught me how the real world worked, in ways I never would have found in some prep school back home. So, I don't plan on being poor forever, but at least..." She pauses, trying to articulate it. "At least now I know something of who I am? And some people go their entire lives without even getting a glimpse of that. My Da, he spent his whole life helping other people get powerful. And...it wasn't even useful." She shrugs. Eloise is silent a moment, while her hair floats about due to her internal magnetic field. Her skin glows, rising and lowering in brightness, almost twinkling in the night. "You know, my Da was a diplomatic attache. I may not agree with the politicians, but from what I heard on the net, you know, attacking them was a bit of a stupid move. All that man did was get people like me, with visible mutations but no ability to defend ourselves - he made us targets. I don't want to get into a political debate. I can understand how you must feel. But..." She shakes her head. "Seems like an odd guy to hold up as a political figure." "Love, the government has been kidnapping and experimenting on us since before the eighties. We've always been targets." Daken turns the mod back off and slips it into his pocket. "What he tried to do was stand up and let them know it wouldn't be tolerated anymore. That we won't take the abuse sitting down. He should have just gone about it a different way." "Pfft. What he done it was dumb as fucking rocks," Ion agrees with a snort. "Fuck you gonna accomplish, some dumbshit attack like that? Just make a harder world for --" Ion nods towards Eloise. "Rest of every-damn-body. Like shit, yo, direct action it's a /thing/, but you need some fucking /direction/ to your damn protesting." He cants a sharp grin at Eloise after this, though. Leans forward, holding one scar-stippled fist out towards her like for a /fistbump/. "S'the way to do it. Streets teach you some shit. Me I didn't go to no school never, but I learned my way around the damn world just the same. Guess the question is, now you know who you /are/, what you gonna do with yourself?" Eloise accepts the fist-bump and returns it. A bit akwardly, but thats all. She glances out at the view. "That is the million pound question." she says. "For now, I...was just enjoying the view. I'm not sure what tomorrow brings. Another world is possible. I do believe this. But I guess I'm still working things out. I could try and get back home. Things would be easier. But...I could have done that weeks ago. It feels like it would be running away, going back to who I was, even if I could manage it, which I think I could." She shrugs. "Bugger if I know." she says, to both of the two men. "Sometimes you think going home is easier. Sometimes it actually is.. But usually you just end up regretting missed opportunities." Daken rubs at his jaw, watching a person pass by on a hover board. "I still need to settle down. Trying to figure everything out still." His next words are directed at Ion, "Speaking of which, Anette and I decided to give the whole 'exclusive' thing a shot. Maybe her crazy will cancel my crazy out." "I don't never miss no opportunities. Bright side of doing every interesting thing comes along." Ion's smile is definitely bright as he slides down off the guardrail. "Flip side it's a many extra /scars/ but who's counting, huh?" His head gives a small shake; he gives a low whistle to accompany it at Daken's information. "I don't know which of you to offer my condolence to, vato. You both fucking batshit. Crazy don't /never/ cancel out. It only feed-back in itself. Good fucking /luck/." His chin tips upward to Eloise. "And you too, yeah? I hope you get that another-world. Or 'least meanwhile enjoy this one." He stoops to claim the small animal carrier he'd been holding, lifting it in a lazy farewell salute to the others. "I do agree with you there." Eloise says to Daken, before nodding at Ion. "Thank you. You have a good head on your shoulders. Better then me, I think. It was a pleasure meeting you." She glances around. It is getting rather late. "I should get going as well. It was nice talking to you both."