Players:
Summary: Tabitha and Fiona meet and catch up after Fiona's absence from New York.
Date: March 3, 2012
Log Title: Visiting Medical
Rating: Log Rating.
NYC - The Bronx
The Bronx is New York City's northern most borough located on the main land of New York State. The southern area of the Bronx is the tougher neighborhood, where the crime his higher and the housing more for those of lower income. As you go more north in the Bronx, it still has a city feel but the crime rates drop the further north you go. There is a heavy African American and Hispanic population in this borough. The Bronx is home to Yankee Stadium, New York Botanical Gardens, and The Bronx Zoo.
It seems that the purpled eyed girl practically /never/ goes home. Probably because 'home' right now isn't exactly the most fun place in the world. Heck, Donna doesn't even have cable TV! Or internet… or… well anything but books to read, really. As much as Fiona likes reading, sitting around in an apartment doing it all day isn't exactly her idea of fun… At any rate, she's wandering down the street this evening sucking on a slurpee, with an earbud tucked into one ear.
Approaching Fiona, coming down the road, is a high-pitched screaming, in and amongst the traffic. Is it a missile? A demonic force? No; as it turns out, it's an oddly furry person riding a motorcycle, at one hell of a clip too; well in excess of the speed limit. The rider passes the purple-eyed girl, and then there's the squeal of tires as the brakes lock up. The bike finally comes to a rest about forty feet further on, where the rider dismounts after hurriedly parking along the side of the road. "Fiona?!" calls out the rider; one Tabitha Jones, the rat girl, as she jogs along the sidewalk to get back to that spot. "Fiona! Haven't seen you in ages!! Where you been, woman?"
Fiona blinks when someone calls out her name. "I, erm, Tabs!" she greets the rat girl with a toothy smile, giving her a quick hug, "It's, well, it's a long story. I had some problems with my powers and you-know-who," she taps her head a little, "So I had to skip town. But I'm back now. I found a teacher to help me learn better control of magic and alla that," she laughs. "Wish I could say it's been swell but it hasn't. Things're lookin up now though. What about you?"
Tabitha returns the hug with an affectionate squeeze, and takes a step back. "That can be rough, learning to deal with your powers," she observes. "I know. I copy other mutants, and I've had more than one accident. …Like when I copied Magneto's powers and accidentally crushed every mailbox within five miles… he had to fix that one for me… uhm… yeah." She shrugs lightly. "At least my powers don't talk to me though, you've got me beat on that one. I'm glad you've got someone to help you though… All I know about magic is that I can't copy it." She pauses, and manages to smile lightly. "I have a girlfriend, if you can believe it, and I love her very much." She pauses, and the smile slowly fades. "I… would take you to meet her, but she was kidnapped last week, so now I'm just trying really hard to find her."
Fiona facepalms, "EVERYONE is getting kidnapped! Everyone. Everywhere I go in the city, boom, more kidnappings. I guess it might just be contained within the metahuman 'community'," she makes little quote marks in the air with her fingers. "I guess there aren't a ton of us and news travels fast."
Tabitha nods her head slowly, "Yes, Rashmi has been kidnapped too, and she's someone very special to me as well," Tabitha replies. "I'm very worried, and… and I keep myself awake at night thinking about it, and I don't really know what to do." She pauses, and thrusts her hands down into her pockets. "It might seem strange, but I wish I was the one in danger, instead of my girl, especially since she saved my life the other day. …Well, instead of either of them, really."
"I guess that's not too strange, really…" Slurrp. Slurrp. Okay, that's slightly out of tune with the conversation. Fiona seems remarkably calm though, given the news. "Rashmi? Then… it is related. My teacher has been hired to find out where they were taken. She's… very capable. So I don't imagine that it'll be too long until they mount some sort of rescue effort once she has the information."
Tabitha nods her head quickly. "Yeah, the school I attend is looking pretty hard, too," she replies. "They might have Tony Stark on the case too, but he's been busy and I haven't been able to ask him… which might be a good thing. If your teacher is on it too, that can only help as well, if she's as good as you say she is." The rat girl pauses, and rocks back and forth lightly on her feet. "By the way, thank you for not like… flipping your chips when I said I have a girlfriend. …As if I didn't have enough trouble with discrimination by being a totally obvious mutant, I had to go and be gay, as well."
"Huh? Oh… I didn't even really think about it… but, I don't think it bothers me," Fiona smiles, "I mean, it's not me you're interested in, anyway," quips the sorceress, "Besides, the only people who have problems with that are the deeply religious and that's obviously /not/ me. Though there seem to be plenty of them around…"
"Oh yes, there are! I've been accused of being demonic more than once. Dumbasses." Tabitha scratches the back of her head. "So… how is it going, Fiona? I haven't seen you in a while. Were you okay out of town? And how're you managing with your powers? I hope you're getting lots of practice under your teacher."
"Eh… it was, er," Fiona lets out a soft sigh, "Not really okay, no. The demon threatened to kill my family and a bunch of other stuff if I didn't do as he said. Almost did, and almost killed someone, but I held back at the last second. Turns out, all he can do is mess with my head. But he can't control me." She smirks a little, "Upside is - I came back. Didn't know what to do though. I haven't been home /yet./ Seen Jules though. He's doin okay, and um…" she pauses, "Oh, right. Anyway, Teacher, that's what I call her, because she won't tell me anything other than her codename - her other name's Stormwaltzer…" she rambles, "Right, anyway, she tries to kill me thinking I'm actually serving the demon. Finds out I'm not, and decides she's going to help me out. But, she took away all my gear, 'cept my portal keys for some reason. Won't let me have it back. This woman, Tabs, she's fucking scary. I trust her, 'cause she coulda killed me, but I think if I left she'd come after me. And the training's not easy at all. She basically told me I have to stop using the demonic based magic mostly, and learn real magic if I don't want this thing to eventually consume me. So it's all meditation, reading books… it's exhausting. It's practically torture. Just as soon as I find my 'center' as she calls it, and get grounded - that's a lifeforce thing - she'll mentally attack me, knocking me off balance, and make me do it all over again. It's like some crazy evil martial arts movie!"
Tabitha listens through all of this, and by the end of it, realizes that she's dropped her jaw. She clamps her mouth audibly shut, and her tail twitches lightly behind her as she chews all that over. "Fiona," she says at last, "I don't doubt how important this is for you, by the sound of things, but I just want you to promise to be careful, okay?" She reaches out and puts her hands on the other girl's shoulders. "My girlfriend has been taking martial arts training from a guy who she described to me as a… how'd she put it… 'brutal man'. But a good teacher apparently. Well, remember I told you she saved my life recently?" She nods her head once. "She happened to be out with him for training, I came down the street purely by chance, and this guy, who was her teacher? He spent fifteen minutes trying to kill me, as a training exercise. Shot me through the chest, too, through the lung. I should've died." She gives Fiona's shoulders a squeeze. "Just… be careful, right? Don't let her make you do any
"Wow. I. I don't think she'd do that. I mean. She's not evil. She's not a hero either though… She does seem like a good person, though. I mean honestly, I guess I barely know anything about her… but I dont think she'd do something like that.She doesn't trust me at all yet, though, that's for sure… she won't let me see her during the day. heck, she could actually BE a vampire… I never thought of that…" Fiona seems perturbed by the thought of it. "Anyway, I think I can handle it. If not, it's good to know you're there…" she pauses, blinking, "Wait, you got SHOT THROUGH THE CHEST?! Are you okay now? Did they catch this guy? Is he still running about loose? We should take him down!"
Tabitha tugs the neck of her shirt down, to show an expanse of unblemished, well, fur. "Yeah, I'm okay now," Tabitha replies. "I was hacking up blood and stuff at the time, so I know it was a punctured lung. It should have been fatal." She shrugs her shoulders lightly, and shakes her head. "That'd be the fourth time I've been fatally wounded, actually. So it seems that my powers give me something that makes me, I dunno, not die. The doctors at Barnes told me it's called a healing factor, but apparently only kicks in when I'm about to kick the bucket." She pauses, and shakes her head slowly. "No, Fiona, we're not going after this guy, he's fucking scary. I've got better reflexes than any ordinary person and he was faster than me… and he just… I mean cripes, he let me get one of his guns, to draw me out I guess, and then he shot me. But I couldn't hit him. He's crazy."
"Really? Hum… I guess I'm pretty weak now anyway… I should really probably do my best to avoid trouble until…" Fiona blinks, "Well, until I don't know when. She hasn't told me how long the training is actually going to take yet."
"Oh, you don't want to hang around me then," Tabitha replies airily. "I'm a trouble magnet. People shoot at me, people mind-control me, I get in the middle of turf wars between gangs… and all this happens just because I step out of my front door! Mr. Stark even teases me about it. He told me to try to stay out of trouble for a week, and I said four days might be the best I can do." She shrugs, and thrusts her hands down into her pockets. "If it's anything like my training… well, let's just say that someone I respect very much told me I need thousands of hours of practice. Thousands."
"Yeah it's something like that. I thought that I was pretty hot shit with my wands and everything but I guess they were pretty much a crutch and I really didn't know anything, at all. Though, she said that was… maybe good, because then she wouldn't have to break bad habits," Fiona giggles, "But it's okay. I have a way of getting into trouble myself, otherwise, I wouldn't be like I am now!"
Tabitha shrugs her shoulders dismissively. "We all make mistakes," she replies. "Don't sweat it, Fiona. I'm sure you'll turn out alright… hell, I think I turned out okay, and if I can, you sure as hell can." She coughs softly, and and clears her throat. "Actually, funny you should say that, I look like I do because of getting into trouble… or at least I think I do. Did I ever tell you about my Faf?"
"I'm pretty sure you did but… Maybe not very much? That I can really remember that well, anyway," Fiona frowns just a little bit.
Tabitha ahhs. "Well, the term 'psycopath' describes him pretty well," she replies. "He hates mutants, with a vengeance. Anyway, he took me mutant hunting once… that was when my powers manifested, after I got hurt real bad by this rat mutant he figured would be good for me to get my start on, for the family tradition. …She happened to look like a rat, and when I woke up, so did I, and I've had… rat-powers ever since. I think it's the only time I've ever copied anyone permanently. So… yeah. We have something in common there, I think."
"Wow!" breathes Fiona, "That's crazy all around. Crazy! This whole /world/ is fucked up crazy. Seriously. How does shit like that even happen? A mutant hunter? That's ridiculous. I mean, I totally believe you, but… how does someone even do that without getting caught? Awful," scowls the girl.
Tabitha shrugs her shoulders lightly. "I dunno. He's good at it. …He was going to blow my brains out while I was asleep, except I copped a read of his diary and figured it out, so I skipped town before he could do it." She pauses, and clasps her hands behind her head. "I hope he fucking does get caught. He almost turned me into a monster — in ways that count, not just looks. I hate him for it. But I'm not planning on going back there to tell him so."
"Hrmph. If I ever see him, I'll show him some real horrors," Fiona assures Tabitha. How will she do that? Somehow. Somehow. "Of course, I suppose that for the time being, it's better if I don't, of course. As far as that goes. At least my parents are normal. I wish I could see 'em again. But I know as soon as they see me, they'll freak, and never let me go, and then I'll never get to fix my problems. I don't wanna end up locked away somewhere for my own protection."
Tabitha nods her head slowly. "Well, I've never met your folks, so I'm not sure what to say," she replies. "And, I'm not sure how they'd feel about you hanging out with the rat chick who did millions of dollars of damage to the city while mind-controlled last summer, so, there's that, too." She thrusts one hand deep into her pants pocket, and pulls out… a wallet, of all things. "Are you okay for food and stuff? I mean… here." She unbuttons the thing and pulls out a minor wad of bills, adding up to a couple hundred bucks at least. "I'm doing okay at the moment," she adds, as she holds out the cash. "I mean, not to imply anything or… anything, but like, here, make sure you're eating well and stuff, okay? Please. Don't starve yourself to death out of pride or anything."
Fiona shakes her head, "No, no I don't need money. Donna feeds me and everything. She's sorta like a second mom. A really terrifying mom who doesn't put up with bullshit for even a second." She pauses, "Besides, I have some money left over from my trip. It's enough. Donna's sort of a mercenary, she makes some money doing jobs for people. You know, basically private-eye type work. Her apartment sucks, but I got the feeling she's loaded, just frugal."
Tabitha nods slowly, and tucks the cash back away into the wallet. "Alright," she replies, as she returns it to her pocket. "Just, don't be ashamed to ask if you need help, alright? …I know what it's like to need help, remember, I needed it real bad when I met Mr. Stark… which was just before I met you." The rat girl smiles pleasantly, "And, I know how good it is to get help when you need it." She reaches out to pat Fiona on the shoulder lightly. "Just… be careful, okay?"
"I'll be fine! I've got a new phone, so you can call me if you want," Fiona whips out a cheap pink-colored flip phone, fishing it out of one of her portals. It looks very un-Fiona, but, it was probably cheap. And cooler than the grey one. "I stopped using the other one 'cause I don't want it to be tracked. But this one's good," she scrolls through it until she finds the phone's number, "Here. This way, if you're worried, or just wanna hang out or whatever, you can call me!" she nods.
Tabitha does likewise; she whips out her phone, which being one provided by Barnes, is quite flashy. The rat girl has the good grace to look embarassed, as she wrangles the touch-screen so she can enter Fiona's contact information. "Probably a smart thing to do," she observes, before giving the other girl her number. "I uhh… this is a new phone, too. The school I'm going to provided it, uhm, after my last one got wrecked." She pauses, and her ears flatten against her head. "I sorta got blood all over it when I got shot."
Fiona laughs, "It's okay. Stuff happens. I know you! Last time we hung out, a giant sand monster showed up and… well, kinda wrecked everything didn't he? Or maybe that was longer ago… Bleh. It's been way too long since I've been around." The sorceress regards Tabitha for a minute, "Anyway, it /is/ about time for the nightly session… much fun as THAT is… I gotta get goin! I live in Hell's Kitchen now, if you feel like comin round, but it's dangerous down there. Later!" she skips off, waving.
