Players:
Summary: Random meetings and conversations strike up at the Farmers Market in Union Square.
Date: August 6, 2011
Log Title: Union Square Farmers Market
Rating: PG
NYC - Union Square
Always bustling with life is Union Square, with its large statue of George Washington standing in the center. Live music, dancers, artists, activists, vendors, and more can all be seen here on a daily basis. There are even some tables set up for chess games. The Green Market can be found here, selling fresh fruit, breads, vegetables and other farm products. Union Square has more of a younger feel as most the kids who hang out here have that artistic, indie look to them, making Union Square one of the more open minded parks in the city.
Even though the sun is out now the rain from earlier in the morning has left things a bit damp and muggy. Walking around the Farmers Market of Union Square is the winged Aiden. He makes no effort to hide the large blue feathered wings from his back as he moves from a stand selling flowers to another selling various patries and pies. He's dressed in a black sleevless shirt with an I Heart New York shirt, but where the heart should be is a skull, over a black kilt. On his feet a pair of black boots with many buckles across the foot and shin. The green tattoo like markings are fully visible on his arms, neck and legs. He adjusts the large duffel back over his shoulder as he ponders if he should get a real lunch or a peach pie.(re)
With Xavier's on slightly less of a lockdown, Ashley has actually left school grounds for the first time in a couple of weeks. The teen firebug splits off from the mixed group of students, promising that he will be meeting them at the right time, in the right place. But he's still not one for the group social scene, so off he wanders through New York City, finding himself in Union Square. A grey school hoodie has been thrown on over his upper body, but the hood is down; a slight concession to the humidity, rather than the heat, and a pair of camoflage cargo pants over a pair of converse sneakers complete the ensemble. Through the Union Square he meanders, moving away from the pastry cart that Aiden eyes. Noticing the winged & tattoo'd mutant isn't that hard, and Ash's eyes flicker to him in recognition. "Hey…."
Sometimes when life gives you a lemon you need to go down to the Green Market and pick up some more lemons, because really, you can't make lemonade with just one. That is to say, Annabeth has run out of fresh produce and has decided to splurge a little bit. She's dressed in matching bright floral sun dresses and a pair of wide brimmed floppy wicker hats to keep the worst of the sun out of her eyes. She's perusing one of the fruit stands at one end of the market, looking at the various produce there, trying to decide exactly what she wants to get while, at the same time, she's poking around the food stalls to see if anything looks appealing. This is when she notices the winged goth who seems to be in much of the same mind as her. She's seen him around Mutant Town (in fact she suspects they live in the same building.) so she decides to be a little friendly, walking up to him. "Hey there," she says pleasantly. "You live in the Four Arms apartments in Mutant Town, right?"
Fortunately some people don't need to wrry about Xavier's lockouts. Michael is one of those people, what with being tremendously old and everything (at least compared to many). He looks like he is enjoying a lunch break, or some time without a meeting, and is in fact walking around not in his uniform. A mundane button up shirt and some nice khaki trousers, with a..gasp…tweed jacket thrown under his arm. Yes, he looks all professory today as he wanders through the market.
Nathaniel is neither old, winged, sunny, or related to an arsonist insect. The young man is simply taking time time to find something he can put in his stomach to avoid it complaining about something not being there later. So far, he has found ice cream, which, while not technically a food, gets a pass because it's ice cream. He is standing and watching a group of dancers with a somewhat wry, detached expression on his face, one hand in his pocket and the other holding the ice cream cone, which appears to be either vanilla or something deceptively white enough to pretend to be vanilla. He does glance over when he both hears conversation and takes note of large blue wings, but overall, he doesn't look surprised or as if he recognizes any of them. So. Ice cream. Dancers.
Aiden stops his looking as he hear's the hey. Turning he sees Ashley and gives him a friendly smile. "Hey, how's it going?" He recognizes the face but that's about it. "I'm sorry I'm horrible with names and remembering where I met people. But anyway, it's good to see you again." He puts down the pie he was looking at and turns when yet another person approches. "Uh..yup, that I do. I've been living there for a bit now but…have we met before?"
And Ashley didn't just greet Aiden with 'hey' because he couldn't remember the winged performer's name for the life of him. Really. The hoodie-wearing teen lifts a hand up in congenial greeting, a natural response to Aiden's comments. But then Aiden's attention has drifted to the approach of the twins, and Ash glances at the pair of blondes in kind. A bit of a grin twitches across his lips, brow arching at the matched attire. But he's just passing through, so he backs off a few steps. Far enough not to be rude, but close enough to still watch the trio from the corner of his eye as he munches on a bagel.
Annabeth shakes her head. Well, one of her heads. The one that's speaking to Aiden. The other is busy haggling with one of the grocers about the price of grapefruits. "Not really. I live in the same building as you. We've passed each other a couple of times but never really said anything." She shrugs. "Anyway. Thought I'd say 'Hi'."
Michael looks over as he stops for produce to see the winged man, and that certain gets a second look. Not a terribly judgmental second look, from the looks of it, but definitely a second. He is near enough by Nathaniel that he can see the man and chuckles. "Not many faces I see on even level." He comments to the other tall man. They should form a club.
The fact that, of all things, Nathaniel stands out because of his height - no wings, no double-heads - causes him to give Michael a long, amused look. He nods his head in agreement, licking at his ice cream before it manages to sabotage the cleanliness of his hand, "That's… definitely true. I'm surprised that's the most interesting thing you noticed out here today, though." He can't help that amused look any longer, his lips twisting into a somewhat crooked smile. He pats his unused hand on his jeans, then shrugs and decides that they're too sticky anyway, instead just shoving it back into his pocket as he offers, "I'm Nathan."
"Oh cool, well nice to meet you. I'm Aiden." Aiden says offering a hand to Annabeth. "Only other person I know in our apartment is Vinny, you know platypus Aussie with a diggerido?" That's the best way he can think to describe him. Turning back to Ashley, Aiden thinks he offended him by not remembering his name. "Really sorry, I am just horrible with names so please don't take offense. Sometimes I have to meet someone like five or six times before I remember their name. So…things been treating you well?" He's not really sure what else to say since he barely remembers Ashley. The face yes, the manner in how they met, it's starting to come back to him. "Food Trucks, that's right. You were the food truck kid who was nice enough to let me annoy the hell out of him."
Ashley doesn't look offended as he nibbles at his bagel. But once Aiden addresses him directly, his attention returns to the winged one. His chin dips as his head bobs in a nod, "Yeah, in Central Park…" he says, doing a remarkable job of hiding the 'ahah!' look from his face and his tone; now he remembers why Aiden looks familiar, beyond 'hey, wings'. "The name's Ash." he says, offering up his name to try to help Aiden along.
Annabeth takes the offered hand and gives it a firm shake. "I'm Annabeth," she says, and then points to her other body (which turns and waves before going back to haggling.) "And so's she." She turns to Ashley and gives the teen an appraising look before saying, "Good to meet you too, Ash. Would either you like any fruit while I'm there?"
Michael chuckles. "Well I think that the young gentleman over there probably gets enough people calling out to him that I didn't want to add to it." Michael explains as he nods. "Nice to meet you, Nathan. I'm Michael." He introduces himself.
Nathaniel turns slightly to study the three nearby mutants, considering for a moment before he states, thoughtfully, "Probably for the kilt more than anything else." He glances over his shoulder at the dancers, then looks back at Michael, generally fidgeting in a wholly unnecessary fashion, "Nice to meet you, too, Michael. What brings you to the square today, anyway? Or are you just airing your height over the little people?" He strikes a somewhat superior expression, albeit quite obviously put on, before he makes a small sound of aggravation in his throat and finally sighs as he winds up having to lick ice cream off his hand.
"Ash! Okay now I remember more, we were talking about fire stuffs." But Aiden doesn't elaborate more than that since just because he's not shy about his mutation it doesn't mean that others aren't. "Well nice to meet you Annabeth and Annabeth. I guess having the same name will make it easier to remember which one of you is which. And thanks but I'm good on fruit for now." He says with a bit of a nod before trying to stifle a yawn. Even though he stifles it the best of he can his wings still stretch out from it and they're dangerously close to hitting Michael and Nathaniel.
Ash's chin dips again as he nods to the Annabeth's glancing off to the side to track the fruit-buying twin. Then back to Aiden and the speaking half of that pair. "Nice to meetcha…" he politely replies to the woman, before shaking his head, free handing coming up to wave off the offer of fruit, "No thank you, I'm good." he says, before glancing to Aiden and nodding confirmation, "Yeah, fire stuff." he says, remaining suitably cryptic since he's out in public.
Annabeth chuckles. "There's just one of me," she says. "I'm just in two places at once." Speaking of which, the other Annebeth seems to have concluded the deal and comes wandering back to stand side-by-side with herself, holding a bag full of fresh fruit. She reaches in and hands an orange off to the one that had been speaking with the other two mutants and continues speaking as if she was there the whole time while the first one peeels the fruit. "I know it can be a little confusing for folks at first, but you get used to it."
Michael gives a grin. "Yes, a nice day out of observing the tops of heads." He says wryly. "No, just enjoying a day out and some of the things I don't get to do that often." He offers, gesturing to his tweed coat. "Academic conference." He explains, although he looks over to the others just in time to avoid a wing, and hear Annabeth's explanation. "Hmm."
Rather than react with any kind of discomfort or shock, Nathan responds to the sudden nearness of Aiden's wing as if it were entirely normal. He sidesteps slightly away and lifts his free hand to tap on that wing, noting, in a drawling tone, "You might want to watch what you're doing." He gives the other young man a look of amused admonishment, then turns his attention back to Michael, eyebrows shooting up, "Academic conference? Are you a teacher, then? …not at Xavier's, I'm guessing."
Feeling the tap on his wing, Aiden jumps slightly before turning. "Oh sorry, they tend to have a mind of themselves sometimes. And Xavier's…I've heard of that school before." He says trying to remember where. He shrugs figuring he'll think on it later. "Get used to what?" Aiden asks Annabeth. "I grew up with two friends who were twins so I'm used to being around twins." Though he hasn't quite picked up on anything odd about them yet. "So with the fire stuff, you should come down and check out the show at Coney Island sometime Ash. I think you might find it interesting."
Ash's gaze flickers towards the two taller men, once they are brought in on the fringes of the conversation by Aiden's wingspan. Just a glance at the pair, but then back to the twins as they speak. His attention flickers from one to the other, but he doesn't seem to pick up on the finer points of Annabeth's explanation either. If anything, he looks relieved that they don't start speaking in unison. But back to Aiden, and his talk of the Coney Island show. "When is it? I can't stay out too late, curfew and all that…"
"I'm not twins, actually," says Annibeth. The one that's not eating an orange. "Just one person here." And the other pipes up by wiping her mouth with the back of her hand before speaking, "And here." They both nod in eerie unison at the mention of Xavier's. "Yes, Professor Xavier wanted me to teach there when I got my degree," says the one without the orange. "But I chose not to," completes the other.
Michael raises an eyebrow. "Oh, you don't think so?" Michael asks, chuckling. "Does Xavier's not hire professors who wear tweed? I've always thought of it as a professor's uniform. Tweed, maybe a bowtie." He offers. "But no, I don't teach at Xavier's." He looks over to Annabeth. "What degree?"
Nathaniel shrugs slightly at the question from Michael, smiling and raising a brow as he says, "I just didn't figure someone who taught in the city would be here specifically for a conference. I guess it's kind of dumb, though. Academic conference makes me think of people flying in." He looks over at Aiden afterwards, a touch surprised his mention of Xavier's has brought up so many responses, though he scratches the back of his neck and nods slightly, "Yeah, Xavier's is kind of a private school. I got in there… well, reasons." He finishes up his ice cream cone rather than talk much more after that for a few minutes, using the small, borderline useless napkin to clean off his hand and stepping away so he can toss it into a trashcan. When he comes back, he looks at Annabeth curiously for a few seconds, both hands now tucked neatly into his hip pockets, "So you blew the old man off, eh? Not a lot of people are willing to do that." Taking Annabeth at her word, he doesn't speak to the twins as if they were different people, just addressing them at the same time despite the singular pronoun.
Aiden nods at Annabeth. "Okay, I think I can grasp that." He's not sure if it really is one person of if it's a twin thing but he accepts it. "Yeah, I never got asked to teacher there, I'm not a teachy type unless it's as a circus preformer or something." He says with a grin. "But then I didn't go to school past eight grade either. Anywho, well it's a freak show in Coney Island. I do fire breathing and dancing there along with sword swallowing. There are day shows during the weekend and shows at night. I think it's cool but then I'm partial." He says before looking at Michael. "I dunno, you kinda look like the generic teacher whose kinda borning and out of date on what to wear along with having no idea how to relate to the 'youngsters' of the class." Hey, he just says it like he sees it.
As he's admitted to Aiden previously, Ash does seem intrigued by the fire breathing concept; at least, one could guess that 'interest' is the emotion flickering across his gaze. "I'll have to check with Xorn…" he murmurs, more to himself than the others standing about nearby, "…maybe I can take Jem down, she'd probably be interested in it to…" he continues his spoken-aloud-inner-monologue.
Michael quirks an eiebrow to Aiden. "Apparently I blend in well. I feel like I should shake my fist and talk about you kids and you rock and roll and free love, just to conform to expectations." He says with a chuckle, and a shake of his head. He looks back to Nathaniel. "People did fly in. It was a conference on the Crusades, which is what I did my doctorate in." He explains. "Teaching history is part of my job." He offers.
"Weeellll," Anabeth begins, drawing out the word, "I didn't blow him off." The other body with the orange that she just finished continues, "I respectfully declined. The professor has helped me out." The other pipes up with an interjection, "More than he needed to," before going back to the first body. "But the high school down in Mutant Town has a bigger need for teachers."
Nathaniel runs his (cleaner) fingers through his hair, pushing it away from his face while looking between the lot of them, tucking his hands back into his pockets and giving Aiden a wry smile, "You're a winged goth in a kilt. I don't think you're really in a position to rag on somebody's looks." Without anything to do with his hands, Nathan apparently becomes easily bored, as he is soon digging a packet of cigarettes out of his pocket and lighting one up, apparently not dying of concern over whether or not it will affect the people around him.
Shoving his smoking paraphenalia back into his pocket afterwards, he looks at Ash for a few seconds while the other boy has an outer monologue, then nods to Annabeth, "Xavier did a lot for a lot of people, so long as they're willing to get shit thrown at them. I've never been to Mutant Town, though." He speaks a bit muffledly around his cigarette, but takes it out to exhale once he's done putting his stuff away. It makes it easier for him to answer Michael, too, quirking a faint smile and brushing his thumb against his lip in a habitual fashion, "The Crusades, huh? Nothing more fun in history than a bunch of people getting killed, I guess…"
Michael shrugs. "Some things never changed. We were fighting eachother in the 12th century, we're fighting eachother in the 21st century. Just the reasons that change." Michael offers with a shrug. "People always need someone to protect them when they can't, so we have a military. Some people want to use us for the right reasons, some for the wrong."
Aiden grins at Nathaniel. "A winged mutant goth in a kilt thank you very much." He says laughing as he doesn't take his own looks that seriously, he has fun with it. "The more the merrier Ash. And Jem, is she your girlfriend or something?" There's a bit of blue that starts to show in the green tattoos as they change colours. "Rock and Roll and Free Love aren't really my thing. More Electronic Music and…well…losing your girlfriend is a serious drain on the love bit." And with that the green tattoos are now almost all blue. "Anyway…Mutant Town is great. I've been living there for a few months and the people there are really nice."
Whoops. Ash was talking out loud, wasn't he. To his credit, the young man doesn't blush, but he does run a hand through his short-cropped hair and then down to rub the back of his neck, "…ah… yeah." he says with a bit of a lopsided grin at Aiden. "Her interests in fire stuffs kinda run like mine…" he cryptically admits to the now blue-tattooed wing man in a kilt. "…so it might make for a fun night…" he says, the lopsided grin blossoming into something a bit broader. Then a questioning tilt of his head to one side. "Mutant Town. I keep hearing that come up… what is it?" he asks the group. Wow, what rock has HE been living under?
Michael shrugs. "I believe once you get to a certain age, that all music people younger than you listen to can be classified as 'rock music' or 'that damnable noise'. If I'm to live up to the stereotypes." He offers. "Althiugh I am sorry to hear about your girlfriend." He says, as he watches the tattoos. "I believe what it is, is largely covered by the name 'Mutant Town'."
Nathaniel responds to Aiden in an utterly flat tone, albeit not without a vague hint of that same wryness he seems religiously tied to, "Yes. Because I know so many non-mutant people with wings. Thank you for specifying." He takes a drag on his cigarette, then taps ash off onto the stone under his feet, cocking his head and exhaling while he listens to them talk. He shrugs slightly over Aiden's lost girlfriend, asking, idly, "Did she break up with you or something else?" Mutants have a large tendency for 'something else' to be a valid factor of breakups. Looking aside at Ash, he begins to look mildly uncomfortable over the entire conversation regarding significant others and instead turns to the subject of music and Mutant Town, "It is damnable music. That's what makes it so good. Anyway, I'm guessing it's sort of like China Town - just an area where mutants congregate and feel more comfortable living."
Aiden gives Nathaniel a bit of a bow. "You're very welcome." He then looks over at Ashley. "Mutant Town is a neighborhood that's mainly mutant residences and businesses…like this guy said, the Chinatown of Mutants." He shrugs at Michael. "Well she's still out there somewhere, I just don't know where. We got seperated a while back." He explains to Nathaniel. "We got in trouble while on a stop with the Freakshow down in Texas, she got teleported to one place and I got teleported to another accidentally. We escaped, for the most part, but I haven't seen her in over two years." The smile does fade as he talks about it though.
"Oh." Ash says as Mutant Town is explained in simple, easy to understand terms. From the flicker across his features, he figured it was more fudged up than that. Ffff. One last rub of the back of his neck, then his hands drop to slip into the pockets of his hoodie. Just as he starts to rock on his heels, however, a beeping sound emanates from the general location of his knee. A 'huh' from the youth as he digs a small cellphone from the cargo pocket, bringing it up to view the screen, "Whoops. Gotta go.." he says to no one in particular. "Aiden, nice seeing you again.." he says, lifting a hand to the winged one. That wave shifts to Annabeth, "Annabeths." he says, still not getting her explanation. Then that wave slides to the two taller gentlemen, "Other guys…" And then Ash is jogging off into the crowd.
"Annabeth," corrects the woman, in tandem with herself. "Just one of me." She shakes one head while the other speaks in sympathy. "I'm sure she'll show up."
Michael gives Aiden a sympathetic look. "I'm sorry; I know what it's like to lose someone you care about tremendously, and I wouldn't wish it on anyone. I hope some day you cna find her." He says sincerely.
"Considering he has wings," Nathan says with a thumb jerked at Aiden, "and a girlfriend that got teleported, you'd really think the idea of two people being one person wouldn't be that far out there." Nathan is watching after Ash as he says this, though he looks at Annabeth after, shrugging casually only to turn his attention properly to Aiden, "Who teleported you guys? It seems like the internet might be useful for something like that." He takes another drag on his cigarette, glancing aside at Michael as well, but not commenting, once again, on people who wind up lost.
"Take care Ash." Aiden says with a wave before he nods slowly. "I'm sure I will. And I've tried that internet stuffs. She's probably just as bad as it as I am. I don't do that social booking stuff but I found a video of her of over a year ago performing in California. But she could be anywhere by now." He takes a deep breath. "My best friend, Benjamin. He got her and another friend of ours out of there first and then me second. The problem was he was shot as we teleported and it screwed up the destination. We ended up in the middle of the woods of Canada where he died so…tonights gonna be a good night for a few beers."
Annabeth just winces as Aiden retells the tail. She puts a comforting hand on his shoulder and says, "If you need anything I live two floors below you." There's a bit of a pause before the other continues. "I should get going, though. I have a bit more groceries to pick up, and then I've got a tutoring appointmentment in a little more than an hour." Both bodies wave to those present, "It was nice meetingyou," they say in unison before departing.
Michael chuckles a little bit. "See, you're working your way to being a proper curmudgeon already. The internet." He waves his hand in a clearly joking but dismissive gesture. But then he nods as he hears that. "Again, I'm sorry. I've been there too; you never forget the names." He nods to Annabeth, smiling.
Aiden shrugs again. "Well I have to be going too. I got a job to get to on Coney Island. It was nice meeting you all and Annabeth, I'm sure I'll see you again." He says as he starts to walk off until he's got some clear sky so he can take off and fly towards Brooklyn.
