Portalocity Terminal, JFK, Thursday Morning

[life_inshadow]

... okay, so the thing about taking the first cheap portal she could find was that it meant the travel path kind of sucked. Tara had spent most of the previous day on some planet where the native life form and most of the fellow passengers appeared to be a blob of red jelly.

On the bright side, there'd been a Cinnabon outlet.

She'd made it to New York in one piece, though, and was now resting on a bench, waiting for Jono. The crowds were overwhelming after three months at home, but in a way the distraction was a relief -- it meant she wasn't getting trapped in her own head so much.

Furtively, she checked her phone. No calls from home so far. She wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

[OOC: For the dude on fire. NFB due to distance.]

Comments

[life_inshadow]

"Which is the one thing my dad will never, ever do," Tara had to agree in a long sigh. "I should probably call sometime and tell him where I am..."

[furnaceface]

//When yer ready, luv,// Jono replied, shrugging. //Time here runs fairly swiftly, too. There isn't any rush, if you'd like a few hours to just unwind, first.//

Jono was a pretty terrible enabler of irresponsible behaviours.

[life_inshadow]

"I should do that," Tara said. "The zoo, then maybe a nap, then ... other stuff."

She blinked at him. "So when is it now, here?"

[furnaceface]

//Early autumn, 1999,// Jono replied, shrugging faintly. //We're still a bit behind if we're going by Fandom's standards, but we're working on catching up.//

Bit by bit.

//It's been two years here, since graduation.//

[life_inshadow]

"And things still work with Raven?" It hadn't been nearly as long for Kennedy when they'd decided to stop trying -- but of course, there had been other things going on there.

[furnaceface]

Jono nodded a little, cramming one hand into his pocket and lifting the other, finally, to hail a taxi.

//I go back to the island to see her when I can, even if it does always seem to end with the island changing us into other people and such when I do. She doesn't get as much time to miss me, and where I'm standing, she's well worth th'wait.//

A beat.

//She's really all I've got.//

[life_inshadow]

"I guess some things are just meant to be," Tara said, and craned her neck to spot the cab. "Will this take us all the way to the zoo? Or should we get on the subway?"

Tara was, it should be noted, a tiny bit afraid of the subway.

[furnaceface]

Considering the way she'd been cringing away from the crowds in the airport, Jono kind of figured the subway would be a major no.

Really, he wasn't a huge fan of the subway, himself. Oh, sure, he'd been a pro at navigating the Tube back in London, but that was before he'd gone and blown his face off.

He kind of stood out, when he took the subway.

//Don't worry about it, luv. I'll handle th'cab fare.// A beat. //If you don't mind telling th'driver where we're headed? Telepathy and cabbies don't generally seem to mix.//

[life_inshadow]

Tara could handle crowds! It just went easier if she had a drink or ... five.

Or if her nerves weren't raw from grief.

"I can do that," she promised quietly.

And, when they got into the cab, she leaned forward toward the driver, almost as if she did it every week. "Central Park zoo, please," she said, with juit the slightest glance to Jono to ensure she had it right.

[furnaceface]

And Jono gave her a little nod in reply, and one of those little smiles that sat around the corners of his eyes.

//Perfect,// he offered, just between the two of them as he pulled his door shut and almost immediately cracked the window. No point in giving the cab driver cause to complain about the smell after skirting around the telepathy issue so neatly. //Yer a natural, Sunshine.//

[life_inshadow]

"Maybe I'll move here after I graduate," Tara said, and this smile was closer to her regular one. "So do you actually live in the city? I kind of thought the mansion thing was..."

She waved a hand vaguely. Out there, somewhere.

[OOC: Night!]

[furnaceface]

//Well, th'mansion itself is out in Westchester,// Jono replied, shrugging. //Not smack-dab in th'middle of the city, but getting in and out of town isn't exactly what you'd consider th'long haul, either.//

It was entirely possible that Jono had promised copious amounts of beer to Logan for a lift out here.

It wasn't like he was going to buy the beer for himself, after all.

[life_inshadow]

"And there's space there for me?" Tara asked, turning away from Jono just a touch so she could watch the city through her window. "I don't want to make somebody give up their --- oooh. Look at the skyline."

Jono had likely seen it, yes.

[furnaceface]

//There's plenty of room,// Jono promised, nodding and looking out the window at the skyline in question. He had seen it, yes, but it seemed easier to appreciate in the company of somebody who was looking it over with that small-town wonder in her eyes. //Especially if yer not planning on moving in long-term, luv. And if there is any trouble, I'll handle that, too.//

It would probably involve him letting her take his bed while he found somewhere else to flop around awake all night. It wasn't as though he did much sleeping at the best of times, after all. An armchair would serve just as well.

//Really, Tara, don't bother yerself over anything while yer here. I don't entertain guests often, but I make certain that they've got a place to sleep, at least, while I am.//

[life_inshadow]

"Thanks," Tara said, sincerely, and managed to leave it there. She still felt guilty, a bit, but she'd find a way to work it off.

"Is it all people like you there?" She meant mutants; it just seemed an unwise word to say with the cabbie already giving her the side-eye for talking to someone who didn't seem to answer.

[furnaceface]

Jono seemed to get the gist of the dance around that word, and he nodded, raising his hands as he spoke in his special brand of absolute gibberish sign-language.

//For th'most part, yes. But we do get in the occasional doctor from outside, human teachers, that sort of thing. Acceptance is too rare a thing for us to burn any bridges, if non-mutants feel like extending an olive branch, after all.//

Puppy Australia tapdancing furniture purple something-something stopwatch.

Someday, someone who knew sign-language was going to call him on that.

[life_inshadow]

Tara caught the drift of what he was doing, and signed back in the same imaginative way as she spoke.

Spider tomato has furious cry

"That's nice," she said, with a nod. "It's kind of the same for ... people like me, at home. I mean, most people just don't believe, but if someone does and likes you, you don't want to pick a fight."

[furnaceface]

//Witches and aliens actually get a far better reception in our world than mutants do,// Jono noted, watching Tara's hands intently and then waving his own around in reply. //But there's still that level of fear. It's easy enough to be wary of something that's more powerful than you are. Witches earn their craft and aliens tend to keep to themselves. They get a healthy respect. Mutants...//

He squinted, trying to find a way to put it.

//You never know who might manifest powers as a mutant. There's no precedent to train one up properly, no real way of policing us, no guarantee that we won't go on to add more of our X to humanity's gene pool. We're a wildcard. Nobody likes a wildcard. Especially not one that could potentially kill you by accident just by living to puberty.//

Bitter? Jono?

//So we play nice. At least, those of us at Xavier's do. We understand how much fear there is to work around.//

Perspective alarm clock summer was sprinkler chicken dance.

[life_inshadow]

"Is this the part where I tell you I'm not afraid of you?" Tara wondered, as her hands said something rude about Jono's grandmother and a pitcher of lemonade. "'Cause people like me can go bad, too. It's not all fluffy kittens and floating earrings."

The cab driver seemed relieved to have gotten them close to the park, and he pulled past some horse-drawn carriages and up to the curb.

[furnaceface]

And in reply to that, Jono shrugged, pulling out his wallet.

//You have to admit,// Jono mused as he counted out a healthy wad of bills, //the floating earrings are a nice touch, though.//

He stepped out onto the curb and waited for her to join him, looking around thoughtfully. This place was far easier to appreciate when he wasn't rushing past it en route to stop some overpowered wossname from blowing up Times Square.

//I never said th'fear was completely rational,// he added. //A friend of mine was once told to keep his hands off a drowning man because he's very obviously a mutant at a glance, but th'man decided it would be okay to accept th'rescue once Angelo lied and said he'd gotten his powers by being bitten by a radioactive elephant.//

Which was both absolutely brilliant, and completely ridiculous.

[life_inshadow]

Tara burst into laughter, giddy with surprise she still could laugh.

"Radioactive elephants?" she asked dubiously. Her hands kept up the ruse of sign language: Pink grenade bedroom ballet. "I could believe in those. Only I'd probably think they were secretly demons."

[furnaceface]

//If such a thing exists and a bite from it can make people grey and saggy, then I think I might be inclined to believe th'same,// Jono admitted, signing out something completely nonsensical that might have included a whimsical reference to horseshoes and confetti. //I wouldn't really rule out much of anything around here, honestly.//

[life_inshadow]

"There are saggy demons but they're kind of more tan then grey," Tara said, making a beeline for a map and squinting at it. "Hmmm. Monkeys first, or straight to the bears?"

[OOC: Sorry. Brainfail.]

[furnaceface]

//I suppose that depends entirely on how badly you want to see me attempt to make a monkey out of th'monkeys,// Jono replied, finding himself trying to picture a tan saggy demon and not quite managing it. //I suppose we could just make a full circuit of th'zoo and head toward whatever is nearest, first.//

[Totally fine! I've been in and out of brainfail all daaaay.]

[life_inshadow]

"We're in luck," Tara said, looking a bit amused. "Monkeys are the closest thing. So how are you going to m-make a monkey out of them?"