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

[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?"

[furnaceface]

Jono blinked, realizing at just that moment that perhaps he hadn't thought that one out so very well at all.

//By... attempting to be a bigger monkey than they are, of course.//

Yes. That would go over well, for sure.

[life_inshadow]

"Uh-huh." Tara was trying very hard not to giggle now. "Well, at least there's glass between them and us so they can't charge you."

[furnaceface]

//Do you suppose that'll save me?// Jono looked very thoughtful for a moment, and then, almost managing a grin (at least around the corners of his eyes), he reached up one hand to scratch at the top of his head.

And a moment later, reached up the other hand to scratch at his armpit, in one of those classic 'monkey' poses.

//Ook, ook?//

The things he did to get a smile out of his friends. Honestly.

[life_inshadow]

"Can monkeys hear you?" Tara wondered aloud, then turned to face the chimps. "He says 'ook, ook'" she translated, quite seriously. "And uh ... we admire you as cousins to humans."

[furnaceface]

//You know, I've never actually tried to communicate with an ape before?// Beyond humans, sure, but they weren't quite the same thing. //I suppose there is a first for everything.//

He looked thoughtfully at the chimps. And then glanced back at Tara.

//If I try to say hello to them and they end up rushing at th'window, I reserve th'right to scream like a little girl.//

[life_inshadow]

"At least if you do that, it won't hurt my ears," Tara said thoughtfully.

Then, more brightly: "But I'm sure they'll like you. They like, um, friendly people, right?"

And Jono was nothing if not friendly.

[furnaceface]

Oh, yes. Jono was perfectly friendly, if you didn't mind snark and fire.

//... I suppose that's true. Yer ears would be just fine.//

He was going to be kind and not mention things like nosebleeds and searing pain stabbing directly through the brain, and other such things that came about from being in psionic earshot of a screaming telepath.

//What should I say to them?//

[life_inshadow]

"I don't know," Tara said thoughtfully. "What would you want to hear if you were a monkey in a zoo?"

She wasn't kidding at all.

[furnaceface]

//Well...// Jono was actually going to think this one over. //I've never actually been a monkey in the zoo before. But I suppose some compliments couldn't hurt. They spend all day with small children beating on th'glass trying to get their attention, after all.//

It actually reminded Jono a bit of the paparazzi.

[life_inshadow]

"Tell them they have pretty fur," TRara agreed. "Oh! And that they seem, um, exceptionally clever? Everybody likes to hear they're smart, right?"

[furnaceface]

//I know I certainly do,// Jono agreed, looking thoughtfully at the chimps.

They did not seem to be flinging their business about, and so he wouldn't even feel put-off about telling a bunch of apes that they looked intelligent.

Even if he felt rather silly about talking to them at all.

//Er... Hello, there?// Yes. Yes, now he felt silly, speaking on an open channel between himself, Tara, and a bunch of large primates. //We couldn't help but notice that you all seem exceptionally well-groomed today. Prime examples of your species, in fact. All of chimpanzeedom should be very pleased to have such clever individuals among their number.//

Was it possible for a group of chimps to look terribly confused? These ones seemed to be pulling it off.

[life_inshadow]

"And you're so polite," Tara contributed helpfully. "You aren't, um ... you know, some chimpanzees kind of don't know how to keep private stuff private, but you aren't like that at all. It's ... r-refreshing."

This did not serve to make the apes much less confused.

[furnaceface]

Poor, poor things.

//Indeed,// Jono confirmed, feeling no less silly now than he had been before. //None of that untoward screeching and flinging of poop. Yer all rather well-behaved, actually. More than some humans that I've met.//

It was sad that this was true.