Who: Dani and Neena What: talking When: 6/25 after this log Where: Graymalkin Rating: r for mentions of alcohol and drug abuse, and torture Status: complete
Neena was making the rounds of all the people on Greymalkin. She was most curious to talk to Dani, since they hadn’t gotten around to doing that, yet. She wondered how weird it would be, talking to someone for the first time but having all these memories about her from the dreams. She decided not to expect anything, and just go with the flow of conversation.
She knocked on the door to the room Dani had claimed, bearing a bottle of water.
It was really just to get some time away from everyone else to sit and think. She didn't plan on staying on Greymalkin for long, but wasn't sure if the situation was settled enough to ask for a bodyslide to the surface. What with people getting randomly kidnapped and blue glowy zombies and all.
And Shepard had said more was coming. She was curled up and staring at the AA coin in her hand when Dom knocked. Quickly tucking it away, she called out through the door, "Who is it?"
“Neen- Domino. Open up, kid. I have a good steak with your name all over it.” She figured food and water would help her deal with whatever she had going on. After that mess Dani probably wanted someone to talk to, and Neena figured she was a better candidate than Nate.
That was definitely a good assessment. After the day Dani'd just had, what she really wanted to do was tell Nate where he could shove his fatherly 'try not to die' advice.
She hopped off the bed and opened the door, "Did you say Steak? How did you know that was the magic word?"
“Because I know people.” She smiled at Dani, and pulled her cart over. “Here, yours is the last. Mind if I come in?”
"Hopefully you've saved the best steak for last, then," Dani replied, teasingly snarky. She stepped aside to allow enough room for both Dom and her cart to come through, not sure it was right to go kicking out the person who'd just brought her a hot meal.
"Sure. Stick around. Watch me eat delicious food in front of you."
“Please, I’m about to do something more awkward and weird after this, so it’s not out of my way.” She handed the food over and left the cart in the hallway. “How are you holding up? Hopefully you weren’t doing too much shit like this while you were gone.”
Dani grimaced and shook her head, "I wasn't doing any shit remotely like this while I was gone. This was pretty much my first official 'dream x-men bleed into reality' moment."
She set her plate down and patted the arm that'd been grazed. Part of her tank top was still a little speckled with blood, "I made out a lot better than dream me did on the last mission I dreamed about, though. So I really can't complain."
Neena nodded. “That’s rough. I’m sorry it had to be this one, seems like a real nasty piece of work.” She crossed her legs leaning against the wall. “Faiza’s a godsend, she patched you up, right?”
"Yeah. I think she knows me from somewhere, like besides the Ranch. There was a look, you know. Like recognition." Dani started cutting her steak up, since the action of doing it gave her some extra time to talk before devouring happened, "This one wasn't really that bad, honestly. My powers wouldn't have worked on the mech anyway, there were rifles to use, and no one was majorly hurt except the captives."
She frowned, "It was bad for the captives, of course. Very bad. And it was amateur hour in there. But at least we all made it out, more or less. My last dream mission involved me being strapped to something and tortured in Limbo while Sam watched, so. You know. It wasn't as bad as that, for me. I'll count my blessings."
Neena made a face. “Jesus. Well, anything’s better than being tortured in a Hell dimension, really.” She shook her head. “Other than this shit, how’ve you been?”
Dani stabbed a piece of meat with her fork, somewhat aggressively. She wondered if Scott had put her up to this, but then figured that Dom wasn't the type to do something just 'cause 'Dad' made her, anyway, "Fine. Everything's been really awesome."
Neena watched for a minute, then shrugged. “Good. Things can be pretty crazy here.” She took a long drink of her water.
"I question my sanity for returning, daily." Dani leaned back in her chair, and pulled her fork out of the meat she'd speared, then poked at it a little bit, "You know Faiza pretty well, right? If she was patching me up and she found anything else worth mentioning to me she'd let me know, wouldn't she?"
Neena nodded. "Yeah, I got a ten minute lecture about the state of my liver the first time she patched me up. She apparently pulled a brain tumor out of Emma's head. Why?"
"I think we were in too big of a rush for a ten minute lecture," Dani replied, raising her eyebrows. She'd probably have gotten one about the state of her own liver in that case. But that wasn't why she'd asked. She darted her eyes to the side, "No specific reason. Well, not one I need everyone worrying about, anyway. I just... got into some trouble a few months ago."
“Yeah, and?” Neena motioned for her to continue. If Dani was associating her with Domino, then Neena didn’t feel the need to note that she wouldn’t tell everyone (or anyone), else.
The Domino she'd known in the dreams had been pretty picky about being called some version of that. It'd seemed to Dani that Scott and Nate were the only people allowed to call her 'Neena'. She probably should have asked, but they could get to that at some point.
For the moment, Dani had other things to deal with and Dom was definitely someone she knew she could trust, "And I woke up in a trashy hotel room in Las Vegas, covered in blood and a film of powder that I'm pretty sure was cocaine, naked and so hungover I thought dying would be a better idea than trying to move. So..."
Dani took a deep breath and let it out, "That was three months ago, and I'm due for some 'just in case' tests. If she didn't find anything then I'm probably fine."
Neena whistled. “You don’t fuck around when you mess your life up, huh? She’d have said something, or grabbed you to talk in private.” She tilted her head a little. “You have friends and shit here, right? Where are you staying?”
"That's what I figured, yeah. So I'm fine."
That was good to know. As for the rest of it, well, she really didn't need more people worried about her. She nodded her head, "I'm really popular, didn't you know? You should have seen that network post when I first got back. Oh wait, you were in that."
“Yeah, but there’s people who talk to you and then there’s friends. They’re not the same.” She shrugged. “So what brought you here? Not Orange County, I mean why’d you help out with this?”
Dani sighed. She felt like she was pissing Dom off more by being evasive than sparing her the worry was worth, "Listen, you don't really keep a lot of the friends you made when you disappear without a trace and then spend five months in a drunken stupor. One of my remaining friends is still besties with the man I left behind. The other one is more like a sponsor than a friend and I owe him money. The last one is in meetings with me, but even we don't talk about everything. So no. I don't have a lot of friends in town because I burned all my bridges."
She stabbed her steak again, "And I helped with this because Scott messaged me with his Dad voice on. It just seemed like the right thing to do."
“Sounds like a mess.” She sipped her water. She should probably let it go. It wasn’t her business, anyway. She had enough little ducklings to herd around without adding another one. “So what’s your plan?” Leaving things alone wasn’t really a skill she’d honed. Poking at people until they got pissed off at her was more her style.
"Yeah, it's pretty much a mess," Dani agreed. The steak was probably cold at this point and she really just didn't feel like eating it. She focused on the water Dom had brought her instead, opening it up and taking a sip.
"My plan so far is go to meetings, pay Wrex back, and give explanations to people I owe them to."
“And after that?” Neena asked, keeping her tone even so she wouldn’t sound like she was judging Dani. “It’s easier to keep moving if you’re going toward something.”
Dani shrugged, "After that, I don't know. I haven't really thought too far ahead, I guess. I used to be a Park Ranger but that career is pretty much toast. If I work out at the ranch I might just stay there. There were things I thought I might do with my life before all this, but with all this weird shit still happening here and the X-men crap happening all over again, I don't think it's smart to make plans."
After a pause she added, "I mean my biggest goal is just staying the fuck sober. I don't buy into the religious parts of AA, but I do want that shiny metal one year chip."
Neena nodded. “I know another woman who’s in recovery, she just got her one year thingy. That’s a good goal, one worth working toward. Think you’ll like the ranch, too. It’s a pretty good place, with lots of good people, despite Scott.” She smirked, to show she was joking. “I guess I won’t be buying you a beer when this is over, but I’d still like to get to know you.”
"I wish you were buying me a beer when this is all over, but I think we can both agree that that's a really bad idea," Dani replied, with a bit of a smirk, "So I guess you'll have to buy me some cheesy mock-tails, get plastered yourself, and let me drive you home."
She felt a little more at ease. Dom was good to talk to because she didn't really judge and she hadn't known Dani previously, except in the dreams, "We should definitely fix the fact that we only know dream-us."
"Actually we'll both be dry when we spend time together for close to a year." Apparently she was telling everyone about that. "But we don't have to drink to have fun."
"No, we don't. I spent three months having that drilled into my head," Dani replied, smiling in a way that for once didn't feel ungenuine or like it'd break her face off to do it, "And hey. Congrats! You're happy about it, right? You seem happy."
“I am. Things will never be normal or calm, but I don’t want either of those things.” She shrugged, finishing her water. “I like excitement, and kids are pretty much the most exciting and terrifying thing in the world.”
"There's never a dull moment at the Ranch. Those kids aren't mine, but still. I'm not sure I'd have the energy for my own after dealing with those ones all day. I think we'd all go crazy if there wasn't something exciting going on all the time."
Dani got up out of her chair and picked her steak up. She was going to have to take it to the galley and get it reheated, she figured, "Can you point me to the microwave?"
“Sure. Follow me, I need to grab a sandwich or something before I check in on Nate and then fall into bed for a couple days.” She yawned and stretched as she led the way out.