Tweak

InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "CRUISAZY!"

Tom Sturbridge (timestoodstill) wrote in we_float,
@ 2010-06-20 22:14:00

Entry tags:

character: maxxie delacourt, character: tom sturbridge

Who: Tom Sturbridge and Maxxie Delacourt
When: Sunday, June 20, 2096
Where: Anhalt Building
What: Just talking, as far as I know...
Status: Closed, Complete

Tom had had to get up early to meet his family for Father's Day breakfast. He didn't know why they couldn't do brunch like normal people, but apparently overachieving was so ingrained in his parents that they even had to be up before everyone else on a holiday Sunday. Although the line when they left had been long enough Tom had had to acknowledge there was a method behind their madness.

It had been good to see his family, even though he hadn't been able to say much about what he was up to. There was a part of him that, with his mother's research, hesitated to mention what he'd been hired to do. So it was a relief to be able to leave before they really started to dig at him with questions.

He knocked on Maxxie's door. "Maxxie, I brought you food!" he called cheerfully through the door.

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timestoodstill
2010-06-21 01:47 pm UTC (link)

Tom pushed open the door and looked around, laughing when he saw Maxxie up against the wall. "Hey, you," he said, flopping onto the bed so he wouldn't be in the way when she decided to right herself.

He leaned over the edge of the bed so his head was also upside down. "I've got a cheese danish and a bear claw thing. Classy of me to snag them from the buffet before we left, huh?"

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maxblinks
2010-06-21 02:34 pm UTC (link)

A small smile flickered through the seriousness in her expression. "Completely classy, but also appreciated." She shifted so her feet were braced against the wall, then managed to get her hands under her and pushed up into a handstand before she let her feet slowly come back to the ground. Turning, she let her legs twist and neatly collapsed into a cross-legged seat on her floor, looking up at Tom.

She held out one hand. "Cheese danish. How was breakfast with the family?"

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	timestoodstill 2010-06-21 02:47 pm UTC (link)
	He handed over the pastry, along with a napkin he'd also filched. "Surprisingly not horrible." He grinned. "Lucky for me, Callum had lots to talk about, so they didn't get a chance to grill me. I'm not sure how well I would have been able to dodge if they'd really started grilling me. Did you call your dad?" (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

maxblinks
2010-06-21 06:29 pm UTC (link)

She picked a piece of the cheese danish apart, making sure to get both pastry and sweet cheese, while Tom spoke. She'd just popped it in her mouth, and was glad of the excuse not to answer his question right away, even though it was obvious from the swift set of her jaw. She chewed and swallowed, setting the pastry down on the floor in front of her, napkin carefully laid out beneath it. She stuck her thumb and forefinger in her mouth, sucking the sweet sugar off, then folded her hands in her lap.

"Oh yes. It was lovely. He's lovely. Mom's lovely. Alex is bored out of his mind. Everyone wants to know when I'm coming home and what I'm doing and how I can possibly still be spending money like water when I'm not even in school or doing the gymnastics league anymore." There was more, there was always more, but that made a good start. "I think I would have rather been to your breakfast. And I've never met any of your family."

As deflections went, it was clumsy and poorly aimed.

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timestoodstill
2010-06-21 08:14 pm UTC (link)

"You should," Tom said. "Callum, at least. He's awesome." He grinned at her. "Mine was mostly, 'Have you enrolled for fall classes yet? Have you decided on a major? How are you going to get anywhere in life if you don't decide what you want to do?' We didn't get into what I'm doing this summer, thankfully. They know I've got a place to live and income so I'm not asking them for money. I have no idea what I would say if they asked what I was doing." He wrinkled his nose. "I'm pretty sure 'superhero' isn't an approved career in the Sturbridge household."

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maxblinks
2010-06-21 10:44 pm UTC (link)

"Why not?" Maxxie was glad to keep the conversation on this track. "You and he are both aces, and you're standing up for the good side of Wild Cards. So why wouldn't it be an approved career? They ought to be proud that you are making a decision and doing something that actually could turn out to be pretty damned important."

She smiled a bit. "And I'd like to meet Callum. I ought to eventually meet my friend's family."

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	timestoodstill 2010-06-21 10:59 pm UTC (link)
	"When you put it that way, maybe, yeah. But then they'd start in on, 'Is that really a sustainable career? Do you think you'll make enough as a superhero to retire on?' Or at least Dad will. Mom... I have no idea how she'd react," Tom admitted. He frowned slightly, then perked up. "Wait a second. Did you just call me your friend?" (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	maxblinks 2010-06-21 11:03 pm UTC (link)
	"Tell them it's not about the money, it's about saving humanity. They'll feel so guilty not to have thought about it that they'll cave," Maxxie suggested. She rolled her eyes at his surprise. "You don't have to act like that's a shock." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

timestoodstill
2010-06-21 11:33 pm UTC (link)

"Last time I checked, I was the person you didn't not like the least. Or most. Whichever that would be. So friend is completely an upgrade. I'd hug you if you wouldn't kick me for it." He beamed at her.

"They'd want to know exactly how I was going to save humanity, then. What was my plan? Where was the funding coming from? What were my short term and long term goals. I swear, Maxxie. I've had the same conversation with my Dad a thousand times. Although I guess really they're not bad questions. Just... not ones I really have an answer to right now, and especially not at a family breakfast."

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maxblinks
2010-06-22 01:53 am UTC (link)

"You are the person who I don't not like the best, which I've decided might as well be termed friend since there are other people I don't not like now. And a hug might not get you hurt this once." Because it would be honest, and she knew that, which made a huge difference.

"They aren't bad questions," Maxxie agreed, but she knew that Tom knew she was goal-oriented herself. "But sometimes you have to have goals to set goals, and the answer is I'll know that in a month after I set it up or something like that. As long as a timeline is in place and you're doing something. At least your parents wouldn't mind you using your ability. I think mine are relieved I quit the team."

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timestoodstill
2010-06-22 02:05 am UTC (link)

Tom slid off the bed, joining Maxxie on the floor. He wrapped an arm around her and hugged her tightly, letting go after a moment because he didn't want to overstay his welcome. He shifted a little ways away, leaning against the edge of the bed but staying on the floor, a tangle of long limbs.

"I don't know how my parents feel about me using my ability," Tom admitted. "I mean, they're fine with the theory that I'm an Ace, and that Callum is, but both of them are nats, and I think it sort of almost weirds them out in a way when we actually use our abilities. Especially now, when it's dangerous. I haven't really talked about it with them, y'know? And they haven't talked about it with me."

Which was maybe a little strange, he realized. He would have thought his mother would have contacted him with everything going on. Maybe she'd finally acknowledged that he was an adult, and could handle himself.

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maxblinks
2010-06-22 02:22 am UTC (link)

Maxxie returned the hug without being stiff, but not anywhere near as enthusiastically as Tom. She sat back when she could, the soles of her feet pressed together, hands on her toes, elbows against her knees as she pushed her knees down in a butterfly stretch.

"But they haven't yelled at you, either," Maxxie pointed out. "If they really, truly disapproved, they'd probably let you know. But it is getting to be more and more of a dirty little secret all around. Because of what's going on. It's like... people smoke in private... they drink in private... and I have to blip in private. Which makes it sound so much worse than it is."

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timestoodstill
2010-06-22 02:35 am UTC (link)

"I'm not sure how to bring it back out into the open without putting ourselves and others in danger, is the trouble. Like, things aren't horrible... yet... but they seem to be devolving and that makes me nervous. I feel like we need to intervene soon, but I'm still really not sure how." Tom shrugged. "I need to pin Del down and bring up the radio show idea again, because I think it's a good one, but we need to get it off the ground."

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maxblinks
2010-06-22 02:48 am UTC (link)

Maxxie drew her knees up, looping her arms around them and propping her chin on her knees. "I think that one's a good idea, too, and I wish I knew how to get all the equipment we need within the budget we were given. Which is a good budget, but isn't anywhere near enough, I think. Not for all of it.

"I think I want to start going out. Patrolling, or something. Getting to know more about how things are out there."

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	timestoodstill 2010-06-22 02:52 am UTC (link)
	"Just seeing what's going on, or talking to people, or what?" Tom asked, cocking his head and studying her. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

maxblinks
2010-06-22 03:04 am UTC (link)

Maxxie wrinkled her nose. "Seeing what's going on. Watching how people are reacting to each other, to jokers, even to me. I saw a commercial for the summer games and they were talking about the possibilities of metahuman influences on the games, and whether there could be another scandal." She rolled her eyes.

"I hear a lot of things on the news, but I haven't been looking at what's really going on. How much of it is hype, or real, and whether there are any places we can nudge good thoughts back into people. Fighting without actually fighting."

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	timestoodstill 2010-06-22 03:09 am UTC (link)
	"And what they're not covering," Tom pointed out. "I've been trying to keep tabs on things online, but there's a lot to sift through and a lot of it is just people spouting off, and it's hard to tell what's just bark and what's bite." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

maxblinks
2010-06-22 05:36 pm UTC (link)

"People are like that, they go with whatever the popular opinion is and they sound off about it because they need to be part of the majority," she said easily. That part of people made sense, the whole herd mentality. "I don't know if there's an easy way to find the ones that are the real troublemakers, except to find people making plans.

"I've seen ones saying we ought to be sterilized. Other ones saying we ought to be killed, because sterilization might not work. Oh, and I read an entire article on how the brains of a Wild Card work differently... that they've mapped our thought processes and we're more prone to instabilities." Maxxie rolled her eyes again. "That's just human nature -- everyone has the chance to go completely bugfuck crazy. We aren't any more special than anyone else that way."

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timestoodstill
2010-06-22 05:42 pm UTC (link)

"Seriously," Tom said. "I mean, one of the least stable people around here is a nat. Or maybe he's just an asshole." He clenched his hands between his knees. "They've been doing research on wild cards for a long time," he said. "Sometimes I wonder what's going to happen with that. Like, will their findings be completely twisted against us, or will they work for us, or what?"

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	maxblinks 2010-06-23 01:58 am UTC (link)
	Maxxie just blinked her eyes a few times. "It'll work against us, I'm sure, if it's the government funded research. The government says we're bad, thus, the research says we're bad. Statistics lie." Everything lied, really, the hard part was getting at the truths that weren't being told. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	timestoodstill 2010-06-23 03:30 am UTC (link)
	"Not all of the research is government funded, though," Tom said. "I don't know if it will continue, if the government could come after the researchers for being sympathizers or something." He shrugged. "Just another thing to add to our list of a million things to worry about." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

maxblinks
2010-06-23 01:49 pm UTC (link)

"I'm making a list of those things. A really long list. I expect it to fill a notebook." Which didn't stop her from physically writing things down, a habit started long ago when it wasn't easy to have an electronic device all the time but she could pack a paper journal in her gym bag. Currently with a bright orange pen.

"We'll get it all done and we'll save the world, right? Researchers and everyone else, too." And maybe themselves along the way, although she wasn't sure how it worked and if they'd have to be martyrs. She didn't like the thought, not wanting to die for a humanity she didn't even like.

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timestoodstill
2010-06-23 11:20 pm UTC (link)

"We'll certainly make a good start of it," Tom said. "I think the big thing is that we really need to get public opinion swung around to our side, and then other people will be working towards savings the world, as well."

He perked up slightly. "You know, that's it. We have to convince people that saving wild cards is saving the world. That if they sit back and allow wild cards to be persecuted, then they could be next. That this is about human rights... which means convincing them, of course, that wild cards are human. Which is, of course, much harder than it sounds."

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