InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "Have a seat right over there."

Matt Cavanaugh (palehorses) wrote in we_float,
@ 2010-06-24 18:56:00

Current mood:	thoughtful
Current music:	"Underneath Days" :: Bob Mould
Entry tags:	character: matt cavanaugh, character: maxxie delacourt

You never want to see the things I could become
Who: Matt Cavanaugh and Maxxie Delacourt
When: Wednesday, June 23
Where: Anhalt Building
What: Discussing what both have figured out about how to restructure the group and make it be something everyone wants to be in.
Status: Closed, Incomplete

It probably looked like Matt simply had his eyes closed. At least, it probably looked like that on first glance, but the two fingertips trailing into the coffee in the cup by his hand likely gave the impression he was actually asleep, but it wasn't like the coffee was hot, or something. He still hadn't entirely decided to do anything about that, because he was trying to figure out the answer to the first labour.

Because really, how did you make an everlasting brownie?

He'd considered and discarded LSD (flashbacks counted as everlasting, right?), genetic resequencing so that Ganesh simply thought he had always just eaten a brownie (too expensive), a really large brownie (ridiculous), and a knitted brownie. The last was the most promising, given that Ganesh had never said it had to be edible.

Not that Matt could knit, but that was a problem for later.

He heard Maxxie's distinctive footsteps - tap, silence, tap tap tap, silence - where the silences were her blinking, and dropped his chair back down to all four feet, managing to get coffee in his eye as he brushed his hair back.

It was sort of a greeting when he looked at her, his eyes unfocused, and said something that most closely approximated to "Blargh."

(Read comments) - (Post a new comment)

maxblinks
2010-06-27 02:48 pm UTC (link)

"I know some of them." Maxxie flipped pages in her notebook. "There's you and me. And Tom stops time, which you knew, and Zad heals, which sounds dangerous as all hell. Alec's a nat, and Del..." she hesitated, because they'd never spoken actually specifically, but the part where he looked blind but didn't act it seemed, well... she shrugged. "I have no clue about JT, and Ganesh does his programming thing, and insane guy walks through walls. Did I forget anyone?"

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

palehorses
2010-06-27 03:14 pm UTC (link)

"Not that I fucking know," Matt said, but it wasn't hostile. "JT's a nat, by the way, fill that checkbox in. I think Ganesh is too, in terms of powers. I mean, skills are one fucking thing, but powers are another and hard to teach." Another grin at that.

The chair went back up on two legs as he looked thoughtful. "So, not a lot of heavy hitting. By the way, Zadkiel heals, but it comes back on him, can fuck his shit up and I really mean that. Which - y'know, I've been trying to figure out what the fuck it is we're doing, even under the new world order, and I'm kind of going well, I guess we have to be us, just as hard as we fucking can, which is totally ridiculous because it doesn't add up to a purpose. But ... we've got a bunch of friendly faces." His voice slowed, the cadence thoughtful. "This isn't, you know, fucking X-Men or something, and it's really not the Four Aces either. We're not superheroes, you know? But ... we can't stand by the side and just watch the world happen without us. And I guess ... rather than, like, making a fucking life goal of stopping every fucking bank robbery that comes down the pike, I'd rather prove that we are. I mean, really, we exist, we're better than they want to think we are."

His eyes focused suddenly as he looked at her. "I mean ... the edicts were about corporations, at the end of the day, weren't they. They fucking had to be, you know well as I do that nothing gets fucking done in this country any more unless a corp's putting up the fucking funding. So what are they doing that they don't want us around any more? And honestly, I'm totally up for poking a corp in the fucking eye. I think - I think we do that by being seen. As us. As aces, deuces, jokers, whatever the fuck we are. I think we do stop the little things, if we can, if it's safe, and I think we also do the big thing of proving that we're not any more fucking scary than other people. Some of whom are fucking stone killers, princess, fucking believe it. If we don't go quietly, if we do prove we exist, we stop whoever fucking wants this, whatever it is, you know? It's like, okay, it's time to fucking stand up, because someone's decided it's time to shove us in the dirt, and fucking kowtowing is not a good look on me."

He dropped the chair back to the floor and looked at her intently, wondering if that was enough of an articulated statement that she understood him - more, that she was willing to go to that fight with him.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

maxblinks
2010-06-28 12:33 am UTC (link)

"I know about Zad," she said, pulling her feet up under her, shoes left beneath the chair, so her toes curled over the edge and she could crouch there, bottom sort of propped on the arm of it. "He needs a spotter when he goes out, to keep him from going too far. He said he can stop, but I don't trust that, so he needs someone with him to break the connection if he goes to far. He's like a vampire in reverse."

She had to filter what he'd said to get at the core information, so she offered while she thought, "When you talk to the interviewers, you might want to drop a few less f-bombs. Not because they're offensive or anything, but because they make what you're saying muddier and it would have more impact if people don't have to translate in their heads to take them out."

She was nodding slowly, though, as she thought her way through it. "We live our lives, and even if we don't look for trouble, we don't go away without fixing it when we find it," she echoed. "We remind people that we are people above all, and we have to try to stay alive while we're doing it. I also think we ought to try to help the people who are endangered... You're talking about the killers, well, they'll go after people who are the weakest of the wild cards. Show how easy we are to kill, and people will be in danger. Either snapped up to be used, or dead. We should help them, because by helping them, we may be able to get them moving and proving that they exist."

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

palehorses
2010-07-03 02:55 am UTC (link)

"I think we need to be open," he said slowly. "It's risky, yeah, but ... how else do we make the fucking point? I know they can discriminate against us, can try to hurt us, but I don't know that they can really do anything much if we basically make a point of the fact we're all wild cards, right?" He thought he probably should check that, and a name leaped to mind to do that, but another part of the question was whether she - or anyone else, for that matter - would be willing to take that step. Right now, all of them, even Matt, could hide and hide safely.

What he wanted would make them unable to. And he couldn't possibly pretend there was no risk to that idea.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

maxblinks
2010-07-04 04:08 am UTC (link)

Some of them didn't have a choice about being open. "I don't mind people knowing I'm a wild card. I'd have to move to oh, the middle of nowhere to be completely anonymous, then all they'd have to do is watch me for five minutes to figure it out. But you're right, that's the point. What can they do if we're not doing anything wrong?" Maxxie said. "If we're just all obviously wild cards, or sympathisers, and living our lives like everyday average people, because that's all we are, then they really can't do anything and look good while doing it."

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

palehorses
2010-07-04 06:20 pm UTC (link)

"Dangerous," he pointed out, but it wasn't a negative. Then he smiled brilliantly. "And as you say, you're fucking known, princess. But we can't make the fucking point if we're all hiding. Not that I fucking know how to show off what I am, but I won't lie about it any more, I know that."

He paused in thought, and said "What do you think of the others? Will they go there, do you think, or is it too safe to not be obvious? I mean, we don't have any jokers here, more's the pity - well, not really we don't - but I'm kind of fucking convinced that at least one person's here because it's a way to fucking hide in plain sight, you know?"

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	maxblinks 2010-07-04 07:19 pm UTC (link)
	"I don't know if Tom's ready to go there or not," Maxxie admitted. "But he's always around me all the time anyway, and he was willing to train and learn how our powers interacted, so he's willing to do something. Who do you think is trying to hide in plain sight?" (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

palehorses
2010-07-04 08:32 pm UTC (link)

"Not sure how I feel about JT," Matt finally said. "He's hiding here, is my take." He shrugged. "Could change." But he sounded doubtful.

"Still, though," he added, more resolutely, "it's not going to work if we're all, like, fucking just here for our own reasons. I mean, I know you know that, it's the fucking basis of this conversation, but ... I'm wondering if we'll lose anyone if we present the ideas we're getting from this to them, you know?"

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	maxblinks 2010-07-05 01:40 am UTC (link)
	"If we lose them, is that bad?" Maxxie asked. "And do we all have to be doing the exact same thing? We can have multiple plans going. Groups within a group. As long as everyone is pulling their weight and doing something towards the cause, even if it isn't going out to play poster child. We can attack the problem from multiple angles." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

palehorses
2010-07-05 02:41 am UTC (link)

"Fuck no, it's not bad," Matt agreed. "Seriously, if this isn't what we're all committed to, you know? I really don't feel like sticking my fucking neck out for someone who might not have my back."

"As for plans," he said, "I don't fucking have a clue how to coordinate that. Just that it'd probably be a good idea to not, you know, have half the group heading off to the planet of naked stewardesses while the other group's off exploring the lost continent of the potato-people - at least, not if either group's expecting that everyone's going where they are, you know? But beyond that, fuck no I don't want to walk in lockstep with everyone else, and I don't want to think about, you know, like fucking group missions, or group hug time or whatever." He grimaced. "Just - we need to know what we stand for first before we can do it."

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	maxblinks 2010-07-05 02:59 am UTC (link)
	"We need a mission statement. To better the lives of wild cards. Or to save wild cards, or save the rights of wild cards to be human and expect human decency," Maxxie suggested. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	palehorses 2010-07-05 10:42 pm UTC (link)
	"I like that," he said with surprise. "Never thought I'd say that about, you know, a fucking mission statement, but it at least lays out a ground level that we expect everyone to stand on. And if someone can't agree ... then this isn't the place for them." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	maxblinks 2010-07-05 10:57 pm UTC (link)
	Maxxie grinned. "Not everything about management is bullshit. Sometimes psychology actually works. That last bit -- that's really the core of it, I think. Want me to make a poster to put up in the entryway? Or kitchen. Since, like you've already pointed out, we all do eat." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

palehorses
2010-07-08 12:57 am UTC (link)

"I don't know," he said thoughtfully, lighting another cigarette. "What do you think, that seems like, I don't know, fucking changing the rules without warning or something. I mean, I hate this shit, but maybe it's time to, like, call a house meeting or something? Lay out what you and I want to do and give other people the chance to decide before we're like plastering the walls with mission statements and team-building exercises?" He grinned at her, partly in genuine joy, but partly also in response to her own happiness.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

(Read comments) -