4813/The Morning After

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The Morning After
Date of Scene: 04 July 2018
Location: Andrea's Condo in NYC
Synopsis: Andrea and Josh have a falling out.
Cast of Characters: Elixir, Rage




Elixir has posed:
Josh stretches and yawns as he buzzes at Andrea's apartment. Even at this hour it is warm, promising to be another hot day. He is still dressed in the blue skinny jeans and blue t-shirt he was wearing the day before, with white sneakers scuffed from flying concrete.

"It's Josh," he says into the intercom then makes his way to the elevator and up to Andrea's place.

Rage has posed:
The sound of feet shuffling to the door is heard after he calls through the intercom. Andrea opens the door, wearing a pair of low on the hip pajama bottoms and a simple night shirt as she rubs at her eyes tiredly. Her hair is sticking up a bit as well in pockets. "Hey." She says as she steps to the side to let him in. "What's up? Come to scrounge breakfast from me?"

Elixir has posed:
Josh smiles wryly. "Something like that," he says as he comes in. He kicks his shoes off by the door and gives Andrea an appraising look. "I was worried about you," he says simply. "Wanted to see how you were doing. Love the look by the way," he quips, but the tone is gentle.

Rage has posed:
There is a shrug of Andrea's shoulders. "I don't know how I feel. I'm not scared. I'm not mad. I'm not happy." She says as she lets out a long sigh. "I feel like my life is kinda on a downward spiral now. I'm not sure how I can go on tour in this situation, I don't know if I can continue going to the school because me being there is going to draw attention, the wrong kind. And Mason ..." She trails off. ".. He's terrified of me."

Elixir has posed:
Josh holds out his arms to her, offering a hug.

"Yeah, he is," he admits, and shakes his head. "I think he's afraid of a lot of things. But he cares about you. He's just gonna need time."

Rage has posed:
Stepping into his arms, Andrea lets out a sigh as she props her chin down on his shoulder. "I don't think he does. I think he quit caring about me a long time ago when I wrote that stupid song. He'll never move past it, and he hates the fact he is a mutant and is scared of what he is, and then he hates the fact I'm so open and proud of who I am. Then last night, seeing me ... in combat. It probably destroyed how he ever saw me in the past." Her shoulders lift upwards. "I saved his life though, he woulda have died. You know what he did? He threw his wallet at one of them and begged for his life. He has powers, he could have used them. Instead he just .. gave up ..." She sighs. "And I lost my mind in that moment and I tackled that guy and I tore him into pieces. It's not really all me though. When I'm in the wolf, I'm just ... 'there', but I'm more off to the side. She is in control, and she runs on wild instinct. Kill or be killed, except she revels in it."

Elixir has posed:
Josh folds his arms around Andrea, holding her loosely to him. He presses his lips together as he listens to Andrea. He winces slightly when she tells him about Mason throwing his wallet. Josh is quiet for a moment.

"You might be right, I dunno... You're a complicated girl, Andrea, and brave. Not everyone can handle that, be like that," he says. "You two are really, /really/ different.... And yesterday it showed."

Rage has posed:
"We have always been different, which is what I loved about him. We worked well together. We are amazing when we sing on stage together. He was so tender and gentle with me, and then his mom had to go fuck it up. Telepathically tricked me into thinking he is cheating on me, made me angry, and then pushed me to the point where I wrote that dumb song out of anger. She made me feel enraged. She pushed me to a point I never felt before. Maybe it was the wolf too, guided by instinct and pushing me to defend myself in the only way I knew how, which was through music. Then when he tried to kill himself, I could tell he was a broken guy. I did that. I broke him and for the last two years I've tried so hard to ... " Andrea bites her lip hard as she chokes back a sob. "Tried so hard to fix it all. And I thought maybe .. now that he's a mutant, he could see that it's not so bad, that I'm doing okay, that the world is more accepting ... and ... that's a lie. The world isn't. The world just wants to kill me now and I'm going to get you and him and everone around me killed."

Elixir has posed:
He holds her tighter as Andrea spills her story, until the end when he leans back and cups her face gently in his hands.

"Hey, hey, look at me... You didn't do that. He's responsible for him, not you," he says firmly, looking her in the eyes. He strokes her cheek gently with one thumb. "That was /him/. And it's Pierce that's after you, Pierce and few crazies, /not/ the world," his expression softens and he gives a half smile. "You're the most stupidly popular person I've ever met."

Josh's hands drop to take Andrea's. "Go get showered, I'll make us some breakfast. 'kay?"

Rage has posed:
Squeezing his hand back, Andrea gives a loud, wet sniff as she shakes her head. "People hate mutants for no reason. They love Superman and Captain America but they hate us just becasue of how we're born. I just wanted to do the right thing and let the world know that we're not to be feared, and instead I get bullets and robots and grenades flung at me. This was just a mistake." She says as she lets go of his hands, wiping at her eyes with the back of her hand. "And now I probably have put the school in danger and Mason and he isn't even out of his closet yet. I fucked up. I fucked all of this up."

Elixir has posed:
Josh gives a Andrea a slightly bemused look.

"Check who you're talking to. You think /I/ don't know about people hating mutants? Being afraid of them? Believe me, I know," he says with conviction.

Josh starts walking to the kitchen and pokes his head in the fridge. "Most people don't hate, they can't. But yeah, lots are afraid," he says and puts a carton of eggs down on the island. He points at Andrea. "That's why you are so important and why Pierce hates you so much. What you said yesterday to those reporters? What that does for everyone? That's huge, it's powerful. Are you like, really gonna let Mason pissing himself turn you into a liar? Break yourself over him?" he asks, hands on the island now. "Seriously, look me in the eye and tell me you could live with yourself if you turned and ran right now."

Rage has posed:
"I do what I do for people like Mason, but if people like Mason becomes even more scared, then is it worth it? I can say a thousand inspiring words but it takes one bullet to silence them and I just become another TMZ article and no one cares afterwards and then people like Mason suffer more. Maybe the words are right but the ears are wrong." Andrea says as she heads down the hall to her bathroom. "If my words were so powerful, why did you look so uncomfortable in the car? I got a wolf's nose you know." She steps into the bathroom now.

Elixir has posed:
"'cause I totally deal with cameras in my face every day," he grumbles to himself. "That's /so/ normal."

He sets about making them breakfast, glowering, as he does. His phone buzzes and he checks it. He sends a quick text back, checks his empty email inbox for the fifth time that morning and then goes back to making breakfast. By the time Andrea finishes in the shower the food is ready and Josh is sitting on the couch, lost in thought.

Rage has posed:
Heading back out of the shower and smelling like strawberries, Andrea is wearing a pair of lounge pants and a matching top. Her hair is pulled back and in a light pink band to keep from flopping wetly over her shoulders. "Am I a sucky leader, Josh?" She asks as she rubs the back of her neck. "I know Miss Frost wants us all to vote on a leader, but from the start I've felt like I've been the one kinda doing it naturally. Wolf instincts. I'm Alpha and you are my pack. A pack I will die for. But now I feel shaken in confidence out of fear of getting my pack killed."

Elixir has posed:
Josh looks over from the couch at her, his brow furrowed and looking faintly amused. "You?! Leader? Um.... You don't even want to be a New Mutant, you were basically trashing Tyler and I for wanting to be like the X-Men," he points out. "So yeah, if you were trying to be a leader, you're doing terrible. You're fun to be around, Andrea, but you don't even know what you want or who you are," he says and pushes himself up from the couch. "Nobody's following you into a fight."

He makes his way to the front door. "I'm sorry for calling you out before, it's not my place," he says and starts putting on his shoes. "You do you, whatever that is, whenever you figure it out." He opens the door and gives her an apologetic look.

Rage has posed:
"I know exactly /who/ I am, Josh." Andrea says with a firm voice as frustration wells in her throat. "Sit down." She says, pointing to the couch, putting the weight of a wolf's authority behind her tone. "First of all, being a New Mutant is not about going into a fight. It shouldn't be about fighting in the first place. A /fight/ is the last resort to resolving any type of conflict. Being a New Mutant is /not/ a stepping stone into becoming an X-Man, no matter what you and Tyler think. If that was, they would have came right out and admitted that the staff /is/ the X-Men and that was their end goal for us is to train towards it. Do you want to know why I am being wishy washy? Because I don't /trust/ the ulterior motives just yet. I don't like that a plan is not fleshed out for us, or that Emma spends most of her time insulting us snidely while under the guise of pretending she cares about us."

Striding up to him, she locks her eyes with his, "And you want to know why I gave you shit about going out and trying to put masks on? Because Tyler, under good intentions, goes out and fucks things up without thinking things all the way through or seeing the bigger picture, and you literally are just a guy with gold skin who can heal. You are not /ready/ to do what Laura and I do. I've killed three people in the last month, Josh. /Three/. I did it without pause or hesitation. I did it to save my pack and I didn't shed a tear or have a single guilty thought. It's not something I want you or Tyler or anyone else to have on their conscious. I don't want the New Mutants to be some junior military group. I want us to be an advocate for mutants the right way. To bring those who are hurting up, to be seen as positive role models. Not a bunch of idiots putting on spandex and fighting the Juggernaut. We are kids. We should be allowed to be kids and not .." She wrings her hands together. "And not become the enemy in return. I don't want us on TV fighting bad guys. Showing off our powers. It will make humans even more scared of us. So, maybe I'm a shit leader, Josh, but I'm trying my best to put everything into perspective, for /your/ sake, for Tyler, for Mason. Because I don't want to rush head first into something blindly and get killed unprepared."

She gives another pause. "Now sit down and eat breakfast with me."

Elixir has posed:
Josh listens to her patiently, his expression neutral.

"My mistake then, sounds like you have it all figured out, except maybe what anybody else around you wants. But it's about you, right?" he says not moving from the door. "And I'm fine by the way. Enjoy the eggs."

He steps out, closes the door behind him and heads back down into the morning New York heat.

Rage has posed:
Snagging the door before it closes, Andrea seethes rage in her eyes. "So is that it? You're just going to walk out because I said something you don't agree with? Instead of talking to me about it, instead of trying to make it work, you're just going to walk away and act like an asshole and make me sit here and feel like the bad guy because I'm scared and I love you and I just want you and everyone else to be safe? You're going to put that on me?"

Elixir has posed:
"I'm not putting anything on you, Andrea, and don't throw /that/ word around, don't even go there," he says and pushes the button for the elevator. "What do you want me to say? That I agree with you? That I'd follow you? You said you wanna be a kid, then great, do that, you are still a kid and so are the others," he says, sounding tired. Not upset, not angry, just tired.

Rage has posed:
There is a frustrated look in Andrea's eyes. "Throw what word around? Asshole? You're kinda acting like it. You just mocked me and stormed out the door instead of just talking to me like a normal person about it. I don't care if I'm your leader or not. I care more about being a good friend and staying alive. Why, you want to be the leader or something? Is that why you're acting like this? I don't care who the leader is."

Elixir has posed:
"Love," he clarifies with a bemused look then shakes his head. "No, I really don't want to lead them, though you do, you made that clear," he says, not rising to her bait. "You don't have to hide it. You said you see them as /your/ pack, and that you're the Alpha," he says and holds the elevator door open. "Remember? Look, I've got things to do and other people to check on. So unless you've got something really important to say, I'm getting on this elevator."

Rage has posed:
"Wh-- of course I love you. Just like I love Tyler, Mason,Tommy, Boris ... you guys are my best friends. You guys are the most normal part of my life and I feel complete when I'm with you. My entire life of living in a bubble and being followed by cameras is painful at times, but when I'm with you, I can just be normal. I can be Andrea Jackson, a girl who wants to do normal stuff with her friends. Friends who understand what I'm going through and I don't have to hide or put on fake smiles. I'd be allowed to have a bad day and not be walked out on." Andrea rubs at her cheek, looking both frustrated and distressed.

Elixir has posed:
"Yeah? And did you...." Josh starts angrily, then catches himself and smiles a bit in self-reproach. He looks at her searchingly for a moment then shakes his head. "I came 'cause I knew you were having a bad day, and I'm making it worse. I'm sorry for that. See you later," he says and steps into the elevator, hitting the main floor button.

Rage has posed:
Wiping the wetness from her left cheek with the palm of her hand, Andrea watches him for a moment, then gives a slight shake of her head as she steps back into her home. "Whatever." She rasps out under her breath. "Take care of yourself, Josh." She closes the door gently behind her, followed by a trio of bolts to lock herself in.