4825/The Boys

The Boys
Date of Scene:	05 July 2018
Location:	New York City
Synopsis:	Mason and Josh talk about mutants, girls, and mutant girls, which are the most dangerous of all.
Cast of Characters:	Elixir, Mason Steele

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Elixir has posed:
Josh grabs a cab from Xavier's and heads out across New York. The cabbie, a middle-aged southeast asian man, talks away as they go. Josh hmms politely but hears little of it. They wind their way through morning traffic and out into the suburbs, all tree lined streets and big homes. It looks different in the daylight than it did the other night. A few young mothers are out running with their jogging strollers. A UPS van stops at house and walks to the door with an Amazon package.

Josh steps out of the cab and pays using the credit card Emma gave him. Then he walks up the driveway and knocks at the front door.

Mason Steele has posed:
    Mason was reluctant when Josh suggested dropping by to see how he was doing. He was also hung over. The notes from a piano within stop when Josh knocks on the door, but it's almost a minute before he manages to make it to the door. He glances behind Josh almost immediately, then opens the door the rest of the way to let him inside. A pair of gym shorts and an old t-shirt cover him, a far cry from his normal stylish look. He looks like hell.
    "Hey," he says.
    The house isn't elaborate, but it's nice. A single story home that surely has a maid, given its spotless appearance. The living room has a 75 inch TV, a couple of couches, and a black baby grand piano. He walks back in toward the living room. "Thanks for waiting to come over. Trying to avoid my mom meeting people. She'll dig in your head and find all your secrets." No doubt a comforting assurance.

Elixir has posed:
"Yeah... no worries, I really don't need that," he says. He kicks off his shoes inside the door, mid-market white sneakers that are scraped and cut up along the sides and toes. Blue jeans and a Twenty-One Pilots t-shirt complete the outfit.

"You look wrecked. You go out last night or stay in?" he asks, eyeing Mason with a half-smile.

Mason Steele has posed:
    "Yeah, I'm pretty good at hiding stuff, but I've had sixteen years of practice," Mason comments. "I just stayed here. I had enough going out for one day," he comments. He doesn't say anything else for a long moment, concentrating on nothing in particular in his gaze. "I'm guessin' Andrea sent you to promise how she is perfectly fine and I shouldn't be worried," he predicts, not sounding very encouraged by what he expects the conversation to be like.

Elixir has posed:
"No, man, she didn't, and she really isn't," he shakes his head, his jaw setting a little at the mention of Andrea. "But like, you were pretty messed up yesterday, I really did just wanna see how you're doing," he says, a little more worried that Mason looks so wrecked without having been out partying. He puts his hands in his pockets.

"Stuff like that doesn't happen every day, you know?"

Mason Steele has posed:
    Mason gives an arch of his brow that says 'no shit', and he walks to the adjacent kitchen. He opens the cabinet, pulling a box of blueberry pop tarts out, and brings them back into the living room. He tears open the cardboard, pulling out one of the silvery packs before tossing the box in Josh's direction.
    "Well," he says. "I just watched a bunch of people shredded to pieces. I didn't tell my mom. I'm pretty sure she didn't know because she was asleep when I got back last night. Drank until I passed out, and...here I am." He shrugs, pulling a pastry free from the bag, and taking a bite. "I mean," he says around the food. "I could have gone my whole life not seeing that, and I think it'd be better. And that she did that? And Laura. They were like...like animals."

Elixir has posed:
Josh catches the box and grabs a pack for himself. He puts the box down on the coffee table and drops onto the couch. The silver wrapper crinkles as he opens it.

"Probably good your mom didn't dig that out of you yet," he says. "Don't think it would help anything."

Josh sighs and is quiet a moment as he chews on one of the pastries. "You're right," he says finally. "Most people /never/ see something like that, or like what happened at Twin Monks. And Laura and Andrea," he shakes his head.

"Laura is a special kid. She didn't grow up, she was, I dunno, trained from like birth in a military project to be a weapon. You know Wolverine, the X-Men? She's /exactly/ like that. And Andrea... Well, you saw. She's Andrea, but she's also the wolf. They're not normal people, there's no two ways about that," he says thoughtfully. "But you can't have... Abilities... and be normal. At least that's what I'm learning."

Mason Steele has posed:
    Mason shakes his head. "Yeah, all this talk about abilities. Hell, I never use mine." He looks at Josh directly. "I /never/ use them. I feel like I'm pretty normal. I probably sound like I'm crazy, but everybody talks about how it's not fair that people are afraid of mutants, their no different from other people. Dude. /I/ I am freaking terrified of them. I /am/ one." He plops into the recliner facing Josh. "There's no way that two teenage girls should be able to destroy a squad of killer cyborgs, and kill them so decidedly that there won't be anything left to identify. That /shouldn't happen./" He realizes that his hand is trembling, and he squeezes a fist to stop it. "I make a pretty shit mutant, I guess, siding with the other team."

Elixir has posed:
Josh shakes his head. "It doesn't make you a shitty mutant, it means you have been able to be pretty normal," he says. "Like most people want to be, you know? And you've been lucky. Cause you're right man, in a sane world, I shouldn't be able to bring Andrea back from being nearly dead just by touching her, right? That's like, Jesus stuff. And guys in red capes from other planets shouldn't be flying around fighting giant mushrooms, and there definitely shouldn't be killer cyborgs. But there are," he says and takes a breath.

"So thank goodness Andrea /could/ do that. Can you imagine what would've happened yesterday if Andrea wasn't who she is? Like, really think about that for a second. I'm not saying what she did was okay, but what if she hadn't?"

Mason Steele has posed:
    "I know," Mason says. The first thing that ran through my head when I saw her shred that cyborg was 'Thank God'. Then I had to ask myself. 'Am I really thanking God for this?' It's horrible to be glad someone dies. I mean, you hope that terrorists get taken out before they do damage, and all that, but you never really think 'Hey, these are people.' They are. I saw that guy's eyes, he was a real human being. He's not now, He's dead." He shoves another bite of the poptart in his mouth.
    "People are right to be scared of us, Josh. You have awesome powers that can heal people, can save lives, and if everyone had your powers, nobody would be scared of mutants. But some have Andrea's powers, or Laura's, or my mom's." He hangs his head. "You know, I wouldn't be anybody if my mom wasn't a telepath. I'm not stupid. I know she manipulated people to get my career started. I'd just be another guy. Sure, I could play, but it takes more than talent to make it in the entertainment industry. It takes a huge amount of luck. My mom had powers, and she used them to get what she wanted. What if she wanted something more? What if she wanted to be president? What if she wanted a war?"

Elixir has posed:
"There's nothing wrong with wanting to live, man," he says, soberly.

"But yeah, what if your mom did want war?" he asks back. "What if she did and met Magneto? What if she did and there wasn't any X-Men, or Avengers, or Justice League to stop her?"

He glances at his poptart bitterly and then looks out the window. "I grew up in Queens, neighbourhood a lot like this. Went to church, played football. Was popular. Picked on the nerds, hated mutants, cause they were different. But loved stories about the X-Men and Superman. How stupid is that?" he asks. "Like, how fucking stupid is it that I'm going to Friends of Humanity meetings but think superheroes are great?" he shakes his head. "But I just went with it all. Like a stupid little fuck. But hey, I was okay, right? My little world was just peachy. Always had a girlfriend, went to all the parties."

Josh presses his lips together then looks back to Mason. "People shooting, and dying in the street, and getting stabbed.. That was all like, the newspapers, Hell's Kitchen, LA, fucking, Africa. Not my life. Lucky me. Lucky you, too. I dunno, man. Do we even get to complain when we're not so lucky anymore? When life gets real? Cause seriously, I don't know. I don't know if I should be terrified too, or whether I'm just supposed to man up and be grateful it was good while it lasted."

Mason Steele has posed:
    "Guess I never thought of it like that," Mason admits. "Though, to be fair to you," he suggests. "I don't think it's what's different about mutants that makes them...us... really scary. It's how we really aren't different. Everybody has some button that will set them off, make them do whatever it takes, come hell or high water. Some mutants, if that button is pressed, not Superman or Iron Man or anybody else could stop them before it was too late." He munches down on the pop tart, leaning back into the recliner.
    "I guess it's just what is." He lets out a sigh. "I gotta deal with it or something. I'd way rather somebody else deal with it. I'll write a song, make the movie, tell the story for other people to look up to. I'm way to screwed up to be of any use in all this."

Elixir has posed:
"Yeah, you've got a point," he sighs and puts the rest of the poptart in his mouth.

"Sounds like a lot of use to me," Josh says around bites. "I mean, that stuff is huge. Nobody's saying you need to be going all John Cena out there, though. There are people like Laura and the X-Men who can go throw down. But there's only one Mason Steele or Andrea Jackson. You can do things almost nobody else can," he says with a half-smile. "It's like a superpower."

Mason Steele has posed:
    Mason shrugs, "Yeah I guess. I kinda thought that was for Andrea to do, I'm a coward man, I just wanna stay where it's safe. I always thought she could be the torchbearer, ya know?"
    He frowns. "Never thought she could do...what she did. Always thought she was better than me. More stable. Smarter. Genuine. Kinda why I blow her off when she flirts with me now. She didn't need my stupid ass screwing up her life. Maybe I built her up too high."

Elixir has posed:
Josh shrugs. "Mabye, I dunno. She's complicated, but she's not perfect man, that's for sure."

He rubs a hand across his face. "Don't let her hear you talking like that unless you really wanna be with her. That girl is seriously in love with you. Like seriously. And she'd take you, all screwed up or not. I think her biggest fear is you don't wanna be with her."

Mason Steele has posed:
    "Nah, wouldn't ever say that to her face, she has a big enough head as it is. She shouldn't want to be with me," he says. "She really shouldn't. There's nothin' I got that she wants, she just thinks there is. Thinks I'm some great guy deep down." He shakes his head, crumpling the wrapper of the pop tart and flicking it toward the coffee table. It unwinds, managing to fall short and land on the carpet. Mason doesn't move to pick it up.

Elixir has posed:
"Dude, you have /no/ idea," Josh says. "Seriously. Yesterday morning she was like crying in my arms that she's scared you and that you don't love her. I mean, she told me about what happened, she /knows/ you two are different. And she doesn't care."

He sighs and leans forward, arms on his knees. "All that," he waves vaguely with one hand. "Doesn't matter to her. You want her, she's yours."

Mason Steele has posed:
    "Oh, no pressure," he says with a half-hearted laugh. He sits for a along time quietly. "I dunno. I care about Andrea, but not as much as she cares about me. It's not right."

Elixir has posed:
Josh snerks. "Got your back man..."

He shrugs. "Can't force it. If she's not for you, then make that clear it'll never happen. It's this weird middle ground that messes with girls' heads, you know? Always worse than just setting it straight and letting them move on. Or don't. Sorry, not trying to tell you your business," he apologizes.

Mason Steele has posed:
    "Yeah, probably," Mason acknowledges, though he sounds less than certain that he'll take the well offered advice. "Last time we broke up, I almost didn't survive it. This time, I dunno if she'd survive it."

Elixir has posed:
Josh shrugs. "It'd suck, but she'd get past it eventually. She's a 16 year old girl, man. Somehow, they survive," he smirks. "And then just keep getting weirder. Who knows, maybe she'll find someone else to obssess over, then you won't have to do anything."

Mason Steele has posed:
    "Yeah, who knows," he says with a sardonic smile. "Maybe it'll be you." He stands to his feet, putting his hands on his hips, though he seems not to have a place to go. "Might be awkward if I go to Xavier's now. I really want to, but the place is crazy as hell."

Elixir has posed:
Josh snerks, then leans back and stretches. "Then do it," he shrugs. "I don't think there's ever gonna be a perfect time, you know? And Sam says it's not usually like this."

Mason Steele has posed:
    Mason shakes his head. "Okay, fine, I'll talk to one of the teaches this week. That guy in the wheelchair wanted me to talk to him anyway." He shrugs his hands out to the side, as if to say, 'there it is.'

Elixir has posed:
"Professor Xavier," he supplies. "He's cool."

Josh pushes himself up. "I gotta get back, but... I'm glad you'll be around, man. It'll be cool."

Mason Steele has posed:
    "Yeah," Mason nods. "Cool." Just the word he was looking for.