7578/A Place to Call Home

A Place to Call Home
Date of Scene:	22 May 2019
Location:	Westchester, The Bronx
Synopsis:	Summary needed
Cast of Characters:	Alopex, Pippi

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Alopex has posed:
    Onward to home! Cody had given a couple of mutants a lot of help in the form of a cellphone for one, and a backpack for the other. After traveling along the streets that night, going a slightly roundabout way to ensure they weren't being followed, the arctic fox wanders up to a two story building with only a small sign in the window that says 'Winterfall Dojo'.

    There's a rustling of keys, the unlatching of a deadbolt, and then she steps inside, flicking on the lights on the first floor, hidden from the outside world due to the heavy drapes in front of the window, which are matched on the second floor. "So, during the day we shouldn't be on the first floor because the teachers and students will be down here. There's a fire escape upstairs we can leave via if we need to," Alopex explains as she closes the door, locks it, assuming Pippi had came in. The first room is wide, with sparring mats, mirrors along the back, ending with a door in the corner. "That door there heads back to the lockers and showers," she tells. There doesn't seem to be stairs anywhere..

Pippi has posed:
    Pippi had been trying her best to keep up with Pex, and was doing pretty good. She's pretty quick, and was able to leap the smaller alley-ways with ease, with only one time where Pex might have had to back-track to recover the mutant from a tumble. She was actually hesitant about going inside, shifting her weight before she slips in after Alopex, and blinks in the light of the dojo. It smelled like leather punching bags and gloves and sweat. And deoderant! It smelled like old wood and oiled metal and the occasional, distant bloodstain from a blow landed poorly.

    But what caught Pippi offguard was the mirrors. Immediately her hackles raised up, her ears drew back, and she backsteps against the door -- then draws forward, slowly. She comes to the mirror, and her nose wiggles, smelling glass cleaner, and she pokes at the mirror, suspiciously.

Alopex has posed:
    The fox gives Pippi some time to get aquainted with the mirrors. She can't say she had a similar experience but the aprehension about her own reflection was a thing at least one time. "If you want to clean up, you can head into the back where the showers are, or I can show you how to get upstairs. Either or, but after that I have to clean up a little down here. It's what I do for Sensei Winter in exchange for being able to stay on the second floor. Some days are worse than others, and if you want, it'll be nice to have a second set of hands."

Pippi has posed:
    Pippi looks at the mirror, and she turns herself around, looking at herself, inspecting. She then looks to her hands, and then back up to Alopex. "Aren't there stairs? Oh! Or a ladder? I'm good with ladders. I once climbed one and they had to get me off the roof." she explains cheerily, distractedly, still stealing glances to herself in the mirror before she narrows her eyes, purses her lips, and makes a silly face at herself -- just to be sure -- and then turns back to giving her full attention to Alopex.

    "Sen-say's a weird name." she adds, "do you clean a lot? It smells clean. Is Sen-say Winter a nice person? Do they know you're a mutant? What is this place? What do they do here? It reminds me of a..." she pauses,a nd gives a sniff. "... it reminds me kinda of a bad place, but it doesn't smell the same?"

Alopex has posed:
    "Ah, no ladder, there are stairs," Alopex points out as she wanders along the wall of mirrors. It's like she's counting. She stops at the 8th mirror in, reaches into the seam, pulls, and after a moment it clicks and pulls open, revealing stairs upto the second floor. "Sensei is a title, it also means master. He's the man that opened this dojo but he also went blind for reasons he hasn't told me. He's a very nice older man that was kind enough to take me in and realized very quickly what I was just by listening. This place is a sort of school for learning how to defend oneself. It's main purpose is for kids to come in off the streets so they don't get into trouble. Learning to defend themselves through martial arts gives them something to focus on, something to learn and to strive to get better at. It's not a bad place, but Sensei Winter would rather us not be seen by the teachers and students for now."

Pippi has posed:
    "Kids? Like, like little kids? Human kids? Kids that throw balls and smell like ice cream and drop hotdogs on the floor?!" Pippi inquires, her voice rising with excitement at the idea of kids, her ears drawing up, her tail wagging and then, realizing that she can't be down there with them she lets her ears down. "Right, right, gotta stay out of sight and quiet." she pause,s and gives a soft huff out.

    "Probably shouldn't drop hot dogs either while they're doing Marshall's Arts." she adds on, though her tail is still wagging a little bit.

Alopex has posed:
    "I've never really watched during a class session, but from what I hear upstairs, there's all kinds down here. Lots of ages, different kinds of people. I imagine if the world settles a little, we could come down, maybe I could even teach a little, but Sensei Winter wants to be careful with it. Not everyone is so ... tolerant of people that are different, sadly."

    She considers what Pippi said, then shrugs, "From what I've been told, we can walk around and do what we like upstairs. No one down here really thinks about the second floor since there's no access in here. If he has to come up with something, he may just tell anyone that asks that he rents it out. .. which is technically true." she smiles, then starts up the stairs.

Pippi has posed:
    Pippi gives a nod, and follows Alopex upstairs. "Someday I would like to see 'em. I've never seen Marshall's Arts. Think I'd be any good at it?" she questions, her tail continues to wag as she tails Alopex up, minmdful of the stairs. "Should I close the door behind?"

Alopex has posed:
    There's a grin on Alopex's face as she glances back, "Yes, please, I should have mentioned that," the fox says before resuming her climb up the stairs. There's another rustling of keys and another deadbolt unlatched before Alopex opens the door to the second floor. "Martial arts are what I'm going to try and help you learn, Pippi. You have a lot of strength, but I'm not sure how much control over it, so we will start there, if you don't mind."

Pippi has posed:
    Pippi very, very gently pulls the door closed behind her. She hurries up behind Alopex, trying to dodge all that tailfluff, and as Alopex unlocks the second door, Pippi seems hesitant.

    "I... I don't know how good I'd be. They tried to... I mean I'm not... it's..." she trails off, her ears drawing back and her tail curling a little.

Alopex has posed:
    "If there's one thing I've learned about martial arts, Pippi, is that if you -want- to learn it, you'll be able to. I'll work with you and figure out a style that fits you, it doesn't have to be something that already exists. Just by virtue of us having tails changes a few things. I won't get to technical about it, so don't worry." Another smile is flashed back over her shoulder and then she steps up onto the second floor.

    The upper floor is very wide open, spartan even, for Alopex. There's a bed in a corner, a television is here, along with a desk that is meant for a computer she doesn't have just yet. There's a microwave on a small table as well, with windows along each wall, but with the same heavy drapes as down stairs.

Pippi has posed:
    "... I like learning stuff." Pippi states, and she sniffs about the room. Smells like Alopex. She pauses, and breathes out as she rubs the back of her neck. "It's why the family liked me. I rang a bell with my nose, but I also turned the light on and off for attention." she gives an embarrassed smile at the memory, walking forward a little bit.

    "... are... are you sure about me living here too, Alopex? You don't even... I mean, you're not, and I'm not..."

Alopex has posed:
    After letting Pippi take the room in, she turns to face the canine again. "A good dog -and- a smart one, that's wonderful, Pippi," she compliments as she takes a seat on the bed. "Hmm? Of course you're allowed to live here. You can pick wherever you want and I'll see about getting another bed or whatever you want to sleep on, up here." Her head tilts at the broken sentence that Pippi doesn't finish. "You don't have to worry about me getting mad at you, Pippi. Say what you want."

Pippi has posed:
    Pippi shifts her weight slight, and she lets out a breath before she just plunks right down on the floor, backpack going down with her as she takes a deep breath, and she draws one knee up.

    "You're not afraid of me?" she questions, her 'brows' rising up. "Even though you saw me lift a van up?"

Alopex has posed:
    With no hesitation, Alopex shakes her head, "Not in the least. You're quite nice, very trust worthy, and you haven't done anything to me that would break my trust, Pippi. I think you're a good dog and since you want to help the city, I want to help you. It's as simple as that."

Pippi has posed:
    "So... what about you?" Pippi inquires, her head still on her knee as her amber eyes regard Alopex. "How come you're a fox in the city? Were you grabbed by a lab too?"

Alopex has posed:
    "Yes." It's a quick answer, and one she had expected to tell Pippi at some point. If it's to be today, then so be it. "The leader of the Foot Clan, the Shredder, decided that foxes were intelligent, cunning creatures that would make a worthy mutant to train under him. As such, me, just a simple fox in Fairbanks Alaska, was captured and exposed to mutagen in their lab there." Her eyes close for a long moment, a flash of some memories, then a sympathetic smile appears as they open again. "I ... don't know if he's responsible to what happened to you but... I just saw a lot of what I went through in the things you were doing.."

Pippi has posed:
    "Do you have a family that's out there, looking for you?" Pippi asks, her ears rising up. She flicks her left ear again, with the blue ink against the pink skin inside. She considers a moment. "Or that you woudld go back to?" she draws her head down a moment. "My boy must be missing me. If he came home and Iw asn't there, he'd probably be very upset." s

Alopex has posed:
    "That.. goes into why I left the Foot Clan, Pippi," Alopex begins to reply. "I felt that I owed the foot clan for making me the way I am now. I actually enjoy living this way, to be honest with you. However, after working for them for so long, The Shredder decided I needed a final initiation before becoming his right hand .. fox."

    She gets up and wanders over to a small fridge, an excuse to collect her thoughts as she grabs some water. "After my mutation, I didn't remember a lot of my early life. When he took me up there, I remembered... well most of it. The lab didn't bring back good memories, but the forest's beyond stirred up memories of my old family, my old life, being the main hunter for my family, The Bear that terrorized us from time to time.." she shrugs, smiling despite it all, "It was nice to remember it all. ... Then I smelled something. I ran back to a different part of the forest to find that Shredder had ordered everything to be burnt to the ground. The lab, the forest, all of it. He said I had to give up my past to ensure my loyalty in the future." It goes unsaid, at least for now, that Shredder's plan had a reverse effect.

Pippi has posed:
    Pippi listens. She feels her eyes go wide and ears draw down, and then she closes her eyes.

    "'M sorry Alopex." she replies quietly.

    "... my boy's still looking for me. I know it. He's probably been looking for me. I want to find myw ay home, and find my boy again, because he needs me. Sometimes I carried his bag for him. Sometimes I'd wake up in the middle of the dark and just climb up by his feet even though I really wasn't supposed to be on the bed."

    She traps her fingers on the ground a moment.

    "I don't know who's behind me. The lab was run by people, but they weren't... they weren't keen on talking much." she admits. She rubs the back of her head a moment. "When I developed weird strength, they couldn't really hold me? I spent a lot of time asleep."

Alopex has posed:
    There's a sad smile, a light nod, and a "Thank you," before she listens to Pippi go over her past. "I'm sure he is, and hopefully we'll be able to find him. He needs protected just like everyone else in t is city, and I'm sure he'd be grateful that you want to help out, Pippi." She considers the ones that made Pippi, thinking a bit, "Hmm, must be someone other than the Foot that got a hold of some mutagen. I'm sorry you had to go through all of that Pippi, and I'm glad I was able to find you before they did."

Pippi has posed:
    Pippi quietly lets a breath out, and draws her ears back down.

    "I thought you were from the same lab. It smells like fear. It smells like hurt. I spent a lot of time asleep, but it... wasn't a good sleep." she shifts her weight, weighing how much trust she can put into Alopex.

    "Did it hurt when you changed?"

Alopex has posed:
    "Ah, sorry, I .. I don't think I am, Pippi. I know that kind of sleep though. I've had to sleep like that a few times, but honestly? I don't remember much of what happened in the lab. Just .. flashes and memories I really don't to remember. I .. will say that I'm .. pretty sure it did.."

Pippi has posed:
    Pippi gives a nod, and goes quiet for a moment... theeeeeen just sloooowwwllly tilts over, and flops to the floor, on top of the backpack. There's a dirtspot where she was sitting.

    I haven't slept inside in daaaaaaays this is going to be so great!" she states, and sprawls on the floor, on her stomach, her tail wagging about a mile a minute.

Alopex has posed:
    In truth, Alopex was happy for the topic change. When Pippi leans, tips, tilts, and flops over, it gets the fox's smile to come back. "Well I'm happy to hear it, Pippi. If you want to have something out of the little fridge over there, go right ahead, okay? I'll probably go grab us some dinner in a little while. Do you know what a burger is?"

Pippi has posed:
    "Meeeaaaat. And sometimes ketchup and cheese." the canine mutant replies as she wags still, and just gives a happy chuff of a sound as she sprawls on the floor, and gives a deep yawn. "Are there others out there like us, Alopex? Well, like you? They're going to be great to meet, I bet."

Alopex has posed:
    The fox gives a nod, "There are, I just haven't hade a chance to run into them yet. There are four turtles and their master who I .. still need to meet. While I was a part of the Foot Clan we were actually enemies. I didn't know just how bad Shredder is, and well, they probably still think we're enemies. I need to talk to them and hopefully we can sort things out. Those are the only other 'good' ones I can think of right now. There is a human that can change into varying forms of a wolf that I've also met. They seem to be alright so far."

Pippi has posed:
    "I can meet 'em for you. They sound great if they don't like the Shredder, and then I can say 'an' this is my best friend Alopex' and then it'll be great... and... and..." she trails off. Pippi shifts slightly, her chin now on the floor, and her eyes close.

    The mutant's fallen asleep mid sentence. A combonation of a safe place to sleep and perhaps someone to watch her back, not to mention *sleeping inside*. What a dream! No mosquitoes!

Alopex has posed:
    "Hmm?" When Pippi doesn't finish her sentence, the fox looks over, notices she's out like a light, and just decides to let her enjoy the moment, and the well earned rest. She at least puts a blanket over her, sneaks a pillow in when she can, and then will take care of all her errands downstairs."