7697/Serpent Stirs The Soup

Serpent Stirs The Soup
Date of Scene:	31 May 2019
Location:	New Hope Shelter, East Harlem
Synopsis:	Sibilance meets Bobby, and gets a glimpse behind the current. She decides she wants to help since he's in so much pain, so she starts forging a friendship with him. Bobby, for his credit, opens up a bit, and talks to her, offering his advice and input on some of her questions.
Cast of Characters:	Sibilance, Blinkdog
Tinyplot:	Serpent Stirs The Soup
Tinyplot2:	Blinkdog's Introduction

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Sibilance has posed:
    Ainsley Garcia, also known as Sibilance, has volunteered at the Shelter here in East Harlem. They weren't sure if she should, at first, but she's demonstrated an aptitude for calming down and encouraging the various homeless and lost that find their way to the shelter, and so they couldn't turn her away. So there she is, in an apron and her big white sundress with the blue flower pattern, her feet adorned with socks and sandals. She's in the Mess Hall ladeling food into bowls. Since she's so short, she has to stand on a crate she brought for this purpose.

    "There you go," her Spanish accent rings out, her snake-like visage warmly friendly.

    She's taken to wearing a Catholic cross around her neck. It jingles softly as she works.

Blinkdog has posed:
Bobby McFadden has kept his name to himself. When asked directly he kept it simply as "Bobby". He has had a busy time since the quake down in Jersey. First he couldn't help but get himself involved. The entire event shows on him. He is tired having not yet rested. The seriousness of the situation forced him to steal from a few places including this shelter. Materials were needed to help the survivors, but that doesn't fully soothe his conscience. Deciding to make up for it in hard labor he set himself up here to volunteer. There was food to make and hand out. Dishes to wash. Trash to be taken out. There were beds to be made. Floors to clean. People to comfort.

Though he was homeless himself, Bobby would not take a bed here tonight, but he would eat a hot meal. That is what he is currently doing. Sitting among the others quietly eating a sandwitch and drinking hot soup from a cup. It may not be gormet, but for Bobby its bliss.

This is one of the few shelters that really surprise him. Their willingness to take in ANYONE, even mutants. Even the deformed ones. In a way that makes him a little weary being here sometimes. Not because he has a problem with mutants. He is one himself afterall, but because it may draw unwanted attention from the haters and the like. Still this is a good place, and he cant help but like it for its openness.

Sibilance has posed:
The snake woman didn't comfort EVERYONE. Some saw her as alien, or frightening, but she would simply smile and ignore comments made toward her appearance. Sibilance poured soup, handed out drinks and sandwiches, she chatted with a gentle voice. It was a somber atmosphere, but she didn't let that wear her down.

And so Sibil finishes with the dinnertime line. She gathers up her own big thermos of soup, and migrates over to one of the tables. She decides to sit down next to Bobby. Her hand reaches out as if to rest on his arm or shoulder, but she hesitates, and rests her palm against the table instead. She has been careful not to physically touch anyone since she showed up here. She hasn't been able to avoid bumps and the like, so if it's ability-related then it's not set off trivially.

"Are you doing alright? You seem very tired."

Blinkdog has posed:
Bobby McFadden 's surface thoughts are troubled. Waves of guilt come off of him like fountains at times. They are hard to miss in the way they are just pouring out of him sometimes. Other thoughts and emotions are more fearful almost paranoid. These are the surface thoughts coming off of him. Undefined, more simple raw feeling without structure or words. In some moments his feelings reign down into a tightly controlled feeling of effort as if he were trying to control something afraid it was about to get out of his control.

Finishing his meal he gets up to take his tray to the kitchen window. As he gets up his eyes dart about the room and then calm moving more casually. He notices, Sibil, thinking to himself that he hasn't seen her before, has he? (She's pretty distinctive. Kind of 'exotic' really. I don't care what they say about us mutants. Some of us are pretty damn elegant the way we come out.)Oo. he thinks to himself noting how she moves about as if she were very comfortable in her own skin.

Seeing her walking up he sits back down deciding that he can nurse what is left of his soup if she happens to want his company. Though he has no idea why he is doing that. Normally, Bobby avoids people he is not familiar with if he can help it. Still... no need to be rude after all. He flashes a brief, but genuine smile at Sibil and says, "Hi." trying not to sound shy or anything.

Sibilance has posed:
Sibil fights the urge to blush at the boy's mental compliment, when it surfaces in the storm of fear and uncertainty. She can tell he has an ability he's afraid will run loose, out of control, and she empathizes with that. She doesn't want to hurt anyone with what she does, so she lets him get used to her presence. Meanwhile, she has to regain her composure, since someone seeing her appearance as a positive thing was jarring when most were offput by it.

"You can call me Sibil, or Ainsley," she says. Now, she reaches out to gently touch his shoulder, ginger about it so she doesn't spook him. It's a little cold to the touch, like the room temperature. Her snake appearance is more than skin deep, clearly. "Bobby, right?"

There's a moment where she sucks in a breath. She seems briefly stunned. Her arm tenses, and tears well up in her eyes, then they close. Then, as the ghost of something very painful fades, she rubs at his shoulder, gently comforting. "It's okay," she says, despite being more visibly pained by it than he is. If he looks, he can see she bit her inner cheek so she wouldn't scream or startle, a bit of blood in her mouth.

Blinkdog has posed:
Bobby McFadden smiles, longer and more genuinely this time. "Hello, Sibil. Yeah, Bobby..." He then sees you react to something. The parting thought before your next words is .oO(It was my fault. I deserved it. I deserved everything.) His eyes dart to his hands for a moment as if he just burned them on a hot stove and then he blinks. A wave of relief flows off of him.

He takes a moment and shakes himself out of a collision of memories and thought. "Huh? Oh, I'm... I'm sorry. Yeah, its Bobby." again he smiles. His mind leveling out and the releif that he wasn't changing intense enough to counter his momentary anxiety. He swallows hard hoping he didn't upset you somehow.

Sibilance has posed:
Sibil just keeps smiling and rubbing at his shoulder for a few seconds. When she pulls it away, finally, she spends a moment considering him, and still smiling. It's hard to process this kind of pain, the physical agony of what that woman did to him. She wants to feel angry, or sad, or ... but instead she holds her smile at Bobby, trying to think of a way to relieve him of this lingering darkness.

"Can I be your friend, Bobby?" she wonders to him, searching his features for the answer before he might say it. "You seem like you might need one."

Blinkdog has posed:
For our audience if they were wondering. This is what Sibilance saw. First there is another wave of guilt. Not too strong this time. Its the kind of guilt associated with doing something that was necessary despite being a little wrong. Then you see a memory forming. It is confusing at first. It is as if he were remembering something about someone he knew very well. You see the supply closet belonging to the shelter. Someone named 'dog' is grabbing blankets and first aid kits. You cant see him. Again it is confusing because all you can see are his fur covered hands. -- Then the memory wavers. A wave of strong intense guilt and fear pours in. Enough to turn stomachs if not brace for it. Again he is in a closet. It is definitely Bobby's memory this time. The perspective is off though. There is a large over sized-fur coat in this closet that seems to take up far more space than it should. A woman's voice full of bitter rage fills the closet, "You made a mess!" The blonde woman appears. She is battered and bruised. Her face puffy. But more importantly it is filled with terrible anger. She towers over Bobby like a giant. She is at least twice as tall as he is. She reaches down and grabs his arm and twists it behind his back lifting him from the floor. There is a popping sound, then terrible pain and a sudden.... the vision breaks at that point.


Bobby looks at Sibil and blinks rappidly. "Huh?" he asks. People usually don't just come to him and ask to he his friend. In fact the last time that happened... well that is neither here nor there. Suffice to say trust is sometimes an issue for him and this again is reflected in his emotions. Despite this though, there is no reason a mutant would have other motives. (Best not to overthink it. You dumass.)Oo.. he thinks to himself.

"Um, sure. I don't see why not." he clears his throat, "But um. I get by just fine. So lets put that in the want category, instead of need." he grins at you. He's definitely covering but that is perfectly natural for a boy his age. The world would probably stop dead and plunge into the Sun if a seventeen year old male admitted to "needing" something emotionally from a woman he just met.

Sibilance has posed:
"Okay."

It was the best she was gonna get, for now. Sibil knew he needed some kind of human connection. Her unique circumstances gave her the opportunity to get him to trust her, for no reason other than wanting him to forgive himself. The way she sought that same feeling. "So, obviously, I'm a mutant," she explains, "I'm very fast and strong. I have some weirder abilities but I like to keep those private until I'm sure they won't freak someone out. Are you a mutant?" She knows he is, but she's trying to see if he's willing to open up about himself at all. She waits for his answer with patience in her inhuman features.

Blinkdog has posed:
Bobby McFadden hesitates. The pause is tell-tale, but then he decides a half-truth is better than an outright lie. "I was tested once. A scanner. They said my gene was... um.. Dormant. Yeah thats the word they used. The guy who said it was with this lady who wanted me to awaken or somehing like that." he scratches his head, everything he has said so far is the truth but he is leaving something out. "I decided I wanted no part in that so I got out of there soon as I could." he says.

Sibilance has posed:
That's something. Sibilance takes it at face value, or at least she makes it seem like she does. "A friend of mine called me 'brave,' because I don't cover myself up." She touches her face indicating she means 'brave about her appearance' as opposed to anything else. "What do you think? I think he was simply being dramatic." She also isn't lying. She still is deeply afraid, even nowadays, but there have been events that have helped her step into the light.

Blinkdog has posed:
Bobby McFadden looks at you, "Well um. Well... do you want flatery or the truth about what I think?" he asks. "I mean I really have no, um, right to tell you how you should feel about yourself. So if I am crossing a line here, let me know and just pick flattery." his smile flashes briefly again out of nervousness perhaps.

Sibilance has posed:
"The truth." Sibil holds the patient smile at him, waiting, experimenting to see what he would say. "Friends don't lie to each other, after all."

Blinkdog has posed:
Bobby McFadden gestures, "Well. You are you. You're a mutant, sure. You were changed by that gene stuff, right? But it is a part of who you are." he frowns at that, "No, it -is- who you are. Why would it be "brave" to be what you are? Thats like saying there was something wrong with you. It's kind of insulting, if I were to be honest." He points to himself, "If someone told me, looking like I do, that I was BRAVE for showing it? I'd probably pop them in the mouth." He blinks, "That make any sense?"

Sibilance has posed:
She watches him, and she creases her brows at his somewhat surly answer. Sibil seems entertained, not offended, and even laughs at the note that he'd punch the person. "That makes perfect sense, Bobby." She breathes in and lets out a sigh. "This person calls me brave because they think they're cowardly for hiding their own appearance, because they're afraid of scaring people," she explains, "He sees it with more value than it has. I keep myself visible for the sake of someone else. I wish every day that I could hide in my room, but that would be a betrayal of someone I care about. So I endure the stares and the fear."

"That person thinks I'm beautiful. Once he told me that, I couldn't bear to hide anymore, and turn him into a liar."

"It all seems so melodramatic when I say it aloud," she notes, and swigs some of her soup.

Blinkdog has posed:
Bobby McFadden shrugs, "Everyone is different. Even on the inside. Nothing wrong with that either." he says. His own loathing of his alter-ego has little to do with its shape or even how other people react to him. Though, honestly, that part sucks. He thinks to himself. Its the pain it caused. What it made him loose. But he doesn't say any of this. Instead he says, "Well everyone has something about their body they don't like. I can understand not liking your shape if it were inconvenient, painful, or made you ill all the time. But outside of that, everyone has a pet peeve. Look at me. I am always kinda tan, but I have blonde hair. I cant even grow a beard. Nobody is perfect, except maybe movie stars and modles." He pauses, "Wait, nah even them. They spend a fortune on plastic surgery."

Sibilance has posed:
She has to giggle at his advice about physical appearance. She knows it all too well, and she shares many of the same hangups as he does about it. Sibil reaches out to pat him once more. "Thanks for the chat, Bobby. I have to get going, though. I'll be around the shelter regularly if you need me." And then she digs into a pocket in the shorts she wears beneath her sundress, producing a white business card with just her name and phone number on it. "Call me if you want someone to talk to, alright? Or if you just want to hang out."
She gets up and pats some wrinkles out of her dress, preparing to depart.

Blinkdog has posed:
Bobby McFadden takes the card. "Um, thanks. I guess I could barrow a phone if I really tried." he grins. "Oh and one more thing. Your friend. Your being beautiful to your friend won't change one bit if you pop him one good one. Tell him to get over himself and get out of his room just like you." He stands also and nods, "So I'll see yaz around. If you ever really need to find me. Check the bullitin board here, or check out the alleyway out on Clinton street, back of Josie's bar." he waves to you and picks up his tray and cup to return them.

Sibilance has posed:
Sibil lifts a hand to wave her goodbye, and turns to depart. She breathes a brief sigh to herself and hopes she runs into that youth again, to help him figure himself out. Maybe it'll help her, too.