video; un:marvelgirl

[iseegoblins]

[ The face that comes on video is a young woman with fiery red hair and a tired looking smile. She's doing her best to try to keep it all together given the circumstances here and the circumstances she left back home. ]

So, uh, hi. My name is Jean Grey. I've also gone by Marvel Girl and Phoenix more recently but...[ she shrugs and chuckles ] not really sure what the point in keeping superhero codenames would be in a place like this. Just Jean seems pretty good to me.

[ She waves a hand. ] Anyway, I've been trying to get to know people. I'm used to living in a school with a lot of people I know. They're loud sometimes but, I dunno, I guess it's different when you know them. I had a question though, to try to get to know people better. Where I come from it's not uncommon for people to have special gifts. What I wanted to ask is, how common is that where you're all from? And if you're comfortable saying, how many of you have gifts? I'll understand if anyone isn't that comfortable talking about their own, where I'm from it's also super common for humans to hate people with abilities. So, no worries if you don't want to talk about it and thank you to anyone that does.

Comments

[iseegoblins]

I mean, can't humans do the same with the right weapon?

[ She bites down on her lower lip. ]

Alright. I can provide that if you tell me somewhere to meet up?

[alphabeticalplans]

Sure, and you give those people a healthy dose of wariness, too.

[small>He shrugs.]

Your place?

[iseegoblins]

Sure, sounds good to me. See you in a bit?

[alphabeticalplans]

Sounds like a plan. Give me half an hour.

[Because Biggs is punctual like that. It's other people he's used to being late.]

Action;
[About about 30 minutes later, there's a knock at her apartment door.]

[iseegoblins]

[ She opens the door with a small smile as she holds up the bottle. ]

Got here faster than I thought you would.

[alphabeticalplans]

I did say half an hour, didn't I?

[He smiles in response, though the prospect of what this storytelling session was going to cover didn't exactly fill him with joy.]

I try to be prompt. A lot of things rely on being on time.

[iseegoblins]

I'm really used to dealing with kids that are always late. And then when they do show up they're always arguing. [ She rubbed the back of her neck and shook her head. It was exhausting really. ]

So, I appreciate the promptness. Even if it was kinda surprising.

[alphabeticalplans]

[A knowing smile spread across his face.] So you teach.

That explains the whiskey. I guess you had it on hand? [He shrugged.] I guess it also explains my promptness.

[iseegoblins]

Kinda. Some of the kids would probably say train is more accurate. [ She chuckled and gave a little shrug as she gestured for him to come all the way in and sit down. ] I lived at a school for people like me, people with gifts. Those of us that are older and have been there longer ended up training the new ones. [ Not that it'd gone super well. Best of intentions really didn't always work out. ]

Mmhm. I had some for myself. Wow that sounds way more depressing aloud than in my head. [ Maybe she wasn't adjusting to this new place as well as she'd like to pretend. ] It does explain your promptness. Scott was always like that. Prompt to everything because he thought we needed to be setting an example.

[alphabeticalplans]

I think that's just how schools in places that are also homes work. [He took her invitation, taking a seat on the sofa she offered.] But it's nice to hear you guys had a place. I'm sure it's hard being different around a bunch of people who aren't. People aren't known for being trusting, and groups of people who dislike the same things can be dangerous.

[He chuckles.] At the risk of sounding like a lush, it helps me relax sometimes, too. [He nodded.] I used to teach, too, at the orphanage a grew up in. There weren't a lot of people around to look out for the kids, so someone had to. When I was one of them, it was me. Once I grew up, I just kept at it.

[In the end, it was why he'd chosen the path he'd taken. Protecting the parentless children of Sector 5 was great, but what if he could make the world they were facing better? Hadn't he needed to try? Hadn't they all?]

[iseegoblins]

It's a nice place too, really big, decent amount of space so we're not always trampling over each other. [ It worked out in that regards. She flopped down next to him without much concern. ] It sucks, but I'm pretty used to being around groups of people who hate us. Mutants like me aren't exactly loved where I'm from. [ It was depressing, but she'd gotten used to it and she had a bit more hope now that maybe things could get better. Maybe a second chance was all they needed.

She pointed to a table where two coffee mugs were set out. ] So...mugs are all I have. Damn, now we're both really looking like lushes here together. [ Drinking with coffee mugs. She'd let him do the honors of pouring it out though. She smiled. ] That's petty sweet of you. It sounds like you're good at making hte best out of a bad situation. Do you still teach there?

[alphabeticalplans]

It sounds like the kind of place you could forget the world in. [Let the walls define where the world ended and just pretend there wasn't a bunch of hardship and hatred out there. It sounded nice, a beautiful lie, and one that could be a nice reprieve, as long as you didn't spend too much time there, forgetting the rest of the world was out there waiting, the good and the bad.] I'm sorry for that. People can be really, I don't know...clannish? They get scared of what's different.

[He chuckled.] Hey, on a bad day in the slums we just pass the bottle. This is damned close to luxury. [And he did crack that bottle and pour them both a drink, a double for himself.] It's just...the situation. It's just...life, you know? And it goes on. You have to make the most of it because it's what you've got. [He shook his head, though, setting down the bottle and leaning back on the sofa, swirling the amber liquid in the mug but not taking a drink.] No. I left the responsibility to someone else and decided to go try to save the world. [There was no hint of bitterness in his voice, but bone-deep tiredness. They'd tried so hard for so long, and all they'd gotten was defeat and the blood of innocents on their hands. It was a long shot, Cloud getting to the top of the pillar before Shinra pulled the plug. The guy was a badass, a god-damned SOLDIER First Class in the flesh, but he was just a man, and Shinra had the benefit of an early start.]

How about a toast? That's classy, right?

[iseegoblins]

Yeah, it was. Too bad the world couldn't just forget about us. [ The amount of times they'd been attacked in their own school was pretty exhausting. It was supposed to be a haven for people like her, for kids like her, but of course humans couldn't let that happen. She shook her head. ] Don't be sorry, not like you have anything to do with what happens in my world. And I'm pretty used to it. Should make adjusting here easier, right? [ Might as well try to see the bright side. Or something. ]

Not sure how I'd feel about sharing a bottle directly with someone I barely know. [ She gave him a smirk though that then softened into a smile. ] I guess that's a way to look at things. [ What he said next though was a bit surprising and she raised an eyebrow in curiosity. ] That's a pretty big career shift. From teaching to trying to save the world. Ambitious. [ She laughed. ] Sure. What are we toasting to?

[alphabeticalplans]

Maybe, or it could make you more paranoid about people trying to help you. [And he was one to talk about paranoia. He didn't trust this place, or the company that seemed to provide them with clothing, room, and board with no expectations in exchange. That's how things worked, and it meant their due would come up eventually.]

See, that depends on how much you've already had and the demand for drinkware. [He chuckled.] It's not like I was alone. There's a whole resistance movement.

[Explaining all of Shinra right now, and the effect they'd had on the global economy, seemed daunting, though, so instead he turned his mug in his hands, thoughtful.]

Maybe something lame? Like 'new friends'?

[iseegoblins]

I'd like to think it'll just make it easier. It's a more positive outlook than paranoid. [ But she was a little bit paranoid. There was no denying she didn't trust this place either and found everything about it pretty unsettling. Especially that it could keep her here. ]

To new friends then [ she lifted her mug ] So...what were you resisting?

[alphabeticalplans]

Hey, paranoia's not negative unless you let it get out of hand. [And then you spent all night making 17 contingency plans for your contingency plans in case the original one doesn't pan out. He...might know something about that.]

[He clinked her glass, sighing before looking back down, slight smile fading.] A corporation called Shinra. A few decades ago, they developed a technology to pull energy to power electronics and, well, everything directly from the planet. Thing is, that energy is the Lifestream. It's where all life comes from, and using it up is weakening the environment. I was born and raised in the biggest center of Mako use in the world: Midgar. Very little grows there, and I can promise it's because of their reactors. Anyway, not only that, but they also control all news outlets, the president of the company may as well be president of everything, they have a very sophisticated army and they have used it to seize control of verdant mako outlets around the world. They own everything from power sources to the music industry and people who work for them are the only ones who make enough money to afford to live on the plate...or really affording anything comfortably.

[He paused for a moment, taking another drink from his coffee mug.]

The city of Midgar was built around eight Mako reactors in a circle. The Shinra building serves as the center of a sort of wheel, and each sector is an area between two reactors, sort of like spokes on a bicycle. Each sector has a plate suspended a mile above the ground, but don't worry, the people who live underneath them get artificial light from giant sunlamps suspended from the underside of the plates. There isn't much construction that goes on the bottom-side anymore, and there isn't much security down there, either, so we build with what we can salvage from the refuse the top-siders discard below.

It looks a lot like this place.

[iseegoblins]

And you definitely don't do that, right? [ Something told her he might let it get out of hand now and then, but that was mostly just because of their previous conversations.

She took a drink and leaned her elbows on her knees as she listened to him. ] That sounds so many levels of shade it's practically black. People really don't have a problem with a corporation basically acting as a government? Not that an actual government is always better but this sounds pretty weird. Did the founders of Shinra build the city with the intention of ruling it or something? [ If so that was pretty...megalomaniacal. Okay, well, time for another drink. ]

Nothing about that sounds normal. In fact it sounds like a recipe for disaster. What happens if something damages the structural integrity of plates?

[alphabeticalplans]

No. [He chuckled, though, running a hand back through his hair.] At least not often, or I try not to. [That counted for something, right?]

Midgar was established as a place for Shinra employees to live, originally. Then, people got hurt on the job and couldn't work anymore, or kids were born and something happened to their parents. Basically, Midgar grew organically as life happened in a city built for a corporation. Only, businesses and societies aren't the same things, and people aren't transactions. That doesn't stop Shinra from treating us like we are.

[He scoffed, and it sounded tired, as he clenched his jaw.]

Funny you should mention that. They have emergency release mechanisms. You know, so they can be dropped if they need to be. I honestly can't think of a time that would be necessary...unless you're trying to literally crush a resistance cell and anyone unlucky enough to live with them.

[iseegoblins]

Not often, huh? [ She teased with a quick smirk.

She shook her head as he continued. ] That sounds crazy to think an entire city grew because of a corporation. It must have a lot of power outside of just that city in your world. [ Which was even more crazy to think about. ]

Wait--what? [ She blinked and her expression twisted to a tight confused frown. ] There's so no reason for something like that. Unless they planned on killing their own people at some point.

[alphabeticalplans]

As little as I can help it.

[A little self-deprecating humor goes a long way, right?]

They have as much power as they want. They have an entire division dedicated to the development of weapons. [He nodded, eyes on his coffee mug, hands clenched around it, jaw tight.] That's the last thing I remember. To stifle 'rogue elements known to reside in the Sector 7 slums, orders were approved to drop the sector 7 plate'. Me and my team joined the militia to keep them off the pillar, but the best we've got are improvised bombs and home-repaired, cast-off weapons. I just hope we stalled enough for people to get out.

[iseegoblins]

Nothing good ever comes from having divisions dedicated to weapons development. [ There was a firmness in her voice like someone that knew that all too well. She took a deep breath as she explained and then reached a hand out to put it on his leg in sympathy. ]

I'm so sorry.

[alphabeticalplans]

Common sense, right? [He shakes his head, taking another, much longer, drink from that mug.] Well, anyway, you wanted to know what I was up to, so...there you have it.

[iseegoblins]

I'm sorry if asking brought back bad memories for you. [ She gave his leg a brief pat then went back to drinking from her own mug. ] Sounds like a lot to have been up to.

[alphabeticalplans]

[He shakes his head, forcing a smile.]

It's fine, really. The way I see it, if Shinra cared enough about what we were doing to drop a plate, we must have gotten our message across. Maybe that's enough.

[iseegoblins]

[ She gives him a sad little attempt at an encouraging smile. ] That's one way to look at it. I hope it is enough to do something. What do you guys do after something like that?