milliways_bar | (no subject)

Entry tags:

nita callahan

(no subject)

[OOM: Outside.]

The Nita coming through the front door looks subtly more relaxed than she has for a long time.

Well. Until she sees the notice over the bar.

"Crap."

But a look at her name on the board reveals -- that can't be right, can it? -- a zero.

Well.

But Kit and Dairine's tabs are both up there in red, still. Frowning, Nita sits down at the bar, does not order tea, and thinks.

[OOC: Not here long at all, but slowtime tags are welcomed.]

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Angela hasn't seen Nita for an awfully long time.

"Hey, Nita," she says, sitting down beside her. "What's wrong?"

"Hey."

She gives Angela a quick smile -- it's still a little surreal to see her "grown up" -- and nods towards the tab board. "I'm just a little worried. Looks like someone took care of my tab, but I know a couple people who still need help, I guess."

"Wow. I feel lucky to have my parents here." She smiles slightly.

Savor them, because you might not have them when you go home. Not the same ones as here, anyway.

Cheerfully, she goes on: "I'm sure everyone will find some way of paying their tabs."

"Yeah. We're resourceful." Ruefully -- "And in the meantime, I, for one, am cutting back on the luxury items."

She grins. "You do not seem to have an inordinately lavish lifestyle."

And look at me, with my clothes. What a hypocrite I am!

But this all had a purpose, she told herself.

Angela takes a deep breath. "What have you been doing lately?"

"Okay, no, but every little bit helps."

She shrugs. "Not much. I visited a friend for a couple days, but that's about it."

"Oh, where did you go?"

Angela hasn't left the bar since November and she's getting stir-crazy.

"Whiskey Jack's place. It's . . . hard to describe. Somewhere in America, I think, but before we got there."

She handwaves vaguely. It's the kind of thing you can describe in the Speech, but not very well in English.

"Oh. Oh, wow, that must have been cool. I haven't been out of here in nearly five months and I'm going nutty."

She grins. "I'm glad you got out, though. Pretty cool."

"It was."

She gives her a sympathetic look. "I wouldn't mind so much if it would hurry up and get warm outside, y'know?"

"I know. It's awful. I miss California so much. I miss surfing."

Angela sighs dramatically, then grins again.

"I didn't know you surfed!"

"I used to. I haven't done it in a while...but now I want to again. I'll probably be all achy and stuff after I get back into it. But being here has made me miss it a lot."

"I can see that. The lake is hardly the ocean." She rolls her eyes and adds, fondly, "Even with Ed in it."

"Ed? Who is he and why is he in the lake?"

She grins.

Her eyebrows go up. "The shark?"

"A shark? Named Ed?"

Angela eyes Nita in disbelief.

". . . I'm surprised you managed to miss him."

And not a little glad, too.

"He's about -- he's huge. I've known him for a while."

Angela shakes her head. "Well, I don't go outside very often, really. And we're not exactly swimming."

She grins. "How on earth did you meet a shark?"

Nita's answering smile is maybe a little forced.

"It's a long story."

Gently: "If it's going to bother you, don't tell it."

". . . Thanks."

Subject change time!

"Anyway. What have you been up to?"

Putting my family through hell...

"Not very much, completing all that past due homework, working on stories and poems." She leans her head on her hand. "I've been okay."

"You write, too?" She grins. "You grow up pretty multi-talented, huh."

Angela shrugs. "It's just what I like to do," she says. "Ever since I was really little, like six or seven."

"Greetings and salutations, Nita!"

A tired looking Hank McCoy comes in through the door, sees her and smiles as he comes over. It has been awhile.

"Hey, Hank."

She flashes him a smile, that turns into a small frown when she gets a better look at him.

"Are you okay? You look kinda wiped out."

He smiles a bit.

"Not really, but I will be alright."

Sure Hank.

"It has been a very long week... or three."

He smiles at her a bit thouhg.

"How have you been?"

"Pretty good. Just got back from visiting a friend outside."

He smiles-ish.

"Good. What have you been up to? I dont think I have seen you around a lot, since Jack... came in. Of course I haven't been around that much myself, so I cant really speak to that..."

"Not much, really. Just -- spending some time to myself."

She tilts her head. "And how've you been? Out and about?"

He nods, then half turns away.

"Things have been bad on my Earth. A series of incidents has occurred... it's gone pretty sour. To quote someone from a recent conversation, it has gone to Hell in a handbasket half the size it's supposed to be..."

he smiles halfway at her.

"I have been spending most of my time there as a result."

"Geez, I'm sorry."

Her own world going to Hell in a handbasket wasn't that long ago, even with the time Bound here.

He nods to her.

"Thanks... I know you have dealt with a lot yourself. My world is at that point now, a turning point, a bad one, and things are very bad and getting worse. There are always chances to make things right, but... I honestly dont know how any one will make this right..."

He shakes his head.

"I hope your world has been good of late?"

"I wish I could help."

Wry -- "Last time I was home, we were just getting over our own 'Hell in a handbasket' situation."

He nods.

"Ouch... Sorry to hear that...I hope you get home soon, and that it is better."

he smiles a small bit.

"Thanks. I honestly dont know what anyone can do right now, but thanks. It is appreciated."

"Do you mind if I ask what the situation is?"

"Not at all. A mutant with the power to manipulate reality altered time and space so that 99.9 % of all mutants are suddenly humans, without any mutant gene at all. In an instsnt, my race has come near to extinction, wirth ;less than 200 of us left. There has been rioting, and violence and general confusion. Meanwhile, thengovernment, ij their oh so infinite wisdom, has turned the school I work at into what is for all intents and purposes an internment camp, putting all mutants in one place, not letting people leave, and requiring registration. Needless to say, this is not going well."

She blinks.

". . . What year are you from, again?"

He blinks back at her.

"2006. And a lot of people alwayus say, 'It cant happen here', and 'it can't happen now'. Which is usually when it starts happening. People, most of them, anyway, fear what is different, and what they fear, they often try to destroy."

He sighs.

"We live for a dream. Peaceful coexistance of Humans and Mutants... we had come a long way. Now, in and insatnt, almost all the ground we ever had is lost..."

"So it is happening everywhere . . ." she murmurs. "Geez. I'm so sorry, Hank."

He smiles a bit with a sigh.

"Thanks, Nita. Most days things are so incredibly busy I dont get back here except for evenings, and sometimes I wonder about those. But Catherine and Lindsey and this place are my sanity now."

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