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Headlines are barking the massacre of innocent civilians in Noriko's world; you can read the print from where she has newspapers scattered across her booth table in the bar. Mutant Responsible for Massacre and Mutant Killer Takes Hundreds of Lives aren't even the most vitriolic, and Noriko just sighs, pressing her forehead into her metal-covered hands. This isn't the kind of thing they need to deal with now, just when they've started finding a little peace after the loudest Purifier cries for their extermination have been quieted.

To make matters worse, the mutant girl who played the central part in the attack was infected with the Legacy Virus. Infection from that is not an idea anyone wants to entertain, ever; slowly dying while losing control of what can be very deadly powers is not a fun idea, and becomes even less so when you know it can mean harm to other people. So have one Noriko, with the bright blue hair with the beads and her normal happily colored clothes looking so out of place today, in the midst of a pile of newspapers trying her hardest to figure out what they can do to stem the rising tide of ugliness while keeping themselves safe.

It's not an easy proposition to face.

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She stands out. Even tucked into a booth, behind a stack of newspapers, Kate catches the vibrant hair and joyful attire.

And the not-so-joyful look on the young woman's face.

She doesn't approach straight away. First, she goes to the Bar and retrieves a cold tea for herself, and a piece of pie.

"Miss Nori?"

Look, she comes bearing gifts.

Unfortunately, there isn't a whole lot right this moment for Noriko to have a joyful expression about; once Kate sees the headlines she'll probably recognize that.

The smell of pie wafts closer with the older woman, though, and it brings Nori's head out of her hands for a moment. She tries for a smile, but it's just not in her today, not even for Kate and pie. (Not even cherry pie, which despite all cultural logic and the ready supply of green tea ice cream, Noriko kind of loves.)

"Hey."

"Hi, Sugar."

She smiles softy, brow furrowed in concern. She sets the plate aside and cautiously brushes Nori's shoulder with her fingertips.

"Y'look about as happy as a cat inna tub. Are you all right?"

"Me?" she asks. "Yeah, I'm okay." Her world is not much in the same condition, as it obvious by her voice.

"Just...It's only just now quieted down in my world, and now there's another attack. A mutant ended up killing all the demonstrators at an anti-mutant rally. We think it was accidental, but it doesn't really help."

"Oh, good lord."

Hand to her heart, she glances over the newspapers.

"S'that what all this is about? Gracious, I'm sorry, Miss Nori. How did it happen?"

She absently picks up one of the periodicals.

"She--the mutant, her name was Beautiful Dreamer--can psionically alter someone's memories. She made everyone's brains literally forget to keep their hearts beating," Nori says.

"It doesn't help that it was a mutant and there's no way to really prove this wasn't malicious. But it doesn't look like it--she was never aggressive towards humans, not really, and we don't know why she'd start now. And normally she can't affect that many people, so it seems like something else is going on." They're working on figuring out what.

It isn't looking promising.

Her eyes scan the article, free hand rising to cover her mouth. Shocking doesn't even begin to describe this. Sickening, terrifying, sad — these come close. For everyone involved.

"What a horrible accident."

She has no reason to think of it as anything else, if that is what Miss Nori believes.

"An' all of you are bein' held responsible? D'you know this girl?"

"We're all mutants. We could all do the same thing, just in different ways," Nori says, as far as being responsible goes; they are all responsible for keeping themselves and the people around them safe.

"I met her once or twice, but I didn't know her." She resists saying 'she was a Morlock, nobody really knew her', because that just doesn't help at all. "It's just...none of us needed this. It's going to start the anti-mutant hate up all over again, and I'm not sure we have a whole lot of that fight left in us."

"An' any normal individual with a set'a hands could pick up a gun an' shoot somebody, but that don't mean they should be punished for somethin' they haven't done yet."

Realization wraps, icy cold, around her spine.

"I'm sorry, 'normal's pro'ly not the right word t'use. I jus' meant someone without these extraordinary gifts.

"D'you know what they might try t'do t'her? T'all of you?"

"I know what you meant," Nori assures her. She's long since stopped getting angry every time 'normal' is used to mean 'not mutant'. She can't say she's stopped reacting entirely because she hasn't; it still makes her feel odd, and uncomfortable with the way she is, but her years at the school have managed to make her understand that being a mutant doesn't equal being a freak.

"Probably the same thing they've been trying to do for a while. Kill us all," she says listlessly. "I don't know about Beautiful Dreamer."

For a while, she doesn't know what to say.

"I hope, if they've been tryin' for a while an' haven't succeeded, that means they won't succeed this time neither."

She mildly pushes the pie a little closer.

"I don't know," she says. "Normally we just have to deal with a bunch of little groups, not one big one that's organized. And if enough people read these headlines...we're not going to have many people on our side."

She gestures to the opposing bench, silently asking if she can join her for a spell.

"Sure, that sounds 'bout right."

She frowns thoughtfully.

"D'you have a spokesman? Someone who might be able t'go straight t'the government t'arrange some sort of peace?"

"Not even the government really likes us," she says, waving a hand to invite Kate to sit, with a sigh. "So it would be kind of pointless."

Her frown deepens.

"Like you or not, they've got an obligation t'listen t'you under a flag of truce. You're no less citizens than anybody else, an' you deserve a fair shake."

"Well." Not exactly, they don't. It seems like they're really not under an obligation to listen to anyone, not when you're talking about Noriko's current government.

"That's the idea, but it doesn't mean they actually have to do it. Or will."

Her jaw sets.

"S'it a matter of absolute power corruptin' absolutely, or somethin' else?"

Kate has her ideas of how government — and law — should work.

"Not so much corruption," Noriko says with a shrug. "But...we're something new that no one's ever had to deal with in our numbers before, and we can be dangerous. So it's...different? And complicated."

"D'you have a liaison?"

"Not really," she confesses. "Out headmasters, but not past that."

"Headmasters?"

She blinks, tilting her head in confusion.

"Then most of you are — quite young? I assumed there was more of a diversity in age among mutants in your world."

"Most of us now are pretty young, yeah. At least the ones I'm dealing with--we're all school age, more or less."

And god, does that make everything harder. Not only are they teenagers, they're teenagers with the abilities to kill someone if they're not very careful. Add to this mix that their world doesn't like them at all, and it's not a fun combination.

"Jesus, Joseph, and Mary."

She re-envisions everything. Every massacre Miss Nori has told her about, every slaughter, every terrible accident. She re-envisions them with children. Schoolchildren.

And she feels sick.

She covers her mouth, shaking her head.

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