Summary:Jimmy buys Isis sandwiches and earns a friend. Lucky man. Log Info:Storyteller: None |
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Jimmy'd had the day off from Doctor Yendez's office, and instead came down for some volunteering in the Bowery. There may not be any official plans to clean u pand repair, but he still does what he can to clear away debris, to strengthen structures and make the place a little bit safer. And after that, he comes to the neighbouring Mutant Town, heading to a coffee shop for tea and a sandwich. And though he hadn't arranged to meet her, he spies a certain someone approaching out the corner of his eye. "Ah, better make that three ham sandwiches, please." And hopefully, Jimmy will still actually get at least one.
It's been a while since Isis has been in MTown but she tries to get there to visit some … friends. Todays trip had taken her into the sewers and tunnels below the area, where she'd dropped off food and blankets. All things she purchases from her own earnings. The visit to the Morlocks tends to put the feline-like mutant into a strange frame of mind - it's normally strange but stranger.
Which is why she's 'pouncing' from crack to crack in the pavement, her own private version of 'step on a crack', when she's a voice she recognises. "Jim— Drea— Uh Hi!" she finally says as she stops by the man, looking at the sandwiches that he's ordered. Probably good he ordered three - but what is he going to eat?
Jimmy thanks the cashier as he pays, and makes sure to grab one of the sandwiches right away. He's seen the risk of leaving food unattended, and not even attending it is a guarantee that he'll keep it safe. "Jimmy's fine," he says. It's not like they're actively fighting superhuman dangers right now, right? He holds up the other two sandwiches in his free hand and nods to a table. "Care to join me? We haven't exactly had much chance to chat."
Jimmy learns fast! Isis's blue/grey eyes follow the food and she nods. "Jimmy then." she answers as she follows him to the table. There's the briefest of moments where she considers sitting on the table but manages to take a chair instead - at least the sun is out and she can bask for a little. It will keep her from being 'zoomie', won't it?
Coming from her is a sense of concern, preoccupation, maybe. Not sad like she was in the meeting but worried perhaps.
"What are you doing here? You work around here?" she asks. Nick and Piotr have tried to teach her to be a little social. It probably hasn't stuck very well.
Jimmy, for his part, is more relaxed. There's the satisfaction of a day spent well — much like someone has after going to a job they're proud of, so it's natural for her to think he works in the area. He settles into the chair opposite hers, bringing tea and sandwich closer to his end. "I volunteer sometimes in the Bowery," he says. "There's always more that needs doing, especially since construction companies aren't touching it. How about you? What's on your mind?" Sometimes, people just need to let things off their chests.
Jimmys' state of mind probably helps Isis settle a little. There's always an 'edge' to her emotions - she's more animal than human a lot of the time and today that seems more pronounced. Which might explain why the food gets her focus more than usual.
"What do you do there? In the Bowery? Construction?" That has her catseyes rising to his as she tries to puzzle that.
"Mmmm? Oh. I stay here sometimes and have friends here. I went to visit them but one of them is away - no one knows where they've gone." There's a spike to the concern as Isis speaks on her friend.
Jimmy nods. "There's this volunteer group that shores up the buildings, makes sure things won't collapse any time soon. Best we can do without actually rebuilding, and that would need full construction-company resources." His head tilts at the mention of a friend missing, his brow furrowed and concern rising in his chest. "Did they just disappear? Could it be related to…" He makes a waggling gesture with his hand. The Reverbium Thing, is as best he could come to naming it.
"Are you going to eat those?" Isis gestures to the sandwiches. The change of subject as quicksilver as the mutant herself. The cats ears on her head twist a little and Jimmy might get the impression if she had a tail it would be swishing in mild agitation.
"You don't look much like a builder or someone that works with their hands." It's not an insult, or delivered that way, but tact for Isis is a fleeting thing. "Do you like it? Helping people like that? How do you pay your bills?"
"What? My friend? I … " she shrugs "… they're a Morlocke and sometimes … head off without telling people. Just usually not for this long. Veronica says Neville has been for a couple weeks now. It might be nothing." It might be something too. She's thinking on that, sort of, as she eyes the sandwiches again.
"This one, yes," Jimmy says, his voice firm. He even takes a demonstrating bite, making sure she sees that it's his… though he doesn't go so far as to actively /lick/ it. But he pushes the other two sandwiches across the table. "These ones, go ahead.
"But yes, I like helping, where I can. I'm a bit stronger than I look, especially when I" Cough. "really try." When he glows, he means; she's seen a little of that. "But I'm interning at a counsellor's office, Doctor Yendez. That's the main thing I do for bill-paying." He purses his lips, thoughtful. "It might be nothing, but it also might be something. I don't suppose Neville was in one of those mugshots you found?"
Isis' face falls when Jimmy says he's eating the sandwiches but lights up when he passes two sandwiches in her direction. There's no thank you, but he gets the wave of gratitude that comes from her as she rips the sandwich open. She's got an appetite, that's for sure - and yet she's so slim.
"You're a counsellor…" that's said slowly as her emotions shift again to very wary. Isis doesn't like counsellors particularly much to the consternation of the Institute.
At least he can refocus her at the moment. "No, Nevilles wasn't. He's a full time Were-Cat. A bit like Nick, but different. When I was at AIM, there were others like him and I know AIM are looking for me." Another emotional shift, the concern and the worry and not a little fear.
Jimmy feels that wariness, that worry, that fear. Rather than sit her in a couch and very officially ask How Does That Make You Feel, he just lays a hand on her elbow, and with it, conducts a little bit of his concern, his openness. He may be a counsellor, but he's not going to drug her up, drag things into the open, or any of the other concerns she has for them. (For one thing, it'd take a full-fledged psychiatrist to prescribe meds anyway; he's still in med school.) "Mmn. But with that wolfman who attacked Miss Potts, full-time mutations like those don't disqualify them from being… of interest. Think you'll do any investigating, or just trust him to turn up again?" Cats do have quite a habit of just wandering off and then coming back when they dang well please.
The Institute learned about trying to drug Isis up - not that it's something they do often. She'd responded quite poorly - and they couldn't blame her. She'd spent her life in a cage as an science experiment.
At Jimmy's touch, Isis looks at him, her blue/grey eyes nearly shining. "I'm ok… just bad memories. It was a time and a place I never want to go back to and I know they'll find me, eventually." She's still wearing Nicks shirt, it's so large that it's almost a dress on her. She's not connected the comfort with her dislike of counsellors.
"Yeah, that. It's probably nothing, right? Morlocks go wandering all the time and often don't think to check in…" She bites into the sandwich she's holding and chews for a bit. Distracting herself more likely.
"I … might go looking? I don't know. I'll give him a day or two more first. It's only been a couple of weeks. That's probably best, don't you think?"
Jimmy gives her a smile, an attempt at encouragement. "Even if they do find you, you're not alone. We'll keep them from getting you." He takes another bite of his sandwich while he mulls it over, thoughtful; there's a strange feeling from him, as he's still parsing this whole 'community' thing. He's not used to banding together or teaming up like that. He nods to her. "That sounds best. Give him a chance to check in, but if he's still missing after that… poke around a bit. And call me if you need me."
His head tilts. And time to change the subject. "So… I get the feeling you can 'read' people. You kept on responding to me /finding something funny/, even though I didn't actually laugh aloud at it."
"That's what Piotr and Nick keep saying too." And others, but Isis isn't about to out The Institute. "I don't know if you can and I don't want people hurt because of me…" But it's why she's wearing Nicks shirt. If she does get taken, she'll have those memories to hold onto, at least for a little while.
"I'll do that. I'm sure it's nothing…" she's worried but there's only so much a Cat can do. "You're … a … mutant?" she says quietly. She's not really sure what saw that day.
"Read? Oh… I guess. I sense what people are feeling. I guess it's reading them? You … can affect people too, I've felt that."
Jimmy shakes his head. "We're /going/ to interfere regardless. It's what people like us do. It's better to keep us all on board so we can intervene all at once. Strength in numbers, and that way, it's less likely that anyone will get hurt." Beat. "Well, anyone but the people trying to take you." There's likely to be some pain in that direction.
The question makes him duck his chin. "Not technically a mutant, no. It's… something different. Didn't happen in my teens, for one thing." He nods to her. "Yeah, that's what I meant by reading. And… I can only affect people a little. It's not like what you can do." Not like when her traumas came out and radiated from her, that day.
"That's what they say too…" Isis sighs. "I know what AIM will do to you all. I remember sitting in my cell and hearing the others being taken and coming back. Hearing and feeling their pain. Smelling when things went wrong for them…." beat "I don't want you to end up like that. They bred for it - I'm just one mutant."
At least she listens as Jimmy moves on, finishing the first sandwich a lot more slowly than she might have normally and starting on the second. "Some mutants come into their powers early. Some of mine did. The others … they made happen." She considers his words "You're talking about when I lost it the other day? I broadcast, didn't I? I've had training to learn to not to do that but sometimes … it's too much."
Jimmy lets the AIM subject rest; he'll show his dedication when the time comes for action, rather than cycling words back and forth. Instead, there's a new topic. "Broadcast, yes," he says. "That's a good word for it. I could never broadcast that strongly, not for a full group of people like that. I think most of what you were getting from me was just, like… me putting my own emotions to the forefront, where you would sense them, rather than me actively pushing them out there. I was kind of wondering…" He fidgets. "How do you keep other people out of your head? It can get overwhelming sometimes."
"Empathic Broadcast. I was bred for that." Isis agrees. "Influence others to our benefit. Their benefit. It comes naturally, broadcasting. A lack of control. I had to learn how to stop that and then how to direct it - though I still usually get an area and not just one person." She's thinking on that. "They didn't really do a lot with me on control though."
They had kept her feral for most of her life and made her fight.
"Keep people out of my head? You mean stop being affected by their emotions? Practice. Lots of it. For me it's like imagining … a wall in my mind."
Jimmy grimaces as she tells him about how AIM treated her. "That… is just awful. A horrible thing to do to people." Her parents as well as Isis herself; for them to have 'bred for' something, there must have been some… genetic donors. He nods soberly. "And that wall. It keeps the emotions out? Or does it just help you to not be affected by them? That's the best I know how to do right now. I feel what they feel, but then I go and do what I need to do anyway. They say courage isn't /not/ being afraid, but instead being afraid and not letting it stop you — so I kind of try to do that, but for all kinds of emotion."
"It was." Isis agrees. She won't share what she shared with Nick, not just yet. She must have parents though, right?
"It does, in a way. Um. It's not up all the time, well … mostly. I can still read the street normally. But when someone is broadcasting strongly, or there's a group and stuff, it mutes them a lot and lets me focus."
It's really hard to explain.
"I guess I'm also used to it? The constant knowing what others are feeling? Most people aren't broadcasting strongly enough for me to notice. But when they do, like when you laughed … I certainly can."
"I know what you mean by feeling it and doing it anyway. Sometimes, I use that and reflect it back …"
Jimmy nods slowly, trying to parse what she's telling him. Simply put, the English language doesn't have the words for that kind of a sense. There are a lot of words for different colours, different pitches of sound, different flavours… but not a lot for the experience of being in other people's heads, of feeling their moods as your own. That's just how it is with exotic senses: by definition, most people don't have them, and so they don't think about them or try to put them into words.
But there is one thing he needs to clarify, folding his arms over his chest. "I did /not/ laugh out loud. It was just funny and cute, like a cat video." /Exactly/ like a cat video.
Isis wrinkles her nose and keeps on eating that sandwich. "I know you didn't, but it was still very loud. To me, you might as well have." she finally says. She doesn't say sorry - it's almost not in her vocabularly. Something that they've been working with her on.
She sighs though as he continues. "I am a Cat. When I was found, I'd been kept in a … feral … that's the word they used, state of mind most of my life. It took a lot to bring me out of it, teach me to be human. So … I am a Cat." Put something near the edge of a table and she's likely to knock it off. Just because she can.
"It makes it hard for people to like me."
Jimmy's finished his sandwich, and he takes some sips from his cooling tea instead. "Mmn. I'd say it more directly makes you hard to understand, and that people then struggle to like what they don't understand. But from what I've seen of you… it doesn't make you cruel. It doesn't make you act like an ass. There are plenty of purely human people whose behaviour is much, much worse than yours. It just makes you a bit… different, and I don't mind that." Pause. "Does seem to make you a bunch more food-oriented, though."
"I know and that's what Piotr says too…" Isis says quietly. "I just liked to curl on their beds and be around them at school." Jimmy might guess that Isis really has no idea about personal space - particularly how she is with Nick. "And I could sense how they felt." It hasn't been an easy transition for the woman, clearly.
"You're asking an awful lot of questions about me. What about you? When did your mutation start?" Mutation. She still thinks its that. "Food? Oh. I eat a lot, I need to do. My other abilities give me a high … um … metabolism, that's what they said school."
At school, and a school which talks about mutants' metabolisms, huh. Jimmy doesn't ask; he could tell she was being reticent about something before, and he's not here to go poking at secrets. Besides, she's already asked him a question.
"2014," he says, his tone and mood sobering. "Yeah. /That/ night in 2014. It… first thing I 'heard' was the screaming, from all around. So, I took the strength I had, and I went out to help, as much as I could. Never expected to end up doing more of it, or getting involved with other people. Only actually chose that name, like, two weeks ago."
It might have been an enlightened school Doctor that helped her. There's some cool schools around New York, right?
"What night?" That's an honest question from Isis and Jimmy can feel the confusion. "I was only recovered about three years ago. I … I'm not very educated about things." She feels like she should know it. "It's the way it is, though, from what I understand from others. Some trauma or major event and bam … you've got abilities." She doesn't remember her event because it didn't happen that way. They forced her abilities open and experimented till they got others.
"Was it terrible though and is that why you became a counsellor?"
Jimmy winces. Hoo boy, how much is he going to have to tell her? It feels a little like being the first to tell someone about World War II. "12th December, 2014. There was a… big attack on the UN. It's why New York has that Disaster Zone; the repairs aren't going to be finished any time soon. The city will carry the scars for a while yet." He shakes his head. "I was already studying to become a counsellor. But what happened, that's why I'm in med school too."
"Oh, right. They told me some of that. I didn't realise." Isis sighs. "Something about mutants and registration … and all that. I missed it all. Sometimes I think I was lucky." What a way to consider things but maybe she was?
"That's why you work in the disaster zone?" The sandwich she's eating is nearly gone. That's taken way longer than it usually would - maybe the Morlocks had fed her as well. "And why med school? That means you're studying to become a doctor?"
Jimmy nods, nose wrinkled. "And it wasn't just mutants who were meant to register. I did too, after. But yes, that's why I try to help in the Disaster Zone, and why I'm studying to be a doctor. I could have done a lot more good that day if I could help with medical emergencies, not just… lift heavy things." There's a brief spike of emotion, of disappointment in himself, but he squishes it down.
Isis flinches just a little at that spike and pats Jimmy hand rather clumsily. "You do what you can, when you can. Nick told me that. And Piotr." Those two seem to be constants in Isis' life - maybe that's a good thing. But Jimmy might feel empathy for them, having to deal with the quicksilver cat.
"Not everyone can lift heavy things. I can't. If you lift them though, I can get in and help. Doesn't that matter?" A simple way of looking at things and perhaps interesting for a woman who is so clearly solitary in nature.
Jimmy flushes, abashment rising to replace the disappointment, as he realises: yes, she did hear that. "Y-Yeah, yeah it does. And… thank you. But I'm still going to work and study so that I can do more. I'll bring more to the table, and just like you can help me, I can help you." That's how it should go with teamups like this, even if the cat's more used to being solitary. "Sounds like Piotr and Nick are pretty good friends to you."
She did again. Does Isis even realise that's what she does? It's probably no wonder her classmates were uncomfortable. Again, though, she doesn't say 'sorry'.
"What type of Doctor?" She's curious. Like a cat. Go figure. "And maybe we'll work together. That might be nice." She's eyeing the counter again though. There's some muffins there and Nick did make sure she had her wallet before going out. Of course, the card that she uses only has so many funds on it - just in case.
"They got me out of there. I didn't like them much when they did but they stuck around and they helped. Nick … gave me a job."
Even knowing it'll probably make her wary, Jimmy says, "Psychiatrist. Counselling, plus the medical skill to deal with it when and if it's a medical issue." He's finished his tea, holding the cup and saucer neatly in front of him. "And yes, working together sounds nice. Like when Nick goes into the Disaster Zone, I'm going to be there and helping." He smiles. "Sticking around is important. You can't just turn up once and expect it's all done; there's the repair and care afterwards." He glances outside, to the slowly darkening sky. "And I should go and get back into it soon."
Isis gives Jimmy a cats stare for a moment. Maybe she's disappointed he didn't leave anything on the table edge today.
"Alright. Uh … thank you for the sandwich. I'm going to get some muffins. Do you think they'll sell them all to me?" She says as she rises. There's got to be a dozen in there, if not more. "Nick might want one." One. Because of course, she's likely to eat them all.
It might come as a shock to Jimmy, when the feline-like mutant invades his space and rubs her ears against his head.
"Be safe. You know where to find us." she says as she moves off. Nothing unusual here. Really!
Jimmy eyes the cabinet. "I mean, if you pay for them all, I don't see why not. But that's… quite a lo—" He cuts off, startled when she's suddenly THERE. But even with the speed, it doesn't actually headbut him. He pats lightly, nodding to her. "Y-Yeah. I do. See you around, Isis." And with that, he brings his cup and saucer back to the counter, and then departs.