Crystal - Seeking Help

[elementalista]

Crystal was new to America and new to New York. The only reason she was here was because, well, she didn't know what else to do.

Being a mutant was so, so hard. The situation for mutants was worse where she was from - she was legitimately afraid for her life - but in New York, some mutants lived and loved openly. Crystal wanted to do that. She wanted to be a person.

Online, she had heard about a kind of outreach sanctuary run by young mutants in the heart of the city. All the talk was very vague (it had to be, to protect the place and everyone who might use it), but everyone she spoke to, even in veiled terms, told Crystal that the people there could help her build a life she could love, if she just went there.

So she went.

She hoped that once her family saw that this wasn't futile, they would join her. Even though right now they didn't believe - believing she was more or less signing a death sentence.

But Crystal had to hope for a better life.

The building was nondescript, but Crystal was sure, somehow, that she had the right address.

She walked in, quietly, taking note of all available exit points, just in case.

Comments

[elementalista]

"You're saving my life," Crystal told him, "Not just being helpful." She said it with a smile, but she meant it.

"I'm all I have," she confirmed.

[imperfectstorm]

"Don't worry, we'll put you to work helping the next person soon enough." Everyone took what they needed and gave what they could. It wasn't a perfect system, but it was far better than nothing. "Then I'll lock up and we can get out of here." They had their security systems set up to let them know if anyone came looking for help when no one was around. Keeping the place manned 24/7 just wasn't feasible. Yet. Maybe one day.

[elementalista]

It sounded like a perfect system to Crystal. A utopia of human kindness. "You don't need to stay here?"

[imperfectstorm]

"We have alerts set up if anyone comes by. And I don't live that far." He could always flame on and fly back if there were an emergency, but one desperate walk-in a day was usually their max. Once everything was locked up, he led her in the direction of the apartment. "You don't need any medical attention, do you? If so, I have a healer friend I can have meet us there." Crystal didn't look like she was hurt or sick, but it wasn't always easy to tell.

[elementalista]

"No, I'm healthy." Just exhausted from stress and sadness and travel. "Tell me more about the friends you have."

[imperfectstorm]

"Good." The fewer people Jess had to be inflicted upon, the better. "Ben and his partner Tabby started all this with me. You'll probably meet them tonight or tomorrow, depending on what they're up to. My sister and her boyfriend are science geniuses who come in seriously handy sometimes but don't come out of their labs unless forced, usually." They'd started their own sort of under the radar thinktank that got funds from...who knows where, honestly. Johnny didn't ask, Sue didn't tell. "The others are friends from college or people we met doing this kind of thing, pretty much."

[elementalista]

A whole group of people with mutations, friends with each other and helping each other? "At home, you'd all be killed," she murmured.

[imperfectstorm]

"We still have targets on our backs, but we're lucky that the government hasn't sanctioned those targets just yet." Johnny hoped and prayed it never got that bad. "Is it just you, or do you have family back home who are mutants too?"

[elementalista]

So did Crystal. She didn't know what she would do if she lost the one place that seemed to be, well, not good, but sort of progressive. "It's my family. My whole family. They don't believe that things are better here. I want to prove that it is and then bring them here."

Who knows if that could happen.

[imperfectstorm]

"That's rough, I'm sorry." Though, really, it was Johnny's whole family, too. Just not all of his family was related to him. "Are they passing?" She made it sound like if they weren't, they'd be dead by now.

[elementalista]

She shrugged. "Passing or hiding. Taking as few risks as possible. It's easier for me. I don't look like one."

[imperfectstorm]

"My sister and I pass. Tabby passes. Ben doesn't." That was an understatement. "You can get image inducers on the black market, but they're expensive. Sue and Reed have been working on trying to develop less expensive versions, but it's hard."

[elementalista]

"I can't imagine how expensive. And it seems so wrong. For something that could save you."

[imperfectstorm]

"If it were easy and cheap to make, it'd be easier and cheaper to find a way to counter them, so it's a pretty fucked up situation either way."

[elementalista]

"Maybe it isn't better here." Oh god. What if it wasn't? What if anywhere she went, or her family went, it was just a matter of time before someone killed them?

[imperfectstorm]

Johnny put a hand on her arm and stopped walking. "Look, I don't know exactly where you're from, but there's a really good chance it is better here. I'm not going to say that it's easy or that it isn't sometimes scary as hell, but so far, at least, our government believes we have a right to exist. And as long as we have that, we can keep trying to change things for the better." He had to believe that. He had to.

[elementalista]

It had been a really hard day. A hard several years, full of terror and adrenaline and despair. That small kindness of a hand on her arm was almost more touching than a place to stay; she crumbled a little, let out a shaky breath, and looked down as her eyes filled with tears.

[imperfectstorm]

Oh man. Johnny really, really hated it when girls cried. It made him feel angry and helpless and sad. He put his arm around Crystal's shoulders and squeezed gently. "We've got you now, it's going to be okay. We've got you."

[elementalista]

She nodded, wiping at her eyes with a finger. "I'm sorry, yes. Thank you. I'm usually more composed." But she still leaned into that arm (what? he was cute).

[imperfectstorm]

"You don't have to apologize. I cry more when Ben steps on my toe." True statement. Johnny kept his arm around her as they walked the remaining short distance to his apartment. Honestly, it probably made it seem like Johnny was bringing home another conquest and that was good for keeping them from really being noticed.

[elementalista]

Okay, here was a fun way to cheer herself up. Lightly, as they walked, she 'misplaced' her foot, stepping on Johnny's toes. "Oh no!"

[imperfectstorm]

Johnny laughed, glad she'd recovered enough to joke around. "Luckily you weigh a lot, lot less than Ben does." It occurred to him that he might want to give her the heads up about him. Just because someone was from an entirely family of mutants didn't mean seeing a huge guy made of rock wasn't startling. "Have you ever seen pictures of Mount Rushmore? That's Ben, basically. Only less presidential."

[elementalista]

Crystal laughed, too, glad he'd recognized the joke. "Mount Rushmore? The granite mountain with faces? That isn't good for the rock, you know, those carvings." Crystal was intimately acquainted with all the elements. She liked granite.

[imperfectstorm]

"Well Ben had a face before it was made of rock, so it's not his fault." Johnny grinned and pointed to the building they were approaching. "This is it. We can grab some clothes from Tabby for you if she's home. You're close to the same size, I think." Otherwise he was bound to have a couple things of Dom's lying around until they could raid Tabby's closet.

[elementalista]

"I like rocks," Crystal said, with a small smile. "So I will probably like him. And you, you're made of fire?" Clothes weren't as important. Well, they were, but now Crystal was curious about Johnny.