I Want A Pet Dinosaur

Participants:

kendall_icon.gif melissa_icon.gif

Scene Title I Want A Pet Dinosaur
Synopsis Melissa checks up on Kendall, letting him know she's getting them a house and would introduce him to a mysterious female time manipulator.
Date April 10, 2010

Brick House

This spacious two-story building rises up off of the coast of Long Island City. Surrounded by a high chain-link and razorwire fence, it looks like it has been abanded for decades. Windows are bricked up, doors are boarded shut, and the grounds are unkempt and overgrown. Access to the building seem impossible, unless one was to pry off the boarding or simply smash through one of the walls. However, to the Ferrymen this structure is simply an extremely secure safehouse.

True access to the safehouse called the Brick House is made via an abandoned lot on the edge of the East River beyond the actual building. Here, an overgrown cellar hole from a factory that was demolished decades ago gives way to a concrete stairwell and a heavy iron door. This entrance is staffed by a Ferryman operative at all times, and accesses an underground tunnel leading to the basement that once connected the factory to the building that has become the Brick House.

The basement levels are cold and damp concrete shelters with freeze-dried food storages and a small armory of illegal firearms used in the defense of the safehouse. The upstairs floors are poorly furnished rooms with peeling wallpaper and paint, old dusty wood floorboards and seem to be in a constant stare of repair and renovation.

With only two windows on the second floor — facing the river — not bricked up, the building has a somewhat stale smell to it, and is lit only by artificial lighting of lamps and on occasion candles and lanterns.


Melissa was strangely absent the previous night, and for most of the day. Usually she's by several times or for several hours, checking on Kendall and the younger kids, and taking care of Jerry. Not Friday though. Nope. She's here now though! In what looks like a brand spanking new coat, but the same old hat and pants. And holding her left arm a little carefully. Of course, that's a lot easier since she's wearing a sling.

She comes into the house and peeks in on the kids, then makes her way to Kendall's room. "Hey Kendall? You still awake?"
Kendall is playing a video game. Go figure that he grabbed the DS and shoved it in his pocket when they were running out of the Den. "Yeah?" he calls back, not looking up. He's concentrating omg.

Melissa opens the door and steps inside, then has to work at keeping Jerry from jumping on her. "No Jerry, down. Down! Dammit, those obedience classes are not working," she mutters. Then she looks at Kendall. "How you feelin'?"

"Better." Kendall replies, then swears as something doesn't go right in the game. Then he blinks innocently at Melissa. You totally didn't hear that, it's all in your mind. He holds out a hand for Jerry, wiggling his fingers in a promise of scritching.

Melissa doesn't seem to care about the swearing. She swears a lot after all. She just did it! Jerry bounds over to Kendall, jumping up on him as Mel smiles a little. "I'm glad. Was worried about you for a while there, what with the leg thing and all that," she says, moving to the bed and perching on the edge.

"Well nothing like that has happened again, thank God." Kendall sighs, shutting the game off with a resentful glare. Stupid thing. He jerks his face out of the way of the licking just in time, laughing as he shoves at the dog's face. "Ew, bad breath!"

Melissa smiles. "Then why are you laughing?" she teases, shifting so she can rest her injured arm on her leg. "What's the doctor say about you though? Still contagious or anything? Fever? Stupid shit like that?"

"Still got a fever but he said I'm not contagious anymore." Kendall grimaces. "Which is good, because I'm tired of staying indoors all the time, snow or not."

Meliisa brightens and nods. "That's great, Kendall. Given what happened on Roosevelt I'm lookin' for a new place, but soon as I find it, if you're still doing this great, I'll break you out of here."

"Break me out? What is this, a prison?" Kendall asks with raised eyebrows. "Are we prisoners here?" he gives Jerry the promised scritches, and even a belly rub if it's offered up.

Melissa laughs and shakes her head. "Nah. But I'm sure you're tired of staying in the same place all the time. I'm talking about movin' you to my—our place. Your own room, to do whatever you want with it and all that."

"Sounds good…. wait, what happened to your home on Roosevelt? It's not like those guys are going to be there forever…. right?" Kendall sounds uncertain. "Or did something happen to it?"

"They might be. I really don't know. But I'm not taking any chances," Melissa says, shrugging her right shoulder lightly. "Oh! And reminds me…remember how we talked about someone who can play with time? Well, talked to her, and she said she'd show you her ability once you were better."

"Really?" Kendall perks up at that. Who knows why the idea makes him so happy, but it's there. "Who is she?" he asks. "It'd be nice to know her name, at least."

Melissa grins. "Odessa. But that's just between you, me, and her, okay? She tries to keep what she can do quiet."

Kendall furrows his brow, but the name isn't familiar. Okaythen. He kinda figured he wouldn't know her, but hey. "I tried to keep what I could do quiet too." Kendall sighs, drooping again.

Melissa reaches out with her good hand to give his shoulder a squeeze. "I'll do my best to keep that quiet too. Though you know…Odessa? She thinks that illusions are awesome. I bet you could impress her if you showed her some." And it's good for teenagers to have crushes!

"I can't…" Kendall shakes his head. "My power might never come back." why does he sound hopeful? "And besides, it's not that great if I have to draw them first."

Melissa smiles. "You'd be surprised. Odessa doesn't think her power is that great. She can stop time, but she thinks it's…dull."

"Oh, she can stop time? Not time travel?" so much for his wish to travel back in time and grab a dinosaur. What? Kendall has weird fantasies.

"I…hell, I don't know. Haven't talked about it with her that much," Melissa admits with a shrug.

"Oh, so it's still possible." Kendall nods sagely. "All right then." huzzah! And since he doesn't really have anything else to say, his gaze goes to Melissa's arm, and he looks back up at her questioningly. He doesn't want to be rude and come out with 'what happened to you?', so… psychic powers of suggestion activate!

Melissa follows his gaze to her arm, then back to his face and she gives another shrug. "Was house-hunting. Place I was looking at caught fire before I got there. Was trying to get someone out and I got shot. And no, the authorities don't know I was there, but Magnes made the papers."

"You got… shot?" Kendall stares at Melissa's arm. He's never seen someone who was shot before! But then something else Melissa said caught his attention. "Magnes did?" shows how much Kendall reads the paper. "Being a hero?"

Melissa nods. "Yeah. And he did. He helped get a few people out of the building."

"See… his power is useful. I couldn't help at all with my power." Kendall frowns. "Nothing I can do will ever make the papers." what? Wasn't he just trying to keep a low profile?

Melissa arches a brow. "You want to make the papers? I thought you wanted to keep your power quiet?"

"Well, uh…" Kendall shrugs. "Anyway, I won't regardless, so it doesn't matter now, does it?" Kendall leans against the wall, staring contemplatively at the blocked windows. "It'd be nice to see the sky again even if it is cloudy 90 percent of the time."

Melissa cocks her head, studying him, and finally, she nods. "Yeah, I'll bet. Hopefully you'll be out of here in a few days."

"Yeah, and if not, well, I'll just do what I've been doing for the past month and a half." Kendall wrinkles his nose. "Not like I have any choice in the matter, right?"

"Hey, if you weren't sick, I'd have you out of here now. But really, for the last month have you felt like doing anything?" Melissa asks with a hint of a smile.

"Well yeah, but I don't think 'dying' is on my list of things to do." it got really bad at some points when Kendall was sick. He was tempted to just end the misery!

"Hey, no dying. How would it look if you dropped dead on my watch, huh?" Melissa asks, grinning. "Besides. Soon you'll be out of here. You can play loud music, burn up the Wii controllers playin' 'em, run around like a loon outside…"

"Magnes has a PS3 that he got me." Kendall informs Melissa. He was given it as a bribe to stay in school! Kendall mopes. "I still haven't finished FFXIII."

Melissa nods. "I know. I'm gonna get it from him for you. Then you can finish any game you want."

"Thanks!" hey, maybe he can persuade Melissa to get him Bayonetta. Magnes said no, but… Kendall has hopes.

Melissa smiles. "You're very welcome. Just remember…No wrecking the house! I like things neat. You want your room trashed, cool. But anything else? Oh no. I'll hold the PS3 ransom if I gotta."

"I don't make messes!" Kendall protests. "The mess in the room at the Den was all Anders!" Kendall's actually pretty fastidious…. for a teenager.

Melissa laughs and nods. "Okay, okay. Calm down. As it happens, I believe you. I can see Anders as a slob."

"Well ok then." Kendall seems to be losing energy. Recovering as he is, he's still sick, and likely not feeling as well as he said he was.


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