Participants:
Scene Title | La Mano de Destino |
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Synopsis | Nerf guns, Arcade games, and the HAND OF DESTINY. |
Date | March 4, 2018 |
Joe and Silvia had so much fun the night before that they decided they wanted to come back again! More like they wanted to give the place another try, hopefully without sociopathic 13 year olds, and old friend reunions that cause a ruckus. I mean Joe was totally the cause of that ruckus but that is besides the point. But he has also dragged Lance along with stories of all the video games there and all the cool stuff and well… mostly all the video games. So he leads the way in through the front doors.
"It's a pretty cool place Lance. Silvia and I were here last night. Oh and I met Quinn, only she goes by Robyn now. Aaaand she also has a french accent instead of an irish one. Which is weird. Maybe she's a clone or something. Or maybe she replicates like Brian? Cuz some of his replicants were pretty different from Brian prime. I mean… current Brian is different from original Brian after all. So maybe it's like that? Dunno. But there was some lady playing Time Cop who got all flustered when I made a scene about seeing Quinn. And then this mean little girl that needs so many hugs was super rude to me and Quinn. I mean Robyn. And look LANCE! ALl the games!" He gestures at the game cabinets. "And there's a whole ton of hallways and stuff packed with them. It's like they raided ALL of the arcades in New York to bring them all here."
"Maybe she was over in France during the war? Or just, like, Quebec," Lance suggests with a shrug as they walk along inside, craning his neck to peer about curiously at all the machines and pinball games, "I mean, we were in Canada, right? Guess you could pick up an accent like that… oh man, this place is primal." He grins, then, hands spreading to take in their surroundings, "Where've they been hiding this place?"
It appears that Silvia, too, thought it would be good to return to the scene of the—well, no crime was committed. But she's returned, a pocket full of quarters in hand as she saunters through an aisle of games before spotting the pair. "Hey!" She calls, loud enough to be heard but not loud enough to cause a scene. She makes her way towards Joe and Lance with a grin. "Couldn't stay away, huh? The lure of la maquinita."
"Right here apparently. And yeah, that's what I said last night. Totally freaking primal. We started to play Rampage over there before things got weird and tense and way too serious." Joe rambles as Joe rambles. "But there was also an X-Men arcade game which I totally want to play, and like a million others that I want to play as well. And I've got babysitting money to exchange for quarters so we should have play time. I mean I should be buying food with it but…" But games. "Oh and- SILVIA!" Joe hollers over to the girl, waving his hand in the air unnecessarily. He'll make the scene if no one else will. "La Makawhatsit?" He asks her, tilting his head to the side a little bit, a befuddled expression on his features.
"But yeah I guess so Lance. Maybe. I mean we didn't pick up Canadian accents and we dont' apologize for everything so I guess Canada didn't get to us, but maybe she wasn't as strong and France got to her. Or Quebec. Same difference. "Silvia I brought Lance!" He gestures at his best bud. Again unnecessarily.
"There's an X-Men game?" Lance has always been thrilled about comics ever since they were introduced to them by Magnes all those years ago. He pushes up on his toes to peer for it, and then there's another familiar voice, and face, and he flashes over a broad grin, "Silvia! Hey, girl, good seeing you— "
He reaches a hand over to ruffle Joe's hair and give him a playful shove, rolling his eyes, "Yeah I think she noticed, butthead."
"Ahh get out the way! Vroooom!"
There's a loud commotion in the corner of the arcade and a hoot and holler follows after. "TAKE THAT YOU LITTLE SHIT!" There's Eve, Aunt Eve playing a racing game, seated on a the mini fake motorcycle, the seer whoops and throws her fist into the air. Her dark hair loose and wild as if she had been head banging the whole time. Apparently she's the high scorer on this.. Motorcycle GoGo. Clicking in the name MAS MASTER BIATCH with a chuckle before she slides off the thing and then spots some of her kids. With a sly smile, she grabs the tickets that she's won from the game and tip toes behind them. Silvia gets a curious glance but instead of saying much.
"Now if you don't," she grabs both boys ears bringing them close. "Come visit Aunt Eve soon, BRYNN AND HAILEY GETS ALL THE COOKIES." There's another hoot and a holler right near their ears. Aunt Eve smells like a bunch of weed.
"Gotta go kiddies, there's a tuba that needs cleaning. BEHAVE!" Aunt Eve cackles as she wraps the boys up with the tickets and then is running towards the door and out,
A sound of a tuba echoes from outside on the streets.. and she's gone.
"Hello Lance," Silvia offers with a small wave of her hand. "Isn't this place great? They don't seem to bother you so long as you're feeding the maquinas quarters. I came in here alone and they haven't looked twice at me. Reminds me of Mexico." She nods a little. "We should play the X-Men game. I hope it has Kitty Pryde, she's my favorite." Then there's an Eve driveby and she's not entirely sure what to say. She's literally speechless.
"Yup, there's an X-men game." Joe confirms, tipping his head up and down a couple of times in a gentle bobble. "We will have to go play it. It looked like a side scroller beatem up but with the X-men. Which sound totally primal and I'm down. It was also four player so all three of us could play at the same time." Since now there are three of them with the addition of the Silvia. "Hey. You're so subtle that not everyone notices you, and I'm almost as subtle so people don't notice me. Gotta make sure we're noticed." Joe. Is. Not. Subtle.
And neither apparently is Aunt Eve. His eyes go wide, and he barely has time to react before she's there, dumping tickets on them and then… gone. "Eve? But, what do you mean Brynn and… how… what?" He looks to Silvia and Lance. "What just happened? Is… is this what it feels like to deal with me all the time? IS THIS WHAT I DO TO PEOPLE?" He reaches a hand up, scritching at the side of his head a couple of times, then looks over to Silvia. "That was… another aunt slash caretaker. Eve. She uhh… she's a very interesting lady." He remarks to Silvia, still looking more than a touch confused. "Machina? Like machine? Arcade machine?" He asks of Silvia, blinking a few times. "I dunno if it does, but we can find out." He grabs both of their sleeves and tugs them in the direction of the X-Men game.
"Oh yeah, we've got to play— " Then there's a comment from behind and they're surrounded by tickets, and Lance too is left momentarily speechless as he looks around. Then slowly he starts untangling himself from the tickets, commenting dryly, "Yeah, sometimes, Joe. That, uh— that was Eve, she's— well, she's kinda crazy, not usually in the dangerous way."
He thinks a moment.
"I mean usually. She did give me a claymore mine for my sixteenth birthday but Brian confiscated it. Anyway, yeah— " He steps along, gathering the tickets up as they go, "Let's play X-Men."
"Si, machines," Silvia explains, though she's still a little bewildered by sudden Eve and sudden not-Eve. "Ah, it would be nice to meet her but clearly she has things to do. Perhaps she will stop by again so I can meet her. You have such interesting caretakers." But she's eyeing that X-Men game. "I wonder if they have a Star Wars game…" She ponders idly, loud enough for Joe to overhear.
Well that was a surprise for all three of them. Joe hasn't seen Eve in awhile and then just BAM! And gone. Joe looks over towards the door, then back to Lance and Silvia, still blinking slowly before he shrugs his shoulders. "She gave me a knife. A super sharp knife. I still have it. Good knife." He comments in a non chalant tone. But being given weapons by people isn't that out of the ordinary for these two boys. "Tickets tickets all the tickets." He gathers tickets as well and then pushes them at Lance, dubbing him the official ticket holder. "We had the best caretakers. I mean… as role models go not all of them were the best. In fact most were pretty questionable. But like I said last night, they all at least cared. Most people looked the other way at what they knew was happening. But not the Ferry. They didn't. They were there for us. Which makes them the best of people in my book."
"We still need to do star wars night. Lance help me track down some copies of star wars or something yeah? I have to educate Silvia. She hasn't seen the wars bro. She hasn't seen the wars." He glances over to Silvia, then back around the arcade. "And I'm sure they have a star wars game. And just for that little jab I'm totally gonna make you play it. And you'll have no idea what's going on!" He then scampers over to the X-men cabinet as it comes up free and starts sorting through the characters.
"I guess we had a pretty weird childhood," Lance admits as he gathers up tickets and starts to meticulously fold them for easier carrying, dragging some tails of paper as he walks with the other pair, "But it was normal for us at the time… kinda envy you that, honestly." A wry look to Silvia, and then he's shooting a surprised look to Joe.
"Whoa, whoa— Silvia, you've never seen Star Wars?" Oh no, Joe's taken the opportunity to get past him! He darts after then, "Hey!"
"I grew up around the Ferry, in Mexico. I grew up in safehouses." Silvia offers after a moment or two, but doesn't immediately offer more information. It's the first she's mentioned it. Instead she's thinking about Star Wars. "I mean I know the characters and the big reveal but I've never seen the movies. Is it really that important?" She makes her way over towards the X-Men console.
"Yup. Never seen Star Wars. Isn't that a travesty? Like unthinkable. I didn't even think to get an extra copy back in Canada and bring it with. Just left them there and… now I have nothing to show her." Joe is going to give Lynnette SO MUCH grief over not having properly educated her daughter with Star Wars. So much grief. Probably only a little though. Joe pulls up to the cabinet and cycles through the characters. He pauses on Nightcrawler, then glances to Lance, then back and rolls his eyes before moving on to another character. He'll let Lance have the poofy blue ninja guy.
"Whoah what?" Joe asks, turning to regard Silvia as she mentions growing up around the Ferry. "Seriously? I mean… not that that's a good thing. Just means you understand our lives more than most people. Cuz like… I'd been with Brian since I was like 7 or 8? Something like that? And then he started the Lighthouse and then Lance and Hailey and we've all been together for a long time. But moving from safe house to safe house. And… most people just don't get it." Then she asks a question that's almost as mind boggling. "Is it really that important? I mean… what? Who are you even? You love comic books but…" Joe pinches his eyes shut. "Star Wars… was a revolution in film making and storytelling in it's time. People accuse it of stealing from other things, but whether they did or not, they made it into something that your average person could digest and enjoy and not some super science heavy mess."
"I suppose I can understand your life better than most, yes. I came to the Ferry's care when I was young, I think I was seven or eight. Mateo, my father, rescued me off the streets." Silvia rubs the back of her neck with one hand, feeling almost exposed sharing so much personal information.
So Silvia quickly flashes a smile and switches back to Star Wars talk. "Don't worry, I understand that Star Wars is important, I just have not had the chance to see it yet. We haven't had a lot of movie nights in my house… but we should. I bet my mom would like that idea."
Joe watches as Lance runs off to go get some food, and to cash in the money Joe handed him for quarters, cuz stupid Joe didn't go get quarters before claiming the X-Men machine. So for the moment he's standing there holding the machine with Silvia while Lance runs off to get food and drinks and quarters. "Most people can't. They just don't get it. So… your father found you on the streets?" Joe asks curiously, confirming that Silvia is an orphan like the rest of the LHK. "I think that kind of makes you an honorary Lighthouse Kid Silvia. Just sayin. All of us lost our birth parents and got taken in by the Ferry. I mean Brian at first for me. But then Ferry and I guess he was Ferry but it was different. Anywaaaay. I mean… you might not have been at the Lighthouse itself but lots of lighthouse kids weren't actually at the lighthouse." Joe flashes the girl a wide grin, then looks over at the machine they're standing next to watching the machine run through shots of gameplay.
"Well… I mean… we love movie nights. Not that we've had any since we got here, cuz none of us own a DVD player. Lance has an old school playstation, but we don't own a DVD player, or any DVD's. I left all that stuff back in Canada for the other kids that are still there. But we will definitely have to do a Star Wars night at some point. Just the original three movies though."
There's an odd hitch in Silvia's voice as birth parents are mentioned. "My birth parents still exist." It's a strange way of phrasing it, and it's hard to tell if it's just her bad English or if it's phrased deliberately like that. She swallows hard, then clears her throat a bit, unsure or unwilling to elaborate.
She changes pace, moving back to Star Wars again. "I think there's a DVD player at the Benchmark. I can ask my mom if we can use it, we just need to find copies of the movies. That reminds me, my parents want to meet you guys. I think they want to make sure I'm hanging out with good people, which I obviously am."
Joe turns his head to look over at Silvia, his head tipping. "There were some of the other kids who's parents were still out there as well. But either had no way of locating them, or didn't want to. Some kids got tossed out on the street when their abilities manifested. Some got turned into the government by their own parents it… it was a lot. Horrible. My parents are gone. To be honest I barely remember them. But thankfully Brian found me and took care of me. He even adopted me. My last name is Winter. Though it was Fulk for awhile cuz his first self's last name was Fulk. His second self's last name was Winters. I'm still… not really sure how that worked. But it is what it is. He was dead for awhile, then came back? or one of him came back? He's a replicator. There was like 8 or so of him at one point."
Joe's shoulders lift in a slow shrug. "We had pretty messed up childhoods. But it sounds like you're happy now. You have people that love and take care of you. Which is awesome." He blinks a time or two. "Your parents want to meet us? Oh. Yeah of course they do. Hey mom and dad I'm hanging out with some random kids from the safe zone. Yeah I can see why the'd want to meet us. We'd be happy to come over. Just tell us when and where."
"Yeah my birth parents did something like that," Silvia agrees, this time definitely unwilling to elaborate. It's clearly evoking memories she'd rather not think of, especially in public amongst friends. "This Brian sounds as if he were quite the father-figure. I imagine it was hard to get away with things with one of him always around." She laughs lightly.
Silvia seems to relax a little bit as she turns the conversation away from herself. "You are right, I am very happy. My parents are amazing people and I'm very lucky they decided to adopt me. Surprised they didn't sooner. I knew they'd do it eventually. I introduced them to each other. It's very romantic."
Joe pauses, then looks over to Silvia, realizing he's gone too far with the talk of pasts. "I'm… I'm sorry. I… really…" he sighs heavily. "Boundaries are a thing that I forget about. I grew up in isolation. I mean… I really did. We were in hiding. So we couldn't just go out and about. I was there, with the other lighthouse kids. Every day, day in and day out. There wasn't any privacy at all. We all knew eachother's pasts and secrets and what not. And well… after Elaine and some of the older kids left it was me and Lance and Hailey and Paul that were the oldest taking care of the younger kids. So we had to help all the kids through their trauma and it… I dunno. I'm bad about boundaries like that. So… feel free to tell me when I ask too personal of questions or am making you uncomfortable cuz… I probably don't notice. Like now. I didn't notice, until just now once it was… yeah." He puffs out his cheeks and then rolls his eyes some. "Sorry."
"That's awesome. And we will totally come meet your parents. And plan a star wars night. Well movie night in general. But star wars first. Where is Lance?" He asks, looking around, peering. "I rely on him… like when we first met and he smacked me in the head when I was asking too personal of questions. I need him for that stuff." A bashful sort of grin from him as he turns to look back at the cabinet. "We also need to get you and Brynn together to work on the comics. She's excited for it."
"I… it's not something I really talk about. My parents, they know what happened but… I never really tell people my secrets. Dark things are meant to be hidden away, not let out to see the light of day. And how do you even begin a conversation about the bad things you faced while growing up? I just let people see me as who I am, not all the dark things that haunt me." Silvia smiles at Joe, the kind of smile you use when reassuring someone. "You didn't mean to push boundaries, you're just being you."
She glances in the direction Lance went off to. "I think you do okay without him, but the two of you make quite the pair." And then comics are mentioned and Silvia lights up. "I already have two pages of The Adventures of L&J, rough copies of them that is. Just the sketches, but I have them."
"And yeah, you would definitely be right about Brian. It was impossible to get away with anything. Cuz anything one of him knew the others of him knew. So one could be like… Joe is totally coming down the stairs, just heard one creak. And the one downstairs in the kitchen would just holler. Get back upstairs!" He adopts a gruff tone that sounds… nothing like Brian. Maybe one day Silvia will get to meet the Multiple Man. "I… I mean I get where you're coming from. It was just entirely different for us. We had to deal with shared tragedy and living in tight quarters constantly. But I will try my best to respect your privacy. I can't say that I'll always be succesful, but I will give it an honest try."
Joe's eyes cant in the direction of Lance, and he nods his head. "We've been through a lot. Him and me and Paul. We miss Paul. He's the third of our trio of dooooooom. We used to get into ALL the trouble. Paul can phase through things, like Kitty Pryde." He looks back as she says she has rough sketches. "The Adventures of Lance and Joe have begun!" He crows, then looks around and grins at anyone that looks his way, then back to Silvia, that grin still wide and in place. "That's awesome. I can't wait to see them."
Silvia brushes a bit of hair back behind her ear, nibbling on her lower lip out of habit. "Um, well, I don't mind if you ask personal questions, they just may be hard for me to answer or I won't want to at all. But I don't fault you for being curious. I can always just say no." She pauses. "I grew up around a lot of people, most of them older, I helped out a lot. So my life was very different. I didn't really pull pranks or get into trouble. I was grateful that someone was taking care of me." Now she smiles. "You'll get to meet my mom, she was part of the Ferry."
Her gaze turns back to the missing form of Lance. "Wow, Paul sounds pretty… primal." She tests the word out. "But the comics are coming along great. My plot for the first issue is that Lance pranks Joe with a squid and while it's on his head, Joe stumbles upon a black market deal gone wrong and so Lance and Joe have to save the day and escape with their lives."
"Lance and Paul are probably the two closest kids. Then… maybe me and Lance after that? And me and Paul after that? But the two of them definitely. Lance would make Paul soundless. Paul would phase through walls and spy and snag snacks and stuff. Me I was just good for distractions. I'd go bug the adults so they weren't paying attention, or I'd go to the kitchen and make noise when the adults were talking so they knew someone was in there, but not in the room they were in. We were a good team. Still are I mean cuz… we're all still around. Paul's not here yet. We're hoping he'll join us. But he might not. Dunno." Joe's shoulders give a slight lifting shrug.
"Your mom was part of the Ferry? That's awesome. Brian's my Dad. I try not to say it around the other Lighthouse Kids. But I was with Brian before the lighthouse and we've always been close. He adopted me and… I mean I'm his son in every way that counts. I just try not to mention it around the others cuz well…" For obvious reasons. "So what you're telling me, is you've never really gotten up to mischief and gotten in trouble. That tells me you have years of it to make up for now."
"I didn't act up when I was young for… reasons. And then with the Ferry I was just a good kid. I don't know how much getting into trouble I can get into without getting caught. I'm not very good at lying either. I could be a good distraction though, like you," Silvia scratches her head.
"I get the feeling that some might have resented you for getting to have a parent. I probably would have if I came to New York on my own, no parents… although I'm not sure how I would have managed that. When you have parents you love… it helps, a lot. You aren't alone even if you had others before."
Thunk! Just as that serious statement is made, a Nerf dart hits Joe directly in the side of the head.
"Hey guys," Lance crows out as he strolls their way, waggling an orange-and-white knock-off Nerf pistol in the air, "Look what Eve's tickets got us! Primal! It came with some darts and everything!"
He steps up along to the group, reloading casually and grinning broadly at the pair, "So what'd I miss?"
Joe opens his mouth to talk to Silvia further. And then… a dart smacks him in the side of the head. He comes up short, looks down at the dart as it falls into his open hand, then looks back up at Silvia. Instead of getting angry he leans to the side and slumps into the machine, being all super dramatic as he gasps. “My one… one weakness… foam darts…” He sinks slowly towards the floor, hands dragging down the game cabinet before he falls into a puddle of Joe on the floor, head thunking fairly hard off the ground. His eyes close and he lets out a long gasp as if he has died. But he only holds it a moment before cracking an eye open to peer up at Silvia and then Lance. “No mourning? No sadness? Really? I Just died people.” He makes a face at both of them before getting back up to his feet.
“Not much, just chatting while we waited for you. Silvia actually grew up around the Ferry too. Her mom is Ferry. But down south I’m guessing?” He asks, quirking a brow upwards at Silvia, then looks over to Lance. “What is that? Is that a nerf pistol? Nah, but close enough.” He leans against his buddy, who just shot and killed him with said nerf pistol. “Did you cash out the money I gave you to get quarters? And I see no snacks. What did you do? Get distracted by the nerf gun? Like a puppy in the window. Ooooo I want that one!” He smirks over at his buddy, then looks back again to Silvia. “X-Men?” he asks them both, gesturing at the machine.
Silvia looks down at the “dead” Joe. “Dios mio, esta muerto!” She says with her most dramatic telenovela voice. She looks at Joe and pokes him with her shoe before he gets up. “You want a nerf gun or a puppy?” Silvia asks, chuckling lightly. “My mom’s from here, she just went down to Mexico during the war, worked down there. If you grew up in Ferry safehouses you might have run into her, I think. Her name’s Lynette.”
"Alright, Achilles, get up, foam isn't your heel," Lance smirks down at his friend before the other teenager gets up, and then he nudges his shoulder back against Joe's own. "And I got quarters. They're in my pockets." No snacks, though. He totally got distracted by the temptation of the toy gun. It's Nerf or nothing, as the commercials used to go.
He gives Joe a curious look, then back to Silvia — and his eyes widen at her words, "Whoa, whoa— whoa, wait, hold the phone, your mom's Lynette? Like, sparky-sparky-shocky Lynette? Yeah, we know her! She helped us get out of the States before the war! She, like, blasted a whole bunch of bad guys that were trying to grab us and everything!"
He grins broadly, looking excitedly from Joe to Silvia, "That's primal that she's your mom!"
Joe looks up from the floor before getting up at Silvia as she gets all dramatic. He grins wide at it. “Yeah, she totally fits in with the crew Lance.” He is getting up off of the floor when Silvia mentions that Lynette is her mother. “Holy crap! Lynette? Lynette is your mother? Lynette is totally awesome peoples. She was another one of our awesome protector people types. That is totally freaking primal!” He looks over at Lance and upon finding his buddy equally excited he nods in satisfaction before looking back to Silvia. “Now we TOTALLY have to crash your place for movie night. Like absolutely have to. So much.” Joe’s head bobbles up and down a few times rapidly, a wide grin on his face.
“Yeah, definitely going to have to crash your place. And sweet, lets game then.” Aaaaand Joe fishes into Lance’s pocket quick to grab a few quarters and start feeding them into the machine. He then starts going through the characters and settles on Wolverine, selecting him and then waiting for the other two. He’s put quarters in for them both already. “I wonder what the odds are I mean… Lynette goes from here, to there, helps with the Ferry there, adopts Silvia and then they come back here and we run into a Silvia….”
“Destino, fate” Silvia explains. “People go places for reasons. Perhaps I was meant to be here.” She laughs, her gaze flitting between the pair and the arcade machine. “But I am certain my mom is the same Lynette you know. It sounds very much like her the way you describe.”
She pauses before continuing. “Oh, Lance, while you were away I told Joe that my parents wanted to meet you all, lunch or dinner included. I think she was afraid I couldn’t make you all come without bribing you with food. But food is good. Brynn’s invited too if she wants to come.”
"Ack, hey, my quarters— " Lance doesn't really object, but really, Joe could've asked! As the quarters are retrieved, he rolls his eyes like dice tumbling over a D&D table before grinning back to Silvia, "That's great! We'll have to go over some time and catch up, that's just— wow, coincidence. Maybe it is fate."
Then he tilts his head to the machine, "So! X-Men."
“I think you were meant to be here. See, fate indeed. And yeah… peole do go places for a reason. And I’m sure of it. I doubt there would be two Lynette’s from this area that both worked with the Ferry.” Joe noddles his head, quite sure of this. “Your quarters?” Joe sticks his tongue out at Lance. “I gave you the money for the quarters. Your pockets sure.” Joe looks over to Silvia, then to Lance, impatiently waiting for them to pick their characters since he’s already picked his. The game is waiting too, making those annoying pick your character comments.
“So when are we supposed to come over Silvia? We should probably coordinate that. So that we’re not just crashing in at random on them. I mean I don’t care if people crash in randomly on us, but I know other people might just care if we crash in randomly on them.” And then he stands there, bouncing from foot to foot waiting for them to pick characters so they can PLAY!
“Sometime this week is probably best, I have Lance’s home number still so I can call when I figure out what day we should get together.” Silvia nods a little at the pair before moving to pick her character. She picks Kitty Pryde, of course, once she finds out that she’s playable. “Anyway, I think it’s fate. What are the odds that we’d all end up here in the same location all having grown up with the Ferry, all knowing the same people… or person, at least. It’s fate. The question is… what will la mano de destino have in store for us?”