[It's the day after the Dark And Stormy Whatever! For being such a bad night, it turned into a very pretty day, with a nice breeze. And sun! Yeah, sunshine.] [Max, the geek he is, is sitting up in a large and sprawling oak tree, reading through a fairly thin paperback. It looks incredibly worn. The book, not Max. Or the tree. Max is shirtless, though, his hoodie lying on the branch beside him. There's a bandage across where he got slashed.] [He looks pretty into his book. Woo! Minis is what we do, and minis is what we startin' up now!] * Max looks up and peers out at something. * Miya comes walking along, in direction Max is peering, even! She does have her shirt on (which is nice, all things considered) and an open zip up sweatshirt over that, and jeans and sneakers. She's also wearing headphones, and a walkman's attached to her belt. She blinks, looking around, but she doesn't stop walking. * Miya stops, looking up. She searches a little before she spots Max and waves. "Um, hi!" * Max waves. "Um hi." He glances at his shirt, but doesn't make any actual move towards it. Um, how are you? * Max fidgets on the branch. "Uh better, l-like you said." He pauses. "Th- thought. Er how um are you?" * Miya rubs at the back of her head. "Um, I'm okay. I only got thrown, and I know how to handle it." G-good. Do, uh. Um you wanna come up? It's a n-nice day. * Miya nods. "Yeah." She smiles a little. "Just a lump." She blinks. "Oh, up? Um. Sure!" * Miya inspects at the tree, figuring out the best way to climb up. Never mind that she can just teleport. * Max scoots over on the branch. Um try the uh left s-s-ide. Oh! Okay. * Miya goes over to the left side and jumps up to grab the first branch (she's short) and literally pulls herself up to it. She stands on it and goes about climbing the rest of the tree easily enough, ending up next to Max. * Max waves. "H-hi." * Miya laughs a little. "Hi." She sits down, swinging her feet, and turns off her walkman. * Max looks a little flushed at this distance, especially where the sun is hitting his back. "Um why ..." Uh. Why are y-you out today? Oh. Um... * Miya looks down. "I was just going for a walk. And stuff." Pause. "It's a nice day." Yeah. I, uh. Was eating. A-am eating. Oh! Like the sun? * Max nods. * Miya smiles. "That's cool." I uh. Always thought it was k-kind of practical. * Miya nods. "It is. I mean. I think it's cool." I, uh. Still have to eat, th-though. Some stuff. Yeah. Um, would you be okay without the sun? 'Cause, I mean, Jack said he dries out if he's out of water too much so, um. * Max blinks. "J-Jack?" Oh! Um, he's new here. * Miya swings her feet. "He spends most of his time in the lake. ... er. Huh. Uh um y-yeah, I need light. UV l-light. * Miya nods. He, uh. W-water mutant, I um guess? Um, yeah. Like, he can walk on water, and move it, and freeze it and stuff. * Miya blushes a little. "I, um... fell in the lake and he helped me swim." * Max flushes a bit more. The sun? maaaybe. "W-well, uh. Neat." He pauses. "Is he, um, nice?" * Miya looks down at the ground. "Yeah." N-not like, uh, Daegal. Or um Sally? Uh? Um, what do you mean? * Miya looks over to Max. She's confused. Yup. * Max makes a face. "H-he is not. He'd punch me um easily." * Miya blinks. "No he wouldn't." W-would so. He beats er up um other people l-lots. * Miya furrows her brow. "But just the bad people. He wouldn't beat you up." But he d-doesn't um follow j-j-jurisdictional authority! If uh he t-took it into his n-n-noggin I was bad he um wouldn't hesitate! * Max ( <------ dork ) * Miya blinks a couple times. "Um, what?" ( He IS. ) * Max frowns. "He um. He b-beats up whoever he _t-thinks_ is bad. It's um. N-not his job." * Miya makes a little 'oh' sound. "But what if he's right?" B-be-uh. Besides the point. Not really? There's, um... a lot of bad stuff that the- um, that the authorities won't do anything about. * Miya swings her feet. "Like kids getting picked on at school." * Max looks actually kind of ticked about it. "It's k-kind of like the P-Prime Directive. You gotta follow uh. That thing." The um. The rule of l-law. But- * Miya waves with both hands. She doesn't teeter at all. "What if it's wrong?" I mean, um... it's wrong to kill people and stuff. But if I'm getting- * Miya stops right there. * Miya shoves her hands into her lap and looks away. * Max looks at Miya a sec, then looks at a particularly interesting leaf. It turns a brilliant red. "I, uh. H-have a book on it, if you wanted to borrow it. I uh. Don't m-make as much sense as um Locke does." Who? John Locke. He uh. Wrote b-back in the um 1700s. Oh. Um... I don't know. ( ::dubs Max the Lord of Dorkness.:: ) It's uh, a comic book, really. * Miya blinks, looking back to Max. "They... made comics back then?" Uh no. It's a comic book um explanation of the book. I got it when er I was a lot younger. Oh! Um, okay. * Miya brightens. "Sure, I'd like to read that." The uh. The print version of um the Essay is er like four books um long. * Miya wrinkles her nose. They got um some old comic characters to um explain the stuff. It's not um so bad. * Miya nods. "Okay." Anyway, um... * Miya takes a breath. "Daegal wouldn't beat you up. He'd probably, um, beat up anyone who tried to hurt you, though." * Max seems to mull this over. He's staring at the single red leaf again. If uh. You s-say so. * Miya nods. "Yeah. So, um... yeah. But Jack isn't even scary like him." Pause. "Or Sally." Ah. It's um funny we talked about uh L-locke.... I was uh pondering um if it's okay for um me to beat people u-up. * Miya tilts her head. "Yeah?" Yeah. Like um S-s-sabretooth. Uh... He was definitely bad. B-but I don't like to get b-beaten up! D-does that m-make it okay to uh beat up other p-people? * Miya bites her lip for a moment, then she says, "It doesn't make it okay for him to beat you up." Just like, um... if I was going to try to beat you up, it would be okay for you to try to stop me. And, um... if the only way for you to stop me was to beat me up, then you should do it. (He's 15 and having philosophical crises. Oy.) (Join the club!) * Max plucks the leaf, and makes it roll into a perfect spiral. "If the state f- fails to fulfill its bargain..." He tosses the leaf to the breeze. "M-maybe. I um suppose that's kind of w-what I'm here for, is to maybe um beat er some people up. Hank and uh all them h-have to." * Miya watches the leaf fly. "Um..." I don't think you're here to beat people up. Unless... you want to? But- um, a lot of people have powers, and they're bad. And if nobody's around to protect you, then it's a good thing to know how to protect yourself. * Max nods. * Miya fidgets. "And a lot of people without powers can be bad, too, so." * Max nods again. "I um. D-don't think I can beat them up. That's uh definitely not fair." * Miya looks at Max oddly with those blank eyes of hers. "Fair?" N-no. What's fair have to do with it? Um they don't h-have powers. That's um. Like shoving s-someone younger into a um trashcan. ... But what if they have guns? (It all comes back to trashcans.) (It does.) D-disarm? * Miya bites her lip, then she says, "Okay. Then you need to learn how to disarm somebody." (Of course it does. You are what, uh. You're shoved into.) And how to fight without powers. 'Cause, um... you're worried about being fair. [A branch taps Miya on the shoulder.] * Miya twitches at that and immediately reaches back, grabbing the branch and turning to see what it was. B-boo. * Miya sighs, relaxing and letting the branch go. "Max!" Just uh proving a point. I um can do stuff but uh. I need to practice, I g-guess. ... I guess that's what we're here for? * Max nods. * Miya rubs her hand on her pants leg. You uh. Obviously have no um problems with uh fighting. * Miya blinks. "Oh! Um, yeah. I've been learning how for... a long time now." Why? * Miya blushes. And looks away. "Well, um... I had to. Because of- because I needed control." * Max looks down and begins to grow and braid grass on the ground below. "A- again, uh ... why?" Well, I- um. Promise not to tell anybody? * Max nods. The grass nods too. (The tree didn't nod! Look out, it's gonna tell on you!) * Miya nods, also, and she takes a few breaths. "Um... I..." Get kind of... I used to get angry a lot. Like, all the time. * Max blinks. The grass ripples. * Miya keeps going, almost like she can't stop. "And when I got angry, I wanted to hurt things. And people. Especially the ones that made me angry, but it- it's stupid, and it can be about anything, so my dad, he... um, he started me in martial arts so I could control it. If that makes sense. Put it... somewhere, so I could fight nothing instead of hurt everything." And sports, too. That's why I started gymnastics. I work really hard at- I work hard at them both, because it's somewhere I can put it all. * Max just looks, but the grass makes spirals. * Miya wipes at her eyes. "And I'm still not *good* enough. Sometimes, I can get so upset, and then I'm sorry afterwards, but if I hurt somebody I can't take it back." Th-that's, um. Got to be tough. * Miya shoves her hands into her lap. Yeah, she's crying. "You probably hate me now." * Max winces. But I can't help it! I just- I- I feel really bad, and... it... doesn't matter, because it's not right. When Alex said I couldn't read, I wanted to kick him. Through the window. * Miya continues, bitterly, "And then there would've been glass in his skin, and I could have stepped on his face, and it's just not right. I shouldn't want to do something like that." I, uh. Don't hate you. It's d-different if you um try to st-stop it. * Miya just hugs herself and does *not* look at him. The feelings of um remorse prove that you're n-not bad. But it still happens. I- I haven't for... months now, but it could happen. And... I've got powers, too, now and it could be really bad. Well, um. Y-you know I almost hurt somebody um too, right.? That's um. Why I'm here. You uh remember. Through the school c-ceiling? * Miya nods. "Yeah." I, uh. It's kind of l-like that but um n-not really. No. Not really. * Max has the grass up to the level they're at now. It's looking kind of peopleish but nothing specific. (That's... some tall grass. ._.) * Miya keeps watching the grass. I d-dunno. But I uh. Don't hate y-you. Yeah. Everyone else... back home, they were scared of me. Or they hated me. S-same here. * Miya sighs. "Or both. I didn't- I mean, yeah." N-now you're a mutant so um. They'd h-hate you more. * Miya winces. "Yeah." * Max grabs his hoodie. "W-one good thing about being um er a plant ... no um sunburns." He pulls on the clothing and suddenly looks a lot larger. He keeps the hood down, though. I uh. Need something salty, though. You do? Um, I can go get something for you. No. Um thanks. I uh kind of wanted to go i-in. My show will uh be on. * Miya blinks. She looks over to Max, finally. "What show?" * Max waves his hand, and the pillar of grass weaves its top into a platform. " S-Star Trek. Do um you want to come?" Um... I've never seen it, but okay. What is it about? * Max steps onto the platform. "A um space vessel and the crew. It's um. Dramatic." Oh. Space! Cool. * Miya gets on the platform, too. Moving grass! [The grass sinks!] ( Star Trek! XD ) * Max hops off the pillar when it hits ground and walks towards THE MANSION. * Miya DOES TOO! Er, does too. [AND SO THEY WENT! FOR GLORIOUS RERUNNAGE!] [ And they lived happily ever after. Session End. ]