IM log

[x-marrow.livejournal.com]

tough boy: Hey, Sarah. How's the city treating you?

bone girl: Hey!
bone girl: It's the city.

tough boy: *laughs* that's good, right?

bone girl: I'd forgotten how the people in Manhattan have a staring problem.

tough boy: Like they don't everywhere outside the mansion?

bone girl: Well yeah, but I guess I'd expected it would be better now that I don't look quite so bad.

tough boy: Better doesn't mean no staring at all.

bone girl: I don't like being stared at. (Most of the time anyway.)

tough boy: So you stare back at them 'til they get weirded out and stop. People like that are predictable.

bone girl: It's just annoying.
bone girl: Besides, it's only when I'm up here on the surface.

tough boy: Yeah, it is. How often do you come to the surface?

bone girl: For lunch, at least. I'm trying to stay down here as much as I can.
bone girl: It's been so long since I've lived like a morlock.

tough boy: How's it feel to be home?

bone girl: Nice. I get to train in my own room again. It's quiet here.

tough boy: ...do you think you'll come back?

bone girl: Shinobi wants to. He misses everybody.

tough boy: *nods* We miss you too. Both of you.

bone girl: So I hear. You'd think you all'd be glad to get rid of me.

tough boy: Bullshit, Sarah. You know you've got friends here.
tough boy: Family, too. Remember, the boys are still here, if nobody else.

bone girl: Yeah, well I never could force the boys to come back to the tunnels.

tough boy: No more you should - not force them. But does that mean they're not as much your family as the ones there?

bone girl: Oh great. Not only will I be torn between family and friends for the rest of my life, but family and family too.

tough boy: ...Sarah...
tough boy: Who says you have to be torn?

bone girl: How the hell do I do both? I can't force them to come home.

tough boy: Home doesn't have to be the same place your whole life.
tough boy: The boys don't even remember - the mansion's home for them.

bone girl: But I do remember. This is the only home I've ever had.

tough boy: Yeah, and LA was the only home I ever had 'til I was sixteen - or seventeen, but not the same way. It sounds harsh, but things change.
tough boy: We both lost most or all our families from before, remember?
tough boy: The mansion doesn't have to be home, Sarah. But nor do the tunnels. Not if *you* don't completely want them to be.

bone girl: The tunnels will always be home. It's where we lived, it's where they died.

tough boy: They'll always be home for part of you, sure. Just like I'll always kind of think of LA as home. But it doesn't mean you can't ever live anywhere else and be happy there.
tough boy: Or if it does, what does that mean for me?
tough boy: That the only place that'll ever be home is somewhere I can't go, because I'm dead if I do?

bone girl: You're different.

tough boy: How?

bone girl: You don't have a family to appease.

tough boy: ...appease? Sarah... don't take this the wrong way, but they're dead. They can't judge you anymore.

bone girl: Can't they? I'm the one who survived. I have to make things right.

tough boy: That's *you* judging you. not the same thing.
tough boy: make things right how?

bone girl: Somebody deserves a bloody and painful death. And I'm the one who gets to do it.

tough boy: this is the somebody you were telling me about before? the one you don't know who it is?

bone girl: yeah.

tough boy: ...then how can you give them what they deserve all by yourself? is Shinobi helping you?

bone girl: Yeah.
bone girl: And I don't need his help to kill them. That's my fun.

tough boy: Gotta find them before you can kill them. Which means finding out who they are, and I don't see how you can do that without his help.

bone girl: I said he was helping me.

tough boy: yeah. and what happens when you've found them and done justice?

bone girl: Who cares. That's what matters.

tough boy: for now, yeah. but unless you're gonna lay down and die when they're dead, you're gonna have to think about it sooner or later.
tough boy: don't see you as the type to lay down and die.

bone girl: Especially since my healing factor makes the whole death thing a little hard to come by.

tough boy: exactly. so?

bone girl: so, I'll figure that out when I get to it.

tough boy: Come back to the mansion. Do what you gotta do first, take all the time you need, but... come back?

bone girl: Not making any promises, Angelo. I don't want to dissappoint anybody.

tough boy: Fair enough. Just know the tunnels aren't the only place... people care about you here, okay? We do.

bone girl: Yeah, I know.

tough boy: Well, whatever happens, stay in touch, okay? Maybe come back to visit, at least?

bone girl: Yeah. I've already promised a few people visitation rights. *grins*

tough boy: Good. Admit it or not, you're one of us now. Not one of the pretties, I'd never insult you like that, but we're not all rich pretties here. No offence to Shinobi.

bone girl: One of -you-? What the hell's that supposed to mean?

tough boy: *shrugs* Nothing like you seem to think it does. Just... like I said before, you got friends here.
tough boy: It's okay to have a new... "family"'s the wrong word. Group?

bone girl: Yeah, sure. Look, I've got to go now. Take care of everybody, yeah?

tough boy: okay. look after yourself.

bone girl: Always do. Later.

tough boy: bye.