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Post by Minerva "Minnie" Wells on Sept 2, 2016 8:30:48 GMT -7
Minnie sighed as she flopped on the couch. It had been a few days since the incident and she was still tired. She had originally gone to that speech in order to hear something hopeful. For the mayor to at least acknowledge their sacrifices. Instead it turned into a super shitfest that mad eher blood boil. She pinched the bridge of her nose. It wasn't that she regretted taking the stand she did, quite the contrary. But she did regret leaving it on the note Aurora left it on. Now there was a target on ALL their backs.
The pinkette glanced down at her phone again. She hadn't heard from Grant since before the incident. To be honest, she thought he was avoiding her. She did just assist in nearly destroying what little relationship supers and mundies had. But then he left a message saying that he was coming over and wanted to talk about something. So here she was, preparing for the worst. There was no way he'd completely understand. Her actions were necessary. Rash but necessary. Leaning back on the couch she stared at the ceiling.
"I'm going to wish I never left bed today, aren't I?"
Her words were followed by heavy, oppressive silence. Her thoughts began to swarm. She did the right thing for supers. No she didn't. This will make life worse. No it won't. The internal fight was raging. It was too much. She needed to calm down, fight back this angry anxiety in her throat. Standing up abruptly she strode outside. The hood of her jacket was pulled over her head as her left hand fished around in her pocket. Pulling out a lighter and her cigarettes she pulled one out with her teeth. Just the feel of the familiar item in her mouth began to soothe her thoughts. Flicking the stubborn lighter several times, she finally lit the cigarette.
The calming effect of the familiar smoke filled her lungs. Nicotine settled her mind as she took a deep drag. Well there goes her streak without one. Oh well, she would have to try again later. Slumping against the house she looked up to the sky and let her mind just focus on the smoke and her breathing.
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Post by Grant Miller on Sept 2, 2016 8:54:52 GMT -7
Grant...wasn't in a particularly good mood. Sure, he didn't really show it, but he was generally good at hiding his thoughts, whether or not it was intentional. But today, he had a lot of conflicted feelings to deal with. The first issue was having to understand all of the information that the team had put forward. The revelation that the government simply stood back and did nothing when they knew what was coming would have been bad enough, but the fact that companies were profiting off the deaths of thousands made things even worse. Any kind of hope Grant had in convincing people to change the system through good will was dashed. The people that accused people like him of being monsters were allowing millions of their own kind, fellow human beings, to die in droves. And for what? A profit?
To clear his head, Grant went out to the docks to take care of things. Fighting street level crime was straightforward enough, it helped clear his head of all the confusion. But that turned out to be a mistake. When he got home, his parents told him about an attack on the mayor by a group of violent supers. Grant took it well enough, but what he saw in the news report sent chills down his spine. In fairness, there were mixed feelings. No doubt the mayor was in on the government scheme to maximize casualties during dragon attacks, so he deserved what he was getting to him. But such a public display of senseless violence was basically a free demonstration of how much of a danger supers were to society. It would take a lot to fix this. What was even worse that he saw someone among the attackers. Someone who caused him a lot of grief in the following days. After spending some time agonizing over how to deal with this, he sent her a message before making his way to the boarding house.
It was a fairly fine day, the weather wasn't completely terrible. But Grant didn't pay much attention to that. There was something much more important that he had on his mind. As he got closer to the familiar boarding house, he saw a hooded figure out front, smoking a cigarette. Coming closer, he saw under the hood a familiar face. Letting out a deep sigh, Grant continued his path towards the house, stopping in front of Minnie. After a few moments of silence, Grant said the first thing that came into his head.
"I saw you. On the news"
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Post by Minerva "Minnie" Wells on Sept 2, 2016 9:35:56 GMT -7
She heard the footsteps long before he spoke. Pulling the cigarette from her mouth she exhaled slowly, making sure none of the smoke got in his face. Finally she looked him in the eyes. The grief she had caused him was clear in his eyes. It killed her a little to look at him. Shifting her gaze, she spoke.
"I was a little hard to miss. What with the vanishing and fighting the paper bag."
Her voice was calm, almost sounding like she was brushing it off. It was as if she was making casual conversation. Commenting on the weather or something. Not discussing how she helped terrorize the speech. The angel on her shoulder was chastising her. Telling her to be more apologetic for her actions. But unfortunately the devil had her ear. It wondered why she had to apologize. She was standing up for herself, for supers. She was doing something good for all of them. Smothering the angel she stood up straight.
"Why? Are you going to chastise me for defending supers?"
Her words were a challenge. A trap and she knew it. Either he defended the mundies or his own kind. And either way he was screwed. The angel on her shoulder whimpered as it drew back from the conversation. There was no stopping this. It would happen.
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Post by Grant Miller on Sept 2, 2016 20:34:25 GMT -7
Despite the implications that came with what Grant said, Minnie seemed unaffected. There was clearly little guilt in what she had done, almost as if she truly believed that she did the right thing. Grant wasn't a real authority on right or wrong, but he knew for sure that the attack did more harm to people like them than it did to help the cause. The fact that she couldn't see that was almost infuriating. Almost. But Grant was more saddened by this than angered, perhaps even disappointed. He had thought she was above this, or at least not so short-sighted.
Her referring to her actions as 'defending supers' only made the feeling worse. She really had no idea of what was going to happen as a consequence of their actions. The press was having a field day with the attack, taking every opportunity to vilify supers, showing the worst of the attack to the masses. And soon enough the politicians and corporate heads would use this as ammunition for whatever discriminatory policy they would implement later on. Aurora and the others may have won one battle, but they had lost any chance of reconciliation. Maybe they couldn't care less about it, which was expected, but Grant didn't think Minnie would be among them.
"Defending? Is that what you call that?"
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Post by Minerva "Minnie" Wells on Sept 5, 2016 12:41:19 GMT -7
"Yes and wanna know why?"
There was an angry pause. No she didn't expect him to day anything but she wasn't entirely reasonable right now. Minnie wanted to be angry. She wanted him angry. The pinkette thrust an accusatory finger in the direction of city hall, cigarette clenched tightly between her fingers.
"It is that way of thinking that kills us! Such vitriol and hate that has usblamed for the destruction the dragon caused! That fuels hunts and gets people like us killed! Burned, slaughtered, eviscerated! Do you not understand that? They are just as dangerous to most of us as we are to then because all we want is to live," her empty hand flew to her chest and rested on her racing heart, "We didn't ask for these abilities, we didn't ask for the responsibility they come with and yet here we are being blamed for fucking everything! None of us knows how these stupid things work! And the real kicker is most of us are children when we discover these abilities. While normal people are worried about pimples and the opposite sex, we are cowering in the bathroom praying we don't hurt somebody and get discovered. We are praying to god every bloody morning to take this curse away."
Her chest was heaving, ears ringing. The fuel of her anger was simmering but for now she had gotten it off her chest. As her breathing slowed down her eyes fell to the ground. With a sigh she brought her right hand to her forehead with a sigh, crumpled cigarette hanging loosely from her fingers.
"Do I regret letting Aurora leave it like that? Yes. Do I regret letting her hurt the mayor and those people? Yes. Do I regret not taking the mike myself and sharing the struggles that may have saved that speech from the disaster it turned into? That regret from it has been eating at me for days, " she took another drag trying to relax before finding the courage to look him in the eye, "But do I regret showing them that we will defend ourselves just like any other human would? Fuck no."
Silence hung in the air. After a moment a forced chuckle passed her lips.
"Besides in our world of heroes, don't we need villains?"
Did she want to be evil? No but having supers so ready to defend against other supers even when they are being slandered would help in the long run. Not her, but maybe Grant and those like him. after all she was no hero.
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Post by Grant Miller on Sept 9, 2016 23:57:52 GMT -7
Grant's statement was what pushed Minnie over the edge. It seemed that all the bitterness and hatred she kept inside just exploded, with Grant caught up in it. The sheer anger she displayed wasn't directed at Grant specifically, but he felt the impact of each word she sent at him. Somewhere deep down, he could understand why she would react violently in the heat of the moment. Having such feelings wasn't a sin or something to feel ashamed about, but they needed to be controlled, to prevent something like this from happening. But it was too late to think of ways to prevent a disaster that already happened, hindsight was 20/20, after all.
While Minnie aired all of her grievances, Grant stayed as silent as ever, simply letting her vent it out. Perhaps it was simply wild emotions speaking, but Grant knew that everything she said was from the heart. While there was a cruel truth to it, Grant still felt inclined to disagree with her actions. Perhaps she didn't think it, but Grant considered her a hero. Maybe she wasn't perfect, but who was? This feeling was more disappointment in someone he felt so strongly about.
"The people that hate us? They want us crucified. They call us monsters and killers. And you know what? You're proving them right"
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Post by Minerva "Minnie" Wells on Sept 16, 2016 14:57:52 GMT -7
"Am I really? What about those supers who are defending mundanes from other mundanes? Do you really think they're thankful for that? They probably think we're stealing the police's job from them. "
Minnie shook her head slowly, smashing the cigarette into an ash tray on the ground next to her feet. She stood back up and finally met eyes with him. Regret, anger and fear swirled behind them. She held his gaze for a moment before her legs folded beneath her. Her ass rapidly met with the ground. Now that her rant had ended, all her energy had dissipated. She pressed her head against the wall of the house, her gaze returning to the sky. Another sigh left her lips.
"If you truly believe that what I did was wrong then fine. Believe that. I still think that they will continue to walk all over us if we go the way you and the other Bulwarks believe is right. We have no place here to them. Occasionally they allow us to protect them but the truth is this. At any moment they could choose to destroy us. That has to change. If they take a few 'villains' like me out before they realize that we are people too that's fine."
It occurred to her that her point might be lost in her rambles. Smiling at her own idiocy she brought her eyes back to Grant.
"The point I'm making is this: I will protect this city and those inside it. However the moment they threaten the lives of people who have done nothing wrong other than an accident of birth then I will destroy them. Just like I would any super. People are people, super or not."
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Post by Grant Miller on Sept 20, 2016 20:39:16 GMT -7
As much as it went against what Grant wanted to believe, credit was needed where credit was due. Day by day, the chances of any of them being accepted by the people were dwindling. If one was cynical, it could be argued that Aurora and her ilk hadn't sparked off the beginning of something awful, they just quickened the process of what was inevitable. Grant wasn't a cynical person, but he realized that he needed to come to terms with reality. What would he do? Continue to pursue a futile goal? Abandon his ideals? It was really all too much.
Minnie suddenly dropped to the ground, evidently spent. She was always overexerting herself to the point where it seemed she was constantly exhausted in some way. At this point specifically, it was both physically and mentally. Despite this, she continued to speak, and Grant listened without saying a word, as he usually did. Finally, he extended a hand out to Minnie. Whether she would take it was her choice and her's alone.
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Post by Minerva "Minnie" Wells on Sept 30, 2016 14:45:05 GMT -7
Grant's silence weighed heavily on Minnie. This was a lot for anyone to take in all at once. So many changes had happened and were going to continue to happen. But did her cynical point of view really need to be thrown in his face so violently? She wanted desperately to know what he was thinking. The pinkette waited for him to say something. To be upset with her or to tell her she was wrong. Yet... Nothing. It should have been expected. He was a silent guy after all.
His next action shocked her more than his silence did. His hand was held out to her. There was no looks, no words. Just his hand waiting there as the air filled with palpable tension. After a few moments of hesitation she gently took ahold of it. Her icy fingers felt like a stark contrast to his seemingly warm palm. Her mind searched for something to say but her lip were still. Nothing seemed like the right thing to say. So silence spoke for her.
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Post by Grant Miller on Oct 15, 2016 9:38:44 GMT -7
Grant felt the chill of Minnie's hand as she took his. Yet despite the cold biting into his fingers, Grant barely felt it, much to his surprise. It was as if the sensation wasn't even there, like some kind of odd numbness had come over him. This feeling (rather lack of one) was strange and unfamiliar, something he had never experienced before. Whatever it was, he didn't quite like the feeling of it. Pushing that to the back of his head, Grant pulled Minnie up back to her feet.
Coming to some kind of decision, Grant turned around. But before he took his leave, he felt that he needed to say something. Not anything in particular, but just something. "See you around"
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Post by Minerva "Minnie" Wells on Oct 16, 2016 19:15:01 GMT -7
Minnie was helped to her feet by her larger companion. They stood for a moment as Grant seemed to think something over. When the words left his mouth, she felt her heart shatter. 'Now you've done it you moron. You've successfully pushed him away with your idiotic impulsiveness.' There was a deep ache in her chest that made it hard to breath. Why the hell was she so upset about this? Yes he was a person she trusted but she was acting like she had been dumped. It was pathetic.
Forcing herself not to tear up she nodded. She just couldn't trust her voice right now. Silence was between them once more and Minnie couldn't take it. Her impulsiveness was striking again. Stepping forward, she grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and pulled him down, smashing their lips together in a kiss of desperate passion. Multiple moments passed by before the author realized what she was doing. She released him and stared up at him, a blissful but bewildered look on her face. She blinked once, twice before her face flushed and she turned to make a beeline for the door.
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Post by Grant Miller on Oct 19, 2016 7:20:48 GMT -7
Just when he was about to turn away and go his own way, their was a sudden force pulling him down and he felt the warm sensation on his lips. It all happened so fast that he couldn't initially process what Minnie had just done. Grant only came to his senses after a few seconds, the unfamiliar gesture causing a torrent of conflicting emotions. The thoughts in his head raced, forming an incoherent jumble that was no use to anyone. He was still attempting to fully process what just happened when Minnie frantically turned for the house. All that Grant knew was that he didn't want to end things on this note. His hand shot out and gently grabbed her arm. Grant was unsure if any of this was actually happening, it could have been some bizarre dream.
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Post by Minerva "Minnie" Wells on Oct 19, 2016 12:46:26 GMT -7
Minnie's mind was already racing before Grant grabbed her arm. An indistinct slurry of whys and whats swirled in her mind. Each one clamoring for her attention like unfed baby birds. Then when she registered the weight of his hand on her arm, it stopped. No thoughts, no running, just silence and stillness. She stood there, heart pounding in her ears.
Minnie stared at her feet, unable to summon words to her lips. What do you say after kissing someone like that and running? I'm sorry? I don't know what came over me? Neither seemed like good options. But she couldn't just stand there hanging from his grip like an idiot.
"Grant I..."
She couldn't finish her sentences. The words just weren't there.
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