2014.02.23 - Terminal Chatter

Kiden has arranged 4 chairs together for a makeshift bed, as she's lying across on them, the pacifier dangling from her necklace set in her mouth while she's staring at the ceiling, moving her head to someone kind of music that doesn't really appear to be playing.

Dressed in work out pants, a Flash-logo t-shirt, and those red bands around his wrists and ankles he's been seen with lately, Eddie Thorson just blinks when he emerges from the tunnels and spots Kiden on that makeshift bed. He's carrying his staff but it's currently in it's collapsed form. "Kiden?" he calls out, hoping she's alright. "You know there are b-b-beds in the sleeping cars, right?" he asks as he climbs up off the tracks.

Hearing her name, Kiden rises one arm and waves it, and a moment later she spits out the pacifier to let it dangle from the necklace, as she adds the all important, "yo." As Eddie comes closer she turns her head to better look at him, "Flash, today, in a mood for speed? Yeah...I know about the beds, just felt like chilling in the open..."

Eddie glances down and gives a little laugh. "N-naw, this is just what I usually work out in," he explains. Turning attention back to Kiden, Eddie blinks a few times. "S-so you were just hanging around out here?"

"Pretty much, I hang out wherever I like, seemed like it was quiet around here," Kiden states the obvious, stretching her arms over her head, as she looks over at Eddie, "hearing about you exercising makes me feel more tired."

"I'm surprised Tommy's c-cat didn't come join you," Eddie comments, looking around for the speedster's pet for a moment. He shakes it off and then gives a little chuckle. "G-good thing you didn't watch then. I'm taking a little break now though."

"Maybe it got scared...I never really thought about it, but maybe my power makes me smell weird to cats," Kiden wonders aloud, she's certainly been to unnatural places with her constant forays into No Time. "Take a sit Flash, still a few I haven't used," she points at a few scattered chairs further back from the area she cleared to her makeshift bed.

"It put up with m-me, Tommy, and Billy's magic. I don't think it does scared," Eddie tries to joke. He does pause to consider Kiden and her power though. "M-might be something worth investigating. It could come in handy if we ever g-g-get attacked by crazy animals again," he says. Nodding, Eddie grabs a chair to bring over. "Been out here v-very long?" he asks. She wasn't there when he went down into the tunnels to train but that was hours ago.

"I'm all for it, cats are cool, they don't behave like bitches of some fools who don't deserve their affection," Kiden points out, giving another glimpse to her skewed views of love, affection and families. "I don't remember, was on a bit of a high..."

"It'll help scare off the smaller r-rats too. Those used to be a pain down here..." Eddie trails off. Then Kiden mentions having been on a high and Eddie just frowns deeply. "What?"

Kiden waves her hand dismissively, "nothing, nothing, anyways, don't mind the rats...follow them around and you can find food, they really help the homeless if you pay attention."

Eddie continued to frown at the dismissive wave but he lets it go. He gives a little mirthless laugh at the comment about the rats though. "I know they d-do, Kiden...I used to be homeless," he mutters. "Might be again," he adds more quietly. Shaking it off, he leans back and looks up at the ceiling. "I d-d-don't mind them outside and in the deeper parts of the tunnels...but where we try t-t-to sleep and keep food and stuff that'd be dangerous for them to chew on I'd rather they stay away. And the b-b-b-biggest ones are mean."

"Hey, hey," Kiden snaps her fingers to get Eddie's attention and interrupt him mid-sentence, "you got the Terminal, you're not quite homeless when you got this cool place, right?" Kiden makes a scary face as she mutters, "don't worry, I'm the biggest and baddest of them all, I'll scare the bad rats away!"

That just brings a wry smile to Eddie's face. "Didn't anyone ever t-t-tell you where the Terminal came from?" he asks curiously. He thought the whole team knew by now. He then laughs a little at the scary face. "Thanks. Fighting them c-can be tiring."

Sitting up on just one chair, Kiden takes a moment to balance as she shifts, and then looks curiously at Eddie, "I may or may not have been told, I don't usually follow lessons very well. So, what's the dealio with the Terminal?"

Eddie smiles, resting his staff across his shoulders and stretching a little with it. "Well...b-before Hawkeye gave us all this awesome stuff and Speed did the renovations and the r-r-rest of us helped just make it awesome it was a plain old abandoned subway station. There was a lot of rubble and junk around, turned over traincars, and stuff like that. And I used t-t-t-to live down here then. Right over in that old ticket booth," he explains, gesturing. "There's still old posters on the wall in there and stuff I wrote on the wall too," he admits. It's mostly just tally marks counting off the days he lived down there and a few torn and faded superhero posters.

"Cool," Kiden doesn't seem to take it as a bad thing, "I mostly lived on whatever street I happened to be on...used to be part of some tribe with a bunch of gutterpunk kids like me, but then I got more serious, thanks to Laura. You should meet her sometime, she's pretty intense." Kiden grins, "once you go homeless, you learn to really get to know life. I mean for real. Everybody else lives in this fake world. They don't even know."

"I just accidentally fell in here one day and set up c-camp. Otherwise it would have been the street for me too," Eddie admits. "Must've b-been nice...the other homeless kids d-d-didn't want me around most of the time," he mutters. Then Kiden mentions Laura and Eddie blinks. "As in umm..." he holds up his hands. "snikt-snikt Laura?" he asks, gesturing as if sprouting a pair of claws from his hands. "There's m-more layers to the world than even that if you ask me."

"Really? What happened? Didn't fight hard enough to be accepted? I had to punch a brutha to get accepted..." Kiden relates her experience with other homeless kids, before laughing at Eddie's imitation of X-23, "yeah! That's Laura alright, snikt-snikt Laura," Kiden seems quite pleased with that rendition, "I'll have to do it to her face next time...doubt she'd laugh, but still."

"They f-found out I was gay and a mutant and decided I didn't belong," Eddie replies with a shrug. "I'd be a little um...c-caught off guard if she did laugh. She doesn't seem like a laughy type."

"That's gay," Kiden says without a thought, before realizing what Eddie was just telling her, to which she frowns, "I'm sorry, didn't mean to sound like that...I meant they're fucking stupid." Shrugging at her attempt to fix her slip up, she nods about Laura, "doesn't much laugh at all...she's pretty serious."

Eddie's expression goes flat at first but he ends up waving it off at the apology. "It's okay. A lot w-worse has been hurled at and around me," he says. "Really s-serious. When I first met her, she kind of tried to kill me...sort of."

"Maybe you did a wrong move, can't do that 'round Laura," Kiden warns sagely, getting up she pats Eddie on the shoulder, "you're a good guy, so there you go, she didn't kill you after all. I mean, Laura doesn't fail at killing someone."

"It was a misunderstanding and I think a b-badguy fooled her. She sort of r-ran into the middle of a fight I was in with this big Stonewall jerk," Eddie explains. He blushes slightly when called a good guy but nods. "Yeah...glad she t-turned out to be one of the good guys too."

"I'm going to go catch some air upstairs, good talk, Eddie, now I know more about the Terminal," Kiden says as she starts to move on her way out, doing a little dance as she moves.