Inquiring Minds Want to Know!

[Taya Robbins]

Taya noticed the shift in Anna's body language and wondered if she'd come across too hard. She wished she had more experience than a year and a half writing for the student newsletter at Cullen's - this was a whole different ballpark from running interviews for teacher-of-the-month bios.

"So what you said about Redención House, that it's a place of second chances for mutant kids, that you're preparing them to stand on their own two feet in the real world - do you think registration makes that job easier or harder?"

[Anna Fernandez]

"Harder," she said quietly. "So many mutant kids have been hurt by discrimination, from their former amigos, their familia... It is natural to them to lash out inappropriately when those who should be guiding them and supporting them suddenly do not know what to do with them, or how to relate to them.

"Some will seek out groups such as the Brotherhood to find that family to help them grow up. Others may end up here. I teach them to become responsible adults, to live in society as an equal. But the MRA says... it draws a line in the sand. 'You are different.' And of course we are different, no two humans are the same. It just... makes it that much harder to convince teenagers that the 'mundanes' want us to live alongside them."

[Taya Robbins]

This was good stuff. Like, really good. Taya kept a poker face while she scribbled down a few more notes in her pad, but her tail was lashing animatedly at the legs of her chair.

"Thank you so much, Anna, I have tons more questions, but I want to make sure I use our time well. I know you said you'd talk to the kids about maybe answering a few questions - is that still going to happen?"

Taya put on her best hopeful face, eyes wide, ears tucked in just a bit.

[Anna Fernandez]

"Yes, of course! They are excited to meet you." Anna reached out behind her, grabbing the broom that was resting against the counter. Hefting it, she gave the ceiling two short raps, then paused and did two more.

Her eyes twinkled a little as she caught Taya's expression. "Easier than yelling up the stairs. Someone will be down soon! I told them to come one at a time."

[Tess Abrahams]

"Can I borrow your white top? You know, the one with the little buttons and the crimped neckline?"

Tess glanced up from a stack of papers on her desk, eyebrows knitting together behind neat tortoise-shell square-frame glasses; she wore them rarely, mostly on weekends when a solid stretch of contact lenses had pressed that annoyingly dry, scratchy sensation against her cornea that no amount of Visine could fix. "Uh, sure. Why?"

Jen looked at her incredulously. "Because that reporter is here? The one that Anna told us about?"

"Right." Tess nodded. "But it's an article, isn't it? There's no broadcast coverage."

"There might be pictures, Tess."

It still didn't make much sense to the woman but Jen seemed pretty confident that she was missing something vitally important so Tess decided the best course of action was to nod in vague acknowledgment. She stuffed a sheath of papers back in a manila folder and fetched the requested shirt from her closet, handing the wooden hanger to Jen.

Thud, thud.

"Knock yourself out," Tess glanced down at the floor. "If you're still busy getting ready, I guess I'll head down..."

The other girl nodded and Tess shook her head, bemused, as Jen scurried back to the bathroom to... flatiron? Bronze? Whatever cosmetic pursuit she thought necessary.

Thumping down the stairs in her own preferred brand of fashion, Tess emerged into the kitchen with an easy smile on her face, long legs eating up the distance from the stairway to the breakfast nook.

"Hi, there, you must be..." she stopped short, surprised by the... cat girl sitting across from Anna. There had been a fair number of physical mutations among the student body at Cullen's, but nothing really prepared you for the mental double-take. Tess recovered quickly, her face brightening, and she extended a hand as she crossed the room. "Man, that's awesome. Sorry, where are my manners? I'm Tess Abrahams."

[Taya Robbins]

Icebreaker. Taya knew she'd be getting as many of those as she had interviews today, so it didn't even faze her. She got up out of her seat and stepped up to meet Tess's hand with an outstretched paw. "Taya Robbins. Thanks for letting me take up some of your morning, Tess!"

Somewhere in the back of her mind, the name Tess Abrahams was ringing a little bell, but she couldn't quite place it. But she knew her mind was way too easily distracted by things like bells, so she shuffled it away for the time being as she found her seat again.

"So, Tess, first off, do you mind if I record the interview? Okay, great. So, Anna and I agreed that I'll only print the names of house residents if both you and she say it's okay. So, let me just start off by asking, how long have you been here at the House?"

[Tess Abrahams]

That took a little calculating. Tess paused, easing slowly into the chair between Taya and Anna, scooting it back so that they were positioned in a friendly semi-circle.

"Well, I got here at the beginning of June, I think," she glanced at Anna for confirmation. "But I met Anna last year and spent some time at the House then, too. That's how I knew where to go when I got back to the West Coast."

[Anna Fernandez]

Anna nodded in agreement with Tess, pushing back quietly from the table and walking past the island toward the fridge while the two younger women talked. She poured herself a glass of water and then two more, bringing the glasses to the table.

A second trip saw a bowl of almonds find it's way to the breakfast nook, and Anna resumed her seat, careful not to interrupt the interview.

[Taya Robbins]

Taya nodded. "Could you describe your time - oh, thank you, Anna. Could you describe your time here?"

She wasn't certain how much specific information she'd get - she understood that everyone had their personal stories, and mutants tended to guard theirs carefully, especially when it was unpleasant.

[Tess Abrahams]

"Busy," Tess said with a wry laugh. "I mean, obviously any household of this size is going to be pretty active but you throw in the added... challenges of being a mutant, especially in a neighborhood like Los Santos, and it`s pretty much a guarentee that there are no dull moments.

"I`ve been doing a lot of volunteer work and I`m also getting ready to attend college in the fall - don`t have to explain to you how crazy that is, right?"

[Taya Robbins]

"Oh, really, where are you going?" Taya asked before she could stop herself - it didn't really have anything to do with the subject of the interview, but maybe it would lead to something else.

[Tess Abrahams]

"Loyola, pre-law," Tess said. "Princeton was my first choice, my dad went there, but I was in the late-acceptance field so my options were narrowed a bit."<br /> <br /> She watched Taya make a notation on her pad and shrugged. "I think it`s probably better this way, though. Loyola`s got an excellent civil rights record and it`s local, so I`ll be able to stay on here and help out."

[Taya Robbins]

Taya bobbed her head in approbation. "Awesome! So, what do you think is the most important thing that Redención House does for the mutants who live here?"

[Tess Abrahams]

"Provides a sense of home," the answer came swiftly, no hesitation to bar it`s way. Tess took her glasses off and turned the frames over in her hands, an idle habit that cropped up when she was trying to put something into words.

"All of us who live here are pretty resiliant, we can take care of ourselves - some of the kids are astonishly tough because they`ve had to be. But that sort of self-championing comes with a cost. When you don`t feel like there`s anywhere you can go to just relax, where you`re not constantly on guard... that gets exhausting, very quickly. The House is the exact opposite; it`s a soft place to fall. There`s a very strong feeling of acceptance here, no judgement. We`re a family - that`s a huge thing for a group who`s largely never experienced an environment like this."

[Taya Robbins]

Taya couldn't help but think of her parents and their unwavering support over the course of her own bizarre transformation. If she hadn't had a soft place to fall of her own, she wasn't sure what she might have turned into.

"That's huge," she replied earnestly. "I can understand why you feel such a connection to the place."

Loath as she was to change the subject, she had to remember the focus of the story. "What's your opinion on Mutant Registration?"

[Tess Abrahams]

A bitter coil settled in the woman`s chest and Tess had to use all of her self-control to keep her face from twisting. As it was, she didn`t stop a distasteful snort from escaping.<br /> <br /> "I think it`s obscene, and a very big step in a very, very dangerous direction." Tess crossed one knee over the other and leaned forward, elbows propped on her thigh. "There`s a lot of information out there to the tune of how the MRA is a mutually benefical move, how it`s going to preserve the rights of mutants; anyone with an ounce of discernment knows that`s beurocratic garbage. It`s a means of control, pure and simple, and every citizen - not just mutants - should find that extremely unsettling."

[Taya Robbins]

That made it two for two - though Taya couldn't say she was particularly surprised. If anything, Tess appeared to be even more direct with her opinions than Anna. This was a journalistic gold mine!

"Well," she said, slipping back into her role of devil's advocate, "what about the offers of health care, financial aid? You're going into law school, would you consider a genetic advantage scholarship?"

[Tess Abrahams]

For a moment Tess wondered if it were possible that Taya knew. How much digging had she done in anticipation of these interviews?

But no, that couldn`t be it; she hadn`t known Tess was even considering college. The question was simply a natural progression, and one that had been on her mind a lot, coincidentally. Tess sort of loved that it had been brought up.

"Would I consider one?" She repeated. "Sure. Would I accept one? To be honest, I`m not sure, Taya. On the one hand, universities award scholarships for a hundred reasons under the sun - academic excellence, athletic prowess, financial disadvantage, even regional location. But does issuing one for genetic variation cross some line? I guess for me, personally, the determining factor would be the established criteria. What expectations have to be met in order to qualify one as eligible? If simply being born different is enough... well, that would make me uncomfortable, it implies a certain misapplication of equality. But if a mutant has worked hard to meet basic academic and social standards and needs a leg up, how is offering it any different from awarding a guy who can throw a football across a field a full ride?"

[Taya Robbins]

Taya tapped her eraser thoughtfully on her chin. "So doesn't mutant registration make these sorts of opportunities easier to come by? Especially for underprivileged mutant kids who might not otherwise be considered?"

[Tess Abrahams]

"Infringing on basic rights is never beneficial, and that is what the MRA does." Tess shook her head. "If opportunities like scholarships are presented as an option, if there is a level of public awareness made to their availability, then their targeted audience will pursue them. But those provisions shouldn`t be incumbant upon relinquishing privacy to the government."