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Thread: The Times They Are A-Changing

  1. #1

    Closed Roleplay [X-Men] The Times They Are A-Changing

    Anna adjusted her rearview mirror again as she drove down I-15, the well functioning Ford truck she had borrowed from her father eating up the miles as she made her way toward Nevada. It was a nervous fidget, and she checked the mirror again even though she knew no one was behind her. For now, at least, the highway was empty.

    She forced her attention to the road ahead as Bob Dylan warbled through the five disc CD changer. Five Dylan CDs, or near enough that she couldn't tell the difference. After she'd given up on the radio due to stations fading out on her, she'd been forced to trust her father's taste in music. Two more hours of this and she wasn't sure she'd be sane. Eva, at least, seemed to enjoy it, and was testing the boundaries of Anna's stomach as she turned somersaults, or who knows what she was trying to do but...it was uncomfortable. Two more months of this? Anna rubbed her belly, pushing gently against a foot or hand with a small smile.

    "And keep your eyes wide/The chance won't come again/And don't speak too soon/For the wheel's still in spin/And there's no tellin' who/That it's namin'/For the loser now/Will be later to win/For the times they are a-changin'."

    Anna sipped her water, trying to ration herself to lessen the need to find a rest stop. During the so-called Sentinel Riots, Redencíon House had been knocked off it's foundation. The cost of repairs would have far outweighed the value of doing them, and she'd taken the insurance payout with the intention of buying a new house...perhaps more in the country. In the meantime she and Jamie had moved back home to Bakersfield while Jake had been forced to flee California altogether. There was a warrant out for his arrest, connections had been made to the warehouse fire that had killed several people, and he was wanted for "questioning."

    Aidan was gone. Tycho was gone. Tess... she'd gone her separate way as well, with promises to come back once Anna was established. She needed time to herself, and Anna could hardly blame her. She barely understood what had happened that day, herself. Aidan had been a guardian angel of sorts, but that hadn't helped Jen.

    "You know what blood looks like in a black and white video?/Shadows! Shadows!"

    She shuddered and turned off the music, only the sound of the road under the tires left. "We would have stayed with Abuelo y la Abuela, but we couldn't, could we. Jamie is safe with them, but... Those people started coming around." She rubbed her stomach again, Eva settling down at the sound of her mama's voice. First the white panel van parked on the side of the road. Then Mama had been followed to the grocery store by someone. There had been a phone call, from the Brotherhood, just last night.

    You are in danger, Anna. There is a bounty on your head, and hunters on the way.

    Who? Why?

    We don't know. Go to this address - go tonight or don't go at all.

    What about mi familia?

    They don't care about your family, but if you stay they will be in danger.

    So, she had gone. She had woken Jamie for a sleepy good-bye that had turned quickly to tears, leaving the girl in Teresa's arms both hugging each other tightly. It wasn't forever, Anna had said then. Now, however, she wasn't sure. She didn't even know why there were people after her, or what they were going to do with her once they had her, so how could she promise she would be back?

    Surely it was all a misunderstanding. She stifled a yawn, and pressed her foot on the accelerator, her eyes tracking to the rearview mirror once again.
    Last edited by Anna Fernandez; Jun 5th, 2014 at 02:21:42 PM.

    ice, ice, baby

  2. #2
    When Jake woke, he muttered a curse into the darkness. It had been the rumble of a car engine that had disturbed him, but as he laid in his bed, tracing lines of sapphire moonlight across the wall, he listened and heard nothing. Nothing, except for the steady drip of water coming from the bathroom, which meant that Scott had pissed again and again neglected to twist the tap tight. The man had a peanut for a bladder and the walls were almost certainly made of cardboard. But it wasn't the faulty tap that had woken him, nor Scott's terminal dribbling. In fact, there was little that could disturb his sleep of late, his nights were blessed with long wakeless hours and the sweetest of dreams. For that, he owed a debt of gratitude to a man who didn't exist. Not yet, at least. And thinking on that for too long would deprive any man of his rest. So he didn't. He listened instead.

    He heard the persistant drip of water, hammering against the silence, and the whisper of bedsheets as one of his housemates stirred in the neighbouring room. His own bedroom was spartan and small, and from his bed he could make out the shapes of his few remaining possessions bruised black and blue in the gloom, namely, a swollen duffel bag and a guitar case slouched against the wall. Fingers interlaced, he thumbed restlessly at the edge of his bedsheet, which peaked in the middle like a marquee: a sad monument to his stolen dream. Carrie had been ravenous in her passion, and groped at his skin so hungrily, he'd half-feared he was about to lose his flesh in chunks. Her tremulous moans were still fresh in his ears and it was all he could do to keep his fingers from probing beneath the marquee and revisit the dream anew. That was when he heard the car.

    At first, it was just a murmur, detected from faraway through the paper-thin walls. But soon, the rumbling was upon him, just as he remembered it. And there was music too. He'd forgotten about that. Folksy guitar playing and the cracked drone of a familliar voice. Suddenly, he was no longer sure whether he was remembering it or hearing it for the first time, but he knew what it meant. He sprang from his bed and pulled on yesterday's creased clothes, which included a frayed pair of jeans and an unflattering flannel shirt. Outside, the car slowed to a gear-whining stone-crunching stop. Jake left his room and crossed the humble living space, scooping up soiled plates and empty beer cans along the way. A quick reconnaissance from the window revealed a woman rising out of the car, she had dark-hair and a swollen belly, but Jake had already anticipated that. What he hadn't anticipated was the strange rush of excitement and fear that accompanied the sight.

    Once the debris of dinner was transferred to the kitchen, Jake stood sentry by the front door. He heard the approach of footsteps, and waited until he was sure she but was inches away from the door when he swung it open. His sister's face was ghostly even in the soft lamplight that spilled outside.

    "Hello, Anna. Nice of you to visit."

  3. #3
    She started a bit when the door swung open before she'd had a chance to knock, and her eyes opened wide at the sight of her adopted brother. "Jake! I didn't expect... Hi! Uh, sorry to wake you?"


    He stepped back, welcoming her inside the house, such as it was, and she wrinkled her nose slightly at the bachelor odor within. The words began to fall out of her in a jumbled mess. "The Brotherhood, they warned me... I'm not safe. I had to leave. Mama and Papa were in danger as long as I was there, but maybe ... I need help. And they told me to come here." she ended lamely.

  4. #4
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    It was a picnic on the beach. The sand ran forever in three directions, bordered on the fourth by sighing sea foam. The beach was clean, which was the first thing that told Jamie that it wasn't real. The second was that the sea was purple and the sky was the color of roses. But she didn't mind. This was a happy dream, and she wanted it to last as long as she could make it.

    She sat on a warm towel with her legs stretched before her, wriggling her toes into the technicolor sand. Just over her shoulder, Ronnie and Scott ran laughing over the dunes and, with a hopskip step, Ronnie sent a frisbee sailing on the breeze, where it was snagged out of the air by a white-feathered velociraptor. Anna and Aimee were nearby, pulling an endless supply of food out of a rolling cooler, while Jake stood ankle-deep in the grape juice surf, alternately strumming his guitar and, for some reason, backing himself up on harmonica.

    "Hey, Jamie. Want some lemonade?"

    The lemonade was pink swirled with yellow, served in beautifully sparkling glasses brimming with ice and sweating in the late summer sun. Jamie reached for a glass, which was shockingly cold in her small hand. "Thanks, Jen," she said.

    Jennifer Cho smiled down at her over the tray full of lemonade, and Jamie looked up and met her eyes. Something shifted in Jamie's gut, as if a big pit had opened up there and threatened to suck all her happiness away.

    "No problem," Jennifer said. And then she noticed the troubled look that had crossed Jamie's face. "Hey. You all right, squirt?"

    Jamie's mouth dried up, but she made no move with the glass of lemonade in her hand. "Jen... you can't... you shouldn't be here," she stammered. "It's not... I can't think about you right now. I'm sorry."

    Hurt and confusion darkened Jen's face, and the sky began to darken with it. "What are you talking about, Jamie?" she said. "What's wrong?"

    "Please," Jamie said, "just go away. I don't want this dream ruined like the others. Please."

    "Jamie?" Jen's eyes lost their focus, and the tray went spilling out of grasp. The sand greedily sucked up all the lemonade as it spilled out. Somewhere over the horizon, police sirens echoed, punctuated by staccato popping sounds like war footage on the news. "Jamie, what's happening? Everything's getting dark. Are you doing this?"

    "I'm not!" Jamie said desperately. "Please, Jen, you have to go. I don't... I don't want to see you like that again!"

    "Like what?" Jennifer said, and then there was a BANG, and the older girl jerked backwards as if she'd been tugged by a rope passing through her chest -

    Jamie's eyes flew open, and she found herself stiff and disoriented. But then she always felt that way when she slept in a car. Gradually, the details of the dream began to slip away, but the image of Jen's death burned like a searing coal in the center of her mind, no matter how much she tried to chase it away. Of course, she hadn't seen how it had actually happened, but she could imagine it. And for a child with Jamie's gifts, that was very nearly as bad.

    Gingerly, the young mutant pushed herself upright in the passenger seat and squinted across the weatherbeaten dash and out the windshield at a small house on a dusty lot. The doorway was open, and Anna stood just inside the darkened entryway talking to someone. Jamie considered hiding a little longer, if only to put off the inevitable torrent of worryscolding that her foster mother had refined down to a multilingual performance art. But she knew she couldn't hide forever, and she preferred to reveal herself on her own terms. Also, she was getting very, very hungry.

    With great care, Jamie prised the passenger-side door open and stepped into the shimmering Nevada heat. She tried closing the door quietly, but the mechanism didn't come close to latching until she gave it a solid, and unfortunately quite noisy, shove. A cicada began squalling somewhere on the property as if to sound the alarm, and Jamie felt suddenly exposed, a smallish ten-year-old girl in a T-shirt, shorts, and a crooked camo-print cap in the middle of a crumbling driveway on a desolate desert street.

  5. #5
    His first instinct was to read her mind, which he resisted. Anna took a dim view on the invasion of privacy and had spent years drumming into his head the importance of restraint, along with his mother, and father, and Antonio, and his holiness, Marcelo. So he skimmed over her words, composing a Cliff Notes sort of comprehension for himself, filling in the blanks as best he could. The details didn't really matter. She was clearly unnerved by whatever had happened, so he closed the space between them and wrapped her up in his arms.

    "Hey, you're safe now. I'm here." The tender reunion was suddenly punctuated by a dull thud outside. Beyond the low chain-link fence he spotted another familiar face, small against the hulking backdrop of papa's truck. Incredulous, he muttered, "You brought Jamie here​?"

  6. #6
    Anna hugged him tightly, and said, "Of course not. I left her at home with Mama. I have bounty hunters after me, apparently. So, they sent me to the same safe house as you? Probably not a coincidence."

    She half turned toward the truck, visible through the screen door. "I left my bags... oh. I see." Anna's gut clenched at the sight of her foster daughter lurking in the semi-darkness by the F-150. She covered her face with both hands, her emotions roiling.

  7. #7
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    Seeing Jake again buoyed Jamie's spirits enough to take a few hesitant steps toward the doorway, but seeing the shock and disapproval on his face sent her crashing right back down again. And then Anna - she wasn't doing the frantically scolding mother thing, or the even the calm but serious "we have a problem and we're going to talk about it whether you want it or not" thing. This was different, like she was defeated. And that was frightening.

    Jamie wrapped her skinny arms around herself and ventured closer to the two adults. "Okay, I know what you're gonna say," she said. "You left because it's dangerous, and I was supposed to stay back at Papa and Nana's where it's safe. And I'm sorry I pretended to lock myself in my room, and I lied when Nana came to check on me. And I'm sorry I hid in the truck while you were loading your stuff. And I'm sorry I didn't let you know I was there earlier. I was going to, but then I fell asleep."

    Her fingers clenched over her arms, white-knuckled, and she hunted Anna and Jake's faces for anything other than dismay. "I'm sorry," she repeated. "But this was, like, an emergency. And you've already got one kid with you, but they're not pulling their weight yet, so you're going to need help. And that's why I'm here."

    Jamie struggled to keep her feet from shuffling and tried to look very brave in the failing light.

  8. #8
    "Jamie."

    In the stark quiet of the night, Jake's voice rolled like thunder down the path, but when the name hung feebly in the air between him, his bark was robbed of any bite. His lips pressed tight for want of words and to suppress the tell-tale quirk of amusement in the corners of his mouth. First, Anna, and then, Jamie? It was, all things considered, hard for him not to feel pleased to see some familiar faces. And just as suddenly, his surprise hardened to hatch something much more primal and cold. In an instant, he closed the gap between himself and Jamie, and promptly ushered her in through the front door, closing it behind them. He rounded on Anna in alarm.

    "Bounty hunters!?"

  9. #9
    "I got a phone call, after Jamie went to bed." Anna paused, looking at her daughter who at least appeared suitably sheepish. She looked back to Jake. "It was... Zombie." She felt slightly uncomfortable using the woman's chosen name. "She said that they had information that there was a bounty on me, and that hunters were coming."


    Anna laughed, nervously. "Maybe it's Dog the Bounty Hunter? Should be able to see him coming. Anyway, I ...trust her? After what happened, and they helped you out. She said they were only interested in me and would leave our family alone if I left." Her Spanish accent was thicker as she spoke, betraying her anxiety. Jamie's unexpected presence was only making her feel worse. The girl should have been safe at her grandparent's home, sleeping.


    "So." She looked around, distracted. "What is this place exactly?"

  10. #10
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    On another day, Jake's rebuke would have earned him a scowl of defiance, but Jamie knew he was justifiably upset. Anna, too. She knew what was at stake here, and she knew that her presence only complicated things for both of them, that instead of committing all their time and energy to staying safe, now they had to worry about her safety, too, in the way that only adults could. She wanted to chase away the worries, tell them she could look out for herself and that everything was going to turn out all right, but she couldn't find those simple convictions that used to come so easily.

    She'd seen what real danger was, back in Los Santos. The worst had happened, and things hadn't turned out all right. Which was why she had to be here. Why she had to keep Anna within her sight. She wished she could explain to them what seemed clear as glass to her, but she didn't have the words to do it.

    Silently, Jamie followed Anna and Jake into the dingy little safehouse, followed closely by a knee-high velociraptor mantled in white feathers. The phantasmal little dinosaur hugged her legs closely, and his darting eyes and swaying tail betrayed her nerves.

  11. #11
    "It's a box with a roof," Jake shrugged, "The Brotherhood use it for a place to lie low. I bet they have places like this all over."

    The surprise of the visit and the shock of the reason behind it were both beginning to subside, leaving Jake bewildered. Suddenly, he was living not only with his sister again, but her adopted daughter, and there were no happy tears of reunion to be shed, not even the slightest hint of relief. Anna brought stormclouds in her wake and he shrugged, because that was the nature of the lives they lived. They were standing in the small living space, which housed a dusty sofa, a bar stool, and a television set. Around the edges of the room were boxes, and a cluttered kitchenette was tucked away into a corner which had expanded outwards like a tumour. There were three doors. Jake pointed at the open one.

    "That's my room in the middle. It's cosy, but I think you three will manage."

    His gaze swept first over his sister's swollen belly, which appeared to be expanding exponentially, and then little Jamie. She was taller than he remembered, and scrawny for it, too. It was impossible to imagine her being a part of his life, such as it was, and yet, there she stood, looking like she would break at the slightest touch. He dropped to one knee and put on a smile, wrapping the little girl in his arms.

    "It's good to see you, short stuff," he glanced up at Anna, "Is everyone alright?"

  12. #12
    "Everyone is fine," she reassured him, one hand on her expanding stomach. Her eyes rested on Jamie, then she sighed and pulled her fingers through her hair, looking out toward the driveway. "I left my bag in the truck. I am really sorry... I don't like to take your room, but..."

    She grimaced toward the couch, which was a lackluster affair strewn with paper and wrappers. "Do people sit on that?"

  13. #13
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    Jamie hugged Jake eagerly, then lingered near him as she took in their surroundings. She didn't have anything like Anna's sense of order and cleanliness, as the state of her bedroom floor could attest, but even she couldn't miss the film of squalor covering the place.

    The girl followed her foster mother's gaze to the couch - disgusting, yes, but it was a problem that could be solved. "We can fix that," she said helpfully. "We just need a wastebasket, a vacuum cleaner, and... maybe some rubber gloves?"

    Something thumped down the hall to the bedrooms, and Jamie gasped and disappeared. She kept a hand on Jake's arm so he'd know where she'd gone.

    A low growl rattled in Spike the velociraptor's throat, and he hopped onto the filthy couch to face the threat.

  14. #14
    The third door opened, and out staggered a woman with a nest of short shaggy hair. She was wearing a football shirt that dwarfed her and a pair of Pacman boxer shorts. "Jake, do you know what time it is?" Once she had stopped rubbing her eyes, she noticed Anna, and straightened up, owlish in her alarm. "Oh. Hello. Jake, who's this?"

    "This is Anna. My sister. Anna, this is my housemate, Carrie." He gestured to the empty space next to him, and quite matter-of-factly, he said, "Also, this is Jamie. She's hiding. And that is Jamie's pet velociraptor, Spike."

    The fanged and feathered turkey gave a shriek. Carrie winced, she scrutinised the creature in silence, and then rubbed her heavy eyes, "Jake, did I... take something tonight?"

  15. #15
    "Hi," Anna said, reaching out to shake the other woman's hand. "Nice to meet you, Carrie. Sorry I woke you, I would have come at a more godly hour but...it was not exactly an option."


    She was surprised to find a female living in the house, what with the state things were in. Anna fought the impulse to find a pair of yellow rubber gloves and giving the whole place a good scrubbing, and instead made a shushing gesture toward Jamie. "It's like two AM. Keep it down."

  16. #16
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    Jamie shimmered back into view, embarrassed. She hadn't always been so jumpy. Neither had Spike, for that matter, but he fixed Carrie with a baleful reptilian stare and growled again.

    "Spike!" Jamie exclaimed, and she forcefully pointed to the floor at her feet. The little raptor ducked its head, hopped down to the peeling carpet and curled itself around her ankles with a contented trill. Then the young mutant girl offered Carrie a what're you gonna do shrug.

    "Sorry about that. He's not..."

    This was the part where she normally assured people that they weren't insane, that what they were seeing was literally a figment of her own imagination. But it occurred to her that she didn't know Carrie from Eve, and when you were living life on the lam there was some currency in keeping secrets.

    "...used to strangers."

  17. #17
    Following Jamie's sudden appearance, Carrie rolled her eyes and skewered Jake with a humourless look, "It's late, and I'm really not in the mood for pranks."

    "Don't look at me!" he protested, hands open in innocence, "I'm as surprised about this as you. Anna was in trouble and our mutual friend pointed her in this direction."

    "Oh. Well, it's going to be cozy," she said, staring in alarm at the little girl and her creature. Next she considered Anna for a moment, her gaze lingering upon her bulbous midsection, "But from what I hear you're used to living in a crowded house, so you should feel right at home."

    "What is it?" Came a grumble from inside the bedroom, behind Carrie, a shadowy mound of bed sheets moved to reveal a head of wild scraggly hair.

    "Nothing. Go back to sleep," Carrie said, and the hair vanished behind the sheets again, "Scott has an audition tomorrow. And I said I'd tag along so I better get some sleep, too. Anna, little... girl... nice to meet you."

    Their eyes met as Carrie slipped behind the door and out of sight. Jake felt his inside clench as hard as iron. When he turned back to Anna, he placed a hand on her swollen belly, and smiled.

    "You're getting big."

  18. #18
    Anna watched Jake as his roommate disappeared back into her room, and raised an eyebrow. His face was betraying so much nothing it might as well have been a blinking marquee.


    "I feel like a hipopótamo," she groused good-naturedly. "I do not want to take your bed, I could sleep on the..." Anna eyed the couch, and couldn't help but grimace at it's appearance. "Or, outside in the yard. Podría estar más limpio..." She looked down at Jamie and sighed.

  19. #19
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    "I have a sleeping bag," Jamie volunteered before Anna's worry lines could grow any deeper. "You can use it if you want, but it might be a little small."

  20. #20
    "You guys can have my room. Don't argue. Besides..." Cushions were scattered in an instant, as the sofa unfolded into a flimsy, but fully-formed, bed. Jake studied it dubiously and tested the mattress with his foot, the springs gave a miserable groan. "It's not like I'm going without."

    From one of the piled boxes, he retrieved a large folded woolen blanket. It unfurled with a flourish and, for a moment, hung suspended in the air like a banner before drifting down onto the withered bed. Thumbs hooked into his belt loops, Jake considered his new accommodations with an air of defiance.

    "I've had worse." He gave them a sidelong glance, "Are you guys hungry? Thirsty? We have a... food cave."

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