12645/Late Night Diner Vibes

Late Night Diner Vibes
Date of Scene:	01 September 2022
Location:	Fred's Diner
Synopsis:	Gabby, Mercy, Lydia and Patience have a night out at the diner.
Cast of Characters:	Gabby Kinney, Mercy Thompson, Lydia Dietrich, Patience Alperen

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Gabby Kinney has posed:
Gabby Kinney invited Mercy out to visit Fred's Diner because it couldn't always be visiting at Mercy's garage to hang out. Not that she minded, but it was also Mercy's home so it felt as if she was overstaying her welcome at times. Because she'd done that with others before. Besides, the setting here was nice and relaxing. Maybe it was the old diner smell, maybe it was the oldies playing, but something about the place just felt as if it were a more relaxed, slower paced place than others. Even if the food came out in a timely manner.

She'd snagged a booth and already had a cup of steaming coffee poured out in front of her which she was adding obscene amounts of sugar to while waiting for Mercy to arrive.

Mercy Thompson has posed:
    Mercy likes her garage and home but she gets not wanting to always go to her home. It isn't like she's an Alpha with a pack after all. She's happy to pop out and spend some time with Gabby. She steps in with a happy swing in her steps, a wide smile on her face. She doesn't hardly look around heading right for Gabby's booth to slide into it gracefully. She's normally more careful to make her motions more 'human' but isn't feeling that right now. "Hey Gabby. How you doing? Another coffee drinker. So sad," putting on some make sadness that isn't in her words at all.

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
    It's time for her weekly check up and maintenance for her golem, Baruch. She caught it outside of Fred's Diner and has been so focused on patching it up that she just didn't notice when Gabby and Mercy went in and sat down for a little late-night chat. It's only when she's done does she look over to the diner with a kind of wistful nostalgia to spy her comembers of the JLD sitting there.

    Picking up the half used block of clay and trowel, she wanders into the diner and makes her way to their booth. "Good evening," she says. "Mind if I join you?"

Gabby Kinney has posed:
Gabby Kinney flashes a grin over at Mercy when she steps up to join her. She's just finished shaking in another little packet of sugar into the 'coffee' when Mercy mocks her drink of choice. It only earns an indifferent shrug. "Nah I don't care about coffee over others. I just drink what I'm in the mood for."

She'd been a bit distracted herself otherwise she would have noticed Lydia outside, but... now that she shows up she grins brighter at the sight. "Hey, yeah of course," she invites while scooting to the side to make room. "This place does great milkshakes too. I mean if you like icecream."

Mercy Thompson has posed:
    Mercy's eyes slide over to Lydia and the woman is met with a friendly smile, "Hi Lydia. What's news with you. Didn't know you were back from Montana. Go anywhere nice in my old stomping grounds?" She doesn't scoot over since Gabby beats her to it.
    Eyes now on both women at once. "I'm going to have a milkshake and maybe a good old fashioned burger or cheese burger." She is still smiling. "I can respect drinking what you're in the mood for some. I just never got the taste for coffee. Too strong to my young nose."

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
    Lydia offers a friendly grin to both Gabby and Mercy, as she slides into the booth next to the young mutant. "I used to like milkshakes," she says. "Had to be careful about what I had with it, though. Still kosher, so I can't mix dairy with meat. I... don't know if 'meat' includes blood though. I don't think it does. If you /really/ want good milkshakes, go to Mootant Town Milkshakes, but they're not open at this time of night."

    She gives Mercy a shrug. "I was mostly recovering. Trying to... adjust to everything I'd done, and preparing myself to face the consequences. I was ready to kind of move on, but Chas... didn't really let me have that choice."

Gabby Kinney has posed:
Gabby Kinney reaches for her spoon to stir the sugar into the coffee with a little quiet clink against the sides of the old battered mug. Though she was in good spirits tonight she does grow a bit more serious at mention of what Lydia's gone through. "I'm thinking of them like conmen," she states. "Giant magical asshole conmen grifting their way into our lives to fuck it up. Using our weaknesses against us and making us think it's somehow 'right'."

She shakes her head a little... then nods in agreement. "Oh yeah, Mootown has way better milkshakes, but for a late night fix this is classic. Like homemade? I guess." A long moment she pauses before adding, "This is the sort of place I feel like my dad would like. Maybe that's why I like them."

Mercy Thompson has posed:
    "For me I like the pure taste of milkshake long as you don't get too wild. I'm not sure I am with all those wild shakes that are the trend right now. Like with a slice of cake on top." She focuses mostly on Lydia's chin or nose, not quiet making direct eye contact but not obviously being rude about looking away. "Chas seems okay. He was so awkward about the leash disguise when we were out that one time. I was planning a trip back to some old stomping grounds honestly.
    "I got to give Sprite her new car Gabby. She loved, Chryss and I keep hoping to see it on the roads. Like I even sat outside Lux last weekend hoping to see her pull up in it." She will remember the other place for milkshakes later. "I always get into wanting to make my own desserts as a rule."

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
    Lydia nods at Gabby's assessment of the situation. "Yeah. That's pretty much it. It's a rug pull, a scam. Promise one thing, deliver another, and I was too much of an idiot to see it for what it was." She sighs, and flags the waitress so she can get a cup of coffee of her own.

    "This was the first ever diner I ever went to," she says. "I kind of turned up my nose at them when I was in college, and my mother wouldn't be caught /dead/ in one of these places. We're too bougie for that." With a shrug she says, "This place wasn't half bad, though."

    She lets out a bit of light laughter. If she noticed Mercy avoiding eye contact with her it doesn't show. "I didn't really start baking until I was turned. It gave me something to do during the night, and was kind of relaxing, and made me feel a little more human than I was. I can't tell you how many loafs of bread I've given out to the shelters around here."

Gabby Kinney has posed:
Gabby Kinney wraps her fingers around the mug letting that warmth soak in. Though it wasn't COLD, it still felt relaxing, and that was the point. Even if it was coffee. It wasn't as if caffiene did her any harm one way or another. Her eyes dart between the pair not minding whose gaze she catches hold of; she's simply listening to them talk with a nod here and there.

"Oh I think I'm gonna get a burger too, and some onion rings. That sounds good. I usually go for fries but I want to mix it up some."

"Mm. I don't really have a hobby like that. I ... Well I have a hobby. Not food related though." And it had been awhile since she'd done it. Fingers tap against the mug. "I like to sew little outfits. For robots. Or animals."

Mercy Thompson has posed:
    "That's sadly how those deals often go," sympathizes Mercy to Lydia. "I get having a parent that can cast a big shadow, Lydia. Anyone who's met my mom rarely goes unscathed." She is happy to chill with the ladies after giving her order, and drinks water till her food and order shows up.
    "Baking is my stress relief and lets me think at times. That or going for a run. I do both pretty often." She stays with her un-iced water as the two have their coffee. "Man you learn how to use that parsley or mint after some onion rings after you smell it on a few older breaths." She hadn't heard Gabby's hobby, "I didn't know you can sew. I should see if you an learn to patch upholstery for me. Do you know a lot of robots, Gabby? You drop tiny bits about yourself here and there often."

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
    When the waitress comes to deposit Lydia's coffee (which she doesn't touch) and take their orders, Lydia indicates that she's content with just the coffee. "That seems like a fun hobby," she says to Gabby once they're done ordering. "I'd like to see your outfits. Preferably on a robot or an animal."

    Another laugh escapes Lydia. "My mother is a monster. She loves me but... she's a helicopter mom, and tries to live vicariously through me. Dad spoils me, though. I'll always be his little girl."

    She nods in agreement with Mercy. "Same here. It's so relaxing, and I get you about the parsley or mint. I've had some time to get used to it, but probably not as much time as you. Probably unlike you, I can kind of filter everything out save for blood. That's usually what I concentrate on when the smells get too much. Makes me hungry, though."

Gabby Kinney has posed:
"Oh. Not really I guess, but there's these little drone robots one of the other Outsiders built, and one of them has a wonky gyroscope or servo or whatever so it tends to bump into things. I made him ... It? I dunno I think it's a him. I made him a little tophat to be fancy, and a hardhat and safety vest for the rest of the time." Grinning at Lydia she nods readily in agreement. "I've got some photos, I'll share them with you sometime. I was really big into trying to find 'my own style' when I first started at the school and that's how I got into it." Toward Mercy she nods with a grin. "Yeah, I can sew. Not tried upholstery but I could look into it."

Lifting up her coffee she takes a sip of the sugary goodness only to pause, and tilt her head back toward Lydia. "What's a helicopter mom? Because that really puts some weird images in my head."

Mercy Thompson has posed:
    "My family is a bit odd. I never met my dad, mom was a buckle bunny and had me really young." Mercy taps her nose and says, "it can be hard when a guy comes in to get his jetta worked on and you can tell he's had chili dogs for lunch all last week and not great on dental hygiene." She can't help but wrinkle her nose at the 'memory' of it."
    She doesn't want to linker on hunger and make it harder on Lydia if possible. "Closest thing I worked to with robots is cars Gabby. Though I did help make a VI recently for a car. Only clothes she needed was a cover for protecting her paint job." She motions to the seats they are in. "Mostly it's just learning to stitch thicker fabrics with padding against wood or stuff. So I'm told. I don't normally do it myself either." Mercy laughs and says, "I believe that's a mom that hovers around you and looking over your shoulder.'

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
    Lydia points to Mercy's description of a helicopter mom and nods, "That's it exactly. Didn't really have much of a say in what happened to me until my mutant power manifested," she says waving her fingers in the twinkling starfield that is always surrounding her. "It was green though, at the time. Everybody thought I was radioactive, until we figured out it was ectoplasm."

    She lets out a small sigh, "God. Being a mutant was the best thing that ever happened to me, can you believe it? For the first time ever I had something my mother /couldn't/ control, as hard as she tried. It was something unique to myself and made me realize that I should, you know, have things that /I/ want instead of what mom wanted."

    She chuckles, "And people wondered why I only came out to her last year. I still haven't told her that I'm a vampire, now. God knows how she'll react to that. It was bad enough when she thought I was dating a Black woman. Dad knows, though. I asked him not to tell mom, and he said he'd cover for me."

Gabby Kinney has posed:
Gabby Kinney leans forward resting her elbows on the table as she clasps her handds around the coffee mug in a way that likely any mother would poke at her about. Bad posture, leaning, elbows on table. Thankfully no one here was a mother at this table. "Sounds... Complicated," she finally decides with a slow nod. "I never had to worry about a mother, and dad's not exactly..." She trails off thinking of a good word. "Present." A single nod is given as she realizes that's a good one. He wasn't BAD, he certainly tried when he was around, but he rarely was.

"I guess I could have ended up a lot worse than I am. I've had a lot of people to help guide me in various ways though." Changing her line of thought she grins at Mercy assuring, "I promise I'll chew some gum after or something. No onion breath for me." SHE could smell it too after all.

Mercy Thompson has posed:
    "I wish I could imagine, Lydia. My mom wouldn't let a thing like that stop her, but I hardly had a normal childhood either. Most mothers don't know how to cope with their baby being an animal. Eye teeth aren't good for nursing. Plus she was really young still." Mercy will sip some water as she waits for the food, enjoying the sounds of a griddle and the smells. "Then there's that whole complicated mess of my foster parents." She blows out air as if to let that answer what that topic can mean. "Sounds like your dad is a good guy."
    "OH don't worry about it Gabby. YOU brush your teeth. I can tell. So you don't have to worry so much and onion breath is hardly the worst thing I have ever smelled." She does her bet to reassure the younger woman. "If talking family stuff is difficult for either of you. Then we don't have to. I could talk embarrassing college stories."

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
    "'A good guy'... yeah," Lydia breathes out. "He's one of the most overpaid cutthroat corporate lawyers in Manhattan. He's good to me but when it comes to other people?" She shakes her head. "He's absolutely vicious. When I got old enough, my parents would take me to the high society functions and I got to see how he was with other people. He's like an inland taipan snake in sheep's clothing." She gets a little grin as she explains, "That's the world's most venomous snake. I looked it up once /just/ for this metaphor. There's a reason why we live in a multi million dollar house."

    She waves a hand dismissively. "It doesn't bother me any. It's just equal parts amusing and annoying. When my mutant powers manifested, it opened the door to the possibility of living my life outside of them, and by the time I got to college I had pretty much broken away from them."

    With a shrug she says, "Other people have worse parents, anyway. One of the things I'm having to come to terms with is that I've always led a life of privilege. I always had somebody taking care of me one way or another. In college, my parents set up a trust fund that'd last me for *two* college degrees and then some. When that was mostly gone I hooked up with Raven... Mystique and the Brotherhood paid for everything. Now I'm *finally* on my own. I don't make a lot from book sales so I've been trying to find a late night teaching job. Turns out it doesn't matter if you glow green or if you twinkle, people are still prejudiced against mutants."

Gabby Kinney has posed:
Gabby Kinney reaches out to lightly pat Lydia's arm as she describes her father. "At least he's on your side," she points out with a wry grin. "Sounds like a good dad at least even if he's vicious. I can understand that." Glancing back to Mercy she gives a shake of her head. "I'm okay talking about family or whatever. Sounds like we've all got our own unique ones after all. My sisters pretty much raised me, and I've got good family now in my life."

The food arrives about now causing her to look up, and reach over to take the plate for herself. She's careful about not bumping Lydia with it. "Ooh food yessss."

Mercy Thompson has posed:
    "It shows he cares about you Lydia. Just that he's good at his job also." She has to smile at how different her life is from Lydia. "I admit I don't know Raven or Mystique all that well. I just am not as good at keeping up with news as I maybe should. I /can/ relate to how it feels to get freedom after a hard and long fight for it." She's seen anti-mutant haters and tries to keep them from looking her way whenever she can.
    "My biological father died before he knew mother was pregnant." She leans back as her food will show and reaches over to get a big pile of ketchup for her fries on the plate. "I asked someone else to stop buy if she wanted to as well Gabby."

Patience Alperen has posed:
There is fashionbly late and there is just absurdly, almost inexcusably late. Tonight Patience is much closer to the later than the former.

When she finally arrives, she's nibbling her lower lip, less from nervousness and more out of wonder as to whether Mercy and Gabby were even still here. A light smile takes over on seeing the two. Oh, and with another too.

Undeterred, she makes her way over to their booth, "Mercy. Gabby. Hi.. I'm sorry I'm so late. I.. got busy with research and I lost track of time." She offers a smile to Lydia. They haven't exactly had interaction but Patience does know who she is at least. "Hello."

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
    Lydia twitches away when Gabby goes to pat her. "Sorry," she says, realizing what she did, careful to avert her eyes. "Sorry. I'm... I just don't want to accidentally /do/ anything if you touch me. I still have a bit of Viscera knocking about up here," she says rapping her knuckles onto her skull, "and I just want to make sure that it doesn't try to /do/ anything."

    "I /think/ I have it under control, but I /thought/ I had it under control before, just like I /thought/ it was a good idea to give myself a psychic lobotomy." She gives her companions a weak grin, "I've been, ah, questioning my decision making process lately."

    The food arrives and she hasn't yet touched the coffee she ordered. "Raven and I... I guess you could say a whirlwind romance. My first love, and it just happened to be the leader of the Brotherhood. Go big or go home, I guess." She lets out a despondent sigh, "Then I turned off my capacity to love... or care about her, and I broke it off with her. Three weeks before our wedding."

    Patience gets a nod in greeting, "Good evening, Patience. I hope this evening finds you well?"

Gabby Kinney has posed:
"It's okay, Lyds. My fault. I'm trying to get better at the 'personal boundary' thing to begin with, what with Cael and Jon and all." With that said, Gabby already has an onion ring stuffed in her mouth when Mercy informs her she'd invited another. Just in time it would seem as her eyes flit up over Mercy's head to spot Patience coming in. It's quickly bitten and gulped down to flash a grin.

"Hey Patience, good to see you. Grab a menu and a seat. This place is great." Not exactly five star but it was good in her book.

Glancing back toward Lydia she resists the urge to hug the woman given everything going on, but it's hard. That was a lot to unload after all. "First part of healing is admitting there's a problem, right? No hurry to get there. And if you ever need a random moral compass I'm here," she points out with a wry grin.

Mercy Thompson has posed:
    Mercy doesn't turn as Patience walks up. She just scoots over and says, "Glad you could make it, Patience." So they can sit together. "Do you know everyone," the question asked before a fry is viciously chomped by Mercy. The friend of the fry is pointed at Lydia, "You're aware if you cut out al empathy or whatever. You wouldn't have those second guesses. Not if you really are having them and aren't just faking. Means there's still hope. Just not in person at this table." The fry is eaten, "Do we know someone named Hope. That could be funny."
She washes the fries down with a drink of water her sandwich not yet touched. "First loves are always tough. Also don't be so hard on yourself Gabby okay?" She will help invite Patience to join them all in the booth more directly. "Everyone makes mistakes, some of them are fun, some horrible. Best to learn and move forward I say."

Patience Alperen has posed:
Patience Alperen slips into the booth beside Mercy with a friendly smile. "Thanks, ladies." She nods to Lydia. "Hi. It does, yes. It's good to see you're.. back?" It's always kind of strange trying to find the best wording when someone has had the sort of experience that she understands Lydia has been through. Not that she knows more than the dot point version.

She pauses long enough to order - bacon cheese burger, chili cheese fries and a chocolate shake. It's a diner, she has to go with the stand-bys!

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
    Lydia gives Gabby a shrug. "If I talk about it, it becomes easier to accept. I've ended doing a lot of admitting to a lot of problems. Not really getting over being a JAP is one of them." Her golden eyes drift down to finally look at the cooling coffee that she hasn't touched. She normally would drink some to be polite but lately she's just been feeling melancholy and can't bring up the energy for the pretense.

    Mercy gets a wry grin. "It's okay. I got it all back. Chas burned out The Predator which had..." she struggles to find the words. "I guess it devoured my moral and emotional core and turned me into a sociopath. The Predator was the, ah, instincts and urges that made me a vampire. It was tuned to the hunt, and all that entails. Since Chas burned it out, I've been more myself than I've ever been over the past year, but I lost a lot of what it means to be a vampire. I'm kind of having to learn it all over again, but without the benefits of instinctual knowledge."

Gabby Kinney has posed:
"Hope Summers. Friend of mine," Gabby informs matter-of-fact while she dips another onion ring into some ketchup to try it that way. Reaching for her coffee again she gulps down a mouthful of what was more likely coffee flavored sugar water at this point to wash down the bit of food she'd already eaten. "I get talking about it. I used to talk about the labs all the time. I still do but no where near as much. It was my way of dealing with it. It happened. I can't change it. It's part of who I am and I survived." She nods solemnly understanding very well about talking things out.

The burger is next and she chomps a good mouthful before grabbing a napkin. At least she's tryikng to be clean in some way. All she can really do is nod though with a few 'mmhmms' of agreement to various things being discussed.

Mercy Thompson has posed:
    Mercy picks up her sandwich to snarf down a few bites for now as she listens to the table while eating. She has a thoughtful expression, either pondering what was said or maybe realizing something and working it over in her brain. As she thinks she pushes fries into her mouth slowly. "That's likely give you better control over all right Lydia? Harder work but better reward." Mercy realizing she was in brown study a bit too long so had to contribute, "Pretty sure 'normal childhood' is a lie. I know talking normal stuff always makes it hard with my half-sisters. My foster family forgot the dull normal people stuff. They raised me well I think but there was some real culture shock when I left that community to go to college." She shakes her head at some memory. "Definitely need to start bad movie and pizza night. That or gaming night." She laughs and says, "I suddenly wnat to see some people playing VR or something."

Patience Alperen has posed:
Patience Alperen sits back and listens to the conversation quietly as it progresses. She smiles, quietly enjoying the sense of having others to just hang out with. Perhaps a bit less so, the comments of relearning to be a vampire again. If only because her experiences have been most commonly of the adversarial type. She had a similar first real encounter with Mercy. But she knowledge that most are not simply black or white, evil or good, has been freeing for her in her time away from working directly for the Church. In the past she might not have be able to nod in understanding as she finds herself doing just now. That, too, is a welcome realization.