17266/Between A Rock and A Hard Place

Between A Rock and A Hard Place
Date of Scene:	24 February 2024
Location:	4B - Luca Bandoni
Synopsis:	Sara goes to have a talk with Luca about the events of the Josie's charity night party.
Cast of Characters:	Sara Pezzini, Luca Bandoni

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Sara Pezzini has posed:
For most people it was was early, far too early. Sara had already been awake for an hour before arriving outside Luca's apartment at the hour of seven o'clock in the morning. In each hand she held a cup of coffee, one was black and the other had two sugars. In the hand with the black coffee was a small white back with the logo of Aunt Ruth's bakery on the front. This might not be a pleasant visit, but she knew better than to show up empty handed.

Using the toe of her boot to 'knock' on the door, she went over everything in her head for the hundredth time. She'd been up most the night, watching Joshua sleep and going over it over and over again. A part of her wanted to chalk it all up to men being stupid, their inability to communicate like human beings, and perhaps a dash of testosterone thrown in there, but it was so much more than that.

"Luca," she called, not too loud because some people actually got to sleep in. "I got coffee."

Luca Bandoni has posed:
It takes a little longer than usual for Luca to actually open the door. It's typically the case after a bad shift, he stands there with his hand on the doorknob trying to decide if he should open it or not. This happens regularly, no matter who's doing the knocking.

When he finally does open it, he turns right back around and back to the couch. Not a word. Rigatoni was all curled up there too, but the pup hops down and approaches, tail wagging, when he sees Sara.

As is also a habit when he's home, Luca's wearing a pair of joggers that hang a little low on his hips and nothing else.

With all of it, it's that silent treatment that spells the most trouble. Of course Sara would know about the fire last night and that Luca's house was called to it.

Sara Pezzini has posed:
Slipping into the apartment, Sara slides the door closed behind herself. To make a free hand for Rigs, she puts the coffees on the table by Luca, then gives the pup a scruffle. She knew he'd had a bad night, she'd seen the reports and it sounded bad. She may not be trained in fire fighting, but she knew a bad night when she read on.

"You get any sleep at all?" she asks, sliding the coffee toward him followed by the small bag of biscotti. There was even one in there with a paw print baked into it as indication it was dog friendly.

Luca Bandoni has posed:
"Enough." Which likely means he dozed for half an hour. He leans forward for the coffee first rather than his favorite pastries, another bad sign. After his first sip from his coffee, he does open the bag. Rigs gets his first. The pup pries himself away when stomach overrules love for the moment.

"I'm guessing this visit isn't just to see if I slept though," he puts out there.

One the television, Troy Landry is screaming at Elizabeth to 'shoot'm'. That's an old old old episode of that show. Luca probably wasn't even really watching it. The noise is just better than dead silence.

Sara Pezzini has posed:
Moving around the table to sit on the other end of the couch, leaving the space between them for Rigs, Sara sighs softly, "Truth? I wish it was. I know it was a bad night, and I'd love nothing more than to just be bringing coffee and checking up on my brother... but I'm caught in the middle of a silent battle."

Leaning to grab her coffee she takes a largish drink, her's was older and thus cooler, then she sets the cup down again. "Thing is, I don't want to be," she adds with another sigh. "If you count Witchblade in all this, it's a Mexican standoff of testosterone because you /know/ he has an opinion on everything." Reaching up to run her fingers through her hair and push it back out of her face, she turns slightly on the couch so she was facing him a bit.

"You want to just get into this, like human adult beings then, or do you want some coffee first?" She finally asks.

Luca Bandoni has posed:
"Well, I'll tell you now, up front like an adult human being. I'll apologize to him, or /you/, but I won't mean it." It's not like he doesn't know his sister well enough to know she's come looking for a peace offering from her brother; an olive branch as it were.

Luca's wearing the stubborn look of his, complete with that little crease between his eyebrows. His eyes are fixed on the television, but certainly not even seeing it.

"So if that's what you came here to ask me to do, you have your answer already and I can just see if 'Lizbeth choots'm'." There actually isn't any heat in his tone, it's just matter of fact. He's a pretty straightforward and blunt guy at the core of him. Might be one of the things Sara can love and respect in him.

Sara Pezzini has posed:
This time Sara rubs her with her hands before looking back up at him. "Well that was almost human adult," she offers with a soft snort of laughter. "You know me, I know you, better than we know ourselves. /I/ know you were just being you, looking out for me, but there's a factor here that needs to be added to the equation... you don't know Joshua.

Letting out her breath slowly, she sits back on the couch. He's watching-not-watching the TV, and she's watching him, pretty typical really. She's not angry, she's not accusatory, in fact she sounds resigned. "Sure, I could just accept that you'll apologize and not mean it, and Joshua would probably know that, and we could all go on pretending that it wasn't a problem until it was again. So I'm going to tell you a little story, and you can do with that information what you want."

She glances to the television for a moment, then slowly turns her green eyes back to Luda. "I need you to imagine that when your mutation developed, you were living in a place there /everyone/ despised and loathed mutants. Your own family, your friends, all part of mutant hating organizations hell bent on not just shoving mutants in a corner, but destroying them."

Closing her eyes she just keeps going, pausing would let her own anger at that kind of life, at Joshua's life, seep in. "For you Luca, no problem, you could pretend you were still human. Now imagine if your mutation came with gold skin... you couldn't hide it, and everyone around you started abusing you, bullying you, pushing you down, making you truly believe that you were worthless and should just curl up in a corner and die."

She opens her eyes again. "Bullying would be a trigger for you, you wouldn't be able to deal with it even after you made it out, was safely away, that negative and hatred would always be there in the back of your mind. Joshua already questions if he's good enough for me, he's alright fighting just to live, and he wasn't prepared for 'one of the guys'. No, you had no way of knowing... just like he had no way of knowing you, or anything about you."

Picking up the coffee again, she takes a drink before ending with, "Do with the information what you want, but you needed to know."

Luca Bandoni has posed:
"We all have our own trauma, Sara. Last night I went into a burning building, pulled a woman out that was screaming that her husband was still inside, went back in, fell through the burning floor into the basement and found her husband already burned beyond recognition. Then my crew pulled /me/ from the basement before I wound up burned beyond recognition and we had to tell her that her husband was gone."

There's a but coming...

"But... it's not okay for me to spill that drama in public, no matter what the trigger. It's. Not. Okay. What does he think he's doing for other mutants when he acts like that? Goes off like that? Looking like he's half nuts in the head?" He finally actually straights from his pretty slouched position and looks at his sister. "That's the things normal people remember, they remember those types of outbursts and think even less of mutants after. I don't pull that shit because when I'm out there, I represent. I represent the FDNY. He represents mutants everywhere and he didn't represent very well that night."

Just a beat and he says, "I'm not going to say he didn't handle it like a man, but I will say he handled with zero maturity. He could have told me I crossed a line. He could have asked me to step outside, he could have done it a hundred different ways that didn't involve causing a scene in a bar during a /charitable/ party."

Well, now his blood pressure's up and his heart's pumping for sure. Probably doesn't need the coffee he picks up and pretty much downs.

"I'll apologize, I'll soothe his hurt feelings, but I won't mean it," he repeats.

Sara Pezzini has posed:
Sara reaches across Rig's to soothe her hand over Luca's arm, a quick familiar gesture of affection between 'siblings'. "You're not wrong," she admits bluntly. "There is blame both ways, and it could have been handled better. I know what it looks like, I know how it appears to humans watching, the impression they get. I work with mutants every day, I have a mutant for a brother, I fell in love with a mutant..."

She sighs, shaking her head slowly, rubbing away the sudden desire to cry. Rock and a hard place, and a god screaming in your head, all made for a bad day. "There is a lack of maturity to the reaction, doesn't change a damn thing, still love him and want him to not be hurting so much. Want my brother and boyfriend to get along and not nitpicking at each other, and I most definitely don't want to be in the middle."

Looking back up at him, she stands up and picks up her coffee. "An empty apology is just that, empty. Yeah, we all got trauma that's handed to us every day of our lives. Some us choose to charge into that trauma to try and make a difference, others have it shoved down their throat until they are gagging on it and just trying to breath."

Leaning to give Rigs another scritch behind the ears she says, "You do you Luca, we'll just have to see what happens. But you should consider what it looks like to those around when someone who isn't known as a mutant, starts pushing around an obvious mutant. I know, that wasn't your intent, one of the guys and all that... just saying."

Luca Bandoni has posed:
"Pushing him around? Not even close and I have never hidden the fact that I'm a mutant. Never. Most of the people in that bar knew it." Maybe Luca hides the the bit about being in danger of a hypoglycemic episode if he doesn't get enough food in one day and the right food. But he's never kept his mutant status a secret. He volunteers in Bushwick when he has the time, it's not a secret.

"One more thing, Sara. I don't think he's cut out for the FDNY. What happens if he rolls out on a call and the victim is a nasty, mutant hating bigot spouting nasty mutant hating things? What's he going to do? Refuse to treat and let the guy bleed out and die? Lose his shit and help the guy die faster? While both may be preferable, neither of those are viable or acceptable options."

How many times have him and his patched up scum of the earth criminals shot by the police? Too many to count.

"We don't always like it, but we treat /every/ victim the same way. Is he going to be able to do that? With someone laying on the ground slinging mutant slurs in his direction?"

He polishes off the rest of his coffee and leans back on the sofa, one foot up on the coffee table.

Rigs whines, sensing the tension in the air and rests his head on Luca's leg.

"I don't know what you want from me here, sis, I really don't. I'll apologize, I'd lick his Goddamned ass for you, Sara. But how can I apologize to a guy, and mean it, that I can't even come close to actually respecting after that display?"

Sara Pezzini has posed:
Standing up from the proper ear scritch, Sara offers Luca a nod and serious expression. "I know it's not going to be easy for him, Luca. He knows it's not going to be easy, but he's still willing to put himself out there and try, which is /huge/ in the grand scheme of things. If he fails, he fails but not for lack of having tried."

Tucking her free hand into the pocket of her jacket, she continues quietly, "You don't /look/ mutant, and believe it or not to those who can't hide their mutation, that matters. I know you don't hide it, that you don't care who knows, but this once again comes back to the two of you not knowing each other."

"As for your respect, it's earned. I'm not asking you to love him as much as I do, or to lick his ass, that'd be one hell of a Christmas card," she snorts a laugh. "I'm asking for a do over. I'm asking you to give him another chance, just like I've been asking him to give you another chance. First impressions don't have to be the only impression."

Luca Bandoni has posed:
"They're typically the ones that last the longest though," Luca replies, his tone more tired than anything else.

"I'll do the second chance, but I'm not going to say 'I'm sorry' unless I can actually mean it because that doesn't seem to be what you want. But I'm telling you now, until he gets his shit under control, he /does not/ belong with the FDNY. He does any of the things I just mentioned, your boy will be facing manslaughter charges at the /least/ if someone figures it out. That's not me being an asshole, it's me being honest. He needs to get. his. shit. under. control."

Dude turned black and murder-y from some jabs at a bar, Luca is seriously worried about the dude being in the field.

Changing the subject he says, "They still haven't found the cause for last nights fire, or any of them in past two weeks."

Sara Pezzini has posed:
Sara takes another drink of her coffee, finishing off the last it before setting the cup on the table again. Luca voiced her own concerns, the very ones she couldn't say, at least not the way he just did. She was concerned about Joshua's control issues, but she also knew how badly he wanted to be out there helping.

"No, I do want you to apologize whether you mean it or not," she corrects. "I just hope that later down the road, you can mean it, that's all."

Now that both hands are free, she tucks the other into her pocket as well. "I've seen some of the reports, but obviously I'm not privy to the full reports from the FDNY. Something doesn't add up with the fires, call it a hunch," because what detective doesn't get hunches? "Witchblade's been asking me a few hundred questions about it that I can't answer, which honestly is a sign of growth on his part. He cares about something other than murder."

Luca Bandoni has posed:
"It's not a hunch, it's the outright of it. There is no way that four different fires leave zero evidence behind regarding source, no way." Luca isn't officially OFI, but one of his uncles is and the younger Bandoni has a bit of a knack for it himself. "There's nothing, Sara. No discernible point of origin, no accelerants, no stand out flash patterns, nothing. It's fucking impossible with just one fire, but four? Someone is starting these fires and they're not doing it naturally."

The leg with foot on the ground starts bouncing. One of Luca's flaws is taking this sort of thing too personally. Four men gone, four men burned to death and he can't help but to, ridiculously, feel somewhat responsible. It makes him... dangerous, to himself, reckless.

Sara Pezzini has posed:
Luca's words set Sara to a light pacing of his living room, her mind working over the numerous ways a fire can be started. He could see it, was familiar with it, the moment Sara went detective. Her steps are slow, but continuous, as if the motion was required to make her brain work.

"That's more than I had," she admits quietly, pausing to look at him. "That means we are most likely looking at advance tech, which would still likely leave some kind of starting point, or magic... and if it's magic Luca, there's people who need to be involved."

Luca Bandoni has posed:
"Not even so much a hint of faulty wiring." With Luca, it's the leg bouncing. He's normally /rock/ steady without a single nervous tic going on. This case is wrapping him up tighter than a top.

"Not even a way to tell where the fire burned hottest. It's like the entire house just caught fire, all at once."

Bounce, bounce goes the leg, whine goes the sensitive pup with his head still on Luca's lap.

"OFI's talking about bringing in outside help, but nothing's been decided yet."

Sara Pezzini has posed:
The pacing resumes. This was far worse than Sara originally thought, this was deliberate use of magic to harm people, and the Witchblade was livid. His purpose was balance, to stand between the dark things in this world and the humans who were meant to command it. Sometimes that line was blurred in his perception, and that is where the Wielder's will kept him from harming someone that shouldn't be. This however, this was exactly the reason he existed, and she knew it.

"There are powerful magics out there Luca," she finally says after another long pace around the room. "Powerful enough to destroy entire countries if enough energy is built, the right spells invoked, or rituals performed. These men that are being killed, there is a connection between them and they are being targeted by a powerful mage or coven."

Walking around to the side of the couch she lays her hand on his shoulder, "You need to focus on the things you /can/ do, not the parts that you don't know. You need to convince OFI to call my unit in."

Luca Bandoni has posed:
"They're working on finding the connections between them with the help of NYPD. I have someone else on that job too." Taken it outside the department, it's not the first time and it won't be the last unless it is, because he got caught.

"I'll talk to Elio and see what he can do. I don't know why they're waiting. It's like they think some answer is just going to magically jump off the case file pages into their laps."

But he does know why they're waiting. It's always that way. If anything sniffs 'weird', they always have to try and find a way to make it smell normal. And it's always pissed Luca off to no end.

"I hope it doesn't turn out to be a mutant." And he means that, so so much he means that. "Why is it that when witches and that sort of shit do Bad Things, not all witches get blamed for it?"

It circles him around a bit to the reason for Sara's visit in the first place. "I do know, Sara, maybe not to the degree Josh does, but I do know. Do you know how many times I've been spat at when I've used my powers on someone? Lots. Haters don't give a shit if you're helping them or not, if you look like a mutant or not - once they figure it out, I'm still dog shit in their eyes. So I do get it. I just don't get acting the way he did about something that was /nothing/ but some bullshit at a bar."

Sara Pezzini has posed:
It was time for Sara to go poking the Witchblade's nose into places, whether officially or not, she had decided that even as he was circling back around.

"Because everyone handles situations differently, and to him... it wasn't nothing. It was someone important in my life, threatening him over something he'd never do, about a woman who can kick everyone's ass twice."

She gives his shoulder a light squeeze, "I know that mutant haters don't care how obvious a mutant is, I've arrested so many at this point I think the precinct door is revolving, but every mutant handles that hate differently. You give yourself whole heartedly , body and soul, to your work. Joshua /literally/ drains his own energy and life to heal people, mutants, humans, aliens, doesn't matter. You aren't that different at the root, just different in how you execute your livings."

Luca Bandoni has posed:
Luca looks up at Sara, really looking at her for the first time. "You know why I come home so drained after a multi-vehicle with multiple victims, Sara." Same thing, draining himself to heal others. He's not as powerful as Josh, not by a long shot, but he still does what he can.

"I don't think it's as simple as that. I think we're very fundamentally different. My temper only shows itself over things that are worth it, like the fact that OFI's dragging their feet about calling in outside help on this. I don't lose my temper over words, no matter how much they hurt. It's not worth it."

He /finally/ goes for Aunt Ruth's bag full of goodies. His stomach actually rumbles a little when he does. "Anyway, there's gonna be more, a lot more, if they don't get off their asses."

Sara Pezzini has posed:
Giving his shoulder another squeeze, Sara points out the pup-scotti for Rigs with a gesture of her hand. "She sent one for him, cause she knows. You and Josh's powers are identical, he said they are exactly the same, which means he could teach you." The question was at this point, would he.

Moving back around to the front of the couch, she collects the two empty coffee cups. "I hope that some say Joshua can learn that strength, Luca," she comments. "He can learn to pick his fights better, but only time will tell. As for the OFI, fuck em... I can't stop Witchblade from answering this calling. I have to follow through and determine if this is magic, and if it is, it's over the OFI's head."

Luca Bandoni has posed:
Luca blows out a slow breath and pushes himself to his feet. He glances up at the clock. "I'm back on in less than two hours, asked for a double I should try to sleep at least an hour of that." Two reasons Luca does those doubles. One, he's in deep and wrapped up by something like this case. Two, he's pushing it to make his bills for the month.

FDNY doesn't pay for shit. That's why they say it's not a job, it's not even a career, it's a calling. Why else would anyone run into a burning building for peanuts?

"We'll hit a few of the scenes when I'm off, see what can be found out, even if Elio doesn't get anywhere with OFI. I'll put the bug in his ear though."

Sara Pezzini has posed:
Once he stands up, Sara hugs him. He doesn't get a say, he gets a sister hug, and a kiss on the cheek. "You get some rest. I'm off when I say I'm off, so when you have time, just call me and we'll go check it out. Try for some power naps between calls today, you gotta look your best for those damsels in distress with cats up in the trees."

Stepping back she grins at him, using the age old childhood joke for why Luca was a firefighter. "And if you need anything, call me."

Luca Bandoni has posed:
"Nothing like pulling pussies out of a tree," Luca quips in return. He doesn't say that he's hoping for a quiet shift, that's the same as stating that it's a quiet night while at the House.

He accepts the hug with a grunt of discontent like any brother would. "I'll call if I need you. I need to call Liv before hitting the sheets." Maybe to invite her to join between the sheets? Probably not this go around, he really /does/ need sleep.

"No matter what happens with me and him, you need to get through to Josh and tell him, straight up, that he has to get his shit together and under control, before you're not around to get it together for him and he kills someone for saying the wrong thing."

Sara Pezzini has posed:
Sara always hopes for a quiet night for the FDNY, but even she's not stupid enough to say it out loud. No one invites the bad joo-joo like that and doesn't catch hell for it.

"Once step at a time," she comments as she walks to the door, pausing just long enough to toss the two paper coffee cups into the recycling bin. "Take care of yourself, Bandoni." is the last thing she says before she opens the door and slips out of the apartment.