Owner	Pose
Molly Hayes	Molly Hayes pulls in outside the diner, arriving first. She parks her foster dad's borrowed car outside, carefully making sure the electronic lock sets by beeping it with the keyfob a few times. She wears a fluffy pink down jacket with a hat stuffed down over her ears that appears to show the face a big yellow duck, rubber or otherwise. She gets inside and shucks off her mittens, rubbing her hands together. Does she feel the cold? Not really that much, being all invulnerable and stuff. But people looked at you weird if you didn't react to things, plus it was kinda fun to play pretend. A barrel-shaped woman in an apron and a brown dress approaches. Molly reads her nametag. "Hello, Yolanda! I am waiting for a friend to join me, but I would like a booth, like that one right over there," she says, sliding in over the somewhat dingy cushioning. "Hot cocoa for me and keep 'em comin'." Yolanda looks unfazed. "Marshmallows?" "Surprise me!" Molly says.
Negasonic	Ellie shows up a little later, stepping into the diner with an icy gust of cold, New York winter air that graces the patrons nearest the door before it swings closed. Despite the cold, she's left her buzzed head bare, except for the loose hood from her jacket, but the rest of her seems bundled up appropriately for the temperature. She's wearing an overcoat that seems comprised of a multitude of panels of fabric, sewn together in asymmetrical ways that still somehow manages to look chic and sleek. Its collar comes up high and swallows the lower half of her face, which is also masked. The straps and buckles on her overcoat match with the geometric composition of the thick, insulated black leggings she's wearing, her heavy black boots rising to just below the knee. Her hands are stuffed in her overcoat's pockets as she turns left, then right, searching for the pink signal flare that alerts her to the presence of Molly Hayes.     Spotting her, Ellie makes her way over to the table and sits down with a chorus of light jangling from the clothing she's wearing. With a fingerless-gloved hand, she reaches up to push her overcoat's hood back and reveal her round, attractive head. "Molly," she says by way of greeting as she pulls the center of her mask down and lets it snap up against the underside of her chin, still connected to her super-pierced ears. "Coffee," she orders simply. She leans back in her seat a bit and regards Molly placidly. "Good to see you."
Molly Hayes	Molly Hayes grins and almost bounces in her seat. She doesn't hug because she knows Ellie is likely to be anti-hug in general, especially from someone who could potentially crush her like an itty bitty bug with too much enthusiasm. This, of course, means that she's just suppressing her own happiness a little and ends up bouncing her knee a little bit under the table. "Gosh, you look amazzzzzzzzing," the shorter girl says. "I could never look that cool. Like ever. Give me a billion dollars and I'd still be a slouchy dork," she sighs. "It's good to see you, too, El. How've you been? Laying waste to your classmates with your withering wit as usual, I assume?"
Negasonic	Ellie is just a sedate kind of person. Even when she's happy about something, it generally doesn't make it to her face to let others know. It takes something special to make her grin, let alone laugh. But, her true friends understand this, and don't make it an issue. "Thanks," she says in response to the compliment. Though it originally started as an interior thought, Ellie makes an effort to share her thought with Molly, since she might find it illuminating. "It's not about looking cool so much as it is about feeling good in what you wear," she offers, not really expecting the comment to land or mean anything to Molly, but making the effort is what counts.     She lifts a hand and waves it in a so-so gesture. "I've been more introspective, lately, I guess. Haven't withered anyone in a little while. That I know of, anyway." There's a pause as Ellie briefly forgets to keep the conversation going. "Uh...What about you? How's Happy Harbor, and your foster family?" she asks slightly awkwardly.
Molly Hayes	Molly Hayes is good for people with awkward silences - she just barges through them haphazardly without any sense of distaste or even recognizing that anything is wrong. She's instantly accepting to everyone, sometimes to her detriment, but she wouldn't have it any other way. "Well, I do feel good about what I wear. My hat collection rules, for example. I know the whole being a cool person is kind of about making it effortless, but I never know how to do that. I try to hard. I'm a try-hard, Ellie!" She gets her cup of cocoa and takes a big sip, using a napkin to wipe a bit of milk-foam from her lip. "It's pretty good, I guess. The foster folks don't breathe down my neck too much, since I'm getting close to eighteen. They know about the superpower thing so they kind of don't have to worry about me getting hurt since...it's really, really hard for me to get hurt. And the school's pretty good! More like a regular school than Xavier's, anyway."
Negasonic	Well, okay. Dammit. Molly earns a begrudging grin -- a small one -- from Ellie with that comment. Then, after composing herself, she says, "I'm going to put that on a mug and drink coffee from it every day. 'I try too hard. I'm a try-hard, Ellie! -- Molly Hayes, January 2022.'" She nods soberly, her eyes closing in a sage-like manner.     She listens to the debriefing on Molly's current status quo and nods quietly. "Well, getting hurt isn't always purely physical," she says in a tone filled with meaning, leveling the chipper young woman with a sedate expression. "You gotta keep your heart and mind safe, too." Then, she relents and exhales a little at the comment about Xavier's. "It's definitely an acquired taste. But, some people are safer in a school like that. Glad you can have a more normal school experience, what little's left of it," she concludes, taking a sip from her hot, bitter black coffee.
Molly Hayes	Molly Hayes nods, "I didn't really hate it here, I just didn't like being so far away from everything. And I didn't want to, like, get trained in my powers. Like, I'm super strong, my powers are pretty self explanatory, duh, I don't need, like, technique. I guess they could teach me fighting, but I dunno, I just wanted to be back in the city. Not that Happy Harbor is exactly the city, but it's closer, at least, I can ride the train anyway and I really like the train, the subway goes WHOOSH and it's full of a lot of funky smelling people, but it's a neat idea, just being under the city and zooming around from place to place," she says. Thank god she didn't get something caffeinated. "My emotions are just fine, thank you very much. Not that anybody's gotten much chance, I'm still trying to make friends. Which I will. Probably," she says.
Negasonic	Ellie nods, shifting in her uncomfortable seat to keep her bum from going numb. No one likes a numb bum. "I can definitely understand your reasons. There are times I feel very isolated, too, but... What is the alternative? I'll graduate, then move somewhere that's more in line with what I want from a city, I guess. Not that I really know exactly what that is," she shares, glancing out the window briefly as a flurry of snow sweeps up and swirls beside the window.     "You'll definitely make friends. You're too....Molly...not to make friends. So, I wouldn't worry about that. It's more the people trying to take advantage of your sweet nature that has me concerned." The muscles in Ellie's jaw roll a bit at that comment, giving a hint (to those who pay attention to such things) about how she'd regard something like that happening.
Molly Hayes	Molly Hayes grins, "Awwwwwwwwwwwww, you're so sweet!" she says, which is definitely one of the few times anyone's said that to Ellie. "Anybody who tries to take advantage of me is gonna get a swift kick in the heiny! Just a sneaker straight up the buttcrack!" she says. She turns and flicks her leg to demonstrate, only for said sneaker to fly up and hit the ceiling and then bounce down. "Oh geez, I almost broke a tile. Again. Sorry, sorry, it's okay, nothing broke!" she says, bending over to grab the sneaker and jam it back onto her foot. "You can make friends too, y'know. You're, like, good looking -and- really cool. Like the kind of cool celebrities are, not even the kind of cool of normal high school kids. Fonzie cool."
Negasonic	Ellie watches the entire scene play out with a mostly serene expression, but...again, she just can't keep the little grin off her face as Molly quickly snatches up her sneaker and crams it back on her foot while apologizing and reassuring in the same breath. There's just something about this goofy, terminally cheerful girl that warms the cold little heart inside Ellie's tomb-like chest. Just a little.     By the time Molly's straightened back up and looking at her, though, Ellie's resumed her composure, except for a playfully arched brow. "That makes me feel better. 'Straight up the buttcrack. Molly Hayes, January 2022.'" She hides this grin with the act of sipping from her coffee. But, her dark eyes glitter with amusement.     Ellie listens with patience as Molly attempts to encourage her to befriend others. "With very few exceptions -- one of them sitting right in front of me now -- most people are literally walking garbage. You want me to spend energy on entertaining the whims of garbage people?" she asks with a wry note in her voice.
Molly Hayes	Molly Hayes tugs on one of the dangling ties from her ducky hat, "I don't think -most- people are garbage. I mean, I've met garbage people. My parents are garbage people. Most of my friends' parents are garbage people," she admits. "But, like, they're not normal. And I know, neither are we, but, like, we're mostly regular people, in our brains and the way we think and stuff. We're not warped and twisted and evil. I figure most people are just trying to figure stuff out and it's the bad people - who are the ones we fight, I point out most accurately - that we don't have to put up with." "When you say people are garbage, you mostly just mean they're boring. People are boring. My foster parents? Snooze city, population two. Not garbage, though. Just like...plain. Like a bagel without cream cheese or peanut butter. OOOOO or a pizza bagel, now that's a big improvement, just like AHHHHHHHHHHHH light from the heavens, you can make a bagel into a pizza? Genius. Total genius."
Negasonic	Ellie gives a half shrug to the rebuttal, "Eh, we don't have to agree, Molly. See, I don't think it's necessary to agree on everything with a person to be their friend, and I don't think that boring people automatically equal garbage people. That said, a lot more people are walking garbage than you're ready to accept. and that's okay. That's why I'm here. We kinda even each other out, sorta."     At the mention of pizza bagels, Ellie's stomach burbles traitorously. "Great. You've woken the fell beast," she says, deadpan. She reaches over and grabs a menu to look at what food might appeal. "I think I want french toast."
Molly Hayes	Molly Hayes brightens, "French toast is amazeballs. I think it's better than waffles OR pancakes, although I do like a good pancake, especially if they have like blueberries or chocolate chips. Oh man, can they put chocolate chips in French toast?!? That would be insane. Somebody has to do that on like Top Chef or something and they'd win a zillion dollars." "I agree that we compliment each other very well. Yin and Yang," she says then purses her lips, "I don't actually know what Yin and Yang mean, other than the symbol, but like it's gotta mean something cool like that, or allt he karate people wouldn't put it on their walls."
Negasonic	Ellie nods in agreement of the idea of chocolate chip french toast. It sounds amazing. She makes a mental note to give it a try on her own, sometime. Then, she lifts her chin and purses her lips thoughtfully. "Well, I don't know a ton about the deeper meanings of the concepts of yin and yang, but... I think we both know they're about balance between two seemingly opposite things. No good can be fully good, no bad can be fully bad. And, I'm pretty sure yin energy is considered feminine, and yang is considered masculine. With the two of us, you'd be the yin or bright energy and I'm the yang or dark energy. To oversimplify it terribly, she said in a self-aware fashion."
Molly Hayes	Molly Hayes lays her face on her hands, folding them on the table, her head tilted sideways as she rests her cheek. "You're not masculine, though. I know you've got short hair, but, duh, there's nothing wrong with short hair, boys didn't invent short hair. They used to wear long hair all the time, too. And powdered wigs and lace cuffs and high heels and all that stuff." "I mean, unless you want to be masculine. I just mean that you aren't necessarily, just cause you do the androgynous thing. It took me so long to grow my boobs I was starting to wonder if I was androgynous, too!"
Negasonic	Ellie shakes her head and clarifies. Or, attempts to. "It's not literally meaning masculine as in, like, man with penis. Just the energy, y'know? It's because you're the more positive side of the coin, so to speak. You're bubbly, cheerful, happy. I'm...not. So, you're the yin, and I'm the yang." Then, she looks down at her plate of french toast that's just arrived and stares at it contemplatively for a moment. "I don't think I'm masculine, no. But, my energy is more masculine than it is feminine? I like being androgynous. It feels right, for me. Not male, not female, just a person. Non-binary. Seems fitting. I don't think about it too much, but when people ask for my pronouns, I tell them 'they/them and she/her.' Just depends on the day. But, you? How do you feel? You read very 'she/her' to me, but... You never know until you ask."
Molly Hayes	Molly Hayes shrugs, "I don't know anything about energy. I guess I'm just solid matter and stuff," she says. "I'm pretty much she/her. I never thought about it much. I don't have dysphoria or anything like that. Some people used to call me a tomboy cause I wore hats and pants and didn't wear dresses a lot, but that was always dumb and I never thought anything of it. I do, uh, like boys -and- girls, but I don't really have much of anybody interested in me from either direction, so that's...that's totally fine. I am a single girl in the city! Looking for adventure!" she says, giving a fist pump. She digs into her own French toast and the two are busy getting down to the act of munching, with Molly asking for extra powdered sugar on hers. "So what are you going to do after school? We're both graduating this year."
Negasonic	Ellie nods, listening to Molly's reply with interest. She generally doesn't spend energy on caring about what others say, as it often doesn't affect her. But, Molly is different. Inwardly, Ellie can tell that Molly's maybe lonely and looking forward to someone being interested in her in a romantic way, but that's about as far as Ellie can go. "I...don't really get the appeal of romantic relationships," she confesses, looking a little uncomfortable. "Maybe it's just because I'm so low on emotional spoons that I get exhausted easily, but.. In my experience, and what I've witnessed from observing others, seems like it's a lot of energy being wasted on fickle, capricious beings that always seem to want/need moremoremore from her than I'm willing or capable of giving."     She's quietly grateful when Molly digs into her toast, so she can do the same and there's nothing but blissfully silent eating for a little while. "Adventure is a solid idea," she says thoughtfully, in response to Molly's query. "I don't have super solid ideas for what I'm going to do, but adventuring has potential. Helping people, I guess."
Molly Hayes	Molly Hayes nods, "THat sounds, like, the wise thing to do, honestly. You're right about it being a lot of energy. Like, I'm totally no good at figuring out what other people are thinking all the time, much less what they think about me. Plus, everybody tends to treat me like a kid anyway cause I'm short and I have a babyface and cause all my old runaway friends were older than me," she sighs. "They have a hard time seeing I'm almost grown-up. Sometimes I do, too." She grins, "I like the idea of adventure. I don't know how you sign up for adventure. I've thought about trying to find a superhero to be their sidekick. Like Power Girl."
Negasonic	Ellie nods. "It's frustrating when people can't or won't acknowledge one's personal evolution. We're growing up all the time, getting older even after we're technically fully grown. We're not static beings. We change. Sometimes, in small ways. Sometimes, in big ways. But, trying to force someone into a preconceived shape isn't helpful to anyone. I'm sorry you feel stymied. I'll try to never hold you back in that way," she says.     To the notion of seeking out becoming a sidekick, she half-smiles. "That sounds like a very Molly-brand idea, yeah. I don't think I'd be good as a sidekick, but I don't mind being part of a team, doing my share."
Molly Hayes	Molly Hayes shakes her head, "You never do that. That's one of the reasons why I like you so much. You treat me like me, face value and stuff. You don't think I'm some innocent little child who can't handle the real world. I mean, don't get me wrong, I hate handling the real world, it suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuucks, but, like, I can do it." "Yeah, you're not the sidekick type. A team is good, though. Being a lone wolf hero must be kind of sad. Do you think Daredevil gets all weepy sometimes running around Hell's Kitchen by himself?"
Negasonic	Ellie nods, finally pushing her mostly-consumed plate of French toast away and revisiting her freshly refilled cup of coffee. "You can handle it. I do have concerns about your emotional toughness, but you'll be all right. Just...let me know if anyone is extra-specially bad to you. I'd like to have 'words' with them," she uses finger quotes. She might not give a shit about much of anything, but she'll fight to defend wht she does care about. And, she hates bullies.     Ellie can't help but expel a brief laugh at the concept of Daredevil, seasoned veteran of crime-fighting, getting all teary-eyed while shopping for groceries at the corner bodega. "Actually... I laughed, but the idea of it is kinda heartbreaking. I hope he doesn't cry in the produce section when no one's looking at him. Surely, he's got some friends he can spend time with." Right?
Molly Hayes	Molly Hayes sighs, 'I hope so. Maybe I should find him and make sure. I don't know how you find him, though. I guess just walk around yelling "HEY DAREDEVIL" everywhere you go in the neighborhood. He'd probably just call me a kid and try to send me home anyway, which is silly cause I am, like, way, way, way stronger than him. Probably. He's not super strong is he? Does he have powers?" She drums her fingers on the table and sighs, then takes up the work of tackling your French toast, too, having slain her own. "Nobody's been bad to me lately. But I'll keep you in mind if I get bullied. If I fight back, I might hit them too hard and break all their bones."
Negasonic	Ellie hopes so, too. Secretly. She's not sure why this totally imagined sad portrait of Daredevil has her feeling any kind of way. She grins briefly, "That's one way to go about it. 'Hey, Daredevil, do you need a hug? I'm totally open, right here. Come get some bearhug love.' I...don't know if he has powers or not, but I know he's a kickass fighter, and blind. Overcoming the odds and all. So, he might find a way to put you down for a spanking, if you tested him. Not entirely sure, though."     She nods her head, watching the cute young woman devour the remnants of her breakfast. "Well, better broken bones that can heal than being pounded into atomic dust particles," she offers with a mean little twinkle in her eye. "Just kidding. I probably can't do that. Probably."
Molly Hayes	Molly Hayes points a finger, "I never doubt that you could. Like, not for a second. BOOM. BLAM. Disintegration. Atomized and stuff. Like that Martian space gun in the Bugs Bunny cartoon," she says. "That's probably bad. We're not supposed to kill people. And also, I'm not sure if I like the idea of Daredevil spanking me or not, but I'm glad I don't share EVERY thought I have out loud. Except that one, which I did. Shit."
Negasonic	Ellie nods her agreement. "No killing people. Yes. That's a bad thing. That's why we practice how to control ourselves, especially in high-octane situations," she replies. It sounds like something she's had said to her many times before. Or, she's heard it a lot, at any rate.     She sits up and stretches her back a bit. "All right, I've got to head back to Xavier's. Listen. Drive very safely. The roads aren't great, right now, despite the nearly constant salting. I don't want you getting into a crash in your foster parents' car. Especially when they probably don't even know you have it, right now," she says, finishing her coffee before standing up and placing her face mask back on.     "Let's do this again, soon," she says, because that's what friends say to one another. She offers Molly a hug, which is a rare thing, indeed. Then, she sees her out the door after placing the money down for the bill, plus tip. She's not a monster, after all.