Chores: Yvette, Callisto - Sunday afternoon

[x-penance.livejournal.com]

Yvette is looking for something to do and comes across Callisto. It's a non-conversation, mostly.




After Kyrgyzstan, Yvette had a new-found appreciation (not that she'd ever lost it, really) for her life at the mansion. There but for the grace of God... or something, since she didn't really know much about God, but that was beside the point. Either way, she was happy to be back, and looking for a way to show that appreciation. Perhaps she'd see if Mr. Marko had any chores that needed doing..

It seemed that whether he knew it or not, Mr Marko had someone else filling in on his chores at present. A slim young woman with extensive tattooing and a mop of wild dark hair was standing to the side of the concrete driveway outside the garage, currently pouring water into a hole in a pile of what looked like rather grey sand, a spade in her other hand.

Catching sight of the woman, Yvette paused. She'd seen her around, doing various jobs and from school gossip the woman wasn't the friendliest of sorts. Still, Yvette wanted to help and since Mr. Marko seemed unavailable, the newcomer could possibly give her something to do. Taking her courage in her hands, she approached, hoping her appearance wouldn't be too much of a shock. "Um, hello?" she said, hesitantly.

Callisto didn't look up, only stooping to put down the bucket of water and beginning to carefully fold the cement mix in on itself, a few small puddles of grimy water seeping out as she began to work it into a proper paste. "Uh huh?"

Yvette tried not to gulp. After all, Mr. Marko hadn't been the most friendly person when she'd arrived at the school. She tried again. "I am sorry to be interrupting, but I was wondering if there was the chore I could do? To help?"

Sighing, the other woman straightened, rolling her shoulders back and surveying Yvette doubtfully. "Like what?" I swear, if Munroe sent some student for me to babysit...

"Well, I can cut things. Mr. Marko is letting me help when he is needing the wood chopped or if he is needing the planks made smooth?" she said hesitantly. "But if I am interrupting, it is okay. I can be helping another time?"

Callisto seemed to think about this. "To be honest I wouldn't know what to tell you to do," she said with a shrug. "I just do what's needed around here, don't really run anything."

Yvette nodded. "It is okay. Perhaps, in the future, if you have something that is needing the cutting, you might be asking me to help?" she suggested. "My name is Yvette."

"Right. I mean, I'm Callisto. Nice to, uh, meet you," Callisto muttered, unsure what to say to this almost unnervingly polite kid. "Sure. I'll... leave the cutting to you, I guess. Not something I've turned my hand to as of yet around here."

"It is nice to be meeting you, Miss Callisto," Yvette replied, eyes flaring brighter slightly. She tilted her head at the heap of cement. "Please, what is it that you are doing now?"

"I'm mixing cement," Callisto said. "I'm sure there's probably at least a hand mixer around here somewhere but all I found were the bags of bonding and sand, so..." she trailed off, realising that if she was going to explain she might as well do it properly. She cleared her throat, slowing down just a shade, unsure how good Yvette's English was when faced with Callisto's at times rather thick New York accent. "I'm mixing together sand and a bonding powder, and adding water, and then I fold that into a paste... sort of like making, I dunno, pastry or dough or something, maybe? And that's cement. And I'm going to use it to fill a couple of potholes in the drive."

"And you are smoothing the cement into the hole so it is flat, yes?" An idea struck Yvette and she held up one gloved hand, her fingers more obviously longer than they had been before she'd left on the trip, the legacy of her heightened emotions. "My hands, they are like the blades. Perhaps I could help to make things smooth?"

"Look, I really don't n-..." Callisto cut off. Think about it. Do you actually need to give this kid a hard time? Since when were you actively mean to people? "Sure, why not. I mean, it's just a temporary fix, really, but if you wanna smooth them over for me, knock yourself out. I mean, go ahead."

Yvette smiled, nodding eagerly. It wasn't so much that the job was so important to her, but she liked to be busy, and finding new ways to be useful with her powers made the lack of control at least a little easier to bear. Stripping off her gloves, she waited as Callisto finished preparing the cement and started slopping it into the holes. Making sure Callisto had moved onto the next one and wouldn't accidentally get hurt, she began using the long flat edge of her index finger to smooth over the top. She worked quickly, but taking care to make sure things were done properly. "You are the new comer, yes?" she asked after a few minutes' of silent work. "To the school?"

"Yeah." Callisto, apparently, was a woman of few words. She spent some moments filling the pothole she was one before clearing her throat and elaborating. "Few weeks ago. Got involved in a sort of search and rescue and kind of ended up staying on here... somehow."

"It is how it is, here," Yvette said with a small grin. "I was waking up in the medlab with the remembering of how I was coming here at all. But it is the good place and I can be going outside without making the people frightened at the mutant."

Callisto tipped her head in a brief nod. "I know how that is. I mean, not from experience, obviously," she clarified. "But I used to know an awful lot of people who people didn't really wanna see in public."

"You were working in the school like this one?" Yvette asked, since that was the only way she could imagine someone would know so many mutants.

"Heh, no, more like a homeless shelter," Callisto muttered with a dry smirk. She shook her head. "No," she said in a more normal tone. "More a... commune," she said, echoing the word Amahl Farouk had used.

"The people living together and helping each other, yes?" the girl asked, trying to be sure she had the English word right. "This is the very fine thing."

"It was... what made sense at the time."

Yvette paused, hearing the hesitation. "You are seeming sad," she said, and then ducked her head. "Oh, that is being rude of me. I should not be asking such things."

Callisto frowned in an 'it's nothing' expression. "No, no, not sad, really. Just... A lot of people talk about the Morlocks as though I put together this amazing safe place for mutants, but honestly, it just... sort of did it by itself. It was just a bunch of poor freaks hanging on as best we could."

"Sometimes to do the best we can is the thing to be doing." Yvette scrunched up her nose a little and went back to smoothing cement. "My English is not always so good. I cannot say what I am meaning so well. Your Morlocks... they are still with you?"

"No."

The finality of the word spoke volumes and Yvette bit her lip, glancing up at Callisto with softly glowing eyes. There wasn't really much she could say to that, so she continued her task in what could only be described as sympathetic silence.