xp_logs | Rising Waters: Sunday Afternoon. Jan and Callie

Jan takes a break from the rescue efforts to grab a bite to eat.

With the lunch hour having passed there was a lull in the number of people coming to grab something to eat. The stream of people was steady enough to keep Callie occupied, but not enough to frazzle her nerves. She was busy making sure that there was enough water and juice on the table, as well as other food stuff. At the moment everything was well-stocked, meaning that she could finally enjoy some lunch. So she unwrapped a sandwich and took a bite.

Jan wandered by, grabbing a bottle of water and opening it, gulping down a mouthful before noticing Callie. "Oh, hey, Callie!" she said with her usual big grin. "How's everything going?"

Motioning for Jan to wait, Callie made sure to finish her bite of sandwich and swallow before replying. "Hey Jan. It's going well? Just making sure everyone keeps their blood sugar up. Would you like some cookies?" She held up a package for Jan to see.

"Sure!" Eagerly, Jan took the cookies from Callie. "Dessert first, right?" She tore open the package and munched on a cookie. "You been keeping busy? Lunch duty just a now thing, or what you do all day?"

"Well I was doing evacuations but now I'm here." Callie shrugged. "It keeps me out of trouble. Are you taking a break?" She took another bite of her sandwich.

Jan nodded. "Yep. And you're kidding about the trouble thing, right? Or did something happen to you?"

Callie cocked her head to the side, stared at Jan and blinked. "What?"

"Some people do find themselves in a bit of trouble sometimes," Jan said, then popped another cookie into her mouth. "Just trying to make sure you're ok, that's all."

"Ummmmm no," Callie replied quite certainly. She handed a juice box to a passerby. "I just, you know volunteered for this. I can't really lift things. And I helped evacuate." She shrugged. "It's really the only place where I can be useful and not make thing worse right now."

Jan's head tilted to the side. "I'm not exactly super-strong myself!" she chuckled. "Well, when I'm tiny I kind of am, but that's just because I retain my normal-sized strength. But hey, what's this about making things worse? I mean, maybe before you came to the mansion stuff happened, but that was then and this is now. I had to wear gloves for ages so I didn't accidentally hurt anyone." Not to mention the fact that touching someone and giving them a big electric shock wasn't exactly normal, and could have given her away as a mutant, something her father would never have allowed.

The only thing Callie could do to react was to stare at Jan and blink, repeatedly. She had frozen mid bite, and stood in that position for a good ten seconds before snapping herself out of it. Then she laughed; clearly Jan had misunderstood. "No no no no. I'm just kinda useless right now so I would probably be more in the way and getting in the way of the people who are helping and like keeping them from doing their job." She paused and thought for a moment.

"No. Nothing really bad ever happened before I came here. There was this one time when I was like 12 that I accidentally caused poison ivy to grow all over the place. My mom was itching for like a week. But that's because I didn't recognize what it was, even though I should have."

"Ick! And see, you're not useless. Every job here's important, right? Doesn't matter if you're out there carrying stuff or handing out sandwiches or cleaning something yucky. It all needs to be done. I mean, I would have been very sad if you hadn't been here to give me cookies!"

"Well if people's blood sugars get low," began Callie thoughtfully. "Then they risk passing out, which wouldn't be good. And it's dangerous for your body too to work like that. So I mean it's definitely important to do. And I don't mind doing it. Because you know it's something I can do? You know? What do they have you helping with?"

"I've been flying around, scouting and stuff," Jan told Callie. "I can get into a lot of places other people can't, you know, being able to shrink down to one inch. Like I said, I'm not real helpful for the heavy lifting kind of stuff, and I don't think anyone here really needs to be zapped right now, but the wings and the tiny come in handy."

"I wonder what it would be like to have wings," Callie mused. She stared off into space for a moment before snapping back to the conversation at hand. She reached to the supply of food and drinks behind her to replenish some of what had disappeared. "Well if you ever get tired of shrinking and diving into small places, you're free to help me fight the danger of low blood sugar. And eat cookies? I think we can eat the cookies..."

Jan held the cookies out to Callie. "They're good!"

Callie slowly reached her hand out to accept a cookie. "Thank you." She placed it down on a napkin beside her sandwich and smiled. "I shall save it for dessert."

Jan shrugged lightly, still smiling. "And I guess I should actually have some lunch, huh? A sandwich and not cookies?" She took one more cookie, then mournfully placed the package on the table, took another sip of water, and picked up a sandwich in her other hand.

"Have some lunch, take a break, then go back to work?"

"Sounds good to me!" Jan said with a grin.