Angelo and Sarah

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Sarah is out for a walk and gets pounced by Joyita, Angelo's dog. They chat for awhile about their background and their respective powers before heading inside for a warm beverage.


The first hint Sarah got that her woodland walk was about to become less peaceful was a distant bark, followed by a crunching of twigs under galloping paws and more barking, drawing steadily closer, before an enthusiastic chocolate brown dog shot out of the trees and came running straight at her.

She turned her head towards the direction from which the noise came, and her eyes went wide at the sight of the dog charging towards her. "Ahhh! Nice doggie!" She didn't have a natural fear of dogs - in fact, she rather liked them - but when one she didn't recognize was running straight at her like that, well, she tended to freak out a little bit.

"Joyita!" someone shouted from the direction the dog had come from, but the only reaction it got was a glance back and perhaps a slight slowing. Which didn't stop her bowling into Sarah and attempting to lick her face.

Raising her hands in front of her to try and stop the dog, as if Sarah were a canine traffic guard of some sort, failed utterly, and the excited dog bowled her over with its enthusiasm. "Eep!" It didn't hurt, but down Sarah went, landing on her back and closing her eyes as the dog greeting her with several licks of its tongue on her face. It tickled a little bit, and she was relieved the dog wasn't attacking her or anything, but she still couldn't get up with the dog over her like that. "That's a good boy, or girl, but you can stop now!"

"Oh, not again", the same voice groaned from the edge of the clearing, then feet hurried forward and the dog was hauled off her by the collar as she turned her greeting on the owner's hand. "I am so sorry. Are you okay?"

Sarah sat up, finally free from the dog's well-intentioned greeting that had been pinning her to the ground. "I'm ok, yeah, just a little wet, hehe." She smiled, wiping her face with her sleeve as she got to her feet. "That's a very excited dog you've got there." She was tempted to pet the dog but hesitated until she was sure it was ok with the dog's owner, who she just realized she hadn't greeted yet. "Oh, and hi there."

"She's the dog who never grew up", Angelo said wryly. "Even if she should be dignified an' middle-aged. Hi, I'm Angelo."

She smiled at that, it was adorable how affectionate she was, the bowling-over factor aside. "She's pretty. What's her name? And is it ok to pet her?" Obviously she was a very affectionate dog but the proper thing to do before petting a dog was to ask its owner if it was alright, wasn't it? Better to be safe than sorry and all that, Sarah figured. "Hi Angelo, I'm Sarah. I'm new here, kinda. Second time around." She nodded as if that would clear it all up.

"Joyita." He grinned. "Had her since she was a puppy - an' yeah, she loves to be petted, you probably figured that. I think I remember you, sorta. You weren't here that long last time, right?"

"That's a very pretty name. Hi Joyita!" Sarah reached out and petted her with Angelo's approval, grinning at the dog's reaction. "That's right, just for a few months last summer before I went home." Back to her sister and her family, who she still missed dearly, but she was going to stick to it this time. "I'm going to be here for keeps now, though." She smiled at Angelo, trying to look determined and confident and hoping her nervousness didn't shine through.

"Really?" He tilted his head at her, though still smiling. "By your own choice, I hope?"

"Oh yeah. Well, I had a good talk with my Nana about it, and making the most of what you're given to work with, that kinda thing, so that's why I'm going to do it." Sarah nodded to confirm everything she'd just said. Yup, she would do it, by golly. "...are there people being forced to stay here?"

"Not forced by us", he said hastily. "But forced by circumstance, yeah. One or two by the District Attorney, in the past, but I think they both cleared their stuff... anyway, it's good you're not here for nowhere else to go."

She looked relieved to hear that. "Oh, of course, I didn't think that people here would keep us here, heh." Sarah totally did there for a second, of course. That was a bit of a frightening concept, but of course it made sense that they wouldn't trap them there. If they did, she wouldn't have gotten to go back home last time she left, after all. "Ahh, ok. No, I have a home, more than one even, with my parents being separated and all." Which was a depressing thought, and made her think of her poor sister. "And with my grandparents, too, both of them."

He nodded. "Sorry about your parents, but a big family's always good. So what brings you back, anyway? Powers trainin'?"

"Thanks." She smiled a little at that, it was a tough situation but there are lots of other people who've gone through it, or who've had it worse. "Yeah, I want to get to know how to use them better, or at all, really." It was her gift and she was going to learn how to best harness it, or give it her all in trying to, at any rate. "Have you been here for long yourself, Angelo?"

"I actually moved out this year, I just come back for visits an' a good place to run the dog sometimes", he told her. "But let's see... got here when I was 17 an' I'll be 25 this summer, so eight years, give or take."

"Oh, that makes sense, it is a good place to take her out, yeah." She smiled and petted the dog a little more, much to Joyita's pleasure. "Eight years, wow, that's a long time." Sarah hoped that didn't make it sound like she thought he was old or something. "I mean, in a good way. It's a good place to be that long." She wondered if she'd be there that long before she could get a better handle on herself and her powers. "Do you live nearby now then?" Maybe he lived on the other side of the world and could teleport or something, for all she knew.

"Just in the city", he told her easily. "With my old Xavier's roomie - don't know if you'd remember him. John Allerdyce, fire powers?"

"Oh yeah, I remember him." She remembered a little about John, though hadn't known him all that well either. "That's nice, that you're still roomies even if you're not still at the school. I don't have a roomie myself." Not any more, she was living solo for the moment, but that was alright with her, for now at least. "And you have Joyita too." More petting for the doggie!

"That we do." He smiled. "An' my mother followed me East a few months after I came, so she's in New York too. I work for a charity called Elpis."

"Oh, I've heard of Elpis,I think." She'd at least seen the name mentioned on the journals somewhere, or maybe Yvette or someone had mentioned it to her in passing. Sarah wasn't sure at the moment, but it sounded familiar. "That's great, working for a charity. Very noble of you." She smiled at him, he seemed like such a very nice guy.

"My way of helpin' to make the world better", he agreed. "We work with Third World mutants, but I mostly run the office right here in New York. An' I'm almost a lawyer."

She blinked at that. Almost a lawyer too? And helping run a charity for third world mutants, wow. "Is there anything you can't do?" Sarah blushed a little at that, smiling awkwardly at Angelo before looking back down at Joyita and petting her some more. He was pretty amazing indeed, it sounded like! If there were a Teen Beat or something similar for mutants, right then and there Sarah was sure Angelo would be its cover boy. Then she remembered he said he was 25 and stopped thinking about that. "Your mom must be proud of you, I bet. And, uh, John too." God, she should probably just stop talking altogether.

Angelo laughed, but not in the least unkindly. "She says so. He doesn't. But, y'know, he's my best friend so it's probably in there somewhere. An' here I probably sound like I'm boastin', so what about you? Are you in school?"

"That's what moms do, yeah. And even if he doesn't say it, he is, I bet." She smiled, glad he didn't get weirded out by her excessive praise there. "You're not, not at all, promise! I am, yup, I'm a junior. Sixteen, but almost seventeen." She added the last bit 'cause clearly that was important.

He'd thought it was kind of cute, if anything, in a "younger sister" way. "Not too far off graduation, then. You thought any about what you want to do next after that?"

"I haven't, really. I mean, I do want to go to college, I know that much, but I don't know where. That'll depend on money and where my sister wants to go, I guess." It was always a given to her that her sister and her would go to college together, sharing a room in a dorm or an apartment somewhere, but now that Angelo mentioned it maybe she should put more thought into it. Maybe her time at Xavier's would change things, too, in the long term, which she also hadn't thought about. Huh.

"There's always scholarships", he suggested. "Even from the Institute, maybe, I know they offer them for some things. You an' your sister, you're twins?"

She raised an eyebrow at that. "They do? Oh really?" That was pretty interesting indeed. Maybe that'd give her some more options to think about down the road. Sarah made a mental note to check with Yvette, perhaps, since she knew she was doing university courses while still living there. "Yup, identical twins even! Her name's Jessie. I miss her, but we still talk a lot, and there's always e-mail and Twitter and all that stuff."

"Gotta be hard bein' away from her after your whole lives", he said sympathetically. "An' with her not bein' here too, I'm guessin' she got a simpler power than yours?"

"It is, sometimes, but being able to stay in touch helps." They usually talked at least three times a week on the phone, with a marathon, multi-hour talk on one of the weekend days, and lord knows how many texts and such. "She, uh, doesn't have any at all. Not that I know of, anyway." It would be pretty darn awesome if Jessie did develop powers though, and she could be her roomie there and everything.

Angelo tilted his head. "Huh. That's... well, I was gonna say weird, but it's not like I'm an expert on mutant genetics or anythin'. I'd just've figured identical twins would be both or neither."

"Well, she might, maybe, someday!" She was still imagining that, how awesome that would've been. "I'm no expert either, though, of course." Sarah shrugged her shoulders a little. Maybe she'd ask Jessie about that the next time they spoke. She had no idea how you'd check something like that out but they could talk about it at least. "Do you know any twins who've both been mutants?"

"...actually, yeah", he said thoughtfully. "A brother an' sister, so not identical twins, but the Maximoffs are. Pietro's a speedster an' Wanda's got luck manipulation. Basically means she can make stuff happen if there's any chance it would have naturally."

"Oh, huh. Well, then maybe Jessie might develop them some day." And from the sound of things it could very well be a different set or kind of powers, too, if the Maximoffs Angelo was telling her about were any indication. "That sounds pretty neat too, luck manipulation." She would buy so many lottery tickets. Then she realized she hadn't asked Angelo the obvious question. "What are your powers, if you don't mind my asking?"

"Not at all." He grinned. "I stretch. A demonstration..." He whistled for Joyita's attention, then threw a stick for her. A stick that he'd just snapped off a branch almost ten feet above his head.

Sarah blinked, looking at the branch as Angelo snagged it and threw it for Joyita. "Oh, cool!" That was a very handy mutation indeed, in her mind. "That's not just a little bit of stretching either, wow." She looked up, the branch had been way over their heads moments ago. "Is it just your hands that can do that?"

"It's easiest with my hands", he admitted. "That's what I use most for it, too, but it's my whole skin. If someone tries to stomp me, I can make them bounce."

That seemed to make sense to Sarah, thought it was pretty great that he could do that with all of his skin. She laughed at that, imagining someone trying to pounce Angelo only to go flying off in another direction. "Like a human trampoline, kinda." Which sounded dirty and totally wasn't how she meant it to sound.

"More or less", he said cheerfully, choosing to ignore any and all unintentional dirty. "Should've seen the look on the last guy that tried it."

That made her laugh even more. "I bet it was priceless! They never saw it coming." Combat seemed like an intense and dangerous thing in her mind, but seeing something like that would've been pretty amusing, she was sure.

"Not for a second." He grinned. "So I don't think you ever said - where's it you call home?"

"Washington, D.C. It's where my folks still are, and my twin, and my grandparents are nearby, too." She missed home sometimes, but hadn't been gone long enough to be really homesick, not yet anyway. "How about you - before you came here, I mean." Since he'd already told her where he was living now.

"Los Angeles", he told her. "Way out west. Got no family left out there now except a few cousins, so mostly I miss the weather."

"That is way out there, I've never been but would love to see it. Yeah, it's so much warmer than here, I bet." And a ton of celebrities, she'd do so much fangirling if she was out there.

"I still don't like snow", Angelo confided. "This last winter, I made John melt it as far as he could all round the apartment."

"That's pretty handy, to have your own snow removal service like that, hehe." A very fast and effective way to clear the driveway, if ever there was one. "I don't mind it, but then again I grew up with it, I guess." Sarah shrugged. Snow could be fun at times, though there were downsides to it too. It'd been much more fun when she was younger, much like everything else, but she still liked looking out the window at softly falling snow, especially during the holidays. "What about Joyita, does she like it?"

"Loves it", he said wryly. "Any chance she gets, she'll be out half burying herself in it. Especially in the woods here."

That certainly seemed to fit the dog's style alright. Sarah grinned, petting the dog some more. "Aww, that's a good girl!" She knew it was fun to play in the snow at least. "You know what's also good after being in the woods here? Some hot chocolate, to warm up with." Sarah shivered a little, feeling colder. "I think that's what I'll do, head back and make some. Would you like some too?" She wasn't all that handy in the kitchen but she could make that easily enough.

"Why not", he answered with a grin, leaning down to fit the dog's leash back on just to make sure they didn't lose her on the way. "Nothin' like a nice cup of hot chocolate."