Quentin, Tandy, and Adrienne - Non-Volunteer-Volunteering

[x-adrienne.livejournal.com]

Tandy brings Quentin to her uncle's church and they run into Adrienne, who helps Tandy explain to Quentin what goes on there.

Tandy pulled up to a very large, very old looking Catholic Church located just a few short blocks from District X. "We are here." She turned off the car and took off her seat belt before getting out of the car. "Welcome to my uncle's church."

Quentin looked up from his phone and rolled his eyes. He could not remember why he had agreed to come. He was probably high when he did. Well, there was always Uber if he got bored. More bored. "Better hope this place has a good sprinkler system," he said as he followed her, "Sinners like me might burst into flames soon as I pass the threshold."

"Sinner? You are talking to someone who was possessed by an actual demon and tried to turn the world into his own personal hell. If I can enter the church still, I am sure you are safe." She opened the door that lead into the main area of the church. The size of the main sanctuary was impressive with stain glass windows at the back of the church. To the side was the confession booths. There were a few nuns talking to each other but otherwise it was deserted. "This way."

Tandy lead the way down the aisle, past the nuns who smile and nodded at the blonde, and towards one of the back doors. It lead into a rather small hallway with several closed doors. To the right was a staircase that lead up and to the left was a stair case that lead down. Leading the way down, the sounds of people started to grow louder. "My uncle originally opened this up as a way for homeless or runaway to stay. A place to stay dry and eat a good meal. Space is limited, but it isn't on Wednesdays when it opens up as a soup kitchen for the public. It is now a sanctuary for people like us." She paused when she got to the bottom of the stairs, "Remember when I said some of us are fighting for the good of mutants in a more non-violent way?" She opened the door to reveal dozens of people sitting around and talking, among them were nuns helping wherever they could.

A snarky reply died on Quentin's lips when he saw the group of kids – all obviously mutants – comfortably lounging about. "What is this?"

"My uncle expanded the shelter to mutants who have nowhere else to go. He works with X-Factor Investigations to set up a safe house for them until they can find a safer place elsewhere. Some of them were like that man but were lucky enough to get away. Others chased from their homes. They come from all walks of life." She walked in deeper.

Hearing Tandy's voice, Adrienne straightened up from where she'd been squatting as she spoke to one of the mutants. Flipping her lighter over and under the fingers of one hand, she strode over to Tandy and Quentin, her leather motorcycle boots echoing loudly on the floor. "Hey, Starlet," she greeted Tandy with a smile before sizing up Quentin. "Sir Lancelot," she smirked. "Good to see you here."

"Yeah, sure. So what's going on here?" Quentin crossed his arms over his chest to keep up his standoffish facade, although the look on his face was of genuine interest, an expression with which pretty much everyone in the mansion was unfamiliar. "Your uncle just finds runaways and brings them here?"

"Hey Adri. I thought I saw your bike in the parking lot." She smiled at her guardian. Turning back at Quentin and shook her head. "Yes and No. The shelter has always been here, it just now hosts sanctuary for those who need it. Ever since M-Day it has been difficult and so we try and help. Adrienne can explain better. It is her team that does the bulk of it."

"In addition to our detective work for mutants in the city who aren't getting adequate attention having cases dealt with by the police or lawyers, X-Factor works with both X-Corps and with the organization who maintains the mutant Underground. X-Factor's developing a network of contacts across the country," Adrienne began, still playing nervously with her lighter, "and has access to Underground safe houses. Our mandate is to try and help mutants who aren't being helped by regular channels, who have fallen through the cracks of society. In addition to the investigative work we do, we use the internet, our associates at the other organizations, and our independent contacts, to see how we can help mutants who have been left homeless or are being neglected or endangered. Like Tandy says, mutants stay here until we can help the underground find them a safer place elsewhere, whether that be at the mansion, on Muir, or somewhere else."

"Can't be cheap, running an operation like this. So who's in charge?" Quentin asked. "Your fla . . . your uncle? Where does a Catholic priest get the money for this?"

"Donations from the members mostly." Tandy looked at Quentin. "I inherited a large fortune when my parents died. So I donated a large chunk to my uncle and his church. I also volunteer whenever I can. I also ask people at the mansion if they want to help out. My uncle is in charge here at the Church but Adrienne and her groupies do the rest."

"Well, Father Michael was the one who approached us about using the church as a mutant sanctuary and our little branch of the Underground, as it were," Adrienne added, not wanting to steal any of Tandy's uncle's thunder. "But now that it is, X-Factor has a shell corporation that funnels money to the parish to help pay the bills, for when the member donations aren't enough. Although, this particular parish does seem to have a significant number of wealthy, anonymous benefactors," she smirked at Tandy, thinking of Xavier, Wade, Emma, Warren, Julian, Sue, and others. "But yeah, Tandy does a lot of free labour around here, as do a lot of the residents of the mansion. There's a soup kitchen, clothing drives, things of that nature. Always something to be done."

It was an impressive enterprise, no doubt about that. And everyone looked content, at least as much as they could be in their situations. Still, that content did not extend to Quentin, who took a couple of steps away so the down and out were not in his line of sight anymore. "So what was the point of taking me here, exactly?" he asked, not quite rudely but at least without his usual brand of harsh sarcasm.

"To show you that there are other non-violent ways of helping each other. You were upset about that man who was attacked in District X and wondered why no one was doing anything. I wanted to show you that we are. We can't get to everyone but we can help in the best way we know how. Violence isn't always the answer. I learned that when I was in Asgard." Thanks Bald'r. Tandy gave Quentin a sweet smile. "We can't all afford to be outed as Mutants, so in the shadows we work. Yes, it is a huge risk if we are found out but that is a risk we are willing to take."

Adrienne wasn't sure how Tandy's explanation would be received, but she wasn't going to pile more on to it. It would make her feel hypocritical if she did. She didn't think of herself as a good person; did what she did for her own reasons, for her own sake. She didn't give money to the parish or run X-Factor to make the world a better place or help the less fortunate. She did it because she got indigestion or had trouble sleeping due to feelings of uselessness and guilt if she didn't. Garrison would probably say that having those feelings were what made her a good person, but Adrienne wasn't convinced. She still considered herself to be extremely self-serving.

But she wasn't going to tell Quentin that, either. So instead of adding to what Tandy had said, she just accepted a sheaf of papers one of the administrative assistants brought her and pretended to read them, watching Quentin in her peripheral vision to see how the teen was going to take what Tandy had said.

Quentin massaged his temples and silently counted to ten before replying. This was not the place for another explosion, and he did not have the safety of being behind his monitor this time. "This is all great and lovely and I'm sure you're doing people a lot of good," he said slowly, carefully choosing his words. "What you are missing is that this does nothing to help the man who was beaten half to death, and the existence of this place didn't stop the attack from happening in the first place. No one should be falling through the cracks. I won't accept that as a necessary sacrifice."

Adrienne recognized and appreciated the anger-management technique. Lately, hers had been lighting a cigarette, since digging the case and lighter out of her purse, lighting up and taking that first drag usually took a similar amount of time. But she wasn't angry now, strangely. A little annoyed that he seemed so stuck on this one event, when there had been so many countless other events similar or even worse than that one that she'd witnessed in her lifetime, that others at the mansion had witnessed.

"We can't dwell on the past and everything we didn't do," she responded, a touch of sadness in her voice. "We can't change what happened that day, so we also can't let that regret eat us alive. All we can do is work harder to make sure that it doesn't happen again. What X-Factor and the Underground do," she explained, looking up from her papers to the teen, "is keep using the internet, using our contacts to make sure word gets out that there are safe places to go to get away from the attacks. We make sure more mutants learn about safe houses more quickly. Find more people to act as contact points and spread the word more widely that there are safe places in the city, in the country, for mutants to go to avoid being beaten half to death. That there are agencies like X-Factor that exist to help people get the justice they can't get through regular channels. And when the safe houses are full, we help set up more safe houses. And we keep getting more people and more safe houses until there are no more cracks to fall through."

The psychometrist shrugged. "Other mutants are working on changing the world by trying to change the government, the institutions, and the minds of the people who hate mutants. They stop the attacks in their own ways. We, in this room right now, just want to give mutants somewhere to go where they won't be abused. By anyone." Okay, maybe that was what she should have told him before. Because that was why she did what she did.

"That's very . . . noble," Quentin said with only the slightest hint of sarcasm. He could have really used a drink then, to silence the jackhammer going off in his brain. Too many people, too many thoughts, and still not enough skill to make any sense out of the quagmire. "So, you've shown off your great good deeds. You are wonderful people. Is that all?"

"Nope." Tandy gave Quentin another knowing smile. "It is time to serve some food. Congratulations for volunteering." She patted him on the back before walking deeper in the room. Even if he didn't really volunteer, Tandy did that part for him. He wasn't going to leave here until he spoke to those who stayed here.

Not having intended to show off at all, Adrienne didn't dignify that comment with a response and instead went back to her figures with a bemused snort at Tandy's boldness, but looked up again when she felt a hand on the back of her knee. Looked down, rather. A small blue-skinned girl of about seven was smiling at her. "Did you finish it? Did you finish it?!" she asked eagerly.

Looking nervous, Adrienne frowned. "Umm... no. Almost? It's really, really close. I just need to make one more fin and then the eyes."

"Can you finish it now? Puh-leeeeease?"

"Umm..." Adrienne looked from the sheaf of papers to the girl. She'd meant to just drop in to grab this month's budget figures and take them back to Meridian with her, where she had some personnel files she wanted to look through. But apparently she couldn't say no to blue-skinned females. "Sure." Quentin was sure to love this, she thought. She pulled a ball of yarn and large wad of knitting that appeared to be a hat in the shape of a fish with a tail on the top and one fin, its mouth meant to be suckered around a small child's head, out of her Mary-Poppins-like handbag, and untangled a little of the loose yarn. "Why don't you go find me a chair to sit in, so I don't have to work on a table where people are eating?"

Nodding enthusiastically, the child scampered off. "Did I tell you?" she asked Tandy quietly as she walked with her ward towards the area where food was dispensed, "Sue thinks she might have found a foster family for her? Out in Ohio, of all places. I wonder who put Sue in touch with people from Ohio?"

Quentin observed the exchanged with a sort of ludicrous disbelief. If he did not know better then he would have thought this planned, to show how cute and innocent and virtuous this all was. But even his limited mental reception told him this was all legit and maybe he had walked into Care Bear central. He shook his head and followed Tandy into the kitchen. Fine, if he was to be sentenced to community service then there were worse ways to spend it.