Log; Maya and Garrison

[xp-echo.livejournal.com]

Maya tries to punish Garrison for calling her 'Becky', it doesn't go quite as she intended.



“Ow!” Maya cried out, hopping back and forth on one foot as she cradled her other and glared pointedly at Kane. “Why is your butt armored?”

She’d attempted to kick him as he walked past in retaliation for a really unfortunate nickname he’d bestowed upon her over the last week. She hadn’t realized she’d be breaking her toes on his ass when doing it.

Life. So unfair.

"You can't armor perfection, young one. That is 100% Canadian all natural hard ass back there, Becky." He'd barely noticed it, amused that she had the awful timing to do it after a training session when his omni-skin was thicker than normal.

“You’re such an ass,” she grumbled, putting her foot down gingerly to test it and glad she hadn’t actually broken anything. Feet were important, not just for dancing either. She needed to be more careful with her retaliations obviously. “And my name is Maya, M-A-Y-A. I am not some white Californian with a bad dye job and no brain in my head beyond where to take my teacup bulldog for a hair appointment next.”

"You don't act much different, kid. I mean, you've already written off your school year looking down at the student body in the exact same way that the other hundred would be rebels in your school are looking down at the student body. Real unique rebel."

“Shows what you know,” Maya noted with a huff, rolling her eyes at him as she crossed her arms and slouched against a wall. “I get on fine with lots of people here, and I don’t ‘look down’ on anyone. I get annoyed with people who are ignorant, but that’s different, that’s not about status, that’s about behavior.”

"Yep, Becky. Shows what I know." Kane said, continuing his trip to the kitchen. "It's almost like you believe it too."

Maya made a noise of clear frustration as she trailed after him, sidling past him at the last moment to get in his way. She had to tilt her head slightly to meet his gaze, hands firmly planted on her hips.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

"That you spend a lot of time convincing yourself that you're acting differently than you are. Besides, what do you care what I think? You're so tough and hardcore on the journals..."

“Maybe because I like you?” Maya replied with an air of disbelief. She rolled her eyes again and wouldn’t meet his gaze. “You were kind to me. That matters, and besides…If I really thought that you thought I wasn’t worth the time, I wouldn’t give you the time of day. I don’t go around beating my head against walls.”

"So why aren't the rest worth the same consideration? Seriously kid, you spend so much time trying to make enemies, where do you find time for your friends?"

“I don’t know?” Maya noted with a sigh as she stepped back to let him past, feeling twitchy and not entirely sure why. She hated how uncomfortable she felt around people these days, it never used to be like this. “I’m not trying to make enemies, and it’s not like I don’t ever give people a chance. I managed to have an entire conversation with that Kyle guy without pissing him off once.”

"Look, Maya." Kane said, using her actual name for once. "You're a teenager, which means you've figured out everything about everything. I get that. You're also a minority in a time where those voices are finally being raised at a high enough level to start getting attention and backlash. Finally, you're a mutant, which means you're both legitimately special and utterly screwed at the same time. Do you want to tell me why it has you on a hair trigger?"

“I don’t know,” Maya replied, this time with a slightly more despairing tinge. “People just…they make me twitch, all the time. You ever tried being nice when you feel like you’re crawling out of your own skin? And even when I’m feeling good, there’s shit on the news all the time about how little people like me matter to whoever is in power. I can’t even be with my family, and I know it’s not an excuse, I’m working on it. Jennie’s helping, and Haller as well, and even North is teaching me knife fighting. It helps, it all helps but that doesn’t stop me wanting out almost ninety percent of the time. Sometimes I feel like I just want to live in the woods and screw the mansion.”

"You need some perspective, kid. Shit will always be happening. The little people are always going to be screwed in one way or another. If you hang all your thoughts on that, you're never going to give yourself a chance to live your own life in the midst of it." Kane shook his head. "We help. Where we can and when we can. And it sucks when for every good thing you do, you miss a hundred bad things that happen at the same time. But you can't save everyone. You can't help everyone. And taking your frustration about it out on other people isn't going to make your skin any more comfortable."

“Everybody Lives?” Maya quoted with a sad smile, shrugging her shoulders at his other advice. “Just because I can’t win, doesn’t mean I’m not going to try. Wouldn’t that be the definition of failure if I just gave up?”

She held up her hand to stall his response, trying to figure out how to say what she wanted to say without sounding trite or like she was dismissing his words.

“I get it? Sort of. I get what you’re saying. I get that I need to try harder not to be a complete scathing asshole. Even if sometimes it’s funny, like with QQ.”

"No. I mean, that's not untrue but not my point. You need to make some space inside your head for yourself and the people around you. Instead of slamming down walls every time someone reminds you of yet another shitty thing going on in the world that you can't do anything about."

“That’s easier when I’m not completely pissed off,” Maya noted, with a shrug. She had let more people in recently, although she wasn’t sure if that had just been because of the good mood the hike had fostered. “How do you deal with people pissing you off?”

"Depends on the person and the reason. Main thing is to think about whether or not it really matters?"

“Shouldn’t it matter always? Why should I ever let anyone get away with stupid thinking?” Maya countered, twitchy even now. “Or are you talking more about whether I really care about their opinion?”

"Is it your job to police them? You go running into a lot of battles that you have no skin in the game for, and then you dig yourself in deeper and lash out. There's a big difference to being part of a conversation and being the automatic opposition."

“If not me, then who?” Maya countered, almost automatically it would seem, before she shook her head. “No, I get what you mean, I do. I’m trying to change a lot of that now, it’s just a lot more difficult repairing things then it is tearing them down.”

"You need to learn to pick your battles. And what battles are worth fighting. Because nothing pisses people off more than someone who isn't involved coming into an argument."

“That sounds like the voice of experience,” Maya said.

"Sticking your nose into an argument and making jackass statements is, oh, one third of the teenage experiment. The thing is that it is something you want to try and grow out of."

“I’m fifteen, I figure that gives me at least another five years of being an obnoxious jackass and butting into arguments then,” Maya replied with a grin. “So, do I get to hear about your teenage years?”

"If under-aged drinking and spectacularly awful attempts at sex is your jam, sure."

“You say that like you think that’s not interesting,” Maya said, grinning wider. “Although aren’t you meant to be protecting my innocent ears from all that? I’m pretty sure there’s a pamphlet or something somewhere.”

"As long as I'm not actually buying you beer and drugs, I've fulfilled my 'responsible adult' requirements."