Sooraya & Terry | Lunch Break & Update
Jun. 6th, 2021 11:47 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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xp_logsTerry an Sooraya decide to take a break in the gardens for lunch, then the conversation turns a bit heavy... (Backdated)
Terry settled on a bench in the garden, lunch in hand, and gestured to invite Sooraya to sit with her. The weather was lovely, as it was wont to be in June, and she wanted to spend a bit of time enjoying it. "Would y'like some grapes?" She offered, holding out a plastic baggie full of green and purple spheres.
"I almost never say no to fresh fruit. Especially grapes." Sooraya answered as she took her seat next to Terry and she pulled some of the sweet fruits from the bag. She carefully put them to the side as she pulled out a couple of small containers from her tote. "I was in the mood for wraps this morning. So what do you like most? Salmon, smoked chicken or veggies?"
"Mm... veggies, please," Terry said, peering at the containers. She didn't reach for one yet, though, instead tugging a thermos and two bottles from the bag at her feet. "I've brought water, tea, and lemonade. Take your pick." Having meals that didn't automatically turn into strategy sessions about how to foil an extremist group's attempt to undermine the UK Underground was one of her favorite things about being back at the mansion -- well, that and getting back into her job with the Xavier Institute. Neither the Institute nor Muir had suffered for funding while she'd been otherwise occupied, but she was looking forward to getting back into the thick of things -- including working with Sooraya and Angelo more.
She put the veggie wraps aside for Terry and selected the container with smoked chicken for herself. "Tea sounds lovely." Sooraya took a moment to arrange the various bits and pieces, using the lid of the wrap container to keep her grapes contained. "So have you settled back in? I imagine the switch between being here briefly and just getting settled, hurrying back home and then coming back here again takes some getting used to?
Terry sat the thermos next to Sooraya's wrap container and reached for the lemonade for herself. "It was... odd. And unfortunate? I mean, I don't regret leavin' -- it's somethin' that had to be done. But you're right. Though it's nice to be settlin' in a mite quicker this time," she said, smiling as she pulled over the veggie wraps and popped the lid off. She sat her grapes in their bag next to her lemonade, popping one in her mouth before she continued, "Wish it hadn't taken so long to figure out the Friends of Humanity issue, though. We lost a lot of good people before we got it sorted."
"I'm so sorry to hear that many were lost. Especially by our so-called "Friends"." Sooraya sipped from her tea. "I've caught some bits and pieces from what happened, but didn't get the full picture. If you want to... can you tell me a little more about what happened?"
"Well, y'know I was called away t'help m'grandda with some charity work through his church, but while I was helpin' with that, someone started destroyin' supply caches an' things. We organized some of our higher ups to find out what was goin' on, and they did -- but they died in the process. Turns out we had a mole." Terry said the word as though it left a bad taste in her mouth, which... well, it did. "Took us a bit longer still t'root out who it was and then t'deal them. Lost several more good people along the way, sad t'say." It upset her that baseline humans couldn't seem to just let mutants live in peace -- no, they had to find them and persecute them. They had to slaughter them.
Terry huffed a soft breath. "An' then, once that'd been sorted, we had the orphans t'help. M'grandda set up a secular foster center, as it were, for the young ones who hadn't any family t'speak of -- and for those whose mutations'd already manifested t'where they couldn't pass." Her voice was just ever so slightly bitter as she finished, "The unwanted ones." Shaking her head, Terry took another breath and then shrugged, "So that's what m'last year an' then some's been. Workin' with the children, at least, was a happier bit of time."
"You know..." Sooraya mused out loud once she had let Terry's words sink for a moment. "... sometimes that is one of the most cruel 'jokes' of the universe. Those who cannot pass and... how do I put this... also don't have any kind of... I hate to use the word benefit... but you know what I mean..." She popped a piece of wrap in her mouth and quickly finished chewing. "I mean... many of us here are 'lucky' in that sense. We pass and what we have is at least useful in some sense..."
"Y'mean we can do things that're helpful or beneficial, so we're lucky, aye? We can come t'gether an' do somethin' about..." Terry trailed off for a moment, her own food apparently completely forgotten. "The injustice of it all." She wasn't entirely sure she believed that, though she did have to acknowledge that she was speaking from a point of privilege, not just within the mutant community, but from her position within baseline human society as well. "Well," she continued after a moment to mull that over. "Can't deny I'd be less able t'help others were I not born where and when I was, were I not part o'the family I come from. Doesn't mean it's fair."
"It's definitely not fair. That I agree with. And I don't know if lucky is the right word... best case scenario might work better?" Sooraya paused for a moment as she considered. "But still... sometimes luck does seem... She trailed off again for a moment before changing tracks. "You mention about being born and what that means... I only have to look at my own history. I don't know if I ever mentioned this, but I was a slave in Afghanistan before I was freed and came here. And sometimes I think about how different my life would have been if a different girl was rescued... so lucky doesn't sound so strange, unless we want to start talking about fate, destiny, those kinds of things...
"Doesn't make it any more fair though..."
"True enough," Terry agreed. "You'd not told me that, though, about your past. I'm sorry it happened t'you but glad you're here now." She offered the other woman a small smile. "Funny how things like that work, isn't it? All the little moments that had t'happen, that had t'add up t'get the two of us here, in this garden, havin' lunch. Terrible things. Wonderful things. Everythin' in between."
"Yup, while on the other end of the world... Well, I think we both know what I mean." Sooraya took another sip from her tea. "That is why I do what I do though... my work with the X-men, the Underground... trying to pay forward some from what I have received. And in that it doesn't really matter if it's luck or fate."
"Also very true," Terry said. "I... do what I do, I s'pose, because... well. It's how I was raised, isn't it? And it's the right thing t'do. So I wouldn't look at it as a karma thing, payin' it forward, just. Doin' as I'd like someone t'do for me..." She smiled again.
"Ahhh, the Golden Rule, I see?"
"Simple," Terry said, nodding. "But classic.
Terry settled on a bench in the garden, lunch in hand, and gestured to invite Sooraya to sit with her. The weather was lovely, as it was wont to be in June, and she wanted to spend a bit of time enjoying it. "Would y'like some grapes?" She offered, holding out a plastic baggie full of green and purple spheres.
"I almost never say no to fresh fruit. Especially grapes." Sooraya answered as she took her seat next to Terry and she pulled some of the sweet fruits from the bag. She carefully put them to the side as she pulled out a couple of small containers from her tote. "I was in the mood for wraps this morning. So what do you like most? Salmon, smoked chicken or veggies?"
"Mm... veggies, please," Terry said, peering at the containers. She didn't reach for one yet, though, instead tugging a thermos and two bottles from the bag at her feet. "I've brought water, tea, and lemonade. Take your pick." Having meals that didn't automatically turn into strategy sessions about how to foil an extremist group's attempt to undermine the UK Underground was one of her favorite things about being back at the mansion -- well, that and getting back into her job with the Xavier Institute. Neither the Institute nor Muir had suffered for funding while she'd been otherwise occupied, but she was looking forward to getting back into the thick of things -- including working with Sooraya and Angelo more.
She put the veggie wraps aside for Terry and selected the container with smoked chicken for herself. "Tea sounds lovely." Sooraya took a moment to arrange the various bits and pieces, using the lid of the wrap container to keep her grapes contained. "So have you settled back in? I imagine the switch between being here briefly and just getting settled, hurrying back home and then coming back here again takes some getting used to?
Terry sat the thermos next to Sooraya's wrap container and reached for the lemonade for herself. "It was... odd. And unfortunate? I mean, I don't regret leavin' -- it's somethin' that had to be done. But you're right. Though it's nice to be settlin' in a mite quicker this time," she said, smiling as she pulled over the veggie wraps and popped the lid off. She sat her grapes in their bag next to her lemonade, popping one in her mouth before she continued, "Wish it hadn't taken so long to figure out the Friends of Humanity issue, though. We lost a lot of good people before we got it sorted."
"I'm so sorry to hear that many were lost. Especially by our so-called "Friends"." Sooraya sipped from her tea. "I've caught some bits and pieces from what happened, but didn't get the full picture. If you want to... can you tell me a little more about what happened?"
"Well, y'know I was called away t'help m'grandda with some charity work through his church, but while I was helpin' with that, someone started destroyin' supply caches an' things. We organized some of our higher ups to find out what was goin' on, and they did -- but they died in the process. Turns out we had a mole." Terry said the word as though it left a bad taste in her mouth, which... well, it did. "Took us a bit longer still t'root out who it was and then t'deal them. Lost several more good people along the way, sad t'say." It upset her that baseline humans couldn't seem to just let mutants live in peace -- no, they had to find them and persecute them. They had to slaughter them.
Terry huffed a soft breath. "An' then, once that'd been sorted, we had the orphans t'help. M'grandda set up a secular foster center, as it were, for the young ones who hadn't any family t'speak of -- and for those whose mutations'd already manifested t'where they couldn't pass." Her voice was just ever so slightly bitter as she finished, "The unwanted ones." Shaking her head, Terry took another breath and then shrugged, "So that's what m'last year an' then some's been. Workin' with the children, at least, was a happier bit of time."
"You know..." Sooraya mused out loud once she had let Terry's words sink for a moment. "... sometimes that is one of the most cruel 'jokes' of the universe. Those who cannot pass and... how do I put this... also don't have any kind of... I hate to use the word benefit... but you know what I mean..." She popped a piece of wrap in her mouth and quickly finished chewing. "I mean... many of us here are 'lucky' in that sense. We pass and what we have is at least useful in some sense..."
"Y'mean we can do things that're helpful or beneficial, so we're lucky, aye? We can come t'gether an' do somethin' about..." Terry trailed off for a moment, her own food apparently completely forgotten. "The injustice of it all." She wasn't entirely sure she believed that, though she did have to acknowledge that she was speaking from a point of privilege, not just within the mutant community, but from her position within baseline human society as well. "Well," she continued after a moment to mull that over. "Can't deny I'd be less able t'help others were I not born where and when I was, were I not part o'the family I come from. Doesn't mean it's fair."
"It's definitely not fair. That I agree with. And I don't know if lucky is the right word... best case scenario might work better?" Sooraya paused for a moment as she considered. "But still... sometimes luck does seem... She trailed off again for a moment before changing tracks. "You mention about being born and what that means... I only have to look at my own history. I don't know if I ever mentioned this, but I was a slave in Afghanistan before I was freed and came here. And sometimes I think about how different my life would have been if a different girl was rescued... so lucky doesn't sound so strange, unless we want to start talking about fate, destiny, those kinds of things...
"Doesn't make it any more fair though..."
"True enough," Terry agreed. "You'd not told me that, though, about your past. I'm sorry it happened t'you but glad you're here now." She offered the other woman a small smile. "Funny how things like that work, isn't it? All the little moments that had t'happen, that had t'add up t'get the two of us here, in this garden, havin' lunch. Terrible things. Wonderful things. Everythin' in between."
"Yup, while on the other end of the world... Well, I think we both know what I mean." Sooraya took another sip from her tea. "That is why I do what I do though... my work with the X-men, the Underground... trying to pay forward some from what I have received. And in that it doesn't really matter if it's luck or fate."
"Also very true," Terry said. "I... do what I do, I s'pose, because... well. It's how I was raised, isn't it? And it's the right thing t'do. So I wouldn't look at it as a karma thing, payin' it forward, just. Doin' as I'd like someone t'do for me..." She smiled again.
"Ahhh, the Golden Rule, I see?"
"Simple," Terry said, nodding. "But classic.
