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xp_logsAshley Crawford is having a really rough morning, and has broken all the things. Sam finds her crying her heart out on the curb, and gets her a donut, a phone call, and the offer of support for powers she didn't even realize she had.
The trail of destruction outside the deli was short, and could have been overlooked if the door wasn't hanging half off its hinges.
And if there wasn't a woman sitting on the cracked concrete curb, ignoring the slush melting into her flare jeans, the slush melting into her hair and instead holding the crushed remains of a phone and sobbing.
Bawling, really, the kind of crying that came from the diaphragm, leaving steaks of smeared makeup down her cheeks and wet stains on the sleeve of her jacket. The kind of crying that would cause someone to ignore grey New York City slush seeping into hand-stitched vintage flare jeans.
Sam had been walking to the train station after work when he’d heard crying. It took a moment to spot the source through the crowd of people milling about but he soon spotted the girl sitting on the curb. He walked over and sat down gently on the curb next to her, leaving enough space between them that she hopefully wouldn’t feel like he was crowding her.
“Are you alright miss? Anything I could to do help?”
Ashley looked up - the blond man who had just sat down next to her was tall, even sitting, and swiped at her face and scrubbed her fingers on the knees of her jeans and shook her head and sniffled. "Not really I guess, I don't know.' She glanced at him, and sniffled again. "I just broke my phone and everything is going wrong today and I don't even know why."
“Can I call someone for you?” He asked gently. “Or buy you a coffee or a donut or something? I’ve got eight little siblings so I’m somethin of a professional day fixer if you’d like to let me try.”
Sam held out his hand to shake. “I’m Sam and it’s very nice to meet you”
Ashley's hand popped out automatically, and then she pulled it back, and looked at it. "I can't. I can't shake, I'll. I could." She showed Sam her phone, held between two fingers. "I don't want to crush anything else, and I broke my phone and I broke the door, and..." She swiped again at her face, and ruined more makeup. "I broke my laptop, and my bed, and my roommate is freaked out and I just want to go home and I can't even call my mom." She glanced up at Sam, and pointed with the hand still carefully holding her phone. "I'm going to get banned from Uber as soon as the driver figures out I broke the handle and I'm going to end up homeless and living in a tent outside the community center!"
Sam’s gaze softened and he lowered his hand. “Oh hon, okay here’s what we’re gonna do, okay? You tell me your Ma’s number and we’ll call her on my phone so you can talk to her. And then you’re gonna tell me your favorite kind of donut and I’m gonna get you one and you and I can sit here and I can tell you all about how I can fly and was homeless a bit ago, and how I now live in a mansion for free with a bunch of other folks who are special like us and how there’s room for you there too if you need or want it.”
He smiled at her. “It’s gonna be okay. You ain’t broken and you ain’t alone.”ng today and I don't even know why."
Ashley hiccuped around her tears as she recited her mom's phone number and gave a sad sort of wet laugh. "I like every kind of donut." Because that was absolutely the important thing to focus on, she hadn't eaten since breakfast, and breakfast had been an english muffin, untoasted, unbuttered, no jam, because she was scared to open the fridge and break another thing. The last thing she'd needed was a bill for a broken fridge from the college.
"Can you back up maybe three lines before you call my mom though, did you say you can fly?"
Sam barely stopped himself from hitting ‘call’ when asked if he could fly. He nodded. “Yes’m, I’d show you but it tends to be a bit….. destructive. I can basically create these like explosions outta different parts of my body but it’s easiest from my feet and they can propel me up and through the air. When I manifested I had to leave home so I wouldn’t accidentally blast through the house and break everything or my little brother and I shared a bed and I didn’t wanna hurt him on accident……. I’m a lot better with it now though, cause I got help learnin’ to control it from other people like me. And I live with ‘em now in a big ol’ mansion all for free. “
Sam smiled at her gently. “How bout I leave my phone with you while I go get you somethin’ to eat so you can have a bit of privacy when you talk to your Mama? That sound okay?”
"Why couldn't I have gotten flying?" Ashley muttered. "I don't break, um, me. I fell off the catwalk above stage once, that's twenty feet, and nothing. No bruises. But now I keep breaking everything else I touch." She nodded as Sam set the phone down. "Yeah, that sounds good.' Her voice broke again on the word good, and she gulped back tears as the phone rang, and her mother picked up with a cautious "Hello?"
=
Sam returned with a bakery bag in hand and sat triumphantly next to the girl. "Sorry bout the wait, the line was crazy, though I'm still gettin' used to there being... people in the city so the line's probably normal and I'm just.... not from here." He shrugged, then turned to hand her the bag. "Everythin' okay with your Ma?"
Ashley had finally found something to wipe her face of tears and ruined makeup, leaving just waterproof mascara and a few smudges of color around her eyes. "She said it's thirteen hours to drive but she'll get in the car right away if I need her, and that Dad and Zayde Sam will cover anything I broke." Sam's phone was still on the curb next to her, exactly where he'd placed it. "She said to say thank you and I am supposed to get your address so she can send you a thank you card.' She recited this a little mechanically. "I'm Ashley, I forgot to tell you before."
Sam grabbed a napkin from the bag and a pen from his pocket and wrote down his name, address, and phone number. “Here you are Ashley. You can call me if you need anything too, I’m a bit closer than your Ma and I’m happy to help. Mutations…..they take getting used to. And you’re welcome to visit me at that address anytime and I can show you around a place that can help you get used to them.”
Sam turned and smiled at her gently. “I ain’t tryin’ to pressure ya or force ya into goin’ to the mansion, no use in goin’ unless you’re ready. It took months and my apartment flooding for me to accept livin’ there as an option. But it is an option if you need or want it and if you wanna talk about it- you’ve got my number.”
"It's actually a mansion?" Ashley carefully, slowly picked a donut out of the bag, and only crushed it just a little bit before taking a bite. "It isn't rehab or inpatient care, just housing?" She'd heard a rumor or two the couple of times she'd been at the District X Community Center, but it was just overheard conversations, a woman in a hijab talking about having the drive back to the mansion - she'd thought it was some kind of in-joke. "If I get kicked out of my dorm for breaking it, it's really okay if I text?" She glanced at her broken phone. "Or get my mom to text. She really is going to send you a thank you card, and probably a starbucks card, she doesn't know what to get people so she just always gives them coffee drinks."
"Actually a mansion." Sam replied in the affirmative. "Just housing, training on how to use your powers, and you can have a job and study while you're there and they'll help. Well... some folks are gettin' help with therapists and physical ailments n' the like but that's more of a case by case basis than the mansion bein' a hospital. And you really can text me if you need to, promise. An' if it's an emergency you can call and that way I'll know it's urgent and be sure to answer straight away."
He tapped his foot on the ground. "When I first manifested, I was in an explosion, my shoulder got real messed up and I nearly killed my coworker. I didn't trust myself to live at home where I could blast through the wall or accidentally hurt one o' my siblings. I went to a place connected to the mansion in Scotland and they trained me on how to control my powers and feel safe usin' 'em. They're good folk, a bit eccentric, but good, solid, folk. An' if you want introductions or even just to visit sometime and see the place for yourself I'm happy to make that happen you just gotta tell me."
"I don't think there are synagogues in Scotland." Ashley said quietly, with a shake of her head. "I have to get a new phone first, Mom's zelleing me money." Something that did hands free well, with a stylus. "If it really is a place to figure out powers..." She looked at her hands, manicured nails chipping because she hadn't been able to touch up the polish. "I probably need help. I definitely need help. I can't keep breaking things. Laptops are expensive." Thank foresight for Applecare and a repair plan that would cover the laptop but her parents were going to be spending so much money to fix the rest of this. "Eccentric people are easy, I'm in theatre." She gave a genuine smile at the word. "I'd love that visit, once I get my phone fixed."
Sam nudged her gently. “Lookin’ forward to it- gives me more incentive to actually learn my way round the place. Just let me know how I can help.”
Ashley nodded. "I will text you probably with one million weird words." She pointed at the broken phone. "I will be sticking to voice to text for a while, you know? Thank you for helping, so so so much. I'd hug you but..." Again the broken phone was indicated, and the door, and the sidewalk curb. She stood up and ineffectively dusted snow and slush off her coat and ignored the damp jeans. "I'm going to walk really carefully back to my dorm, and ... go buy a phone and call my mom again and I will text you, I said that, I know I'm repeating myself, it's been a whole day, you know, and it's only like, before lunch."
Sam stood and barely made any attempt to brush off the slush from his clothes. "No worries, you stay safe okay? That's the most important part."
He stayed a bit to watch her leave, making sure she was truly alright before he finally continued off towards the train station like he'd first intended.
The trail of destruction outside the deli was short, and could have been overlooked if the door wasn't hanging half off its hinges.
And if there wasn't a woman sitting on the cracked concrete curb, ignoring the slush melting into her flare jeans, the slush melting into her hair and instead holding the crushed remains of a phone and sobbing.
Bawling, really, the kind of crying that came from the diaphragm, leaving steaks of smeared makeup down her cheeks and wet stains on the sleeve of her jacket. The kind of crying that would cause someone to ignore grey New York City slush seeping into hand-stitched vintage flare jeans.
Sam had been walking to the train station after work when he’d heard crying. It took a moment to spot the source through the crowd of people milling about but he soon spotted the girl sitting on the curb. He walked over and sat down gently on the curb next to her, leaving enough space between them that she hopefully wouldn’t feel like he was crowding her.
“Are you alright miss? Anything I could to do help?”
Ashley looked up - the blond man who had just sat down next to her was tall, even sitting, and swiped at her face and scrubbed her fingers on the knees of her jeans and shook her head and sniffled. "Not really I guess, I don't know.' She glanced at him, and sniffled again. "I just broke my phone and everything is going wrong today and I don't even know why."
“Can I call someone for you?” He asked gently. “Or buy you a coffee or a donut or something? I’ve got eight little siblings so I’m somethin of a professional day fixer if you’d like to let me try.”
Sam held out his hand to shake. “I’m Sam and it’s very nice to meet you”
Ashley's hand popped out automatically, and then she pulled it back, and looked at it. "I can't. I can't shake, I'll. I could." She showed Sam her phone, held between two fingers. "I don't want to crush anything else, and I broke my phone and I broke the door, and..." She swiped again at her face, and ruined more makeup. "I broke my laptop, and my bed, and my roommate is freaked out and I just want to go home and I can't even call my mom." She glanced up at Sam, and pointed with the hand still carefully holding her phone. "I'm going to get banned from Uber as soon as the driver figures out I broke the handle and I'm going to end up homeless and living in a tent outside the community center!"
Sam’s gaze softened and he lowered his hand. “Oh hon, okay here’s what we’re gonna do, okay? You tell me your Ma’s number and we’ll call her on my phone so you can talk to her. And then you’re gonna tell me your favorite kind of donut and I’m gonna get you one and you and I can sit here and I can tell you all about how I can fly and was homeless a bit ago, and how I now live in a mansion for free with a bunch of other folks who are special like us and how there’s room for you there too if you need or want it.”
He smiled at her. “It’s gonna be okay. You ain’t broken and you ain’t alone.”ng today and I don't even know why."
Ashley hiccuped around her tears as she recited her mom's phone number and gave a sad sort of wet laugh. "I like every kind of donut." Because that was absolutely the important thing to focus on, she hadn't eaten since breakfast, and breakfast had been an english muffin, untoasted, unbuttered, no jam, because she was scared to open the fridge and break another thing. The last thing she'd needed was a bill for a broken fridge from the college.
"Can you back up maybe three lines before you call my mom though, did you say you can fly?"
Sam barely stopped himself from hitting ‘call’ when asked if he could fly. He nodded. “Yes’m, I’d show you but it tends to be a bit….. destructive. I can basically create these like explosions outta different parts of my body but it’s easiest from my feet and they can propel me up and through the air. When I manifested I had to leave home so I wouldn’t accidentally blast through the house and break everything or my little brother and I shared a bed and I didn’t wanna hurt him on accident……. I’m a lot better with it now though, cause I got help learnin’ to control it from other people like me. And I live with ‘em now in a big ol’ mansion all for free. “
Sam smiled at her gently. “How bout I leave my phone with you while I go get you somethin’ to eat so you can have a bit of privacy when you talk to your Mama? That sound okay?”
"Why couldn't I have gotten flying?" Ashley muttered. "I don't break, um, me. I fell off the catwalk above stage once, that's twenty feet, and nothing. No bruises. But now I keep breaking everything else I touch." She nodded as Sam set the phone down. "Yeah, that sounds good.' Her voice broke again on the word good, and she gulped back tears as the phone rang, and her mother picked up with a cautious "Hello?"
=
Sam returned with a bakery bag in hand and sat triumphantly next to the girl. "Sorry bout the wait, the line was crazy, though I'm still gettin' used to there being... people in the city so the line's probably normal and I'm just.... not from here." He shrugged, then turned to hand her the bag. "Everythin' okay with your Ma?"
Ashley had finally found something to wipe her face of tears and ruined makeup, leaving just waterproof mascara and a few smudges of color around her eyes. "She said it's thirteen hours to drive but she'll get in the car right away if I need her, and that Dad and Zayde Sam will cover anything I broke." Sam's phone was still on the curb next to her, exactly where he'd placed it. "She said to say thank you and I am supposed to get your address so she can send you a thank you card.' She recited this a little mechanically. "I'm Ashley, I forgot to tell you before."
Sam grabbed a napkin from the bag and a pen from his pocket and wrote down his name, address, and phone number. “Here you are Ashley. You can call me if you need anything too, I’m a bit closer than your Ma and I’m happy to help. Mutations…..they take getting used to. And you’re welcome to visit me at that address anytime and I can show you around a place that can help you get used to them.”
Sam turned and smiled at her gently. “I ain’t tryin’ to pressure ya or force ya into goin’ to the mansion, no use in goin’ unless you’re ready. It took months and my apartment flooding for me to accept livin’ there as an option. But it is an option if you need or want it and if you wanna talk about it- you’ve got my number.”
"It's actually a mansion?" Ashley carefully, slowly picked a donut out of the bag, and only crushed it just a little bit before taking a bite. "It isn't rehab or inpatient care, just housing?" She'd heard a rumor or two the couple of times she'd been at the District X Community Center, but it was just overheard conversations, a woman in a hijab talking about having the drive back to the mansion - she'd thought it was some kind of in-joke. "If I get kicked out of my dorm for breaking it, it's really okay if I text?" She glanced at her broken phone. "Or get my mom to text. She really is going to send you a thank you card, and probably a starbucks card, she doesn't know what to get people so she just always gives them coffee drinks."
"Actually a mansion." Sam replied in the affirmative. "Just housing, training on how to use your powers, and you can have a job and study while you're there and they'll help. Well... some folks are gettin' help with therapists and physical ailments n' the like but that's more of a case by case basis than the mansion bein' a hospital. And you really can text me if you need to, promise. An' if it's an emergency you can call and that way I'll know it's urgent and be sure to answer straight away."
He tapped his foot on the ground. "When I first manifested, I was in an explosion, my shoulder got real messed up and I nearly killed my coworker. I didn't trust myself to live at home where I could blast through the wall or accidentally hurt one o' my siblings. I went to a place connected to the mansion in Scotland and they trained me on how to control my powers and feel safe usin' 'em. They're good folk, a bit eccentric, but good, solid, folk. An' if you want introductions or even just to visit sometime and see the place for yourself I'm happy to make that happen you just gotta tell me."
"I don't think there are synagogues in Scotland." Ashley said quietly, with a shake of her head. "I have to get a new phone first, Mom's zelleing me money." Something that did hands free well, with a stylus. "If it really is a place to figure out powers..." She looked at her hands, manicured nails chipping because she hadn't been able to touch up the polish. "I probably need help. I definitely need help. I can't keep breaking things. Laptops are expensive." Thank foresight for Applecare and a repair plan that would cover the laptop but her parents were going to be spending so much money to fix the rest of this. "Eccentric people are easy, I'm in theatre." She gave a genuine smile at the word. "I'd love that visit, once I get my phone fixed."
Sam nudged her gently. “Lookin’ forward to it- gives me more incentive to actually learn my way round the place. Just let me know how I can help.”
Ashley nodded. "I will text you probably with one million weird words." She pointed at the broken phone. "I will be sticking to voice to text for a while, you know? Thank you for helping, so so so much. I'd hug you but..." Again the broken phone was indicated, and the door, and the sidewalk curb. She stood up and ineffectively dusted snow and slush off her coat and ignored the damp jeans. "I'm going to walk really carefully back to my dorm, and ... go buy a phone and call my mom again and I will text you, I said that, I know I'm repeating myself, it's been a whole day, you know, and it's only like, before lunch."
Sam stood and barely made any attempt to brush off the slush from his clothes. "No worries, you stay safe okay? That's the most important part."
He stayed a bit to watch her leave, making sure she was truly alright before he finally continued off towards the train station like he'd first intended.
