Clarice and TJ

[ax_nocturne]

The two girls decide to test out how accepting of mutants sanctuary cities actually are. That means shopping and having coffee without image inducers, and leads to Clarice making a new friend!


TJ was sitting cross-legged on the end of Clarice's bed, going through the list of cities who had declared themselves mutant-friendly on her phone. She was in one of her usual fake leather skorts, this one brown, and a cropped white shirt reading "I'm not a mutant (just kidding)" in black block letters. "So, I don't think New York is all that safe. I kinda wanna say San Fran, if it's as progressive here as it was back home, but then again, maybe Burlington would be our best bet? Has Vermont been super awesome here too?"

"Girl, you's askin' the wrong teleporter," Clarice told her with a laugh. "I mean, yeah, I lived in Florida for a while, but that place is barely people-friendly, much less welcomin' to mutants. But maybe Vermont would be a good bet--is smaller, so there's a limit to the size of the angry mob we could attract if the whole thing goes wrong." She shrugged. "I'm mostly here to tote our butts around."

TJ dropped the hand holding her phone in her lap at that conclusion. "Are you? 'Cause if you don't wanna get out there - I thought it was a thing you wanted, too." Sure, it'd be safer with a teleporter, and she wanted to hang out with Clarice, because, well. She was nothing like her friend, but she was, also. But TJ would go on her own if Clarice didn't actually want to walk down a street in plain sight.

"Don' o'erthink it, hon," Clarice told her reassuringly. In a white tank top and lime green shorts, she was dressed for warmer weather, but it would be easy enough to change before they left. "Is totally a thing I wanna do. I just ... not much for travelin', I guess? Which is weird, I know, since I teleport all o'er the place and thing. I usually is just go, though. I don' usually think about it much."

It was amusing, Blink telling her not to overthink things. It was the kind of thing she couldn't imagine her Clarice ever saying to her, but here they were. TJ shook her head. "As long as you're sure you want in on this adventure."

"Just try an' stop me," she reiterated, grinning. "I say maybe we try out Burlington first, an' if that don' completely suck rocks, maybe shoot for a bigger city like San Francisco. You know, like when you kinda ease your way into cold water to get used to it gradually so."

"Works for me," TJ stated decisively, and put the phone away in her pocket. She grinned, fangs flashing. "Let's go!"

"No sooner said than done," Clarice replied with a smirk filled with mischief. There was an audible blink, and the room was abruptly vacant. The two conspicuously colorful teens reappeared at the same moment, in a cascade of pink at the center of a broad, cobblestone thoroughfare, quaint colonial shopfronts forming two unbroken lines to either side of them, with pedestrians milling between. At least, they had been milling. Their entrance had been somewhat spectacular, after all. Ahead, there was a red-brick building with a short clock tower, rising to a narrow point just above the surrounding cityscape.

"Hi," the Bahamian mutant greeted the closest of the shoppers, offering a small wave and a much shier smile.

TJ had been sitting on Clarice's bed, but she managed to land in a crouch when the portal deposited her in the middle of the quaintest city she'd ever seen. She stood up slowly, looking around with a fanged grin, then focused on the people Clarice had just addressed. "Nothing to see here," she told them cheerfully. "Just a couple of girls after some shopping."

She hooked her arm through Clarice's and drew her along towards the nearest clothes shop. She had missed shopping. And online shopping did not count.

Most of the residents and day-visitors in their immediate vicinity made at least a token effort to return to what they'd been doing previously, though some were more obvious in the strain of it than others. A few seemed more relaxed in their acceptance of the girls' presence. All of them were obviously curious, and just as obviously unsure how to approach the bizarre circumstance. Clarice weathered their conflicted scrutiny with a faint coloring of her cheeks, and didn't resist as TJ pulled them in the direction of one of the nearby shops. "I ain' ever been," she admitted, waving again every time someone they passed offered a greeting or a nod. "Not really. My parents did all that for me, when I lived home. And I haven' really had much reason, since I came to the school. So I gonna hafta count on you to show me the ropes, Teej."

"I am a boss at shopping," TJ assured her with a sharp grin, as they walked into the warm store. "Hey there," she greeted the shopping attendants who were staring at the two colorful mutants, walking right on past them and towards a rack of clothes. "What are you in the mood for?"

"Does clothes have moods?" Clarice asked, bewildered. "I don't know, maybe somethin' for the winter? My wardrobe right now is mostly tank tops and pum pum shorts. The cold's been kickin' my ass because of it for a while now."

"I love my fur," TJ singsonged, and drew Clarice along towards the nearest rack of pants, which turned out to be jeans. "Jeans, or no jeans? There are options."

She seemed to think about that for a moment, then shrugged, deliberately ignoring the patrons, the bystanders who had followed them from outside, and the sales clerks who were all gravitating in their direction. "I never wore jeans that weren't shorts before," she acknowledged, somewhat guiltily. "I guess I'd have to try 'em on first."

"Come on, then, which do you like?" TJ asked, doing just as splendid a job ignoring the small crowd, and the phones that were being whipped out. "Skinny, slim, straight, bootcut? That's the leg cut," she explained, showing some examples.

"I don' know what any of those words mean," she told the blue-furred girl with a brief laugh. Her luminous green eyes turned toward one of the staff, distinguishable by the name-tag she wore and her all-black ensemble. "Maybe we should ask for some help?"

"Sure," TJ grinned, and looked over at the employee. "Hey! My friend's never bought jeans before. Think you could help her figure out what she'd like to try on?"

With only a brief, hesitant glance at her supervisor, the sales clerk moved toward the two unusually colorful girls. "Uh, of course. Of course," she repeated a touch more confidently, moving to the racks and selecting an assortment of jeans, glancing back at Clarice every now and then that they would compliment rather than clash with her unique coloration. Clarice, for her part, simply looked mystified as the collection continued to grow.

"I think that will be okay, for a start," she said, finally, once the gal had amassed a heap of pants so large she visibly strained a bit to support them all. "Which way is the changin' room?"

TJ was trying to stifle her laughter as the clerk didn't so much help Clarice figure it out as prepared a mountain of jeans for her to try on. "You go ahead, I'll have a quick look around and join you, if you're cool with that?" She wouldn't abandon Clarice, even for a second, if her friend wasn't.

"I'm ... " Clarice trailed off as she accepted the eighty or ninety pounds of denim from the enthusiastic sales girl, who pointed her in the direction of the fitting rooms. "Fine," she concluded in an abbreviated grunt, awkwardly maneuvering her burden in that general direction. "You go ahead." After a few precarious steps, she gave up and just blinked off the way she'd been shown.

TJ grinned at the blink, and turned to go about the store, zeroing in on the clothing that covered up the least skin... or fur, as the case may be.

* * * * * * *

Ensconced now in one of the moderately-upscale coffee shops a few doors down from the boutique, Clarice regarded the pile of bags she'd brought with her ruefully. Between that, and a large cafe mocha, her savings were going to be in a very poor state, once they got back home. Still, it had been a good outing; the people in Burlington had been curious--gawky, at times--but not rude or hostile. They'd been happy enough to take her money, and that was no lie. "So this is what it is like where you come from?" she asked TJ. "People starin' an' watchin' all'a time, but not bein' mean or wicked about it?"

TJ laughed, and shook her head. "A lot less people staring and watching, especially around where I live. People are pretty used to mutants. The X-Men have been active for twenty years or so. This is really not as good as it's gonna get." Of course it was gonna get better. TJ had to believe that.

"Twenty years," Clarice sighed. "Well, I guess if it ain' worth puttin' in the time, it ain' worth achievin', ay'? Either way, is nice to know on some world out there, we kinda-sorta get it right. I don' even wanna think about what comes between now and then, sometimes, though."

"A bunch of worlds get it right, to be fair," TJ stated, then made a face and tilted her head to one side, then the next. "Well, you know, in that respect. Unless the Timebroker made sure to send us only to worlds where people wouldn't call us abominations and get their pitchforks out."

Shaking her head, Clarice took a sip of her hyper-sweetened beverage. "Well, that's cool. But if it is an infinite number of worlds like this one out there, I'd be willing to bet money that for every one that gets it right, there's two that is get it wrong. That's just human nature, ay'? Prob'bly some kinda Nazi planet out there you just haven' had the displeasure of meetin' yet."

"I'm so glad we never ended up on a Nazi world," TJ stated, with feeling. Although she then frowned as she thought of some worlds that were hardly better. Not that it was the fault of mankind. "Human nature isn't all that bad," she went on, dismissing the thought and giving Clarice a small smile. "It's just about giving them a chance. Giving us a chance."

"Maybe," she said, face half-hidden behind her coffee cup for the moment. "I ain' never noticed human nature was that great, to be honest. But I's been kept away from people so long, I guess I really wouldn' know."

"You don't like the kids at school?" TJ asked curiously.

Clairce started at that. "What? No! I mean, yeah. They seem pretty cool, for the most part," with the occasional exception. "Is just ... is still kinda new, for me? I ain' even been enrolled a year yet. And all I knew before Xavier's was home schoolin' and family. I feel like I's doin' somethin' wrong, mosta the time."

TJ frowned, all friendly concern. "How do you mean?"

"Just, like," she struggled to put it into words, "everybody else already seems like they know what they's doin', and I just makin' it up as I go, ay'? Maybe that's why me and Laura get along so good. She seems like she is as lost as me, sometimes."

"We're all making it up as we go," TJ assured her with a brief pout. "But yeah, I feel you. I mean, this whole world's brand new for me." And yet, in some ways, she was probably more ready for this life - however long she would live it - than Clarice. It was more that it kept throwing her for a loop when she thought she had a handle on something.

"Yeah," Clarice nodded. "When you put it that kinda way, I guess I's got no place to complain. I might be behind on gettin' used to the world, but I guess is still my world. Sorry, Teej. I guess I didn' think that through all that well."

"No, no, you have a point," TJ confirmed, fiddling with the spoon as she thought it over. "I mean, I've known the X-Mansion my whole life, even if this is a different one. We're just - unprepared for things in a completely different way."

The lavender-skinned girl made a face. "I can' tell if I should take that as a comfortin' or a reason to worry. I don' really wanna dwell on all the possible ways I could end up be unprepared for ... e'rything. Just bein' ignorant and socially awkward is bad enough."

"You don't really seem like either of those things to me," TJ replied with a skeptical pout. Sure, she was probably biased, because obviously Clarice reminded her of her Clarice, but still!

Luminous green eyes widened faintly in surprise. "Really? You ain' think so?" She took another sip of her too-sweet beverage, and shrugged. "Is nice for you to say, anyhow. But I don' ever feel like I know what I'm doin', with people. Just fakin' it based on stuff I watched, or stuff I read, or totally improvisin'. I guess is good to know I've been convincin' at it, 'til now."

"I'm pretty sure most people are just faking it 'til they make it," TJ stated. "I know I am, anyway. So you're not alone." She might know what she was doing in terms of being dropped in a fight, but it didn't mean she had a clue what she was doing on a general basis.

"Yeah well, if it means anythin' at all, you's got me totally fooled," Clarice smiled. "Anyway, is nice of you to say so, either which way." The oddly-colored island mutant sat back in the booth and exhaled a faint sigh. "I glad we came out today, though. Was nice to see this ol' world maybe ain' so bad as it was made out to be. Least, not e'ryplace."

"And this is just the beginning," TJ promised her with a sharp grin. Hey, she had to believe this world would get better, and she would do her part to try and bring that along.

"Sorry," came the hesitant interruption to their conversation, coming from the mouth of another young woman, this one Native American. She was wearing a café uniform, and she smiled at them apologetically. "Could I - would it be okay to take a selfie with you guys? I love that you're just - doing this, being yourselves."

If Clarice had looked surprised before, now her expression was frankly amazed. Lips quirking in a not-quite-believing smile, her knee-jerk response would have been yes ... except the question hadn't just been put to her. So she glanced across the booth at TJ, one eyebrow rising in a silent question.

TJ had looked over at Clarice to gauge her reaction, and now she grinned as she looked back at the other girl. "Sure thing. I'm TJ, by the way."

Probably letting her enthusiasm get the better of her, Clarice blinked from her chair to just behind the off-duty barista, and began arranging herself for a photo. "Clarice," she introduced herself. "I supposed to stand somewhere back here, ay'? That's how selfies work?"

The barista started, but then giggled, covering her mouth with her hand. "Oh my god, I'm sorry, that is so amazing. I'm, er, Karen. You're amazing."

TJ had stood up and come over the more normal way, and she grinned at Clarice. "Karen's right, babe. You totally are." And she leaned closer to Karen, gesturing for Clarice to come on in on the other side of her so they could take the selfie.

Variously startled reactions had rippled through the cafe, but there was nothing hostile or threatening in it. Just differing shades of the same ... fascination Karen had shown. Clarice immediately did as TJ indicated, leaning in on the barista's other side and offering a wave over the local girl's shoulder, grinning brilliantly. "Y'all will gimme a swelled head, at this rate. Like telportin' three feet was somethin' to write home about."

"I'd certainly write home about it," Karen giggled, but then posed for the selfie, and took the picture quickly. "Thank you so much!" she then said, turning back to the two girls. "Sorry for the interruption."

Clarice stopped the girl with a hand on her shoulder, then placed the other on TJ's. "Is cool," she told her, still smiling wide, like a fool. "But if you really want somethin' to write home about, and a pretty picture, too ... " The pink-colored energy field rose around them again, so quick it was difficult to process, and the telltale blink sounded again. Between one look and the next, the trio had gone from Vermont to Arizona's Painted Desert--picturesque, if a bit windy and much warmer than their previous environment. "There," she said, sounding a bit pleased with herself. "That will make an e'en better picture."

"Holy shit, what!" Karen stared around with wide eyes. "Shit. Shit! Where are we?"

TJ, for her part, just grinned at her wide-eyed, enthusiastic wonder, and turned that grin on Clarice. "Yeah, Clare, where are we?"

"Arizona," Clarice told them, her smile shrinking into something a bit more shy and uncertain. "I came here one time on school business, and I thought the landscape looked pretty. Too much?"

"Omigodthisisamazing!" Karen squealed. "I can't believe - wow. Arizona, really? Wow."

"Hey, Arizona's pretty, but it's not that pretty," TJ remarked with an amused smile. "Come on, new selfie? Then we can go back before people get too worried about you."

"If I'da been tryin' to show off, I would have carried us to Moscow. 'Cept that ain' really all that pretty, and we'd need Yuri to translate for us," Clarice rattled off, relieved she hadn't freaked the girl out in a bad way. "Let's try get some of them multicolored rocks in the background, ay'? Somethin' special." She assumed a pose similar to the one she'd adopted in the coffee shop, except this time she deliberately placed herself on Karen's opposite side. Photoshop was a thing, and she didn't want it called on their new ... friend? just because she only had one selfie pose.

The selfie was taken quickly enough, and Karen looked back at them both with wide eyes. "Thank you so much. Can I hug you?"

"Uh ... if you wanna?" Clarice approved hesitantly, glancing at TJ as though for confirmation that this was not a weirdly outside-of-all-bounds ... thing. "I don' usually hug much, but--"

"Bring it in, girl," TJ told Karen with a grin, slinging her arm over Clarice's shoulders so they could have a threeway hug.

"Thank you!" Karen said again as she hugged them both, then stepped back, looking around and heaving a wonder-filled sigh. "This is amazing."

"Let's head back?" TJ suggested with a small smile, tilting her head as she met Clarice's gaze. They really didn't want the people in the café to tweet about how they'd just seen a couple mutants abduct a barista.

Clarice, for her part, had been about to suggest they take a selfie in Bali next, but TJ's recommendation brought her up short. She'd gotten excited, and of course they should get their new friend back where she belonged. "No sooner said than done," she confirmed. With another blink, the trio was back in the coffee shop, in more or less the same spot they'd occupied before they'd vanished a few moments ago.

"If you want, I can give you my contact information," she told Karen softly, pulling out her rarely-used phone and fumbling for a moment to unlock it. "Next time, we can go somewhere really cool."

"I'm still banking on Ibiza one of those days," TJ agreed, even as she looked around to check on the reactions of the people around them. Surprise, relief, and even some admiration, if she was reading them right. All good.

"That would be awesome," Karen confirmed with a bright smile, and quickly exchanged contact information with Clarice.

Once that was done, and they'd seen Karen off with waves and a promise to keep in touch, Clarice glanced toward TJ. In a low voice, she muttered, "I woulda helped if Shen had mentioned that Ibiza is a flippin' island. I spent weeks teleportin' back and forth across the mainland before I ran into somebody who spoke enough English to tell me that."

"What, bird girl wants to get there too?" TJ asked with a bright, delighted grin. She reached for her mug to take a sip, but made a face when it turned out that it was tepid. Yeah, she was fine without drinking the rest of it.

"She was the first one to suggest it, as a possible getaway spot," Clarice told her. She continued to nurse her own drink, more interested in the sweet flavor than whether it were lukewarm or not. "So we pretty much gotta carry her, if we is go. Not that I mind; Shen is great people."

"Okay," TJ agreed, easily, but not especially invested one way or the other. "She's just really intense." Which, given who TJ's best friend this past couple of years had been, was ironic. "And I don't get what her problem is with calling the X-Men the X-Men, but whatever. I guess X-Force works, too."

Clarice shrugged. "She is just get passionate about the things she cares about, is all. Which ... I guess is kinda a contradiction, since she's a Buddhist an' all. But I guess takin' the middle path means different things for different people?" She shrugged again. "Anyway, I like X-Force okay. I just hope I can contribute somethin' to the team, other than a one-gal rapid transit system."

"Your mutation is fierce, babe," TJ assured her, pushing her mug aside. "We should hit the Danger Room, I'll give you all of my Blink's combat tricks."

"Absolutely," she agreed readily, a huge grin splitting her vibrantly-colored face. "Although," the island mutant added, just a touch mischievously, "I already been trainin' some with Laura, here an' there. So it may be I know a couple already, and just don' realize it. Seriously, though, that would be great. Your Blink is obviously a lot better at this than I am, an' I'd appreciate any tips you could share."

"I won't be as good at this as she would be, obviously," TJ told her with a grin. "But I'll do my best."

Comments

[ax_shinigami]

This was amazing and is it wrong that I'd love to see Karen again?

[ax_nightcrawler]

I love TJ and Clarice's friendship!