Logs:Regular Heroic

Regular Heroic
Dramatis Personae Beau, Echo
In Absentia	2023-05-13 "Point me at them tomorrow." (recalling some wisdom)
Location <PRO> Laundry Room E-14 - Lassiter Research Facility - Ohio
Massive stainless steel washers and dryers line one side of the room; along the other, spare metal tables for folding, massive yellow carts piled high with drab colored scrubs, and a handful of wire shelves for sorted clothes. Fluorescent lights gleam dimly off the lint-covered gray linoleum. Inmates on duty load, run, sort, and fold, but there's no sign of detergents, which are automatically injected through piping behind the drums: they're not trusted near "dangerous chemicals." Echo peers inside as she walks past the laundry room on her twice-daily pass to memorize the floorplan (who needs glasses?) and improve her sense of Lassiter's rhythms. Her posture is wary, but it's pretty empty this time of day, she's learned. This time, she stops as her eyes scan up to the towering height of the top of Beau's head. With a glance around, she steps inside gingerly. "Do they...carry long enough pants?" Her own khaki scrubs are clearly too wide, but they're not too long. Beau is just sort of staring at the wall behind the machine, his frame hunched more than usual making him look smaller (in comparison to his usual imposing stature). He jerks when Echo speaks to him, the light returning to his eyes as a fight or flight kicks in momentarily. “Oh. Um, I think they do. But,” he lifts his leg, the bottom of his pants pulling up to his calf, “they didn’t give them to me.” His eyes move from the other teen to scan for anybody else that may be sneaking up on him. “How are things here so far, anybody giving y’all trouble?” Echo grimaces apologetically. "Ah, sorry, didn't mean to surprise you. I thought looking for some that fit is maybe what you'd be doing in here. I just came in cause, you know. Friendly face." She glances nervously to the inmates with jobs here and clasps her hands in front of her, away from anything she could touch. "It's fine. I mean, I...gave...some guy most of my meat from lunch, but I don't eat that much normally." Echo glances up to Beau's eyes, nearly a foot and a half higher, and down again. "Hope you're getting...less of that?" “Ah, it’s fine. Place just reminds me of the other dimension. Sure they’re gonna have a field day seeing if I picked up an extra dimensional cold or some shit.” Beau grumbles, his expression hardening a touch before adding, “Point me at them tomorrow. I still have my powers so I’m sure they won’t fuck with me. I’ll be damned if I let anything happen to us this time.” He pauses as the reality of their situation really sets in, the color draining slightly from his face, “Well, nothing I can help.” Echo cranes her neck upwards again, eyebrows drawn together with a touch of sadness. "You, too, huh? Kavalam and Naomi mentioned..." She holds her upper arms, shoulders slanted unevenly. "They made it seem even worse there. I don't know enough to say, but it doesn't feel great that this is in our dimension." She presses her lips together, laughs shakily. "Thanks, Beau. Think as long as we stick together better it'll help. Like Spence says." Echo shifts one hand up to her shoulder, beneath her scrub sleeve, worrying at her arm with her thumb. When she next speaks it's quieter. "You think he's right about the other stuff? Like, that Roscoe kid's been in here for ages. I wanna believe we'll get out..." She doesn't speak the but. “They’ll find us.” Beau sounds certain. “If we were alone we’d probably be fucked, but they took Spence. There’s a good chance Mr. Jax breaks himself out of prison just to rain hellfire on the facility. The only question is how long until they find us.” Whatever confidence he was starting to build back up fades just as quickly as it appeared. “I hope it’s not Scott looking for us.” Echo's lips scrunch through a variety of positions beneath the rueful-sad expression on her face. "That's good," she mumbles eventually, in the small kind of voice that is apologetic about existing, before trying to fight off the hollowness. "Yeah. I am glad to know some of us have people waiting on the outside. Would be nice to meet Mr. Holland." Her forehead crinkles. "Mr. Summers? Will he take forever or something?" This laugh is strained. "Maybe, next time, we should leave a note. Maybe we deserved this, a bit." “To be fair, you’d think Xavier would’ve noticed all of us panicking and gathering supplies.” Beau doesn’t look particular surprised that they were overlooked. “I just don’t have much faith he’ll actually manage to find us on his own, he’s a good leader, but his luck is pretty bad. I saw him slip down the stairs because he stepped on a piece of paper one time. Surprised he didn’t break anything.” He exhale slowly. “Nobody deserves this. I just wish I was strong enough to have stopped us from getting captured.” “Guess it was pretty late.” Echo is genuinely amused when she adds, “He’s pretty old…what do you think his bedtime is, 9 pm?” Her eyes widen. “Wow, uh… Kinda brave of him to ride motorcycles everywhere, huh?” She sucks in a breath of recognition, squints up toward Beau. “I got Naomi darted,” she offers. “And she told me thinking what if was a shitty game to play. I’m trying to take it to heart. Can’t all be on you, especially when they’ve got powers too,” she says darkly. “I was worse than useless when we ended up stranded in other New York, I was a liability.” Beau admits, gaze falling to the floor. “So it’s hard to not blame myself for fucking up again.” He scratches at his shoulder. “Figured this was my chance to turn things around, be a hero for once. Should’ve just known better.” There's a long silence as Echo shifts side to side on her feet. "The guilt's really tempting," she says finally, and it hangs like a fog over her words. "For me, you, probably a bunch of us. I do think we've got lessons to learn about...limits." A thin smile. "But Harm told me last month..." Echo points her finger upward, habitually, before remembering the situation. She flushes and her hand drops awkwardly to hang at her side. Using her own voice, she finishes, "Er. That there's regular kinds of heroic. And helping each other make it through this...even if it's just helping me believe that we'll be back to play the fall concert, or, keeping Gaé from getting beat up for being human or something...even if we landed each other in here in the first place, that all...counts for hero points, I think." Beau is silent for several moments that seem to stretch off for an eternity after Echo finishes speaking, before suddenly righting his posture and a warm smile spreading across his face, “You’re right, thanks. There’s no way they aren’t already looking for us, so I say we give them one month, but keep our eyes open for anything we can. They’ve already caught us, so they won’t be expecting much. Don’t let them break you and before long this’ll just be something to talk about in therapy.” Can Echo really see Beau's smile? Well, enough to see that there is one, and this prompts a smile of relief on her own face. Her single nod is deep, more decisive juxtaposed against her usual indecision. "Man. Hope someday I have enough cash for new glasses and therapy. In the meantime...wanna maybe see if we can find a longer pair of pants in here?"