Apocalypse Avenue Home for Wayward Fandom Alumni (#33 Apocalypse Ave), Weds Evening.

[icecoldfrost]

Sometimes a girl just needed a little down time, and so tonight Emma was reading the latest paper on human evolution and mutation by one Dr. Moira MacTaggart, which had recently - for her time - been published.

It was...well, she was occasionally yelling back at it or shaking the journal.

"Stop! Go back! Dammit, I want more on the triggers and symptoms of adolescent manifestation!"

In other words, another evening at the Nolan & Frost Home for Wayward Fandomites.

[OOC: Looking for some boys, but totally open for calls, texts, visitors.]

Comments

[not_in_the_book]

"I don't think yelling at it will help," Ronan said, chuckling in the doorway. "Is it worth writing the author of whatever you're reading to see if she has anything further?"

What? It couldn't be as simple as asking, could it?

[icecoldfrost]

"Right, because a doctor on the forefront of genetic research has nothing better to do than answer fangirl letters from a college sophomore that isn't exactly 'out' about her own mutant status," Emma answered, wrinkling her nose. "UGH."

[not_in_the_book]

"If she's doing research into mutations from a positive, or at least a neutral, perspective, she'd probably be willing to engage semi-anonymously anyway," Ronan pointed out. "Since she'd be understanding about your desire not to be out, right?"

He shrugged. "I mean, it's just a suggestion. But I suspect she'd appreciate getting some intelligent questions about it, y'know? From someone who knows at least a little what they're talking about -- and this is you, so I'd say it's probably more than a little."

[icecoldfrost]

"Flattery, Mr. Nolan, will get you everywhere," Emma teased, sticking out her tongue. "Careful."

"But she is a scientist, a doctor. No offense, darling, but I trust the medical profession about as far as I could throw them. Think about what they could learn about mutation with a dissection subject. I'd rather not risk placing bets on other people's ethics, not unless I've had a chance to get close enough to pick her brain in my own special way."

[not_in_the_book]

"Emma, I'm hurt!" And if you believed that, Emma, you... were clearly ill. "We doctors and healers would... Okay, no, I can't even finish that sentence. If only more doctors had a wizard's ethics."

He sighed, frowning a bit. "I hate that you need to think about that kind of stuff," he added. "It's... I don't like to think about my friends fearing dissection.

"Is there any more of her work available?"

[icecoldfrost]

"Oh, I'm sure," Emma answered, already reaching for her Blackberry. "This just came out last week for me, and I'm about a decade behind Fandom...so there's probably plenty more. I just have to find it."

As to the rest of it, she gave an awkward shrug. "The problem with being a mutant is that as more of us manifest, the awareness grows. The awareness grows... maybe the next little girl who hears voices gets handed over to Science instead of just tossed in the looney bin."

[not_in_the_book]

"Or maybe she gets a teacher," Ronan pointed out. "Awareness goes both ways."

He's a wizard, Emma. He's practically required to be an optimist.

[icecoldfrost]

"There's a movement to ban us from school," Emma said, her cheer practically dripping with scorn. "Not from schools with 'normal children,' but going to school at all. There's a protest movement at E.S.U. to have all incoming students tested for the X gene of mutation, and to only admit humans."

"Freaks don't deserve educations, not if you ask my professors in the human development department."

[not_in_the_book]

"... But."

Give him a moment, Emma. You just broke Ronan's brain. "But you're people."

[icecoldfrost]

"No, darling, we aren't even human," she replied gently, and her smile was quite possibly heartbreaking. "We're demon-spawn, to the devout. Children of the devil instead of the atom. They think we're the new Plague, wiping out civilization, and they're planning to exterminate us."

[not_in_the_book]

Ronan stared.

"... Need a world to escape to?" he asked. "Trust me, I can find somewhere if you need it."

[icecoldfrost]

Emma just stared at him uncomprehendingly. "It's mine," she said, slowly, as if to a simple child. "Would you run and hide?"

[not_in_the_book]

Ronan shook his head. "I didn't think you'd take me up on it," he admitted. "But the offer stands, if you ever need it."