2013-01-02 Down on the Corner

So, having been suspended of her duties, and benched until she can wrestle with her whole drinking problem, Carol was out and about. She'd showered and put on clean clothes, and actually... *gasp* taken some care to make her hair look decent. One thing she's been doing for almost a week now. Ever since the incident with the little bug... er.. Brood... well, after the second one, she realized he really -was- stuck here.
So, she's been scouring the city, trying to find -some- way to do something right. It's her fault he was terrified at their first meeting, and she knows it. She also believed the little guy when he said that he wasn't like other Brood. So she's been literally walking the streets for hours a day, trying in vain to find you. It's not as if a 3 foot bug looking thing can really hide in a city of... oh right, millions of other inhabitants.
So tonight, she's been doing this again for about five hours.. figuring that on foot is easier than flying around trying to spot him from way up above. But she stands on a streetcorner, looking across the street at a bar sitting there, almost calling her name. She's waiting for the light to change and for the DON'T WALK, to become WALK. She figures she's earned a drink.
Showering in something besides one of the odd elevated little units on the walls in the mens room which you have to keep pulling the lever and never get any hot water at all, was a nice change for Broo. He finally had a decent night sleep, he'd bought a few new clothes, but he decided that he would not let this city beat him. If you can make it there, New York, you can make it anywhere, and so Broo has decided he will return after less the na day away, and do what others of his kind do, look for work. 
The Police after the first three places he tried this had decided that he was just some crazy kid or dwarf activist, especially with his looks, shirt, and the sign he keeps holding up, and dismissed it as merely some odd anti-immigration law protest. Broo once more sets himself up on a corner, and holds up his sign which says, "I am an Illegal Alien, I am looking for honest work, fair wages, and no hand outs. Please Help Me!"
The lure of a drink has Carol licking her lips. But as the sign changes to 'walk', she starts moving that way and her eyes almost sliding right past your sign. She walks right past you, and smells a bit different. None of that vanilla stuff. Just Irish Spring soap. She loves that smell it seems. So... she walks past, her soap different, but the half kree scent unmistakeable.
She's even muttering to herself, "Well, another day wasted. Face it girl. Odds are he's either dead in a ditch somewhere, or perfectly fine. It's not like he needs -you- trying to help'im." She shakes her head a bit as she speaks...
As much as he came for work, there is a being Broo wants to connect with more then practically any other he has met. If he can befriend the 'Destroyer of All Brood, Scourge of the Species, the number one convert or kill being commanded by the Brood Empress' then Broo can truly state he is no longer of his kind... plus, who better to have as an ally if he senses his kind near, someone who knows their danger and whom he can warn and they will understand the urgency of that warning. He has smelled very little non-Terran life since arriving, so the Half-Kree scent is definitely familiar enough to him, and having smelled it with other aromas before, he is fairly sure he can trust that statistics are in favor of it being the same being. Rolling his sign back up, he straps it to his back with a piece of sturdy cord, and then extends his wings, zipping through the crowd, calling out, "Nice smelling Half-Kree Lady... please wait... please wait... I wanted to thank you so much." he doesn't seem out of breath, but then again, he doesn't really need to breath the same way most beings do, "Are you busy? I know there is much sweet smelling Methylcarbinol at the establishment for legal age beings a little distance away, but I am not sure I am yet of legal age, so may we please speak before you go visit it as you were the day I met you... that glorious and fortuitous day."
Yes, distracted, but there's only so far that'll get a person as an excuse. Lots of flappy toothy talking does tend to draw attention. And before she realizes that it's her you're addressing, the gasps and exclamations of... holy crap! What is that! or things along those lines have more of Carol's attention than your words.
This is the point at which she turns around slowly, growling almost as she thinks to herself . . o o O O (This had better be a world threatening master villain... anything else will be too easy to squash for me stopping before I get my ....) And then even her thoughts are cut off mid word as she sees a Brood. Then it hits her.. hey, wasn't it this small Brood that you were looking for? And another side of her tries her best to dismiss that but.. she just finally starts listening and holds her hands up, "Wait, wait a sec little guy. Start at the beginning please?" she asks
Smiling happily, Broo lands and tries to hug as he nears, "Hello pretty half-Kree lady. You smell different today, not bad, just different." he takes a moment to sort his thoughts, "You scared me toward the nice friends who showed me Pizza and how to buy food. And had I not learned from them about Pizza and how to buy food I would have lasted for many more days, and I would not have been kicked out of that All-You-Can-Eat Pizza Place with those extra Pizzas to make me go away. Those Pizzas also were the ones I used to help you with the mean robot which got us on the view screens with the alerts about news. And you are famous, while I and the others there are just terrorists. Had I not helped you, my friend would not have seen me on the view screen and known I was in New York to come find me. She was scared I was dead, and I was scared I would die and never see her again. Also, the nice silent man from the Bar you were at would never have come out and fed me and given me hot chocolate, and I would never have met him, had you not made so much noise, and he is the one who helped me and my friend not have to fight a group of big angry boys who might have hurt my friend. You did so much to help me be saved. Thank you so much. I was terrified when I learned you are 'She who destroys all Brood, Scourge of all Hives, The one who th Brood Empress wants converted or slaughtered above all other beings' that you might actually be as monstrous as the Hive Mind made you out to be, but now I see you are wise and brilliant, manipulating events to aid me, while still warning of the dangers of the Brood. You are a wonderous and glorious being." he looks almost about to cry. Reaching slowly into one of his pockets he pulls out a little wrapped package, "Would you please accept this as a thank you? I do not have much, but it is something I bought with money I sort of earned, and I would like you to have it."
The hug... is not so much recoiled from as it is.. caught halfway into it. She just kinda grabs your body there before you can fully hug her she tries interrupting you three or four times. "But I... you don't... I mean hold on, I... you mean... oh hell with it." she adds that last part, shaking her head as she just lets you ramble on and on and on and then you pull out a gift. "Whoa, wait a sec... hold that thought. Convert or kill? ... Convert?" Her eyes narrow and she mutters, "That'll be the day... I wish she'd try." she mutters before she focused back on the gift. "Look um.. little guy." she begins, for she never got your name. "You are giving me way too much credit. I almost killed you.. would have kept trying if not for Thor. I wasnt -trying- to help you then." She takes a breath. She needs to do that now and then you know. "And.. I didn't see you again until the robot bitch. After that, I realized that you had no real way of providing food for yourself. So I've literally spent hours... -every- day trying to find you.. trying to find a way to help the only Brood I ever met who actually showed fear or any emotion other than hunger. I've been trudging these streets... for days.. and... great, just another failure." She puts a hand up between the gift and her, "Keep it little guy, I don't deserve it. I haven't done anything useful in years."
Pouting a bit, Broo considers, "Oh... my friends Jubilee and Kitty named me Broo. They said it is cute, and I am cute, which I like because cute is not scary." he looks down at the package, "Is not the act of trying more important then doing? Terran Scientist Thomas Edison did not consider his 10000 attempts to make a lightbulb as failures, he considered it that he found 10000 ways to not make a lightbulb and 1 way to make one. One does not learn from success, and success frequently can give one a false sense of invincibility or perfection... If you learn from your mistakes, then you have done something far more useful then the person that doesn't care but keeps doing the same thing successfully and learned nothing. You learned I was not a monster, and that means something very important to me. In addition, on this whole planet, you are perhaps one of a small handful who can understand the threat my species presents this world, and that makes you sacred, for not only do you know, but you can make others understand and you can do something about it if my kind arrived." he smiles and once more offers the present, "You are a good being, a lovely one, who also has the distinct honor of being the one being, in all of existance, that can possibly inspire fear in any Brood, not just one little mutant Broodling with a capacity for all emotions. I would like to call you something other then Pretty Half-Kree Lady, or the long translation of the designation the Brood Empress has labeled you with. Please?" one more holding up the small little wrapped object.
".... " It's evident that Carol is a bit speechless. She has some issues with your ability to go on and on and on but, that's more ob a pacing issue and a cultural issue as opposed to trying to tell you to shut up. She just stares wordlessly for the duration of your current diatrabe before she even goes so far as to shake her head. "Hold up, hold up.. you're giving entirely too much credit to me. If we learn from mistakes, I would be the smartest woman in the world. As I am not, then I am apparently not learning the right lessons from the right mistakens. Some people get far too many chances to screw up, and I think it's about time I stopped taking the chance to make even more mistakes. The last one I made before almost killing you, was -getting- someone killed who travelled halfway around to world to help rescue me from where I'd been captured during another failure... only to get herself killed in the process. I am done letting other people die for me." says Carol as she folds her arms over her chest, eyes flickering to the -gift- and she snorts, "I do not deserve a gift.. Broo is it? But if you like, you can call me Carol." Sure, she'd thought that it might dishonor your gift, and upset you for her to refuse, but right now, there's too much wallowing in self pity for her to even behave like she normally would.
There is sort of a sigh, "If there is one quality my species has that is a positive one, is we are persistant. So you have learned the wrong lessons. Then the issue is not to quit trying, it is to ty differently." he ponders, "You are saddened, someone sacraficed themself to save you. Is their sacrafice worth so little that you would squander it now? They obviously saw something worth saving, or they would not have done so. You must instead of accepting failure, take the time to find what it is they saw, and exemplify that quality." Broo ponders and considers a moment, "I have so many memories, ideas, and thoughts from so many races and beings, it is as if I lived those lives as much as I have lived my own, and yet despite having emotions no other member of my kind has, I have no emotional connections to those memories. I could quote philosophers from countless Shi'ar assimilated cultures, spout the wisdom of Skrull priests and scholars, even toss around Kree Military Doctorine and Procedure, but only you can find what you need." 
He tears off the wrapping paper and reveals a jewelry store ring box, then opens it to reveal a little woven multicolored friendship bracelet, "I wish to do something no Brood has ever done, befriend an enemy of my species. Please, let me call you, Carol, my friend. And let me give you the same gift you gave me, whether you intended to or not, hope." he fakes taking a deep breath, "When we fought that robot, you were willing to sacrafice yourself for me, a being you had feared and loathed, and you saw past my appearance, you who are an enemy of all Brood, were willing to save one, because you did learn from your mistake. You can do it. And you gave me hope that if you could overcome that innate hatred, then perhaps any being can change their heart."
One thing connects her with you all of a sudden. It just -clicks-. Carol just stares at you dumbly for a long moment before she ... almost robotically reaches out and accepts the box from you. She pauses and just stares at you with a whole new way of seeing. After a moment, she closes her eyes before she remarks softly, "You have ... imprinted memories of other lives. What of your own life? Your memories of your youth, do you possess those from living them, or were they imprinted as well?" She opens her eyes and meets your gaze levelly.... almost as if this concept is more important to her than the whole... failure, death, whatever...
Tilting his head to the side, Broo tries to understand the context of the question, "Do you mean my memories of my life aboard the ship after the terminally ill M'Ndavian boy who volunteered to assist became my host and was converted to me? Or do you mean his memories from his youth before he was me? While my body is that of a teenager, I have only been myself, the Broodling, for a few standard years. I have strong emotional connections with the memories for the past few years, but all the memories of my host are like being a passenger, looking through the window and watching the actions, but not really feeling as if they are my own. The only emotion I have ever felt with a memory that I did not experience is one that is oddly connected with you. I can remember a memory spread through the hive mind of a group of Brood, each from their own perspectives, as you incinerated them and tore them apart... and they... and to a degree their Queen and the Empress, all felt fear... not the same way I do... but then again, they may not even know the concept to know they felt it, but I did." he smiles, "It is that which brought me hope. The Hive Mind does not give us host emotions because the emotions do not transfer to the Brood, but it does transfer Brood emotions. Until me, those were hunger, viscous wrath, and something similar to but not truly happiness... more an enjoyment in the hunt and the kill. But if I feel emotions that other Brood did not know they felt, perhaps they will feel my emotions and have no choice but to experience them." he smiles, displaying that almost viscious glee he just mentioned, "How do you think a group of Brood would handle fighting a foe that they suddenly feel compassion, sympathy, pity, or love for?"
Okay, it's not that she's tuning out certain stuff. Such as your praise of her for committing genocide. She still isn't sure to this day if she did the right thing... she was angry at the time, but did that give her the right to wipe out an entire world of the Brood? Anyhow, she shakes her head and crouches before you, putting her on your level. "You must understand.. you and I have one hugely important thing in common between us." She smiles just a little bit then and reaches to slide the bracelet onto her wrist with earnest feeling now. "You see, I lived my whole life, gained my powers, knew the greatest man I have ever met, and then.. in one single moment I had that all ripped out of my body and mind. My powers I could have lived without and been happy but.." she smiles sadly, "The mutant who absorbed my powers, also absorbed all of my memories. This left me with no idea who I even was for a while. Most of those memories were... -restored-... but they were like watching the memories on the TV screen, not memories so much as images that I can -access-. It is like someone else's life... someone with my name and who looks like me, but who I am watching live her life. I have no emotional connection to any of those memories. So.." she grins a bit, "Do you see why I asked?"
Nodding, a sadness comes to Broo's face, "I am so sorry. While there are slightly different reasons, I can think of few things more sad then to have no emotional connection." he pauses, and looks worried, "Do you hate mutants because of this? I... I am a Brood and a Mutant... I must seem like the worst kind of monster, both of the most evil things you have ever known." he looks almost ready for tears, such a rapid swing from his elation at the prospect of crippling his own species with all the positive emotions they are so unfamiliar with. He weakly holds out the ring box with the friendship bracelet, as if hoping it can bridge any possible hard feelings, "If you ever wish to commiserate about the lack of emotional connection to your memories, I would be quite willing to listen, and..." he ponders, "There-there you. I am okay at keeping secrets, and while I may not understand everything about Terran culture, I am as good a listener as I am a babbler." obviously realizing he has a strong capacity for word flooding.
"No, I do not hate Mutants." offers Carol with a sad smile, "I do not hate you at all. You see... Brood... are not individuals. They are a hive. They do not hate... they simply are. The mutant who did this... the one who calls herself Rogue. I have... come to terms with it. She did not want my memories. She did not want to take that all away from me. Her power did that to me but she did not know all of what it would do." She shrugs her shoulders and just adds, "I told you because... of all people, you would know what it is like to have memories that are not ... -memories-." Then she pauses and adds, "Did you hear that? I referred to you as... a person." 
That said, she looks to the box and nods, "I would be honored to be your friend. If you would be mine. I have nothing to give you that is so nice as what you have offered me though. Perhaps you will simply accept..." she pauses and then seems to come to a decision. She reaches into her pants pocket and pulls out her late brother's pocket knife, theone the kid grew up with and the one that was left to her when he died... and she opens it before reaching up and cutting a lock of her hair from her head near the base and pulling that down to twine it about and loop it on itself, "Would this function as a bracelet for friendship?" she asks as she holds it out your way, the golden hair shining in the street lights.
Carefully taking the golden bracelet, Broo slips it on his right wrist and smiles, nodding, "Thank you. I will cherish this. It is something truly special because it is part of you. The silk bracelet I bought is made from pigments being applied to the secretions of some kind of small larval lepidoptera and various other arthropoda..." he pauses and looks behind himself then shakes his head, as if considering if his resemblence to an insect might somehow allow him to produce some sort of silk, then shrugs, "I can not even grow hair, so yours is very precious. Thank you... Carol." he looks around, "Perhaps we should go get something to drink, to celebrate friendship and understanding plights of others. I am somewhat partial to hot chocolate, and I have some cash left that I can treat?" perhaps remembering the reason he came to New York today was to find work so he can make money.
Pausing, Carol stands up and takes a deep breath. She does this with her eyes shut and shakes her head, "Tell you what. I will introduce you to an Earth custom. We will go back to my loft. I think I have had enough to drink today." Though, she is referring to alcohol. You've inspired her to at least refrain for the day. "Then, -I- will buy you chinese delivery." she grins, "Don't worry, I will buy you like four orders. Please accept my hospitality, and save your money."
There is a moment of pause at the concept of Chinese delivery, as perhaps Broo considers the possibility of the meaning refering to having some Chinese person delivered, but he shakes that off, and smiles, "That is much appreciated... both in the quantity and the taking care of the cost. I have found only one thing I have yet to like to eat of the many terran consumables, but as long as there is no pork, I am sure I will adore Chinese delivery." He glances around and slips up his hood, just as a precaution, to make himself less conspicuous, "Please lead the way Carol." looking quite content, "I knew meeting you was a gift from Sharra." following the lead to the apartment, to friendship, and to Chinese Delivery...
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