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"Two daughters." Brodie replied factually. It was awful, but not an entirely uncommon thought process. "Some people believe the same about the meta population, but only because they have such a narrow minded view on who meta humans are."
He raised his fork, taking a bite of the pancake. In combination with the maple syrup he had topped it with, the German let out a sigh of relief. This was exactly what he had needed to fill his complaining stomach. "This is wonderful."
Luxanna Cross
Never to touch, and never to keep. You loved too much, and you dived too deep.
Genuine sadness colored the brunette's eyes at that. "Oh, that's so sad." She rarely, if ever, involved herself with politics. She wished she had more of an interest in it, and a talent, like this gentleman, where she could potentially help. Or at the very least, allow people to share their stories. "Well, you can't really blame people for being afraid of us." She offered, looking down at her pancakes. "Wouldn't you have been, if you were in their shoes?" Lux had grown up around mutants, but even to this day, she found herself backstepping whenever she came across someone who had the ability to create fire out of seemingly thin air.
A smile formed on the brunette's lips. "Try mixing it with the bacon. The mix of sweet and salty makes the entire dish." Of course, that was just her personal preference. Most people who came here to eat, ordered the dish without the bacon. She couldn't understand why, but to each their own.
"It is." Brodie agreed, giving a small nod of his head. It was a shame that people had this preconceived notion of entire groups of people. He carved his knife through a piece of bacon, fork pressing into it and pulling it over to another bite of pancake. When he bit down into it, he let out an approving hum, his head bobbing up and down. "You know your breakfast foods." He commented, pressing the napkin to the corner of his mouth before resuming the meal.
He gave the question posed to him some thought. "No, I don't believe I would." Brodie answered finally. "I can't hold prejudices against people that I don't know. It's like a form of bullying." Something he was familiar with growing up. "Sure, if someone did something bad with an ability they have, I would hold them accountable, but they don't speak for everyone. Any person in this country can go and purchase a gun, but I do not hold someone who hunts responsible for a mass shooting."
Luxanna Cross
Never to touch, and never to keep. You loved too much, and you dived too deep.
Lux had never been one to seek out things in life that made her sad. She wasn't going to dig too deep into the subject he'd offered, but that didn't change the fact that she thought it was terrible. Hopefully, the family would figure out a way to help themselves. Knowing other people, there was likely no one else that would.
"Thank you." She offered, grinning sheepishly.
Taking another bite of the pancakes, she nodded. "That makes you better than most of us." As much as she wanted to say the same, she wasn't sure she could. She wouldn't ever claim to be a particularly judgmental person, but she was skittish. She had a tendency to be afraid of everything she didn't know. Maybe that made her ignorant. She wasn't sure. "I wish more people thought like that."
As Brodie continued to eat, he listened carefully to what the woman had to say. His eyebrows rose, surprised by the statement given about his character. He had honestly never considered it that way; a better way of thinking. It was just a way to think to get to the truth. Generalization could lead to a dangerous path, but he certainly didn't believe that he was better than anyone else.
"I just want to learn why people are the way they are." He shrugged, leaning back in his chair. Perhaps it was why he was so good at his job. "For example; you said you work in a bar for practice, but it's only alright to work as one." His fork circled in the air as he spoke, before diving down into another piece of pancake. "Do you feel the practice is worth working at a place you don't necessarily enjoy?"
Luxanna Cross
Never to touch, and never to keep. You loved too much, and you dived too deep.
She supposed she could understand where he was coming from, though wouldn't it be more beneficial for him to study something along the lines of psychology? She didn't voice her opinion, of course. It didn't seem like it was her place to ask, after all and she'd never been one to push.
Tapping the tips of the fork against her lower lip, she hummed. "Oh, I do enjoy it." She did - or had learned to, anyways. "But that aside..." She pondered his question for a moment, taking a bite from the pancakes. Chewing, her head tilted. "But I'd say it'd be different if I didn't, though, I think I would deem it worthy. Eventually." She offered him a single shoulder shrug. "But I say that with the wisdom of hindsight." She pointed out.
He continued to eat as he let the woman think out her thought process of his question. It was exactly what he meant by getting to know people; his notepad didn't have to be open, nor his camera on for him to know what questions to ask. Because it was always so much more than the verbal response given to find the answer. She immediately contradicted herself, and he had to wonder why. To say a job was alright, but try to cement the idea that she enjoyed it lead him to believe there was more to it, but he let her continue.
"And what is the exact skill you're hoping to gain from it?" He asked when she finished, genuinely curious. He had no ill opinion towards bartenders, but he wondered what benefits it provided someone who seemed to seek something specific.
Luxanna Cross
Never to touch, and never to keep. You loved too much, and you dived too deep.
It was odd, to be putt in the position she now found herself in. It wasn't often people sought out her opinion on things. Most seemed to expect her to be a certain way and rather than finding out what was hiding underneath, they accepted their own version of the truth. She'd always been fine with that, though, but she couldn't say she particularly minded this either.
"Well." She began, leaning back in her chair. She put the fork down against the plate and pursed her lips thoughtfully. "I've never been particularly good with people - or talking to them." She continued, head tilting. "But being a bartender sort of forces me into situations I normally wouldn't be in, and it has taught me a lot." She supposed that was a nice summary of it. After all, it was the sole reason she'd sought the job out in the first place.
It was about as simple of an explanation as Brodie could ask for. Straightforward with a very specific goal. It was absolutely true, bartenders needed a certain charisma to aid in their field, and he had to wonder what she was like before taking on a job like that. He took the last bite of his food, having an appetite to clear a plate quickly. He touched the napkin to his lips.
"It's seemed to do well for you, if this conversation is any indicator."
Luxanna Cross
Never to touch, and never to keep. You loved too much, and you dived too deep.
The chuckle flowed past her lips, the sound almost shy. "Thank you." She put her elbow against the table, chin resting against the back of her hand. "Carrying a conversation has always been hard for me, but I'm getting better at it." She saw no reason not to be honest about it. It wasn't something she'd ever felt ashamed about, but it had always been something she'd wanted to change about herself. Less out of the need of companionship and more out of curiosity: She'd never been one to seek out friends. They mostly seemed to stumble upon her by accident.
"Are you planning on staying?" She asked. "Settling down, I mean." She wondered what he really felt about Stagfort and its community. It had to be interesting for someone with his job. The mutant community was growing and while it had gathered a lot of support, there was still those that remained fearful.
It was admirable that the girl could recognize something about herself that she wanted improvement on, and worked to achieve that. Were it not for the conversation they were having, he would have never guessed that she was shy, especially given that she invited a stranger in to her place of work after hours and offered to share a meal with. His forearms pressed to the table, pivoting his chair to better look at her.
"Settling down?" He laughed a little, because really, he hadn't thought much about it. "I'm not sure. I'm willing to go where my career takes me." If it meant leaving Stagfort, then so be it. But at the rate of things, he could very well be there for years. "How about you? Does this place feel like enough of a home for you?"
Luxanna Cross
Never to touch, and never to keep. You loved too much, and you dived too deep.
"That makes sense." She replied honestly. She envied people who could move from place to place so easily. She wasn't sure if she was staying out of sentimentality - or out of fear. She'd never given it much thought, though. Leaving had never really seemed like an option to her. "It must be interesting to have a career that could take you anywhere." Was there a thing as a traveling bartender? "My entire family lives here." She shrugged. "That makes it enough of a home to me."
Finishing her own plate of pancakes, she gathered the two plates and stacked them neatly in front of herself. She put the forks and knives on top of the plates and turned back to the man. "Do you have any family here?" Again she was left wondering if he was a mutant, though, from his accent, he probably didn't have a whole lot of family nearby. Of course, a lot of people transferred from their foreign mutant schools to attend Bellefonte, but it always felt like a shot in the dark. Asking, that was.
Family could do a lot to make a person stay in a place. He recalled telling his family that he would be moving, and it was his own stubbornness that made him stick with that decision. The heartbreak of his parents was almost enough to make him reconsider.
"My brother came here with me." He admitted, smiling at the memory of his brother announcing his move as well. "I'm fortunate to have him."
"Would you stay here if it weren't for them?" He asked, curious. It was a method he used to help make his own decision.
Luxanna Cross
Never to touch, and never to keep. You loved too much, and you dived too deep.
"Oh, that's nice of him!" She said honestly. She could easily understand the comfort of having a sibling around. She was glad she had hers. Her brother meant the world to her and she didn't know where she would have been without him. Still, she didn't like it when he worried. Or got in trouble. Or made her worried.
"I don't know." She replied with simple ease; After all, without her family, she had no idea where she would have ended up. "I mean, I'm not much of a traveler, but they help keep me grounded." She didn't have much of a reason for staying besides them, but then again, she didn't have much of a reason of leaving either.
