You can take the Girl out of the Swamp (Closed 1x1)

[Teh Frixz]

Avoyelles ​

One of the strangest things about adjusting to life outside of the deep swamp was the idea of a grocery store. Not some mamma and poppa bait 'n snack either but a real honest to goodness grocery store. There were aisles just for things like soft drinks and cat food and an entire aisle of makeup stuff with more colors than she thought possible. It was daunting, even after a couple years. Plus it just seemed to get more and more complicated the further north she went. People moved faster, talked quicker, rushed her along. Like it was some sort of race to put their shit on the moving counter. More than once she'd gotten into an argument over the merits of speed with someone hurrying her along.

At least right now the aisle she was in was mostly empty. Aveey staring at a wall of spices. It was different than just going out back and picking what you needed out of the ground. Everything here was written small and in fancy lettering, making it more difficult for her to read. She was barely literate as it was and with the tiny scribbling, she had to take each spice and pop the top off to smell and taste rather than read the words out loud. Making sure nobody was looking, she popped the top off the next spice and did a quick lick and dip of her finger.

The heat spread out delightfully on her tongue and the scent was unmistakable. "Cayenne peppeh!" She shouts in recognition, clapping the top back on the container and depositing it in the basket hooked neatly on her elbow. What did she need next...garlic powder, paprika, maybe real garlic instead of powdered. But what aisle was that in. Aveey looks skyward at the aisle sign, visibly mouthing out the words on it. The image of herself making faces made her laugh, thinking that this was only gonna get worse in the meat aisles. If they even had a meat aisles that was. If there was one thing to wrinkle her nose it was frozen food. Especially if they dared put 'cajun' style on the box. Shameful.

Not seeing garlic on the aisle sign, she leans back in towards the wall hoping maybe to see a GAR written somewhere that didn't have a POWD around it.

 

[JustNicole]

Evangeline
Lunch time had rolled around in Baltimore, which meant that for a brief period of time Evangeline had a brief respite from the endless stream of students that marched through her the door to her office. Already today, two students had managed to get into something a fight which when escalated with powers and another student in the gymnasium managed to fall from a rope. Three injured students today, and it was only just the midway point. Leaving her humid office heated with a humidifier to keep her skin moist like back home in Louisiana, Evangeline took a brief bus ride down to the grocery store. There was some shopping she needed to get done, and she sure as hell wasn't going to feel up to the shopping after what was sure to be an exhausting afternoon.

Entering the grocery store, Evangeline grabbed one of the handheld baskets. She would have loved to just use a shopping cart and get all of her shopping done, but there was no way she was going to be able to carry all that back on the bus and into her office. For now, it'd have to be the essentials only, probably some more spices and Lean Cuisine meals since she was out of those.

Walking down the isles, Evangeline kept checking row after row until she found the spice isle, finding it relatively abandoned with just another woman looking at some spices farther down. There was something about the woman that seemed familiar, but Evangeline couldn't quite put her finger on it. Perhaps she had just seen her around town before.

Evangeline wasn't one to randomly approach someone and ask them how she knew them, so she minded her own business and started pursuing down the isle looking for the spices she wanted. No. No. No... she wasn't seeing the ones she was looking for at all in this isle. Maybe the store didn't carry them.

Suddenly, as the woman behind her exclaimed in a thick cajun accent, Evangeline felt the world begin to move in slow motion. That voice. She knew that voice. And that face. Oh my God! Evangeline could feel her grip on the basket slip as the empty plastic fell to the floor with a clang. Turning around, Evangeline exlaimed "Aveey!" as she threw her arms around the woman backing up into her.

 

[Teh Frixz]

Avoyelles Aubin-Mignault​

Quite nearly almost punching whoever just grabbed her in the throat, Aveey was stopped as a nickname she hadn't heard in years suddenly set off a flood in her heart, filling her with almost ecstatic joy! Pulling out of the grip just to look at Linnie before diving right back into the hug, her own selection of spices joining her sisters groceries on the floor.

"Linne! Mah lettle pawllywag! Naw naw naw! Es jes a dream rite? Dis jes a dream, me cuz dis ain't my lettle sistah all groan yup big n' strong?!"

Aveey squeezes her tightly, tears falling openly as she hugged as if she was never going to let go again. She just might not let go again. Opening up her eyes, and looking over what she could see it was obvious that this was Linne, her true Aubin-Mignault kin. She had the same ears, eyes and hair she had when she was little. Aveey knew them well enough, having washed them out in countless baths and the hundreds of times she'd braided that mass of brown hair. God damn, it was like a little bit of the good in her life came back up and smacked her out of nowhere. The sting of the goodness in life waking her out of the lost stupor she'd been feeling.

Pulling back with some difficulty, Aveey looks her over in full. She'd grown up well it seemed. Looking like a full fledged fancy pants lady. Good curves, steady stance, bright eyes. A picture of health! But of course she was, she was kin! They didn't make them as hardy as the Aubin-Mignault's anymore. Aveey's smile turns into a wider and wider grin as she looked over Evangeline. Augh! The girl was going to be the death of her, her heart barely able to handle the joy and pride at seeing someone so close to her seemingly having made a life for herself.

JustNicole

 

[JustNicole]

Evangeline Aubin-Mignault
Evangeline's world was being rocked. It had been just a normal shopping trip then BAM! Her sister had been suddenly thrust back into her life in a way she never could have expected. Unlike Aveey, though, Evangeline didn't start to tear up. She returned the embrace, but there was a lack of emotion on her end. Her mind was a mix of emotions, partly joyous at seeing the return of her sister and caretaker, partly apprehensive about having that past dredged up again, and partly confused as the questions she had always wanted to ask Aveey but never had a chance to ask came shooting from the corners of her mind that had once been imagination.

It had been years since Eve had seen any of the other Aubin-Mignaults. That wasn't an accident either. After the burning down of their home, Eve took great pains to distance and separate herself from the rest of her family - for good. As far as she was concerned, she wanted no one in Baltimore to know the who she was or where she came from. For the first time in her life she was really something, having achieved status as a sophisticated woman on the city with no one knowing about her past, and she wanted to keep it that way. For good reason then, there was some part of her with apprehension to reveal that her sister had miraculously reentered her life. Although of all the Aubin-Mignaults to see again, she was glad it was Aveey.

"Yes, it's me," Eve replied, still giving off a warmness to her voice. Eve wondered what Aveey thought of her accent. The broad "General American" accent was a stark constant to the Cajun accent like Aveey's that she used to speak with. Although she said internally she didn't care about any of her family, Aveey might be the exception to the rule. Eve felt like a little girl again back in that house, just hoping she was doing something that Aveey would approve of.

"I just...wow. Is it really you, Aveey? I mean, after all this time? How..." It was becoming difficult to speak clearly. There were so many things, so many feelings Eve had swirling around inside. All at once she wanted to know everything about the past and yet nothing, afraid that the answers she heard might forever taint who Aveey was to her.

Teh Frixz

 

[Teh Frixz]

It was something akin to instinctual knowledge, Aveey could see and feel it on some deep level she didn't quite know how to quantify. But what It did let her know was just how to read her sister when it counted. It could have been Linnie getting upset over a lost doll back in the swamp, her eyes were the same.

Reaching up and cupping Evangeline's chin, Aveey smiles and shakes her head.

"Naw naw, doann hafta be getten all weepy eyed pawlywog. Ets me, Avoyelles. En you es Evangeline, naw matter what. Nawtin else matters, jes thank God we back together!" She laughs and hugs her closer once again.

Nothing else did matter to Aveey. What Linnie was thinking, all the conflicting emotions she was thinking in her head. It didn't hold a candle to the overwhelming love Aveey knew they were sharing. They'd been through hell together but here they were. Healthy and alive here in some northern food market. Universe was weird that way but Aveey wasn't complaining.

 

[JustNicole]

Evangeline Aubin-Mignault
There was something different now. Call it the passing of time, the maturity of age, the knowledge of experiences. Whatever it was called, there was no denying the immediate affect it was having on their relationship. For so much of Evangeline's life, Aveey had been more than just a sister to her. She had been her caretaker and protector. Sometime between Aveey's disappearance and this day, that had changed to Evangeline. No longer did she need a caretaker nor protector. In many ways, that was now her job. It was the proverbial "student has become the master" saying an all that.

Evangeline knew everything wasn't as simple as Aveey said it was. This wasn't some ideal world where now that they were reunited everything was going to go hunky-dory. Evangeline had real questions, concerns about her past activites, heartbreak even, that had been stored up and buried for seven long years. There had been the momentary happiness of reuniting, and there still was, but that grudge that Evangeline had carried with her for all these years had begun to seep through the cracks.

"Remember how she betrayed you?" that grudge whispered in Evangeline's ear. "When she swore she'd be there forever and then abandoned you just like all the others? She broke your heart. It's in spite of her, not because of her, that you're who you are today. Don't forget that."

"Aveey," Evangeline spoke with some authority to her voice, a side that Aveey had likely never heard before, "as happy as I am to see you, this isn't the place the catch up." Catch up was one way to put what she had in mind. Another word might be an interrogation. If Aveey thought she could just walk back into her life without answering some hard questions, she was to be sorely mistaken. "Let me give you a ride over to my place so we can talk more. I'll call into AEGIS and take the rest of the day off of work. My boss, Director Swan, will understand. Okay?"

 

[Teh Frixz]

Avoyelles Aubin-Mignault
"Looketcha, yalll a'wereyan 'bout what deez yanks round us be thinken. Dey don know yeh, dey canna judge yeh. But, I feel yeh, yeh be lookin' tah skinneh pawlywag. I ken make ya a full meel. Ay've been envie fo' a big dinnah, we ken cook 'n vellier" Aveey starts compiling a list of things to make, deciding what else she'd need from the grocer. She'd have to alter her list now, the spices for sure but she'd now need rice and peppers and crawdads and chicken and boudin and she'd have to get things for etoufee...The list in her head seemed to go on and on, she worried she'd never get out of this store.

Aveey takes a deep breath, looking her sister up and down once again, smiling and shaking her head. "Merde! Yer baws is won lucky fils pute! Teh have an Aubin-Mignault worken for yeh..." She trails off, frowning a tad. "Gunna git the time off oh ees' gonna hafta tawk teh moi. Whatcha du anyways Linnie? EEGIS? Fancy awfice jeb?" Letting Evangeline get a word in, Aveey finally takes her eyes off her little sister to start pocketing the spices strewn about the floor. Pocketing, not returning to the shelf. She even blatantly unzips the worn backpack and throws a few in. Just casually, not even making a big deal about it. The act is so natural it goes completely unnoticed by anyone passing by.

At this moment it probably becomes a bit obvious to Evangeline the actual physical state of Aveey. She looked well fed but grimy, her clothing looked slept in and her hair was unwashed. Dirt under the nail and in the beds. Her hoodie was just as ratty as her pack, both suffering from what could have been months of sleeping outside or in storm sewers. Even more shocking was as Aveey stowed the spices away, there was a brief moment where Evangeline might be able to discern wads of cash still in bank rolls just underneath some of Aveey's personal items.

"So!" Aveey looking up "Tell meh 'bout it!?"


JustNicole

 

[JustNicole]

Evangeline Aubin-MignaultTagged: @St Sin (Mentioned Urial)

Others might have a hard time understanding Aveey, but to Eve's years she could understand the thick Cajun accent which Aveey spoke with ease, although it still seemed like something of an offense to her years to her the accent once again. Eve might as well be bilingual, she translated the accent to "normal" English instantly.

"Look at you, all worried about what these northerers (outsiders) around us are thinking. But they don't know you, so they can't judge you. I understand it though. Plus you are looking too skinny. I can make you a full meal, I've been wanting to cook. We can make a huge meal and shoot the breeze while we cook. Shit!, your boss is one lucky son of a bitch to have an Aubin-Mig working for him. I hope you get the time off or he's going to have to talk to me. What do you do anyways Eve? Aegis? Is that some fancy office job?"

There were two important realizations that Eve realized at that time. The first, and perhaps most important to her personally, was the Aveey did not realize that Eve was a super. That was something of a surprise, as the other Aubin-Mignaults did know that Eve's powers had manifested, but not the specifics of her powers. It seemed Aveey hadn't talked to any of them, either. Eve must be the first Aubin-Mignault she had spoken to since she disappeared, which meant she was completely in the dark as to Eve's manifested powers.

The second was that Aveey perhaps wasn't doing as well as initial appearances suggested. There was, now that Eve was closer to examine her, a fine layer of dirt that seemed to cling to every part of her body, as if she hadn't really taken a shower in some time. Her clothes seemed heavily worn and badly in need of replacement, not unlike another girl Eve's age with the power to become the equivalent of a human wasp. Was it possible that Aveey was homeless too?

While both those questions were critically important, Eve realized she really didn't want to get into a conversation on either of those until they were at least to her car or back at her place. They weren't really conversations suited for the middle of a grocery store aisle. Now she was faced with the task of at least distracting Aveey from the truth, if such a thing was even possible, for long enough for them to get out of a public setting.

"Let's head for the front, check out and get out of here then, sis." Eve pressured with an edge of urgency in her voice. Realizing that Aveey was probably thinking of all the things she needed to buy, Eve stepped in. "I've got everything you're thinking of back at my place. It's very well stocked."

"As for what AEGIS is, it's a school for some unique people that's particularly my second home and family now." There was a fondness in her voice as she reminisced about all the good times and people who made up the place. She was already picturing a few good friends in stitches hearing Aveey speak. "I work as the head nurse there along side some incredible people." Well, people might be a bit of a stretch as it was really only one person that she was truly in awe of, and they weren't really a person, but a dog, at least right now.

 

[Teh Frixz]

Avoyelles
Aveey opens her eyes wide and raises a brow in surprise. So she had another family now. It shouldn't have been surprising as it was, they all did. Beauregard, Caldwell, Ascension...The only others she'd been able to check in on as she traveled north. They all had new families and were safe. Her work was done with them but it did hurt a bit to have to let them go.

But at least for now she didn't have to let one go. She had Linnie here and now. And what was certain was that She was extremely proud of her little sister. "Yer a Doc then! Dinna tell y'all was a clever one back when yeh jest a lettle won. Did all yer schoolen en now you be the teacher. Proud o' yeh Linny."

Avoyelles had finished with her bag and was now hiking it up on her shoulder. If Linny said she had what they needed, she's not need anymore than what she'd already taken in her bag. Raising a hand towards the exit, Avoyelles continued. "Iffen we done heuh den, lead awnn pawlywog, ken play ketchup et yer place."