"So," she bustled around the room, making more noise than was really necessary in her futile attempt to both keep busy and look like she belonged.
Catching the cue effortlessly, Max took off her jacket and sat on the couch, already looking more at home than the other woman. Smiling easily like she hadn't really since before… Here? Logan… Hell, even OC, yeah, since before all that. "You settling in okay? Have everything you need? I know it's hard to get used to the world again and all that…" I'm babbling! Oh God, I never babble, what's wrong with me?
Pouring two cups of tea, both decaffeinated, and one with more milk contained in it than actual tea, Maria sat down across from the transgenic. "Max, it's not so bad really," she laughed slightly, having found the babbling carefree parts of her daughter amusing and reassuring, "I don't need anything, no. And if I did, I think I can manage a trip to the market on my own. Unless those nasty men are scouting out after me for even that?"
There was a rather long pause while Max thought this over. She was so used to this, the helping people work it on the outside; because she'd so wished there had been someone there for her. But she'd forgotten that her mother was from the outside originally, she'd just been in forced confinement. "Yeah, sorry, I'm just so used to helping Joshua out, I guess."
Politely, if curiously, Maria inquired to this. She hadn't had a chance to talk to her daughter since they'd made the great escape, and Max had been so official and in control then, it hadn't seemed like a good time. The only people Max had really mentioned were Alec, Logan, Original Cindy, and something vague about siblings. "Joshua? He is…"
Shifting slightly on the couch, posture automatically straightening, Max sighed and prepared herself emotionally to explain, to yet another person, about her life. "Joshua, he was… is… one of Manticore's first experiments, I guess, didn't go to well. Joshua's great, just has a bit of trouble getting around."
Pondering this, Maria was both pleased that Max was sharing with her, intrigued about her daughter's friend, and still confused. "Does he have trouble walking or…?"
Nervously, Max fidgeted on the couch, already bored at sitting still so long and uncomfortable with the choice of topics. "Well, uh, he's kind of tall and…" she looked around at the walls for some sort of help, but they offered none. Finally, Max settled for gesturing towards her face slightly and muttering, "Dog DNA, ya'know, there's some face… stuff…"
"Oh," Maria nodded, not sure whether she understood or not, but getting enough to understand that there was something odd in appearance about Max's friend, and that it made her daughter uncomfortable to have to focus on it. It's nice that she doesn't think about things like that and… Dog DNA? What dog DNA? Repeating it out loud, she asked, "Dog DNA? Do you have dog DNA?"
Smiling haplessly, and biting her lip slightly, just to try to stop herself from pacing and remind herself to breathe while she thought it out. Straight and narrow, all the way. "Nah, cat, mostly. Said something about sharks, but that was just about sleep, or so I'm told."
Unable to contain herself, Maria looked her daughter over critically, just incase there was a tail, cat ears, gills, fins. She quickly reassured herself that nothing could be hiding in jeans so tight, and that everything else appeared normal. "Cat, like in the meowing, purring, hissing, growling, kind?"
Chuckling slightly at the analogy, Max stood up finally and crossed the room, scooping out the best place to try out some little stunts for her mom. "More like the," eyes crossing over to the window she expanded her vision and looked into the apartment across the way, "there's a guy in that apartment over there who's eating pasta and watching some pre-post show."
Standing as well, Maria crossed over to the window and looked out, she could see the decaying apartment complex that Max was referring to clearly, and vague outlines of shapes through the windows, but nothing so detailed. "So no cat sounds then?"
I met a cat once, that was… strange… Tilting her head to the side slightly, Max winked and said, "Well, Alec claims I bite, but that's not true. And I think we're safe with everything else. Wanna see the more cool parts of cat DNA?"
Maria nodded, and then watched dumbfounded as Max started running across the small room, quickly becoming a blur of black, which then traveled halfway up and across the wall before rematerializing as Max, standing in front of her. "Oh my… oh."
Shrugging almost sheepishly, Max couldn't help the grin that crept up her face. It felt good that she wasn't being looked at like a freak, not to mention that something to do with Manticore could actually be almost fun. Ya'know, when not avoiding bullets and hit men, all's good. "Yeah, well, agility and balance and speed and all that. Makes the perfect soldier; yadda, yadda, yadda."
A sad smile came to Maria and she motioned Max towards her, so that she could look her in the eyes and make sure her meaning wasn't misunderstood. "I had no idea, I mean, there were a lot of vitamins, but I had no idea that…"
Dropping to the floor next to the other woman effortlessly, Max sighed, a slight bitterness tingeing her teasing voice. "It's okay, not like Manticore was going to advertise their great idea of messing with human and animal DNA. So it worked out in some cases, genetic engineering. Freak of nature, that's me."
Shaking her head slowly, trying not to cry because that would be feeling sorry for herself, and she had no right to feel sorry for herself when it was her youthful idiocy which had caused the whole situation. "You're not, I mean, I don't think you're a freak." She watched as Max looked up and two pairs of chocolate eyes met, "I'm so sorry. I don't deserve to be forgiven for all that you went through, but… it's not all horrible, and I don't think there's anything wrong with you. Besides, there must be some advantages."
Jumping up smoothly, Max's eyes flashed and she spun around, flipping her hair up and baring her neck to her mother. She's sorry, she doesn't even know! What I went through, what we went through… sorry. Yeah, I'm sorry too. "Advantages? How's this for an advantage. This is my barcode, it's permanent, I've tried having it removed, it grows back. They programmed it into my genes. Just like they made everything about me. It helps them track me down and pull me from the crowd. X5-332960073452, that's me."
Lowering her head, Maria fought a losing battle with self-hatred. She had been the irresponsible teenager, and her decisions had created this being that was far too mature to be twenty. Too young to have gone through whatever unspeakable things that she had, Maria didn't even want to guess at those. It's all your fault! Hopelessly trying to lighten the atmosphere, she spoke softly. "I was thinking that you must have killed in gymnastics… but…"
Straightening, Max unconsciously checked and made sure that her now straight hair was covering her barcode, and turned back to face her mother, flawless smile back in place, if forced this time. "Look, I'm sorry, I'm just not really ready to go there, okay? Maybe some other time, but… not now… Let's catch up on the rest of life, okay, no creepy government operations."
Maria smiled as well, shoving back the thoughts spinning around in her head. "Of course," trying desperately to think of something else normal sounding, and coming up blank, she went with the obvious, "so, boyfriend, best friend, proxy-siblings? Let's get all caught up."