Reading Tea Leaves

[Cade Carson]

He laughed when she teased. This girl was pretty cool, he had to admit.

"Oh I didn't have the power in the first place. I'm a college student and a recruiter on the side. Plus, I'm a very annoying staff member who falls asleep in random places." He shrugged. She asked about the family sword and he sighed.

"A sword that's probably from around the Edo Period. Passed down from generation to generation of my family. I took sword lessons since I was little so I'd be worthy of wielding it. But they decided my packing a weapon around with me constantly was a bad idea. I'm just thankful I got to specify the kind of case used to contain it. You wouldn't believe how afraid I am that I'd lose that thing. That's the reason why I packed it around campus with me." He shook his head. Then she replied about the tea and said she wouldn't judge. Then she heard his comment about the maid and completely turned around. He laughed.

"Yeah yeah. I had a maid. My family's old money. Generations of working to be heroes in law enforcement and aiding law enforcement. Coupled with the fact that no-one in my house had any hope of learning to cook properly. I actually had the most potential. My parents just thought it was worth it to hire the maid to do the cooking rather than suffer through all those meals and possibly get food poisoning a few times."

[Selina Taylor]

    "I'm sure you're more effective than you give yourself credit for," she replied lightly. Her comment was probably more of an insult to the school's staff than it was a compliment to him, considering the amount of faith she had in the administrative system, but he didn't need to know that.

    Selina glanced at him in renewed interest. Edo period? She'd studied Japanese history and was well acquainted with the time period. "Was your family originally from Japan?" she asked. 

    Selina barely kept the grimace off of her face when he mentioned law enforcement, though her expression became a bit harder in nature, "Ah, I see. So, old money in law enforcement... why does that not surprise me?" she asked wryly. "They weren't corrupt enough as it is," she quipped humorlessly. 

    

[Cade Carson]

"I doubt it, but thanks anyways." He shrugged, sitting down near her.

"Yeah 'cause I totally look Japanese right?" He laughed, gesturing at his face.

"Naw my family isn't from Japan. But my ancestors way back? One of them encountered a samurai. I don't know the exact details, but anyways my ancestor beat him and took his sword as spoils. Not exactly honourable sounding, but there was some detail in there I think about the samurai executing people in a small village. Maybe they were criminals, maybe not. I don't really know. So much of history can be lost. Anyways, that sword for whatever reason became his prized possession, and it's been passed down through our family for generations. When my family came into their powers, not everyone got powers. About one every second generation. When that person cropped up, they were trained to use a sword just in case their powers made themselves known. And when they were deemed ready and manifested, they were given the sword." Cade rubbed the back of his neck.

"It's an incredible honour for me to be the current wielder." When she mentioned old money in law enforcement, he shook his head vehemently.

"That isn't what I meant! My family would never do something like that. We act more like private investigators. We go where the police aren't legally allowed to go. Like, preventing crimes from within. Crime dens, domestic violence, that sort of thing. The cops can't get in there very well. Not legally. But we're not cops and therefore we can."

[Selina Taylor]

    Selina shrugged, “If we’re talking Edo period, you could have had some old blood somewhere.”


    Selina then eyed him warily. If a colonialist’s family had stolen some of her own country’s history, she’d have wanted them to give the piece back to Chile no matter how many years later… She reserved her judgment though and listened to his tale without interruption. “And it never occurred to your family to return the artifact to Japan?” she asked, curious about how they’d justified keeping it.


    “Great, so you enable the police to commit even greater injustices than they already do,” she replied sharply, her anger apparent. The police were a force to uphold white supremacy and nothing more. They were never meant to protect anybody except for those already in power. The fact that this little boy seemed to almost hero-worship his own family who’d been in league with such criminals only raised her hackles higher.


    Criminal rings? How about Wall Street? The largest criminals in politics? Fuck it all, the men who decided that it was ok for women to be arrested on grounds of a miscarriage or for young boys of color to get arrested and pipelined into the prison system at a young age for the sake of access to cheap labor were spreading more violence than anything he’d find in a crime ring. To find modern day slavery, one need look no further than a privatized jail. Besides, the ones who profited most from “criminal rings” were practically never caught. Instead, it was the people they’d exploited into illegal labor who got all the blame and punishment while reaping almost none of the reward in the first place.


    She knew how this shit worked and she was suddenly a lot less comfortable around him than she had been.

[Cade Carson]

"That particular ancestor of mine saved a few villages from that samurai from what the history books say. And if he was indeed a villain, it would only be right to commit some better actions with the sword so that it doesn't have negative vibes attached to it." He sighed.

"As for the police...working closely with the police works well for us. It means that we get to help them snuff out crime. And we get to keep an eye on them and keep them in line a bit too. You'd do well not to assume things about people you've only just met. We try to stop things outside through working with the police, and because we're independent of the police at our core, there's also nothing stopping us from using our influence to stop those who are committing crimes from the inside. It doesn't matter who they are. If they're committing a crime, we do our best. From a young age, I was taught to do that. It's why when I founded a gang when I was younger, one of the rules was random acts of kindness."

[Selina Taylor]

Selina shrugged at his explanation, "And you think the villagers couldn't have put the weapon to better use? Or if you gave it to the people who's history and families are tied up in that sword, would it be given bad vibes?" she asked as she put her book down to focus on him.

Her eyebrow arched in surprise when he mentioned starting a gang and her voice turned cold, "And for what reason would you start a gang?" she demanded. "Did you consider yourself to be so far above the law that you wanted to flaunt and exploit your power over others? Or were you merely looking for something more exciting to while away the time?" Gangs had been formed in Chile to control drug trafficking and to decide who could rule the poor streets that the police didn't care enough about to roam. Girls would often join to avoid prostitution and the boys would often join to feed their starving families off of drug money. Joining a gang was no light thing and to have this rich boy form one... for what possible purpose? Had he wanted to start a drug ring of his own to profit off of the poor? Was he merely bored? Selina was baffled and more than slightly repulsed.

[Cade Carson]

"Wow you really are determined not to like me, aren't you? It's my family's sword now. It's an heirloom and I don't plan on parting with it. End of story. And the gang? I just called it that because it sounded less lame than 'club'. But you know how kids sometimes make clubs. Like, 'no girls allowed' or whatever? That's basically what my gang was." He shrugged, rubbing the back of his neck.

"I was a bored and curious little kid who wanted to do some good too. So I founded the club and members had to do something nice for someone in the neighbourhood at least once a week. Like, carry a older woman's groceries. Or...giving our lunch to the kid whose family couldn't afford it. Or stopping the school bully. Just little things. I think the adults sometimes did things to give us things to do specifically to make us feel better though." He chuckled.

[Selina Taylor]

    Selina closed her eyes and sighed, “Gangs were a very serious affair in Santiago. I grew up in an area controlled by them, as did many if Santiago’s poorer residents. I’m sorry I misunderstood, but please tell me so that I can understand better in the future. Does ‘gang’ mean the same thing as ‘club’ here?” Selina wondered if she’d made a mistake due to language or culturally different definitions of the word.

    Selina paused before she continued, “And I’m not determined to dislike you so much as a lot of what you say… is just strange to me,” she admitted. Selina still wasn’t sure how she felt about him at all. The rich law enforcer part still had her on edge, but then again, she was hypersensitive to those types of things because of where she’d grown up and due to some of her experiences here in America. Selina still wasn’t going to give him too much of a benefit of the doubt, but she was going to try to understand. It was the best she could offer.

[Cade Carson]

"Umm...not really. I used it that way because I was a little kid who thought gangs were cool. I was really mistaken. I know that. But I was just a little kid. In some areas, a 'gang' can just mean your friends though. Like the song by Rascal Flatts, Me and My Gang." He was kind of taken aback by her sudden turnaround. It was unexpected. Not unwelcome, but very unexpected. She wasn't nearly as hostile anymore now that she thought it might be partly her fault for misunderstanding.

"Well if you need an explanation for anything, just ask. I'm not going to judge you for that. I'd rather give an explanation than get you angry at me for something."

[Selina Taylor]

    Selina sighed and rubbed her temples. She really had to get over the immediately judgmental thing... sort of. Some people she was still perfectly willing to write off, but still. This boy didn't seem to be intentionally malicious or anything. Selina glanced up at him, not apologizing or sorry for her previous behavior in the slightest, but not as openly hostile either, "I know of Rascal Flatts," she offered. She hadn't listened to too much American music, but she'd gradually gotten familiar with some of the more popular bands.

    Selina then merely nodded to him, acknowledging what he'd said, but promising nothing,    
        

[Cade Carson]

He sighed. No apology. Alright then. She was a pissy sort of woman then. He could deal with that. He'd had a younger sister so he vaguely knew some girlish tendencies and antics. At least she got his music reference.

"Alright then. So...why the library to drink your tea?"

[Selina Taylor]

Selina glanced up at him and smirked, "Privacy, homoeroticism, and because I can." Selina actually quite enjoyed being surrounded by books. There was a certain luxury to it that she couldn't quite define. "I mainly just don't like the types of people who often occupy the student lounge," she then admitted honestly. "And besides, what better beverage to go with books than tea?" She then studied him briefly, "And you?"

[Cade Carson]

"I was looking up research for one of my college projects. I guess my narcolepsy hit. You see, a side effect of my power is the need to suddenly sleep. I can't drive, obviously, because of that. And it means I can frequently be found lounging around campus in odd spots." He shrugged, chuckling kind of embarrassed.

"Tea goes with everything. I generally pack cookies too, but I don't have any today. Ate them earlier after I used my power."

[Selina Taylor]

“Hmm, what’s your power?” she asked in curiosity as she took another sip of her tea. God, she loved thermoses soo much. The tea was still piping hot. And cookies… she hadn’t had cookies in a long time, but she blinked and focused back on the kid, entirely unsure as to how she really felt about him. “And can I ask what you used your power for?” she wondered. She wasn’t sure how private this kid was or if this was a sensitive topic for him or not, but from the way her casually spoke about it, she assumed it would be alright to ask.

[Cade Carson]

"My power is technically cell manipulation, but really it is just means I can manipulate the cells in a certain part of my body so that they're peak human physical prime. In other words, I can make myself body builder strong, or give myself an eight pack. But it comes with sudden sleepiness. I used my power last...well...I used to use it to impress girls but I don't really do that anymore. I needed to move some boxes. They were pretty heavy. So I used my power. It's stupid. I was lazy." He sighed and shook his head.

"What's your power?"