ArchivedLogs:Catching Up

Catching Up
Dramatis Personae Melinda, Jackson, Peter, Spencer
In Absentia	2013-03-10 Melinda and Peter show up at Jackson's to catch up on MURDERDRONES. (Part of Prometheus TP.)
Location <NYC> 303 {Holland} - Village Lofts - East Village
Jackson's apartment come eveningtime is full of activity. Dinner has been served, people scattered across the couches (pushed up against the walls) or on the mattresses that are laid out on the floor or at the kitchen table or up in the loft. In the twins' room there is a game of cards underway, and on a beanbag by the window a young teenager is immersed in a copy of /Rebecca/. In all the crowd, Jackson is currently nowhere to be seen. The door to Spencer's room is closed, though. His, as well. Some time in the evening on Sunday, the doorbuzzer buzzes to let the apartment know that there are persons of unknown number and variety wishing to be known to the residents. Melinda stands at the door bell waiting, hands wrapped around the handles of a reusable grocery bag. She is dressed in her red peacoat to ward off the cold, with multicolored mittens and hat to cover some of her extremities. She is quite patient to wait. And suddenly there is a soft *whump* next to Melinda, and what-the-hell, where did HE come from? -- there is a Peter beside her. Dressed in a black hoodie, blue jeans, a t-shirt with a picture of the devil burying fossils that says 'TEACH THE CONTROVERSY', and those horribly awkward hipster glasses of his. He's also got a backpack and a pair of obnoxiously-colored gloves. Upon realizing that the person waiting at the door next to him is Melinda, he blinks owlishly up at her -- oh hey we've met before haven't we? Uh. Yeah. He nervously turns back to the door, reaching to /also/ buzz, but then he realizes that she just buzzed the same room. His eyes get even /bigger/ now. Oh man what is HAPPENING?! "What who's that?" This isn't Jax's voice at the buzzer. It's a girl's, abrupt, nervous. And quickly followed by another, deeper -- still not-Jax: "Hello?" "Hey there." Melinda blinks at Peter's sudden appearance, confusion covering her face as she reconsiders the walk she took up to the door. "Met you at Evolve, right?" She is trying to put a name with the face as well. Then the crackle of the intercom interrupts and Mel is speaking to the wall again. "Hi! I... We're here to see Jax Holland. We did ring 303, right?" She gives Peter a questioning look. Does he know them? "Uh... yeah, we're here to see Jax," Peter responds, looking at Melinda the whole while. Neither CONFIRMING nor DENYING the Evolve meet-and-greet. He is trying to be cautious, here. I mean, he has quite nearly revealed his secret identity to /everyone/ he has met so far. "It's -- I'm Peter," he tells the intercom. There's quiet from the buzzer. For a while. Maybe the intercom has forgotten them. And then: "Jax?" Pause. "Peter and who?" And then, more excited: "/Peter/ we built the /best TARDIS/!" Buzz. Buzzbuzzbuzzbuzzbuzz/buzz/. Spencer is clicking the door lock MANY TIMES. Just in case. Mel opens her mouth to speak again, but she is interrupted by the very excited voice of Spencer. She shrugs and pulls the door open and ushers Peter inside. "I'm Mel," she tells the teen as they head for the stairs and make their way to the apartment. When they reach 303, she knocks again for admittance. Peter grins at the intercom and sucks in a breath to reply, but then Mel's opened the door -- Peter's mouth snaps shut and he darts in after her. THIS DISCUSSION WILL COMMENCE LATER. He hops at a brisk pace to catch up, nodding: "Hey! Um, yeah, we meet at Evolve," he tells her. "Man that feels like an /eon/ ago." It was, what. Two weeks? Three weeks? Teenagers aren't good with time. Then he gives Melinda a rather sly look: "Are you and Jax... friends?" Up the steps, toward the door, swaying from side to side with obvious excitement. If he were a puppy, his tail would be *wagging* like nobody's business. YAY JACKSON IS ALIVE ALSO MORE INTERESTING PEOPLE. The door opens. Not Jackson. It's another man, dark hair, tan skin, average height, drab-dressed in a black t-shirt and jeans. He pulls the open, looking over both of them thoughtfully a long moment before waving them into the chaos. "Dinnertime," he says, as he does. "If you want some goulash." Behind him, Spencer is dragging something large out of his bedroom. Partially out of his bedroom. He can't get it all the way out because the living room has too many /mattresses/, but, /TARDIS/! Made from K'nex! "LOOK," he's saying, /very excitedly/, "look you have to look!" Jax is standing behind the K'nextardis in the doorway. Maybe not /quite/ as excited as Spencer, but he's smiling all the same. A little more tiredly. He's dressed kind of plain, for him, a bright yellow Little Miss Sunshine t-shirt, loose black cargo pants. His hair's been clipped shorter, and is currently purple. Large mirrored sunglasses on his face. "Hey, sorry," he's saying towards the doorway, "s'kinda -- oh. Oh." The sight of Melinda with Peter draws him up in surprise. "Mel." His cheeks flush. "I work with Jax a lot. It's hard not to be come friends with Jax after that." Melinda admits as they wait, smiling a little. She looks blankly at the man who answers the door, her eyes scanning his entire being. Soon after, she's blinking in confusion when she is offered something to eat. She smiles and thanks the man as she steps inside and removes her shoes and outer wear and proceeds into the zoo. She blinks over at Spencer and can't help but smile again at the K'nex structure. Her eyes move back and upward to pick out Jackson and she continues to smile. "Hey, Jax." Peter's invisible puppy-tail is nearly *tearing* itself off by the time that door is open. And then there is a new person and Peter is like 'hello!' but not audibly because people are speaking, and then Spencer is dragging out that large Tardis and Peter's hopping inside without another word, skipping between mattresses (whoa there are a lot of mattresses), and: "I see it, Spence! I see it -- JAXYOUAREALIVE." This is all one word. It is soon followed by another: "Lotsofpeople." His eyes start swishing over the mattresses, and now Peter is getting a little nervous -- realizing he is basically, uh, /surrounded/. "Oh, wow. Oh, man." The people look at the INTRUDERS with varying degrees of curious-alarmed-wary and one actually hostile, retreating further up into the loft to be AWAY. With a bowl of goulash balanced carefully in her hand as she climbs the ladder. "Yeah!" Spencer is saying, "I made it and Pa /helped/ and /look/ and next we're doing the Enterprise /okay/ do you want to do that?" Because Peter has now been folded into K'nex plans. When Peter hops his way across the living room Spencer goes over to take his hand and /drag/ him over further. To /inspect TARDIS. Jax is still flushed, darker, shifting a little awkwardly behind the K'nex structure. "Yeah, I -- um, hi, this is -- uh, everyone. Everyone, it's okay, they're --" He rubs at the back of his neck, bites down on his (for once, devoid of piercings) lip. "Hi. Did you want -- there's dinner," he offers uncertainly. "Hey everyone, my name is Melinda and I am friends with Jax. I am sorry to stop by unannounced, but I thought Jax might be sick and brought him some soup. I realize this is your space, so if you want me to go, that's fine." Mel turns her eyes to Jackson and lifts the bag a little. "Two boxes of broth, two bags of kosher split pea soup mix, and plenty of onions and garlic to bolster clear sinuses." She gives a little shrug. "Missed you at food not bombs yesterday. And sure. I'll have some food, if that's okay. Have you had a chance to eat yet?" Wow! That is a very mature, considerate, and polite thing Melinda just said. Too bad PETER IS HAVING NONE OF IT. There are people around and they are moving quickly and responding quickly and Peter's eyes are /everywhere/ at once, and it looks like he's stuck between wanting to *hurl* himself into the nearest corner and wanting to *pursue* the people who are fleeing from him to find out what their deal is. Lucky for everyone here, Spencer -- ever-so-considerate! -- has seized hold of Peter's hand and is actively dragging him away from any number of potential disasters. Peter grins, inspecting said TARDIS quite closely; he responds: "Enterprise? Oh yeah, sure -- though, uh, not just this /moment/," Peter adds, then: "There's a lot of people here, and, um --" He looks to Jax. Eyebrows crunching together. "Oh man, your dad looks /beat/," he informs Spence, then -- in case Jax didn't hear him (despite being only a few yards away): "You look beat, Jax. I want to like ask you about /all/ the things, but -- but I should probably wait. Also I already ate but thanks!" "Pa isn't /sick/ he fought a /dragon/ he got /burned/," Spencer says, although at the moment Jackson looks rather whole and unburned. He finally finishes wiggling the K'nex structure out, partially ON to a mattress so it's kind of lopsided-leaning. The girl occupying the mattress doesn't seem bothered, pulling her legs in closer to make room and grinning at the TARDIS. "I mean, dragon, cool, huh? Like a /knight/." Jackson is blushing at this, too, and worming his way out of the bedroom, scooting around the K'nex to sidle along by the windows and pick his way to the kitchen. Only in moving does it show that he is noticeably limping, as he goes to fill a bowl with noodles and goulash. "Sorry, yeah," he says, apologetically, "I hope I didn't leave nobody hanging, I sent all the dishes along with Earthworm." Not a codename, just a hippie. "I mean, wow, thanks, that's real sweet of you. I ain't sick, just, um. It's been -- busy." "Yeah, I can kind of tell." What Peter and Spencer are talking about registers in Melinda's ears, but she doesn't look like she knows what to do with it. She follows Jackson into the kitchen and smiles. "Yeah, we were fine. No one was put out. The dishes were a great help." She gives him another once over then admits, "I'd give you a hug, but I - well, if you're burned, I don't want to hug the wrong part." She puts the bag on the counter. Wait, what? DRAGON? Peter's expression oscilliates between >:o and >:( -- on one hand did Spencer just say /DRAGON/? On the other, Jax is limping and people are hurt and this is SERIOUS time, not ASK-ABOUT-DRAGONS time, but holycrap seriously DRAGONS? So Peter pursues a compromise -- instead of heckling the clearly exhausted Jax (whom Melinda is now attending to), he plops himself down in front of Spencer (keeping a distance from the girl on the mattress -- he's only now remembering that a lot of people here are probably scared witless!). He stares at the TARDIS with an /intense/ stare, and then asks -- as if it were just a minor, trivial point: "Dragon? There was a dragon?" Very casual-like. As if he were asking, 'oh, is it Sunday already? Huh, fancy that'. "There was /totally a dragon/ it was /huge/ and /breathed acid/ and /flied/," Spencer is saying excitedly, and then, with an /abrupt/ drop in excitement, his face falling, he tugs Peter down closer to whisper, "and it breathed acid all over Eli and now he's dead," this comes with a darted look across at the man who let Peter and Melinda in, who is now sitting on the floor by a couch across the room, hand rested against the hand of a tired-looking middle-aged man sitting in the chair. Spencer gets a little more animated again as he continues, "and it woulda acided /everyone/ but Pa and Tatters saved them all like /real knights/." Jax's shoulders slump slightly at Spencer's excited tale, but he offers the bowl to Melinda with a quick smile and a one-armed hug, carefully offering his right arm out to hug Melinda against his right side. "I'm alright, mostly, no worries. How're you? -- Spence, honey-honey, don't forget you got school tomorrow, 'kay? Make sure you get your homework together, y'can't just play with everyone all night." Peter just /barely/ manages to fake the look of someone who is not /brimming/ with excitement over this -- up until the point when Spence tugs him close and whispers. Then, suddenly, he doesn't have to fake anything at all. "Oh," he says, and he sounds a bit more sad, now. His eyes drift across the room -- quietly flicking over the assembled people here, looking for acid burns. When Spencer mentions the bit about Jax and Tatters, Peter's not looking at him -- but he still manages to crack a smile. "Oh? That sounds -- that sounds awesome," Peter admits, but he doesn't sound excited anymore. He gives Spencer's shoulder a pat, then: "You should... you should listen to your Pa," he says, and then: "I'll totally swing by sometime this week, though, and we can build the Enterprise or maybe I can even read a book to you, I got a really cool one about a cockroach "/Cool/, can I turn into a cockroach? Do you know anyone who turns into a cockroach? I guess that's backwards but I'd still be a cockroach only not if I got squished? Oh right homework. You should come tomorrow we'll build a /Enterprise/. After school okay?" Spencer gets up, carefully starting to push the K'nex structure back into his room. Jackson rubs at his eye as Spencer moves off, fingers pressing up beneath his sunglasses. "No, s'okay, I," he's starting to answer Melinda, reflexively, but then stops with a slight blush. "Actually, a hand with feeding everyone would be pretty excellent," he admits. "This ain't everyone, s'as many in Ryan's place and near as many at Hive's. Cooking's getting to be like a full-time job. -- Hey, Peter," he adds, as Peter stands up. "HOw was things 'round here?" "I'll try tomorrow, but -- if not, I can swing by Tuesday!" Peter responds. And yes, by 'swing', he is speaking /literally/. It is the only question out of the salvo Spencer sends his way Peter asks -- but he's grinning, at least. He looks a little less sad, now! -- he turns to Jackson, then shrugs his shoulders back. "Oh, man, not much," he says. "Shelby -- " TOLD HIM NOT TO TELL JACKSON ABOUT HER ARM. "-- was worried. I mean /everyone/ was worried, they were all prepping for you to come back in a casket, it was like -- Grim-City," he says. "Like Sim City, but everybody there's totally grim. Oh /man/ I am so glad you are not dead. You are like, on my top ten list of people who are not supposed to be dead." Jackson is not #1 on that list, though. That slot is occupied by Freddie Mercury. Because, sorry dude, but FREDDIE FUCKING MERCURY. "Oh man do you need help cooking or something? I could totally help you cook something," Peter says, and these words may conjure horrors beyond horrors in Jackson's mind. Imagine, if you will, Peter in the kitchen -- FIRING HIS WEBS. Yanking pots of scalding curry across the room, slinging them about while he juggles knives and OOPS now somebody's only got one eye. Still, the kid seems eager to help! "Um, thanks --" Jackson seems a little overwhelmed, suddenly, by -- something in all these offers. Maybe he /is/ imagining Peter slinging webs in his kitchen. "I'm -- not -- in a casket, no." He frowns, slightly, leaning against the counter and crossing his arms loosely against his chest. "My leg's okay," he assures Melinda, "and cooking'd be great -- tomorrow, maybe. We're done for today." This is as much to Peter as Melinda. "Sorry," he's reflexively apologizing, "I ain't exactly a great host tonight it's -- I'm -- you sure you don't want no dinner, Peter? -- who else is on your list?" Melinda lists a few names of people who organize donations, businesses who often give day old wares and grocery stores that are happy to turn things over instead of throwing things out when they are less than perfect. She shrugs a little when she reaches the end, brushing some hair behind her ear. "You don't have host me and Pete here. Your guests are the other people. We're your staff, if you will, here to make this... Safe house? work. You want me to cook here or bring things premade?" "Oh yeah I'm sure and it's fine you're clearly /frazzled/," Peter explains. "I'm staying back home at Aunt May and Uncle Ben's for the break with Ivan -- my roommate from Xavier's? Anyway, I ate before I came and I'm gonna go back and eat again, I just wanted to swing by because oh my GOD you're not dead," and then -- at the mention of the list -- Peter sucks in a breath. Annnnnnnd... "Ummmmmm, Freddie Mercury, you, Hive, Richard Feynman, Shelby, Sera, Gaetan -- oh uh you don't know those two I met them in a fire -- oh actually I guess Uncle Ben and Aunt May and Ivan but they never really seem to be in any /danger/..." Chatter, chatter. If Jackson can't keep track of what Peter is saying, that's okay; Peter doesn't seem to mind. But he will /totally/ be Jackson's staff. Jackson pulls out his phone partway into Melinda's list, asking her to repeat the names and this time writing them down in a note. "Cooking here's okay. I don't -- don't know if this is a -- I mean, it's a safe house but does that make it a -- I don't know what it is," he admits, nose wrinkling. "They just needed a place and --" Another shrug, but then he looks at Peter, puzzled. "-- Sera? Gaetan? Fire? Lucien's siblings?" Melinda's attention perks up at the mention of Lucien, but she remains focused on the things at hand. "Sure, it's a safe house, Jax. I think you're thinking about it too much. If it's a safe place for people to be, it's a safe house." She returns to her soup and lets Peter talk about rescues and fires. "I will totally help you make this place a super-safe-house," Peter announces, and there's a certain obnoxious arrogance to his tone -- as if he has recently discovered EVERYTHING there is to know about keeping people safe! But then, Jackson mentions Lucien's name -- in conjunction with fire -- and Peter snaps to attention, looking just a smidge pale. "Oh! Oh, uh, oh... oh. You know them? You know /him/?" Peter's tone has just a hint of... fear? to it. Then: "There was a fire. At their house. I... it's near where I live. Sometimes, I stop by and read to them," Peter says, leaving /out/ the bit about rescues. But then, as if he just realized something -- a frantic edge in his tone: "Pleasedon'ttellLucienthat." Then, a bit more hesitant: "He, uh, he's kind of scary." "I heard about the fire, Desi came over to hang out with the twins the next day while they -- got stuff in order," Jackson admits. And to Mel, sheepish: "I think about everything too much. S'just a place to sleep. Cook. Sometimes people just need a place to /go/, you know?" Peter's frantic tone puts a frown on his face. "-- Luci? Scary? I don't know, I think he just needs more hugs." "Lucien can be scary," Melinda agrees, finishing her goulash and taking the bowl over to the sink. "I am not sure 'more hugs' is the answer, but he definitely needs more good things going his way." She immediately starts washing her bowl and anything else left in the sink. Normally, Mel would expect nothing in there, but with so many people in the apartment and eating, there's bound to be some new dishes since Jax was last in there. "He's..." Peter THINKS. Because as far as he can tell, hugs are an excellent policy. So he tries to imagine himself. Giving Lucien a hug. And suddenly, he is INFECTED with the heebie jeebies. Shivers and all; he looks like someone just walked over his grave. "Sera and Gaetan are good things," he says, picking up on Melinda's comment as he struggles to avoid voicing his concerns over Lucien. "I only met Desiree briefly -- she seemed -- cool." He stares at his shoes, then adds: "There was another older guy at his house -- really thin and tired looking? I never found out who he was." "That's his brother, Matt. He's basically the nicest person on the planet," Jackson informs Peter. There /are/ in fact dishes in his sink, not many but a handful of bowls have accumulated as people finish their dinners. "C'mon, Mel," he adds, with a crooked smile, "I'm pretty sure more hugs is the answer to /most/ things in the world but you just gotta make people see that first. What's wrong?" He's eying Peter's sudden shivering with sudden worry. "Okay. I'll take your word for it." Mel makes short work of the bowls then dries her hands on a nearby towel. "As I am going to be back tomorrow anyway, I should probably take off tonight and make a few of those phone calls. I'll get some donations put together. You said there were three apartments with this many people? We're talking eighteen to twenty?" She lets Jax handle Peter's shivers. She didn't see them. Jackson's opinion on Matt seems to be enough to close the case as far as Peter's concerned; the question about what's wrong, though -- that gets Peter all shifty-eyed. "I just think he's... /scary/," Peter says, before finally adding -- rather awkwardly, his voice soft -- "It's... it's really hard to explain." "Bit over twenty, yeah," Jackson says, apologetically. "Thanks a bundle, Mel. I mean it. You're kinda a lifesaver." It is probably testament to his exhaustion that he does not even interrupt Melinda's bowl-cleaning! "Haven't really seen you say things're scary much," he adds, thoughtful, to Peter. "I mean, you're all, hah I laugh in the face of murder-bots." "No problem, Jax. I'll see you tomorrow." With that, Mel is packing up her stuff and letting herself out. "Next time I see Lucien, I'll give him a hug for you." "Bye, Mel!" Peter chirps, as cheerfully as he can manage -- and then, as Mel is leaving ear-shot -- Peter is turning back to Jackson. Voice low. Low enough so none of the other half-dozen (or more!) people here can hear: "I swung into the tenement while it was on fire and got Gaetan and Sera out but hurt my shoulder and when I went back to get their mom Lucien was there and he tried to talk me into leaving her to /burn/." It all comes out in an /instant/, very quickly, and might be a bit much for Jackson to parse. "Aw, thanks, Mel," Jackson says, quiet amusement in his voice at the offer of Lucienhugs, "see you tomorrow!" This is chipper, though his posture sags back to tired once Mel has let herself out. The tired probably doesn't /help/ with parsing Peter's quiet stream of chatter; Jackson just looks at Peter, seeming all the more /stare/y for his reflective sunglasses. "He -- wh -- his mom -- what?" he says, a bit at a loss. Peter stalks, now. Around the kitchen. Apparently, this is something that's been bubbling in him for a while: "He told me that she was all /sorts/ of terrible and if she died in a fire it would leave his siblings /so/ much better off," he says, and his tone is getting a little higher now, less careful about who hears. "And -- and I believed him. I /do/ believe him. And I made him help me save her /anyway/. And I think that was -- I don't know. I keep thinking I /shouldn't/ have saved her. But that's terrible. But /she's/ terrible. And I'm thinking way too much about this, but now Gaetan and Sera and Desiree too I think, they're all back /there/, and it's horrible and miserable and I know they're there because of something /I/ did." "They are there cuz of something you did," Jackson says, slowly, after a pause to digest this. "You saved their lives." But this is an unsatisfying answer, judging by the frown lingering in his expression. "Peter, calm down," he says next, as a few eyes are drawn to Peter's slowly raising voice. "Not everyone out there is a good person. And you can't know -- you can't know everything about them. But that's -- s'why you -- /we/ don't get to decide who lives and who dies. I mean, you do what you can to help who you can and there's other ways of sorting things out 'sides just letting people burn." Peter /does/ calm down a bit. He's not... breaking down. He looks somewhere between a little angry and a little sad; he shifts to hop up on the edge of a counter, staring down at his feet. "Yeah," he says. "I guess. It's just -- it would have fixed so many terrible things," he says. "It would have been so much /easier/. But I couldn't, I couldn't do that. I don't want anyone to die. But he /could/ do it. He didn't even -- he didn't even /hesitate/ about it." Only /now/ does Peter look up at Jackson. "That's part of why he scares me. Because it was so easy for him to do that." Jackson's expression is hard to read, behind his sunglasses, but his gaze is fixed on Peter and his brows pulling together deeper. He shifts, distinctly uncomfortable in his repositioning of weight, his crossing and uncrossing of his arms over his chest. "Might not have been easy. Might just've looked easy cuz you weren't there to see all the years'a hard," he says, quiet and rather heavy. "I don't know why people do what they do, and I ain't saying it's right. Your position, I'd've been likely to do the same you did. But he -- people -- people do all kindsa things when they're pushed to it." "Maybe," Peter says at the comment about about the years of hardship -- now a little more sullen, his eyes drifting down to his feet. "I guess that's the /other/ part of why he scares me. Because I keep thinking... maybe in his position, I'd do the same thing. And I'm /scared/ of the part of me that thinks that." Jackson lifts a hand, knuckles pressing lightly against his lips. "You might," he acknowledges. "'less you're in his position, you won't never know. But to protect themselves, to protect their families? People make horrible decisions all the time. And some of that time s'a choice between horrible and even more horible." Peter thinks about this for a while. "Hive said the same thing," he says. "When I talked to him. Before you two left." His shoulders slump. "I just... thanks. I don't know, I just needed to tell someone else about this. I've told Hive and Ivan about it but it still kept /bugging/ me. I'll be okay, though." He slips off the counter, then; socks smack against tile. "Oh man," he says, nose suddenly wrinkling. "This is so /backwards/." "What's so backwards?" Jackson looks a little confused, his head turning one direction and the the other, as though he will see the weirdness right there with them. "S'ok. These things are --- man, they're big. You need someone to talk to, you can come talk." "You just got back from a horror-labs with like a busload of hostages where you fought a /dragon/ and a bunch of people died," Peter says. "And you're helping /me/ sort things out. About this one time. When I saved a lady from a fire." He proceeds to give Jackson a hug. "Thanks," he mumbles, before adding: "If you need any help I can totally do that. Ivan, too. He can control bugs. Maybe have them... um. Build... web-hammocks." Jackson's breath catches at the hug, muscles tensing abruptly, but he returns it tightly. He does not comment on horrorlabs or deaths. "S'what I'm here for," he says, quietly. "Mebbe you can come back tomorrow. Build a spaceship with Spence. That'd be nice." He sounds like this is genuinely a Thing He Would Want, by way of help.