ArchivedLogs:Macabre Grapes

Macabre Grapes
Dramatis Personae Jack, Lia
In Absentia	4 January 2015 '
Location <XS> Rec Room – FL2
School this may be, but life for Xavier's students certainly isn't all studying. Outside classes, this is a popular spot to find students in their downtime. An enormous tribute to slacking off, this room is a wealth of fun and relaxation. Comfortable armchairs, couches, and beanbags offer plentiful seating scattered throughout the room, and the cushioned windowseats by the high windows offer a cozy nook to curl up and look out on the grounds. The room is often filled with the noises of gaming -- whether it comes from the big-screen television (tall racks of DVDs beside it, if nothing can be found on the multitude of cable channels), tricked out with consoles from retro to the latest releases, or the less electronic clatter and thump of the pool table, air hockey, or foosball. For those a little more subdued in their gaming, the cabinets hold stacks and stacks of board and card games, ranging as classic as chess and go to as esoteric as Dixit, Catan, and Gloom. More days than not, there's some variety of snacks to be found on a table beside the gaming cabinet -- quite often in the form of fresh-baked desserts. With vacation ending and classes resuming tomorrow, the school is seeing more life and activity than it had over the break. One of the students who didn't leave for the break though is up in the Rec Room. Jack, dressed in an Xavier school hoodie and a pair of jeans is in the process of cleaning up a board game he'd just finished playing with some other students that just left to meet up with some returning friends. He's been in the rec room or the library pretty much all day, apparently avoiding his room for the day. In the process of putting away little game pieces, he drops the game's dice and sighs as they bounce onto the floor and away from him. "Those things do not like me tonight," he chuckles quietly. Lia has also been here through vacation. She is /always/ at the school, anyhow, drifting through various haunts when there are fewer classes and homework and extracurriculars to occupy her time. She is dressed in an embroidered emerald green tunic top with a long handkerchief hem that makes it nearly a dress in its length. Her legs are layered warmly in lined forest green leggings, thigh high socks space dyed in assorted blues and greens, and a pair of soft brown mid-calf boots. With no dance classes today, her ash-brown hair has been allowed to spill in unruly waves down her back. A pointed toe slides out to stop one of the dice that rolls toward her in the doorway. “Dragon-Prince Jeremy says that the dice are out to get people. He plays different games than I am used to. I like Dixit. It has pretty pictures and no dice.” She bends at the waist, face rather /close/ to survey the item before she picks it up, slowly righting herself and carrying it into the room on the palm of one upturned hand. Jack is just snagging the other die off the floor with his telekinesis when Lia enters the room. Sure the little cube flies into the air with more speed and force than Jack intended but he still catches it. An unseen smile forms on his face when he notices Lia though. "Hey, Lia," he greets. "I don't think I've heard of Dixit before," he remarks as he drops the die he retrieved into the game box. "Thanks for getting that. Jeremy may be right about the dice. They seemed to love messing me up tonight," he says, holding out an invisible hand for the die. "Ready for the vacation to be over?" Lia's hand turns over the game box to spill the escaped die back into it. "It is a card game. You make up things about a picture and then people guess on a group of all the players' pictures to find yours, based on the thing you make up. But you have to have at least three people." Her head bobs twice in the affirmative. "Breaks are nice for a little while. There are more quiet places to read. But there are no classes. And no instructors. And no club meetings. It is harder to get enough people to play Dixit. I like better to have classes than not." "Sounds interesting," Jack replies, getting the lid to the box. "Maybe I could give it a try sometime," he says, putting the game away with the others on its shelf. "Glad I'm not the only one glad they're starting up. And that people will be around. As nice as the quiet is, I have been wanting to meet more people." "Some people dislike school. And some I think miss being home, the ones who leave." Lia's dark little brows dip slightly with this. "Vacations are...just like any other time. But there are fewer people and fewer things to do. So I prefer not-vacations. Weekends are enough for reading books longer. Or spending more time outside when it is not so cold. Winter break makes much less sense than spring or summer. You mostly cannot go outside anyhow." She rests a hand on the back of a chair, watching Jack's movements. "People seem to pick bad times to come at first. You came right before a cold vacation. I came right before zombies. It is not good planning, maybe." "Well the vacations are in winter since that's when all the holidays happen so close together. It's like they all slept in for the other months and rush in together at the last moments of the year," Jack replies, pulling his hood up. "Some people like going out in the cold too. For some reason," he shrugs. He then ends up laughing a little. "Maybe. Did you know the zombies were about to happen though? I mean I didn't hear about the coming break until my first day here." “There are dances for the holidays. All of the extra vacation is too long. We should just have a dance and then go back to class.” Lia's head shakes at the mention of going out in the cold. “They do not let you go out in the cold for too long. They tell you your fingers and toes will fall off.” She shakes her head at the zombie question. “No, I did not know there were going to be zombies. Perhaps the zombies had bad planning.” "I'd say mine didn't fall off after spending all that time out there but..." Jack trails off, lifting his sleeves and invisibly wiggling his fingers as he attempts a joke. He nods a bit as the zombie topic goes on though. "Yeah, maybe. Or the zombies could have just been trying to ruin your plans. I heard they were mean like that." Lia's eyes narrow at Jack as if inspecting him. “Did you disappear before or after you spent too much time outside in the cold?” It certainly seems to be a serious question from her tone and expression. Her nose crinkles at the zombie-plot. “I think mostly the zombies just wanted to eat people. They did a worse job of it here than most places because it is hard to get in this building. Either way, zombies do not make good planners, I think.” Jack blinks a few times and his shoulders slump at the question. "I disappeared before I ended up out there. I was just trying to tell a joke," he explains awkwardly. He rubs the back of his neck and glances away a moment before nodding in agreement. "Definitely not good planners. Too busy thinking about eating to plan properly." “Oh,” Lia replies simply, shifting back a little on her feet. “I do not always get jokes. I did not used to have them...very often.” Her hand pulls away from the chair to sketch fingertips down the other arm, tracing the scars down to her hand. “Being hungry does make it harder to think. I think better here. Maybe it is because there is so much food.” "Just means I have to figure out one you will get. Eventually," Jack smiles as he says it. There's a little pause from the invisible one as he watches how Lia traces down her arm. He takes a deep breath before he speaks again. "The food here is great. Definitely makes it better here." “I do sometimes. Just not always,” Lia assures, her head tipping a bit sheepishly. “My counsellor says that I take things very literally. It gets in the way of jokes sometimes.” The distant tone of her voice fades into another nod of agreement. “So many kinds. And whenever you want them.” "That and I'll admit my jokes aren't very good," Jack laughs, rubbing the back of his neck. He waves it off though, stretching his arms. "Yeah," he remarked, making a mental note to grab a snack of some kind before finally going back to his room. "So what other games do you like besides Dixit?" Lia laughs at that. "That was a joke. I got that one." Her smile stretches at this, a little pleased with herself. "I like Jenga. It falls apart. And there is a game that the middle school kids usually play called Grape Escape. It has clay grapes and you...destroy them in terrible ways. It sounds awful but it is very fun. Though it does not involve much strategy. And Chinese Checkers. No one has taught me how to play it but I like to move the marbles in the spaces and they have stories. I like sports. I have done gymnastics as a sport and I am starting swimming and diving. I like the diving board. It is very high and you get to fly for just a second. Eventually it is like...very brief gymnastics...or yoga...in the air." Jack grins and nods, pleased the joke was gotten. That's one for the win pile! He nods to the list of games. "It sounds awful and fun. Get to squish the game pieces, roll them back up, and start all over again, right? Sounds like a good way to relieve some stress," he says, leaning back against the nearest surface. "Man, I can't wait until it gets warmer. It's been ages since I went swimming and the pool here look amazing." Lia giggles at the silly grape game. “You are supposed to make a new grape to start over if your grape is smashed or cut or crushed or stomped. But I like to keep using the same grape until it makes it all the way through. Just start over with a big split down its poor grape head. I suppose that's a little macabre, but it is quite cartoonish in its presentation.” Her eyes widen, head shaking. “Oh, no! Don't wait for warm! The swim team season is in the winter only. If you want to do the swimming as a sport, you have to do it in the winter. The pool is inside so the room is not cold.” "Hey, cartooniness makes the macabre okay. Especially since they're only little clay grapes," Jack chuckles. He's feeling tempted to play that game if only to play with the clay. "Oh, I didn't mean as a sport," he chuckles. "I meant swimming just for fun. It's good exercise. When it comes to sports, I'm more of a football kind of guy." "Yes. It is funny when they go through the jam roller, because then your grape is walking around with JAM stamped on its back." Lia's hands spread wide to illustrate the JAM stamp. "Oh, yes, you can do that any time, too. Football is a sport only in the fall. I do not think I would like it. Big people run into you and try to squish you into the ground. It is less fun when it is not a grape. I am squishy, but fast. I am thinking about soccer or fencing. For fall sports. Fencing is /pretty/, but I don't want people to sword me." Her lips scrunch over to one side at that. "Though you get covered up in pads like a spaceman so they /don't/ sword you. And Mister Fuzzy--Wagner." There is a deliberate switch there, likely one that she has been instructed to make on many occasions. "Mr. Wagner does fencing. He taught my circus class. I really liked that one. Especially the silks. Dancing up in the sky." Jack laughs at the mental image. "Okay, next time we get some people together in here we should play that game. It sounds like it'd be plenty of fun," he declares, idly wondering what other misfortunes would befall the poor clay pieces. "I know. I can't wait for football season to roll back around either. The tackling was a little scary when I first played but the padding is there to help it not hurt and if you're fast enough you don't get squished," he explains fondly. Hs shakes his head a moment and blinks. "There's a circus class?" he asks, trying to remember if he read about it in the class listings. “Yes, that one is easier. You only need two players. Well...honestly you can play by yourself if you want. It's just doing what the die tells you, so you could put different coloured grapes up and see which one wins. I have done that before. During vacations.” Lia nods at the football description, but looks a little skeptical. “I am very small. I think, even if I am fast, I would get squished sometimes.” She grabs hold of the back of the chair again, this time with both hands. “Oh, yes! It is a physical education class. You get to do tumbling and juggling and trapeze and silks and it is /wonderful/.” "If you want, we could play now," Jack offers. Both because it sounds fun and it's another excuse not to go back to his room yet. "Yeah, squishing does kind of happen. But if they're good, your team would make sure you didn't get squished," he says with a nod. The description of the circus class makes him hum a little thoughtfully. "Seriously, this school has yet to go a day without surprising me." “Okay! I will get the box. It is big. And you have to assemble the jam factory before you can play. Then you get to make grapes, too.” Lia traipses off to the game shelf, fetching the large and colourful box down to the table. “Very surprising. Many different things, pretty much any time you want.” This last is offered with a broad grin.