ArchivedLogs:A Picture Is Worth...

A Picture Is Worth...
Dramatis Personae Micah, Jackson
In Absentia	4 February 2014 /All the leads!/ (Part of the Morpheus TP.) (Set some time after X-Men chatting and before checking in with Lucien.)
Location <NYC> Candyland - Village Lofts - East Village
This bedroom is bright, bright, bright, a cheerful riot of colour in contrast to the more minimalist scheme outside. It, too, has a plethora of lamps to lend it even more light than what comes in from the large windows opposite the entry; many of them bear stained-glass coverings in cheerful mosaic patterns to add still more colour to the room. The walls have been painted in pale blue with darker blue trim, though one is instead a mural of surreal fantastical artwork, odd unearthly plant and animal life spread across it in vivid colours. There is scattering of furniture here -- a bed on the wall adjacent to the window (usually dressed in vividly patterned mismatched sheets), a dresser opposite the bed, standing beside the large closet, both in wood that has been painted black and then covered in a swarm of brightly coloured images, too. The wall near the door bears an enormous handmade shelving unit, similarly painted; it is filled largely with meticulously organized art supplies. By the window, a desk stands in as-yet-unpainted wood; besides laptops and drawing tablet it often bears an eclectic mix of items, too. Comic books, knitting supplies, a hiking pack of climbing gear. It is surprisingly quiet in Lighthaus at this time of the evening with the twins away, Spencer holed up in his room with homework, Tag off at work, and no one currently visiting. Micah isn't immediately apparent, though there is light coming from under the bedroom door along with the muffled sound of laptop-generated music of some variety. Upon entering the room, he continues not to be immediately apparent, unless one happens to look /down/ to notice that the bed seems to have sprouted a pair of faded-bluejeans clad legs with stocking feet at the ends of them, one with 'one fish, two fish' written and illustrated on it while the other depicts 'red fish, blue fish'. His xkcd 'Stand Back, I'm Going to Try Science!' T-shirt is identifiable only from the bleach stained black hem bunching up around his waist. Jackson has been quiet as he enters the apartment, shucking surprisingly un-chocolate-stained winter gear and making his way into the bedroom with an armload of Thing. A box full of carefully-wrapped OtherThings, very neatly-packed to imply Fragile Items Inside that implies he's come back from glass shop. He sets down his messenger bag when he makes his way into the bedroom, setting the cardboard box down carefully on the nightstand. "Uh -- honey-honey, howzit you're a bedmonster now?" He gets down on his knees to peer under the bed. He's changed from earlier in the day, now in silvery leggings with crushed-velvet black skirt over top, red-and-black sweatshirt with sparkly-silver-and-black butterfly patterning down the sleeves, long-sleeved black shirt with a 'Let's switch gender roles!' t-shirt over top, brightly coloured armwarmers. Large mirrored sunglasses rimmed in sparkly red. At the sound of a voice in the room, there comes the tell-tale /thud/ of head striking furniture with a little surprised 'oof'. Micah comes scooting back out on his belly, auburn hair completely in disarray and a conformable snake light wrapped around his neck and facing forward. He does remember to point it away as he moves out to avoid blinding Jax, switching it off once he sits up. "Hey, hon," he greets with a sheepish smile, leaning in for a (still gentle) hug and light kiss. "I was lookin' for your crucifix again. An'...AJ's been missin' from the glass set of Ponies you'd made. I thought maybe she'd be down there, too. If Sprite had gotten into the room an' started battin' at shiny things or somethin'. Done searched under all the furniture now, though. No sign of 'em." Jackson squeaks, ducking his head and signing 'sorry' with a contrite expression as Micah scoots back out. He presses a kiss to Micah's forehead, curling arms around the other man and rubbing a hand against mess hair. "Ohgosh. I thought you mighta heard me lo siento I didn't mean t'startle -- wait really um." He sinks into the hug, returning the kiss softly but then resting his head up against Micah's with a small puzzled frown. "-- how long's that been missin' for now, honey-honey?" He glances over to the desk, teeth sinking down against his lip. He rakes his fingers up through Micah's hair, not to put it in any semblance of order but to muss it /further/. "Oh, not t'worry, hon. S'just...sound's kinda muffled under there an' I had the music on an' didn't really notice 'til y'started talkin'." Micah's eyes drift closed slowly at the fingers moving through his hair. "S'been...a couple of weeks. I didn't think much of it at first, 'cause y'know how things'll just grow legs an' walk off for a bit, but then they show up again later. With kids an' pets an' things just gettin' bumped over by accident. But she's still gone." His arms wrap a little more snugly around the other man, but still not /tight/ out of concern for the copious recently-retouched tattoos. "It's just -- today, um." Jax pulls back slightly, looking around the room with the same puzzled frown. "Do you think she coulda gone missin' the night you had -- that dream? Either dream. Me-dream or Matt-dream? Cuz'a -- today Sage mentioned that a ring'a hers disappeared the same night /she/ had a dream where -- somethin' appeared, too. An' my crucifix, I think it mighta disappeared on one'a the dream-nights, too. An' when I texted Luci earlier about Spence hangin' out after school, he was sayin' that one'a Matt's chess pieces vanished -- the night you an' he had that Matt dream. Which is startin' to feel a whole lot less like coincidence now that you mention AJ gallopin' off." He nestles back into the hug, nuzzling up against Micah's neck. "Which might be the first /not/-good I'm hearin' about all this dream-stuff. But it still jus' feels – strange." "Huh. S'been long enough that it could've been the same time as the first dream, yeah." A soft breath sighs out between Micah's lips as his fingers move up to stroke at the back of Jax's neck. "Well...they /have/ been makin' somethin' from nothin'. Maybe they've gotta use the...energy of a /real/ thing t'manifest the dream things? Could explain why stuff's gone missin' the same time new stuff's appearin'. An' why the /bigger/ stuff seems more temporary." He leans in to brush a kiss to the side of Jax's neck at the nuzzling. "Any more news on people meetin' new folks? 'Specially the students who don't leave the school much. I'd imagine they meet fewer people'n the rest of us." "Have y'met someone -- mm." Jax briefly -- is either distracted or /forgets/ what he was saying at the small kiss, exhaling soft and happy. "Indian woman, she said. With a dog. Maya, that was it. I remember that name on account'a it means illusion. /I/ should know /that/ one. Sage said she seemed friendly an' cheery. I don't remember the dog's name. /I/ ain't never met the woman, though -- though I /did/ meet a new person I meant t'tell y'bout, remind me after this." He reaches for his messenger bag, pulling it closer. "But said she an' Peter an' a third affected person all met this same woman." "Ratri," Micah answers simply at the mention of the dog. "S'the dog's name. I met her twice. Obie an' Ratri played out in the park an'...she recognised me from the news. Was...real upset over what happened t'you an' that I looked like I hadn't been eatin' right. She gave me these...sweets. A whole container of them." He shakes his head with a bemused grin. "I ran into her again when I was goin' t'drive Luci home after he was workin' on Hive the last time. So he's talked to her, too. I returned her Tupperware. I had it sittin' on the counter all that time?" He chews at his lip, expression pensive. "She's a high school music teacher an' I've run into her outside our buildin' /and/ over at the park. She can't work /too/ far from here. We might be able t'find her with just that information." "Do you think it could really be her? I mean -- I guess if she was worried 'bout you even when I was in jail t'ain't like she's like to be a horrible bigot or nothin' at least -- ohgosh." Jax's hand slides down along Micah's side, running against the older man's ribs. "Was you not eatin' right, Micah?" His tongue clicks against his teeth in quiet disapproval. "I'm glad she fed you you're skinny as bones /already/ you woulda faded straight away 'fore I got home!" "Could be. No, she definitely was on the pro-Jax team. Even while y'were still in jail. She's a sweet girl. Could see her tryin' t'do nice things for people." Micah's fingers massage a little more firmly into the muscles at the back of Jax's neck. "You really don't think y'met her at all, though? Not even in passin'?" He blushes faintly at the question of his eating habits. "Not...so much while y'were gone. I was real sick t'my stomach a lot. Before an' after the...Malthus...thing. An' then I was just so worried about you'n Dusk'n Flicker'n the boys an' it didn't leave a whole lotta room for appetite." His head dips forward, brow meeting with Jax's shoulder. "Oh -- oh. /Well/, then," Jax says with a laugh, a soft-happy breath at the deeper rubbing, "I'll just hafta make sure t'fatten y'up good now. Did y'see the cupcakes I left on the counter?" He shakes his head, fingers slipping beneath Micah's shirts to run softly against ribs on skin, this time. "I don't think I met her none, no. Cheerful I remember, lately. S'been in short enough supply. An' puppies I love." Jax is -- definitely one of those obnoxious people for whom /all/ dogs are puppies, permanently. Regardless of age or size. "Can have someone try an' look her up maybe. Dusk's good at that -- uh. Kinda stalky stuff." He blushes, here, head ducking sheepishly. "Oh!" He leans forward, rooting around in the top flap pocket of his backpack to draw out a card with a sketch on it -- Sebastian, tucked away at his desk working on one of his bone sculptures. Done in a skilled hand, /not/ one of Jax's though given that he goes to one of the country's best art schools it's hardly unusual for him to come home with someone /else's/ Very Good Art. "Here look I met a guy the other day I meant to tell you it was the /neatest/ thing. -- Uh. Maybe a little creepy," he admits with a crinkle of his nose. "But pretty much awesome too." "I /did/ but I've kinda been /covered/ in chocolate all day, so I figured more sweets would just be excessive," Micah reports with a giggle that ends rather abruptly as his breath draws in, skin shivering at the tracing of fingertips over him. "Still not sure how I haven't gotten a serious /belly/ livin' with you." He tickles his own fingers along the back of Jax's neck, teasingly, before resuming the massaging circles. "I can ask 'im if he'd help me find her, but...um. I'd rather have me or someone else who's talked t'her for awhile an' been on good terms actually make contact? I mean. I know Sage's been like a terrier holdin' on t'her investigation of this thing, but she's kinda. Suspicious of the whole thing. An' really /abrupt/. I don't wanna risk scarin' her off when we need her t'help us find Matt. An' honestly, I'm /grateful/ for what she's been doin' for folks. Y'know...if it /is/ her." Micah's head lifts from Jax's shoulder, tilting slightly when Jax goes to show him something. "Neat is good." He looks over the drawing for a bit. "Don't see what's /creepy/ about it, though. Unless y'mean the bone sculpture; some folks find those creepy. But that's B's thing, probably not somethin' the artist /usually/ draws all the time." He shrugs noncomittally. "S'a nice drawin'." "Well, he could help find her an' let you make contact," Jax suggests easily, nestling comfortably back against Micah and turning the art card over to the other man. "An' what's creepy is that this drawing was made by a guy I'd only jus' met in a store the other day. He ain't never laid eyes on B in his life and I didn't tell him nothin' except I had a kid. He drew this with his eyes closed. Exactly what B was doin' at the moment without knowin' nothing about him. I handed him a bracelet of B's and by touchin' it? He could draw me exactly what B was doin' at that exact minute. How freaky-awesome is that? /An'/ he's pretty /an'/ a fantastic artist on /top/ it's like a trifecta of amazing." Jax is squirmy with excitement in this retelling. "I texted B /first/ to make sure he weren't doin' nothin' he wouldn't want me to see," he reassures Micah belatedly. "/Then/ he showed me what he could do. But ain't that somethin' else? All that with jus' a jelly-bracelet." "That's what I'm thinkin'. Since we talked a good while a couple of times an' she knows who I am an' where I live an' who my husband is an' m'dog's name... It'd be a little less creepy if I just showed up than most folks we could send, yeah?" Micah snuggles a little closer to Jax, scooting a little bit in his seat on the floor to reach more easily. His eyes widen and just grow /wider/ the more Jax talks, like a cat's pupils adjusting to the dark. "Jax. Jax, d'you know how t'contact 'im? Would he do it again? I gotta call Lucien." "Well yeah turn the picture over --" Jax gestures towards the sketch of Sebastian. "S'like our business cards, y'know," he says with a giggle. "Guess I never had no call t'give /you/ one. But those're -- info on one side, we sketch on the other. Mine're usually more coloury. But he left me his contact info on it, told me t'hit him up sometime." Micah's face splits into a broad, beaming smile at this information. He leans in, pulling Jax to him and kissing him in his excitement. "That means he'd do it again. Ohgosh. Oh/gosh/. I gotta call Luci now an' borrow somethin' of Matt's an' /you/ gotta call--" his eyes dart down to the card, "Sean. Call Sean an' let 'im know we need t'commission a /really/ detailed piece." His eyes suddenly widen again. "Oh/gosh/, Jax. An' get somethin' of Horus's from his place. An' have the kids find somethin' of Anole's at the school!" Micah's hand is already fumbling at his pocket to retrieve his phone. "Wh --" Jax's half-word is cut off in the sudden kiss. His eyebrows leap up from behind his mirrored sunglasses, Micah's smiling expression reflected in their lenses. "Oh -- ohgosh. Oh/gosh/, what -- oh." It -- really took this long for comprehension to dawn and suddenly his face is flooding with red. "Oh/gosh/, I'm an idiot I didn't -- ohgosh I shoulda told you this soon as I /met/ him Micah I -- oh gosh! I didn't even --" For a moment he buries his face in his hands. "Oh wow. Oh I didn't -- oh /gosh/, yeah we should -- I'll -- get in touch with him an' we can -- commission him for /all/ the arts -- oh wow. I'm -- a little slow in the -- uptake sometimes," he mumbles against his palms. "There's prob'ly things of Anole's in his dorm an' -- I'll get somethin' from Ryan." Micah just squeezes Jax...probably /uncomfortably/ tight with the arm that's still wrapped around the other man. He finally manages to get his phone out, releasing Jax so that he can use both hands to navigate through his contacts list. "Oh...oh/gosh/, Jax. This is wonderful. This is a real, honest lead. We can work with this. Even while Dusk's tryin' t'find Maya. We can already get started with /this/. The timing couldn't /be/ more perfect!" He thumbs Lucien's name, bouncing a little where he sits from the sheer /excite/ bubbling up in him. Jax pushes out a sharp breath in a sudden hiss when Micah's arm tightens. "Oh -- /sweetie/ careful." He wriggles back a little, with a small protesting 'mmph', shoulders shivering. "Oh. But oh /gosh/ if -- if he can really --" He's pulling out /his/ phone, too. "-- I should get some dinner. An' -- an' oh /gosh/ Micah he could. We could -- /ahh/." He wriggles up to his feet, /darting/ out of the room with an /actual/ bounce in his step. 'Sorry,' Micah signs with a sheepish expression, phone already pressed up to his ear and ringing. He waves energetically at Jax as the other man heads out of the room, his grin already returned as broad as before. from: Jackson Holland-Zedner <littlemisssunshine@xaviers.edu> to: Sean Bahron <Look@myart.com> date: Tue, Feb 04, 2014 at 19:37 subject: Commission Hihi! I met you the other day at Da Vinci. Looking for colour in the city! Finding colour in the city. I still have your drawing of my kid and I showed it to my husband; he was duly impressed! Because it's impressive. The thing is that I'm a total moron and he's way more practical than I am. I know I've just met you for all of like two seconds and this is incredibly personal but the thing is that he realized an incredible talent like yours could be incredibly USEFUL -- with all the insanity New York's had lately we've had a FEW friends missing and if you'd be up for it we'd really, really, really love if you'd be okay with us commissioning some work from you of them? To see if that might help see what they're up to lately. If they're up to anything lately. Because oh boy if they still are that would just be the really really happy icing on all the happy cake that's been brightening up the city these days. And in addition to commission payment I could give you ALL the hugs (if hugs are your thing) and so many cupcakes/cookies/whatever is your poison (I'm an excellent baker, promise.) This is kind of out of the blue, I know, but even though I'm super dense and didn't put together just how valuable your talent could be with helping out like this he realized it in half a second and if you'd be willing to help it could be -- I can't even put into words properly how awesome it could be. OK I'm done rambling. <3 Jax from: Sean Bahron <Look@myart.com> to: Jackson Holland-Zedner <littlemisssunshine@xaviers.edu> date: Wed, Feb 05, 2014 at 07:15 subject: RE: Commission Sure. How big we talking? Postage Stamp, Wall Mural? And what medium? Pencil, paint, chalk, clay, marble, other? Can meet up to discuss details. Pick somewhere that is cool with awesome people. Sean from: Jackson Holland-Zedner <littlemisssunshine@xaviers.edu> to: Sean Bahron <Look@myart.com> date: Wed, Feb 05, 2014 at 12:51 subject: RE: Commission Oh man! You can do marble? That's awesome you are like a jack of all trades! All... art trades. So so cool. I mostly just paint. And draw. And blow things. In glass. How do you feel about Home? The diner. It's in the Village. They're very friendly. We can talk about details. You can meet Micah. That is my partner. He's less flighty than me I promise, he'll remember all the practical details I forget. Maybe this weekend? I need to check his schedule and get back to you. Oh right and much as it would be SO AWESOME to have little sculptures probably drawings are more practical for finding missing people expeditiously. Or even just finding out if they're still alive. Maybe not wall mural sized. Something more normal like 8x10 probably. Not extravagant. Big enough for details though. But we can talk more details in -- detail! Also like I said he's better at practical than me so maybe we can iron out Things then. Also thank you so much. <3, Jax from: Sean Bahron <Look@myart.com> to: Jackson Holland-Zedner <littlemisssunshine@xaviers.edu> date: Wed, Feb 05, 2014 at 16:43 subject: RE: RE: Commission Never been to it. I'll have a taxi find it. Not all trades, I suck at Photoshop. Bigger the picture, the more detail I can cram in. Takes longer though, pencil is the fastest for large drawings. Least the world isn't technicolor now. See ya this weekend (Or sooner?). p.s. Do they have good brunch? I could totaly kill a ton of hashbrowns right now. Sean from: Jackson Holland-Zedner <littlemisssunshine@xaviers.edu> to: Sean Bahron <Look@myart.com> date: Wed, Feb 05, 2014 at 17:51 subject: RE: Commission Ohh. Digital art I can manage. Actually someone telling me you could do art on computers was mostly the only reason I learned how to wrangle them. >.> OK so maybe pencil would be best. SORRY about the technicolor world, that was my fault I guess. And YES oh man they have amazing brunch, 24/7. I will get you all the hashbrowns you can handle. <3 Jax