ArchivedLogs:Ham and Help

Ham and Help
Dramatis Personae Elli, Kisha, Shane
In Absentia	2013-01-02 '
Location <XS> Kitchen
The kitchen staff at Xavier's tends well to the needs of its residents. Always cognizant of its students and faculty's dietary needs alike, the menu has a wide variety of choices, and the longtime cook works wonders in the kitchen. The pantry, too, is kept well stocked for those who want to come prepare themselves their own snacks. The shelf, fridge, and freezer space is ample, though if anyone wants to keep their own food there, they'd better make sure it's labeled clearly, and even that is no guarantee it'll last. Being the day before classes start, there is a lot of bustle about the school. Students returning from their holidays, or just trying to eek out the last few bits of vacation that they can before school starts once more. That desperate, determined kind of fun, where it is almost stressful as the fast-approaching deadline of school approaches again. With the snow sweeping across the region, too, there is the additional stressor of getting back, and many of the returning students are having some trouble getting back. Elli had no such trouble, however. It was an easy jaunt back from her parent's house, despite coming out in the men's room of the cafe in Salem Center. Once settled in, she makes a beeline directly to the kitchens, new black platform boots stomping along the ground with the quiet squeak of rubber. Her hair is a different color too, though this is perhaps no surprise; it has been dyed black, with streaks of a deep Prussian blue marked through it. Her jacket matches the color of her hair - it, at least, is not particularly new, scuffed and repaired in places. Once inside the kitchen, she heads straight for the refrigerator: leftovers. Those who don't frequent the workshop might be forgiven for thinking Kisha spent the holidays at home, but with the return of class so very close she's been forced to return to a more sociable routine. Thus she's lurking in the corner of the kitchen picking at a plate of cold ham and some sort of cheese. Her own outfit is rather outlandish even by teen standards, classic aviator goggles with screens instead of lenses and a labcoat which has seen better days (and more than a few fires). Topped off with plain black pants and a t-shirt with a caffeine molecule on the front. Shane /did/ spend the holidays at home -- really, he's technically not moved back in yet. Today there's not a lot to immediately distinguish him from his twin, dressed neither in his typically dapper nor Bastian's typically feminine style but instead in plain dark cargo shorts, warm boots, a Xavier's tee worn unzipped over a plain white tee. The sleeves of his sweatshirt have been picked at until their edges are ragged and frayed; his fingers are still picking at them as he wanders into the kitchen. His black eyes scan the room, lingering first on Elli and then on Kisha. "Ham." His nose twitches, sniffing at the air. "I haven't -- eaten." Which if popular rumours about the sharktwins are true implies he might turn into a cannabilistic RAGEMONSTER at any moment. "Sorry, I don't know where Peter is." Elli says, bemusedly, as she turns to give Shane a rakish grin. She opens the fridge door and looks through a pile of sandwiches. "Good nose. Ham there is." She holds one out, gesturing with it as if to toss it towards the sharkteen. "Want it?" With her other hand, she pulls a second one out for herself. "Or should I get out of the way in case you decide to take a bite out of some fresher meat instead? If so, I should say, I think she's probably got more meat on her than I do. Just sayin'." She jerks a thumb towards Kisha. Kisha eyes the ham on her plate, then the hungry sharktwin and then shrugs. "You can have mine if you want," she offers, blinking at Elli. "Won't be wasting any bread that way." Experimentally she closes her fingers around her scrawny arm. "Not that I am suggesting you are fat... But.. I would estimate you have the weight advantage. Besides I've been handling toxic chemicals quite frequently, I imagine that makes me poor eating." "I haven't eaten a person in months." This could be a joke perhaps though Shane doesn't look particularly humoured. He does approach Kisha's table when she offers hers, plunking down heavily into a seat opposite her and reaching out his own stick-thin arm to skewer a piece on one claw. "People don't make good eating. Even the ones who don't handle toxic chemicals all the time on purpose are /pretty/ toxic. "... I don't know where Peter is." He says this more glumly. "Lot of people been. Kind of avoiding us lately." "I'd be insulted, but. Fuck it." Elli flops the sandwich at Shane one more time before shrugging and turning to stick it back into the fridge. She carries hers over to the microwave to unwrap it from the plastic and nuke it for a few seconds, fingers drumming along the countertop. "Good to know." She shrugs her shoulders, non-committally. "He's probably stuck at the airport. Snow is just getting worse outside. Breaks up my plans to hit the club this weekend, unless they clean it up." She pouts slightly at this, then grins. "Ah well. Just will have to cause trouble around here instead. And fuck whoever has been ducking you. Not like we don't get enough shit already from everyone else. No need to do it to us." "I thought his family were in the city?" Kisha wonders, picking the remaining bits of cheese off the plate. "Or did he go to visit Ivan? I have lost track of who is where recently, I wouldn't be surprised if he was spending all his time with Mr Stark." She gnaws at the cheese and then tentatively adds. "My work is at a pretty crital stage, but if you require any help with your fathers current situation..? I could start some web petitions or assist with webmaster duties if you've already got a protest site up and running." "Peter lives in Queens," Shane answers Elli a little sharply, "and the trains are all running just fine." He makes the ham disappear in short order, crossing his arms on the table after this and lowering his chin to rest on them. "I don't want any trouble." The sharpness fades with Kisha's offer, eyes widening on her -- for a moment a little bit wary, like he's not sure if she's serious or not. The sharpness has faded from his tone though when he speaks again. "That would be good, actually. I don't think they're -- even going to try, um. To try /contesting/ that he broke into those labs and got so many people out, just. Just try to -- be loud enough about what was going on in them that people --" He shakes his head, gills fluttering quickly as his eyes close. "It's a lie about the disease, though. He didn't ever -- /that/ part's just bullshit." Elli spreads her hands when Peter's location is discussed, shrugging her shoulders once. She turns around to open the microwave and remove her lukewarm sandwich. She faces the other two teenagers as she takes a bite out of it, shaking her head. "It is bullshit. Anyone whose met him even once can see right through that. Mister Jax isn't exactly a genocidal maniac. Except maybe about removing all the plain, uncolored shit from the world. But, a terrorist?" She snorts, derisively, taking another bite of the sandwich. "Bu's't'." Talking with your mouth full. Gross. Kisha frowns slightly. "Well. Strictly speaking the lab raids probably /are/ terrorist acts with the way such things are defined by the Government. That doesn't mean they weren't the right thing to do from a moral or ethical point of view." Her head tilts and she frowns from under the aviator goggles. "I never gave the virus part any consideration. The claim he is behind it is absurd... Not even a lunatic would start a zombie uprising in a city the size of New York and then stay behind. The person who made it will have made every effort to travel as far as physically possible away once they let it loose." "I think maybe it is terrorism," Shane agrees uncomfortably, his gills fluttering again. "Breaking into the labs. Just -- just I don't know the labs /themselves/ are doing a lot of illegal stuff and -- I don't know what laws are. It's not like breaking someone out of prison it's like breaking someone out of where a madman had kidnapped them and locked them in the basement. Except the madman is government scientists so --" He turns his head down, face buried in his arms. "So I think the idea is that it's pointless fighting the legal -- the charge. Of breaking into the labs but -- but if people know just what the labs /are/ it'll be -- political suicide to keep prosecuting people for trying to end them. It's kind of a gamble but." Down against his arms, his head shakes. "But he's /already/ under arrest for it and they /already/ know he /did/ it and if he gets convicted of the /virus/ thing they'll put him to death. So a gamble's better than -- nothing." "The laws are there to serve us, not us to serve them. Can't be terrorism if you're defending against the terrorists." Elli says, taking another bite and then going back to the fridge to pull out a can of soda. Coke. Mmm. "If it gets bad... and it all goes south...." Elli hesitates for a moment, eying the blue teenager. "I mean, he headed a team that specialized in breaking into government labs. Couldn't they break him out of prison?" She looks almost sheepish. "I mean. If all else goes wrong. Obviously, not... so good." "I was reading a book recently which had some good ideas about the use of electronic mediums in politics," Kisha notes, drumming her fingers against the table. "It wouldn't be hard to set up a site which allows people to sign a petition that also gives them a link to their local elected officals. So they can pressure them directly too.. Given how much he did to help with the cure I'd imagine we could also get some international pressure going. Encourage people to protest outside embassys and the like..." The tapping seems to almost have turned into typing. "I would imagine there will be a lot of anti-mutant counter protests which might try bring the site down but modesty aside.. I'm far better than they are. Especially if Bastian and Peter can talk Mister Stark into providing us some server resouces." "They could get him out in a heartbeat, it's hard to stop friends who teleport. But -- then he'd just have to be on the run /forever/. I mean, if the option is that or /death/ --" Shane tenses, shivering. "... but until it gets to that point, just going to try and fight it legal ways. There's already been -- a bit of support mixed in with the death threats my family keeps getting, I'm hoping, um. Well, we're collecting people's stories of -- what /happened/ in Prometheus, hopefully that'll get more support still." He offers a very tenative smile at Kisha's last statements. "That'd be really good. Thank you. I'm sure -- maybe B and Peter could get -- help. We're going to need a lot of it." "Yeah. I know." Elli says, giving Shane a bemused look. "Ain't too many places that I can't go. But, yeah. Not exactly the best thing to do." She takes another bite of her food, then another, finishing the sandwich off with a large chew and swallow, washing it down with a swig of Coke. "If you have the resources of Stark, I doubt even the government could get it down, if they wanted to. That company is big enough to buy most of this part of the country, if it wanted to." She shakes her head, glancing at the refrigerator for a second before she looks back to Shane. Her mouth opens, but no words come out, and her jaw clicks shut a moment later, with a thinning of her smile. "I don't really need those level of resources," Kisha points out cheerfully. "I'm already setting up a basic website as we speak. It's nice in a way, being able to help that is. Not like during the zombie outbreak where all I could really do was plan for my own escape." "The videos -- the stories people are going to make, those are going to go out in the press but it might be good to have one website that collects them all, too. Could you --" Shane scuffs his hands against his spiky-hard hair, ending in a frustrated shake of his head. "Yeah." He breathes this word out heavily. "I know that feeling. Been kind of -- really fucking useless through --" He stands with a hard swallow, his gills fluttering again. "I should get back to, um. I'm supposed to be finding people. Talking to them. People who want to tell their stories. I guess one sort of good thing is that we've got a lot of them to tell." "That's looking on the bright side." Elli mutters, shaking her head once. "If... if there's anything I can do, you let me know. I'm not as... technologically." She trails off, her smile tilting. "Anything. I can turn on the computer. Google. Porn." She shrugs her shoulders, giving Shane another look. "But, if I can help." She doesn't finish the sentence, looking awkwardly into the can of soda. "Video linked in? Easy," Kisha assures. "If you can draw or paint you could do some graphics for the site? Otherwise there may eventually be server costs which you could contribute to... I would however recommend being very careful with any porn you visit while at school. The school webmaster sees /all/." "Yeah, and you should see how snarky he gets if you're on webcam naked." For a moment Shane almost even smiles. "I'll let you know. And um --" He swallows again, looking downwards as he starts to pluck once more at the fraying ends of his sweatshirt sleeves. "-- Thanks. We've had a whole lot of -- not. Helping. It's good to know not everyone believes -- well. Thanks." He's still fidgeting at his sleeves as he turns to hurry off. Elli flashes Kisha and Shane a grin only slightly less toothy than Shane's own. Or... a lot less, but she's trying. "Yeah. I can imagine." Her eyebrows raise and she grins. "There's a story there. You'll have to tell me sometime." She looks a little abashed as Shane thanks her, taking a sip of her coke and gives a little wave to Shane as he departs. She looks back at Kisha, then chuckles. "You should eat more. I really will be in danger if he does get hungry." With that, she turns and heads towards the door - and, immediately on the other side of the door, her bedroom.