Logs:Hallmark Moments

Hallmark Moments
Dramatis Personae Leonidas, Sriyani
In Absentia Lucien, Gaétan	2024-03-21 "Gae’s still basically a Boy Scout."
Location <XAV> Rec Room - Xs Second Floor
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. Leonidas has found himself suspended upside-down in midair in front of one of the televisions, hyper fixated on what appears to be an ai-voice narrating what appears to be a generic murim manwha with an over-powered protagonist. He’s currently dressed in a pair of grey jogging pants and what was once a matching Xavier’s t-shirt, but has since been modified into a crop top. Sriyani is just slipping into the room, and though they were beelining toward the snack table they pause with a blink when they see Leonidas -- quite literally hanging around the rec room. They tilt their head one way and then another before ambling closer and leaning up against the back of the couch. "Does that help with the watching?" Leonidas let’s out a very dignified squeal and drops out of the air, landing squarely on the top of his head and crumpling into a sophisticated heap, before quickly righting himself and dusting off. “Ah, mostly just feels good to let my spine decompress.” he answers without making eye contact, the faintest blush across his cheeks. “You been doing well?” "Break is nice." Sriyani shrugs, squinting over at the television for just a moment before evidently deciding it is not worth deciphering. "Did you hear about Gaétan's brother? Should we like... send a card or something? I don't think Hallmark makes cards for, we're not friends but you were really solid in mutant torture jail and your brother helped us a lot so sorry he's dead. It's kind of a specific niche." “Yeah.” Leonidas sighs, taking a seat on the couch and looking back up at Sriyani. “I sent a pretty standard condolences message, but that doesn’t seem like enough.” He takes ahold of the ps5 controller and pauses the video. “I know the shit’s gotta be rough, fent got my older cousin Tyler a few years ago.” "I only saw him a little bit at Camp Lassiter but he did not seem like a junkie. He was so neat, you know?" Sriyani sounds more intrigued by this shocking development in the life of her ex-labmate than particularly sympathetic, though they do sound more genuine when they add: "I'm sorry about your cousin. That's gotta be real tough. Maybe I'll make a card. I haven't heard from Gae at all since we got out though do you think," and they're warming to this idea now, eyes lighting with a air of scandal, "that he's doing all that too? Lassiter was pretty rough." “You can’t always tell who’s an addict just by looking at them, especially when they actually have enough money to support it.” Leonidas gives his head a shake at the last question, “Nah, Gae’s still basically a Boy Scout. The world hasn’t broken him yet. Somehow.” "Hmm," Sriyani looks kind of unconvinced, but only kind of. "I guess most of the people I see on the streets don't really have..." Though here they're pausing with an uncertain wrinkle of nose. "Do Broadway actors get paid much, actually? All the theatre people I know are broke." They aren't dwelling on this conundrum, though, moving quickly on to: "He did have kind of a different -- token-human experience in there, I'm honestly surprised they didn't just get bored and let him go. Maybe he'll write a musical about it." They're opening up their phone to pull up a notepad app, labelling their newest note CARD FOR GAE. IDEAS? and stopping after this. "What does he even like, do you know? Like to decorate a card with." “They’re actually really tight lipped about how much Broadway actors make. I think Nathan Lane was making something like a hundred thousand a week when he was in The Producers, so it’s safe to assume Lucien was making something like that.” Leonidas goes into info-dump mode for a moment before catching himself and pausing to think. “There’s a lot of overlap between what he’s into and what his brother did, so I’m not sure if we should decorate the card with it. Maybe something somber and professional? He does come from money even if he doesn’t actually act like it.” "Woah, seriously?" Sriyani's eyes are widening at this financial revelation. "The theatre people I know need to step up their game big time. Though," they are acknowledging this breezily, "in fairness a lot of my mom's theatre friends are just not that good. They think they're good but I think they haven't had to sit through enough of their own shows. I was googling Mr. Tessier like crazy this week and he was actually really good so it's kind of a shame." They're tipping forward against the back of the couch, kind of flopped over so they end up looking up at Leonidas, now, upside-down against the back cushions. "Doesn't act like..." They're puzzling over this just a moment before an understanding dawns in, "oh do you mean because he's nice? He doesn't," once again their voice is slipping into the slightly breathier tone of salacious gossip, "actually come from money, you know, I was reading online that his brother was totally a homeless hooker can you believe that? He was so proper I would not have guessed in a million years. But I think they were like -- like my family's poor but they were poor-poor before he got all those big roles. Maybe that's why Gae isn't a jerk, you think?" “I’ll be honest, I didn’t really look into his background.” Leonidas admits as he watches Sriyani flop over. “Might be public knowledge now, but it just felt weird prying into Gaétan’s personal life.” A brief pause, “Even if he does use it to gain followers. Then again it’s his to do with what he wants.” He lifts his hand up and flicks his wrist in a sort of shrug. “I guess when you’re homeless there aren’t really a lot of options. Can’t really get a job without a home address anymore. Can’t even begin to imagine how much that shit sucks. Guess I got lucky getting shipped off to boarding school instead of getting kicked out. Hell, even luckier taking you up on that prison break idea in hindsight. I don’t have a home to go back to, but at least I have rent money put back now while I find a job. One small positive from that nightmare I guess.” "I feel like if you decided to be a celebrity you've gotta know people are going to pry into your personal life and anyway it's not prying he said a lot of that stuff in interviews. He gave this whole talk at this fundraiser for helping kids who were dealing with addiction and oh now that I say it out loud that's kind of sad." The note of bright intrigue is bleeding out of Sriyani's voice and their brows are scrunching in a thoughtful frown. The brief dive into some kind of reflection lasts approximately half a second before they're bulling on ahead to: "Do stupid heroics, get tortured, maybe your best friend will die but you'll get paid good -- oh I'm going to have to think of a new recruiting pitch when we get the team back together." They're tumbling over the couch and, after arranging themselves into a sooort of upright (albeit half splayed over the arm of the sofa) position. "Oh wow yeah I forgot you're like, old. What are you going to do next?" Leonidas sits in silence for a good thirty seconds after Sriyani stops talking. “I don’t know. I weigh too much to be a firefighter. I’m not good enough of a musician to pursue that. I’m good at studying, but I can’t feed myself on that. And I eat a lot.” He sighs and makes eye contact with the other teen, “I still want to be a hero. Things are getting crazier out there, and I don’t think just coming back and becoming an X-Man is gonna cut it. Much as the unmutated wanna fight it the worlds changing.” "Some people spend their whole lives in academia it's a thing." This doesn't, admittedly, sound like encouragement so much as a very mild disdain. Sriyani's mouth is twisting to the side and they glance back over to Leonidas. "Wellllll," slow and a little uncommitted, "we are probably getting the team back together." They tip their head back, looking up to the ceiling with a very small sigh and a very small wilt, but by the time they're worming more upright to look more squarely at Leonidas, they're bright again. "Next time, we'll just do it better."