ArchivedLogs:Together

Together
Dramatis Personae Rasa, Sebastian, Shane
In Absentia	2014-01-11 '
Location <NYC> The Sharktank - Village Lofts - East Village
Everything in this bedroom comes in pairs. Two beds (pushed together to the center of the room to form one larger one), two desks, two bookshelves, two dressers, two closets. The walls hold a scattering of artwork in Jax's typically whimsical-surreal style. The right side of the room is impeccably tidy; desk neatly arranged: often a laptop or a nook, but otherwise cleared off, everything tucked in its drawers save for a small arrangement of textbooks and music books and little colourful glass figurines or pale bone sculptures on its upper shelves. Closet neatly in order, clothing (favouring pinstripes, vests, slacks) pressed and hung, shoes on a shoe tree inside the door. Books on the shelf neatly categorized. The left side of the room is a riotous spill of colour, bright eclectic wardrobe (lots of skirts and dresses and clothing with many bright patterns) haphazardly thrown together; desk cluttered with books and notes and an assortment of bones, its shelves also holding little glass or bone sculptures, though this alongside a wealth of mechanical parts or small robots in various states of completion. The floor here tends towards clutter; more robot-parts, clothing, treacherous Legos lying in wait for unsuspecting feet. Shane is not scheduled for work today, which means a full day of -- /apparently/ sitting around doing exactly-nothing. It's afternoon but he hasn't apparently left /bed/, curled up in a small lump of blue shark beneath the covers of the large smooshed-together bed in the center of his room. The comforter is pulled up over his head; at the moment there's not actually anything to be /seen/ of him except for BedLump. /Sebastian/, at least, is up and -- maybe not About. He's at his desk, dressed in cargo pants and a long-sleeved dark green henley shirt that admittedly don't give much indication of which twin he /is/. What /does/ give indication, though, is the little bonesculpture he is working on, a twisted-gnarled tree of some sort whose branches he is currently carefully adding a long slender bone to. Rasa arrives at the apartment that afternoon and is shown to the twin's door. Ze knocks, but doesn't really wait to let hirself in, as ze texted Bastian to let him know ze is coming. Ze is quiet though, and shy as ze peeks in. It's rather warm today, but rather rainy as well, so hir hair is piling up as ringlets all over hir head and dripping a bit. Hir shirt is magenta and has a wet spot up near the neck where hir jacket, doffed in the entryway, did not cover. Ze has a bag over hir shoulder, hir pants are denim and baggy. "Hey," ze starts, eyes on B's work. "It's me. Is it okay to be here?" Bastian doesn't immediately turn, very carefully notching the bone into a slot carved out to hold it; he releases it carefully, watches it for a moment to make sure it holds. And /then/ swivels in his desk chair to look towards the door, a quick very small smile touching his lips. "Hey!" For a brief moment his expression actually lights, warmer and happier in contrast to its previous tense exhaustion. "You're kind of damp, do you want to borrow clothes?" He gestures a hand towards -- his closet. Then Shane's. Take hir PICK. "Yeah, that'd be great. My socks got soaked and they're out with my shoes, but now my toes are all cold." Rasa gives Sebastian a smile as ze closes the door behind hir and sets hir bag down. Sure, it's full of clothes, but wearing Bastian's clothes, direct from the source? That's a treat. "Is Shane out? I thought they said he was here too. But well... I wasn't specific." Ze begins to peel off hir shirt, shaking it off a little, hir whole body a pale orange shade of sherbet. "Should I hang it up?" "Oh -- sure, you could just. Put it over the door or something. Take -- whatever you like," Sebastian's smile grows a little bit crooked, "I guess any of it can fit you." His nose wrinkles at the question of Shane. He leans down to pull a heavy long bone out of his box, /throwing/ it at the lump in the bed. "HEY." The lump protests the thunk of impact crankily, first in English and then in Vietnamese. "{Fuck is your problem dickwad.}" There's a stirring. The lump straightens out a little, but then just curls back into a ball. "Shane doesn't go out anymore," Sebastian informs Rasa. "He's boycotting the world." "More like I can fit any of it," Rasa smiles a little as ze turns to the door and hangs the shirt up so it can have a chance to dry. Then ze observes as Bastian throws the bone at the lump and it suddenly speaks. "Oh. Hun." Ze moves toward the bed, dropping to all fours when ze comes in contact with the mattress, crawling up to where ze thinks Shane's head is to peek at him. "I don't blame you. World's kind of fucked up." Ze glances back at B a moment later. The covers shift. One enormous black eye peeks out of a small tunnel at Rasa. "The world's a shitty place." "It's -- been kind of rougher lately than usual," Sebastian acknowledges, more heavily than before. "But you don't have to go out in it today, at least." "They bugged our apartment," Shane informs Rasa. "The shitty's creeping /in/." "Does feel kind of weird," Sebastian acknowledges. He pulls his legs upwards, bare heels resting on the edge of his chair. "Do you have anything you'd really like Homeland Security to know? Because they're listening like --" "-- creepy voyeurs," Shane finishes from under the covers. "I've been playing lots of porn for them." "Oh." Rasa frowns, hir face and chest darkening several shades, the orange taking on a burnt shade. Hir arms remain somewhat light colored though. "What the hell do they think they are going to find in some teenagers' bedroom? I mean, besides porn?" Ze sets hir teeth and turns to get comfortable, getting dressed just abandoned for the time being, hir toes working hir way into being covered by blankets. "Homeland security should know that they are doing a shitty job handling this, wasting way too much money on surveillance and should go close down Prometheus. That's what they should know. And bring Jax back." Grumpiness turns hir hair black. "B, do you have a towel in here?" "It's mostly just porn and a lot of violin music and sometimes B curses at his robots." Shane lifts up the blankets when Rasa starts to wiggle in, settling them more warmly on hir legs. "And a lot of talking in Vietnamese about -- books, mostly," Sebastian admits, "I wonder if they actually take the time to translate it all? They can hear lots of discussion about how weird China Mieville's stories are." "It does seem kind of like a huge waste," Shane admits. "Pretty much the entire country now knows the whole story. I'm not sure what they want to learn here. Everyone /knows/ my dad broke into Prometheus. But everyone knows /why/ now, too, so." He shrugs, slowly uncurling again to scoot up closer to Rasa, not quite touching but nestling his head by hir side. Sebastian gets out of his chair, heading out of the room but returning almost immediately with a fluffy red-and-black striped towel that he lays on Rasa's knees. He sits on the other side of the bed, now that Shane's sort-of-emerged, dropping his hand to trace fingers against Shane's gills. "Yeah." And for a moment, he's quiet. "Things any better with you?" he asks Rasa, hopefully. "School is big, stupid, and empty without you guys and Ivan. There's this new girl who is a foot tall. I... I am trying to be nice, but you know how when everything is big and huge you just don't want to waste what little energy you?" Rasa grabs the towel and starts to blot out some of the moisture from hir hair. Ze exhales softly and wraps it around hir shoulders when ze is done, reaching out a hand to rub Shane's shoulder, hir hand safely on the blanket "She wanted to take me shopping. I don't know how she does it. I mean, she's got a black card, so I guess her family is loaded, but how can someone that small not get hell for being a mutant? And just ... shop?" Ze stops and draws in a deep breath, looking to Bastian. "I chewed out, Ghost. She wants to brag about her article to you guys, so maybe call her." "Oh shit. I met that girl. In the -- two minutes we managed to stay back at school before coming back here." Shane's tension starts to relax with these measures of affection; no /smile/, really, but no tight heavy exhaustion either. "I called her an idiot and she broke a stool." Sebastian's nose wrinkles up at that. "I met her, too. She seemed -- nice. But, yeah, I -- /totally/ get you on just -- not. Having /any/ energy. She said --" His cheeks flush /abruptly/ deep. "Nothing," he amends hastily, "I mean, she didn't do anything wrong she was sweet, I just was /so/ wound up /everything/ felt hard to deal with. Kinda -- started crying and Shane took me back home." He looks a little wistful for a moment. "It'd be nice to be able to just shop though." Shane looks briefly puzzled. "What'd Ghost do?" "I saw in email that they're -- having some. Things. With the teachers, I guess 'cause of her article." This at least earns a very small smile from Sebastian. "Our dads went to talk to the administration about it after talking to her, too." "I'm... sensitive," Rasa admits, hir teeth clenched as ze remembers the conversation a few days ago. "That article made it sound like Ivan was a bully. Yeah, it didn't specifically say that it, but it just... flowed that way and people have asked me. Stuff like, why were we dating if he didn't like physical mutants. And it made it sound like there was just this huge fight, when everyone was just really freaked out and scared and full of powers and... shit happened." Ze draws in another deep breath and studies Sebastian. "You shouldn't have been suspended. It was really fucking stupid that happened, especially /when/ it happened, but I thought ... everything was getting better. And you guys were friends with him." "Ohshit," is Shane's answer to this. "I didn't even read the fucking thing," he admits. "I didn't --" He frowns, deeply, like trying to think back. "-- think that was what I /said/." Though now he doesn't sound sure. "At least /I/ wasn't trying to say /he/ was an asshole, just the way it was /handled/ was wrong." Sebastian frowns uncomfortably. "It was getting better. I mean we were friends, or starting to be." His teeth scrape against his lower lip. "And yeah, our conversation was about -- the /administration/, that thing with Ivan only came up because of how the /punishment/ was handled not --" His head bows. "I did read it. And it didn't -- sound to /me/ like he was a bully but I can definitely see where the upset -- I mean, /I/ also read it knowing what the intention was so I think -- that coloured my interpretation." "Mngh," says Shane, rubbing a fist over his heart. "Didn't mean for things to be fucked up that way, too. I was mostly talking about a pattern with the teachers. People are dumb, {I'm sorry.} I'd think dating you and being BFFs with Peter makes it kind of obvious he doesn't have a problem with freaks." "...LIke I said. I'm sensitive. And I miss him." Rasa bows hir head and exhales. "I was probably reading a lot into it and some people were just /asking/ because they weren't sure, but... yeah. The administration needs to work on all of that. And I think they will. I don't know. I don't mean to make you feel bad. I'm... embarrased." Hir skin shades have darkened more, hir arms matching hir torso now. "It's just all one thing after another... And I was supposed to come here and cheer you up." Ze scowls for a moment. "So, instead, you should think about Kai getting himself stuck to the ceiling with one of Peter's webshooters." "Nah, don't be. It's /Ivan/. You care about him." Shane watches Rasa's skin darken and then close his eyes. "And people can be kind of assholes about shit like that." Sebastian's eyes widen at the mention of Kai, and he presses fingertips to his lips to stifle a giggle. "Wait, really? Oh. Gosh. Is he okay, why does he even --" Shane opens his eyes, too, again. "-- have those, can he even /use/ them? You should've seen our damn bruises while we were trying." "I don't even know. I didn't see him. I just heard about it. It's pretty funny and more than a bit ridiculous." Rasa smiles a little, glad. "Now you can only have anything with a web cartridge on school grounds if you are actively training in it, and the teachers keep them in the off hours. I guess leave yours here." Ze exhales a little and nods. "Yeah. I can imagine. I've got some nasty bruises on my thighs from the circus acrobatics class. Getting jerked around by ropes when you're in free fall hurts like fuck." "Oh. Shit. Well -- s'alright I guess we don't wears our around the /clock/ like Peter does." Shane still frowns a little at this news, though. "Those things saved my damn life /so/ many times with the zombies." Sebastian seems more sanguine about it. "They /are/ weapons, I guess it was only a matter of time. Weapons and -- really dangerous to someone who tries to use them and can't handle it." "Do you do that shit with the, uh. Like where you spin around in silks?" Shane makes a small twirling motion in midair with his hand by way of demonstration. "Cuz those are /badass/." "Badass?" Sebastian echoes this, puzzled. "The pretty -- climbing silks?" "/Hell yeah/ badass. Man you need a pretty /good/ amount of arm strength and coordination to pull that shit off. There is nothing," Shane tells Bastian with a small pat of his hand against his brother's cheek, "that says you cannot be hardcore as fuck /and/ pretty on top." "We started out with the more traditionally stereotypical trapeze work, swinging back and forth. Then we went on to the single trapeze acrobatic acts. It's more stationary stuff. After that, we'll do the different lyra things. Silks after that, then partner balance contortion." Rasa exhales and stretches hir neck unconsciously as ze speaks, shoulders twitching into a little bit better posture. "I thought I was stretchy until I saw some of the contortionist stuff I got recommended on the internet. Maybe if I get good at that, I can do that when I graduate." Ze refocuses on the twins. "He's right, B. The more effortless you can make it look, the more amazingly badass you are. And effortless is one of my favorite qualities of beauty." "Lyra like the subtle knife?" Shane raises his brows with a small curl of smile. "I don't know which one the lyra is, is that awesome too? Why am I not taking this class?" "Because you don't do class," Sebastian answers him with a grimace. "Ohshit. Right. -- Hey I totally wrote one whole essay this week," Shane tells the others defensively. "Hey Ras can you /make/ yourself stretchier?" "Do you think circuses would like us?" Sebastian muses this thoughtfully. "I mean, they're kind of all /about/ freaks. Maybe they have better hiring habits. If you went into circus arts though that'd be /so cool/." His cheeks have flushed a little darker at the mention of strength and beauty. "Maybe when things aren't so ugly and we go back to school you can show me. Some of that kind of stuff." "I dunno. I mean, they aren't exactly like they used to be - except maybe that creepy one that came by Westchester last summer. Places like Cirque du Soleil are pretty much always in costume and make up anyway. It's not like it would affect how the public views them." Rasa starts off, hir words distracted with thought. "So it would be a question about whether or not the other performers would be comfortable." Ze pauses and wrinkles hir nose. "Well, fuck'm. We'll make our own circus, if no one will hire us. We can do the athletic shit and Ivan can have a flea circus, if people still do that. And the lyra is a hoop that they hang from the ceiling. You can do single person or partner work in that, too." Ze lays down and snuggles down further under the blankets, leaving the towel over hir shoulders. "Maybe. Probably. I mean, if a regular human can, I can too, through training. If my mutant helps, that's cool, but I'm going to work at it carefully so... you know, I don't hurt myself if it doesn't help." "We're pretty good at athletic stuff," Sebastian muses quietly. And with a shyer tone and a small blush, to his brother: "/You/ look effortless when you fence." "Fencing is nice. /Elegant/. Like the silks. I like things that are elegant." When Rasa snuggles down further, Shane snuggles up closer, resting his cheek against the towel on hir shoulders. "S'cool though. We can start our own -- freakshow." Sebastian blushes further, eyes dropping to the mattress. He lies down, too, worming under the blankets to nestle up at Shane's other side and close his eyes. "Maybe not freak show," he says with a quick short-breath of laughter. "But /performance/ -- thing." "You can do burlesque," Shane says. Bastian's eyes shoot open /wide/, his gills fluttering abruptly. "And you can float around gracefully on the trapeze," Shane replies. "-- Can you grow /wings/? I mean, ones you could use to actually fly? I guess wings take -- a whole /lot/ of body-reorganization, my friend --" His teeth clench briefly but he continues, "-- my friend Dusk has /gorgeous/ wings but I think growing them in fucked the /hell/ out of his back and shoulders, it's always just this knot of pain from all the extra muscles. Only back muscles are /so pretty/ so it's mostly like extra /gorgeous/ even if it sucks for him." "But it doesn't /entirely/ suck. I mean," Sebastian points out, "he gets to /fly/. He's not like birds though. Hollow bones? Lighter? He's just /super strong/ to make up. Have a couple /other/ friends with birdier wings and they /did/ change their bone density." Here he gives a thoughtful puzzled frown. "Can you do that? With bones." "Because then you could float around gracefully on trapezes and /launch/ yourself off. Swoosh around. It'd be the best circus," Shane opines. "Guys, I don't know." Rasa closes hir eyes and wraps an arm over the pair of them when they snuggle close. "Maybe when he gets back, I'll ask him if I can copy him." Ze shrugs a little. "I don't know what will happen. I may shrink. I only have so much to work with inside me. It's weird math that Dr. McCoy tried to explain to me once, well, at least what he thought it was. Something about energy conversion of food eaten and resources stored in my cells or some such. But sometimes I can get bigger copying people, other people, I get smaller. And other people I just copy the appearance and don't have the same make up." Ze draws in a another breath and cracks hir eyes to look at the heads of the other boys. "But maybe I can piece something together. Find someone with light weight bones and use Peter's muscle mass. Fair approximation. It'd still work. I want to see you dance, Bastian." Shane closes his eyes, and his gills open again, though this time it's slower; a lazy-relax shift of motion that tugs lightly at the towel with the sharp edges of his gills. "Dancing is nice. Should all dance more." Sebastian blushes, and nestles in closer at the curl of arm. "Oh -- oh gosh. I don't. I'm not good at -- I mean I -- what kind of dance?" "What kinda dance makes you happy? Pa was teaching me swing. Ballroom's pretty /too/ but swing is -- /fun/." Shane's eyes close. There's a smile on his face, but there's also tears squeezing out from beneath his lids. "Maybe later. Maybe later dancing? I don't -- want to move. Maybe ever." "So... we don't move. Ever." Rasa considers this quietly then starts to shift, getting an elbow under hir. "I should probably put on some long sleeves. Maybe gloves - if we're going to stay here. Kind of tired and don't want to invade your privacy if I fall asleep and flop over." Ze stifles a yawn as ze starts to sit up. "You'll just get my dreams anyway," Shane answers Rasa with a grimace. "You probably don't want those," Sebastian allows, soft, burying his face against the back of Shane's neck. "They're usually --" He shivers, briefly. "S'comfy pajama-shirts in --" Shane waves a hand towards a dresser on the far wall. "Bottom drawer. I guess we -- might eventually have to move for lunch. Or dinner." He sounds unhappy about this. "/Eventually/." Sebastian squeezes Shane tight. "But until then just. Be. Here." Rasa collapses back down when conversation starts up again, scooting down to press a little kiss to Shane's forehead. The touch is brief and Rasa turns a little blue, the impression that ze was there is left in the boy's head. "Yeah, well, it's not a flat yours and mine thing when we're asleep. My dreams would be half yours and half mine... and even different parts if Sebastian's got mixed in too. It's never as bad alone, or as good as it sounds like it could be. It's just.. us, together, elsewhere." Shane tips his eyes up towards Rasa, and snuggles closer at that, closing his eyes. What's on the surface of his mind at the brief touch is -- a jumble, fear and loss and hopelessness and /helplessness/ and a keening aching need for closeness. "That," he murmurs, very softly, "doesn't sound like a bad thing at all."