ArchivedLogs:Losing Home

Losing Home
Dramatis Personae Anole, Rasa, Sebastian
In Absentia	2014-04-23 '
Location <XS> Lake
Bright, bright, bright; the lake glitters wide and expansive here, stretching off into the distance. Sunlight, moonlight, starlight, it catches them all. Lapping at the rocky shore, its deep waters are frigid in winter and cool even in summer. A stone pier stretches out a ways into the water, wide and smooth, though often icy in winter. The water teems with life nevertheless, home to myriad species of fish that provide for ample fishing or just lazy watching on a slow summer day, for those who want to take a boat from the boathouse out to the center of the lake, or perhaps lounge on the pier and try their luck. It's cool out, and cloudy, and the grounds this afternoon are far more deserted than they had been in previous bright-warm days. Even so, there's a figure draped across the stones of the pier, wrapped in a light blue jacket that is oddly snug on his one overly-bulky new-grown arm, black jeans, black sneakers. Anole's backpack is sitting beside him, his tablet propped against his stomach and his thighs; at the moment he's watching an episode of Parks & Rec on Hulu, a plasic tub of two-bite brownies on the stones next to him. Intermittently his eyes skim to the water as though he's waiting. Dun dun. Duuun dun. Dun dun dun dun --. There's a streak of blue flashing through the water towards the pier, darting-quick and glimmery. Between the light on the water and the light on Sebastian's own oddly gleaming skin there's a distinct sheen to him when he pokes his head up out of the water by Anole, claws clicking against the rocks as he folds his thin arms against the pier. Tips his head down to /deposit/ an eight-inch pumpkinseed, still flopping, from his teeth onto the rocks. Anole's eyes drift away from his tablet; his bulky oversized arm stays propped against the ground, supporting him where he lies. A smile spreads across his face, slow at first and then brighter as the streak of blue comes closer. He nudges his backpack farther from the edge of the pier, nudging his brownies back as well. He pushes himself up into a sitting position, jacket stretching taut as the muscles of his left arm flex, and grins as the fish is dropped onto the rocks. His long pink tongue shoots out with a sudden lightning-flash thwip, smacking into the fish to yank it to him. Chomping it into his mouth. Sebastian folds his arms against the cold stones, water dripping off them in rivulets. He smiles briefly bright at the sudden snap of crazy-long tongue, teeth flashing for a moment and then tucking away behind his lips again. His gills are still flapping; the longer set against his sides still submerged beneath the water but the shorter pair at his neck fluttering uselessly out in the air. "I don't really know why they're called pumpkinseed, they don't taste anything like pumpkin." His chin rests against his arms, eyes drooping half-closed. His head turns slightly, listening to the show playing on Anole's tablet. "Studying hard?" Anole's answering giggle is muffled around his mouthful of fish. Crunchcruch slurp chew. He sets his tablet aside, leaning out over the water so that he can deal with guts and some of the bones he doesn't feel like eating, but for the most part the fish just gets eaten as-is. His tongue swipes over his lips when he's done. "Maybe 'cuz they're crunchy?" he finally suggests, dropping back into place to sit -- and take his tablet back with a blush, looking at the playing show. "/So/ hard. I was gonna watch Grimm when this was through. For extra credit?" "Sounds legit." Sebastian's nose twitches as he watches Anole devour the fish; his eyes slide mostly-closed again afterwards, a small pleased smile on his face. "M'just waiting for Shane. To eat. We're going into town." His gills have slid closed, now, pressing down flat as he speaks. "Hopefully in time to catch a ride /back/ with Ba because Brooklyn is /really far/." The smile slips away from his face, shoulders just sagging, now. But perking back up with, "Grimm? Is that good?" "I like Brooklyn," Anole combines somewhat disjointedly with, "why would you ever go to Brooklyn?" He hits pause on his video, pulling himself up to sit upright. Somewhat upright; he lists just a /little/ bit to the side with the enormous-heavier arm. "I don't -- really /know/. It's a police procedural /and/ it's fairy tales? I like both those things -- sooometimes. I think it's trying too hard." Rasa has... been around the last week. Ze hasn't yet resumed classes, spending most of the daytime hours outside, weather permitting, and wandering between the medlab and counselling appointments. When ze sleeps, ze sleeps sedated. The rest of the time, ze spends moving and eating. Today,ze is wearing a very beat up pair of cargo pants, the cuffs a little muddy from hikingaround outside, the fabric squishing stiffly around hir bare feet and ankles. Hir top is a very loose green tee shirt, probably a 2XL, with a navy blue school jacket tied around hir waist. Ze has a small backpack on, the same one ze wore when ze wandered the campus during the zombie apocalypse. Hir hair is dark and hir skin is a sunbaked bronze - a strangely human shade for hir. Ze is sneaking out of the forest and heading toward the lake, initially heading toward the boathouse, but the two people on the pier catch hir attention. It's the laughter. It draws hir in. Ze wanders closer, peeking at them to make sure ze isn't interrupting anything before approaching. "Visiting Dusk. S'in the hospital there." Sebastian lets out a heavy huff at this, gills fluttering once more and his voice soft. "I think he's unconscious so it won't really -- matter but. Haven't been able to see him for a bit so we wanted to --" The distant movement by the forest makes him fall into quiet, his head lifting as his eyes peer over towards the at-first far-off shape with a reflexive attunement to motion. His nostrils flare, nails scratching against the stone. He turns his head once Rasa is moving a little bit closer, relaxing upon identification. "I hate police procedurals but I like fantasy?" He shrugs a shoulder. "I watch Once Upon a Time, though, so I can't really hold a grudge for trying too hard." He finally lifts a hand once Rasa is closer enough for talking-distance, fingers curling in a wave and then dropping back to fold his arms together again. "Do you want a brownie?" He nods. Towards Anole's brownies. "Oh." Anole's face just falls at this news. His arm -- the bigger one -- twitches uncomfortably, huge-clawed fingers curling into a fist against the stones. His head turns to follow Sebastian's gaze, skin and clothes shifting reflexively to the same grey as the stones; it stays that way as Rasa nears, wide rocky eyes staring at the other teenager. He sits upright, pulling his arm over in front of himself as though this will -- do something to hide it. "Hi, Rasa." He pushes the tub of brownies towards hir. "You haven't been in class." "No," Rasa replies, walking forward at the same pace, only slowing a foot or three away from the pair, lowering hirself to squat beside the other students. Hir fingers slip inside the tub of brownie bites and pulls out a chunk of chocolatey goodness. "I have not. Not yet." Ze glances over at Anole, hir eyes shifting from pale blue to vibrant green as ze studies his face and his face only, then looks over at Sebastian, eyes turning a dark blue. "Should probably start thinking about that, huh. Don't want to lose the semester." Ze settles into a sitting position and stuffs half of the brownie in hir mouth and starts to chew. "Hive too." Sebastian's gills flutter again, his eyes closing. He opens his mouth hopefully, making small biting motions towards the brownies. "I stopped doing your homework." He sounds a little guilty about this, frowning uncomfortably. "I just didn't --" His chin drops back to rest on his arm. He shrugs, though, at the question of going back to class. "I skipped almost /all/ of spring term last year and it didn't hurt my GPA. But I had to make a deal with them about Spanish." "You didn't -- /skip/ it you were --" Anole frowns, clawed hand uncurling and curling again tightly. He picks up one of the small brownies, placing it carefully in Sebastian's chomping teeth. "... well, also it's just better?" he says uncertainly to Rasa. "I mean, otherwise you just --" He trails off, though, looking back out towards the water without finishing this thought. "But I'm bad to ask I don't really care about my GPA so much I just. Came here because I didn't have anywhere else to go. And then probably would've left here too," he admits with an uncomfortable fidget and an unhappy look off towards the trees, "except you and Shane are here." "Bah. You didn't have to do that to start. I mean, Thank you, but... yeah." Rasa grabs another bite, tossing it lightly in hir fingers as ze watches Anole and Sebastian. When the former finishes feeding the latter, ze makes motions to throw hir bit at B, but waits until he is ready. "I.. just... I don't know how good I'd be at class right now. Kind of very distracted right now. Supposed to go off the sleeping pills soon. That'll probably help." Ze gives a little shrug and listens to Anole, hir head tilting. "Yeah. There's some good people here. Plus, the school seems safer. I mean... bad stuff only happens to me off campus. Okay, Correction. Most bad things happen off campus. The shit that happens on campus is better in that the zombies were fixed and the invaders were stopped." Ze gives a thin lipped smile, hir fingers stuffing the last bits of hir brownie into hir mouth. "I'll go back to class. Promise." "You could've gone back to the tunnels?" Sebastian suggests, licking brownie crumbs off his lips and then stretching his head forward to chomp the second brownie bite out of the air when Rasa tosses it. SNAPchomp. "Or come move into the Commons with us. Not till June though. We'll have a spare bedroom. But I guess you'd have to find a job maybe? I don't know." He looks uncertain about this need. "Dai and I make plenty, Shane doesn't have a job right now. School is safer but never leaving campus would get --" He shrugs a shoulder quickly. "A little boring I think? Maybe. Maybe not. I'd stay in the workshop a lot," he admits with a small blush, "and probably not notice." Anole shakes his head at the mention of going back to the tunnels. "I was chased out of there. I mean, I can get back in now, but it's not ever really -- been /home/ again since. And then the guy who did it showed up /here/ and --" His head shakes, claws digging in against the stone once more. He pulls out a brownie bite, stuffing it whole into his mouth. His cheeks shift colours, rocky hues marbling in shades of grey. "The Commons? Right." His nose crinkles up, a small smile on his face briefly. It fades, though, head just shaking. "It's safer here." He issues this agreement with an uncertain shrug. His eyes drop to stare at his large new claw. "But I don't think anywhere's very safe. And I'm not really sure /safe/ matters very much? Not if you don't. Actually have anywhere that's..." He frowns, shrugging again. "Yeah, you wouldn't notice until you missed someone not on Campus. Still, your work is pretty distracting." Rasa takes another brownie bit and rolls it around on hir fingertips. "Didn't they capture him though, Anole? Not tht it would make it 'home' again, but nothing really feels good after..." Ze scratches at the side of hir nose, staring at the surface of the brownie, comparing the bubbly side and bottom to the smoother surface. "This ... is like lava. Kinda." Ze frowns. Sebastian frowns, reaching out a wet hand to squeeze at Anole's thick-clawed one. "Everyone needs to feel like they have a home. Sometimes I think it's just -- with people instead of in any /place/." He folds his arms back again, shivering briefly. "Chocolate lava. That's better than the other kind, I think." "Capture him?" Anole looks baffled at this. "Who would've captured him? The school invited him to live /here/ and I almost left. It just seemed like a bad plan to go back to the streets without an arm and it only /just/ finished growing when he woke up and left." He lifts his newly grown arm uncertainly, turning over the clawed hand slow and clumsy to squeeze -- veeery gently -- back at Sebastian's hand. Then lift his hand stiffly further to scratch a the hard shelled top of his head. "Much tastier than lava. You want the rest of them? I ate too many." "Oh. Apologies. I think that I am thinking of someone else," Rasa confesses quietly. Ze bites hir lip and nods. "Sure. I can eat those for you. I'm getting better at the eating thing." Ze demonstrates this by sticking a whole brownie bit in hir mouth and chewing it up. Hir attention drifts toward the lake as ze chews, then, packing all of that into one corner of hir mouth, ze asks, "Is that what you do? People as home? Is it something you discuss with them or just hope they feel the same?" "Almost definitely a bad plan. You already almost died out there with /two/ arms." Sebastian's inner eyelids shift rapidly, claws scritching down against the stone. "/I'm/ glad you're still here with us, anyway, even if --" He hitches up a shoulder uncomfortably. "Even if everything kind of. Always sucks." He gives Rasa a small nod, turning his eyes out towards the lake, too. "Places don't exactly stay. They get blown up or you have to move or you can't afford them or you graduate but people --" His brows rumple together. "I don't know," he admits. "I guess I just -- hope?" He unfolds his hands, stretching his arms away from the pier to sink lower in the water. "I should go get Shane. If we're going to get to Brooklyn before it's late." "I meant the tree-person," Anole explains with a small sinking of his shoulders. "Who was here. Jim. He --" His eyes close, and when he reaches for his tablet to hug it close to his chest, it melts into the same stony grey as the pier. "Eating is good. When I got out of there I --" But this breaks off, too. "Okaybye." He gives Sebastian a very small smile, hugging his tablet tighter. And, quietly. "... people don't exactly stay, either." "Him?" Rasa is surprised. Ze blinks a couple times. "Brooklyn? Okay. Bye." Ze shakes hir head and refocuses on Anole. "At least people can try to stay longer." Ze presses hir lips together and then stares at Anole. "Look, with your arm... did he... ...in front of you?" Ze is unfortunately intent upon knowing. Sebastian's gills ripple quickly at Anole's last words. His head sinks, brows furrowing deeper, and with a small unhappy noise he turns to vanish beneath the rippling water. "Yes, him," Anole answers Rasa's surprise with just quieter awkwardness, "he lost me my -- and I couldn't even come /here/ to get away from him --" He shakes his head, standing swiftly though in his haste he nearly topples over, severely unbalanced on one side where his new-grown arm pulls his weight down. He shakes his head uncomfortably. "Sorry, I --" He picks up his backpack, skin fading back to green finally. He returns Rasa's stare, confused. "What?" "Hey, look. I would like to express some sympathy that he fucked things up for you. I ... don't know him all that well. Just a tree that talked back to me and this telepath I know defends." Rasa draws in a deep breath and rolls from hir sitting position to one balanced on the balls of hir feet and finger tips. "I ... wanted to ask about when the cultists took you. It's bad subject and it's okay if you don't want to talk about it. I know... I mostly don't. You just mentioned not eating. Or not wanting to eat. Something like that." "I don't," Anole answers abruptly, taking a step back and shifting his backpack onto his back as his eyes widen. He looks down at his feet, shoulders drooping again. "I mean -- I'm sorry. I just. I don't. Want. To talk about --" His clawed hand opens and shuts. Opens and shuts. He draws in a deep breath, too. "I should -- go. Maybe study for real this time." "Okay. Sorry." Rasa bows hir head and nods, staring at the pier itself instead of Anole. "Hey, thanks for the brownies. Appreciate it. No need to apologize. I just... Other people don't get it. I... don't need to make you talk about it. I don't need you to talk about it. I don't think that it would help anyway." Ze looks up and gives him a little smile. "See you around, good luck with the studying." "I don't think I get it either, though," Anole admits softly. "It's just all really senseless and I don't understand -- how to understand." He pushes out a heavy breath, still looking down at his toes. "I'm not sure how to get it. Um. Right. Studying. Er. Bye." Rasa nods and settles back into a sitting position. "Yeah. It... it... just is. See you around."