Logs:Those who trouble their households will inherit wind, and the fool will be servant to the wise.

Those who trouble their households will inherit wind, and the fool will be servant to the wise.
Dramatis Personae Jamie, Leo, Polaris
In Absentia	2021-12-22 "Well. You're not gonna make anything right by 'staying out of the way.'"
Location <NYC> Evolve Cafe - Lower East Side
Spacious and open, this coffeeshop has a somewhat industrial feel to it, grey resin floors below and exposed-beam ceilings that have been painted up in a dancing swirl of abstract whorls and starbursts, a riot of colour splashed against a white background. The walls alternate between brick and cheerfully lime-green painted wood that extends to the paneling beneath the brushed-steel countertops. There's an abundance of light, though rather than windows (which are scarce) it comes from plentiful hanging steel lamps. The walls here are home to artwork available for sale; though the roster of prints and paintings and drawings and photographs changes on a regular basis it has one thing in common -- all the artists displayed are mutants. The seating spaced around the room is spread out enough to keep the room from feeling cluttered. Black chairs, square black tables that mostly seat two or four though they're frequently pushed around and rearranged to make space for larger parties. In the back corner of the room is more comfortable seating, a few large black-corduroy sofas and armchairs with wide tables between them. There's a shelf of card and board games back here available for customers to sit and play. The chalkboard menus hanging behind the counter change frequently, always home to a wide variety of drinks (with an impressive roster of fair-trade coffees and teas largely featured) though their sandwiches and wraps and soups and snacks of the day change often. An often-changing variety of baked goods sit behind the display case at the counter halfway back in the room, and the opposite side of the counter holds a small selection of homemade ice creams. A pair of single-user bathrooms flanks the stairway in back of the cafe; at night, the thump of music can be heard from above, coming from the adjoining nightclub of the same name that sits up the stairs above the coffeehouse. It's a perfect crisp winter's day out, enough sun to offset the nip of the breeze, but not enough to stop people's breaths from condensing in picturesque billows. The mid-week afternoon traffic at Evolve is fairly low, but there's still a certain energy here. Maybe it's the caffeine. Maybe it's the camaraderie. Maybe, in this moment, it is at least in part Polaris. She is not on shift, as she and her co-workers have had to remind a few regulars, but she is looking keen and alert and wired. She's wearing a red newsboy cap brilliantly set off by her vivid green hair, a black short-sleeve tee with an elegant compass rose on the chest over a black-and-red striped long-sleeve tee, wide leg black jeans, and stompy black boots. The wire rings adorning all but one finger are curling slow and restless. She herself, though, seems more or less able to stay still where she's seated comfortably sideways in a chair with its back toward the table. "Wouldn't it be great to get away from all the noise, for just a while?" she's asking her companion, very intently. "Winter feels like it should be quiet. I love this city but man is it loud!" Leo is leaning slightly back in his seat, his hands curled around a large mug of coffee and his eyes tipped down towards his drink rather than at Polaris. He's dressed more warmly, umber corduroys and a soft mustard sweater, his black peacoat and soft earthtone-striped scarf draped over the back of his chair. "N-no," he replies, shaking his head slowly. "I like the noise. It's easier to think. Besides, I can't really --" He hesitates, his lips pressing thin a moment, before dismissing this line of thought with another shake of his head and asking instead: "Where would you go, anyway?" Jamie is not an imposing figure even when standing upright, and with his shoulders hunched in against the cold as he is when he enters, he looks like just a little slip of a man. He takes a moment to unwind his long camel scarf, pull the dark blue beanie from his head, and shrug out of his navy peacoat. Beneath, he's wearing a green corduroy shirt over camel slacks and brown loafers. He comes up short as he approaches the counter, his eyes skating aside toward Polaris and Leo. After he does put in his order, he comes up to their table, his coat and accessories bundled tightly against his side. "H-hey, Sister..." He nods at Polaris, then at Leo, though it takes half a beat longer for him to produce, "...Leo. Mind if I..." He gestures at an empty seat, the farthest from Polaris. "Oh no, I love the noise, too. But I can't with it all the time so I got to strain to hear--" Polaris waves vaguely at the floor. "I dunno, like, the mountains upstate? Or out on Long Island, way out. Or heck, even just the Rockaways." She shakes her head. "But obviously it's not everyone's thing, and--" Her wide hazel eyes snap to Jamie as he approaches. "Hey. Brother." She glances at Leo, the quirk of her expression fleeting--maybe apologetic? "Someday someone will call me 'Sister' and I won't think of nuns, but today is not that day." To the half spoken question she just slouches more aggressively against her reversed chair and shrugs. "I'm fine with it if Leo is." "I would like to be able to get to other cities with Omicron spiking the way it is but it -- seems risky. That would not help your noise --" Leo breaks off, pulling himself up stiffly as Jamie approaches their table. His eyes flutter open wider, his grip tightening on his cup. He draws his coffee closer to his chest, pulls in a slow breath. His head jerks downward at Jamie's gesture, eyes flicking to the empty seat, and he just takes a small sip of his coffee. "I didn't realize you were still in town." Jamie looks down at the tabletop, his hands gripping the back of the chair before him but going no further. "Sorry, I -- yeah, I'm staying in Riverdale. I was hoping..." He does not look up at either of the others. "I've been trying to stay out of people's way. I know you -- not just Blackburn, I mean everyone I 'worked' with on the inside probably has a pretty hard time with me." He chews on the inside of his cheek. "But ever since that call Friday, I just feel like...I guess I just kind of want to know where the rest of you stand on that?" Polaris blinks at Leo. "Oh sh--shoot, I didn't think about..." The blush shows up stark on her pale, pale skin. "Someone could maybe teleport you? Joshua or Ion or uh..." She snaps her fingers a few times. "...whats-her-name, runs around in a cloak? Wait you probably thought of that and I guess..." She curls a hand around her hot cider and draws it closer as if for warmth. "It'd be hella dangerous. Oh! I could go with you!" Her gaze goes kind of flat at Jamie's question, though. "I'm gonna talk to--the reporter, at least. I dunno about everyone else, we didn't like. Have a meeting about it." She frowns. "Frak, maybe we should have a meeting about it." 'Worked with', Leo mouths silently, his eyes wider still. He sips his coffee again. His finger taps slow against the side of the mug. "You," he repeats this, quiet and careful, "want to have a meeting." Another small tap of his finger. "With -- who." Jamie wilts at Polaris's reception and even more at Leo's. "We were working together, at Blackburn. But I'm not making excuses, for any of it. Not anymore." His eyes dart up to the others, then back down. "I'm sorry. I don't need a -- meeting. I just wanted to talk. They said they have video, and I thought maybe some of you might have seen it." Polaris draws a deep breath and lets it back out. "Yeah there was a lot before Blackburn, Brother. Look." She takes off her hat and immediately puts it back on. "I know they fucked you up, too. That doesn't really help those of us you helped them fuck up." Scooping up her mug properly, this time, she takes a huge gulp of the cider. "Not sure if that sentence made any sense, but...anyway no, I haven't seen the videos. I don't want to, but I might anyway, cuz. Not pushing anyone else but if there's footage of me in there that can help take them down, I--" Her shoulders pull in, and she darts Leo a helpless look. "Frak, I don't know why this is so hard I just went and charged right back in there last month. Twice." Leo's eyebrows raise. He takes a longer sip of his coffee. "I expect," he muses, eyes slipping away from Jamie and to Polaris, "that if there is footage of me they will want to leave it out, anyway. Show them torturing me you might win Prometheus some points with the public." He's still not looking at Jamie, his eyes lowering to his cup as he lowers it to the table. Drums his fingers slowly against it. "Showing what a ruin they made of poor misguided kids on the other hand --" He shrugs, small. "You should probably watch it." Jamie's mouth twists to one side, the expression equal parts unhappy and uncertain. "It would help the case a lot more if they had video of me five labs ago, when I actually was a kid and they --" His fingers squeeze the back of the chair one more time, hard, then relax marginally. "But at Blackburn -- I mean you guys know, with Dr. Messer. She made sure no one did anything awful to me. Other than her, but that wasn't obvious, and..." He breathes out slow. "...probably the only parts with me in it that would be useful are. With one of you." Polaris frowns deeper. "Yeah, that's probably true. But they probably got people who can comb through all of that for what's...useful. Which might not always be what we expect?" When her gaze flicks back to Jamie it's sharp, her posture tightening further, though when she speaks her voice is more or less even, "Yeah no, probably you should. I mean, you're a whole adult, but you're good at looking small and abused even if they mostly punished us for whatever you did or didn't do." She withdraws something small from one of her many pockets and clutches it in one closed fist. Jamie may not be able to feel what she holds or what she is doing with it, but he can certainly feel her powers fluctuate wildly for a moment before settling. Nothing rattles, around them, though. "And if they ever caught Messer doing that thing on camera--maybe you can't remember, but trust me it was creepy as heck." "She's right," Leo says, quiet and earnest, "I mean, isn't what we want here people who are good at looking like victims?" He draws his eyes up slowly from his coffee, skipping over the others entirely and fixing up on the ceiling. "I'm still not sure about the meeting idea. Blackburn movie night sounds like worse horror than all my October choices combined." He bites down on his lip, briefly. "-- Do you think they're going to use -- to show -- to use Dawson? In this. Piece." Right on cue for looking small and abused, Jamie shrinks away from Polaris at the flex of her powers, his eyes fixed wide and fearful on her fist. When she does not immediately attack him he subsides, blushing. "Sorry, it's a re -- sorry. You don't have to invite me if you actually wanted to do something fun instead of talking about..." He's just begun to actually relax, but at Dawson's name he flinches as though actually struck. "I don't know. I think they might want to, if Hive allows it. Though maybe there would be trouble with his -- his parents." "Oh my frakking--" Polaris firmly closes her mouth, raising her eyes the ceiling for just an instant before she continues, calm again, "I'm not going to hurt you. This is just like. A fidget." She opens her hand to reveal a single wheat penny, which lifts up onto one edge, then just slightly off her palm. "It helps me not do the whole poltergeist thing. Anyway, I'd do a movie night. Not like it would be mandatory. Heck, invite a couple more over my place and we already got like half of us. Who are still here..." She looks back at Leo, lips pressed thin. "Fuck his parents. That's Hive's decision." Something churns in Leo when Jamie flinches, thick and roiling. He peels his eyes away from the ceiling, finally looking steadily at Jamie. "Alright." He lifts his cup for another slow sip of coffee. "Worst movie night ever. Worst family reunion ever. Let's do it. Maybe with a lot of wine." He glances at Polaris's cider cup, head ducking as he adds, "-- sorry." "Movie night sounds...nice?" It seems less Polaris's reassurance and more the sight of the levitating coin that unfolds Jamie from his latest bout of quailing. "How are you -- pennies aren't magnetic!" He's actually leaning towards her now, squinting at the penny. "Since when could you do --" He lurches back, eyes wide again, fixed on Leo this time. "Um...are you doing that intentionally? Do I need to -- can I --" "Definitely a lot of wine," Polaris agrees, "for the folks who drink wine. I'll do my best, but this latest run at sobriety might be kinda short-lived even by my own less than stellar standards. It is what it is." She gives a fatalistic shrug. "Pennies aren't ferromagnetic. There are more things in Heaven and Earth, blah blah..." Judging by her perplexed frown, it take her a moment to process what Jamie is asking Leo. "You know he still uses that to like, immunize people, right? Like he has to keep doing it cuz the panorama keeps...panning." "We can keep learning things," Leo is looking back down at his mug, with this, his voice quieter once more, "even outside Prometheus, you know." His eyes snap back up at Jamie's question, another fluctuation of power within him. "Don't," it comes out sharp and clipped, "touch me." His mouth twists just slightly thinner, slightly down. "How do you even live in Riverdale? Do you act like that every time someone's power flutters around you or are we just lucky?" Jamie lifts his hands up, palm out. "Okay. I'm not, okay?" He does not look any less nervous, but does keep his powers to himself. "It pretty much always makes me nervous. I'm not used to --" His hands drop to the back of the chair again. This time he leans slightly on it. "And some people have more reason to hate me than others. I don't -- actually think you want to hurt me." Though, as soon as these words are out of his mouth he looks askance at Polaris. "I get it if you don't want to invite me. I've got...a lot of issues to work through." Polaris snaps her fingers at Leo. "Right? Prometheus was never interested in teaching us, just--using us until they don't need us anymore." She takes a deep breath. Lets it out. "In his very slight defense, I did kick the crap out of him the first night he was back. In my very slight defense, he used his powers on me. At least you're learning?" Her tone doesn't sound particularly hopeful as she studies Jamie, appraising. "Anyway, I don't think it's about having issues. Like seriously we all got more issues than ComicCon. Some of that you're gonna have to work out--maybe not on your own, but definitely not with us. Others..." One of her shoulders ticks up, then drops. "Well. You're not gonna make anything right by 'staying out of the way.'" Leo drains the rest of his cup, quiet through this exchange. The slightly pinched look on his face tightens, then eases away. He stands, plucking his coat and scarf off the back of his chair and draping them over one arm. "Let me know when we're doing this." After a small pause, his head tips to Jamie. "See you there."