ArchivedLogs:Out of Rope

Out of Rope
Dramatis Personae Eric, Jackson, Kira, Micah, Shane
In Absentia	2013-04-27 '
Location <NYC> 303 {Holland} - Village Lofts - East Village
This apartment is cheerful, in its way -- bright and airy, its floor plan open and a plethora of windows providing it with an abundance of light. The tiny entrance hall opens into a living room, small, though its sparse furniture and lack of clutter give it a more open feel. The decor is subdued and minimalist; black and white is the dominant theme, with occasional splashes of deep crimson to offset the monochrome, though of late bright coloured sealife has made its way into being painted on the wall. The couch and armchair are upholstered in black corduroy, the low wide coffee table central is black wood and glass-topped, and a few large pillowy beanbags provide additional seating by the large windows that dominate the back wall. Towards the back, a couple of doors lead off into bedrooms and bathroom, and to the right, the kitchen's tile is separated from the living room's dark hardwood floors by black countertops. Above the bedroom to one side, there is higher space; a ladder climbs up to a lofted area looking down on the living room. Standing in front of the partition between living and cooking area is a large fish tank: one lone Betta, blood-red, swims regally among several species of black and silver fish. A hallway beyond the kitchen leads further into the apartment. Another bathroom stands just into the hall and the farthest door leads to the apartment's final bedroom, the door usually kept shut to hold in the acrid fumes of turpentine and paints from within. Saturday early afternoon and there is A PARTY brewing. Much in the vein that a lot of socializing around here happens, the party-preparation has spilled /out/ of whatever apartment was initially /supposed/ to contain it. There is the warm smell of baking in Jax's apartment (chocolatey, gingery,) there is music from directly across the hall in Ryan's apartment, there is SO MUCH BOOZE upstairs; the roof holds tables and is starting to be laden with food. Shane mightcould be helping with all this preparation but he -- is not. In fact he has not even yet bothered to /dress/, save a black terrycloth pair of pajama pants, no shirt, no shoes. Just skinnyblue shark-kid, gills (both along his neck and along his sides) pressed flat against his body. He is loitering on his fire escape, smoking a cigarette. At least he is outside! Though the fact he has left the large window back into the apartment OPEN means this only is middling-useful. Recently he has tromped up the fire escape one flight to check on the UPSTAIRS preparations (read: snag a preemptive bottle of beer) and now is returning down to his own floor. The beer is not yet open. He leans against the fire escape railing, watching the city below. Inside the apartment, the black cat lounges on a beanbag chair; the one-eyed beagle haunts the kitchen in eternal hope that food will fall out of SOMEWHERE into his mouth. Apparently Munch has a package to drop off, and that package is in the form of a teen girl who looks like she could use a shower, althoug her clothes look to be in reasonably good shape. If anyone is looking down below they will see Munch ride up on his bike, and sort of wave/instruct the girl to go inside, with his gruff voice rumbling telling her something about what number appartment and who to look for. There is some hesitation but she does in fact go inside as Munch rides off, apparently with 'things to do'. The girl vanishes into the first floor of the building and shortly there after a knock can be heard at the door to Jax's apartment, which is to say if the door is open the knock would be on the door frame as someone with a midwest accent calls out, tentatively, "Hello? Is... there a Jax here?" She stands there nervously as she awaits an answer, looking rather out of place probably in this strange near party environment of the moment. Eric has been up to the roof recently as well, though his paths did not cross with Shane's. He, too, retrieved a beer and has began drinking it even as he steps down the stairs from the roof. He can't really blame the booze that he just started drinking for the confused look on his expression when he is unable to find Jax's apartment, one floor down from where he should be - though, perhaps, he might very well try. Correcting his mistake, at least, does not take too long, and he enters the hallway just as the girl begins knocking at the door to his destination. Dressed in a pair of blue jeans and a well-fitted black t-shirt, Eric glances curiously over the visitor as he approaches. "Good afternoon." he says, brightly, words dipped in a somewhat thick Georgian accent that corrupts his vowels. His smile, at least, is another Southern holdover - he even gives a little saluting wave. "You look lost. Everythin' alright?" The door /is/ in fact open, for once, though it holds not one or two but /three/ different locks plus the security chain that all suggest its inhabitants are /usually/ less carefree about it. From across the living room, out on the fire escape, Shane turns his head, squinting pure-black eyes back towards the doorway. "Who're you?" is his greeting, called across the apartment from outside still. Kira pauses as she is sort of ambushed in both directions by questions. "Ah, I'm Kira? Um, Munch? Big guy, rides a motorbike? Friend of Kay? Said maybe... um, someone named Jax here could help me?" She ventures, dropping names in the hopes that at least one of the gets some kind of reaction. But since they are just names she looks hopeful she's not just going to get people into trouble. She glances back and forth between the two guys. Her eyes hidden behind sunglasses despite being inside. Her hands fidget nervously, "If he's not here perhaps.... I should just try to come back later?" She offers, clearly a bit nervous to be here, alone, in a strange place, without a clue who she is really supposed to be meeting. Kira is wearing jeans and a simple denim jacket with a t-shirt under it, and tennis shoes and other than the too old hair dye job that is starting to show the red roots of her hair and the sunglasses she looks pretty normal. Depending on the angle one gets of her it might be possible to notice the faint glowing of her eyes behind said sunglasses, the eyes are at the moment glowing a white with a touch of pale blue making them seem kind of ghostly. "I didn't see him up at the roof. Maybe he's at Hive's?" Eric says, either unaware of her nervousness, or uncaring of it, as he slips past her to enter the apartment. This, perhaps, is something that is easier said than done, considering the size of his frame and his height. Once he is in the room, he glances and gives Shane a bright smile and a little wave of his hand, then heads towards the kitchen. "He's around here somewhere, that's for sure." "Grocery run. /Non/ boozey drinks." Shane turns, to lean back against the railing, elbows propped behind him. "I don't know a Munch. Kay's fucking /crazysauce/." Though he doesn't actually say this like it's an /insult/. Kind of appreciatey. He, at least, relaxes somewhat with this name. "Why'd Kay send you to /Jax/, are you a freak?" He /also/ doesn't say /this/ like it's an insult -- but then, given that he is /blue/ and full of gills and webbed hands and sharkteeth it is Kind Of Obvious why not. Watching Eric walk past her and into the apartment, Kira tilts her head, then looks to the odd blue gilled guy and frowns a tad. She reaches up and lowers her sunglasses, her glowing eyes exposed, "Yes, yes I am a freak. And I almost got curb stomped by a bunch of freak hating thugs and Kay and Munch were nice enough to save me and give me a place to crash for the night but... after talking to Munch I don't really fit in with their... ah, biker gang. They thought someone here might be able to give me a hand or at least help me get my footing. New to town and all..." She says, trying to sound confident as she says this but not really pulling it off. She's working so hard at it that it comes off... well, not corny but obviously forced as she tries to hide the possible nervousness. "Jax'd be a good person to talk t'." Eric says, as he begins opening cabinet doors and peering inside. His searching shows his unfamiliarity with the cabinets - opening doors, looking through, closing, and opening them all over again just to be sure. He manages to find a small pot, which he places on the stovetop, and a jar of sugar, but he continues his rifling through the pantry in search of something else. "He knows lots of people who can help, I'm sure. If he's out for groceries, he'll be back soon." "Sounds pretty shitty," is Shane's response to Kira's story, and if it's not overly sympathetic it's not dismissive, either. Just a bland statement of fact as he looks her over. His pupilless black eyes widen at her glowing ones: "/Sweet/," is the first enthusiastic thing he's said. "You glow. Pa glows. You do other shit, too?" The story has at least seemed to warm him from apathetic to interested, and he smushes the butt of his cigarette carefully against the railing, flicking the butt down to the street three stories below. "-- you don't look much like a biker," he admits. And then waggles the beer bottle at her. "You drink?" If Kira has ever had a drink in her life, well, lets just say it doesn't look like she has as she stares at the bottle, "Ah... no... I um... don't drink..." She manages as she slips the sunglasses back in to place, "Or at least haven't..." She adds, unsure of herself as she takes a half step into the apartment, "Yeah, I can do some other things, but nothing... um, really impressive I'm afraid. Or I wouldn't had to have worried about three thugs cracking my ribs and beating my face in." She almost grumbles, "And no, I'm not really a biker." She pauses then glances around the apartment then seems to study Eric some from behind her glasses then turns her attentions back to Shane, "Should... I just sort of wait here for Jax or?" She trails off, leaving the or option undefined. "Where the fuck is the goddamned chocolate?" Eric calls to Shane, sticking his head /inside/ one of the cabinets to look better. "I /know/ Jax doesn't have anything against it - he basically lives off of the stuff - so he's got'ta have it here somewhere!" He swears something quite colorful as he hits his head on the door of one of the cabinets as he is pulling his head back out. He rubs the back of it and glares at the wooden furniture, as if this will cause the ingredient to come spurting out on demand. "Dude chill the fuck /out/. Chocolate like chocolate chips or chocolate like cocoa for hot chocolate or chocolate like -- there's about a /zillion/ brownies on warm in the oven." Many chocolate options. "-- Do you want brownies?" Shane asks, in lieu of the beer. "Yeah, c'mon, sit. Or don't, whatever. Where you from? Why do you need help anyway?" He gestures with the beer bottle towards the couch. "Does getting stomped on happen to you a /lot/?" Kira moves over to whatever clear spot there seems to be on the couch for sitting and sits a tad uneasily there, "Well, ah, see.... I'm from Ohio..." This explains her midwest accent. "And I was from a small town, where mutants were really only something you saw on TV, and so... when all the sudden I went from nice normal kid to freak, well, the town kinda went all hate-ish on me, and put a lot of pressure on my parents and... well, things just kinda blew up and I had to get out of there." She explains, trying to keep it simple, "I mean, it's not like I hurt anyone or anything, exact opposite actually, but no one cared... just saw me as a freak." She shrugs, "So... I took what money I had saved up and got out of there as fast as I could... only... well, maybe coming to New York was a bad idea... just figured I could figure out what to do once I got here, and it was the first bus I was able to catch... so... here I am." Another shrug followed by a sigh, as she slumps back into the couch, "And getting stomped only only seems to be a recent thing, since the eyes and all..." She admits. "Cocoa chocolate. Hot chocolate chocolate, if I can figure out your Pa's weird milks long enough to remember how to make one without setting the kitchen on fire." Eric drawls, turning to glance towards the fire escape. This, at least, distracts him from his choco-hunting long enough to go raid the refrigerator. He glances over the variety of not-milks, opening them in turn and sniffing at them suspiciously. "New York can be a dangerous place for mutants, but I think most other places ain't any better. At least there's a lot of us here." The couch is quite clear. Most things are quite clear, really, save the trays of baked goods on the counter and the laptop on the living room table; overall, though, the apartment is spotless. "Coming to New York's weird as fuck. Humans are just as much assholes here as anywhere else. But there's more of /us/ around so it's easier to find people to help out, I guess. How old are you?" He wanders towards the kitchen, and he's short enough that he actually has to climb up onto a counter to reach one of the higher cabinets and get out a canister of cocoa powder. "-- But you gotta mix it, sugar and -- shit, spices or something. Do you /really/ not understand how almond milk works cuz it's pretty much exactly the same as cowmilk." He hops back down off the counter, glancing across towards the living room. "You just," he informs Kira very seriously, "have to watch out for the /cops/, they're fucking assholes." Kira hesitates at the questions from Shane and then gives a shrug, "Seventeen. But don't worry, don't think anyone is going to come looking for me. Last I heard my dad was yelling at my mom that I couldn't be his cause he wouldn't have a mutie child and my mom was yelling at me she wished I'd never been born, so... doubt they are shedding many tears at my going MIA." She says as she glances between the two guys, "Anyway, I thought there would be more ah... of us here in New York and so that would give me a better shot of finding someone who could explain what I should do and... what's really going on. I mean I sure wasn't going to find a self help book called: The Idiot's Guide to being a Mutant, or anything like that in the local library or book store." She points out, "Not exactly like being a mutant comes with a handbook, and I'm still kinda figuring out how everything works to be honest." "Yeah, I know. I'm not an idiot," Eric says, brightly, without much heat. "Hey!" He pushes Shane, once, laughing. "I don't see you complainin' when I come over just off of a shift," he drawls, crossing his arms over his chest. He sticks his tongue out at Shane, then shakes his head, unfolding his hands to begin pouring milk into pot and gathering the rest of his ingredients. "Ignore him - he's an /asshole/. Watch out for /everyone/, not just the police. Ain't many friends here - or, fuck it, anywhere." "See what I mean?" Shane says, when Eric pushes him. "Cops here. Fucking assholes." But he doesn't really argue the /sentiment/, agreeing: "I'm pretty much an asshole, too. There kind of /is/ a guide to being a mutant..." His teeth scrape against his lower lip. "But not in a store. Uh. Yeah, there's a fuckton of us here, though. You want to meet some more? We're having a party. Well not right this /minute/ but there's gonna be a party -- soon. Some time. Hope you're hungry. How long have you been here?" Kira blinks a bit trying to absorb all of this and the back and forth between Shane and Eric. It is clear she's not used to this kind of language as she frowns a bit, "A week or two, hiding out on the streets, stretching my cash, but... pretty much out now and cardboard boxes are really not my thing, you know?" She says trying to play it light, but clearly not very happy with her situation, "Wouldn't mind meeting some others, just... ah, I guess I'm not really sure what my next step is in all of this. I was thinking I needed to find a job and maybe a place to live, but you kinda need a place to live first and all I have is my Ohio ID, so not even sure how far that would go in getting me a job here?" She says as she tilts her head, studying the pair again, "Yeah, I am hungry though." She admits, and she looks it, probably been on a rather enforced diet for the last week or so. "If you are lookin' to work above the table, you'll need workin' papers. Not hard to get, but some places will not want to hire you until you turn 18." Eric says, as he begins spooning chocolate and sugar alternately into the pot, watching the color change. Then he snaps his fingers together. "Cinnamon, shit." He glances back up to the cabinets and begins opening them all, leaving their doors open as he searches. "Not a huge deal, though. Should be able to find somethin'." He retrieves the small bottle and shakes out a fair amount into the pot. The smell of chocolate and cinnamon begin to rise into the air, suffusing the kitchen. "Next step is money," Shane says, fingers and thumb rubbing together in a very typical 'cash' sort of gesture. "Or school, I guess, if you're still just seventeen." He shrugs, pushing aside a plate of cookies and a pie plate to make room on the counter. Which he then hoists himself up to sit on, facing out towards the living room, feet resting on one of the stools by the counter. "We have -- cookies. Actually OK I'm lying we have a fuckton of food. Cuz like I said, party." The apartment door is currently not just unlocked but open as party-preparations sort of haphazardly take place spanning four different Lofts apartments, and an unfamiliar girl is sitting on their living room couch. Shane is dressed in black pajama pants and no shirt, /scrutinizing/ this visitor. Obie has taken to frisking around Eric's ankles because Eric is currently Making Things, and maybemaybemaybe that means he will get fed? Maybe? With the door open it is easy to hear Jax's approach to the apartment. His footsteps are quiet, but the squeak-rattle of his heavy-laden grocery cart sounds all the way from the elevator after its quiet chime. "Heyyyy, I got things to make -- wait where's Bastian -- oh. Hi!" Jax's voice is cheerful-bright, words coated with a thick heavy Southern drawl. He /looks/ cheerful-bright, too, a bright yellow t-shirt with the Little Miss Sunshine cartoon character on it, glittery purple eyepatch, very very vivid electric-blue and pink hair, black capri pants trimmed in purple. Chunky black-and-silver sneakers, faintly shimmery makeup, brightly patterned mismatched knee-high socks. And a heavy cart of groceries. "Afternoon! -- Who's your friend?" he asks Shane lightly. Kira sits on the couch, looking uneasy as she watches the two others in the room, Eric making hot chocolate apparently and Shane apparently studying her, not that she has the names of either of them yet. "Uh, I don't think school is such a good idea, that's what got me into trouble in the first place. Plus I can't exactly go waltzing in minus my parents, and I can't really soak on someone else for room and board while I go study. Plus what would I be studying for? Not like I can go off to college, not now... so much for the plans for a scholarship..." She grumbles, only to blink and look up when someone new and overly cheerful seems to burst on to the scene. "Uh, I'm Kira? Munch said I should be asking for someone named Jax, but I found these two instead... um, who both seem to not be Jax, although I don't really know who they are..." She says now that she thinks about it and glances back at the other two, a small frown forming on her face. Her eyes are currently covered up by sunglasses, which is a tad odd inside an apartment and all. "Heya, Jax. I've got hot chocolate up. Bastian wanted some, so I volunteered your kitchen to make it." Eric says, brightly, though he does give Jax a rakish smile. "Go beg off of Jax, Obie," he says, lightly pushing the dog with one foot. "I'm making extra, so there'll be some if you wan'." he takes a step over to the refrigerator to put the milk away and almost trips over the still-begging dog. "Obie!" he says, a note of complaint in his voice. Micah follows along after Jax, a few ticks behind, as he is /bodily/ laden with a few reusable grocery bags slung across his torso. Not everything fit in the cart! He is clad in a green canvas jacket, worn open over repeatedly patched jeans and a shirt depicting a gleeful T-rex with adaptive reaching aids in each hand, under the caption, 'UNSTOPPABLE!' Auburn hair is sticking out at all angles from under a green-brown newsboy cap. Trottrottrot to the kitchen, and bags are coming in for a landing on the countertop! Micah offers a bright smile in greeting to the Room At Large. "Hi, folks! And Kira. I'm Micah!" He waves a now-free hand enthusiastically in the new girl's direction. "Hey, Pa," Shane greets from his perch on the counter -- per/haps/ unusually, given that Jax really does not look much older than he is. And yet! He hops down from the counter to make room for groceries, peeking up into the bags Jax and Micah have brought to start putting things away. "Micah's banging my dad," Shane Helpfully makes introductions, "Kira's some homeless freak, I think Kay thinks you're running some kind of rescue group here. Dropping off strays now. -- I mean, shit, yeah, fuck school. Stay in cardboard boxes forever, that'll be fun." "Tsss, Shane." Jackson sounds mildly exasperated at Shane's introductions, his cheeks turning furiously crimson. "-- Hi -- Kira? I'm Jax. That's me. Are you here for --" But he just flounders, somewhat confused. The bags are full of THINGS. Grocery things. There are drinks of the non-alcoholic soda-and-juice variety. Ingredients to make salsa and guacamole. Soft taco shells. Fillings for turning those into soft /tacos/. A lot of junkfood-snacks in the popcorn-and-chips genre. "-- Kay?" His hand is scrubbing at his cheek, but he smiles at Kira warmly. "Hi. M'sorry everything is kinda hectic did you -- want -- hot chocolate?" He pounces on /this/ offer because look! Eric is /already/ volunteering some. Kira stands up as Jax and Micah enter, and she ends up kind of staring at the pair for a bit, her weight shifting from foot to foot as she peers through the sunglasses at the new arrivals. For a moment she's quiet then says, "Ah, No, don't want to live in a cardboard box, but also trying to be realistic." She says with her rather obvious midwestern accent. "Wow..." She says after another moment, "You've been through a... /lot/..." She mutters but sadly not as softly as she thinks as she looks at Jax, then she tilts her head and peers at Micah again, "You... are... not different?" She asks, sounding rather confused suddenly. She shakes her head as if all of this is getting a tad overwhelming to her, "Ah, sorry, um... yeah, Munch and Kay kinda saved me the other night but I don't fit in with the biker guys and... so Munch thought maybe you could help since well... you helped with Kay and all?" She says, after turning back to Jax, trying to explain her reason for being here. Eric turns to glance at Kira, giving her a somewhat strange look before he turns back to the stovetop. He pulls open drawers until he finds a spoon to stir with, mixing the ingredients together over a low heat. It seems the police officer might know something about making hot chocolate after all. "Hey, Shane, can you grab a couple'a cups? I'm gonna lose my mind if'n'I keep lookin' through these cabinets." he says, smiling widely. "Ohgosh, /thanks/, Shane," Micah's reply is swimming somewhere between the seas of Genuine and Sarcastic. He is, however, also turning a fierce, cheery red. Conveniently enough, there are bags to unpack! Micah is /so very/ helpful. And busy. And not looking up. Until such time as Kira seems to be addressing him. "Um...I'm all /kindsa/ different. If you're talkin' superpowers, though. No, I didn't get the genetic upgrade package." His grin is of the lopsided, playful sort with this answer. "You're welcome," Shane is adding /totally/ cheerfully to Micah, with a very bright (very sharp-toothy) grin. "Who the fuck hasn't been through a lot," he adds with a snort, as he aids in the grocery-storage. "Seriously, dude, the world's a shitty place. And yeah Micah's just a plain old ordinary flatscan. He's cool, though. And /dude/." He gestures to himself, then gestures to Kira. "Do you think I'd have made the gorram suggestion if I didn't know what I was talking about? Because /trust me/, I /know/ what it's like to navigate the world looking like a freak. I know just how many roadbloacks there are to normal life." A very faint thread of tension curls through Jax's posture at Kira's quiet mutter, and for a moment there's a brief thinning of his smile. Just a moment, though, and then he shrugs, offering lightly, "Shane's right, you talk to anyone long enough and you'll find they've had their share to deal with." He skirts around Shane and Micah, wending through the helpful unpacking to nab Eric some mugs from the cabinet. "I'm sorry, honey," he glances back to Kira with this, with a slightly lopsided smile, "-- I mean, I'm usually glad t'help folks but I don't -- /what/ exactly are you lookin' for? -- Oh, gosh, don't put those /all/ away all the chips and things gotta go up to Hive's place." There is a /buzzing/ sound coming from Micah's jeans pocket. He pulls out a phone, stepping aside from the main flow of conversation to answer. "Hi--yeah, hon, slow down. I think you just set a new record in curses per minute transmitted by phone. Yes, they are...uh...that, I guess. Prob'ly not what they call themselves at /home/, though. I can get y'hon. Settle down. TARDIS to the rescue, quick as it can get there." He thumbs the phone off and ambles over to Jax, looking apologetic. "Hey...Janine's medical transit didn't show up for her medication pump refill...this is what happens when they mis-time things an' your low reservoir alarm goes off on a weekend! I gotta get her there before she ends up in med. withdrawal." A quick kiss is placed on Jax's cheek before Micah dashes out the door. "Nice to see everyone! Bye!" Kira sighs, then shakes her head, "I'm doing everything wrong, I can tell. I'm getting you guys upset at me, and saying the wrong things. Look, all I can say is... I can fix people, okay? That's what I do. I can see inside them, see if there is anything wrong, or different, like if they're a mutant or not, and with some effort I can fix things. I found out about my powers when I fixed another cheerleader's compound fracture leg." She explains, revealing that she was a cheerleader among other things, "And I have no idea what I'm doing here in New York other than I didn't have any where else to go and was hoping I could find some people who understood what it was like to feel like the world hated them for just being what they are. I'm sorry. Okay?" She holds up her hands, "I'm spoiling your party and getting in the way, I'll just... go... and get out of your guys' hair." For those who have a proper angle to see her eye color behind the sunglasses the glow has shifted from whiteish blue to a sort of darker blue, with hardly any white to it. She is already standing so starts to turn towards the already open door. Eric turns and opens his mouth to speak, then glances to Jax. A frown flits over his face for a moment and he lets his mouth close. His lips compress to a thin line and he faces the stovetop once more. "Alright." he mutters, under his breath. Then he stirs the hot chocolate once more, and spoons up a sip for himself. Considering, he tilts his head first one way than the other, before reaching out to add more cocoa to the mix and turn back to face Kira. "Be careful about who you identify. You can get people killed that way, if you're not careful." His tone is firm. "Including yourself." "Who the fuck is upset at you? Dude, you need to chill the fuck out. You're not in Ohio or whereverthehell anymore. You are going to last /two/ fucking /seconds/ in New York if you get all butthurt because people say fuck a lot." Shane sounds more amused than angry, really, giving Kira a skeptical look but turning back to his groceries. "Jesus, you really are a teenager. Zero to angst in nothing flat. You will fit /right/ the hell in at school. -- And, uh, yeah. I would strongly advise shutting the hell up if you're ever -- well, /anywhere/ -- and notice someone's a mutant who hasn't said anything about it. Cuz yeah that can be dangerous as hell." "Yeah, um, hey," Jackson scruffs his fingers through his hair, watching Kira with a puzzled frown. "-- Nobody's upset, hon, I don't know where you got --" His head shakes, and he looks at Shane /wryly/. "-- He just swears a lot. /Lots/ of people around here swear a lot. Sit down. Have some food. Probably listen to their advice --" He waves an empty mug towards Eric and Shane, "outing people is never good. But there's places that'll accept you. Help you. I just wanted to know what it was you was looking for, hard to, um, help someone if I don't got nothin' to go on." Kira pauses and then turns back to face the crowd as it were, "I don't know what Gorram means." She says, kind of out of the blue to Shane, then shrugs, "I've been living in card board boxes, scrounging to eat and last night probably had several ribs broken and if it weren't for Munch and Kay, I'd have been in a lot worse shape. I have no freaking clue what I'm doing, I'm asking for help to figure out how to get by, to figure out how I can maybe use my abilities to survive, make a living, I don't know, just not have to live in an alley hoping the rats don't chew my feet off or something. Or that some thugs see my eyes and decide that it's time to go smash some mutie. Yeah, not zero to angst in nothing flat, I've been running on nothing for days now, and I'm sorry if I'm having some trouble holding it together. Okay?" She says rather defensively, "All I wanted to do is maybe help some people and find a place to stay that wasn't going to kick me out or get me killed. I already said this stuff doesn't come with a handbook and I'm making all kinds of mistakes, I know it." She gives a helpless shrug, and follows Jax request to sit back down, with a bit of a flop, back on the couch. "Not trying to be a drama queen, just run out of rope and tied a knot and am kinda just hanging from the end of it hoping I don't fall, is all... kay?" Eric turns the heat on the stove all the way down to the bottom and places the spoon across the top of the pot before he turns to look at Kira once more, crossing his arms over his chest. "There are shelters that won't throw people out for being mutants as long as you keep to yourself, if it comes to that. I'm sure Jax will have a better set of options than I will, but there's always somethin', alright?" He shrugs his shoulders and turns to begin putting ingredients back where they belong. "Or the tunnels, if the rumors are true." he mutters to himself. Shane coughs into his palm. Coughhackcough "drama queen" COUGH. Because he is nothing if not /also/ teenager. "Yeah shit," he says with a snort, head shaking, "god it must be so hard to worry someone /might/ see your eyes and decide it's time for some mutant-hating I feel for you." He sidesteps around the counter, stretching up onto his toes to peck Eric lightly on the cheek. "-- If things are hard and shitty you've come to the right place, though," is at least less abrasive. "Pa'll hook you up, he's good people. -- I'm gonna find B," he's saying to Eric, though, "come upstairs when you're done cocoaing?" And then he heads out, not the front door but the fire escape to climb one floor up. Jackson shakes his head as Shane leaves. "It's rough," he says to Kira sympathetically. "'specially at your age -- there's a lot of mutant kids who -- things ain't easy for 'em." He's slipping into the kitchen, putting together a plate from the assortment of Kitchen Foods . Some rice, some curried chickpeas, some broccoli. A side plate of brownies. He brings all these things around to offer them to Kira. "But I know places you can go. You can stay here the weekend if you like -- you don't gotta, you can go anywhere you care to if y'ain't comfortable -- but on Monday I can take you to meet some folks who can help. With a place to stay. Even get you into a school. Help get you settled while you figure things out, 'kay?" Kira watches Shane depart, and even takes in Eric's comments then looks up at Jax as he offers the food. She takes the plate and nods, "I'm sorry, it's just... I've felt so alone and lost, and I came to New York thinking I'd find a way to not feel like that anymore only I felt even more lost because I had no idea what I was doing or where to turn. I know I'm lucky, I know just having glowing eyes is a small thing and that I could have had it much worse, but... everyone needs someone else, right?" She says with a shrug then without much hesitation digs in to the plate of food provided to her by Jax. Seems table manners are right out the window at the moment, along with Shane, out on to the fire escape perhaps. "Tell 'Bastian I'll be up with his cocoa as soon it cools down a little bit." Eric says, turning his cheek to brush cheeks with the younger man after he is kissed. He gives Shane a bright smile and a wave of one hand. "Want a cup, either of you?" he asks, as he opens the cabinet to pull out mugs. He spoons hot chocolate into all of them. He doesn't spill. Much. "M'aright, thanks," Jackson says lightly. He leans against the counter, elbows propped back against it. "I don't think 'coulda had it much worse' makes it any easier for you right /now/. And New York's a biiiig place, m'glad you ran into folks who could --" His lips quirk, a little wryly. "Well, 'leastways know where to bring you." He pushes his way upright, and starts gathering the bags of chips and junkfood. "Look, s'gonna get real crowded 'round here soon, but the folks coming by are all chill. You can hang out in my room if y'want to get away from the crowd, s'just that one down the hall there. And like I said, feel free to stay or go but you swing by first thing Monday morning either way, and we'll get you squared away, yeah?" Between mouthfuls of food, Kira pauses long enough the nod and manage a, "Thanks Jax...." And a nod is given to Eric as well, even though she has yet to learn his name really. "If it's alright I'll just hang around the building to be on the safe side, sounds like being around here might keep me out of trouble, long as I keep my mouth shut." She offers with a small smirk, then goes back to eating the food provided on the plate. "And I," Eric says, brightly, "am going to go give this to Sebastian before he decides to send out a rescue party." He picks up the two mugs and gives Kira a smile. "I'm glad you found someone who can help." He gives Jax a smile and a peck on the cheek as he passes. It might have a little bit more tongue than is strictly necessary - that is, any - but it is, at least, brief. He heads out of through the front door with a grin on his lips and a last, "Ta!"