ArchivedLogs:Off Switch

Off Switch
Dramatis Personae Anole, Lia, Jack, Leech
In Absentia	7 March 2015 '
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 plentiful 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. Anole looks sleepy, Saturday morning. The cafe has only just opened; there aren't a lot of people in here. He's kind of half-slumped against a table in the back where he's just recently gotten in -- arms crossed, face planted in them, head down. Sort of a ragged bundle of dirty threadbare clothing that only unfolds itself when his order is called to drag to his feet and shuffle bleary-eyed and a little limpy off towards the counter, picking up his latte and orange juice and two plates of scrambled eggs from the counter to return. Yaaaawn. His table isn't /empty/, it has another bundle of dirty-ragged-clothes heaped at it. Also green, a sort of gobliny looking face peeking out, though Leech is fast asleep dozing at the table. Anole pokes a finger at the younger boy's shoulder, though then stops, frowns, just puts the juice and eggs in front of the kid and slumps into his seat with his own. Yaaaaawn. Blink. Even as people start to trickle in the area around them is being given kind of a berth. Perhaps it is the sewer-smell the pair of green teenagers brings with them -- though perhaps it is the bubble around Anole's dozing gobliny friend in which everyone's powers abruptly stop /working/. Even in a mutant-friendly environment, not so comfortable for some. It is above freezing and not actively /wintering/ from the sky this post-exam Saturday. It makes it a good day to visit the city, even for those who do not typically do so. Lia is one of these, but the little $5 gift card to Evolve given to her after the musical performance /is/ asking to be used. So it is in the company of another student (safety in numbers!) that the girl makes her wide-eyed, visibly-nervous way into the shop. She is still dressed for cold: violet peacoat belted tight at the waist, purple silver-star patterned scarf tucked in around her neck, matching wool hat, and black winter boots traveling high up her calves over her metallic-thread patterned jeans. “I think I have enough to get a cupcake,” she observes quietly, eyes darting from the menu board, around the room, and back. Who's tagging along with Lia? That'd be Jack. He's in a pretty good mood this morning and dressed for the cold as well. Jeans, a black t-shirt bearing the Nightwing logo, and a zip up hoodie under the thick white coat he got from Billy are how he's fighting the cold today. He keeps his hood up as he steps into Evolve, looking around as they enter. "Do they serve cupcakes this early in the morning?" he asks, not sure of it himself. Anole's eyes are -- mostly fixed on his /food/, still. Though he isn't eating. Slightly nodding off, like his head is about to meet his plate of eggs. He doesn't /quite/ faceplant into the eggs, though it's a close thing. His cheek comes down heavily against his spiky-knuckled fist, smooshing his eye half closed. His other eye squints open at the voices by the door, peering blearily their direction. A small smile starts to form on his lips when Lia enters, then fades back again into sleepiness. A small wrinkle of brow. He hesitates uncertainly, aaalmost getting up -- ultimately just curling his hand around his coffee cup. Drowsily watching the others and then turning his attention back to his breakfast. “Why would they not have morning cupcakes? I do not think they need to sleep in more than other baked things. Bakers always get up very early.” Lia's eye-darting does catch Anole, at least, her own nervous features sprouting a smile in recognition. She tugs at Jack's sleeve before scurrying over to the greenfolk's table. “Hello, Anole! Hello. Are you okay? You look sleepy and you are trying to wear your food instead of eating it. I am sure it would taste better in your mouth.” Her head tilts at the other sleeping boy, eyebrows lowering slightly with increasing concern. “Did you all walk through a poppy field on your way here?” "Cupcakes never seemed like a morning food to me. And don't they take time to bake? Wouldn't they have to get up really early to have them ready for now?" Jack asks thoughtfully. He's just spotting his roommate when Lia tugs his sleeve. A quick glance down at her and Jack smiles before following along. An unseen look of concern crosses his face when he notices how mostly asleep the two other mutants are. "Morning," he offers, letting Lia ask the questions. "I don't think Mr. Holland-Zedner sleeps," Anole offers (sleepily.) "But Shane says he starts baking the cupcakes and cookies that turn up here and in the rec room every day at like four in the morning." He sits up just a little bit straighter when the other two approach, stifling another yawn and then taking a sip of coffee. "Too cold for poppies. No flowers growing yet. I went to Fight Club after the play and /then/ I went home with the twins. No sleep." All the voices around them wake up his power-nullifying companion, the small gobliny boy finally stirring. Leech lifts his head, blinking owlishly at the noises, bright eyes wide and uncomprehending as he looks at the new faces. Like what? How did we get HERE who are these people OH WOW food. Nomnomnom -- he eschews silverware to just lift his plate up and start lapping at the scrambled eggs straight from it. "'s'your friends 'nole?" he asks, brightly if muffled around his mouthful of food. Chompchompchomp. Lia blinks at Jack in /utter/ incomprehension at the characterisation of cupcakes as not-morning-food. "Bakers get up very early," she reiterates, nodding at Anole's addition. "Probably witches could grow magic poppies even in the winter, if they wanted." A mittened hand lifts to mime fingers over a crystal ball, which is not such a great mime in mittens, as it turns out. This reminds Lia to strip out of some of the winter layers, hat stuffed into one coat pocket and mittens in the other, buttons undone quickly on the coat itself. She has a silvery-threaded grey sweater on beneath that glitters pleasantly under the lights. "Hello, yes. We go to school with Anole. I am Lia." She /waves/ with this greeting, despite standing right next to the others at the table. "See? Breakfast is so much better actually in your mouth." There is a little amused giggle at Leech's manner of eating, the crinkling at the corners of Lia's eyes clearly entertained rather than taken-aback by it. Jack just nods bit to Lia and Anole's words. "Wow. He's even more awesome than I thought if he's getting up and baking that early," Jack remarks. "You were both really great in the play," he chimes in to both. "I really enjoyed watching it," he adds as he unbuttons his coat as well. His hood comes down next and the invisible teen lets out a breath. "I'm Jack," he introduces himself to Leech, not really bothered by how he's eating either. "I think bakers kind of /are/ witches. Definitely magic, anyway." Anole's eyes slip more closed as he sips at his coffee. "Did 'oo know you're turnin' kinna see-through?" Leech's head is tipping to the side. He squints up at Jack curiously. "Neat!" "He's always -- oh." Anole opens his eyes again. First only a little bit, sleepily, but then wider. "Right." His eyes slip between Jack and Leech, and he slumps lower in his chair. "Right -- that --" His cheeks are starting to colour, darker. "Oh -- thanks. Thank you. It was --" He trails off, a little flustered. "Fun. Um -- this is Leech. He -- lives. With. Me." "Don't go to school," Leech volunteers, in case there was any doubt. He's leaning in a little closer, still lapping eggs from his plate as he peers at Jack starting to fade back into view. "Sorry," he adds, though he doesn't sound /too/ apologetic. "Mr. Fairyjax is pretty much always awesome-magic," Lia agrees with a nod. Not that she's biased or anything. "Kitchen-witch!" She bounces up a bit on booted toes, likely /entirely/ too energetic for the table full of sleepyheads. "Oh, thank you. It was a very good musical to be in. Lots of fun to do. Our director said I did a good job, too. Gave me a rose. It had the gift card to here tied to it with a pretty-sparkly bit of ribbon. I think it is enough for a cupcake." Her attention really can focus on one thing for a bit given adequate motivation. "I think they gave roses to all the people who did not have family to come see them backstage, though. So maybe it was that more than doing a good job. Though everyone /did/ do good jobs, so it could be that, too." She bites at her lip a bit, shaking this off. "It is okay. I did not go to school for a very long time before this school. Many people at our school did not. Or had to stop." The girl /peers/ over at Jack as the other boys draw attention to him. "Oh, no. He is not turning see-through. He is turning...seeing. Visible. Jack, your invisible is wearing off." "Kitchen Magic...I think that's an actual store too," Jack muses. "You're right though. It does seem pretty magical how they make such great tasting stuff," he agrees, relaxing a bit more. "It looked like a lot of fun. I'd love to see any others you guys do," he chimes. Jack hasn't noticed at all that he's slowly been returning to visibility. He can see himself as it is. So he's a little confused when Leech mentions him being see-through. "Huh?" he asks, a look on confusion on the almost there/almost not there face. The reactions from the others just make him more confused and he looks between them all with a small frown. At least until Lia speaks up and Jack's eyes widen. "What?" he asks, looking more and more 'solid'. "You guys can see me?" he asks. He doesn't seem angry or annoyed by it, just shocked. "Sorry? For what?" he asks Leech. "We do one every term. Probably next term won't be a musical. We tend to alternate." Anole sets his coffee back down, picking up his fork and -- darting a look up to Jack. Then firmly back down to his plate. His teeth wiggle at his lip, and he shifts awkwardly in his chair. "Um, Leech kind of. Is like --" "An off switch," Leech explains, hand lifting to mime flicking a switch in the air. His tongue clicks against the roof of his mouth. "Tck -- now we see you. Were you hiding? 'pologies. 'mbad for hiding. 'nole can't hide 'round me neither. Anyway I don't /want/ school. Sounds /dumb/. ... I like your plays. Though. I saw the one with the fairies." “Last time it was Shakespeare,” Lia elaborates on Anole's explanation. “With the fairies.” She nods to Jack, simply. “We see you. Oh. I guess Anole's friend makes the powers turn off. I did not notice for me because I was not trying.” Her head tilts to the side slightly. “I wonder what one we are doing next. Has anyone brought up an idea yet that you've heard, Anole?” "I'm sure it'll be good even without musical numbers," Jack replies, looking down at his hands for a moment to see if there's any change. There's none for him but eventually he's fully visible to the others and looking pretty astonished. When Leech explains what he can do and Lia clarifies, Jack turns a smile towards the power nullifier. "You don't have to apologize," he says. "I can't turn off the whole..." he pauses and gestures vaguely. "ghosty-invisible thing on my own. People being able to see me again is...always a good thing," he says, biting his lip a moment and then falling silent to listen to the others. "Oh. Is that a good thing?" Leech looks confused, for a moment, but then shrugs. "I think it's a good thing when you look like him," Anole whispers to the other boy. Leech's mouth forms into an O, and then he nods, picking up his orange juice and slurping it. "In that case," he answers chipperly, "you're welcome! -- Do you know any plays about goblins? You should do a play about goblins. /Oh/ or dragons. Oh! Or mantis shrimp? I heard they pretty much can spit water like /machine guns/." "I -- don't think they write many plays about mantis shrimp," Anole muses uncertainly. His eyes have darted quickly back up to Jack before he returns to quickly eating his food. "I haven't really thought about it. I kind of try not to think about school pretty much as soon as break starts." “Oh, yes, yes. The other one was good. I did not have many lines that time, but I was a faery. And they made me things to climb on and I danced with the other faeries, too. I would like to do Shakespeare again; he is my favourite. Maybe with more talking this time.” Lia offers a little smile to Jack. “We can see you, hello,” she reassures. “There is an entire play called 'The Goblins', actually.” The girl looks thoughtful for a moment. “I do not know any about shrimp. Maybe if they did an adaptation of 'Finding Nemo'.” Her teeth find her lip again, gnawing at it. “Oh. I guess...a lot of people do leave as soon as it is break. School is nice. I miss everyone when they leave.” Jack doesn't catch what the whisper was but the confusion from Leech does get Jack's attention. He shrugs one shoulder and rubs the back of his neck. "I...think it is anyway. I mean...it just feels good to know people are looking at me instead of through me like I'm nothing..." he trails off his explanation. His smile turns a little bittersweet as his eyes settle on the table. "I don't know much about plays at all. Still learning," Jack remarks. There's a few moments' pause before something registers with him. "Wait, what? Shrimp with machine guns?" That just sounds a little strange to him. "You should do that Goblins play then," Leech opines, licking his plate clean and returning to gulp down his orange juice. "I don't think people looking through me would be so bad." Shrug. "Are there shrimp in Finding Nemo?" "I don't remember," Anole admits. "And /everyone/ doesn't leave. A lot of people stay at school. I just --" He shrugs too. "Besides, you can come visit people who are in the city. I guess not people who go far away like. California or somewhere. But people just down in /here/ aren't far." “Um...no guns. Just spitting water, he said,” Lia answers the confused-question from Jack. “I will suggest it. It /does/ have some singing and dancing, too.” Her head bobs in a series of nods. “Jacques is the shrimp in the aquarium. He cleans all the things. Not so much spitting.” Lia nods. “I know. I visit Spencer sometimes, usually being a doll. He asks for me to come and then I can also see Obie.” "The charm wears off pretty quick," Jack remarks to Leech, frowning his way. He nods to what Lia says, still picturing gun-totting shrimp. Of course he's picturing them with super soakers now. "I'm planning on visiting people here now that its warming up more..." he trails off quietly, shoulders slumping a bit. "O-kay," Leech replies, kind of sing-song, licking at his lips as he polishes off his orange juice. He looks away from Jack and to Anole. Then to his empty plate. "M'still hungry." Anole only has a very /small/ sigh before turning the remainder of his eggs over to the younger boy. "Bunches of fish costumes would be kind of funny." He gulps down his coffee, fidgeting again in his seat. "Are you guys here for the weekend or just the day?" “I can share,” Lia says when the boys start passing food back and forth. “If people want. Slice up into pieces. I was thinking chocolate-orange. Is that okay?” She giggles a little at the idea of everyone in fish costumes. “I think maybe we would need a /lot/ of make-up. You could make a pufferfish out of one of those big paper lanterns!” Her eyes widen a bit at the question. “Oh. I do not... I have never left the school overnight before. Usually we have a thing to do and we go and do it and go back.” Her expression turns thoughtful. “I do not know where I would stay overnight.” "I've got a little cash on me if you want some more food," Jack offers, having scrounged up some change and a couple singles. He has no comments on fish costumes but he is imagining how that play would look. "There'd be a lot of blue on the set..." he murmurs. He blinks at the question too, shrugging. "I have no idea where I'd stay either." "Mokaynow," Leech answers around a mouthful of Anole's breakfast. "Well, /you/ are." Anole's smile is crooked. Kinda wry as he watches the child lick his plate clean. "Paper lanterns are pretty -- but a paper costume might get kind of beat up." He shrugs, gulping the rest of his soda and standing, stiffly. "We should get home. Maybe /actually/ sleep." "/I/ slept," Leech protests. Anole snorts, picking up their dishes. "You should enjoy your cupcake," he tells Lia. "You totally earned it." “Blue is pretty. I like it,” Lia opines of Jack's murmuring. “Oh, okay. I did not want you to be hungry, either. But sleep is important, too. Maybe I can come visit some time? When you are not sleepy.” She sounds very uncertain in the question, the idea itself a little novel. Jack nods a little, shifting awkwardly. "It was good meeting you, Leech," he says. "Stay warm out there," he offers. "See ya later," Jack adds towards Anole. "I don't think you'd like our home," Anole answers with a small dip of his head. "It's not -- really like most people's." "Also Marrow stabs most of our visitors," Leech adds brightly. He even mimes stabbing to go with this. Stab stab. "... it's not really like the Commons," Anole agrees with an awkward dip of his head, cheeks darkening. "I -- 'll see you guys later." His chin lifts in farewell to his classmates, and he stacks the dishes in one hand to drop them off, slinging his other arm around Leech's shoulders to lead the younger Morlock off. "Oh. I have not been in many homes, so I would not know." Lia shifts from foot to foot, uncertain. "If I were a statue, stabbing would not hurt. But I would not want to upset your friends. Okay. Maybe I will see you when next term starts." Her arm lifts to wave as the boys head out, turning back to Jack. "We should go order things. There is not even a line today." Jack watches Anole quietly, wondering more about where he and Leech live. Especially after hearing about a person prone to stabbing. "Bye..." he trails off. He watches the green mutants go before letting out a breath and looking down at the floor. Lia turning back to him snaps him out of his thoughts and he smiles her way. "Yeah, let's get some stuff. After you," he offers, stepping to the side to let Lia pass.