ArchivedLogs:Pretty Cool

Pretty Cool
Dramatis Personae Derek, K.C., Suga Mama
In Absentia	2015-10-18 "Nothing ith on fire."
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. With the sun having set a while ago, it's gotten quite a bit colder outside. There's a few clouds in the sky which hide the moonlight when they pass the crescent Moon's path. This hasn't stopped Derek from spending sometime outside. He's a bit cold in just his jean jacket but after bumming a cigarette off another student, he wanted to enjoy his first smoke in well over a month. He knows it's against the school rules, but Derek just needs that little something to just calm his nerves after his first few weeks at Xavier's. There are footsteps crunching down the gravely beach -- multiple footsteps. Some booted, some pawed. One small figure is out walking a stocky black-and-white pitbull down the beach. Dressed in boots, jeans, outsized canvas jacket over Xavier's sweatshirt, fingerless gloves on her hands, K.C. looks kind of baggy and shapeless as she jogs along after the eager pup. Snuffle, snuffle, snuffle; at the end of the leash, the dog is bounding towards Derek, though stops short a small distance away with a whine. "Whiner." K.C.'s voice is kind of low, kind of husky. "You ran here, we're here, your fault, is that smoke that's smoke. There's smoke." There's not much audible pause to distinguish when she goes from addressing the dog to addressing Derek. As soon as he hears the voices drawing near, Derek quickly tries to put out his cigarette, muttering the word 'shit'. He quickly looks over at the dog and it's owner, K.C. almost like a deer in headlights. "Smoke?" He tries to play it off looking around innocently but notices he didn't do the best job putting it out and there's smoking coming from the light cigarette. "Uh hello. Yeah, thorry about that." He's not sure how she's going to react to him smoking so he quickly pushes down on the cigarette with his fingers, wincing as he burns the tip of his fingers. At least it's out. "Nothing ith on fire." "Nothing ith on fire," K.C. echoes, in the same low monotone as her previous comments, "Nothing is on fire. Are you on fire." Her eyes have fixated on the tips of Derek's fingers with a curious intensity. "Small fire -- you can put those out in the rocks. Floors. Not your hands. Rocks won't be on fire." The dog is moving closer, K.C. trailing after her slowly as the pitbull starts to sniff at Derek's shoes. "The shoes aren't on fire the /fingers/ were on fire. Is that --" Her fingers move together, miming squeezing something small. "The best way." Derek just stares at K.C. for a bit, her speaking patterns catching his attention more than the pitbull for the moment. Not sure if she was poking fun at his lisp when she echoed him. "Probably not. Jutht, didn't want anything to catch on fire." On the rocks which are highly unlikely to catch fire. He moves his slightly burned finger to press against the cooler rock for relief and then puts his other hand out for the dog to sniff. "Ith it okay if I pet him? Or her?" "Ith it okay, is it okay," K.C.'s head bobs slowly with this, weight rocking back and forth from heel to toe. She looks down at the dog (thrusting her nose happily into Derek's hand, tail wagging), looks up at Derek -- or mostly a little bit past Derek, really, eyes focused more on the trees over his shoulder. A sudden smile has crossed her face, though. "Yeah is it okay, Suga says it's okay. See look, the tail, that means okay. No fire though, right. Not for the dogs. Do you have dogs? Pets. Do you like pets." Slowly, at first, Derek begins to gently pet Suga on the head. "No, I've never had a dog but we had a few neigborth with petth tho oncth in a while I'd play with them. Dogth are cool though." Eventually his hand makes his way behind Suga's ears where he starts scratching. "My roomate hath a bird, tho I don't mind petth. I'm Derek." Normally he'd offer a hand in greeting but he's occupied paying attention to the pitbull. "And no, no fire. Are you... why are you repeating how I thay thingth?" The dog is quite happy for the attention, broad head butting up into Derek's hand and her body shifting to lean heavily against his legs. "I'm Derek..." K.C. seems to give this statement a moment of thought before tacking on, "K.C., that's me. K.C. with two letters. Derek your roommate has a bird," her brows furrow for a moment, "grey bird. Parrot bird. Tentacle -- bird." A small chuckle follows this declaration. "There's places with so many dogs. You could go play. In the shelters they always need more playing. Why are you repeating -- oh. Oh! Oh /me/, why am /I/ repeating -- I don't," she shakes her head quickly, "know." "Yeth, Taylor. He'th one of my roommateth." Derek says seeing as K.C.'s description is accurate. "K.Thee. not Casey, go it. Nice to meet you K.Thee." He finds her odd but chalks it up to the fact that most people at the school seem pretty strange so far. "I never thought of doing thomething like that at a thelter. Though I don't know much of what'th in the area. Only been in New York for a few weekth. Thtill haven't left the thchool groundth yet." His hand is still petting Suga, no longer focusing on just her head but the whole body. "Your dog theemth pretty cool." "Pretty cool. Pretty cool." K.C.'s smile is much brighter, here. "Suga Mama she's pretty cool. Less noisy when I pet her." Her eyes have wandered away, out towards the lake, now. One hand hovers slightly in front of herself, fingers tracing invisible patterns in the air. "Before New York, then where? There's a lot. In the area. I found a shelter. To volunteer. Lots of dogs to pet. You could come. Lots of cool dogs." Glancing out across the lake, Derek is trying to see what K.C.'s gaze lingers on but he can't really spot anything noteworthy. "Thuga Mama? That'th her name? Thee theemth fairly quiet. Not really noithy." He starts to pet the Pitbull more slowly, paying more attention to K.C. than the actual petting. "Maybe, I jutht have to thee how thingth go with my claththeth before I commit to anything. Altho I'm sthtill thettling in and not to mention I barely know you." "That'th her name. Yes. No. Yes. No," K.C. seems undecided on this point. "Sometimes her name. "Know me -- yeah," she agrees with bright amusement, "barely know me. Don't have to. They don't need volunteers to pet /me/," she explains earnestly. "What classes how are classes?" Derek opens his mouth and shuts it again, quite confused as to the conversation only understanding maybe half of what she says. "I... I'm fine with just petting your dog." He's not really interested in petting people. "Claththeth, the oneth the thchool offerth? I'm not thure how they handle thingth here but I'm not thure I want to flunk out in my firtht month here, tho I thould focuth on that thuff before volunteering." "Yeah she's fine too." K.C.'s fluttering fingers pause to waggle towards Suga Mama indicatively, the dog's tail swishing happy-lazy through the air. "Are you flunking? I can't flunk either have to study. Lots of classes. New classes. Not so many classes at my last school. Before. So many classes here. Hard to pick. Can't take them all." "I wath flunking at my old thchool, I don't think I'm failing anything here, yet. But it'th only been about two weekth." Derek really doesn't want to screw up at Xavier's like he did his last school. "I'm trying to thtudy more but I've never really thtudy much. The claththeth here are thure different. There are a lot here but they're really different. We didn't have ath much of a thelection back home in Kanthath it'th almotht crazthy how many different oneth they have here." "Two weeks, two week, yeah, not much time," K.C.'s head is bobbing again. "Maybe by midterms, maybe then you'll be failing." So encouraging! If she's joking or serious it's hard to tell, her tone hasn't shifted from the same flat monotone she's been speaking in. "I have seventeen minutes left until study time maybe a schedule helps -- maybe," her eyes widen as though struck with sudden inspiration: "Also don't light the homework on fire." For the first time since he's met her, Derek breaks out into a smile and laughs. "There'th a good chance I'll be failing at leatht half my claththeth by midtermth. Let'th hope that I prove mythelf wrong, right? Don't worry, I won't light it on fire." He pushes himself up and gives Suga Mama one last head scratch. "Good luck with not failing aloth. It was great meeting you K.Thee, Thuga Mama. I gotta head back thee if I can find my thither before finithing my homework that'th due tomorrow. Gave a good night, and don't thtay out too long, it'th cold out here." "Cold out here," K.C. agrees, arm reflexively wrapping around herself. "Yeah Suga Mama thinks it was great too. OK. OK have to keep walking. Someone needs to poop no not me dog that's you." No farewell; K.C. and the dog just take off, continuing on down the beach.