Logs:Storm Shelters

Storm Shelters
Dramatis Personae Harm, Jax, Nanami
In Absentia	2020-09-29 "Try for find something like a home."
Location <XAV> Study - Xs First Floor
Quieter than the neighboring library, the study actually is a retreat for those who want to sit and work. Lacking the larger social tables, this room has only single solitary chairs, individual soft lamps assigned to each. The high bay windows allow plenty of light, and the understated elegance of the room with its grated fireplace (often crackling, in winter) is an invitation to quiet work. The mansion is quiet, this late. Quieter still in here -- or it would be, at least, if not for the drumming rain sheeting at the windows, the booming rattling of the glass that follows soon after every bright flash of lightning. Jax has claimed one armchair just by a window -- or maybe he's moved it just by a window, it might not have been there before now. He's in black bellbottom corduroy overalls liberally festooned with colorful dragonfly and flower patches, one of its straps unbuttoned to reveal part of the bright red tee beneath ('ALL MY HER', say the words that can be read at the top of the screenprinted design, and at the bottom, 'HAVE FBI'), brightly patterned mismatched socks. Despite the hour and being indoors he has large sunglasses on, their metallic green-purple rims matching his peacock-hued hair. On a table just beside him a plate has a small pile of masala chai cookies next to a very large thermos. In his lap currently, a book -- Kawai Strong Washburn's Sharks in the Time of Saviours -- though his attention has been drawn away from it by the storm outside, head tipped to the side against the chair's overstuffed back to watch the driving rain. Nanami doesn't do much to break the quiet when she creeps into the study. She's dressed for bed already, soft pink pajama pants and a fleecey black sweatshirt dotted with cartoon fish. She's been looking down at her phone, but looks up when she sees Jax. She hesitates only a second but then continues in, gesturing towards the plate of cookies with a lift of her eyebrows. "You mind?" Her eyes light on the book and a slower smile crosses her face. "Oh -- huh. I like that one. I didn't think no h..." Her lips purse, twist to one side. "Didn't think many people out here read that one." Harm is a little less stealthy behind Nanami, also in their pajamas, which are purple fleece and decorated with little cartoon boba cups with smiling faces. They wave at Jax uncertainly while Nanami speaks, their eyes also tracking to the book though without any hint of recognition. "What's it about?" they ask in a sort of stage whisper. Jax shakes his head quickly, looking up with a quick smile. "Huh? Oh! Oh, yeah, of course." He flutters multichrome-nailed fingers toward the cookies, shifting in his seat to better face the students. "Sorry, got a little -- um, yeah, please, feel free, I got plenty." His hand drops to the cover of his book. He looks down at it, back up, a small flush in his cheeks. "I don't know yet. Family. It's got a music to it. Good book for a storm, I think. Did you like it?" Nanami plucks one of the cookies off the plate and perches on the windowsill. Her eyes go wide in the light of the next lightning flash, soft smile returning and staying with her first appreciative bite of cookie. "Did. Think maybe now I just miss home." Her head thumps against the window. "Storms was mo... were better there." Harm also helps themselves to a cookie with a murmured "thanks." They lean against the windowsill. "I'm not a big reader, but I do like family." Tilting their head, they peer at the cover of Jax's book again, and nods once. The lightning draws their attention back outside. "Sometimes I think storms back home are better, too, but maybe I only think that because I haven't been to Hawaii." They look over to Nanami. "Are they more intense, with the ocean all around?" "My home, too, or 'least it feels that way. Don't know if it's so or if it's the nostalgia speaking." Jax curls his legs up beneath himself, propping his elbow on the arm of the chair. "Tell the truth, I don't know if that missing ever goes away proper. Just hopefully find new things to love 'bout a new place." His nose crinkles on a small huff. "Or you don't, and it don't never become a home." "Heh." Nanami flicks a cookie crumb off her fleece. "Well these cookies, they're some kine thing at least. I dunno." She flicks a very quick glance towards Jax, then back to the window, hedging carefully, "This place it's not all bad. Just jarring, you know? Between the gross rude skeevers and the white people everywhere -- uh, no offense huh? -- I'm still getting used to it. Try for find something like a home." Her finger traces lightly against the window, leaving a streak against the misty glass. "Here's one thing. Not so good as with the ocean around. But it's good. You find something? Here?" It's hard to tell which of the others this question is directed to. Harm's shoulders hunch, just a bit. "That's...not so great, if you can't really go home anymore. Not that I'd want to forget the things I miss about Earthsong, either." They look up at Nanami, nods slowly. "I mean, everything's greener here. More rain. Things grow better." Their lips press together thinly. "I have friends." "Skeevers? Has -- someone been givin' you a hard time?" Jax's head tilts; above the rim of his glasses, his pierced brows are dipping. "Yeah -- I mean, it is complicated," he says with a nod to Harm. "I don't know as I'd want to give it up, neither. We can't go home, but all those bits of it we carry here make us us. The real warm ones and the ones that some days -- I wish I could forget, too. Day I stop missing 'em entire -- well, be a real different person, then. Can't say as that's better or worse. But real different for sure." He leans forward, uncaps his thermos and draws it near but hesitates, eyeing the cuplike lid. "I ain't touch this yet, if y'all want cocoa." His fingers drum against the side of the canister, steam rising from the open container now. "Growing things is where I started, too. Friends and plants both. Don't know if I'd'a lasted without either, honestly." His smile here is warm, but it fades very soon. Nanami's cheeks suck against her teeth dismissively. "Ion let nobody give me a hard time, please. Give 'em hard time right back. Not 'cuz of they don't try, though, some boys here? They need your class three times over." She turns from the window, absently making a 'gimme' motion towards the offered cocoa. "Tanks, yeah." She scoots over, bumping her shoulder lightly against Harm's. "Whole lotta dumdums on your hippie farm then. You're great." Her eyes drop to search her hands, fingers knotting together. "... dunno what's good here," she admits, a little more gruff. "Few people. Been real caught up in. Not wanting to be here. Not give it much chance. Not give many people much chance." "I think...boys most places could use that class, like, at all," Harm adds, quietly. "Grown men, too, probably." Their eyes linger on Jax a moment, pensive, but but they smile when Nanami bumps their shoulder, their own "Thanks" slightly embarrassed. "I don't think they're dumb, just -- wanted a lot more from me than I could do." Their shoulders hitch up in a barely visible shrug. They tilt their head at Nanami. "It's...I mean it's fine to need some time to feel bad about being away from home. When you're ready to give it more of a chance, I think lots of people would want to be friends. You're pretty great, yourself." Jax pours the cap full of cocoa, sliding it over towards Nanami. His teeth scrape against his lower lip, hands cupping the thermos close to his chest as he settles back. "M'glad you're -- comfortable assertin' your boundaries," he says, slowly, "but I sure ain't glad if it's been needful, often. I know comin' to teachers can be a complicated question, but I want y'all to be safe. I ain't only here to teach you how to keep yourselves safe, you know? That's important, too, but if anyone here's making you unsafe, m'here to help there, too." The smile that follows is a little crooked. Slightly sheepish. "Sorry. I know you jus' done say you got it handled on your own. I sure do believe you on that. Jus' don't think everyone should always have to." Nanami leans in, takes the cocoa with a bob of her head. Settles back against the window to sip it, pass it over to Harm. Her brows lift, and the smile that starts to form on her face is kind of amused, tipping on the edge of an eyeroll -- though this fades away as her head thumps back against the window. "Ayye, nah, wasn't nothing so serious. Just some dumbass, you know? Already forgot his name." Her eyes drift out at the next rumble, fingers tracing against the window. "But you good though. Good to know if a real hurricane come through, maybe someone here got a shelter."