ArchivedLogs:Catch Up

Catch Up
Dramatis Personae Peter, Kai
In Absentia	2013-07-12 '
Location <XS> Rec Room - FL2
School this may be, but life for Xavier's students certainly isn't all studying. Outside classes, this is a popular spot to find students in their downtime. An enormous tribute to slacking off, this room is a wealth of fun and relaxation. Comfortable armchairs, couches, and beanbags offer plentiful seating scattered throughout the room, and the cushioned windowseats by the high windows offer a cozy nook to curl up and look out on the grounds. The room is often filled with the noises of gaming -- whether it comes from the big-screen television (tall racks of DVDs beside it, if nothing can be found on the multitude of cable channels), tricked out with consoles from retro to the latest releases, or the less electronic clatter and thump of the pool table, air hockey, or foosball. For those a little more subdued in their gaming, the cabinets hold stacks and stacks of board and card games, ranging as classic as chess and go to as esoteric as Dixit, Catan, and Gloom. Classes are finally out for the day, and most of the students remaining for the summer semester have moved on to other activities. Some are in their extracirriculars, some are doing homework in their rooms or wherever else they've chosen. The mansion, as a result, is fairly quiet, especially up here near the resident dorms. In the Rec Room, there is only one student doing his homework. Or maybe it's homework. Kai's found time to change after classes, because he's dressed in a pair of jean shorts and a green t-shirt with TURTLE POWER! inscribed across the chest. Currently, the Korean boy sits tailor-fashion by the bookshelves, school books set next to him in front of an open school-issued laptop. A laptop that he taps at carefully, as if afraid he might BREAK it. YAWWWWwwn. Peter steps in the rec room; the boy looks like he's just woken up -- which is funny since really, he probably just finished /classes/. He's currently clad in a blue collared shirt (buttoned up!), sleeves rolled up -- black dress slacks -- two-toed socks -- and his nylon black-pack. He is /making/ his way across the room, kind of sluggishly, toward a forgotten coffee mug (it proclaims 'SCIENCE! (it works, bitches)') on one of the rec room tables. Empty. Reaching for it slooooowly. Like, 'c'mere, coffee mug, you and I have BUSINESS'. He doesn't even seem to notice Kai. Kai may be focused on the computer, but he looks up when Peter appears, and watches silently as the older boy shuffles through. When he reaches for the coffee cup, the younger boy tips his head. "Oh, is that yours?" he asks, forgoing his usual method of greeting. "I was going to take it to the kitchen when I was finished." "--buhhuh?" Peter asks, blinking owlishly at Kai -- cup seized! -- before he tosses it up, letting it flip through the air over itself -- then catches it in the other hand. It's kind of a quick, acrobatic move, but Peter pulls it off like he was just fidgeting. "OhheyKai," he says, /shoving/ one fist into his eyesocket and. Grind, grind grind grind. "--yeah it's mine. Gonna. Get some coffee I gotta catch a ride to work." More grinding. Like he's trying to grind coffee beans in there. "You have been working a lot," Kai says mildly, looking back at the computer screen and tap tap TAPping, frowning a bit at the screen. If he was impressed by the cup-flip, he's not letting Peter see it. "Mister Stark must keep you very busy." His eyes lift, then, to regard the other boy with a tiny flicker of yellow around the edges of his eyes. "Does he give you time to sleep properly?" "He doesn't actually -- give you /hours/," Peter comments, still /grinding/. Pausing, a moment; not moving back toward the door just yet! The coffee cup dangles by one of his fingers. "He just gives you /deadlines/ and you can. Spend as much or as little time as you need to meet them. Um. I kind of -- just. Am worried. About this project? It's my first project and I'm just a kid and man he said he was gonna check /up/ on it today and I want it to be perfect and, um. I'm gonna sleep a bit on the way, in the car," Peter admits, before: "And maybe a bit more when I get there? Before he comes by." Kai makes a soft 'ah' noise, and leans back over the laptop, tapping again. "That sounds very important," he says, with the smallest of twitches at the corner of his mouth. "But you are very smart. I am sure you will do well. He will probably very happy with your work." He glances up, and there's a slow blink, with a bit more flickering. "Maybe you will have time to...sleep after he has looked at it." "Yeahprobably I'mokay though, I mean, and if it works it'll be /awesome/ cuz," Peter starts, and now his arms raise up, almost threatening to /flail/ a bit -- with coffee-cup and all! -- "--cuz it'll help me and some others keep our temperatures down? It's like this automated cooling suit, it'll be /super-sweet/ for like when it gets really hot and you don't, like, sweat and stuff. But yeah, I'll probably. Like. Sleep for a whole /day/ after this just, Saturday or Sunday. Um. Even if I'm fired," he adds, with just a hint of violet! Kai looks up as Peter starts describing his project, and he tips his head to the side, brow knitting. "It is true. Foom is often uncomfortable in extreme temperatures. It is easy for me to imagine what it must be like for those who live in such conditions every day." He offers a tight little smile. "You are very smart, to think of such a thing." He shifts his weight, then, rolling to his knees. "I will try not to disturb you, when I take care of the bugs," he promises. "Or I will do it the night before, so that you may sleep in peace." He nods to himself, because this is clearly a BETTER PLAN. "Oh, I can take care of the bugs, that night -- I mean. I can help, or." Peter pauses, before asking: "I heard a bunch of weird stuff happened the other day -- around the edge of the carnival? I think -- one of the students, Ross, told me? I read in the news, too. Faelan was there? I meant to ask him about -- did you hear anything about it?" Kai looks up, and frowns at Peter's offer. "It is not necessary, but I would appreciate it," he says. "If you are here, I would like for you to help." There's a bit of his normal smile that plays about his lips for a moment, but it fades in the wake of the question about the carnival, and he nods slowly. "There were strange men at the farm," he says. "They wanted to take all of us somewhere, but we ran away." There's a bit of possible accusation as he gives this information to Peter. "There was a man made of sand, but Faelan sent him away after Ross fell and broke her ankle. The other men ran back to the carnival." His smile now is a small, vicious one, and he lifts his shoulders. "Perhaps they thought he would send /them/ away, too." "Oh, /you/ were there too?" Peter says, blinking at this; he pauses, eyebrows pinched together! "--carnival. Has anyone -- did anyone look into it? Like, see if they're -- what they wanted to do? They wanted to kidnap -- th'heck? In /Westchester/?" Peter sounds a little indignant, now! "--the heck is wrong with people?" he mutters, rubbing at the bridge of his nose, before: "Everybody's okay, right? I mean besides Ross who broke her ankle. I think, she's uh, having kind of a melt-down or something from the other night." "Yes, /I/ was there," Kai says, looking the older boy directly in the eye as he speaks, the inflection on the 'I' so soft and subtle. To the questions, he shrugs. "Faelan said he would tell Professor Wagner and the Professor about it," he says. "I do not know if he has done it, yet, but I hope so." He wrinkles his nose in thought, and scratches at the scar on his chin. "I /think/ everyone is all right. Sophie was acting oddly, when we were there, but she seems all right now." Comments about Ross get an uncomfortable sort of look, and the boy shifts his weight. "I do not know her very well, but it was very scary. Perhaps she has not seen as much as --" he considers his next words carefully for a moment. "--some of us." "I might go check up on Sophie, before I go to work. Um, or maybe when I get back," Peter says. "S'been a while since -- I /hope/ she's okay, just. /Man/. Okay. I'll see you later, Kai?" The coffee cup gets twirled around Peter's finger; he's still grinding at his eye-socket. "M'gonna go. Sleep in a car for a few hours." Slight-grin. "I am sure she would like that," Kai agrees, and then he winces a bit at the sudden withdrawal, his jaw clenching just the tiniest bit. Then he nods, sighing heavily. "Yes," he says. "I am certain that I will see you sometime soon," he says, although he doesn't really sound like he believes it. "Good luck with Mister Stark." He lifts a hand in farewell before bending over his laptop again. Tap, tap, TAP.