ArchivedLogs:Dirt Sweet Dirt

Dirt Sweet Dirt
Dramatis Personae Ash, Jim	2014-04-18 Rockbiter and Groot reunite.
Location <NYC> 214 {The Mancave} - Sunrise Apartments - Clinton
Jim's apartment is not big, the living room area L-shaped with the entrance at one end and a kitchenette found at the other. Furnished by a scuffed wooden curb-found coffee table, a saggy green couch upholstered in a scratchy burlap material and two chairs, the habitat manages to just barely function as a one bedroom rather than a studio by merit of a walk-in closet sized bedroom you would have to cross through to reach his cramped bathroom. In here, water damage stains the walls. As does rust, around the showerhead in the cramped shower stall. The day has been long and Ash is tired when he comes home from work. As soon as he gets inside, he rests his dinner purchases on the counter before squatting down to untie his boots, giving his feet freedom after a long day. A long, long day. The cold made it feel longer than it was, that is for certain. He takes a moment to look around the apartment, hand resting on the kitchen countertop and sighing. All of their lovely dirt was slowly but surely being moved back out again, allowing the apartment to be clean enough to show in April, since they were moving out in June. It was a silly precaution as the Sunrise apartment complex didn't really show apartments until they were empty and possibly fumigated - but even that is unlikely, as the apartment management is fairly consistent about ignoring any living occupants, human or otherwise. The young construction worker heads into the kitchen space in earnest, washing his hands before opening up his bag and pulling out pre-cut onions, peppers, mushrooms and cheese, resting the bag of frozen hash browns and a half dozen eggs on the counter. He then gets out a frying pan and begins to saute. THUMP. THUMP. THUMP...? The door rattles with three /authoritative raps/... that then peter off. Like the person outside has just left their fucking mitt ON the door. Maybe it's the cops. Maybe they're drunk. Ash turns off the heat and scowls briefly at the food. It's probably safe leave alone, as he hasn't added eggs yet. He turns and calls out, "Coming," as he wipes his hands uselessly on a towel. They certainly weren't wet before, but cooking inspires him to dry his hands anyway. Despite this relaxed almost greeting, he is cautious as he approaches the portal, sinking low to get under the peep hole to the hinge side of the door. Only then does he carefully edge toward that hole to peek out into the hallway to see who is there. Ash will find an EYE BALL. Staring right back in through the peephole. It is bloodshot and hard-faded blue and LIVID. BLINK. After one ominous eyebally moment Jim's voice grates out like a woodrasp. "Aaaasshhh." His hand falls on the door knob. Rattle. Ash jumps back when he sees the eyeball, a little concerned, but it's the voice that puts a wrinkle between his brows. He steps back and unlocks the door, pulling it open to see who is outside, relatively sure who he will find. Surprise. It's Jim. He's just STANDING there. Looking like a lumberjack in a red borrowed flannel from Logan and a pair of jeans that would have better fit a man with a slightly more narrow pair of hips. Except that this lumberjack is also the... lumber, skin all ragged bark and twiggy, a few stray leaves projected there. Eyes locked on Ash. For a moment entirely blank-fixed. And then the ominous silence breaks when he RATTLES an inhale and asks, "We got coffee?" "Ah….uh…" Ash just stares for a few minutes, blinking wildly at the form of the tree man and his new wardrobe. "Uh. Yeah." He turns to head toward the kitchen to acquire the black blood of the earth, but he pauses, turns back to Jim and wraps his arms around him. Hugging him. Tree-hugging finds a body fleshy in patches, wooden in others beneath the flannel. Jim doesn't immediately respond, solid and hard steady and eerily quiet for his lack of respiration, just kind of standing there and staring into the apartment. Then, wood creaks. A few flakes of bark topple to the carpet in the hallway, and an arm fits around Ash's back. And GRIPS him down. Pin. Claimed. And lumbers inside with Ash just kind of tucked under his arm like groceries, "Still standing." What, Jim. The building? Yourself? Ash? Doot doo doo, we're all heading straight for the kitchen. In... slow motion. "Dude. Jim! When did you wake up?" Once Ash has had the acceptable amount of hug from his wayward roommate, he starts gesticulating wildly with each completed thought. "Damn, I've been worried about you. Can I get you anything?" The very animated rockbiter eventually starts to pull away. "Oh, yeah. Coffee. You asked for that. Having you back man, that's kind of distracting. Just give me a second, I'll get you all fixed up." Once detangled, he heads for the cupboard and pulls out the can of coffee grounds and starts measuring a pot of coffee's worth into the new filter he puts in the machine. "I was going to come by later. It, well, gets a little difficult what with it being a school and all, and me not being a student. I hang out with Dorian a bit, but mostly, I just want to zip in, bring you new shrubs and get back to the city for work. I wish I could have hung out more, but at the same time, everyone is now waiting on the Commons to be finished, so we have to try and get that done." He pauses in his prattling on, the carafe finally full of water - a little too full, making him pour a little out. "Ah. Um. Hi. Coffee'll be ready in a little bit." The question of /when/ he woke up forms a slow groove between Jim's brows, turning his head to look accusingly out the window at the sunlight. "Tax day." /Definitive answer/. Never mind that was days ago. This is probably /while/ Ash is squirming free, because Jim seems to have entirely forgotten he has to LET GO after a hug. Walking deeper into the apartment, roots are unraveling from his legs and snuggling into the thin soil of the floor, laying themselves down ahead of him and withdrawing behind him while he moves like tank treads, and he turns back to Ash. And /stares/ at him while he chats, "--What happened." He more slowly chugs along; stubbornly /dogging/ Ash to the kitchen. Looking him over distrustfully, "...you hurt?" "Nah, man," Ash replies pleasantly, smiling as he finishes coffee preparations and turns back to Jim. "I showed up afterward and tried to keep the building up while they were pulling people out. We, uh, got Jax out of you and then we did what we could to get you back together. It was… kind of the strangest thing I've ever done." He stuffs his hands in his pockets and heads back to the living room, his bare feet kicking at the dirty ground. As Jim moves toward the window, all of the other dirt across the floor starts to move from the nooks and crannies it lays in to pool around his feet and roots. "I hope the school was kind of calm for you. I wasn't sure all those kids were going to leave you alone. They are nice kids though, so… I don't know." Ash moves back to the kitchen to get out mugs. It's only then that he remembers he was making food. "How do you feel about an omelette?" There is a /firm/ headshake- no- to omelette, "Kids're uh," very organically, Jim is settling into the earthy bedding, shaking his head towards the window. "/Kids/." Accurate, Jim. And more abruptly, "There was /drums/." Maybe it's not an actual complaint so much as... a moment of /clarity/. Mouth opening - mouth drifting /shut/. His face twists minutely tighter, and he cautiously lays a rough hand over his flanneled side. "...out of me. Fffh." His eyes slide closed. "He still alive?" "Jax? Yeah." Ash stirs his vegetables while putting the rest of them away in the fridge, dancing quietly between the two locations in the kitchen. The coffee begins spilling on its own into the carafe. "It was an ordeal, but we got him out and to the clinic. Then there were healers that kind of helped put him back together. They wouldn't have been able to do anything for him - if not for you, so that was amazing - you know, what you did to keep him alive. There was a healer helping you along, which was hard because we had to find someone that was helpful to plants, because we couldn't find a scrap of fleshy stuff to give regular healers something to work on." He prattles on a little while then stop and sighs. He turns and grabs a bowl for whisking his egg into a suitable omelettle base. "I probably should wait until you've had your coffee before I say most of this." He turns and grins at Jim. "I'm just… excited to have you back." Presumably Jim is listening. But all he's really doing is scrubbing at one eye mechanically. It's strange to watch, the bark-flesh elastic enough to allow for the churning, "Yeah." And turns then towards the old familiar bathroom, looking along the ceiling and walls as though they were new, "I'mma grab a uh. Shower. Think I been sleeping in fucking... parks." He /thinks/. Teeth just... /gritted/. "Tell me all of it. When'm out." Back to fucking business. He stops in the doorway though. Looks back. "...You were there. When I was--." He jerks a chin towards the world outside. "Okay. Coffee'll still be hot when you get done." Ash smiles and hums to himself as he adds just a splash of milk to enfluffen his eggs. He pauses in his whisking when Jim pauses to address him, the tone of seriousness confuses the young man. "I was there when you were? Um. Well, I guess I got there late, but I did eventually get there. Glad I could." He gives a little smile and a tiny shrug and looks back to his work. "--At the school." Jim clarifies, slowly. Possibly for no reason, as as his brows remain crumpled. "-I could hear you." But that's about all. After a moment of just... watching Ash, some small knot in his jaw eases, he heads into the bathroom, trailing bits of dirt and tree detritus behind him. "Of course I was there. Dude. You're kind of my closest friend." Ash shrugs as he transfers the veggies out of the frying pan so he can start the omelette on a fresh surface, cooking quietly while Jim heads off to the shower.