ArchivedLogs:Easier

Easier
Dramatis Personae Alison, Jax
In Absentia	Friday, June 16, 2017 Part of the Future Past TP.
Location Alison & Cage's future home - Salem Center
The house isn't too far away from the school; one of several in a small neighborhood in Salem Center. Cheery and as bright as its occupant, it's decorated inside in an odd mix of casual comfort and modern sleekness which is also in line with the residents here. It's got the lived-in look of a house with a small child, with toys littered on a blanket in the family room along other subtle signs (a bottle in the sink, a randomly dropped stuffed animal, that sort of thing). Currently, Alison is on the screened in patio, placing the last of a set of dinner plates on a table there. The light of the gathering sunset filters through the trees visible through the mesh, casting the patio in pink-gold hues. Alison is dressed for comfort in a pair of loose-fitting blue slacks and a white spaghetti-strap tank. Her hair is cut short, probably for practicality. On the stereo, music plays softly -- a classical piece that features the strings prominently and seems to be soothing. Just ask the year-old child napping lightly in her walker nearby. Anton is also here, working in the kitchen on dinner, and filling the house with a bevy of delicious scents. The teenager is now a man, his gangliness disappearing with the advent of maturity. He's dressed in jeans and a bright yellow t-shirt, the logo of which is covered with an apron imprinted with a picture of a muscular torso and legs. "Hey, Ali," he calls as he adds a bit of stock to one pan. "What time is Jax supposed to be here?" "Soon, I think," Alison replies, smoothing out a napkin and leaning down to ruffle her fingers lightly through the sleeping toddler's thick honey-colored curls. The ruffle gets a small sigh from the child, and Ali smiles as she walks back into the kitchen. "I told him around 8." "Cool," Anton says. "This should be ready about a half hour later, so I got the timing right." Alison snickers, and opens the fridge to extract a bottle of wine and set it on the counter. "So it won't be like your epic Thanksgiving from last year?" Anton's gestured response is /not/ polite, although it does elicit a laugh from his foster mother as she goes out to check things one more time. Knock knock knock! On the doorstep, Jax is bouncy, restless, a definite spillover of energy visible in the way he rocks back and forth from heel to toe, the ceaseless fidget of his fingers. He's brightly colourful as ever, an asymmetrically-cut purple top that has flowing bell-cut half-sleeves and a pair of capris that are sheeny-shiny silvery-black to pair with chunky silver-and-black sneakers, glittering purple nailpolish, huge mirrored glasses. There's a knitted black-and-rainbow bag slung across his shoulder, and though his teeth scrape repeatedly in habitual tic at his lower lip it doesn't do anything to muss the shimmery gloss there. "Wow," Anton says, looking up at the door. "That is crazy punctual." Alison laughs as she heads towards the door. "I'm glad," she says over her shoulder. "I like people who are on time. That's why I liked Mel so much." Opening the door, she offers Jax a bright (literally) smile, and throws open her arms for HUGS. "Jax! Come in!" From the patio, there's an annoyed coughing sound that might be ramping up into a cry as Melody becomes aware that people have Arrived and she is Out Here. Anton is already moving, offering Jax a wave as he goes out to the patio. Alison frowns after him for a brief second before ushering Jax inside. "Anton was just asking when you were coming," she says brightly. "How was Washington?" Jax's smile in return is huge and bright, and his hug /warm/ not just in fierceness but in the radiant heat he carries with him. "Heyyy hello hi hey Anton oh gosh m'sorry did I wake the little'n -- wait can I /see/ the little'n is she adorable as ever?" Out of ingrained habit he sheds his shoes by the door (his ankle socks are mismatched, Pinkie Pie on one and Funshine and Cheer Bear on the other) and heads inside, fingers still fidgeting with his bag. "Washington was -- oh, gosh. It was /awkward/, honestly? I swear no matter how long I do this I ain't never gonna be used t'all the. Well, politics of it. An' have you ever noticed how, um. /Old/. Congress is? I swear sittin' afront of a crowd of old men an' alla them human an' stodgy an' here I've got a monster-freak tattooed on my /skull/ -- feels like I'm about t'get grounded or summat. How're y'all doin'?" Alison waves a hand at the apology. "She was napping in her walker," she says with a shake of her head. "She would have woken up eventually." The answer to the second question is answered by Anton, who appears with Melody in his arms. Out of her walker, she's dressed in a light blue shirt under a pair of pink overalls that seem impossibly bright against her mocha skin. She squeals when she sees Jax, and begins bouncing in Anton's arms. "Looks like mutual adoration," Alison says, and leans in to buss a kiss against Jax's cheek before she leads him into the living room. "Oh, gosh," she says at his answer for /her/ question, and shrugs her shoulders. "I played a couple of fund-raisers back in the day -- they /seem/ stodgy, but a lot of them are just..." she shudders, and smiles. "So maybe your skull tattoo kept you safe from the worst of them." Melody is getting /awfully/ squirmy, and Anton rolls his eyes as he holds her out towards Jax. "Here you go," he says. "Maybe she'll be still for you." He grins, and jerks a thumb at his chest. "I got into the New York School of Film," he announces. "I'm moving into my own place next week." Alison nods, heading for the kitchen. "Luke is so proud of him he could burst," she says. "You'd think /he'd/ got in. Do you want some wine? Anton says it'll be a bit before dinner's ready." "/Protective/ tattoos, I'll hafta remember that. Was only talkin' 'bout an education bill this time, though, that ain't /near/ so bad as bein' dragged places t'talk about all the horrible weapons they want to --" Jax shakes his head, his grimace easing away as he continues. "Outside the /politicians/ it was real good though. Had a chance to do workshops at a couple -- two high schools an' a middle. I think they was actually takin' things pretty serious lookin' to -- make things better for their mutant kids. S'refreshing. Didn't get spat on this time or nothin'." His expression shifts into a much brighter smile as he scoops Melody into his arms, bouncing the already bouncy child up over his head before pulling her back in close. "Oh gosh yeah you're still the prettiest one in the room, honey-honey," he tells Melody cheerfully. The plants tattooed on his arm start to sprout flowers, bright and colourful; a few blooms open up straight /off/ his skin to release tiny faeries with jewel-toned wings to flit up into the air and dance around the child. The winged creatures grow a little brighter with Anton's annoucement. "Oh /awesome/! Congratulations, that's /great/. You're gonna do great." Against Melody's back, one hand shifts to lift forefinger and thumb just a bit apart in answer to the question of wine -- just a /smidge/, please. /Possibly/ the lightweight drove himself here today. "Oh, that's great," Alison says, the air around her brightening with her smile. "Not talking about weapons and stuff, but that the schools seem to be coming on board. Of course, you're so charming, sweetie, that I can't see why they /wouldn't/." She nods at the finger-gesture, and disappears into the kitchen. Melody is easily pulled in, her little hands already reaching out to press against Jax's cheeks as she studies his face. Suddenly she smiles, and bounces in his arms, gurgling out a few random syllables before the flowers and fairies catch her attention. Then her attention to those is rapt, and she clutches at Jax's shirt to anchor herself for GRABBING. C'mere fairy.... "I'm looking forward to it," Anton says with a bright smile. "I've almost got the screenplay for my first film finished. I kind of want to finish it before the semester starts in August." Alison returns with two glasses of wine, one a bit fuller than the other. "I think your pot is about to boil over," she says to Anton. "I turned down the burner, but you might want to check." The young man swears, and hurries towards the kitchen with an apologetic wave at Jax. Alison grins at the sight of Jax and Melody, and moves to sit on the couch, setting Jax's glass on the coffee table. "She sure loves you," she says, patting the couch next to her. "Watch out when she starts walking on her own power -- she might start tailing you." Jax blushes deep, head giving a small shake. "I don't know as I'm charmin' I jus' --" His nose crinkles up. "If the news is bein' /polite/ it says passionate, otherwise they usually go with rabid. Zealot. Lord forbid you want t'treat mutants like actual people, then you're the /fringe/ element." The faeries continue to dance by Melody, flitting down to light weightlessly on her fingers and then darting away as Jax takes a seat on the couch. "Oh yeah? What's the film about, can I come when it's all /movie/-like an' you're screenin' it?" The fairies dart back down to land on Jax's knee and the sofa cushion and he settles Melody into his lap once he's comfortable. "Oh, /I/ don't mind a tiny shadow, I'll teach her how t'garden. Everyone loves playin' in the dirt, right? /I/ never growed outta it, nohow." "There are worse things to be than a zealot for civil rights," Alison says. "They probably said the same thing about Martin Luther King and Lucretia Howe, too, and look what /they/ managed to put in people's minds." She sounds confident in her friend, and she reaches out to pat Jax's knee encouragingly, skittering the light fairies and getting a squeal and a BOUNCE from Melody in Jax's lap. The question about the film gets a clatter from the kitchen in response. "Uh. You know. Stuff." Anton's voice is cagey when it floats back, and there's the sound of pans being put in the sink. "But you can definitely come to the screening." Alison giggles, looking towards the kitchen. "It's a big secret," she says wryly, beaming at Jax. "All he'll tell /me/ is that it's based on some web-comic that Kai has been working on with Harold at the school. Apparently, it's pretty popular." Melody can't /quite/ reach the fairies on Jax's knee, so employs the age-old toddler tactic of LEANING her weight against his restraint, grabbing at the fairies and making soft grunts of excitement as they flit around her. "Oh, gosh," Alison says. "She'd love that. I had her in the sandbox this morning, and when we came in, she was head to toe with dirt. I think she might be part gopher." The blonde leans back, looking at the kitchen as there's another clatter (less surprised this time). "How are Micah and the boys?" Jax smiles at Alison, warm and thankful, dropping a hand to squeeze at hers briefly. "Stuff, huh?" He calls his back towards Anton with amusement, arm shifting up to give Melody just a /little/ more room where he holds her. Flitflitflit, the dancing creatures change colour, change /shapes/, tiny winged lizards, bright hummingbirds the size of acorns. "Oh -- gosh I think a lotta the kids read that one but I'm sorta, uh. Hopeless with followin' /the internet/ I should look into it more deep." His smile fades, slightly, at the question of his family. "They're -- B's /lovin'/ MIT, ze's back down for the summer an' -- s'got some new excitin' project that I'm too dumb t'understand. Shane's -- he's good, Evolve's good an' he's. Got an orchestra audition comin' up he's all-over nerves about. An' Micah's business is doin' /great/." There's a definite /but/ trailing at the end of his words, teeth sinking against his lip and his head tipping down slightly to look at Melody with a very small frown. "Ali, d'you know if she's --" He hesitates, here, falling into quiet again. Melody squeals with delight as the shapes change, and twists herself in Jax's arm to see them better. This puts her back against his chest, and she leans back into his warmth with a happy sigh before she holds out her hands for hummingbirds and lizards to perch on. Alison watches this with a soft smile, and she reaches out to stroke her hand along her daughter's leg, earning a kick for her efforts. She smiles widely for the report on the Holland-Zedners, and beams a bit. "Oh, that's wonderful. MIT was the perfect place for B, and Shane should have been in an ensemble ages ago. His technique is amazing." Says the woman who literally feels every sound. The unspoken 'but' gets a small frown, and she leans forward to pick up her glass of wine and sip at it. "Is there something going on with Micah?" she queries, frowning more over the rim of her glass. "If he needs any help...." The question distracts her from that, and she nods. "Oh, yes. Henry ran the tests in utero. He got loads of experience with Mallory's twins. She's definitely gene-positive, but Henry's not certain when or if she'll manifest any ability." Ali's mouth twitches at the corners, flattening into a line. "I'm already trying to figure out what to do about it, particularly when I go back to work next semester. It's not as if there are mutant day cares arouind who'd know how to deal with it if she did it early." She hums lightly. "When did you manifest your abilities?" "He loves that violin. Makes me happy, you know, through most of school I was so scared he'd -- not have anything that /grabbed/ him, y'know? He'd kinda gived up on the world a bit -- but finding that /spark/, that thing you love, it's -- s'good for anyone but I think folks like us, y'know, we gotta grab onto that more. The world don't always --" Jax flushes darker as he lapses into silence, dropping the tiny firelizards to wind like jewel-bright bracelets around Melody's arms, wings opening up to flutter and tiny puffs of harmlessly intangible flame in shades of purples and blues skating up against her forearms. "No, no, Micah's good, he's great, it's. It's Spence, he's. He manifested /real/ young, I mean, 'fore /I/ ever knowed him -- two or three I think? An' things ain't never been real /stable/ with his powers an'. An' /everything/ I read on /children/ what manifest so young, it, it ain't. Encouragin'. I was hopin' he'd bucked the trend, you know, he's near twelve an' he was okay but." His head shakes slowly. "S'nearin' time now that most'a us would be first /showin'/ an' -- things is gettin' all kindsa haywire with him, I don't. Don't even know if he's going to --" The tiny lizards around Melody's arm flicker, disappearing briefly; he has to draw in a break before they reappear. "Sorry. It just ain't been lookin' good and." He pulls in another breath, a little shakier. "Middle school. /I/ was 'bout his age. There's a group for parents an' kids who've manifested real young, down at the Clinic, it -- ain't no /school/ or nothin' but it's been real helpful havin' other folks around to. Jus' even so the kids can have people like them to play with. /If/ she does -- but that's a ways off yet, apolgies, I don't mean to be gettin' gloomy on you." "It shows," Alison says of Shane and his violin. "When he's playing, it's like the violin is an extension of him. He speaks his soul through it." She speaks with the confidence of a fellow musician. "I'm glad if any of us have something that gives us a reason to keep going," she agrees. "It's too easy to get lost in the ugly that's part of our day to day lives." She falls silent after that, thinking on that idea. The admission of the problems with Spence get a rise of her eyebrows, and she slides closer to the younger man, putting an arm around his shoulder for a warm hug. "Oh, honey. Haywire with his powers, or in general? What does Henry say about it?" Ali's concern is enough that Melody senses it, twisting a curious look up at her mother before the firelizards catch her attention again. Alison ruffles fingers along Jax's scalp lightly, and eases back. "Luke brought home some information on that," she says of the Clinic. "Just in case." Anton pokes his head out of the kitchen, and holds up a hand. "Ten minutes!" he calls. "I hope you like pho and koi nam." "With his powers, with his health -- it can get hard to tell jus' what's playin' off what, you know? People got all kindsa complications that don't /seem/ related. Like I mean my powers make me /diabetic/ and Dai's eat up iron so fast he's on crazy supplements t'keep the anemia at bay an' --" Jax's chattering has a distinct nervous-worried edge to it that starts to calm as he leans into the hug. "... he's been real sick, though. An' his powers /so/ erratic. Sometimes he teleports -- an' don't even. Come /out/ the other end an' -- Dr. McCoy /an'/ Dr. Saavedro /an'/ Dr. Kreiger down at the Clinic, they's /all/ tryin' to -- but short of jus' turning his powers /off/ there ain't been much -- an' the only drug that'll do /that/ has. All /kinds/ of ugly side effects takin' it on the regular." Around him there's a faint shiver of smoke-dark shadow that clears up, soon. The lizards shimmer and change into tiny winged ponies. Jax's smile returns brightly at Anton's call. "I /love/ pho. It's Shane's favourite but it gets so hard to find /good/ vegetarian pho in restaurants so 'less I'm cookin' I don't often get t'enjoy it. Kinda a treat." His head tilts back against the couch, hand lifting to trail fingers lightly through Melody's curls. "They keep me from gettin' lost in it," he admits with a glance back towards Anton, then down to Melody, before he looks to the kids' mother. "I mean, s'harder, ain't it? Gettin' lost in ugly when you got 'em around to remind you the world can be /pretty/ beautiful despite everythin'." "Oh, honey." It seems to be Alison's fall-back sympathetic response, but it's warm and comes with extra hugs. "I'm sorry to hear that. Maybe it will balance itself out when his body chemistry settles." Ever optimistic, this one. Kind of. Her own light dims a bit as she considers, perhaps, why it /wouldn't/. But she doesn't go down that path, instead brightening her light and adding a few light butterflies to dance with the winged people around Melody's head. The baby seems to be getting lulled by the light show, her eyelids beginning to droop as she rests on Jax's warm body. "I guess I've been lucky in that my power doesn't seem to come with any serious side effects," she says. "Well, unless I drain myself. Then I get pretty weak for a while. Anton gets awful migraines when he uses his power too much, and Chelsea..." she lifts a shoulder. "Well, you know Chelsea's biggest problem." She sighs shakily, and leans in to rest her head on Jax's shoulder. She watches Melody for a while, listening as Jax answers Anton and smiling to herself when he talks about the kids. "They definitely make it easier," she agrees. "Life was much nicer when Anton came along. And some days, Luke will come home from a hard day and just sit with Melody in his lap until he falls asleep." She smiles fondly at the memory, and moves a hand to rest it on her lower belly. "I hope it holds true for the next one." Jax's smile warms at the butterflies, his /own/ hand lifting to flutter fingers against them, almost as easily enchanted as Melody. He drops his hand afterwards to curl around Alison's shoulders in a small squeeze. "Yeah, they --" Though his response is cut off with a sudden sharp inhaled gasp; he has to actually /clap/ a hand to his mouth to stifle the /squeal/ that is threatening to emerge so that it doesn't disturb the drowsy baby. "Ohmygosh ohmygosh /really/ ohmy/gosh/ when? Ali that's /fantastic/!" Alison giggles at Jax's enthusiasm, and nods her head, blushing into the air around her. "Yeah," she confirms. "I haven't told Luke about it, yet, because he's out of town and would insist on coming right home. But I'm due in December, and Henry says everything is where it should be at this point." She strokes her fingers across her abdomen, and smiles. "I'm hoping for a boy, this time. Luke should have a son. He's so good with the girls." She leans back into Jax, reaching out to stroke curls away from Melody's now-slumbering face. "When are you and Micah going to add to your family again? Or are you?" "That's wonderful. That's so --" Jax smiles, too, when Alison's fingers stoke across her belly. "Well I know no matter what y'all are jus' gonna be the greatest -- oh /gosh/." His cheeks flush at the question, and he gives his head a small uncertain shake. "I ain't really thunked about -- I mean, I /know/ Micah's always wanted to -- an' he's /such/ a fantastic dad. An' /he/ always wanted to adopt special-needs kids -- he's so good with. Well. Everyone. Just been strange to think since -- we already got two kids /done/ high school, d'you know I sometimes /forget/ I'm actually young enough that it's reasonable to be raisin' new kids now?" The flush in his cheeks doesn't quite go away. "Maybe we should. Maybe we should. Have enough friends with small one's their own now --" He smiles, down at Melody. "'least know nobody's ever gonna want for friends around." "/You'd/ be -- /are/ -- amazing parents," Alison asserts, nodding firmly and squeezing another gentle hug. "Both of you. And you totally /should/ help those kids. They deserve to have someone like you in their lives." She smiles at the blush, and reaches up to stroke the younger man's scalp again reassuringly. "We should have a picnic," she decides. "For all the people we know with little kids. When Spence is feeling better, I mean. There's a beautiful spot in Croton Gorge park that's not on the main trails." Anton pokes his head out of the kitchen, then, and lifts his eyebrows. "Dinner's ready. Want me to put the tadpole to bed?" Alison shakes her head. "We'll do it," she tells him, and unwraps herself from around Jax to stand up slowly. "I wanted to show you the changes we've made to the nursery, anyway," she says to Jax, smiling brightly. "But we'd better not be too long on it -- Anton is the fussiest of chefs. Thank God he's going into film school." "Oh, there's some /gorgeous/ places in there. Yeah. We /should/. Have you seen m'neighbor's -- Mel an' Hive an' Jim got the /most/ precious li'l flower, parks are perfect for her." Jax giggles, scooping Melody carefully against his chest as he rises. "We'll only be a sec," he promises Anton. "I'm Southern I can /relate/ to fussy." The glowing faeries fade away as he cradles the sleeping child, following after Alison to put her to bed.