ArchivedLogs:Foregone Conclusion

Foregone Conclusion
Dramatis Personae Jackson, Sebastian, Shane, Spencer
In Absentia	2013-09-22 Srs family talks. Sort of.
Location <NYC> Village Lofts - Rooftop - East Village
It tends to be windy, up here, but the presence of plastic table and folding chairs suggests that nevertheless building residents occasionally make their way out to this rooftop. With a good view of Tompkins Square Park less than a block away it's a good spot for city-watching. There's a railing around the edge, though it might be possible (if /unwise/) to climb over it to the narrow concrete ledges beyond and from there to the fire escape. Centrally, someone has broken down crates and constructed a small raised-bed garden up here, barren in winter but filled in three other seasons with a small assortment of herbs and vegetables. The concrete wall that rings the roof has been decorated, painted in vivid bright shades by some artistic hand to add colourful cheer to the rooftop. The mural shifts in terrain One wall sports a beach, flecked with grass and seashells and driftwood and shore birds. Beach transitions into meadow, colourful with wildflowers and butterflies and dragonflies; meadow shifts into snow-capped mountains, subsides into piedmont and sprouts into a verdant forest on the fourth, alive with animals. It's a crisp cool evening, the sun just starting to fade over the city. Out on the Lofts roof, the garden has sprouted a makeshift structure, constructed of old shipping pallets that, over the past few days, have grown increasingly more vibrantly colourful. The roof is a feathery arrangement of palm fronds, bright rainbow-coloured string lights wound through them as well as hanging bunches of dried fruits and flowers; there are ribbons of paper loops daisy-chained together with writing in Hebrew in many colours of ink on them. At the moment, Spencer is crouched outside the hut, happily adding to the bright colours that it has steadily grown through the week. He has small tubs of paints, with which he is currently painting an orange and blue octopus on the side of the structure. "Is that an squid?" Shane wanders up from outside, plopping himself down beside Spencer. He's brought a jacket for the smaller boy, and is wearing one of his own in black corduroy, buttoned up. "Maybe it's Taylor," Sebastian suggests, crouching down on the wood frame of the garden bed on Spencer's other side. "It's an octopus," Spencer explains patiently, very intently dabbing orange spots onto a blue tentacle. "Taylor's /kind of/ an octopus." Jax adds this cheerfully from the other side of the sukkah, where he is adding paint of his own to one of the wooden slats, decorating it with a red-gold tracework of vines, leaves in flamelike autumn colours. "Ain't quite so colourful, though." "Tag could make him colourful," Spencer calls across to Jax. He offers a tub of paint to Shane. Purple. "Do you want to paint?" "Can I paint /anything/?" Shane takes the purple paint, uncapping it and then sniffing at it. "Anything /appropriate/, Shane, this is important." Sebastian reaches for a tub of black paint. "What, I'm not going to paint /dicks/ on your sukkah," Shane assures Spencer. "We should bring dinner up, eat here with you. Where's Micah he dinnering too?" "You could do that! We're eating -- what are we eating?" Spencer sticks his eye up against the wooden boards, peering through the hut over at Jax on its other side. "Blackened tofu. Grits. Collards. Can do a heap more'a tofu if y'all are gonna be joinin' us." Jax finishes the vine he is working on, getting up to circle around the construction and take a seat on the edge of the garden bed, too. "Micah's downstairs. He'll be up when s'dinnertime, m'sure." He recaps his tubs of red and yellow paints, setting them in a neat row beside Spencer's others. "Actually, I -- wanted to talk to y'all about him." Sebastian looks up immediately at this, eyes narrowing sharply and his gills fluttering once. "What's wrong with Micah is he okay?" Reflexively, Shane lifts a hand, fingertips brushing lightly down against his brother's gills. "Pfft we saw him this morning, dude, he's --" His brow furrows. "Wait are you two okay you're not breaking up are you?" "We saw him this morning, of course they're not breaking up." Though now Sebastian looks still more concerned. "What? Oh gosh oh goodness no!" Jax flushes deep crimson, head shaking quickly and his smile suddenly bright. "Oh, gosh, no, that ain't -- nothin' like - -no." He scuffs a paint-splattered hand across his fuzzy hair, scrunching his eye up for a moment. "No. Micah's /fine/ an' we're more'n fine. Which is actually why I -- wanted t'talk t'y'all about --" His cheeks flush, and he shifts on the wooden ridge to face the three boys. "It's just, we'll be comin' up in fall on our court date. T'finalize all your adoptions proper. An' I know it's been kinda a -- rollercoaster, the past couple years. I don't -- really want to throw another loop in here so close to the end but." He draws in a breath, slowly, considering the paintings on the side of the wooden slats. The twins both relax, immediately. Sebastian's lips twitch just slightly at the corners as Jax speaks, and he leans into Shane's touch. Shane's hand curls further, around to Sebastian's other shoulder, thumb still brushing down against Sebastian's gills. "Oh. No, yeah, we're all for it." Sebastian's smile curls wider, head bonking to the side to rest on Shane's shoulder. "For what?" Spencer looks confused, but slides closer to Jax -- to steal the red paint. Jax turns a puzzled glance on the twins, too. He uncaps the red paint again for Spencer, setting the cap down on the wood beside him. "But I ain't even -- um. Just like that?" His brows crease, and he scrutinizes the boys a long moment. "I mean, we're gonna need to sit down an' talk this all out like -- as a family." "C'mon, Pa, you're getting all nervous and blushy and having serious talks what else are you going to be asking?" Shane dips a claw into the red paint, scrawling a word in Vietnamese on the side of the sukkah. "Besides," Sebastian lifts his head to peer over at Jax, "It's hardly even a question. He's already part of this family. What's gonna change, a name on some paper somewhere?" "S'/he/ actually want it? I mean, fuck, kids. Who the hell would ever want kids?" Shane bares his teeth in a sharp smile. "Crazyperson, probably," Sebastian answers lightly. "/Who's/ a crazyperson?" Spencer presses, rinsing out his brush in a nearby mug of muddled greyish water, then dipping it into the red paint instead to start adding small red fish nearby his octopus. Jackson does not answer for a moment, his cheeks still red as he presses the back of his hand to his eye. "Okay, um, wow, I'd had this whole. Speech planned." He exhales a shaky breath. "I'm a crazyperson, Spence. I just -- how would you feel if me an' Micah stayed together for -- if he was your dad, too?" Spencer doesn't look up from his fish-painting. "Huh?" is his bemused answer, "he's not?" Jax scrubs his hand against his cheek. "I -- thought this would be harder." "You can still give us your speech, if you like," Shane offers him cheerfully. "I bet it was --" "-- adorable?" Sebastian leans over behind Shane and Spencer both to kiss Jax lightly on the cheek. "Come on. Let's go get dinner. And Micah." "He's a crazyperson, too," Shane adds to Spencer. "I mean, anyone would have to be if they want to be in /this/ family forever." Sebastian grins, broad and bright as he hops up from where he is sitting, kissing Spencer and Jax both atop their heads before he turns to head inside.