ArchivedLogs:Ham Sandwiches

Ham Sandwiches
Dramatis Personae Dorian Siccavil, Kelly, Shane
In Absentia	2013-11-18 (Part of Infected TP.)
Location <XS> Lake
Bright, bright, bright; the lake glitters wide and expansive here, stretching off into the distance. Sunlight, moonlight, starlight, it catches them all. Lapping at the rocky shore, its deep waters are frigid in winter and cool even in summer. A stone pier stretches out a ways into the water, wide and smooth, though often icy in winter. The water teems with life nevertheless, home to myriad species of fish that provide for ample fishing or just lazy watching on a slow summer day, for those who want to take a boat from the boathouse out to the center of the lake, or perhaps lounge on the pier and try their luck. With a long break between classes this afternoon, life isn't exactly normal at the school, but it is getting closer to whatever 'normal' could possibly be here. But for the line of students marching down with fishing rods in hand, this would be a little more practical of a lesson than most. The rods were simple builds, half of them children's sized, and each student provided with a cup of worms, though a few are lucky enough to have some plastic bait or another. On the plus side, water and sandwiches are also provide for lunch hungry stomachs. "Ok, now, split up into groups of two and three, and spread out." Is the instruction given from the staffer. And so they begin to do just that, putting nice space between each other, and picking out spots by the lake. Kelly has a rod, of course, but his motivation for volunteering wasn't entirely one sided. Barefoot and in his Xavier's logo outfit, he's happy to just get fresh grass and dirt between his toes. Even with the chill weather. He heads off towards a spot on the lake that looks good to him, and almost has a skip in his step as he does so. There are probably not a lot of bites, just yet, for the students. This might be because of one small blue /shark/ lurking in the water. Shane doesn't have an ominous dorsal fin but the carnivorous teenager is frightening enough to the lake-fish he often preys on. At the moment, though, he's just a dark shape below the surface, the blue of his skin darkened almost to black, a noticeable ripple beneath the water that is moving closer towards the shore. Dorian is not actually one of the students out for the fishing excursion, judging by the lack of fishing pole or attention to the instructor. Instead, the fuzzy young man has found a rock to perch himself on, barefoot and wearing a pair of old jeans that have been rolled up so he can dangle his webbed toes into the water, a baggy tank top doing nothing to hide the dark fur on his back. He watches the other students with their fishing rods curiously, glancing back at the water with a look of longing. Squinting at the movement of the shadow under the water, Dorian startles instinctively pulls his feet out of the water, curling his knees up to his chest. He glances nervously toward the other kids, then back at the shape under the water. "Is it a snake?" Kelly asks Dorian as he paces closer to the furry student, rod over his shoulder and moving to get a look near him. He hadn't seen the big dark shape just yet, and tries to get a better look. "It's the wrong season for 'em, but dang, things have been wei- er... odd enough lately." But as he plods along beside Dorian, his bright friendly smile begins to fade quickly. "That's way way too big to be a snake. I didn't think you all had gators this far north..." His southern accent quite thick for the moment. The dark shape drifts closer, far enough to get into the shallows. From there Shane walks -- his uneven slow gait is heavy and not well coordinated as he slowly emerges from the water, judging by that alone, his near-skeletal emaciation, sunken eyes, gaunt features, he might well /be/ one of the dead, accidentally wandered into the water and now come to hunt the living gathered on the shore. His solid-black eyes shift slowly from person to person once the water is at about chest-height, teeth baring in an unhappy snarl. Except that when he opens his mouth it isn't to let out one of the dead's rattling groans but just to ask, a little hoarse and uneven until the gills at the side of his neck stop moving: "... have you seen my brother?" "Don't think snakes would really still be in the water. I mean, it's kinda cold. And I dunno, there's all sortsa stories and urban legends about aligators in the subway in New York, right?" Dorian chatters in response to Kelly, offering a friendly smile and a shrug. His eyes still track the shape in the water, and Dorian blinks as Shane emerges from the water, hugging his legs a little closer to his chest, his tail curling around the rock on which he perches. "Um... I don't think so, not since this morning, no? I think. I'm kinda in really low level classes right now, and he's way smarter than that, but I saw him at breakfast, maybe?" Dorian is babbling, eyes seeming to have trouble focusing on Shane's shape in the water, possibly trying to determine just which shark twin this was talking. "Holy heck, man." Kelly blurts out before he can stop himself when he sees the half skeletal shark boy come out of the lake. He jerks back a step before he quite understands that the not zombie was actually speaking! "No, I'm s-sorry, I haven't really seen him. He's not out here with the fishing group, though." He offers but then looks worried on the boy: "Should you be in the med-bay, man? I mean, no offense, but you look pretty bad." "He's smarter than most people." Shane says this irritably, like it is an /accusation/. "-- ghh. Fuck. Classes. Right. Those exist." His hand rubs across his eyes, his gills fluttering again for a moment. Kelly's answer earns a small curl of a smile, pulling upwards crookedly at one side of his mouth. "I don't think he knows how to use a fishing pole. He and my Ba went out yesterday but he fishes with --" He lifts one hand, claws extending sharp and long to waggle them in the air. His eyes cut back to Dorian. "You not in classes?" His hand drops back to the water with a splash, and his shoulders give a tired shrug in answer to Kelly. "Probably should be. Fuck that, though. Not dying around fucking /doctors/." Dorian winces at the suggestion of the medbay, shaking his head, "Doctors kinda suck for the most part. A lot." That seems to be enough of an answer about the medbay, as he looks back to Shane, "Have you gotten any meals today? I mean, pickings are slim and all, but they had a stew that wasn't bad." He rests his chin on his knees, watching the movement of Shane's claws apprehensively, but manages to not telegraph the nervousness into body language. "I'm in classes, just in a break now. Only have 4, and they're still trying ta set me up with a tutor for some of the massive amount of stuff I'm behind on. But it's not exactly priority at the moment," Dorian explains with a shrug, glancing back towards the main building. "In Kinda the same boat." Kelly admits nodding to Dorian, "Just a few classes right now, tutors, ya know. But yeah, they're trying to get things back to, well, at least get the schedule back on track." The chubby floral kid explains after Dorian. He lets the doctor thing go, but he does add: "Well, lets not have anyone else die on us, ok? And if you're hungry they gave the lot of us..." he motioned to the kids with poles. "Some ham sandwiches. Well, I think its ham, maybe... You can have mine if you want it." "Bastian and my Ba hunted a deer yesterday." Shane shrugs at this. "I guess it was dinner last night but I still had a -- liver left over. You know how big a deer liver gets?" He spreads his hands out wide in indication. "It's okay," he assures Kelly brightly after this. "I've been sick for weeks so if I die I'll probably still try and come to class with you all." Demonstratively, he chomps his teeth at them. "-- I'm fine. My brother gets me food. I just." He looks around the people on the shore thoughtfully. "-- actually don't know where I put my clothes or I'd go find him." Dorian doesn't actually seem too phased by the lack of food, "Yeah. Classes are back, trying to do the whole return to normal thing. I guess. Don't know what normal is really, so I can't say. Kinda hope normal comes back soon - I'd like to give it a try." He shakes his head and grins at the mention of the deer, "Oooh - that's how they got deer. I haven't had it in forever." Ruffling a hand through his hair, he blinks when Shane mentions the lack of clothes, and looks around, as though they'd suddenly appear, "Oh, um... do you need a towel or one of us to go get a change for you? I mean, I imagine that's a pretty good reason to not be in class - not having clothes to change into." The otther babbles, apparently, but is still looking around for the missing clothes, rather pointlessly, most likely. "Oh- Oh!" Kelly blurts out comically at the mention of the undressed shark boy and then diverts his eyes to rather purposefully /not/ see how far that state of undress really went. His freckles even bleed together into a pink blush across his cheeks. "S-s-so then I guess this probably isn't ham." Kelly laughs out, and joins in the rather pointless search for shark clothing as well. "Guess me and Dorian aren't much help right now. We picked the worst possible time to try and enroll, after all. But yeah, having to go to class in your undies is probably everyone's worst nightmare about school." He added mirthfully. "I did show up at class without clothes once but apparently," Shane says wryly, "that makes people mad at you for some reason. -- /Pfft/ undies." He's still chest-deep in water, at least, but he doesn't seem at all bashful anyway -- there's a distinct lack of /privacy/ that comes with growing up as a labrat, he never really had a chance to develop much sense of modesty. "I don't know, /is/ it ham? Maybe Aloke brought some back." He shrugs a shoulder quickly, glancing towards the sandwiches. "Maybe now we know where the missing students went." Dorian tilts his head curiously at Kelly's flustered reaction, then looks back to Shane, apparently somewhat confused by the other boy's embarassment. "Clothes kinda suck sometimes, but yeah, I imagine it would be kinda a disruption to have students showing up unclothed," Dorian muses, sounding a bit let down about it, as he reaches a hand up to scratch his fur covered shoulder. "And if they said it was ham, it's probably ham. Deer isn't usually a good sammich meat." He glances towards the sandwhich, and then at Shane, apparently confused at the implication. "Whoa, not funny, man. We ain't that low on food yet, and I've been doin' my best to keep the vegies stocked at least. But first time someone comes at me with a pair of tongs, I'm outa here." Kelly protests with a huff as he takes a cautious look back to Shane and Dorian. Still, that made him a little less hungry for his own sandwich despite the quick gurgle from his own stomach. "But I'm just glad the dress code's pretty lax on shoes, at least." He says pointing to Dorian's feet, and then his own feet with the bark and flowers growing on 'em. "But it'd be pretty hard to take classes if half of y'all were nekkid." "Bothers some people," Shane agrees with a dismissive tone that implies he is not really sure why they have such concerns. "-- Plus in winter it's cold." He wades a little closer, nose twitching as he sniffs at the air. "S'ham," he affirms. "And deer makes for better roasts if you're gonna cook it. Though I guess you can also /put/ roasts in a sandwich." Now his own stomach gurgles. His lips pull back, teeth baring in a sudden sharp smile. "... Yeah, I guess it /could/ get pretty hard that way, couldn't it." Dorian shrugs, tugging at the tank top that barely hangs on his torso skeptically, "Meh. Shirts are itchy. But I don't wanna get thrown out of school again for being a disruptive distraction. So I'll keep my clothes on." When his toes are pointed at, he grins and wiggles them, the tiny membranes between the digits stretching with the motion, "Haven't worn shoes in forever. Probly should actually /try/ them on. Don't even know what size I'd wear now." His musings fall quiet for a moment, and he nods at the mention of roasts on sandwhiches, "I offered to help catch fish, but was told not to go into the lake yet, cause there have been zombies in there recently." He frowns and looks out across the water, "I want to help fish, but I really just want to swim." "Gosh, swimming is something I haven't gotten to do in /forever./" Kelly says at the suggestion there, his green eyes brightening up looking over the lake. "But besides the zombies, isn't it like, really really cold in there, man?" he wanders, taking cautious steps forward to dip his own toes in the water to find out for himself. "I don't know if the school has a pool, probably too much to hope for." "Freezing in here," Shane agrees, and it certainly is, the lake water frigid. "There's an indoor pool by the gym. In the basement. It doesn't have zombies. There /are/ zombies in here," he adds to Dorian. "And in the woods, too. Think they wander over from town. They don't have a good sense of direction." His teeth are still bared, grin broad and sharp. "You can still swim if you want. But they get all gross and bloated in here and still try to kill you. Could stick to the pool, for now." He grimaces at this though though, his gills rippling again. "Probably safe for now, though," he assures Dorian, "B has a robot scanning the lake. He took care of the zombies he already /found/. And they move wicked slow underwater." "They stopped letting me swim after a while. Don't think the facility I was at really had a pool - never was let near one, anyway," Dorian says, unfolding his legs to let his feet dangle into the cold water, swishing his toes back and forth through the chill. "Cold doesn't bother me much, 'specially not cold lakes or rivers. Mm... I'm kinda like an otter? I used to get to go swimming and playing in the river when I was really little. Before everything," he sighs, still keeping his bare feet submberged up to the ankles in the water, despite the warnings of zombies. "No. That's ok. I could almost certainly outswim them, but I haven't tried in so long," he reaches down to run his fingers along the surface of the water, frowning. "Maybe another time, hopefully before it freezes over entirely," Dorian says with a toothy grin, his broad tail finally uncurling from around the rock to provide balance as he leans over to touch the water. "A Flipping Robot, really?" Kelly asks, pulling out his toes quick when he feels the chilly water. Taking a firm step back. Nope, not for him. Still, if he was going to be still for this long, he might as well put down some roots, so he finds himself a good place to sit down and lets his feet do just that, some long roots coming out of the top of his feet and digging into the dirt. "Ahhhhh." He sounds audibly, and then grins. "Still, now that I know there is a pool, wanna go swimming in it later?" he asks first Dorian, and then Shane. "I may have some extra insulation..." he says as he pats his chubby belly. "God I love to swim, but there is no way I could swim as fast as you, two, and I got no desire to freeze my petals off." But pulling out his bag, he offers it to the other two. "And come on, at least split it with me?" "He builds a lot of robots," Shane explains. "S'a whole robotics club --" He shakes his head, knuckles rubbing tiredly against his eyes. "Hate the pool." His gills flutter along the sides of his neck again. "Breathing chlorine is appalling. But I'll swim with you in summer. -- I actually liked it when I first got there," he admits to Dorian, "because I got to swim all I wanted. Had a pond, though. For a while." His nostrils flare at the offer, and with a quiet hungry growl he wades closer again, still kind of shaky and slow in his movemetns until he drops down onto a rock beside the others. "Can I just have some of the ham?" Dorian nods and grins, his ears perking up in the midst of his hair, at the offer of swimming. "I'd like that. I... chlorine sorta makes my fur all gummy, but it'd be nice to test out that I can still swim. I'd just jump in the lake now, but I don't think the kids fishing would really appreciate the sudden disruption." At Shane's statement, there's a shiver from Dorian, and he rubs at his arm, "I wasn't allowed to swim at first. Didn't get to swim until later on. They had me isolated for... I dunno how long. Got at least a little better, though, sorta. Then worse. But they let me into a pond or something occasionally, for a little bit." He scratches at the notched ear, frowning, and shaking his head at the offer of food, "Nah, thank you though. I'm actually not that hungry right now." Opening up his bag, Kelly frowns when he looks into it. Two sandwiches. When he knew most of the others had only one. Still, this would help his guilt a bit, and so he made sure he got all the ham out of one sandwich, and half out of the other, wrapped it up in one of the napkins and handed it to Shane. "Sorry, 'sbit of Mayo on there. Mayo. Mayo and Twinkies will outlast us all." Kelly jokes, and grabs what was essentially just his lettuce, cucumber, mayo, and tomato sandwich, which was fine by him as he took a crunchy bite. "Gosh, Dorian. The more I hear about the place you guys were kept, the more I wanna just punch something, preferably one of the jerks who put you there. I know I didn't have it too good, but at least all I had to worry about was some crazy mutie haters with knives." "My parents put me there," Shane says with a casual shrug. "Didn't much want having two freakish monsters around so they got rid of us as soon as they found someone who /wanted/ us." His grin is wide and sharp once more as he bites down on the ham, making half of it disappear in one quick chomp. "... you know, wanted us as labrats." The hairless ridge of his brow lifts. "Isolated? You, why? You more dangerous than you look?" He polishes off the rest of the ham quickly, leaning down to wash mayonnaise from his fingers in the water. "You really want to punch something?" He's grinning again, if more tiredly as he just flops down on the rock, pillowing his head against a hand. His legs still dangle down into the water, though further down the shoreline there are a few other kids pointing. Laughing, some, or going to alert their teacher; running around clothes-free is not part of the dress code. "Cuz if you want to punch something, I've got kinda a club for that. Once things are all back to normal, anyway. Good practice in learning to deal with crazy mutie haters with knives." Dorian shakes his head, "My parents. But... I can't think they knew what they were doing. They... they were trying to get me help. Trying to find a way so I could go to school after I got thrown out." He looks between Shane and Kelly, shrugging his dark furred shoulders, "Not anymore, I don't think. I don't remember the exact words they used, it was a long time ago, and everything is kinda hazy from then. Pheromones? Musk? I... people would sort of want to protect me, help me. Play with me when I wanted to play. Never had control over it." Dorian cringes, pulling his tail around to rest over his lap as he talks, shuddering, "I don't deal with being alone well. And exposing other labrats made them get really attached to me, and do stupid stuff, apparently. So I was alone. And I think that's what they took away. 'Cause it doesn't happen anymore now. Not like it used to." He shrugs, glancing between Shane and the distant snickering students, scowling faintly as they laugh, his ears flattening into his hair. Kelly is trying to do his best /not/ to look at Nekkid!Shane, but the laughing and pointing pulls his attention regardless. Blushing again, he shifts uncomfortably on his rock and shrugs off his jacket, handing it out to the other student. "Here, use this if you want. I think the teacher's gonna come over and ask where your pants are." He says trying to make a joke of it. "And if you mean self defense or something like that? Yeah, that sounds like a good idea. Learned the hard way more than once that you need it more than you think." But then the idea of someone taking something /away/ from Dorian sends a ripple through Kelly's chest. "Jesus, alright, more than punching them. Graft on some poison oak and make sure they regret it later." He... isn't quite able to cross the pure mean line, however. "They pulled out all my teeth once," Shane tells Dorian casually. "Claws, too. They grow back, though. -- I don't know where my pants are," he adds to Kelly with puzzlement. "And yeah. Like self defense. We spar. It's a little more intense than the self-defense classes they teach /here/, they're kind of stupid-naive about the world and don't really like us training like it's seriously trying to kill us. Except," he takes the jacket from Kelly with a nod of thanks, draping it over himself like a blanket where he lies ont he rock, "-- the world is seriously trying to kill us. So we /should/ be practicing like that. Better to do it with people who give a fuck about us than out there where the cops stick you in cages to try and kill you." He flicks a gaze sideways towards Dorian. "Sounds like your parents did care about you. They're probably worried as fuck, you bothered trying to get in contact with them since? I /know/ my Pa offered help with that." Dorian nods to Shane, "I saw them do that sort of thing to people, later. Usually they put them in with me as a room mate after that sort of thing." He grimaces and shudders, looking down at his damaged hands, "I don't have a healing factor, they said. So nothing they took has ever come back. Just scarred over." A faint shrug and a sigh, as he looks intrigued by the idea of the self defense group, but he stumbles over the question he was about to ask when the comment is made about his parents. "I... I know. I have their address. It's just... taking a while to figure out what to say after close to a decade. That, and I don't think the mail service is running right now," Dorian admits with a smirk. "I don't know... I mean... if you've got some parents that care about you... that's pretty lucky. But..." Kelly took a look around the grounds and sighed. "If not, you might end up getting yanked out'ta here, and this place is probably as good as any of us is going to get. I know I'm sure as heck never going to let my dad find me. Ever. Again." And some of the anger that he couldn't draw up for the scientist tinges his words now. But only briefly. "Well, I better try and actually catch some fish. Any suggestions where I should start? Since ya got a unique view of things, after all." Kelly asks Shane, standing up. "You were out of there a long time before the world went to hell, man. That's cold." Shane shakes his head, taking off the jacket again to toss it back towards Kelly. "You could get yourself a new dad. S'what I did. Two, actually, I can share. -- You want the good fishing, you gotta go way up around that way," he points off around the shore, away from the forest. "I've got fucking teacher aggro incoming." Which is apparently his cue to bail, glancing up towards the approaching teacher and then slipping off the rock to hastily vanish back into the water.