ArchivedLogs:In Which The Aggravation Of Grounding Is Mitigated Slightly With Rum. Slightly.

In Which The Aggravation Of Grounding Is Mitigated Slightly With Rum. Slightly.
Dramatis Personae Derek, Jack, Taylor
In Absentia	2015-12-22 "Not like anyone in life ith gonna give you anything for doin' 'em a favour."
Location <XS> Roof
The view from up here is phenomenal, a panorama of the expansive Xavier's grounds, forest and lake and rocky cliffs alike. Even without the view outwards, the rooftop itself holds its own delights, in the form of the tiny jewel of a flower garden tucked away up here, tended by one of the school's teachers. From the edge of the roof, with a veeery careful jump, it looks like it just might be possible to reach the treehouse in the old oak tree. With classes out for winter vacation and their extra visitors gone now, things around here are oddly quiet this afternoon. Especially as compared to the past weeks. No crowds in the dormitories, no overpacked dining hall, no staring humans crammed into all the usual hiding spots. The roof looks peaceful right now, mostly deserted -- though there's a faint tinny sound of music blared too-loud through headphones coming from just /under/ its eaves over at one side. A scrape of plastic against stone, a pat-pat-pat of drumming fingertips keeping time with the beat. Taylor is tucked onto a ledge beneath an overhang of the roof, a common smoking spot for particularly dextrous students. There's a bottle of coke sitting on the ledge beside him, a notebook in his lap that he scrawls in, quick and messy. There's a host of scabs healing on his hands, though his tentacles at least no longer look red and raw. Having received the tip from a fellow student about a certain spot on the roof being good for sneaking a cigarette, Derek has decided to check it out. He hesitates hearing the music, cautiously peering at the ledge, before spotting Taylor. Glad it's someone he knows, he makes his way, cautiously, over. "Hey, mind a bit of company?" He's dressed in his usual attire of jeans, a plain black t-shirt with a jean jacket over it, which has a few rust coloured stains on it. It would be easy to miss Jack even without the music, the invisible teen quiet as always and a bit more withdrawn. Sure he and Cody had managed to sneak some actual real pizza back to the school recently after a sneaky trip into the city but he's still been less social than he had been in the past. Dressed in worn jeans, a pair of sneakers, and a plain black zip up hoodie, he's come up to the roof looking for a little hiding spot as well. He's a little surprised when he peeks over the ledge and finds Derek and Taylor. "Hey..." Music or no music, invisibility or no invisibility, it's something of a challenge to sneak up on a telepath. He flips his notebook closed, curls a limb around his bottle of coke, and though Jack may be surprised when /he/ peeks over the ledge, the greeting nod Taylor tips back upward looks not even remotely surprised. He lifts his coke, takes a swig, gestures outward to the ledge in invitation. << {Plenty of room.} >> Though his mental voice comes in Japanese it, as per usual for him the past weeks, comes with a strange and dissonant sensation of comprehension. Words unfamiliar, sentiment totally intelligible, thanks, psionic babelfish. He offers the coke bottle out to Derek in invitation -- it smells rather strongly of rum. "{I'll mind even less if you say you have an extra smoke.}" Sitting down next to Taylor, Derek pulls out a beatup pack of cigarettes he was lucky to have someone get for him. He offers one in exchange for the bottle of coke. "How did I end up with the betht roommate?" He takes drink from the bottle and lets out a relieved sigh,handing it back to Taylor. "It'th been too long thince I've jutht relaxed." Probably since before he even got to Xavier's. He takes a cigarette out of the pack and puts it to his lips before holding out the pack to Jack offering him one. "Hey Jack, don't know if you thomoke or not." Jack considers for a moment before carefully climbing down to join the others on the ledge. "Come up here to work or just hide out?" Jack asks, empty hood nodding towards Taylor's notebook. The offered cigarettes get a shake of his head. "No thanks, I don't smoke," he replies with a little sign. "Relaxation would be nice..." "{It's your reward for saving a homeless kitten in a past life,}" Taylor suggests, plucking out one of the cigarettes and trading the pack back to Derek for his bottle. One side of his mouth twitches at the mention of relaxation, quirking slightly upward; the heavy twists of scarring mangling his face pull this expression more noticeably skewed than it otherwise would have been. "{Been hard enough to find. I'm actually looking /forward/ to going back to work, how sad is that? Though hell if I know if Evolve's ever going to open again. Fucking quarantine's going to drive half the city out of business.}" His fingers drum against his notebook, and he gulps from his bottle again. "{Came up here to come up here. Where else is there to go?}" Derek nods to Jack and puts the pack in his pocket then lights his cigarette and takes a long drag. "It'd be nithe to have a job. I'll have to look into getting one thince right now the only jacket I own ith covered in blood thatins." He looks over at Jack and raises an eyebrow in question. "Why would I come up here to work when we're on break?" He doesn't even do much school work even when classes are in session. "What'th Evolve? I know it might be a dumb quethtion but the only time I've been beyond the gateth ith when we were fighting zombieth." "Wouldn't mind getting a job myself," Jack admits, looking out over the grounds. "Nowhere else to go. Stuck on the grounds until next month," he mutters, the words coming witn an unseen roll of his eyes. His shoulders slump at the thought of Evolve not opening again. "Evolve's Shane's club and cafe. Great place," he explains. "You went to fight the zombies?" "{It's one of the few mutant-friendly places in the city,}" Taylor adds additional clarification. "{And I work there. Or did. If it doesn't go bankrupt.}" He snags the lighter from Derek after Derek lights his cigarette, flicking it to light his own and handing it back. "{You, too?}" His lips twitch as he lifts his brows to Jack. "{Handing out groundings like they're fucking candy canes lately.}" He takes a drag of the cigarette, flexing scabbed fingers as he leans back against the side of the building. "{We didn't go fight the zombies. We /cleaned/ the fuck /up/.}" This comes with a slightly apologetic glance towards Derek. "{... sorry, dude. Kinda had to take care of the straggling end while you were --}" He mimes getting poked with a needle. "{De-sick-ifying.}" Derek shrugs to Taylor and gives him a smile. "Underthandable. Though I don't underthand how I dodged a bullet with not getting grounded for that first night out. Daithy wath ready to kill me when I came back all beat up. Don't think I've ever theen her that mad, tho probably for the best." He takes a long drag of the cigarette, grateful to finally have something to help his nerves. "Haven't been there yet, the thity that ith. I hope it doethn't, I know how important having a job ith. I tharted working back home a few yearth ago after Mom... well, when I had to look after Daith." "Yeah. Me and Cody snuck out...brought back pizza for people," Jack replies. He shudders when Taylor mimes the needle, still not a fan. "Would've come with you if I knew you were out there," he offers with a shrug. "What did you do back there?" he asks Derek after a moment. "{Guess the teachers were busy as hell.}" Taylor's teeth bare in a thin smile, a soft chuckle in his voice. "{Shane thinks they knew, though. When we started going. And they waited to 'catch' us at it on purpose till we were all done.}" He shrugs a shoulder lazily. "{They were way too overworked here to spare any staff doing it. But we'd still be up to our gills in refugees if /someone/ hadn't cleaned out Salem. We helped them out, big time.}" He lifts his bottle for another swig, offering it casually out to the others. "{'course, that's just his theory.}" His eyes close, music still tinnily audible in his headphones; though it must be incredibly loud for him it hasn't seemed to impair his understanding of the conversation any. "{I'm stuck here for a while. Grounded as fuuuuck. But once all this bullshit is over, maybe we can go. Find you some work. Extra cash is a blessing.}" A quick smile passes across his face, shoulders shifting in a small laugh again. "{Bet lots of people would've come if they knew we were out there. Kinda why I didn't spread it around. I lost six arms in that shit.}" One of them flexes, a wince crossing his face though the snakelike limb in question looks whole and undamaged. "I found a rethturant bar that wath willing to hire a thirteen year old kid under the table to do odd jobth. Buthing, ithe runth, wathing ditheth. It was a pretty crappy plathe but it wathn't like the Old Man wath gonna put food on the table." Derek shrugs a shoulder and takes the offered bottle of coke, taking a swig before handing it back. "At leatht there'th rum and cigth to help with the grounding. Glad you're okay though, and glad thith thit ith over though. Glad you were able to help." The theory has Jack's unseen brows arching up. "Wow...if they seriously waited until after you did the job for them..." he trails off, shaking his head. "Bet the people down in Salem are just as ungrateful for that as they were staying here though," he sighs. He falls silent, nodding a little as Derek and Taylor speak. There's a bit of irritation when Derek mentions being able to help, Jack finally accepting the offered bottle for a swig and then handing it back. "Yeah, glad you're healing up." "{Rum courtesy of the fine citizens of Salem Center,}" Taylor says with a fierce smile. "{I mean, not like they were going to pay us for our trouble.}" He snags his bottle back, almost lifting it for another sip but lowering it at the flicker of irritation felt from Jack. His brows lift, eyes leveling on the other boy. "{You have a problem, man?}" The secondhand irritation is reflected back to Jack in mental space, clarifying his question. "Ath good of a pay off ath any." Derek says, returning a smile to Taylor. "Not like anyone in life ith gonna give you anything for doin' 'em a favour, so betht to take it in rum." Taking a drag off of his cigarette, he looks between Taylor and Jack, not being a telepath he's lost at the question. "Huh?" "No, just blame us for it," Jack remarks with a shrug. Taylor's question brings a pause, Jack letting out a breath. "A lot...not with you or anything," he waves an empty sleeve. "Just...tried to help. I was doing a lot of digging around but only so much I could do stuck here...tried to get one of the teachers to take me into the city to do more but apparently that was too much. Even though they took some other student out there for a similar reason..." Jack's answer makes Taylor's eyes widen, a sharp choking breath of laughter rasped out of him as he sets his bottle down. "/Christ/." This, at least, is just in English. "Too much? Are you -- Jesus... fucking..." A few of his tentacles lift into the air -- but then just keep lifting, his head shaking sharp and quick. He pulls sharply at his cigarette again. "{This place,}" his tone is clipped now, "{is seriously goddamn unbelievable.}" It's the last thing /he/ says before his long limbs snake upwards, stretching to pull him back up onto the roof, his three-quarters empty bottle left behind. Derek looks between the two and has no clue what's going on. He shrugs and finshes off his cigarette before pushing himself up. "I have no clue what'th going on now and I thould head off anyway and find Daithy before I thmoke the latht few cigth without her. I'll thee you later." He looks up where Taylor climbed up to, shakres his head and gives Jack a wave, before making his way towards where he can get down from the roof. Jack frowns a the laughter, empty hood tilting quizzically. "See you later, Derek," he offers, watching the others go. He waits until Derek has pulled himself up as well before following to head back in too.