ArchivedLogs:In Which There Is Not Enough Food And More Important Things Than Seats

In Which There Is Not Enough Food And More Important Things Than Seats
Dramatis Personae Derek, K.C., Taylor	2015-11-30 'I can't believe I'm saying I wish I was back in Kansas.' (Part of Flu Season TP.)
Location <XS> Great Hall
The largest room at Xavier's, the Great Hall is designed to hold all of the mansion's residents and then some. Built for the mansion's bigger functions, it serves as the school's dining halls on ordinary days, and ballroom when needed. On school days, long trestle tables stretch across the hall, high-backed chairs with plush cushions offering seating for the students. The crowded lunch hall holds a bit of tension as if it's mutants on one side and residents of Salem Center on the other. Untrustworthy looks keep given between individuals, the occasional shushing of a child as spoken English is still forbidden and the rationed meals just serve to make everyone even more on edge. Only one thing really unites everyone crowded into Xavier's, the feeling that this is one of the few safe spots remaining. Derek has been especially unhappy with the influx of strangers and for the most part been either holed up in his dorm or hiding out in the woods being anti-social. Most of his classes have been ignored ever since going for his treatment. He's gotten his rationed lunch and since he can't leave the Hall with his food, he's found an empty table towards the back. Derek isn't eating much of his food at the moment, more poking at it with his fork with an annoyed expression on his face. A meager tray of food is set down at the spot opposite Derek's, thick snakey arms wrapped around it protectively as if to guard it from some of the hungry looks it's been getting. Taylor slides into the seat across from his roommate, shoulders a little hunched as he settles into his chair. The bandaging is finally off his face for the first time in a couple weeks -- though healed, his jaw and cheek look twisted and snarled with knotty scarring. He glances up at Derek, but doesn't say anything. Just looks back down at his food to poke at the unidentifiable meat and canned green beans on and bread slices on his plate. The familiar dissonant screech of K.C.'s mind announces her presence as she draws near, her own tray clutched tightly in both hands as she plods steady and determined towards Derek and Taylor's mostly-empty table. Her head bops mechanically up and down as she walks, brows deeply furrowed. She stops just to one side of Taylor, standing beside an empty chair and staring intently at his. At first she doesn't say anything, continuing to stare at the (scarred) side of his face. Her mouth moves in silence for a moment before she remembers she has to put her /tray/ down in order to talk, setting it down in front of the empty chair to sign: 'My seat. I sit there, that one, that's the seat where I sit.' Looking up at the sudden intrusion of his lonely table, Derek is quickly releaved to see that it's his roommate Taylor. He gives an attempt at a smile and wave before finally taking a bite of his mystery meat, then quickly eats the rest of it a bit too quickly. He doesn't really know what to say to his roommate, he's been at a loss of words about what happened for the last few weeks. He lifts a hand to sign something when K.C. walks over. He slowly signs back to her, trying to remember what signs mean what, in a mix of finger spelling and words: 'There is a seat right there next to him.' Taylor looks down at the rest of the empty seats at the table, then up at K.C. One of his arms lifts, rubbing at his temple, and then at the side of his face. "/Really/," he mutters, before catching himself and signing instead: '... The whole table is empty.' A third arm, currently occupied neither with fork nor with massaging his head, gestures towards the rest of the empty seats. 'Is this one special?' He finally takes a bite of his meat, too. Thoughtful. 'I think squirrel,' he decides. 'Squirrel okay.' After this, manages a (somewhat lopsided with his gnarled face) smile: '... fun to sign.' K.C. looks down the table, then back up at the other two. 'Whole table, no,' she signs firmly. 'Two seats taken. Right here. You're sitting. Here. Two seats. Already taken. My seat, taken. Whole table not empty. My seat, taken. This one special. This one my seat, taken. My seat.' She's not moving from her spot beside where Taylor is sitting, still staring very steadily at the side of his cheek. 'Seat next to him not my seat. Maybe his seat. What is --' She echoes the sign for squirrel quickly. Fingers tapping rapidly. 'What is okay.' 'I don't care what it is, I am just hungry.' << Meat. I just want meat. >> Derek signs then continues to poke at his canned vegetables, which is something that was part of his regular diet back home. His eyes glance back up at K.C. when refusing to take another seat and slams his fist down on the table, hard. Anger quickly welling up inside of him. 'What is the big deal?' His hands stiffly forming the words to indicate his irritation. 'There are more important things going on than a stupid seat at a stupid table.' 'Here. Give me your green beans.' Taylor slices off the small bit of meat that he'd eaten from and scrapes the rest of his portion onto Derek's plate. His shoulders are tense the longer K.C. stands there, arm still rubbing at his temple with the everpresent screech from /her/ mind. 'Not like the seats are --' But then Derek's fist slams down, and he twitches, cheeks puffing out. He scrunches his eyes shut, shaking his head quickly. He picks up his tray, standing to move to the seat adjacent where K.C. had set her tray down and sit back down again. 'You right. There are more important things.' 'Big deal,' K.C. repeats, quicker and sharper after Derek bangs his fist on the table, 'I sit here. That's a big deal. There are important things going on.' She slides her tray to the side, sitting down in the seat once it has been vacated and promptly picking up her fork and knife to cut her meat into neat pieces. Then setting them down again. 'Important things going on. More important things. Many more important things.' Derek's own outburst seems to even unnerve him a bit and his thoughts seem to echo his feelings. << Why is everything pissing me off? >> He glances up at Taylor with an apologetic look, and there's a slight look of fear in his eyes. 'Thank you' he signs before giving his green beans and bread to Taylor. 'I' He begins to sign and then lets out a sigh. He watches K.C. sit down and shrugs a shoulder. 'This whole thing sucks. Everything about it.' 'Important things, annoying things. Exhausting things. Just. /Things/.' Taylor's eyes drift across the lunch room to the knots of Salem Center refugees, some trying hard not to stare at the mutant residents, some numbly fixated down on their plates, some tired and huddled together in furtive knots, some openly gawking. 'Things shitty as hell. Normal to be angry with all this fucking --' His arm waves -- around. Everything. 'Dead things,' K.C. tacks on to the list, rocking slowly back and forth in her seat. 'Angry things. Sick things. Sick things, angry things. Yesterday dead things. I saw.' Her head bobs in another nod, and she picks her fork back up the begin in on her food. Derek balls his hand into a tight fist, shaking a bit and lets out a sigh. 'The worst part, I think being back home with my drunken asshole of a father looks better.' He then looks at Taylor and shakes his head. 'Not the worst part but a really suck part.' The worst part is losing someone you care about and he has no clue how to express to Taylor sympathy in regards to it. 'I hate feeling so helpless.' 'If he doesn't eat faces, maybe improvement,' Taylor agrees wryly. 'Though I've seen some pretty ugly drunks.' His brows furrow deeply as he gives K.C. a sidelong look. Scrunches his eyes up, before answering. 'Been a couple dead. Every week. Not stopping yet. Never want to know who but. At the same time I always want to know. It's awful. Sorry you saw. Not great.' 'Helpless,' K.C. agrees. 'Helpless helpless helpless.' Then a stretch of nothing, as she eats the rest of her green beans. Leaves the meat. Stares at the bread. 'Saw,' she finally continues. 'Saw dead. Saw alive. Saw alive-dead-alive-dead. Not sure. Alive what? Dead what? Don't know now. All mixed up together.' Derek shrugs his shoulders. 'I guess that is a good thing about being relatively new and bad at making friends, most of the names, I don't know who they are. It's just scary. And I don't know what to do.' He looks over at many other faces in the Hall and sighs. 'I wish I could do something, you know? Just to feel less, like crap.' 'Been thinking of getting out of here,' Taylor tells Derek. 'Start making trips into Salem. Clear it back out. It's not that big a town how many zombies can there /be/? Then we can get these godawful moochers out of our school.' He nibbles on his bread without much relish, lips twisting to the side at K.C.'s evident confusion. 'People alive. Zombies dead. Easiest not to think about it too much.' 'Zombies dangerous.' There's not really any change to K.C.'s /expression/ when she says this; not looking particularly alarmed or chiding at Taylor's suggestion. Just. There you go. 'Relatively new. No friends. Yeah. New. New also. New. Suga Mama friend. Cerebro friend. Maybe Paras friend. Maybe,' she hesitates on this last one. 'Maybe ghost squad friend well not the rude one okay people alive zombies dead. People alive zombies dead but but but. But thinking zombies zombies with thinking thinking zombies alive dead which? Floating brain zombies alive dead which? Complicated complicated have to think about it.' Now she is rocking back and forth faster, her signs coming sharper, -- for a moment, at least, before she gives up on signing and instead picks up her bread to start plucking the crust off with fidgety motions. 'I haven't really been anywhere else but school grounds since I got here. Was planning on exploring but, my sister got sick, then I got sick, then zombies everywhere. I am also itching for a cigarette a drink or something.' Derek signs. He just wants something to help take that unnerved and constant anger edge off. 'I wish I knew how to use my powers, they just seem to cause everything to shake whenever they want.' He looks at K.C. with confusion. 'I try not to think about it.' Which is almost impossible right now. 'Don't need powers to kill zombies. Just a good weapon.' Taylor mimes swinging a baseball bat, jaw set kind of grimly. 'Zombies dangerous. But slow. Stupid. Less dangerous if you're in a group. Plus with all the town here and only zombies there probably there's plenty unguarded booze to be had.' He shrugs -- but then continues to frown uncertainly at K.C. 'Floating brain thinking what the fuck.' His eyes open a little wider, kind of blankly. 'You're not making a whole lot of sense.' 'Water over there,' K.C. offers so helpfully, pointing towards the kitchen side of the room where food is being served. Then to her own glass of water. See? Helpful. 'Water for drinking. Hydrate. Good.' She picks up her water, taking a long gulp. Her head shakes when she sets it back down. 'Stupid zombies, smart zombies. Smart zombies, learning zombies, thinking zombies. Student zombies --' Here she pauses, one hand tapping slowly at the air. 'Can zombies school? Maybe. Maybe zombies students here. Later. Later have zombie students. Maybe.' 'Good, I'm not the only one who is having trouble understanding her.' Derek is used to being slow to get things so he figured it was just him. 'You had me at unguarded booze. Actually it would be nice to have something to just... unload on." He balls his hands into fists and punches the air downward. He opens his mouth at K.C. and then closes it. 'You're kind of being creepy. I don't think zombies can learn, right?' 'Great. I'll get us weapons. And a team. Salem's not far away. It'll be cathartic. And if these people --' Taylor gestures towards the sullen band of humans glowering over their food a few tables away, 'have their homes back, so will we. Win-win.' His tongue pokes into the side of his cheeks. 'What are you talking about? Zombies don't learn. No mind. Kind of. Defining feature of zombie. That and --' He mimes chomping the air, one slim arm unthinkingly brushing against the scarred side of his face. 'Kind of creepy. Kind of being creepy. Kind of creepy.' K.C. finishes the last of her bread, staring down at the untouched meat on her otherwise empty plate now. Pushing at it with her fork, then setting the fork down. 'Kind of creepy. Zombies learn. Learn to cut rope. Learn to steal weapons. Learn to wait for the food. Learning zombies. I learned.' After a moment, slowly, she pushes the tray a little bit towards Derek. 'It's almost like you speak from experience.' Derek signs to K.C. Though when she says that she learned, it sends a bit of a shiver up his spine. 'Sounds great. Just let me know when. Not like I have anything more important going on.' Classes, they aren't important to Derek right now. 'I'll see if Daisy is interested, she's a pretty good in a fight.' The meat pushed towards him is eyed and as much as he wants to just reach out and eat it, he resists the strong urge. 'The zombies, can they be cured once turned into one?' 'Are you -- not going to eat that?' Taylor's brows raise with the question as he watches K.C. push the tray towards Derek. /He/ shudders, too, at her statement. 'What. Learn. Learn to /steal weapons/? That's.' His face is just -- kind of horrified. '... are you serious? That's. Not. Okay.' His jaw tightens at Derek's question. He pushes a hard swallow down his throat. Picks up his /own/ glass of water to drain it, quickly. 'Serious. Of course serious. The most serious. Always serious. Learning thinking. Mind zombies better zombies thinking zombies. Maybe learning. Maybe learn not to eat people. Eat,' K.C. looks down at her plate, 'squirrel instead.' She nods. 'He hungry. Can eat. Can eat. I finish bread. Not this.' She pushes the tray forward again. At Taylor's reaction to his questions, Derek closes his eyes and curses himself for being stupid for asking. 'Thank you and how do you know this?' He signs towards K.C sliding the tray over towards him, taking half of the 'squirrel' and offering the rest to Taylor. 'If they can steal weapons we're all screwed. I can't believe I'm saying I wish I was back in Kansas.' The offered meat is then quickly devoured by Derek. Taylor signs a quick thanks, too, snagging the small chunk of meat and devouring it hungrily even as he rises. 'If we weren't living in a nightmare before --' His head shakes, another shudder rippling through him. 'I'll ask around. See else who's interested in scouring Salem with us.' The scrunch of his eyes suggests his headache is getting kiiind of bad as he picks up his empty tray, nods to the others to hurry away. 'Maybe maybe maybe maybe no. Learning thinking learning. Smart zombies maybe people maybe.' K.C. is rocking again, slowly then quickly, back and forth. She drags her empty tray back towards herself once the meat is all gone from it. 'Dangerous first then safe. Learn to not eat. Maybe eat -- hamburger. Yes? Yes. Eat not-people. Maybe. Maybe yes. I learned. I search. Search all the internet then search in the city. Shane took. We went. We talked. Found people. Found zombies. Saw. Saw learning. Saw. Maybe worse. Maybe better. Maybe don't know don't know. Oh. Food done. Done time? Done.' She isn't much for things like Salutations. Just carefully arranges the empty dishes on her tray, neatly pushes in her chair after she rises again. With everyone leaving, Derek figures he should follow suit. After all he doesn't really want to be alone in this room full of strangers. He gives both Taylor and K.C. a wave before picking up his things and leaving the crowded hall with his head full of unpleasant thoughts.