ArchivedLogs:Might Be High

Might Be High
Dramatis Personae Iolaus, Sebastian, Daniel	2013-06-09 '
Location <NYC> Iolaus's Apartment - East Harlem
Down a hallway and overlooking a open air market in El Barrio, Iolaus' apartment is not particularly a large one. It is three rooms - the main room shaped like an L with kitchen at one end, a small bedroom large enough for a full bed and a dresser, and a bathroom barely large enough to fit the bath inside it. The walls are a light yellow in the main room, with a large bookcase sitting against one wall and occupying much of the space, stuffed with books as it is. Two couches sit across from it, pressed up against the corner of the L shaped room. The kitchen is separated only by the transition from wood floor to grey tile and is sparsely filled with food and cookware both, and the bathroom is equally sparse of accouterments. In fact, were it not for the full bookcase and the clothing hanging in the closet, it would look almost as if the occupant had moved out and left some few things behind in a hurry. According to the information Sebastian received from the Mendel Clinic HR department (one sweet woman named Maribeth), Sebastian's hours started and ended whenever Iolaus said they did, and he would be paid accordingly. He was given information from everything from the sick day policy (as much notice as possible and contact HR), to the dress code (for you, business formalware or whatever Iolaus says it is), to the laundry list of security policies and confidentiality regulations. In addition to all the standard employment information, Sebastian was issued a clinic ID and given a locked down corporate cell phone that contains one of the most complicated and heavily guarded documents the clinic has - as well as one of the most ignored: Iolaus' Schedule. It is still one day, though, before Sebastian's first day. This does not help Iolaus make the two appointments that he'd missed so far that day, nor the one that he is due to miss in only a half hour. This does not seem to bother him, though, as he happily stands in front of the stovetop adjusting a steaming pot of broth and reading through an article on his e-reader: Pathogen typing in the genomics era: MLST and the future of molecular epidemiology. Knockknockknockknockknock! It's quick and hard and rapid and Lord only knows who Bastian ailed into the building to avoid ringing the doorbell five floors below /first/. But here he is, outside Iolaus's door, bouncing very jittery-restless on his toes. He's not dressed in business formal -- instead, red jeans, a cream halter top, and over top a hoodie many sizes too large for him reading 'HERBIVORE' over the breast. The hood is pulled up over his head, though he pushes it back down after he knocks. The knocking on the door makes Iolaus look up, just as it makes Daniel look up at Iolaus from the couch, then the door. He glances back at the doctor, who shrugs his shoulders. Daniel's approach to the door is a wary one, as if expecting it to burst open just as he approaches it. He leans up to the peephole then pulls back, blinking in confusion. Back up to the peephole for a minute, and then he is undoing the locks and opening the door for Sebastian. The teenager gets an almost suspicious look as he pulls the door open for him, and Iolaus peers around the edge of the wall. "You're going to be late," is the first thing Sebastian says, after a nod and quiter-murmured hi to Daniel. He slips in past the guard, beelining straight for Iolaus and looking him over -- a little critical but a little distracted. "Has Shelby been home this weekend?" He turns away from Iolaus, heading to Iolaus's bedroom instead. To start rummaging through his CLOSET. Iolaus blinks several times bemusedly as he looks at the teenager. "Late? For what?" he asks, blinking. He glances at Daniel who shares his perplexed look as he's locking the door shut once more. "Sebastian, you're not working until tomorrow. I have to say," he says, voice light and teasing, "Mixing up the days of the week is not exactly the best indicator of your future performance as my assistant." Sebastian returns shortly! Holding a pair of slacks and a dress shirt. Also his phone, in the other hand. "Has Shelby been /home/ this weekend?" he presses again, approaching Iolaus with the phone BRANDISHED like a weapon in front of him. It has Iolaus's schedule pulled up on it! With an appointment. In half an hour. "It's Sunday. And you /need/ me to be working today." Iolaus peers down at the phone for a moment, blinking. He glances up, and pulls his own phone out of his pocket, putting the tablet down for the moment. Almost lazily, he scrolls through the list of appointments. "Oh, I missed the appointment with Doctor Matthews this morning." He winces, then pulls up the appointment that's pending. "Oh. Stericycle." The doctor frowns at his phone for a moment and then pockets it. "I'll reschedule it for next week. I'm busy." Cooking, apparently. "Shelby? She was here... the day before yesterday? I think afterwards she was going to go hang out with you and Shane yesterday." "She didn't show up. Doctor, you can't skip all your appointments." Sebastian puts the phone back in his pocket. Brandishes the /clothes/ next. Insistently. "She skipped a chance to see Hive /naked/." Iolaus picks up the stirring spoon and stirs the pot carefully in a slow, widened 8 motion, sweeping back and forth on itself. "Not a chance I'd skip myself," he comments, dryly. "That does sound a bit unusual for her, but..." The doctor shrugs his shoulders and gives Sebastian an unconcerned smile. "It's also very much usual for her, isn't it?" "No," Bastian answers, a little testily; then, more apologetically: "No. She's usually glued to her phone she'd answer /someone's/ texts. Doctor," another waggle of the clothes, "/Clothes/." "Mm." Iolaus frowns and looks across at Daniel. "I don't suppose she's gotten hold of you to talk about bringing people over?" The guard shakes his head once in a flat denial, and a trace of concern starts to work its way into the doctor's expression. "Have you talked to the school yet, Sebastian?" he asks, still stirring. "Yes. Rasa and Kris were supposed to be spending the weekend with her. But neither of them are around, either." Sebastian moves to lay the clothes down on the arm of the couch. He pulls his phone back out of his pocket, starting to flick through it. "And they didn't show up at our place or Hive's so -- I thought maybe here." "Sorry, I haven't heard from Shelby. She said she wasn't coming back the day before yesterday and was going to visit you, and she is..." Iolaus trails off, glowering at the pot of soup. "Well. She is rather intermittant about letting me know her plans in staying here. Half the time, I know when she shows up - or doesn't. So, it wasn't all that unusual," he says, and his tone sounds almost apologetic. "You can still make your appointment, you know," Sebastian says, while scanning through his phone. "Mr. Daniel could get you there on time." "It's with a vendor, Sebastian," Iolaus says, bemusedly. "They are selling something to me. If I cancel on them - even at the last minute - they're just going to try and reschedule in the hopes of getting our business." The doctor glances towards the refrigerator, leaning against the counter. "Can I get you anything, Sebastian? Dinner will be ready in about a half-hour, and you're welcome to stay for it. I've made plenty extra." "No, thank you, sir." Sebastian glances to Iolaus's pot, then shakes his head. He looks at his phone screen, glancing over Iolaus's schedule again. He is dialing something on his phone, slipping across to the other side of the living room to make a phone call. It's quiet, not all that long. "Next Thursday," he tells Iolaus, once he's done and returning to the kitchen. He's entering it into Iolaus's calendar already. Iolaus is a little slow on the up-take. "Next Thursday?" he asks, confused. It sinks in a moment later, and his smile widens and he nods. "Oh, yes. Thank you, Sebastian." he says, lifting his tablet in the air for a moment to gesture with it before setting it down. "I'm trying to catch up on the science part of my job; get a little bit of reading in today, before I have a meeting tomorrow with a couple candidates for medical postings." he says, with a smile that slowly fades. "But. What can I do to help with finding Shelby and your friends?" Bastian slips the phone away once the appointment is entered. He curls his arms around his chest, drifting over near the window. "Maybe nothing," he admits, "I don't know if --" His phone is buzzing. Not the clinic one, his school phone. Buzzing a /lot/. He takes that out, frowns at it. His complexion pales, shifting a shade lighter blue. (Shane --> Bastian): Pa just got kidnapped by giant bugs. (Shane --> Bastian): At least, either that or Micah is high; Hive's not entirely clear on that point. (Shane --> Bastian): Micah doesn't really seem like the partying type, though. Not on a Sunday afternoon, anyway. (Shane --> Bastian): Maybe he cuts loose when nobody's looking. (Shane --> Bastian): Anyway, the point is, giant dragonfly. (Shane --> Bastian): Which, honestly, doesn't sound like kidnapping, it sounds like pretty much his idea of the best joyride. (Shane --> Bastian): Maybe less kidnap, more Jax!Trap. (Shane --> Bastian): Anyway, if you see any giant bugs, don't try to ride them, OK? (Shane --> Bastian): It might sound like a good idea at first but next thing you know they're injecting eggs into your stomach. (Shane --> Bastian): (I don't know if they've injected eggs into Pa's stomach, don't worry.) (Shane --> Bastian): Although he probably wouldn't even complain if he were replaced by a swarm of dragonflies. (Shane --> Bastian): We called the school already. Micah did and Hive did /and/ I did. (Shane --> Bastian): He's not dead or anything, so don't panic. (Shane --> Bastian): Any more than I'm sure you're already panicking. (Shane --> Bastian): Just decided hey, dragonfly, that's where I want to be. (Shane --> Bastian): I'm putting a tracking chip in him NEXT, by the way. (Shane --> Bastian): OK. Love you. Don't forget about not riding the giant bugs. He spends a while reading, gills fluttering quick as his eyes scan the page. He looks out the window, then back to his phone, his eyes wide. Panicking-wide. His fingers clench tight against his phone. "..." The buzzing does not immediately catch Iolaus' attention, but the trailing off of the teenager's words does. "Sebastian?" he prompts, voice soft. At the widening of the teenager's eyes, he sets the wooden spoon against the side of the pot and walks over to the teenager, slowly, eyes sweeping over his face. Concern is in his voice as he asks, "Sebastian? What's wrong?" he asks. "What happened?" Sebastian's mouth opens and closes and opens again. His black eyes are fixed on his phone. "Um." His brow creases uncertainly. "... My pa was kidnapped by a giant dragonfly." He sounds quite bemused about this. Iolaus blinks several times. "Jax was... kidnapped." This causes Daniel's attention to snap up from his book and look straight at Iolaus. "By a giant... dragonfly." Confusion reigns on both Iolaus and Daniel's face, and the doctor raises his hands up to scrub at his eyes for a moment. "A-Alright. Is... he is danger, or is he just...." The doctor trails off, waving a hand in the air as if not quite sure what to do with it. Or himself. "Flying?" "A giant dragonfly," Sebastian agrees. "Um. There's. We ran into giant /ants/ the other --" He slumps back against the window, spiky hair making a quiet crunching sound as it crumples against the glass. "Is your house. Full of. Drugs?" "I have... some in my emergency kit." Iolaus says, hesitantly. "And a perscription pad. There's a pharmacy just around the corner if there's something special that you need. Why?" he asks, eyes flicking over Sebastian's face. "Is your dad hurt?" "No. I just. Am wondering," Sebastian answers in a rather distant tone, "if we all got high. While I wasn't. Looking." "Oh." Iolaus relaxes, slightly, but visibly, and takes a step back towards his pot. It is a somewhat hesitant step, though, and he peers suspiciously out the window, as if giant dragonflies were about to fly through the middle of East Harlem. Apparently, you never know. "I mean... perhaps we did. Sometimes I have that distinct feeling." "Or just all went crazy. I sometimes feel like. Crazy." Sebastian lifts his head just to thunk it back down. "Are giant dragonflies mutants?" He's staring upwards at the ceiling. "I've had friends who are pretty buggy." "I can't think of anything else they could be," Iolaus says, with a shrug. "Evolution doesn't work fast enough to just have... giant dragonflies big enough to kidnap someone without the X-gene getting involved. Evolution, for all people like to say these days, is a very slow process." The doctor returns to stir at the pot slowly, the smell of chicken stock, lemon and lots of spices rising into the air. "And you're not crazy, Sebastian. It's just a pretty crazy world." Sebastian is quiet. At the sides of his neck, his gills flutter quickly. His nose twitches, and his eyes close. His head thunks against the window instead. "... my pa could take on a giant dragonfly." He says this quiet, almost reassuring himself. "If it wanted to hurt him." His eyes open; he looks back over to Iolaus and his pot. "You missed /all/ your appointments today, didn't you?" There's a small curl of his lips upward. Just slight. Iolaus has, at least, the decency to blush slightly. "I had a busy morning," he says, glancing at the refrigerator. "I'm making this week's meals and freezing them, and I decided to get a little bit creative. It... took a bit more time than I expected," he confesses. "But that's the price for hand-made tortillas for your food." "You know, you can buy tortillas," Sebastian tells Iolaus. "Already-made. In the store. Cheap, too." He slips over to the refrigerator, opening it to peek into the freezer. "My pa does that," he admits. "He doesn't ever have time, either. But, um, I could make sure to /schedule/ you time. /Without/ missing other stuff." "Yeah, but I was already hand-making everything, so I figured, why not?" Iolaus says, smile slanting somewhat on his face. He leans against the edge of the counter - careful to not lean against the stove itself - and glance over Sebastian. "Yeah, we will definitely need to schedule cooking time so that I can prepare food for the week." A pause. "Right now, my schedule is... disordered. I'm sure you'll be able to find a lot of time that I'm wasting and make it so I can actually have a block of time to cook." Inside the freezer there is an array of foods from Iolaus' cooking today, much still separated out. There are tortillas, tupperware full of soups and ground meats - even a few foil-wrapped packets labeled carefully with the names of the dishes. Some of the dishes are French, some Greek, and some Spanish, with a scattering of other things dispersed throughout. "Do you like cooking?" Sebastian closes the freezer again. "I mean, were you handmaking tortillas because you enjoy it or --?" He folds his hands behind his back, turning to look over Iolaus. "It's pretty much a mess," he agrees with a small, crooked smile. "Are there other things you'd like to keep time for?" "I do enjoy cooking. I did it a lot in grad school, when I was living off of my stipends." Iolaus laughs and shakes his head. "It was that or just have raman every single night. And... I like what I cook. Cooking isn't all that different from lab work." He stirs the pot once more. "Do you have any dietary restrictions?" he asks, suddenly. "I forgot to ask Maribeth." For a moment, Sebastian's teeth flash in a brighter smile, but it doesn't last long before he self-consciously curls his lips closed over his sharp teeth. "Oh, I'm -- you don't have to worry about feeding me, I --" He shakes his head. "Alright, cooking. Sundays? How many hours do you think you need for it?" His head turns slightly, back towards the closed freezer, considering. "What else do you do? For -- having fun?" Iolaus doesn't seem to be bothered by the sharp teeth of the teenager. "Nonsense," he says, voice a light chiding note. "I feed all of the people who stay with me. I know what all of my bodyguards like to eat and don't like to eat, and I make sure to choose resturants accordingly. You probably won't be with me as much as they are, of course, but - still." He beacons to the other man, waiting patiently for the answers he desires. "When I have spare time, I'm usually at the lab. But it's been a while since I've had any of that," he says, shrugging his shoulders. "I can't eat most things," Sebastian says with a quick shrug. His lips curl upwards, a little wryly. "Sometimes I'm not sure if it's harder feeding me or Pa." He nods once at Iolaus's answer, expression shifting towards thoughtful. "OK." He takes out his phone, glancing down at it again. He shifts away from the fridge after a brief nod. "-- OK. I'm sorry I turned up so, um." His cheeks flush. "Suddenly. I should let you --" He gestures with the phone towards Iolaus's pot. "I'll see you first thing in the morning." "That's fine. Tell me what you can eat." Iolaus says. "I already know your Pa is vegan, so I've got a bunch of stuff made for this week, if that's the problem." he says, crossing his arms over his chest. "Come on. If it's too hard, I won't do it, but there's no harm in knowing." he insists. "And it's no problem for coming over. Let me know if there's anything I can do to help with Jax's... dragonflynapping." "I'm not vegan," Bastian answers, despite the blatant lie printed on his hoodie, with another sharp flash of teeth. "Shane says Pa's /alright/, so --" He still sounds worried. But he slips his phone back into his pocket, starting to head towards the door. "I'll let you know," he promises. "See you tomorrow, sir." Iolaus' lips press into a small smile and he shakes his head. "Alright. We'll continue this discussion tomorrow." A pause, and he smiles. "I'll see you tomorrow, Sebastian. Bright and early, I'm sure, God help me." he says, with a wink. As he turns back to the stove, Daniel stands from the couch, placing the book carefully to one side, to walk Sebastian out and close the door behind him.