ArchivedLogs:Orbits

Orbits
Dramatis Personae Jax, Matt, Tian-shin
In Absentia	2015-06-17 "It's not like the entire city can just commute for caffeine." (Part of Buzzkill TP.)
Location <XS> Foyer
Xavier's foyer provides a suitable introduction to the opulent mansion. Teak-paneled, wood floors immaculately polished, vaulted ceiling ribbed with dark wood boning, there is no doubt this school was built with no expense spared. The hallways branch off to the separate wings, with the grand staircase spiraling upwards to the residential dorms above. Tian-shin has her lawyer regalia on today: pale pink blouse under a light gray linen suit jacket with black piping, matching pencil skirt, and sensible black pumps, and a black suitcase. She has gathered her long black hair into a tight bun and secured it with a simple gray agate hair stick. For all her sharp dress and confidence, however, she looks a little lost, hesitating in the foyer as if she does not quite know what to make of the luxurious wood paneling or the massive staircase. Matt comes in out of the blazing afternoon sun a little sweaty. He wears a green dress shirt that looks surprisingly comfortable, and dark gray trousers. His soft brown hair has gotten long, and would perhaps interfere with his vision if he had not combed it out of the way and immobilized it with some sort of product. "Hi, there." He waves at Tian-shin with the hand not occupied with his attache case, his smile open and friendly. A white seersucker jacket draped over his arm attests his surrender to the heat. "Looking for someone? Or something?" Though not dressed quite so professionally as the other visitor, he seems to know where he's going. Jax is just trotting down the stairs from the second floor, a bright splash against the elegant dark-wood backdrop of the foyer. Vivid yellow-orange and purplish-blue hair has been spiked upward to create a bird-of-paradise effect; his clothing (totally professional! Totally Teachery!) is bright too, in neon blue fishnet tee over a sunny yellow tank, enormous wide-legged blue and silver UFO pants, bright rainbow Chucks. The metallic silver dragonfly on his blue eyepatch occasionally flits from one side to the other; his tattoos, too, (faintly luminescent) are not sitting very /still/. "-- Wo-o-oah." His eye widens as he nears the bottom of the stairs, and he pauses two steps from the end with one hand on the railing, a small flush of colour in his cheeks as he looks Matt over. "You clean up -- uh --" The flush in his cheeks grows deeper, and he looks over at Tian-shin next, only /now/ looking faintly puzzled. Head tipping to the side. Blink? "... Uh. Woah. Y'all are. Here. Hi. What?" Tian-shin had just started to reach into her jacket, but she stops when Matt walks in. "Hello." She gives a shallow bow. "Are you a member of the staff? I'm looking for a Jean Grey?" Her cheeks flush lightly, and she starts when she hears Jax's voice. She seems faintly relieved, however, when she turns to face him. "Oh, hi! I'm here for an interview." "Heh, no, I don't work here." Matt's hand lifts, reaching out of habit to sweep hair from his eyes, but doesn't find any there. "Though I certainly /hope/ to!" His smile broadens. "Hi, Jax! I'm here for an interview, too." Bright green eyes dart between the other two. "Do you know each other?" His gaze settles on Tian-shin. "I'm Matt Tessier. Forgive me, but have we met? You look familiar..." "Oh-h-h. You're gonna be workin' here, gosh, that'll be real --" The flush in Jax's cheeks is spreading out to tint the air around him slightly pink now. "Well. I guess that's presumptuous'a me -- y'all /both/ got interviews t'day, I -- good luck. Uh. Matt, Tian-shin, Tian-shin, Matt. Tian-shin's Tag's sister, she lives at the Commons with him an' Joshua. Tian-shin, Matt is --" Jax hesitates on this introduction, teeth wiggling at one lip ring while his ink glows slightly brighter. "Uh. A geek. Geek-adjacent. Orbiter of geeks." "Pleased to meet you, Matt." Tian-shin inclines her head again, clasping the handle of her suitcase primly with both hands. "I don't think we've met previous to this, but if you know my brother, I do look quite a lot like him." Then, to Jax, with a faint smile that almost shows teeth. "Thank you. The Commons seems to attract quite a number of geeky orbiters." "The pleasure is mine." Matt starts to offer his hand, but, noticing Tian-shin's posture, checks the motion and bows instead. "Tag hasn't tried to recruit you to game night? Such as they have been, though now..." He looks thoughtful, maybe a little hopeful, and then suddenly mock-wounded. "Really, though! I'm just 'a geek' now?" But he's smiling all the way over to the staircase, opening his arms wide for a hug. "Honestly, I'm mostly applying because caffeine still works out here." "Well it's just like, half the time when I introduce Luci t'folk I introduce him as your brother an' then sometimes I introduce /you/ t'folk as /his/ brother but I don't think Tian-shin knows him anyhow so I got flustered an' lost my point'a reference," Jax explains with a small wrinkle of his nose. "S'it better if I say a real /pretty/ geek, she can see that with her own eyes." His shoulders shudder at the mention of caffeine. "... oh gosh. That's the only reason I'm even still /out/ here, I only barely teach a couple'a mornin' classes in summer but. I swear there's gonna be bloodshed out at the Commons soon, the sheer amount'a /cranky/ floatin' around. 'tween Shane an' Dusk an' Isra an' B I'm surprised there ain't /been/ a whole host'a bitin' already. Fair sure Hive's chomping on brains jus' outta spite." "I don't know any men named Lucy, and I'm not confident if I can identify a geek from visual inspection alone, but pretty..." Tian-shin flushes and looks down, though with a faint smile that suggests she finds her embarrassment more amusing than distressing. "Game night--Tuesdays at Geek House, right? He's /tried/, but I'm not really into board games except strategy games like go, shian-chi, maybe chess. I gather the sort you play at game night are more like...Settlers of Catan? Twilight Empire, or Imperium...? Things like that." The corner of her mouth twists, mild and subtle but decidedly unhappy. "My house is also languishing in decaffeinated misery. I probably have it the easiest, but Joshua and Tag are...not really functional." Something in her tone suggests she has put this rather diplomatically. "Does anyone know what's causing it?" "I'll accept 'a pretty geek' as an adequate introduction." Matt nods his approval, stroking his clean-shaven chin. At Tian-shin's assessment of gamenight fare, however, his mouth falls open and his hand comes up to cover it in *maybe* mock indignation. "Au contraire! We play all sorts of games, it's just a matter of what the attendees want." There's a conspiratorial twinkle in his green eyes as he leans toward her. "I, for one, love a good game of chess. You should come next time, it'll be excellent. Or maybe just full of biting, if this caffeine crisis keeps up." The question about cause brings a pensive wrinkle to his brows. "A mutant, certainly, and it's an active effect, but more than that I can't say. We've already tried bringing tea in from outside the disaster area." He shakes his head sadly. "No good." "'course y'all'd've already done tried /importing/ your tea." Jax says this with some amuesment, though it dwindles soon with the following: "... Shane tried, too, for Evolve, but. No dice." Any trace of his smile vanishes as he looks back at Tian-shin, though. "S'hittin' lots of folk real hard. Joshua -- well." His nose wrinkles. "I -- expect half'a EMS is gonna be not much good for workin'." His hand lifts, rubbing at the back of his neck. "'pologies, am I -- keeping you from your -- well, where /are/ y'all supposed t'be?" "I'll consider tagging along to the next one, then, for the promise of a good game of chess." Tian-shin's frown echoes Matt's, then it deepens. "At least they still have nicotine?" It might have come out as a joke, except that her face bespeaks actual concern. "Given that there aren't too many plausible explanations that /don't/ involve mutants, I'm also worried some of those searching for scapegoats will turn violent. Whoever /is/ responsible may not even be doing it on purpose..." She suddenly straightens. "Oh, I am supposed to--find Jean Grey, in the administrative offices? I'm quite early, though" "We've exported it, too," says Matt, looking just a touch sheepish. "For science, obviously. The caffeine works fine once you move the tea out of the zone, so whatever this is doesn't actually /decaffeinate/ the tea. It just...suppresses it? I don't know. Doesn't help much, though; it's not like the entire city can just commute for caffeine." He looks even more sheepish now. "Even though that's more or less what /I'm/ planning to do. Anyway!" He perks up a little bit and flashes Tian-shin a faint smile. "Right, those are downstairs, and I'm headed that way, too. And you…" He wraps an arm around Jax, a quick hug, but not a half-hearted one. "...still need to come paint our garden wall. When you feel up to it." "An' booze. Though d'/you/ want t'get treated by a boozy paramedic?" Jax's smile returns here -- albeit crookedly. "... guess honestly that ain't so different from normal times, the shifts they keep 'em workin'." His lips press back together after this, as he leans into the hug, returning it tightly. Probably kind of uncomfortably; there's a rather /significant/ amount of heat held in his skin. "Oh -- I -- yeah. There's -- there's been a lot I need t'do. I --" His eye lowers. "'pologies -- did you want me t'show you where's the offices, Tian-shin?" "Sleep-deprived is /uncomfortably/ similar to drunk," Tian-shin agrees. "And I'm a bit relieved that this /phenomenon/ doesn't actually leach the caffeine from everything. But only a tiny bit." To Jax she bows again, deeply. "Thank you very much, I would appreciate that." If Jax's warmth bothers Matt, he doesn't give any indication of it, his fingers catching momentarily on the back of the fishnet shirt before he pulls away. "Hey. It's okay, no rush. And if you want to talk...you know how to find me. And who knows..." He sweeps an arm toward the elevators. "...we may all be seeing a lot more of each other soon enough!" "/That'd/ be a blessin', surely. Though now I feel like when I wish y'all good luck it's all gonna be with selfish motives. Like hope you get this job cuz then /my/ workday'd be pleasanter." Jax's grin is quick, and slightly lopsided. "But," he adds, anyway, as he leads the way towards the elevators, "-- Good luck."