ArchivedLogs:Taking Stock

Taking Stock
Dramatis Personae Jax, Scramble
In Absentia	2016-02-27 "{We'll be together a /long/ time after those cells are empty.}"
Location <NYC> Sunyata - Bronx
The construction of this squat office building in Port Morris ground to a halt over a year ago. Since, a group of punks have taken it over and converted it to one of the more impressive squats in the city. From outside, the building is wildly colorful, covered with massive interlocking murals. The roof supports a thriving urban farm with a sizeable greenhouse and beehives, while the offices below are homes to both long- and short-term residents, who are encouraged but not actually required to contribute supplies, income, and labor to the community. The cavernous lobby has no glass, but has become a partially indoor skate park/playground, including a rather popular free-running circuit. Dogs and cats and children wander the grounds, shamelessly soliciting food and attention from any who will give it. Just after lunchtime, it is sunny but chilly. Sunyata's gardens are slowly reviving from their winter slumber, some naturally and some with manual guidance. The sturdy hoop-house, however, has remained lively the whole time. The center row is heavily intercropped and built up, but the two beds to either side of it are lower, dedicated to tubers and greens. Through the bowed plastic panes the world outside looks weird and distorted, but there's plenty of greenery to admire in here. It's reasonably warm, too, though Scramble has brought up a few extra blankets all the same to supplement the little picnic area tucked at one end of the clear plastic structure. Her thigh-length purple tunic is much longer than the black asymmetrical cropped jacket she wears over it, and under it she wears black tights with a blue-white lightning motif and old, worn black Doc Martens. "{So, that's the tour,}" she concludes in Spanish as she sinks down to one of the patio cushions sitting on the blue tarp, wrapping a blanket around herself as she does so. "{Pretty sweet, huh?}" Jax sets a large insulated grocery bag down on the tarp, settling down cross-legged alongside it before pulling a blanket in around his shoulders as well. He is dressed in thick striped thigh-highs over fleece-lined tights, a short denim skirt, faintly glimmery purple docs, his silvery jacket buttoned shut and a glittery black and silver infinity scarf wrapped around his neck and head. "{I've heard plenty about this place but never seen before. I like the art.}" He stops to consider for a moment before adding: "{Also the puppies.}" Scramble tilts her head back and looks at the thick metal pipe running the length of the hoop house like a spine sprouting ribs at regular intervals. Then back down at Jax, grinning. "{The art is pretty great, and constantly changing. A lot is constantly changing here, the residents to say the least. Kind of keeps things fresh, I guess.}" Her shrug is very noncommittal. "{The pups mostly stick around, though. They are pretty much the best part.}" She tilts her head and just looks at Jax for a moment. "{How you been, anyway?}" Jax tilts his head back, eye scanning the bones above them, his lips curling up into a quick smile, too. He looks back down, leaning forward towards the bag he'd brought. Unpacking it -- a container of collards, yams, mac and cheese, crispy tofu, red beans and rice. A lot of cookies. Jax is quiet while he sets these things out -- slow, sort of deliberate. "{Working,}" he finally answers, though it's a quiet sort of non-response. "{Getting our own garden woke back up. That is -- nicer.}" He sits back on his heels, looking back over to Scramble. "{You surviving?}" Scramble gives Jax a /look/ at his non-answer. "{You /always/ working.}" But the food seems to distract her a little. "{I'm temping. Getting by, you know, but only just /barely/, without your cooking.}" She uncaps a thermos almost completely covered with colorful stickers ranging from band names to angry slogans. Passes it to Jax. It's black tea, sharp and strong but tempered with milk and sugar. "{There's a lot of hippies with a lot of free time here. You ever need an extra pair of hands in your garden, hit me up. I'll work for baked goods.}" Jax's smile is a little sheepish, his nose crinkling and his head ducking slightly. "{You're welcome any time. For my food or to grub around in the dirt with me.}" He runs a hand up against his head, fingers running against his short scruff of bright peacock-toned hair. "{Working a little harder than usual, I guess. It -- kind of weird. Since leaving the Clinic?}" He takes the thermos from Scramble with a small frown. "{More free time but feel less --}" His head shakes. "{Soon will need extra hands again, though. Been planning...}" There is a hesitation, here, his fingers running against the side of the thermos, feeling the ridges at the edge of the stickers, not actually drinking. "{Dusk, he found some things.}" Scramble nods slowly. "{Right, and you not tending bar either, with Evolve still closed.}" There's the slightest lift in tone at the end, but it doesn't really sound like a question. She helps herself to a cookie first, though she lowers it again before biting into it. "{Some things,}" she echoes, squaring her shoulders beneath the drape of the blanket. "{He found out where it is? How many people they still got?}" Jax nods -- to one question, to all the question, fingers still playing against the thermos. "{Yes.}" He pulls in a deep breath. "{Yes. All that.}" He exhales again slow, lowering the thermos to his knee, still untouched. "{Soon time to take -- stock. Of who's still with me.}" This -- doesn't really sound like a question, either. "{I'm with you.}" Scramble's reply is immediate, adament. "{I told you before, I'm with you till every single one of us is free.}" She shakes her head sharply, her expression briefly twisting into a mask of anger. Relaxing again. "{Ain't changed my mind yet.}" For a moment Jax smiles -- kind of sharp, kind of quick, a small breath of laugh huffed out of him as his head shakes. "{Every one?}" His brows lift, and now he does lift the thermo, taking a small sip. "{We'll be together a /long/ time after those cells are empty.}" "{You damned right we will.}" Scramble's smile is wide and determined as she stretches out a fist for Jax to bump. "{But first, the labs.}"