ArchivedLogs:The Conquering Hero

The Conquering Hero
Dramatis Personae Jax, Rasa, Kelly, and Aloke	2013-11-11 Jax returns to school with life saving meds! (Part of Infected TP.)
Location <XS> Foyer
With the quiet somber atmosphere that has settled over the school, the sound of the elevator doors whooshing open has become more infrequent. Better to take the stairs when you can never be /quite/ sure what is waiting for you on the other side. It's a precaution Jackson seems to have already in mind; when the doors slide open there's already a thin shimmering /something/ filling in the gap, kind of soap-bubble translucent with a faint glimmer of rainbow. It drops away a moment later as he steps out into the foyer. He looks -- somewhat like he's been through an apocalypse. Dirty, bedraggled. There's blood on his tan cargo pants and on his grey jacket and he's grown a short helping of dark stubble over his jaw. His hair -- still brightly autumn-coloured in flame hues of red-orange-yellow, save where it's grown out a good couple inches of near-black root, is messy, flopped untidily down over his face. The eyepatch /always/ helps with this impression, though the cheerful yellow smiley face in its center throws off the look a little bit. So does the /ferret/ draped about his neck like a stole, currently nosing at his many, many shiny earrings. And the boots -- sturdy, for sure, but they're purple and faintly sparkly beneath their coat of blood and grime. The compact semiautomatic carbine strapped to his back starts to balance these things back out. He drags behind him a large boxy black case. Maybe a cooler. And stops to look around the foyer with the morning sunlight streaming in, drawing in a slow breath and grimacing. Aloke appears in the foyer, quite literally. Heralded by a burst of yellow light about as bright as a camera flash, Aloke appears whole, but not well. His hair is a mess, and he's wearing just black boxer-briefs and a floor-length white robe, untied and hanging open. He has a pint of ice cream in one hand a spoon in the other. His expression is blank, almost surprised to find himself here. The light in his eyes is flickering, like a flashlight with the batteries going dead. "Oh, hello... Jax." He nods when he finally remembers his friend's name. Rasa is perched in the corner of the foyer, where the ceiling and front entry wall come together, a bright green spot against the more opulent backdrop. Ze is wearing cargo pants that have been modified to accommodate hir tail, wrapped around a back pack and holding it in front of hir as ze rummages through the contents. Ze has a small lump of lunch meat, turkey, balled up in hir fists, pale in front of hir dark magenta shirt and the coils of black rope crisscrossing hir chest, and is feeding it slowly into hir slightly exaggerated maul. Hir eyes are yellow slits, watching the room around hir, wary and tense, a tight frown on hir lips. When Jackson exits the elevator, hir head tilts to one side, wisps of wavy black hair falling across hir forehead, the rest of the mop tied back at the base of hir head. Hir feet tense, the two toed chitin-esque make up clinging to the walls inching hir up further until ze recognizes the face of the individual exiting. There's a moment of relaxing, then another tense moment when Aloke appears, then more curious staring. Ze sticks another bit of turkey in hir mouth before stuffing the rest of it in the plastic bag it came from and rubbing hir hands on a cloth napkin ze fishes out of hir bag. Ze closes the whole thing up and loops it onto hir shoulders. Finally, ze crawls across the wall toward the ground and the teachers, a long length of rope trailing after hir. "You're talking. That's... good. You talking, Jax?" Kelly was already in the foyer when he heard the noise of the door. Tucked into a stool near a potted plant, it would be incredibly easy to miss the floral boy, barefoot, and dressed in Xavier's sweats with a ripped collar to let more of his greenery out into the light. He's a little worse for wear, too, but looks down right healthy compared to the two arrivals already come here. Of course the stranger with the gun and the black case keeps his eyes wide, and he begins to 'leaf out' quite a bit, his hair growing thicker with the greens and flowers, and his vines growing to wrap around his tucked up knees. BEEE the potted plant, THINK planty thoughts. No dangerous mutant here, no tasty zombie snack, either. Just me and us flowers... Jackson lifts a hand, the four fingers remaining on it scruffing back through his hair. There are new scars dotted over him -- semicircle bite marks among the fainter pockmarked acid-stippling up his arm, a neat small circular one smack in the center of his forehead. "Less than I usually do," he answers Rasa with a crooked flash of grin upwards. It fades soon. "Aloke, honey-honey, you -- hi." His gaze does flick over to the plant-on-a-stool in the corner. Look up once, down once, his brows furrowing for a brief moment as if puzzled. Then smoothing out like something has clicked into place. "S'the damage been?" "Bwah!" Aloke cries when Rasa speaks from the corner. He's already so confused, she nearly sent him over the edge. He backs away from her, zero recognition in his eyes, and backs toward the obvious safety of the potted plant. He gets his back to the wall, making sure the plant is between him and Rasa, and apparently has no clue that this plant is also part boy. His facial expression goes through a cavalcade of options before finally just casting panicky eyes in Jax's direction. He tries to wrap himself up in his robe without dropping the ice cream or the spoon and meets with mixed success, only covering himself partially. But he also can't hold Jax's gaze when the younger man regards him. He looks at the floor, brow fiercely furrowed as he struggles against obvious, overpowering disorientation. "Last night- nightnightnight" he stammers out in rapid staccato. Once Jackson speaks, Rasa turns and moves toward the ground directly, touching the hardwood softly and padding over on all fours, hir arms elongated slightly to make the motion more comfortable. Hir approach is slow and careful, eyeing the side arm quietly before drawing hirself up to a standing position. Hir arms bend, one hand reaching up to rub at the upper arm of the other as ze eyes him. "Did Peter and the twins find you? They were going to find you. Couldn't stop them. Couldn't go with them. Kind of worried." Hir jaw clenches up tight when Aloke starts skittering away and hiding behind the plant, hir lips pulling away to expose longer canines and sharper teeth, a small growl rumbling in hir throat. Hir hand reaches back and grabs hir length of rope and pulls it close to hir, away from the stammering teacher. "Stop SAYING THAT." Kelly 's eyes blink up, looking at the flickering eyes in Mr. Aloke's eyes as his heart begins to pound louder and louder, thorns on his vines growing longer and sharper despite himself. The screaming was the final foot fall for him, and his skin starts shifting slightly green all over. But he tries not to move more than he's able. "He can't control it, Rasa, yelling won't help." Jax just sounds kind of weary, at this. He's watching Aloke very /carefully/, slipping forward to put himself between Aloke and the others -- likely with a brief scratch of thorns against his arm as he reaches for Aloke's arm to gently tug the other man forward away from Kelly. "Aloke, I think we need t'go down t'the medlab." His eyes flick back to Rasa and Kelly. "Peter an' the boys got t'us alright. How's Ivan? How're you?" His lips have pressed together slightly at hir growling outburst. His hand scuffs through his hair again, and he glances from Rasa to Kelly to his own arm with a faint grimace. "You aright, Kelly?" He is evidently well aware of the plant-boy, even if Aloke isn't. The sick teacher's eyes go wide at Rasa's shouting, the wide of panic. Of fear. He backs away from her growling, looking more and more like a confused nursing home patient, than the healthy, fifty-year old man he's known to be usually. When his attention is drawn to Kelly he yelps properly and really starts to backpdeal. Fortunately, this results in him backing gently into Jax's arms. "Sor- sor- sor-" A semblance of fight, and literal light return to Aloke's eyes as he struggles against apologizing in the regular way, but it's the full extent of his cogency at the moment. The furrow in his brow speaks much of the effort this is taking him, and his awareness that all is not right in his world. He blinks up at Jax from his fearful, hunched posture. Then, like a cloud passing from the sky, his expression clears and his mouth drops open when he truly /recognizes/ the people around him. He drops the ice cream and spoon and throws his arms around Jax in a fierce hug. When he releases the man, he hurriedly ties his robe, and nods at the students. "Rasa, Kelly. I'm so- I apologize." His clarity may be fleeting, but it's here for now. Several emotions pass over Rasa's face, first, surprise at Jackson's words, then disappointment when he moves away from hir, finally something less emotional and more pointedly blank as ze stares at the floor. The green starts to dissipate from hir skin, leaving hir a dull gray color. "Ivan is still sick. He's upstairs. I'm taking care of him. No new bites... lately." Ze reaches a hand up to touch the scabs on hir jaw. Hir hand drops to itch at another scrape. "I'm okay, I guess. Just... waiting to die." There's a pause and then, "do they know how long it takes yet?" The vines unwrap and the flowers fade away to his normal distribution, skin slowly turning back a pinkish color. "Please don't say that..." Kelly's southern voice begs. "You wont... you can't." he adds, though there isn't much hope or rationalization there, just wishing. "I'm ok, Sir." he answers Jax as he lets his toes risk the floor itself. "There are still a few of us who aren't sick... but... the Med Bay might be a bad idea right now. That's... that's where they're keeping them." Jax's single eye widens, first startled and then, faintly, relieved, when Aloke hugs him. His arm wraps back around the older man, squeezing tightly with a very brief press of forehead to shoulder. "... Unpredictable," he finally answers Rasa. "Seems different for everyone." He takes a step back, though his hand is still on Aloke's arm as he reaches for the strap of his large cooler again. "But I came with help. Not a cure. But a treatment. Slows things down, for now. They been testing it --" He shifts uncomfortably, for a moment; after he slings the strap over his shoulder his fingers move to his opposite arm. Many small red needle-pinpricks; in other circumstances with his pallor and his needlemarks he might look like a junkie. "-- Still working on a cure totally. But I got enough for the school, for now." After which revelation he reaffirms: "I think we should go t'the medbay." "That's great news, Jax! Great..." Aloke blinks, losing the thread of his conversation for a moment before he shakes his head to clear it. "Now see, Rasa? Kelly's right, you shouldn't talk like that. Lets' help Jax down to the med bay, shall we?" Aloke, a cogent adult once again, for the moment, puts a cool hand on Jax's arm, covering the needle marks. "I hope we'll get a chance to talk alone, sometime soon. Thank you. For bringing this back to us, Jax. Just when we needed you most. Here you are." Aloke swallows back some hard emotions, and just nods at the students present. "Shall we, then?" Rasa stares at the ground for a long moment, hir hands still and hir body focused on just breathing before hir head lolls to one side and movement starts to return. Ze coils up the rope attached to hir and loops the long loose coils over hir head and one shoulder, holding the loose end against hir chest as ze turns mechanically toward the elevator. "Okay. Med bay." Ze looks to follow the teachers, but pauses to examine the new student, dropping to hir haunches. "Kelly, did you get sick? You still okay?" Kelly sucked up a breath, trying to keep composure and strength in this time of need... two qualities he really didn't have a lot to spare. So the whole of it gives off a false aura. Nodding to Rasa he answers: "I'm ok, just... a few scrapes, a few bites, and too little sleep worrying about you guys. I didn't catch it. And..." he nods to Jax, though his eyes still linger on the BADGUNWHYSITHERE?! "And... that's... that's still the best news I think I've ever heard." As he follows the group. "S'nice to be the bearer of good news, for a change." Jackson's smile is tired, a little wan, but it holds some vestiges of his trademark cheer in its return to the others. "Soon," he promises lightly, squeezing his hand down over Aloke's. "But right now, I got work to do." And he heads back towards the elevator as well, cargo in tow.