ArchivedLogs:The Usual

The Usual
Dramatis Personae B, Jack, Sera, Spencer
In Absentia	2015-08-16 "Hectic's... one word for how things are probably going to be."
Location <NYC> Evolve Cafe - Lower East Side
Spacious and open, this coffeeshop has a somewhat industrial feel to it, grey resin floors below and exposed-beam ceilings that have been painted up in a dancing swirl of abstract whorls and starbursts, a riot of colour splashed against a white background. The walls alternate between brick and cheerfully lime-green painted wood that extends to the paneling beneath the brushed-steel countertops. There's an abundance of light, though rather than windows (which are scarce) it comes from plentiful hanging steel lamps. The walls here are home to plentiful artwork available for sale; though the roster of prints and paintings and drawings and photographs changes on a regular basis it has one thing in common -- all the artists displayed are mutants. The seating spaced around the room is spread out enough to keep the room from feeling cluttered. Black chairs, square black tables that mostly seat two or four though they're frequently pushed around and rearranged to make space for larger parties. In the back corner of the room is more comfortable seating, a few large black-corduroy sofas and armchairs with wide tables between them. There's a shelf of card and board games back here available for customers to sit and play. The chalkboard menus hanging behind the counter change frequently, always home to a wide variety of drinks (with an impressive roster of fair-trade coffees and teas largely featured) though their sandwiches and wraps and soups and snacks of the day change often. An often-changing variety of baked goods sit behind the display case at the counter halfway back in the room, and the opposite side of the counter holds a small selection of homemade ice creams. A pair of single-user bathrooms flanks the stairway in back of the cafe; at night, the thump of music can be heard from above, coming from the adjoining nightclub of the same name that sits up the stairs above the coffeehouse. It's a quiet afternoon at Evolve, today. Half the tables empty, and many of the ones that /are/ filled have been filled with some time by WiFi squatters nursing a single drink or near-finished sandwich. B is one of those, tucked into an armchair at the back, legs pulled up beneath herself and laptop on her lap. She's dressed summery -- a red and white floral-patterned halter-neck sundress, strappy white sandals discarded in front of her chair, a thick cluster of bright rainbow jelly bracelets on each wrist. Under the table in front of her, a one-eyed beagle is gnawing on a peanut-butter filled Kong, and at an adjacent table a game of Blokus has been set up. Dressed in jean shorts and a Toothless t-shirt, Spencer is frowning at the colorful board; his opponent is another small child in overalls and green-and-white striped tee, bowl-cut hair, thin and somewhat pale, bouncing restlessly while Spence takes his turn. Occasionally B spares the children glances, but mostly focuses on hir screen -- or the very large pile of roast pork on a plate in front of hir. It should have been a sandwich, really; but ordered sans bread or vegetables and with extra meat... well. Pile of pork. Jack has been in a relatively rotten mood for days and the heat of the day has only made it worse. In jeans and a light-weight hoodie, the invisible teen has made his way to Evolve to escape the heat and hang out for awhile before heading back to school. He's been out in the city trying to shake his bad mood but so far, no luck. He's up at the counter, waiting for the iced coffee drink and muffin he's ordered to arrive. Catching some motion out of the corner of his eye, Jack finally looks up at the rest of the people in the cafe. He blinks when he spots B and Spencer and his shoulders tense, the angry conversation with Jax still fresh in his mind. His food arriving gets Jack out of his thoughts and the invisible teen murmurs his thanks before deciding to head over to the small gathering. "Hey," he greets when close enough to B's table. "Mind if I join you all?" Though B's nose twitches, the children at the neighboring table are the first to look up. "Wo-o-oah," says the smaller one, eyes widening. "/That's/ Jack," Spencer explains brightly. "He's like a ghost? Except a superhero? Maybe he's like /Space Ghost/!" He tucks another one of his playing pieces onto the board. "Do you have a spaceship?" asks the other child hopefully. "I -- doubt it," B answers, though now ze does look up, gesturing with a flick of claws to an armchair adjacent to hir table. "I feel like I might have noticed a spaceship at school. Maybe. Anyway Kisha would have probably flipped if someone built a spaceship there /before/ her." Jack shifts slightly at the reaction from the smaller kid, rubbing the back of his neck. Spencer's bright explanation makes Jack feel a little worse than he already did about the conversation from yesterday but he doesn't let it show. He just laughs a little at the questions and B's answer. "Yeah, no space ship for me," he says, moving to sit in the chair he was gestured to. "Maybe I'll ask Kisha to build one though," he jokes. "We're going to live in space one day," Spence informs Jack. "But I haven't decided where yet. Maybe just everywhere." "I'd rather be a space explorer than space /colonizer/," his friend agrees. "You meet more aliens that way." "Important priorities," B's agreement comes easily. "Kisha wouldn't need much /encouragement/ to build a spaceship. Just a bigger budget." "Rather fly the Enterprise than settle down on Deep Space Nine?" Jack asks. Yes, he's been watching Star Trek. Blame classmates. "I think exploring could be more fun too. Live on your ship," he agrees, nodding his hooded head. "I doubt I can provide much of a budget," he says with a small laugh. "What's everyone up to today?" he asks, starting to pick at his muffin. "I don't think DS9 was really a /colony/," Spencer muses uncertainly. "Space stations are /kind/ of cool." His friend allows this only with a great reluctance. "I mean ones like /that/. At least you still meet people? But you don't /see/ as much. -- We're playing games." In case this wasn't clear, there is a gesture towards the game board as the next piece is added. "Finances," is B's answer; it comes with a deep grimace. "I have a lot of stuff I need to get in order with my company before school. And -- just. A lot to get in order in general." Hir brow furrows. "Or I should be getting it in order. Instead of getting distracted with the news. -- How about you?" "Well no but there was less exploring since it was just in one place," Jack remarks with a shrug. "What game are you playing?" he asks, looking curiously at the pieces. B's grimmer task gets as sympathetic a look as an empty hood can give. "That sounds like a headache and a half," his shoulders slump at the mention of the news though. "I'd take finances over news," he says. "Not really doing anything specific. Just walking, wandering, and trying to distract myself." "Blokus," Spencer answers. "You have to get rid of all your pieces --" his friend is explaining, though this comes pretty much in time with Spence's corrolary explanation of: "You need to make the board pretty." "That's, like, /Pa/ game rules. You're gonna lose if you learn gaming from /him/." B sounds amused. "Kind of a headache, yeah," ze agrees with Jack after this. "But I just want to make sure everything's in order cuz it'll probably be hectic --" Shrug. "Distract yourself from what?" Hood tilting to the side, Jack lets out a little 'huh' at the explanations. "Sounds interesting," he says. "Hectic's...one word for how things are probably going to be," he adds for B. "The news, a couple things that happened during the week...the usual stuff," he answers with a shrug. B's black eyes tip up briefly towards where Jack's face would be, closing in a very slow blink. First hir clear inner eyelids and then the outer ones. "{Sorry,}" she replies, at length. "At least it's the weekend now? That's maybe less -- blah?" Spence glances up from his game again, curious. "What happened during the week?" he wants to know. "I beat you at /three/ board games," his friend reminds cheerfully. "Oh! -- Oh you mean with /him/." Jack gives a little nod to the apology. "I hope today stays good. At least better than the rest of the week," he says, leaning back in his chair. "Has your weekened been going alright at least?" he asks B. The question from Spence gets Jack pausing, the invisible teen debating how to answer it. "A lot of things," he says carefully. "I ran into some bad guys. It wasn't very fun." There's a very rapid flutter of gills from B, hir eyes tipping back down to hir computer screen. "It's been going," she answers lightly. "Oh-h-h." Both the children, now, give nods of understanding. Spence's friend looks a little more /excited/, though. "Did you /fight/ them?" "You're supposed to get help and run away," Spence chides. Gently. His friend's nose wrinkles. "But you said he was a /superhero/. Like your /dad/." Spencer gives this a small moment of consideration. "... Pa does fight a lot of bad guys," he allows, after a moment of thought. He turns to look at Jack, too. "Did you fight them?" "Going is better than not I guess," Jack offers with a shrug. He chuckles a little at the questions from the younger pair, shaking his head. "No, I didn't fight them. I called for help but before I could do anything else, another guy showed up and chased them away. "Didn't have to run or fight because of that." "Woah. /More/ superheroes?" Spence bounces in his chair, a little bit. "That's /cool/. Do you think there's /lots/ more?" B's brows furrow. "I think there's -- probably a good number of people who wouldn't like to see random folks get beaten up," she hedges cautiously. "But I don't know if --" "/We/ could be superheroes," Spence continues eagerly to his friend. "See? You don't have to fight, even. Just /chase/." "We'd need costumes." The other child says this with just as much excitement -- kind of /infectious/ excitement, a faint empathic touch making the mood contagious. "Where could we --" "Oh don't worry I /totally/ know where." Spence has reached across the table to take the other child's hand. Just for a moment. Then both kids vanish, leaving their unfinished game on the table. This draws another blink, from B. A small scrub of face. A deep breath. Ze reaches first for hir phone, already starting to collect hir things as ze starts to send a text. "... I lost the kids." She sounds more /resigned/ than panicky, really. "I should probably..." She frowns, at their vacated table. "Find them." "He said he was a friend of your dad's," Jack starts to say. Then the kids start talking about being superheroes and Jack has to fight the urge to scrub his face too. "Great..." he trails off, wondering what he just did. And then the kids are gone and Jack facepalms. "Oh man..." he trails off. "Lo seinto," he offers to B, taking a breath. "I can help find them...looks like my fault they vanished anyway..." "Trust me," B says with a small breathy laugh, "it's not your fault. Spence --" Ze shakes hir head, peeking at the dog under the table and then standing to quickly put the abandoned board game back in its box. "Is hard to keep pinned down. Especially lately." Ze leaves the box tucked where it is, picking up /hir/ things next and tucking hir computer into its bag, which gets slung across hir shoulder. "It's fine. Promise. I hope your weekend --" Ze hesitates, teeth stippling lightly against hir lip. "-- Doesn't suck, anyway." Jack frowns invisibly but nods. "Alright," he says. He still feels bad but he's not about to argue. "Good luck finding them. And I hope your weekend gets better too."