Logs:In the midst of chaos, there is also opportunity.

In the midst of chaos, there is also opportunity.
Dramatis Personae AJ, Leonidas, Quentin, Tok
In Absentia Bryce, Dallen, Nahida, Nevaeh, Avi	2024-05-22 “How do you know what to do?”
Location <XAV> Back Patio - Xs Grounds
This patio is expertly laid out for relaxing singly or in groups. The section nearest the back door is a more or less conventional veranda, the mansion's eaves--supported by elegant white wooden columns joined with matching railings--extending out to shelter the long porch swings, rocking chairs, and a chess table from the elements. Down the stairs or the ramp from this is a fan-shaped expanse of slate flagstones populated by clusters of deck chairs and picnic tables, always changing in number and arrangement, and stone planter boxes bursting with seasonal flowers and ornamentals. The centerpiece is an elegant pavilion with a hot tub open for use year-round, even if the transition in and out may prove chilly in snowy weather. The day after the Alien invasion is quiet. It's a bright, warm day out, birds chirping and bugs humming, unaware of the fact that the world had changed forever not even 24 hours prior. The school is quieter today, too, with classes being canceled and students probably resting. The patio is pretty empty, maybe someone occasionally passing through. It's both peaceful, and maybe a little eerily surreal given the events the day prior. Tok sits burrowed into the arm rest of one of the deck chairs, tail wrapped tightly around their waist and claws fidgeting with the chess pieces they stole from the chess table. They're trying, and failing, to get them to stack all on top of each other. Their eyes and veins are no longer constantly glowing white like they were the day before, the glow having gone away by the time they woke up. Their monster aspects had faded as well, not too long after returning to the mansion. The dark bags that are usually eternally under their eyes are darker today, like they hadn't slept well. Their clothes are baggy, exposing two small dark patches of exoskeleton on the sides of the base of their neck that hadn't quite faded away with the rest of it. Their mind flashes scenes from the day before on repeat. Their little chess piece tower topples again. They begin to rebuild again. Quentin is just trudging back in the mansion's direction from -- somewhere off lakewards, judging from the slightly wet crust of clinging still to his boots. He's in dark jeans, cuffed at the ankles, and a tee shirt that quite unusually for him is, today, just a plain black with no message. There's a pair of rocks clicking quietly in his palm -- not particularly noteworthy rocks, just rocks, grey and water-smoothed. His path isn't particularly directed toward Tok, at least not until his newly imposed roommates' chess piece tower gives another wobble -- right when it looks like it might be about to fall, though, the pieces steady themselves. "There's probably more stable things you could use for that." Quentin has stopped, pivoted to examine the tower critically. "Though it'll be very impressive if you get anything to balance on the bishop." The door opens and AJ wanders out. She's wearing an oversized t-shirt and leggings that go to hef knees, a pair of slipper-sandals on her feet. She had a few bandages on her arm, the wrapped gauze evidence of her previous fight. She's holding a glass of orange juice and a bowl of instant oatmeal. Upon seeing Tok she vee-lines fir him, but hesitates a bit in her approach upon seeing Quentin. she still keeps a cherry smile  though despite it being obvious she's been crying. "Hi Tok ...," she croaked, and tried to hold herself together. "Hiws it uh, how's it hanging?" <<All my fault, why didn't I run?! Stupid stupid -- I has to play hero and -- no, no, that family had no time to get to that covered bathroom. Yoy saved them -- but at what cost Amaya-Jane?! Bruce is dead he's dead Luke your mom is and it's all! Your! Fault!! >> “Howdy.” Leonidas offers as he descends onto the group. He's wearing his Xavier's sweatpants and a black t-shirt and just looks tired. “Y'all good?” <<Know I'm fucking not. What the fuck even was that? How many of those things did I even kill?>> At Quentin's voice, Tok flinches, their chess piece tower collapsing once again. At the same time their veins and eyes just barely pulse white, but with nothing for their power to grab onto, the glow is only there for a split second before it fades. They let out a breath, and seem to take a second, their mind dragging out of the thoughts they'd been entrenched in, before allowing their head to loll back to look up at their newcomer. A grin stretches across their face, “Hey roomie.” <<fuck what's his name again? I really should know his name by now. FuckfcuK>> “Think you can do better?” They challenge, holding out a piece that's definitely not the Bishop but they've made their best guess. <<Clicky noise? Rocks in his hand cool rocks. Where'd he get rocks? I wanna touch them I bet they're smooth this chair feels weird his boots are dirty. Person coming oh AJ! Oh no. She's totally crying. Oatmeal.>> There's a brief moment where Tok has combined those two thoughts and now they're picturing someone crying oatmeal. Gross. <<Wait who's this guy is this a teacher? Nah I've seen him in classes. I wonder what his thing is. Does it make him grow a beard or is he Just Like That.>> Tok's tail starts flicking back and forth at all the new people showing up, “Howdy! Uh. I'm good! Just chillin'.” They say with a shrug, “Y'know. Aliens. That's neat.” They cringe, “How was uh….your guys' invasion?” They cast a wary glance towards AJ. "Of course I can do better," sounds, from Quentin, honestly kind of baffled that this is even a question. The chess pieces plucks itself out of Tok's hand and floats into Quentin's. The rocks float out of his hand, hovering in midair to free him up for Chess Tower Building. He's moving the pieces as he talks, quick and deft as he picks them up and rearranges them into a neat and improbably stable tower. "But what's the point. There's way more structurally sound building materials out here." His eyes cut toward the door as the others emerge, and his tower deconstructs itself, pieces rearranging neatly into their starting game configuration. He's answering for AJ, first: "They were with Bryce when he got snatched. I'm sorry," he's offering this to Leonidas, with a wince, his tone shifting toward a deeper sympathy, "that you couldn't keep him safe. Probably hard when she's more invested in playing hero than looking out for her own people." The rocks beside him are spinning slowly around each other. "I was with his brother and Nahida. They're safe but obviously, Dallen's really upset." AJ is tense. She stands up abruptly, knocking over her orange juice but doesn't seem to care about rhe spill. <<No no no stay out of my head stay out STAY OUT I don't want anymore nightmares I don't want to be picked and pulled apart abd twisted and r -->> Images flooded her brain, glimpses of lab tables and too-bright lights stabbing her eyes and a woman with long tangled hair in her face grasping her arms and clawing them deeply and kids barely thirteen with acid burns pulling her hair out while she lay helpless in bed and Bryce's corpse on her dormitory floor -! AJ dropped onto her butt and hugged her knees to her chest, rocking herself as she sobbed and scratched her scalp. <<all my fault all my fault all my fault>> Leonidas doesn't respond, verbally or otherwise for several long moments, that same rage from the day before threatening to tear its way out of him. <<You self important cocksucker.>> It takes another moment for him to calm down enough to form words, and those that do are sickly sweet with enough venom to make a honey badger flinch. “Oh I forgot Quentin, you're the pentacle of us. A decent telepath with a bad haircut. I'm sure the moment he got snatched from behind me you'd of leaped into single combat and saved the day. Remind me again, what's your kill count? How many of those aliens did you stop from tearing apart another person, mutant or otherwise?” The memories come now, the moments still as crisp as the moment they happened The walls of aliens. The screams. The sickening wet crunch of fists meeting carapace. “I know that we fucked up, but the blood is on my hands. I wasn't fast enough. I was too weak. Never again.” Tok would've probably tried to make a snag for the floating rocks when Quentin wasn't looking, but definitely missed. Their eyes widen when Quentin speaks for AJ, and the subsequent breakdown that takes place. Their shoulders rise with the growing tension, and they curl themself deeper into the chair, like they're trying to blend into it. Their mind sparks with interest however, eyes darting between the other three like they're watching a tenis match. A small, nervous smile, twitches at the edge of their mouth as they watch. <<fight fight fight fight.>> "Oh, wow, I'm sorry, while I was busy protecting a bunch of people from a ton of bugs I must have forgotten I was supposed to be in a -- kill-count competition, do you even hear yourself? God, no wonder Bryce is missing, with friends like you both -- poor little guy. Next time aliens attack us I'll have to remember to stop focusing on keeping people safe and instead focus on measuring my dick." Quentin plucks his rocks back out of the air, rolling them again clickclickclick in his palm. "I actually heard about what happened to Bryce from talking to his brother but I'm glad while he's missing or dead you're focusing on what's really important here --" He is not even really looking at AJ, his lip kind of curled as he takes a step back from the table. "-- how hard getting him hurt was for AJ." The girl got up suddenly, air hissing as patches of goo appeared on her skin. She turned and ran away, back into the manor before anyone could stop her! “No Quentin, you're supposed to be decent. That's it.” Leonidas' rage finally cools over and he just sounds defeated. “Who the fuck saw any of that coming? That wasn't getting pulled into another world and running from cops, that was a slaughter. They caught us in the open with nowhere to hide.” <<What else could I of done? He was gone so fast. Nothing but a pile of clothes.>> His brows furrow at the memory. <<A pile of clothes?>> His eyes open wider and a pang of hope hits him. “If Bryce got eaten, why would there have been a pile of clothes left?” A pang of disappointment rings through Tok once AJ exits their imaginary fighting ring, their predictions for the fight becoming a lot less acidic. Their disappointment grows some more when Leonidas seems to cool off. <<Dangit!!>> Tok considers, and finally decides to pipe up, “Maybe he got teleported! And the teleportation doesn't work on clothes. Heh….OR he got turned into a ghost! Like uh…” they frown, mind grasping at something, and they shake it off, “Like a ghost! Wait no that would mean he's dead….a non-dead ghost then!” "Nobody saw it coming, that's the point. You think even me or Tok or any of us woke up thinking we'd be attacked by aliens before boba? It's not whether you're practiced for the shit hitting the fan, it's what you do once it does. You think the humans out there give single crap if the little bird-dog-snake boy gets mauled by aliens? We should keep us safe, but I guess, not if what you're focused on is flexing." Quentin is clacking the stones harder in his palms, and there's a disgusted contempt in his expression as his eyes turn in the direction AJ went. "If you think decent is making sure we talk real sweet so nobody has to think about their fuckups, you do you. I think decent is looking out for each other." He's stalking back towards the door, but stops before he goes inside to add: "Mr. Joshua says he's alive. Hopefully, even if you and your corrosive girlfriend don't want to learn anything from this, he'll learn better than to trust you next time." “You… knew. You knew he was alive, and still did that.” Leonidas' face scrunches up and he folds up on himself in a futile attempt at keeping his composure, hands grasping either side of his head and squeezing as hard as he can, like it'll somehow compress his rage into something more manageable, though the only thing he succeeds in is bursting a blood vessel in his eye before flying back off to an isolated part of the grounds. Tok stays quiet as the two go back and forth, fidgeting with the fur on the end of their tail. Their ears pin back in alarm as Leonidas grasps at his head, and they open their mouth to say something, but they don't get the chance to before Leonidas flies away. <<It's what you do once it does.>> Tok's eyes dart up to Quentin at the door, “Hey- wait.” They call. They visibly hesitate, “How do you know what to do?” They ask, curiously. “When shits hitting the fan and all that.” Quentin stops, his rocks floating back up into the air. For a while they're just orbiting beside him. He eventually turns, shaking his head. "You don't. I mean, we didn't. Who could, like, a whole fleet of aliens coming to eat us, that's crazy. And I could hear the damn bugs -- practically all I could hear, like my whole brain was just filling up with murder. But Dallen and Nahida needed me so --" He shrugs, his brows creased deep. "You were with Nevaeh and Avi, right? What did you guys do?" Tok smiles a little, “Heh. Bug thoughts. That's so cool.” They say, their mind racing with what bug thoughts might sound like. A memory of their own voice, distorted with clicking and alien sounds surfaces, but they shove it away. They look at Quentin, picturing their own mind filled with that, filled with the sounds of people getting eaten alive, and promptly decide <<Actually, not cool.>> “Man. Nevaeh and Avi….they were so rad.” They gush. Memories pop up: Nevaeh confidently directing them, timing so perfect, Tok's own mind exaggerating her behind a heroic light. Avi reacting faster than they could blink, sending up a column of ice to attack…was it 1 bug? No, Tok's mind has expanded it to at least 4. “Nevaeh was all like Its bugs….no…it's aliens' DUHHN DUHHHNN DUNNNNN. And then she was all like 'Go down that alleyway! Now hide here!' And then some crazy alien would drop down right where we were like 2 seconds ago it was crazy!” They're gesturing wildly with their arms, “And there was this entire army of bugs and Avi was all like 'Pshh don't even worry about itttt.' And froze'em all back to the ice age! LIKE POW!! FWOOOSHHH!!! It was SO cool!” They sigh, “And we were with a bunch of people and we were aboutta get our faces eaten and Nevaeh was all like, You can do it and I… was uh.” They pause. Memories flicker through, mostly sensations. Limbs they can't control and the panic of not being fast enough. Blindly grabbing what they can, nothing calculated. Tok's eyes dart down to look at their hand, like they're expecting it to look like something else. An uncomfortable look passes on their face for a moment. An odd sense of…longing…appears in their mind, before it's quickly swept away. “I dunno! Turned into a bug or whatever, it was pretty cool. I dunno if I would've done it if Nevaeh hadn't said I could though, y'know?” Quentin is giving Tok a long look, thoughtful and curious at this spill of words, or maybe at something beyond it. "That's intense, man," he finally says. "Like, did you even know what was gonna happen there? Coulda fucked yourself up real bad. But you needed them so they stepped up. They needed you and so you --" He's gesturing towards Tok without finishing this statement aloud, but the hand that he gestures with is -- still very much his, skinny and brown and human, but at one and the same time there's a brief shift in Tok's perception and it's also a tentacle, and it's also something way more indefinable, a fierce hunger that slips back out of mind as soon as it came. "Maybe that's it. Nobody knows shit about what's coming, that's pretty clear after yesterday." Quentin shrugs a shoulder. His smooth rocks float over to Tok, setting down on the chessboard in front of his roommate with a quiet clack. "Think all we can do is whatever it takes to keep our friends safe." Tok's sat up at this point, legs bouncing to rid themselves of the energy that demands to be spent dancing beneath their skin. Their eyes snap up to Quentin's face at the sudden tentacle and hunger that appears, and there's something of an…understanding maybe. Maybe, if Tok is perceiving it right, they get it for a moment. They snag the rock up the moment they can, running their fingers over the smooth surface, and something in their mind that was nagging them finally shuts up. “Yeah. That's not a bad plan. I may need to rethink some things.” <<Brilliant Plan Number 29!! Rework later!>> Tok considers, and blurts out, “How could you tell what was you and what was bug and what was 'Person dying horrible death'?” They ask. A sharp spike of curiosity interrupts their own thoughts, and they're talking before thinking, “Or is it all you? Like, you became bug, and person dying horrible death, and even now you're like, my brain?” Quentin's eyes go wider -- clearly this was not the question he was expecting. He drifts slowly back towards the chess table, and slumps down heavily into the seat opposite Tok. "I --" don't know, his tone is clearly implying, though he can't bring himself to say it. He picks up the rook piece, fidgeting with it between his fingers. "Maybe there's no difference. Maybe we're all the bugs and the people dying and we just gotta figure out how to prioritize." He shrugs, his fidgeting growing faster. "Probably would've done something rash," he admits, "if Dallen and Nahida hadn't reminded me what to care about." Tok is leaning forward now, interest spiked and maybe a little surprised that they were getting answers. They watch the fidgeting, can't help but notice it, notice everything, but decide to push on. “That must've…sucked.” They admit. “Like. Big time. I mean, I don't get it but I was having trouble telling what was me and bug but only physically Y'know? I don't ever have to worry about people getting mixed up in here.” They tap their temple with their claw and pause, “Are you like. Good? Do you usually feel people dying around you? Is that an everyday sorta thing for you?” For once, their thoughts are almost one to one with what they're saying, completely running on the first impulse of what they're thinking. "What, I'm great," Quentin answers immediate and defensive before he realizes that maybe this was a question about his emotional state and not about his Badass Telepathic Skills. His mouth twists up, pulling to one side. He slouches lower in the chair. "I'm fine. I mean, people don't usually die around me. Not like that." His eyes have gone a bit wider, a bit blanker, staring fixedly down at the chess piece he's rolling around in his hand. "It was a shitty day. It was a shitty day for everyone." He wrenches his eyes up, away from the game piece and back to Tok. "Do you feel like you? When you do all that? Or is it like -- I don't know. Wearing a costume. Becoming a role." Tok takes a second. “Yeah it was pretty shitty.” <<But also maybe not everyone also experienced the death of everyone all at once? Wtf wtf wtfwtf>> Their mind leaps at the question, and Tok instinctively seems to try and get a wrap on it, aware of the visitor they have in their brain. Bits and pieces escape, and like their chess stack, it comes crumbling. The Excitment of becoming something different. Something not themself. Anything but themself. Tok cringes, and mentally accepts the defeat, “No. well. Sometimes. I don't feel like me. But it's me, because it feels like it…should be me. It feels natural most of the time, I'm pretty quick to adjust. Maybe at first it's like a costume, something new, fun.” A hushed thought races through their mind, unable to stop it but maybe able to quiet it down. <<Being that felt better than this>> Their hands dig into their arms, <<no it didn't.>>. “Sometimes when I'm not me though, I can finally breathe. It's just…nice to have a break every once in a while.” Their eyes dart up, “You ever not have your powers? Sounds like you can't turn them off, right? You ever get the chance to just be you in your head?” "Thought I was human until last year but I wouldn't want to go back to being a flatscan." Quentin's brows pinch. His eyes drift to Tok's tail and the barer patches where the fur's been pulled at. "This is -- just me, now. I mean, me now is me but it's also all this. If I was just some human weakling I guess my brain would be quieter, but, I'd be someone else." His hands spread upward in front of him. "You're you but all the cool shit you do is also you, right? Every one of us has our own thing that makes us different, makes us better." He shrugs a shoulder jerkily, and the chess piece in his hand floats back to its proper place on the board. "Flatscans gonna hate you enough already without you doing their work for 'em. Think being a freak who knows how awesome you really is, is the best prank any of us get to play on this damn world." Tok snorts, “A flatscan?” Their eyebrow raises, “Never heard that one before. I'm gonna start using it.” They're quiet, and they drop the rock they stole and they've been fidgeting with back on the chess board. Their legs begin bouncing again, causing a piece of furniture nearby to rattle slightly. “…I am a big fan of pranks,.” They grin sharply, “Maybe this is one I'll get behind too.” Their mind feels a bit lighter, like they aren't trying to keep a lock on it so much. They study the chess board, “Teach me to play?” They ask, “This seems like the kinda fancy shit you'd know how to play. You gotta know how to play right?” Quentin sits up straighter as Tok's mind eases. His expression lights immediately upon being asked to Teach Something. "Chess? Any serious person should know how to play chess. Chess is like a -- an entire battle fought with just your intellect, like a workout for your mind. You're already sharp there --" He's gesturing towards Tok's claws as he pulls himself into a cross-legged seat. "I can help you stay sharp where it really matters." At Quentin's expression lighting up, Tok grins. Something like victory rings around in their head. It's clear they were hoping for that reaction. Their tail waves back and forth excitedly, “Yeah yeah! I can be sharp and serious! Now how many of these little horsies can I draft for my team?”