Logs:Little Treasures

Little Treasures
Dramatis Personae Gaétan, Remi
In Absentia Sera, Lucien, Spencer, Sriyani	2024-12-30 "Stay away from the shrubbery and make sure i dont bring a houseplant into my room juuuust in case!"
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 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 is once again unseasonably mild here, and in the warm sun Gaétan has chosen to wait for his company out on Evolve's sunny patio. Aside from being slightly taller, he looks very much the same as he had last year, aggressively average from his neat crew cut to his deep grey button-down to his bland straight-leg jeans. He has gotten a sandwich already, a tofu banh mi, and a coffee as well, though neither are touched so he has likely not been here that long. The cafe inside is crowded -- out here it's a little less so, a few other parties but several empty tables still. He's twisting around to get his phone out of the pocket of the corduroy jacket draped over the back of his chair, somewhat habitually flicking to the new emails that have arrived in the past half hour to immediately and punctiliously sort them. Remi was upset that it wasn't cold enough to get all bundled up so he had just thrown an out of character black hoodie and a simple pair of jeans, his hair tied up in a ponytail that still hung down to his rear. He was probably due a hair cut at some point but he couldnt bring himself to butcher his hair. He'd been to Evolve only a couple of times before and he wasn't much of a coffee drinker but he'd been without company his own age for so long he really didnt care where they went. He just needed to get his nose of his books for a bit. Seeing Gaétan already seated he made his way over to the table in which he'd already made himself comfortable at. One of the waiters was asking him what he wanted before he'd even sat down. He hadnt had time to look at a menu yet so he just asked for a capuccino with 8 sugars before taking a seat across from Gaétan. "Hey there Gaétan! Long time no see! Hope you weren't waiting too long, i had to swing by a pharmacy on my way here." He said placing his little oharmacy bag down by his feet and scooching in his chair "Oh hey." Gaétan looks up with a quick smile -- then a small blinkblink at the order before he remembers, right. He lifts his chin and tucks his phone back in his pocket. "Nah, just been here a minute, you're good." He looks Remi up and down before amending this to a question: "-- you good? It has been a minute. You really jumping back into the Xavier's madhouse?" He says this, at least, somewhat fondly. Remi sighed with a wry smile, then nodded. A somewhat dubious look on his face at jumping back into Xavier's again. "Yeh, i think it's about time. I gotta learn about my shit sooner or later" he said as the waiter came with his coffee and a handful of sugar packets. Remi thanked him with a smile but waited for him to leave before he continued. Ripping open the sugar packets all together and dumping them into his coffee he resumed. "Plus, i miss being around the others. I love my mom, like, a lot. But jeez, i've pretty much been inside the entire time i've been gone from Xavier's, apart from school." He sighed, stirring the sugar into the coffee, taking a sip and then instantly grimacing. "Blergh, bitter" he said as he took another sip, with less of a grimace this time. Progress. "What about you? You been good? Oh! I've been keeping up with your TikToks, im hoping to get a ticket to your next show, i couldn't make it to the last one. I had a recital" he smiled excitedly. He tapped his fingers a couple of times on the side of his coffee cup and took another sip, this time, no grimace. Instead he nodded, as if finally it was right. He may have done a little bit of sweetening by methods of his own. "Yeeeah," Gaétan's smile is just a little bit wry, "I think a few people's parents got a little overprotective after -- y'know." His small and fatalistic shrug does not quite encompass the enormity of the kids who had decided to stage an assault on a U.S. military facility, but." He picks up his own coffee, taking a large swig. When he sets it down he's nodding along -- "Yeah? You serious, I can get you a ticket easy. And yeah I can only imagine that takes up hell of time, I saw your competition -- you killed it, totally should have placed higher. -- You think you gonna stick with it?" His brows lift, curiously. "Like, in the long run, is it music or medicine that's pulling you more?" Remi shook his head. "It wasn't my mom that wanted me to come home. I practically ran back there with my tail in between my legs. I was terrified." He smiled a little sheepishly, though jumped at the chance of a change of subject. "Im totally serious! Please get me a ticket, im not one of these people that can promise to bring like 100 people with me but i'll totally pay and i'll totally scream my ass off cheering for you!" He chuckled. Taking another sip of coffee and placing it very delicately back on it's little plate which he always thought was just adorable, tiny little plates aww. "Medicine most likely. Music will always be my little get away, i had to learn it when i was young but then i fell in love with how much emotion the violin can put out. It can sound so happy and then so sombre, its really soothing. But, mom's a- mom was a nurse, so i'd like to pursue that field and have my violin by my side as a hobby. It'd be nice if i could be the school nurse at Xavier's! Especially for when people like you go spraining their ankles and stuff" he laughed but with a kind smile. "That's cool. Kinda wish more people were into music just because it's --" Gaétan pauses here; he's frowning a little thoughtfully down at his coffee. "... think the world feels so much of the time like you can only put time into stuff if it's for capitalism, you know. Not just -- cuz you love it." He shakes his head, quick. Takes a bite of his sandwich, dabbing at his mouth with a napkin as he swallows. "Oh, man, school nurse over there's gotta be a wild job, you're gonna have so much weirder stuff to handle than sprained ankles. My sister says they've got some kind of infestation turning the plants into zombies now? Iii don't know exactly what to believe but I know it's not gonna be boring." Remi paused for a minute, midway into going for another sip of his far too sweet coffee. "Im sorry, what? You're telling me im going back to plant zombies?" He cracked up with laughter, trying to desperately get a hold of himself. "Well....it'll definitely be interesting i suppose!" His laughter finally beginning to die down he wiped a little bit of a tear from his eye. "Dear gods, kind of excited to see it, not gonna lie!" He did however nod to Gaétan's previous notion. "You're right, especially people our age right now. Everything you see is all about 'getting on the grind' and stuff. That's why i like watching what you're up to so much, it's nice to see someone doing something that they genuinely care about and not just the money it pays." Reaching into the front pocket of his hoodie he pulled out a lollipop, unwrapped it and casually chucked it in his mouth. He pulled out another, and placed it on the table in front of Gaétan. Just in case he wanted one as a dessert after his sandwhich. "What about you though? You gonna keep pursuing theatre? Become a big star and continuin' the family legacy?" He said curiously as he shoved the lollipop into one of his cheeks like a hamster. Gaétan is dropping his eyes, shaking his head with a small huff of laughter before his next bite of sandwich. "I do like the money it pays, nooot gonna lie. Think I'm going to leave stardom to my brother, though, he's got the real --" His hand circles a few times in the air as he searches for the right word. Doesn't find it, says instead: "I don't want to be on the stage, I'm not on some Lin-Manuel Miranda trip. Be pretty exciting if one of my shows got to Broadway, though." When he looks back up it's with a faintly wry don't-shoot-the-messenger smile: "OK, I don't know if they're zombies but from what I've heard they're very bitey. And a little bit -- meat. Hope you like your flowers, uh bloody?" "Ok, ok...." he nodded in thought. "So, stay away from the shrubbery and make sure i dont bring a houseplant into my room juuuust in case!" He makes a mental note and grins impishly at Gaétan. His eyes widened in realisation and he nodded. "Right, right yeh! More the man behind the masterpiece i get it. Well, ya know who to call if ya need a mid to exceptional violinist, oh! Or an on site medic to make sure your stars are in prime condition" he nods. "Will i be seeing you when school starts back up again? " Remi pulled his lollipop out of his mouth. "Me? Oh, no, I'm done with that. Taking a year off now to figure out if I actually care about college, it's not like producers look for a degree when they're deciding what shows to put on but -- also might be good to have a backup plan in case all this doesn't work out." Gaétan shrugs again. "-- How much longer you got? Spence is still there. For a few months more, anyway. Sriyani and them all joined." "Nah, im staying at Xavier's for another year. I missed out on a lot and im not ready to go to med school until i've caught up." He looked a little bit disappointed in himself. "It's kinda weird, i've never been behind in school, not even once. And now everyone my age is going off to college without me!" He tried to give off a confident chuckle but it came across as more of a whimper. He cleared his throat before speaking again. "Plus, ya know i've gotta learn how to get a hang of my abilities and stuff." He smiled. "Hope you guys won't all go forgetting about me now!" "You're gonna have ways before med school but -- Good luck." Gaétan sounds just a little teasing too, when he adds: "Please, after all those bombs your first couple weeks you are pretty hard to forget." There's slightly more reassurance in hi tone after this. "... 'sides, I think Xavier's is used to people being kind of all over the place with timing. Nonstandard is pretty much the standard there." "Oh totally, but i'll do my bachelor's in biomed, and i've been studying for the MCATs since i was maybe....12? I'm quite excited to try my hand at one of the hardest exams and i'm still years away!" he chuckled, his jaw dropping when Gaétan brought up the bombs. "Fuck people still remember the bombs? Look, i was a baby, i didn't know what i was doing and then all of a sudden i learnt i could make like... ok i can make cakes explode Gaétan, it was awesome. But i'm ready to grow up and get my study on! Promise" he winked at Gaétan with a devilish smirk. "You're right i suppose, not much normal happens at Xavier's and i was hardly there for any time at all!" he laughed. "You gotta stop by once in a while though, it'd be nice to catch up every now and again. Friends are like little treasures to me. Gotta appreciate 'em when you get the chance to!" Gaétan hides his expression here behind a long, slow sip of coffee. His smile is easy enough when he lowers it. "It's not so far from the city," he offers lightly, "I'm sure we'll stay in touch." Remi nodded with a smile and a little "mm!" sound of approval.As he went to say something else, his phone buzzed in his pocket. He pulled it out to check what the notification was and it was his violin tutor. "Ah, shit. Gotta go play some sick Vivaldi tunes! It was really nice catching up though Gaé!" he downed the rest of his coffee. Pulling out enough money to cover his coffee, he put it on the table, with a little bit extra for a tip, of course, he wasn't a savage. "sorry for leaving so quickly but you don't know my tutor, if i'm late, i swear i'm afraid he'll throw his bow at me! See ya pretty boy!" and with that he dipped giddily out of the cafe.