Players:
Summary: Jade and James have it out, Lucas offers insight and news
Date: February 11, 2010
Log Title Kitchen Clash
Rating: PG-13
Xavier Mansion - Cafeteria
// There is a large cafeteria for the students. Blue and white tiled floor lines the floor and there are large windows that let in a lot of light. Six sturdy blue plastic chairs sit around each white table. There are a few snack and soda machines along with a few microwaves and refrigerators sit along one wall.//
The tapping is the tell-tale calling card of Jade. Tap tap tap.. a rhythmic sound that reverberates down the hallway as she approaches the cafeteria, her cane sliding back across carpet and hardwood. A moment later, the "girl" appears beyond the door, pausing as she takes a breath of the room through parted lips. "James…" it's a statement as much as anything. She can smell him here. "Are you always here?"
James looks up from his dinner plate where he's deeply entrenched in thought, "Yeah." He pokes his fork through a blot of mustard, a crumb of cheese, a fragment of an underdone potato… It's a slow night. He turns his head towards the new student. "I see you in here a lot too," he says with a soft response, "You just hungry or is it that you're lost and won't ask for directions?”
Jade is making an appearance without the cowl over her head for the first time, and is somewhat nervous. Or nervouser. Or something. She taps towards the soda machine again. "It's someplace I know how to get to," she remarks, her voice quiet. She walks with more confidence now, knowing her way through at least this part of the facility. "Um. Directions. I don't know where anything is yet. I kinda have to be shown, rather than told. I am um… not sure that you're trustworthy to take me places."
James smiles deviously and quotes, "’I can carry you farther than any ship could take you,’ but it's…." And with that he gets a look at Jade uncloaked for the first time. He pauses, but continues with a quick snap, "…it's no where you'd wanna go." He falls a little quiet, “Soo…you…like it here?"
Jade's lips twitch. "The snake in 'The Little Prince'. I read that… is that a joke?" she asks, shuffling a little. "Should I make jokes then about singing for homicidal lions?" She edges towards the soda machine, where she knows she can get enough bottles to throw at him if he happens to get hungry. "I… guess I like it here. I mean. People are just as screwed up as I am. I guess misery loves company."
James hmphs, "No. I'm just well read for an 'illiterate flea bag.'" He goes back to scraping at his plate with his fork, this time making that 'screeeetch' noise. Resting his head on his palm, elbow on the table, he looks up slowly, "'Sides, your one of Jono's. You got enough problems with out me harassing you." He grins.
Jade's hair twitches in a quick jump at the screetching of the fork against the plate. "He seemed like a nice man," she says softly. "Why would you say I had enough problems if I am one of his?" She reaches for the third button from the bottom, and out spills a bottle with a deep thunk.
James ehhs, "Nothing. You're just an easy target and I'm failing to keep my mouth shut." He keeps an eye on Jade’s head and gives the plate a healthy scrape, eliciting more noise from it.
Jade shudders again, her hair reacting with a jerking slither. "That is a horrible noise. Are you doing it on purpose?" she asks, licking her lips. She balances the cane on her arm, and unscrews the bottle top to take a drink. "I don't like being an easy target," she says more quietly, pondering.
James nods, "Yes." The hyena gets up and takes his trash over to one of the bins. Hey, if nothing else, at least he cleans up after himself. He walks over, toe claws tap-taping as he gets closer to Jade, "Your hair is doing weird things. Why?" He gets in near Jade and gives the girl an inspection. He smells like…meat!
Jade recoils from the smell of meat slightly. Her hair responds like it was in water, a slow wave that eventually falls around her shoulders. "I.. I don't know why it does it. It's just what it does. Why do you smell like meat?" she asks, tilting her head and figuring he is very close by the intensity of smell. She holds up her drink. "Want a coke?" Her hair, from any distance, appears to be a thin sort of braid that many styles favor. But from real close, it is apparent that her hair is composed of thin strips of rounded flesh, each scaled and long, and pointed at the end. They resemble the tails of snakes, with a shifting pattern of diamonds that is ringed in blue at the end.
James shakes his head, a good 4 feet of more away. "Because, I just ate?" he says matter-of-factly, "And no." He hmphs, as if you're some source of some problem. He finally gets a good look at her hair and ahhhs, "So that's why you're all weird about the thing I said…and the cloak thingee…and everything else." He straightens up and crosses his arms, "You're not 'really' blind, are you?" He nods in a random direction, that she can't see, "I have radar dishes on my head. I hear everyone talking about a lot of things. Class, teachers, secrets. You. Me."
Jade's hair acts as a barometer of her feelings, wilting as he speaks. He does not say the kindest of things and she nods her head a little. "I am sensitive about my looks," she almost whispers. She doesn't answer about her eyes, but glances down. "Some boy called me Medusa the other day." She scuffs the floor with her foot. "I just don't want people saying anything."
James phhts, "From where I stand you're the most normal looking of the two of us." He finds a bench nearby and parts his rear with a thud, "Only way people are going to stop talking about you is if you stop hiding from them." He gives the conversation a pause, "I should have known from the start you and I would get along poorly."
Behind her glasses, she blinks. "I don't know what you look like… but you say you are a hyena. Are you the gold type, or the brown type?" she asks, reaching up to push her hair behind her ear. "You really think they will stop saying things if I act like it is no big deal? I have never known anyone to think it's not a big deal before…"
"The Bitey Type," James responds; in all initial caps. He shrugs, looking the smaller girl over, "And yes. I think that." He crosses his arms and looks down his muzzle at her, "I'm not good on the motivational stuff. So, like…stop freaking out and stuff."
"I'm not freaking out…" Jade protests to the man, her jaw setting at a firm angle now.
"You walk around like you got a huge chip on your shoulder… and maybe you do. I can't see it. But from where I am standing, you're just hiding behind a different mask. So… if I gotta take off mine, then so do you." She taps her cane firmly on the ground, her hair flaring slightly, making her look an increment larger.
James puts his hands up in arrest, "Well, Freud, I can see that this is getting us no were. And I'm done with dinner…so enjoy that Coke of yours and good luck with your classes." He stands up, leaving the bench he had parked himself on and brushes his clothes off, "See ya around."
Jade snorts softly. "Is that how you handle things, by just walking away?" She counters, showing a little backbone now. Her hair slithers with agitation. "You just walk away, then, and we'll say it ain't true and all that. But I know how it feels to be different and want everyone not to know about who you are. But it isn't gonna work forever or you become something very different than you want to be."
Lucas has arrived.
James laughs, one of those good hearty ones. He stops mid exit and turns around, "Wow, you're here two days ad you already have me figured out. At this rate, you'll put most of the faculty out of a job by the end of the semester." He puts his arms behind his back and gives her one of his patented studying glances, "I'm not the one living in the dark, Jade. Quite the opposite. I can see myself pretty clearly. You can't. If you could you would realize that I'm not even human. Your thing about masks don't apply. And I don't need some girl with a cane telling me up from down."
"I don't have to see to hear you," she counters the creature known as James. "If you don't even identify yourself as human, than what are you doing here? What are any of us doing here? We all started the same place, right?" she pounds her cane to the floor angrily, a foot-stamp. "No, I don't know anything. But I can hear. I'm not stupid."
James gives the smaller woman a harsh look, "No, we didn't start from the same place. And you don'tand won'tknow the first thing about 'where I started from.' No one does, and I'm okay with that." James gets a little agitated, after feeling he's been prodded by the much smaller thing for a few minutes too long, "Good! So you'll hear me loud and clear when I tell you this. You wanna know something about were I came from? Fine, my grandfather nicknamed me 'Perseus.' You know what he was famous for?" James, tone not one of humor, gives Jade a long harsh look, waiting for a reaction.
Jade recoils with a start, her voice catching in her throat. Her cane comes up to guard across her chest as she is snarled at by a large, angry student. Suddenly, it all seems deeply personal. Her hair flattens against her shoulders and she utters a soft sound. "Okay." A trail of red snakes down from behind her dark glasses.
James crosses his arms over his chest, feeling a little justified at dropping the equivalent of an F*Bomb on Jade. "Told you we weren't going to get a long," he repeats, "And…there you have it." He sticks out his lower jaw and looks towards the door, "We done?"
Lucas wanders into the cafeteria, carrying a giant tub of ice cream he just got from the freezer. He has a spoon in his hand, apparently intending to attack the tub himself. His giant burgandy gloves are gone, and instead, it looks as if he is wearing thing spandex gloves colored white. He's singing softly to himself, a little too quietly to really make out what he's singing.
Jade sorta melts against the coke machines in the cafeteria. She really has nothing more to say, having used up her quota of outgoingness for the day. She clutches her cane with white knuckles, and the coke bottle crinkles under her grip.
James gives the girl a hmph, showing off a little more tooth than normal, “Let me know if you need help finding the exit. I'll make sure the door doesn't hit you in the butt on the way out." He looks over at Lucas and nods to his roommate, "Hey…" He snorts, "Room for one more?"
Lucas smiles widely, "Ah got ice cream!" he announces, with a rather disconcerting amount of excitement. He takes the lid off, and digs the spoon in. "New girlfriend?"
Jade hears the second voice. A twin of the first trail wanders down her opposite cheek. Shaking, trembling she sets the cane to the floor and starts finding her way towards the exit, the tapping a staccato rhythm leading away.
James smiles at his roommate, "Just living up my reputation as a heartbreaker and life taker." He looks over the ice cream, "Now that's the best idea I've had all day." There's probably little doubt to that. He walks into the back, rifles through a few shelves, and returns with a gallon of Death by Chocolate. He pulls off the top and sticks a ladle into it, "I hate it here."
Lucas smiles. In fact, he's not stopped smiling. "It ain't so bad. Hell, if'n you wasn't here, you'd just be somewhere's else what sucked and you hated." He sticks a big ball of ice cream in his mouth and swallows. "Anything NEW you hate? Or same old?"
James shoves a mouth-full into his pie-hole, "Well, Jade just made my list. But, otherwise, same old." He looks towards the door as if expecting the detention police to come rushing into to slap a fine on his hide, "Wa'abou’ you?" he asks with a mouth full.
Lucas shrugs, "Ah'm havin' a good week." He holds up his hand, wiggling his fingers in the much more user friendly gloves. "Look! Ah have hands." He laughs, and scoops some more ice cream.
James gives Lucas a wide-eyes look, "Whoh…cool! Where'd you get those?" He stops filling his face long enough to admire the new get-up, "Those are neat. Are they….well…yeah they're working. But are they working well?"
Lucas nods, "So far so good," he answers, still smiling. He tilts his head, "They were a gift." He shrugs then, "What's new with you?"
"Nada," the hyena says, "Just a lowered tolerance for other people’s issues." He pokes his oversized spoon at the black mass, "Seriously…why do they come to me to die. Why?" He grumbles and takes another bite, "I swear next person that's not on our team that comes looking for help is going to earn me a month in a muzzle."
Lucas laughs and nods, "People think dogs are cuddly." He shrugs, "Ah had this mutt when Ah was a kid. He'd wait until you was totally at ease, sittin' in your lap, then when you went to pet him, SNAP!" He chuckles, "Nip your fuckin' fingers. Bit like a snappin' turtle, too."
James gives that some thought, "You know, I think you're right." He hmphs, "Hyenas aren't even canines…no wonder everyone keeps freaking out when I take their hand off for ruffling my fur."
Grinning widely, Lucas nods, "Ah had Parker-Mayfield ruffle my hair last night." He rolls his eyes, "It's annoying. Maybe, though, ya'll oughta try to not let it bother you so much. Ah mean, there's way better reasons to hate people than that they thought you was cuddly. And if you can't think of any of them, Ah'll make you a list."
James leans back a little, giving his roommate the crazy eyes, "You…feeling okay?" His gaze widen, "'Cause I'm getting a little worried. It's like, my roommate just got replaced, by a care bear."
Lucas chuckles, taking another bite of ice cream. "Ah sorta have some of my life back, James." He shrugs, "Sorry it has me in a good mood." He sighs, and looks across the table at the hyena. "We should find you a girl."
James chokes on the next mouthful of ice cream, thankfully only getting some on the seat next to him, "What!?" He grabs a handful out of the dispenser and stars wiping the stuff out of his fur. Realizing that sounds suspicious he says, "Not that I'm not into the idea…I'm just…." He looks around and whispers, "You know…not built the same way anymore." He puts his hands up in arrest, "People just…I dunno." He shrugs, "My senses say everyone stinks. And it's hard to ignore the nose." He tries to change the subject, "Well, for what its worth, I'm glad to see you're happy."
Lucas nods a bit, "Don't give up. Maybe we can save up and hit Dragon Con together. Find you a furry." He laughs a bit at that, "Sorry. Ah'm just… You know…" He smiles, "Yeah. Ah'm happy." He nods a little at that.
James narrows his eyes and crosses his arms, "I'd rather be nightmare fuel, not fetish fuel." He doesn't actually mean that verbatim…but well, "I don't think I'm going to be looking until I can start shifting back to my human form again." He shrugs, "Easier that way." He gives Lucas another suspicious look, "Was it the gift, or something else?"
Lucas smiles, "It's the gloves. Ah mean, Ah spent the last year thinkin' Ah'd never be able to do what Ah wanted with my life because of those fuckin' gloves." He shrugs, standing up and putting the cover back on the ice cream. "Maybe other folk won't hate me so much if'n Ah stop hatin' myself, huh?" He smiles, "Don't worry. Ah ain't gonna braid your hair or nothin."
James smiles. "Actually, I think a couple braids would be cool." He gives Lucas that co-conspirator look he offers now and again, "I'm adopted. My birth mom was an American Indian. I think braids probably run in the blood somehow." He shrugs, acting as if the single largest piece of information he has offered anyone about his personal life in one sitting was no big deal—better to Lucas than some ‘blind’ chick. "Well…good. Be happy for both of us. I'll return the favor later." His eyes, big black, and alien glance over, "I never trust gifts myself. But I'm a suspicious type. Always feel someone is going to want 10x the effort in return."
Lucas widens his eyes just a moment in agreeance, "No fuckin' shit." He picks up the ice cream tub. "Ah don't know what she'll want, but Dr. Brighten ain't ever just GIVEN me help without wantin' something." He begins to make his way around the table to leave, but pauses to ruffle James' fur. "See you back in Chez Asshole, bud." He chuckles.
James snaps his jaw 'playfully' at Lucas' arm with a thick *chunk*, "Sure thing. Catch you later on. Have a good night if I don't blah-blah-blah." He begins packing up as well, cleaning up the rest of the 'splatter.'
Lucas nods, laughing, as he heads out.
