Players:
Summary: Ice cream cures all ills. Except brain freezes.
Date: April 4, 2013
Log Title: Sweet Antidepressants
Rating: R
Westchester - Cold Stone Creamery
Coldstone Creamery is always chilly inside, even in the winter months, to accommodate for the variety of ice creams they offer. A big sign with all there ice cream specials sit on the wall, and all the different ice creams and toping can be seen in the counter windows. This Coldstone is unlike the rest with its red color scheme. A few tables sit inside the Creamery for customers to sit and enjoy their cold treats.
Seeing that the weather was finally starting to get warm, Nick though the suggestion of going out to Salem Center to get ice cream was a good idea. It's also good for him to actually get out of Xavier's. Nick was a little nervous at first but after sitting in a booth with his best friend and girl friend with a giant waffle bowl of Oreo Overload in front of him he's relaxed a bit. "I don't think I've been outside of Xavier's since I got back." Nicholas says trying to remember. "It's nice to actually get out, makes you feel not so caged in."
Her near-perpetual sunglasses now off and resting on the table, the blonde girl in pigtails has a look of intense concentration. Fingers carefully negotiating her perilously drippy waffle cone of chocolate banana ice cream, Jill sucks her fingertips clean. Shirt: still clean. "I've been tellin' you that for a while," she reminds Nick, not unkindly. Just a friendly 'I told you so'.
It's very, very hard to get a good mope on, when one is sitting in front of a cinnamon-cheesecake waffle bowl, thus Shane's apparently not been putting much effort into it. "Ain't been much reason to," she grunts, dragging her spoon around to better mix up her ice cream. "Kinda weird seein' th'X buttons, though."
"I'm also glad noone's recognized me from the news, or if they have, they've been quiet enough about it." Nicholas says then shovels a large spoonful of ice cream into his mouth and trying to swallow that much that quickly gives him the winced expression of one who has brain freeze. "Ate that to fast. Anyway, I was thinking of maybe going to the mall to go replacement shopping this weekend."
"I didn't even know what those buttons were for, at first," Jill muses quietly, still largely preoccupied with keeping her clothes unsullied. Should have gotten a bowl like everyone else. "I kinda need some new stuff too. Sophie's gotten too attached to my wardrobe." Unsure of what else to do for a brain-freeze, the vampire girl pats Nick gently on the back. There there.
"…Mmn," Shame says around a spoonful of spicy-sweet magic, glancing up at Jill and Nick briefly, then returning her attention to her ice cream. "Might's well get back t'rebuildin' my anime collection. Mall sounds like a plan." A thought strikes her, and she pauses, then clears her throat and reapplies herself to her treat.
Nicholas smiles at Jill when she pats him on the back. "Yeah, I think she's only wearing your clothes and nothing else. It was weird seeing her in a Rainbow Pony shirt. Does she just grab stuff and put it on?" Nicholas isn't sure if Jill helps her or not. "Maybe see if there are any other games for that PSVita, I hated it at first but I've let myself get to attached to it."
"Somethin' like that. It's kinda funny sometimes and I don't *really* do anything to stop her." Jill's head bobs at Nick, showing pointed canine teeth with her smile. Her eyes flick to the other, less animated girl. "Whatcha thinkin', Shane? Do I have to dress like I'm in the Matrix now? For, like, forever?"
"Neh," Shane says, waving her free hand. "Nothin' like that. Just… everyone's all chill an' all, but dunno 'f 's gonna be th'same when I go in th'mall. Worryin'." Looking up, the mutant with the electric purple hair shrugs. "Jus' bein' me. Y'know. 'N Nick, 'f you got enough money lyin' round, prolly gonna wanna pick up a paid credit card, 'stead'a Vita games. Easier jus' buyin' 'em offa PSN."
"I just got that thing from Ms. Frost, might as well look. Besides, it's nice to just sit in the stable and have the portable system. I've actually been falling asleep in there quite a bit." Nicholas says knowing it's a bit weird. "Jill you can dress how ever you want. I'd think you'd look great no matter what."
The blonde girl frowns across at Shane. "It'll be fine, m'sure. I mean, you said it yourself about the X-buttons. It's not like it was before. Stuff's changing, y'know?" Having said enough, or maybe just afraid of saying more, Jill bites at her ice cream cone to keep her mouth occupied.
"Well yeah," Shane says, lifting a shoulder, "but mall's…" Trailing off, she shakes her head. "Meh. Prolly right. Prolly don't matter… But try tellin' that t'part 'o m'brain don't listen t'reason." Blowing out a breath, she looks up at Nick, raising a purple eyebrow. "Dunno 'f you ever liked Final Fantasy, Nick… but 'f y'gonna pick up anything, get Dissidia. Long's y'like fightin' games anyway."
"I hope things are changing, but I kind of understand where Shane's coming from." Nicholas shrugs and eats a few bites of his ice cream. "I'll look around, I just need something to take my mind off of things more than a fighting game." He looks down at his ice cream and chews on his lower lip for a few seconds. "Things have to be changing."
Jill's gaze flicks from Shane to Nick. Darn. Instead of scaring it off, the mope just switched hosts. "A video game's a good start," she suggests a little weakly. "Or something else fun, y'know?" She's definitely trying to keep things light and pleasant. "Maybe… I dunno, maybe a different mall?"
"Meh. Fuckit, gonna hafta check it out sooner 'r later," Shane mumbles around her ice cream, loosing a breath and looking to Nick. "Nick. Know what'cha mean. But like… things're already changin'. Either way, 's still a break. Break's good. Ain't gonna waste this one, considerin'."
"There are other malls in the area?" Nicholas asks not really knowing much outside of Salem Center. "How far away is it? Maybe a little road trip wouldn't be such a bad idea." Nick figures it's at least an hour away since that's about how far away the mall was from his house back home. "Oh Jill, did I tell you I finally figured out a codename, it's kind of silly but I think it works."
"This is America," insists the vampire girl patriotically. "And New York, at that. You should never be far from a mall. Seriously. We can, like, borrow a car or somethin'. I bet they'd let me. I've got my license and everything." Finally finishing her ice cream to the point where it no longer threatens to melt over the cone, Jill quirks a surprised eyebrow at Nick. "Oh yeah? Wait, what was mine again…?"
"Ain't silly," Shane says, glaring across her bowl at Nick. "Jus' took awhile t'figure out. Better'n somea th'shit people were suggestin', anyway." Pausing, the slight girl blinks at Jill, brows furrowing. "…You got your license? Shit, that's lucky."
"Well it was Flood." Nicholas says but he doesn't know if she goes by anything else now. "Unless you changed it? I decided to go by Orion, I know it has nothing to really do with my powers and is my horses name, but I like it." Nick shoves some ice cream into his mouth afraid he's going to be judged. "I have my license too, got it before coming here. And back home going to the mall was pretty much a day trip."
"Lucky'd be if I had a car to go *with* the license." Jill blows a few strands of hair away from her face. "Oh yeah, that's right. Flood. I guess it's better than Vampirella or whatever." She grins, nudging Nick lightly with her elbow. "I think Orion is fine, long as I don't get you two confused." The smile remains for a few seconds before she blurts, "Dibs on driving."
"…..F'got t'get m'license," Shane murmurs, glancing to one side. "Didn't 'spect t'have anywhere I wanted t'go, after th' shit with Heather's parents. Guess I better see what th'school's got f'r driver's ed, huh?"
"I think I saw something about drivers ed, don't know the details." Nicholas says and he looks down to start staring pulling pieces off of ice cream soaked waffle bowl apart. "I used to have a truck but Bodie said it'd be to easy to track and had me run off on Orion instead so I left it back home. He was right though and I'd rather be a live then have a truck." He's actually trying to look on the bright side. "I'll wear a name tag that says "Hi My Name Is Nick" so you know I'm the real me."
The blonde girl shoots Nick an 'Oh you' look at his nametag joke. Jill stretches back in her seat, pulling out the scrunchies that kept her hair in loose pigtails. "I got mine back home, when Nana was in the hospital so I could be her chauffeur. Pretty sure he's right though. There's gotta be some kinda driver's ed for a house fulla teenagers, right?"
"Prolly," Shane says, "jus' never looked. Be kinda stupid otherwise." Looking back down at her bowl, she perks up a bit to find her ice cream has melted enough to make a proper soup, and begins stirring. "…Prolly don't wanna drive in the City, though. Holy *shit* does that look like a bad idea. 'S like, I know this ain't th' West Coast, but you go t'LA an' there's cars everywhere. Cars everywhere here too, but mostly's taxis'r'people too rich'r'stupid t'know better."
"I miss driving. I got my license when I was fifteen, North Dakota has law that you can get a restricted license at fifteen, I don't know if I told you about it. But mostly it was only for driving back and fourth to school." Nicholas finishes his last bite of waffle bowl and is officially finished with his ice cream. "Driving is very liberating."
Jill nods at Nick. "I think so too. It's relaxing, kinda." She briefly turns and rolls her eyes at Shane in mock exasperation. "Aww, c'mon, where's your sense of adventure? How cool would it be to drive around Manhattan for a day? If everybody else takes taxis an; the subway, we'd be fine, right?"
Shane returns Jill's eyeroll with a withering glare. "Man I *bussed* 'round Manhattan f'r a day a whole buncha times. Useta go t'Fabric District on weekends. Trust me, ain't worth it." Pausing, she considers this statement, and shrugs. "…Well unless *I* ain't chippin' f'r gas, then fuck do whatever you want right?" Snorting, she glances at Nick and nods. "Hear somethin' like that. LA, you ain't grown up til you got a license, and it don't matter if you got th'ugliest, fucked-uppinest old beater around; you got a car an' you're still in high school, y'r a fuckin' star."
"Yeah, I'm still not ready to step it up to the Manhattan trip. Went there once, not itching to go again." Nicholas says. "Besides there being a big riot in mutant town it's just to busy. How does anyone not get lost there?"
You say, "Ahh, you guys are no fun. We don't *really* have to go to Manhattan or anything. I just mean, like, get outta the house and go wherever we want, y'know?" Jill takes a decisive bite from her ice cream cone. A drop of melted chocolate ice cream lands squarely in the center of her t-shirt. She doesn't notice. A few seconds pass before she asks Shane in a quieter voice, "So… if I had a car, people'd think I was cool?""
"Simple," Shane says to Nick, "don't go alone. Better t'have someone knows where th'hell they're goin. Till y'learn th'subways, anyway… Get lost, jus' look f'r a subway, oughts be able t'figure it out from there." Turning to Jill, she gives the vampire a long, appraising look. "…In LA," she says after a long moment. "But LA's problem's that 'people think I'm cool' is, like, th'only fuckin' thing that *matters.* Y'gotta boyfriend, 'n he ain't gotta problem with th'whle vampire thing, right? S'tell me, Jill… Anyone have anythin' t'say more important than him?"
Nicholas turns from looking at the menu of various ice creams to chime in on some of the conversation. "Simple, I just stay away from New York City. I don't mind going anywhere else that isn't city." He looks over at Jill and grins. "It's not that I'm not fun, it's just you've got a boyfriend whose head is ten shades of messed up right now." He looks at Shane completely confused. "What are you talking about?"
The immortal blood-sucking undead fiend looks visibly sulky before Shane for a moment then averts her eyes. "No…" Jill admits grudgingly. Underneath the table, the toe of her sneaker finds Nick's foot and gives it a few soft taps. This starts to put the smile back on her face. "It's nothin'. Don't worry about it."
"Just givin' y'girl a reality check, Nick," Shane says, picking apart her soggy waffle bowl. "Everyone needs one now'n again. Ain't usually good at it, but… 'cool' is somethin' I dealt with a few times. So anyway," she says. "Upstate, 'r somethin?"
Nicholas gives the two girls an odd looks before shrugging. Sometimes you have to realize that girls just don't make any sense. He returns the tap to Jill's foot and yawns. "I have a bunch of home work I have to get done before tomorrow for classes, I'm gonna have to head back to school soon. But if you two want to stick around and chat, I don't mind.
"I dunno, maybe. We still don't actually *have* a car yet, but there's nothin' wrong with making plans just in case." Red eyes blink a few times in NIck's direction. "You'll be alright finding your way home?" asks Jill. She's being serious, too.
"Got y'GPS on, right?" Shane says, throwing in her own confirmation that Nick can get home all right… but at least as a friend, she's not obligated to press the point too hard. "Call'f y'get lost."
Jill groans and pats at the ice cream drip on the front of her shirt with a napkin. "Doesn't matter how careful you are…" she laments quietly. Chocolate ice cream on a pink shirt isn't exactly easy to hide. She flashes a smile across at Shane, but one that very slowly begins to wilt when she finds she doesn't have much else to say right away. "…"
Shane sits back in her chair, eyebrow rising as she watches the smile slowly wilt away, a glance thrown now and again to Nick's retreating back. Once the boy is well out of sight, Shane clears her throat. "Hey," she says quietly. "Y'ain't… seen Q around, have you?"
"Uh?" Clearly, Jill wasn't prepared for the question so it takes a few seconds for her brain to shift back into gear. "Oh, umm… no?" she replies as if fishing for the correct answer from a teacher. "I mean, like, not for a while. I… I dunno." Jill cocks her head to the side, frowning and pursing her lips. "Why?"
Shane lifts a shoulder, turning her head to the menu. "…Cos I haven't. Jus' wonderin'. Y'know."
The vampire girl's mouth doesn't close entirely and she makes a soft, wondering 'huh' noise. "You don't, like… know? Where he is?"
"…No," Shane says quietly. "Never said anythin' t'me. So… Iunno. Ain't seen 'im since… what. End o' November?" One corner of her mouth flickers upward, and she spares a glance Jill's way. "Jus'… Iunno. Sorta hopin' since you're showin' y'face again, mebbe he d'cided to too. …Guess not."
"I totally had a legitimate excuse that one time," says Jill, a little quickly and a little defensively. For a moment in Shane's glance, their eyes meet. Jill frowns and looks away. "M'sorry."
"Y'I know," Shane days, drawing in a breath. "'N you got no idea how much happier Nick is, jus' cos y'r around." She starts to say more, then falls silent, chewing on the inside of her cheek.
"I still worry 'bout him, y'know?" Jill says to fill the silence. "That's kinda…" She rubs at a bare upper arm as if suddenly cold. "I had to leave for a while 'cause I was afraid I'd hurt him accidentally. I mean, like…" Likewise she trails off with more left unsaid. "I dunno."
"Then lemme tell ya, Jill, jus' us girls," Shane says, her voice low so as not to start a scene, but fixing the vampire with a frank, unreadable stare. "'Don't wanna hurt ya' means *fuck-all* inna place like ours. I get—got the same fuckin' song an' dance from Q, and y'know what I thought? So. *What.* Bein' hurt by people who mean it, people who gotta problem an' can't feel better 'less they beat on the girl a lil' That's one thing, an' anyone who does that deserves a crotch-punt from *me.* Hurtin' someone cos' y'ain't gotta handle on shit people ain't supposed t'be *built* t'do? May's well 'pologize f'r spillin' coffee. Q could've given me a hug, broken half m'ribs. Wouldn't've changed a thing f'r us. Boy treated me like glass, 'n was sweet. But I wouldn't'a minded a hug, once'r'twice."
Jill is forced to lean forward to catch all the words suddenly spilling out of Shane. It's probably the most she's ever heard the other girl say in one go. As the words go on, Jill's shoulders sink a little and she flaps a hand to try to get a word in. "Y'don't understand. I was worried I'd get *hungry* and *eat* him. He smells like *food*."
"An' I'm *tellin'* you," Shane rolls on, glaring at the vampire, "maybe y'oughta *ask* 'im how he feels 'bout that, 'stead'a jus' assumin'. Dude's in *love with you,* jackass. Might s'prise you."
"Well I worry about these things!" Jill retorts a little louder than she'd intended. Shame-faced, she hunches down lower in her seat. "I mean, bad enough I could drain him dry instead of making out, what happens in a coupla years, huh?" Arms folded on the table in front of her, Jill is almost low enough to rest her chin on them. "When he's in college and I still look the same as I do now? Won't people think it's creepy?"
Shane looks down at herself, then back up, raising an eyebrow. "Jill I got th'figure of a pissed off tweener, an' Iunno 'f you noticed, but Q looked like a house on stilts practicin' f'r th' *Joker.* You're gonna ask *me* what looks creepy, and why I should give away the very last fuck ever got clawed from the Whogivesashitistan desert soil over it?"
Jill manages not to roll her eyes by disguising it as a passing interest in the milkshake machine. She does click her tongue softly, though. "I'm bein' serious. It's like…. I really like him. He makes me happy, an' I like making him happy. But all I can think about is what could go wrong next, y'know?" She raises a hand to cradle her chin, the other idly toying with Nick's leftover spoon. "Is that normal?"
"F'r me? Yeah. But f'r me, normal's wonderin' what *I* did t'make Q pack his ass off t'who'n'ell knows where," Shane mutters, face falling. "…Look. All I'm sayin' is, Nick ain't got a whole lot t'be happy 'bout. He's got 'is horse, an' he's got you. An' *that's* me bein' serious. You *make him happy.* Maybe… 'stead'a worryin' 'bout fuckin' that up, see 'bout fixin' it so you don't have s'much t'worry 'bout. Like, tellin' 'im y'got it in you now'n'again, t'give 'im a nibble. An' what y'r doin' 'bout that."
The vampire girl's cheeks flush hotly at the idea of giving Nick a 'nibble'. Pretty easy to see what she thinks about that. "I'm… uh…" she stammers uncertainly. "I'll… I'll do that."
Shane leans back, nodding once. "Aight. 'N since it's just us girls, an' Nick ain't here t'take offense 'r feel bad… Woman you got *no idea* how much is sucks t'be this jealous o' you."
Jill straightens up, eyebrows rising. "Of me?" Despite the gist of the conversation thus far, she's just as oblivious as ever. After a brief moment, it dawns before she can ask the probably aggravating 'Jealous of what?' followup question. She's had enough glares today. "Yeah," she says like she isn't certain how she should feel about it. "Yeah, I guess I got a good thing goin' right now."
"Jus' don't f'get that," Shane grumbles, sipping away the last of her water. "Jus' 'cos y'r a vampire 'n blond, don't mean you c'n get away with hoggin' all th'mope t'y'self. Y'got too much goin' t'be anything more'n massively goddamn irritatin', doin' that."
"Well, yeah. I guess if you don't count chocolate stains as mope-worthy either," Jill agrees feebly, squeezing her hands between her knees. "Hey, wait, what's bein' blonde have to do with it?"
And for the first time since the outing was suggested, Shane's freckle-dusted face splits in a wide, if somewhat mocking, grin. "Oh Louis," she says, flipping her hair and adopting an execrable imitation of a New Orleans accent, "it pains me so that you cannot have my handsome vampire manbabies, for you are too morose to sustain life. Also dead. And a man, I suppose that must have something to do with it."
"Alright, alright." Jill waves a hand at Shane, probably just to get her to stop doing the accent. All the same, she looks like she'd laugh if she'd only unpurse her lips a little. "I don't do interviews, anyway."
"Good," Shane grunts. "Real money's in tell-all books, anyway."
