|
    |
Kaleb was taking a break from the holidays. They were supposed to be restful. Supposed to be. His door was open in that delightful sound eating room of his withthe curtains drawn and light pouring in from that crisp winter sky of fuzzy steel grey against the startling broght blue. It was like all the moisture in teh air was huddling tightly together for warmth to something, but that left pockets of light that fel streaming across his drafting table. it was quiet. Jay and Vic had been taking turns making sure there was coffee in the caraffe in Kaleb's room and that the pot was full so no appliances were declared 'ruined' in their absense and Kaleb could survive.
On the radio was the smooth ochestral tones of Miles Davis in soulful instrumental that seemed to be Kaleb's 'happy place' to audibly escape to while he worked on… what was he working on?! Did it really matter to Jeb? Likely not in the slightest. He had a nice calm morning of the apartment (almost entirely) to himself.
What Kaleb is doing does matter to Jeb! He's a little brother and by default, upon moving in, he has become everyone's little brother. In that respect, everything that they were all doing at all times was now Jeb's concern. He had likely just narrowly avoided walking in on things he was not meant to see a handful of times because Jay had redirected him elsewhere. When Jay isn't around to twitter at him, Jeb's next target of annoyance is definitely Kaleb, who he liked /a lot/ and has already decided is an official Guthrie. He'll call up Mama and make the arrangements to ship Kaleb back to Kentucky if he ever decides to go back.
Kaleb's door is open which Jebediah treats as an invitation for Jeb to come in and bother him, which of course he does. "Whatcha doin'?" He asks, peeking around the door that he doesn't bother to knock on. Kaleb probably heard him coming. "Have you run out of coffee yet?"
You know who isn't moving in? This guy. Sam Guthrie has shown no inclination towards living in the compound. However, since two of his brothers are there now, he does come rocketing on by to visit. Off work, shame-walking over to drop in on his bro, Sam smells like a potpouri of alcohols, smoke, and sex. His blond hair is toussled, as always, and he has a pair of goggles crammed up into his straw spikes. Making sure his pants are zipped, or, at least his own, first, then he brushes his shirt a little smoother and knocks on the apartment door.
Kaleb believes, staunchly, that that is what locks on doors are for and why he has one. His lips were pursed together in thought but his oice, as it tended to do, spoke without need of his body as a speaker, "I'm working… on a blueprint for the school. And I think there's still coffee left if you wa-… somene is coming to the door." He didn't look up or wait for the knock which, yup there it was. He also knew the figure on the other side wasn't Max shaped and Max had a key so caring who was actually at the door fell to bottom priority for him and thus, he couldn't be moved to get up. More anal retentive lines were drawn by the southpaw in neat precision. Absently the disembodied voice of Echo mused to Jeb "They aren't…carrying anything."
"A blueprint for the school? Can you build stuff?" He forgets, often, that Kaleb is rich and can probably hire people to do anything. "Oh? I'll get it!" Jebediah is always excited about visitors, he's like a large puppy in that respect. He rushes to the door like someone is going to beat him to it, even though that has literally never been the case. When he opens the door, he sees Sam and he bounces like a kid let loose in a candy shop. "Sam!" He announces his brother's presence much louder than neccessary before giving his oldest brother a hard hug.
Cannonball squeezes Jeb whole heartedly and steps in a pace. "Hey there, little brother. Thought ahd come by an see how you were gettin' along here, with all these…folks. Rich folks. And Jay. Catch up a bit. See if you'd gotten yerself a job yet..and were stayin' out a trouble." After the squeeze, he swaggers on in.
Kaleb sighs. There goes that quiet morning. Ah well. A disembodied voice sounded by the door, still having not left his work, "Sup, Sam?" He scribbled as the needle moved from Miles playing Baby Won't You Please Come Home to Joshua. He didn't interrupt the brothers runion to answer Jeb's quesiton on the project. As utterly imperious as Kaleb could be he felt disinclined to interrupting brothers catching up. Chiefly being he'd box the ears of anyone interrupting Kellan and respected this in his fellow mutants. SOme things were sacred.
"Ah mean, ah got a sorta invitation to one, a job, ah mean, it's a little complicated." Jeb says, maintaining that hug for awhile before he finally releases his older brother to allow him inside. "And, c'mon, Sam, when have Ah ever stayed out of trouble? That's my middle name. Just because Ah'm far from my partner in crime, doesn't mean ah can't find some way to get up to something. Plenty of fights to be had out here, after all." He teases as he backs up into the apartment and away from the door to allow Sam inside. "What about /you/? You stayin' out of trouble?" He does, however, make a point to get quieter when they come inside, whether Kaleb notices or not, Jeb does try not to have a 'one size better fit all' volume when it comes to his nonstop talking. "Cabbage is in his room. Jay isn't here right now."
"What's a Cabbage? Its ok if Jay aint here right now. Yer here, at least. And man, I am into /all kinds/ of trouble, lately, but…not in jail, so…ah guess that counts as stayin' outta it." Sam winks at his brother and looks around the swanky place. "Yer gonna get spoiled, livin' in a place like this, ya know."
Kaleb could hear eerything and was 'visually' aware of the room, though his focus was on his project. He was starting to sort of understand what it could possibly be like for Kellan to co-locate. Iiiinteresting. *That's the idea, Sam. Money is meaningless if not used.* Spoken like a true capitolist. *And your brother turns out is afair carpenter* was that… some form of compliment? Gasp.He chewed on the inside of his cheek mulling over what he wanted the thing to do having only a vague idea of what manner of machinery and hydolics the functional facade he was creating might cover. Blargh.
"Jay calls him 'Kale', so ah call him Cabbage." Because he's annoying, and a little brother. Though, the emphasis that Sam puts into 'all kinds' makes Jeb raise an eyebrow at him and give him a once over. All kinds of trouble, indeed, is that what Sam called his one night stands? Jebediah isn't surprised by it, Sam's been melting the panties off of anything within a fifty mile radius since Jebediah could remember. "Ah am not gonna get spoiled! Ah'd come live with you in a heartbeat, you know? Ah don't take anythin' from Cabbage and his brother that ah don't gotta." Jebediah defends a little. "Ah am gonna get a job. Ah will."
Cannonball looks up at the ceiling as the voice floats and vibrates off the walls. "That'd be yer bankroller huh?" He winks again. "Hey, moneybags, come be social!" He drawls and in some voices, that would sound insulting, but he is leeeaaaning into that accent so hard, and the general good nature of his being infuses it with a back woods charm that takes away the sting. "Ah been tendin' bar…but…ah was thinkin' about maybe…stretchin' out a bit, seein' about being in SHIELD maybe…do heroic stuff, in a different way. And, ah live at the school right now. You could come whenever you feel like being in school again, I guess." He grins with dimples.
Kaleb still hadn't moved but that didn't mean he wasn't a part of that conversation, "You're not livin with Sam. I'm sure the man likes to get laid in peace, though, that is what locks are for." He wasn't wrong. Healwso wasn't subtle in the slightest. UGH! His presence was being requestiod. The air sighed but a moment and a half later Kaleb, weirdly still in a vest like a banker that worked on runways appeared; caraffe in one hand, coffee cup in the other, with his sleeves rolled up to his elbow and graphite smudged along the back of his left arm with a pencil tucked behind the same ear. NOW he answered Jeb's prior question, but to Sam. "I'm currently working on the Danger Room project with Doug and Kitty." His jaw set and he remembered his last field mission where they offloaded the Mutant, Live, into SHIELD custody. His eyes closed a moment as that whole act just pained his soul. They got a nod and he offered to sam, actually speaking, "Echo. Kaleb. Nice to meet you without a thousand people pissing me off." And with that he left for the kitchen to refill the caraffe from the emergency reserves.
Jebediah scrunches his nose up at the idea of /more/ school. "Ah never feel like being in school again. Ah got bullied how often in regular school, Sam? You want me to go to a mutant school where everybody is gonna have powers? That's three times as many fights, ah reckon. Plus, ah ain't real smart'n stuff like you and Jay. School means learnin'. Learnin' ain't a strong suit of mine." Jeb huffs at his older brother. He looks up when the disembodied voice of Kaleb from the other room tells him that he isn't living with Sam on account of he likes to get laid. "He can just throw me out when he needs to do that."
When Kaleb joins them, it's hard not to smile at the coffee he has at the ready and the smudges on his arm. Jebediah pulls down the sleeve of his shirt, a size too large anyhow and reaches over to wipe the smudges off of Kaleb's arm gently so as not to upset the coffee in his hand.
"Ah don't bring em back to the school. I just use…whatever is close, or their place." Sam lifts his shoulders and then studies Kaleb when he pops out. Sure, he's met the guy once or twice, but the setting has always been one of distraction. He tucks a thumb into his first belt loop. "Jeb, yer so much trouble, I always said you were a genius at fights." He smiles and then reaches with his free hand to jostle the man by the shoulder. "So, what's this job you're thinkin' of? Fancy pants is designing the danger room…hard to top that."
Kaleb went to set his cup and the caraffe down and there was a dangling- there was a hand reaching for his arm that got a chicken-like flap flap flap in evasive manuvres. "I'm …what're you… doing?!" The caraffe opened to pour more coffee into, and it was to Sam he boggled, "It's not a contest. It's contributing to a-" He looked at his sleeve and Jeb "whole."
Jeb looks up at Sam with another scrunch of his nose. "Listen, Ah thought we were all joking around here about how many people you bring home, Sam, but ah don't know if you confirmin' that it is in fact /a lot/ of people was something I wanted to know about. Though, not that ah'm surprised at all. You and Jay were always the heartbreakers." Jeb says, somewhat amused. Jeb never did too much dating, always had too many broken bones or bruises on his face for anyone to think he was much of a looker. "Jay's friend was thinking about openin' up a bar, said he needed someone to bus tables an' on account of ah can't be trusted to be a bouncer, they said ah could do that when it happens. Might not be alot of money, but it would be money. Then Ah could get some little place, by myself, be outta everybody's hair. Send money back to mama." When Kaleb flaps at him, he gives a little chuckle. "You're a damn mess, Broccoli. Just on the one arm, hold still, Ah ain't killin' ya."
"That there is mother-lickin' clean." Sam chuckles at Jeb's wipedown of Kaleb's arm and he leans his weight all on one leg. "That also sounds like the same place ahm workin', so yeah…come do it. And I aint bringin' people home all the time. Just…sometimes. Ahm just sayin'…I don't bring em to the school, that's all. I'm just teasin' ya both, anyway, don't worry too much." He smiles. "And if ya /calmed/ down, I'm sure you could get a date."
Kaleb went tight lipped on Jay's lovelife as compares to Sam's. Echo boggled at Sam having the reference be lost. "Wha- my mother doesn't 'lick' things. She even has someone to handle stamps and postage."He really didn't understand. Though at the ickname the tone fell and he looked to Jeb soberly, "Please never call me that again." He flapped his elbow again passivly wrestling his arm to safety. With a sigh he assured, "Yes yes, Doug's Atomic…Thing. And there is a no fraternizing on campus clause which I am certain goes ignored." not that he would know and he didn't care enough to want to know either.
"It's somethin' Ah learned from the raisin' Guthrie's crash course, yer lucky I'm not actually spitting on my hand to wipe you down, Kaleb. Someone's gotta take care of you." He smiles when Kaleb wrenches his arm to safety and is told never to call him brocolli again. He looks over to Sam then, crossing his arms across his chest when he's told why he's not getting any dates. "Ah'm plenty calm, ah'll have you know. Maybe ah don't wanna go on dates. Girls are needy, ya gotta buy em stuff and kiss em a lot and give em a lot of attention, and there are things I could be doin', you know. People Ah could be punchin' and then she'll want me to clean my act up and stop gettin' into fights and ah'm not ready for all of that. Plus.. ah don't know anythin' about what you do with a girl…" Suddenly shy and quite quiet for someone who never shuts up, Jeb is clearly embarassed about his lack of knowledge in the romance department. "You and Jay are good at it, like you inherited all of dad's charm. He had a lot of it, because there are so many of us, he had to sweet talk mama into more after me, ah reckon. You and Jay took all of it, and there weren't none left for me, that's what happened."
Sam shakes his head slowly. "Ya work at that bar, and I'll show ya." He is casually positive about it, like poor Jeb has just nothing at all to worry about, even if…its all hard and awkward and difficult-ish. He looks Kale up and down, "Can I have a cup o that? I could use it." He starts walking in that direction already, kinda just helping himself unless Kaleb specifically tells him not to. Jeb, perhaps, has to go catch a nap.
Kaleb finally refilled his coffee and boggled. He looked to Sam like 'did you catch this too?' and back to Jeb shrugging with a lift of his mug and letting his disembodied voice speak while he drank his coffee he offered, "Well if that's the issue I mean we can explain hat part. Trust us, it's not so bad." He was glad the nightmare was presently over from being attacked by something that was in someone's mouth. "Jeb, I have a rule: Unless you are sleeping with me you do not get to lick me." kaleb reached up to grab a mug. He knew where those were! It was handed to Sam with a sigh and a shrug, "He'll learn or he won't. What is it with people giving importance to weird things this week." But then again Kaleb generally knew what he wnated and went after it like an Army General and coldly shut out anything he did not. Must be nice being so decisive. "How's the place coming along anyway?"
Sam took the mug and sauntered over to the coffee maker. Expertly, he punched buttons and then he bumped it with the side of his hand, jiggled the pot a bit, generally doing odd things to it, until it gives him coffee. "Pretty good. Its a soft open right now…so…still some work bein' done. But, not too bad, not too bad. Just thinkin' of takin' on that second job, if I can hack it, ya know? Lots a trainin'. Trainin' I don't /need/, really. I mean, I'm pretty well just good for one job…and that's destroyin' the heck out of whatever's in front a me." He smiles charmingly at Kaleb, and looks the man up and down more slowly. "You catch any word a what my brother Jay's been up to? He's been keepin' it close to tha chest."
Kaleb leaned back against hte counter and drank his coffee with ashrug. "Working mostly. Threw one hell of a party too, and he's been helping on construction at Atomic. He occasionally goes across town for… god knows what reason he'd want to and he was helping at the community center a bit. WHen he finally stops being everyone else's hound he's been actually writing some really good tunes. You should ask him about it."
"Ya he was supposed to play that bar ahm workin' at. I wonder when he'll do that." Sam glances out the door, then back towards Kaleb. He sips the hot cup. "So…yer twin brother…he's…" Sam wiggles his hand back and forth. "Yeah? I mean…he and his boyfriend are livin' here, right?"
Kaleb arched an eyebrow at Sam the indestructable ready to go to war on that issue with a very, very calm resolve. He wiggled his hand, "What's this mean? Mediochre? No he's excellent and smart as hell. But yes they are both staying here, and that is not a problem." It took certain types of people to casually say something as if that were the final opinion on the matter.IT was not a problem and it was not going to BE a problem suggesteth the man with his sleeves rolled to the elbow.
Cannonball tilts his head and lids his eyes, then grins a little. "Ah…just was curious, is all. Ah mean, mah brother's livin' here, so…its up to the big bro to make sure its good for him. Ah know its good few the rest of ya…" He sips his coffee.
Kaleb squint at Sam, lower eyelids pulling up in scrutiny. "Good for him?" he could say so many things right now but held potentially necessery artillery in reserve. Instead he sipped his coffee and added, "Define good, Sam? Good like this place isn't going to be broken into three times like Jay's old place? Good as in he's free to express his," There was a shake of his head and a cirlce made withthe coffee cup, "obvious mutations? Good asin knowing we have security on the building so we don't have to fear lynchings quite so much as they do in Mutant Town?" His molars set and pleasantly calm he asked, "What's your definition of 'good', Sam Gutherie, in regards to your brother, and my best friend?" The prissy prat in the Prada pinstripes was not much to worry about compared to Sam's powerful build but it didn't stop him from dinning in his heels like a pitbull to make sure his people were protected and he was waiting, waiting for something of a judgeemtn on his brother's, and hell his own lifestyle in regards to Jay's well-being.
"Ah barely know ya and I can be a bit protective. All I know is some rich guy and his gay brother is hostin' my brother at what I figure is no expense, and he's a nice guy, so he'd put up with plenty and if ya think ahm a jerk then that's fine. I do right by Jay and that's all I care about. Now Jeb's here too, so…that's another reason ta know what's goin' on around here." Sam sets the coffee down. "You know…the classic…if ya hurt him, I put a hole in your apartment…brotherly…thing."
|ROLL| Kaleb +rolls 1d20 for: 14
Kaleb set his coffee cup on the counter with no sound from it. He turned it exactly 1/8 turn to the left so the handle was just so before looking back up to Sam. He smiled. Oh god. He was… smiling. "So you'd be understandably, how do yours say 'hot under the collar' were any harm come to him or his esteem or sense of safety if" he took a moment to 'muse' this one, "people were going to just call him 'Mutant' or the obvious one? See?" He chuckled "I get that, Sam. I do. And you'd what? put a hole from, eeeeh there roughish" he poined at the long en of the room to the kitchen wall behind them, "To there ish? That is correct?" He arched an eyebrow while politely clarifying. "Or I would assume, hope even you'd take great exception with me foe executing or abetting it?" His head tilted as if oto make sure they were on the same page. Sam seemed he was a reasonably protective guy. Good good.
Kalebs cheeks pulled in and the politeness halted, "Because my brother Kellan has a name. He is not his preference, mutation, or any other designationoutside of our friend and my brother. Check your self, Sam, because being passivly judgemental about anyone's lifestyle or interests is not going to fly here. THis is not the Loer East Side and it's not Alabama or those hypocritical highrises out on the island. No one's coming after Jay here, or Jeb, or Vic, and very much not my own brother whose apartment we are standing in." He leaned forward holding eyecontact with Sam, "That fit your definition of good well enough for you, Guthrie?" He was hoping it actually would because getting punched by Sam would be excruating. Still, he didn't back down from protecting the privacy and lifestyles of those that lived here.
You know that Jay doesn't like to cause waves, though it seems he's oddly good at it anyway. He was out, but he's out a lot these days. Anything to keep himself distracted and busy. If he fills up every moment of his time with work and volunteering, then he doesn't have any time to think, and that's just how he's coping these days.
Out, probably helping Doug refinish the floors at the club, or doing his volunteering gig, or at workhell, maybe all threeJay arrives back home, but takes a strange way into the apartment rather than the front door. The door out to the balcony in Kaleb's room opens and closes quietly, and then, music. The Zombies. The record he got early for Christmas from Doug. Jay helps himself right at home in Kaleb's room as per the usual before heading to his own room to drop jackets off. The discussion in the living room still polite enough that he doesn't seem to take any notice of it or alarm to rush in. Taking his time.
"Yeah, ahm not so sure you get my full situation, but I just love mah brothers, and I know what this city /smells/ like, and /looks/ like, deep down, where's its ugly." He leans his arm on the doorjam, cocks his hips, "And I know mah brothers…and they seen darkness, they seen deceit and lies and…the ugly side a people, but they still look fer best, and ahd just like them to keep that attitude as long as I can." Sam grins, but there's a grimness in his eyes. "What's that sound? Someone home?"
Kaleb was aaaaaaall bristles and hanckles. When Sam met eye to eye with him the primped up prep school grad let his hackles lay back down. It was going to take a moment for him to back OFF his anger that was consolodated but deep and endless as a well. Deep breath. There was a nod and opened with , "Jay landed on the balcony and he's distributing findings." Breathing good. He swallowed and drank his coffee letting the back of his hips against the counter, "Yeah it's… " His jaw tightened, and he chuckled with a fain grin, this time without razors hidden in it. "Maaaan if you knew about my last summer?" His jaw tightened and he glanced to the roomws conjoined by the balcony and opted not to let the sound travel that far. Sor Sam that meant Myles Davis was suddenly NOT singing 'Joshua'. "Yeha few of us got taken, kidnapped and expieremented on. The people at the top treat anyone else, anyone Mutant, gay, Latino… gay mutant Latinos, whoever? Like they're jsut botght and sold commodity. THe people at the bottom? Just as bad half the time selling out their own for amnasty or the pay the system denies them making honestly. This city… well… it's fucked. But," He calmly added as a reassurance, "Anyone so much as fucks with your brother, or anyone of ours? I will but their freedom, their future, and their hope and reduce it to forgotten slag. No one is comming after Jay." Very clean staccato. He nodded to Sam and refilled his cup returning sound fluidity to its prior state of being. Sonics were his secnd super power, his primary one was pure finance; his weapon of choice.
Cannonball nods simply. "Hey Jay!" Sam calls out, trying to call to his brother, but unaware that Kaleb is manipulating sound. "Looks like he's got a decent set of friends then."
Nothing explodes or anything like that, so Jay remains merrily ignorant of the tense conversation happening in the other room. Hell, with the bubble Kaleb fits between the spaces, he remains doubly so, not sure anyone's actually home as he slips back outside and back into his own room to drop things off. A couple moments after the fact, the red-head comes out of his own room like some magic trick, wearing a pair of torn work jeans and a dark tee shirt spattered with paint across his chest. Cheeks red from the cold fly over and red hair mostly pulled back into a dinky ponytail, though there are plenty of fly aways, he looks surprised. What with the sound blip and all. "Oh. Sorry. Ah didn't know anyone was home." A small smile touches his expression, muted and polite, attention flicking between his older brother and best friend. "Uhhh…everything okay?" Jay cants his head, realizing he can't hear the music from Kaleb's bedroom. "Oh, damn. Are you havin' a rough day, Kale? Ah can turn that off…" Turning back for Kaleb's bedroom.
Kaleb warmed a smile and lifted his refilled mug to Jay "Nah we were just talking baout your excellent taste. How's the project coming along?" Since he was forced into being social. He added for jay's benefit, "Your brother and I were jsut discussing the merits of being an ass to the right people." He looked to Sam and asked, "You do dinner yet?"
"Nah…and yeah, Jay, been wantin' to know how yer songs and all are coming along, maybe when we'd get ta hear em and stuff, too." Sam smiles at his brother, all very friendly towards him, eyes a bright, cornflower blue.
Jay hesitates on his path back toward Kaleb's room, feet slowing to a gradual stop, stuck between the two rooms, he loosely hooks his thumbs into frayed belt loops, elbows hanging loose. "So you were teachin' him a thing or two, Ah take it, Kale?" An amicable smile to the sonic. "It's okay. Ah'm pretty sure if Ah could get tetanus, Ah would've by now. Those public bathrooms were a war crime. T'day was just scourin' the floors upstairs where Dougie's gonna have his apartment an' sandin' 'em down. It's gettin' there." He shrugs, wings fwipping behind him.
Jay's big green gaze falls on Sam, blinking a couple times. "Oh. Heh. Yeah. Well, they're okay. Honestly, there was a bunch of 'em in a theme that wasn't real, y'know, helpful." He squints and scrubs a hand through his hair and gets his hand stuck in the pulled back bits. Jay pulls the rubber band out with a snap, letting it all fall freely. "Been feelin' sort of out of it so it's been an uphill battle."