1964-07-18 - Rich People Are The Worst
Summary: Jay crashes in Kaleb's room while he gets ready for a familial obligation dinner. The two chat while Kaleb anxiously snarks and Jay offers moral support.
Related: If there are no related logs, put 'None', — please don't leave blank!
Theme Song: None
kaleb jay 


Kaleb was up mid-day still irritated about the phone line being down because Captain Marvel decided to sonic boom right outside their building and wrecked some infrastructure. Never you mind that he did that to a whole city block not a week ago. This was different because it affected him now. Still he spent a good deal of time killing the last of the hot water, and shaving before returning to his room wading around in a bathrobe spending a good twenty minutes on his hair. Laid out across the foot of his bed carefully was one of the nicest suits for a formal dinner anyone of 18 had in the city. He had…plans?


"Mah momma is gonna kill me," Jay mentions with a guilty smile curving his mouth as he strolls into Kaleb's bedroom casually, developing a familiarity for the caustic young man and his habits, comfortable enough to just help himself in to the room and usually out to the balcony, though the suit throws him off for a moment of curiosity. "But…Ah can't honestly feel too bad—hey what's with the suit, Mister Bond?"


If Kaleb had any more nervous energy there'd be a faint thrumming around the room. For now it was passively left with the radio. He sighed. He always sounded vaguely annoyed and tonight was passively little different. Okay hair was done. Socks first and on up. He did answer Jay though absently, "I have to do a dinner in Manhattan at the Ch%<226>teau de la Vie." It even sounded fancy. He shook his head looking up to Jay, "It's this thing my father is expected to be at and he's in Paris right now and won't be back until October from Europe. SO, as to not humiliate our family name, someone need to go." He put his pants on and very carefully picked at his shirt to make sure it was just so. They judged on these things and he did too.


Slooooowly, Jay's brows begin to rise while Kaleb explains himself and the light static of anxiety hovering around the room. "Oh. Wow." That's one way to put it. There's so much in that sentance that just seems…overwhelming to Jay, he's not even sure where to begin. So, instead, he blows out a breath and sits on the edge of Kaleb's bed. "That sounds…stressful. Take it Kellan wasn't feelin' like drummin' up a copy to go for you?" Jay peers over the suit, curiously. "At first, Ah thought you had a date or somethin', but this sounds somehow more terrifyin'…"


Kaleb shook his head squinting in the mirror, removing an eyelash and then going about buttoning his shirt. Man even the sleeves had creases and special little lacquered buttons? Kaleb seemed to be taking to suiting up in a tux the same way the X-Men would suit up for a combat mission. Really, there was little difference. The weapons and the arena of engagement were different, but one wore the right armour for the right sort of conflict to give them every advantage.

The comment was met and answered as he meticulously fixed his collar. "Eh, wouldn't do that to Kellan. He has to pretend else-wise twice over already. This? I got this." He was, despite his faults, acutely aware of the danger and backlash Kellan faced for being both gay and a Mutant. Kaleb having only one social stigma of apparent note, would shoulder the burden of games of glad handing. "Eh, I might. Depends if she shows. That yet remains to be seen as I have zero confirmation that she even plans to attend." He sighed shaking his head and waded to his closet pulling out a flat jewelry box of ceder, and opening it to a tiny army of cuff links, tie tacks, button covers, and a couple watches. Here was the hard part. Choices, choices.


Jay's quietly certain that one of those little buttons costs more than his entire wardrobe, church clothes included. Sitting on Kaleb's bed, watching him methodically get dressed in a fascinated fashion. His head tilts to one side, eyes glued to his friend's person. The little details and nuances, fascinating. "That sounds excitin'. A little nerve-wrackin, though if you don't even know if she's goin'. Is that really a date if you're not sure she's gonna show?" Then, as an after thought, Jay queries, "She-who?"


Kaleb was snappy tonight. Something had him on edge. If he was really angry with Jay he'd demand him out of his room though certainly. That was pretty much without question. Blue eyes peered at the winged one as he fussed with his cufflinks. "Ms. Lorna Dane, barring that she and I are on speaking terms this day." He paused and mumbled, "I never… said it was a date, Jay. I said it was a dinner."


Jay doesn't seem to notice the snappishness, that's just Kaleb at this point, but the 'Ms.' portion does get a surprised glance. "Ms. Lorna Dane?" He repeats the honorary he gives her with a hairline of suspicion in his voice. "Yeah…she's kind of emotional an' hot-and-cold sometimes. A little bit of a princess sort, bless her heart." Jay murmurs gently, his heart too kind to say anything malicious with any sincerity, even his criticisms seem to come from a place of awareness and affection. "Sorry, Ah just assumed that since she was goin' and you were goin', it was a date situation."


Kaleb carried on as he did; forward and undaunted. He looked completely put together. And then? Then he shook his head with disapproval and took the cuff links out and removed the collar with a sigh looking back at the box. Dryly he retorted, "Yeah, well if you don't get worked up over not getting something did you ever really want it?" Sure, he could defend 'princess' behaviour. Hell that was the part that made sense to him. He paused and looked to Jay and seemed bewildered by this concept of a 'date situation'. "Why the hell would she want to do that? Besides when she took off last night I might have been public enemy number 47." He paused and admitted, "Harder to move up the list with no actual nefarious agenda I guess. After being back in New York for two weeks I'll admit the competition on that front would be steep."


Jay thinks about Kaleb's point and gives it its honest due while he watches his friend tear his collar out and go back to selecting his accessories. "Ah don't know. Some people don't care at all about the /thing/, they just hate /losing/." Pondering over the perspective for a moment. "Entitlement, you know? Like you say, how many humans do you think really care one way or the other really about mutants existing, but it's not about us existing so much as it is about them /losing/ or not having something. Ah think a lot of people don't actually want things, they just don't like to lose. Happens all the time in relationships." His eyes lift toward the ceiling thoughtfully, frowning while his train of thought leads him elsewhere for a moment. he comes back, however, when Kaleb begins to speak again. Jay shrugs a shoulder mildly and stretches over the top end of Kaleb's bed leaning on his elbow. "47's not bad. Ah think that puts you under the zombies an' spiders an' werewolves." The musician smiles softly, joking. "Ah dunno. People do all kinds of things that don't make a whole lot of sense at the time." glancing down to Kaleb's bedspread, Jay rubs the cloth between his fingers, fiddling a little bit.


Echo Proxy actually cracked a grin at Jay's joke about his present social standing in villain while Jay fidgeted with the wonders of a 600 thread count marvelousness. He paused though staring into the box and picked out set number two and fit them to his cuffs. When his brother professed that Kaleb fret worse than a woman over what he wanted to wear at times that it wasn't wrong. He looked up at Jay, feather messenger of simple truths and considered the insight. For all that Kaleb would profess that Jay didn't know anything he never made the mistake of considering him stupid. He let his brain chew on that for a while and fianlly admitted, "I wouldn't know much on that, pal. My dating life looks more like a dotted line than anything else. I tire of people, they tire of me even faster, and no one's got anything to say that someone else hasn't said a hundred times and none of them mean it." He paused finally relenting the latter point, "And she's actually got to show which after our discussion over lunch yesterday? Has… I think maybe a 38.4% chance if I was going to use Kellan math."


Jay smiles mildly down at the sheets he fiddles and threatens with the constant friction of anxious fingers. Still, the red-head glances upward and smiles to Kaleb. "She'll show. Percentages aside, Ah'd bet she'll show. Human nature. An' you don't have to be in a relationship t'observe others. Ah've only had one real one." Jay looks down at his fingers again. "A date an' a rough rejection don't account fer much aside, but Ah've watched others." He inhales deeply and exhales hard with a fwip of his wings. "But romances aside, people don't like t'lose. Doesn't matter what it is. Th' more investment they got in it, or the more appealin' it seems, the worse they like it."


Kaleb concluded, "You're not missing out on much. It's almost always the same thing and it's tedious and superficial and people trying to cater to expectation. Never really get to meet anyone and when you do, Oh look at THAT!" he gasped and gave Jay his 'shocked' face. "then you find out they are helping their parents make their neighbourhood safe from the 'mutant threat' and 'people like that'. I'll be honest I'm not interested in listening to people babble on about what 'mutants' are doing and 'god I hope no one in my child's school'. " He winced looking to Jay who had it worse than he did. He felt for him at that point, clearly. "It's… hard hearing everything and the things people say when they don't think people can hear them. Dating's no better. Same bs, junior scale. Be nice to actually get to have dinner with a conversation I don't -fucking- have to just endure." He paused and shook his head. The cuff links wouldn't do either. Onto number three. Fixing them in place he muttered, tying his bow tie, "Jay, this loo straight?" Okay now he was officially nitpicking and stressing out.


Flicking his eyes up while Kaleb mocks and practices his superficial expressions, Jay's eyes shine with humor, turning into little green crescents of mirth looking across the bed at his friend. A smile that fades from his gaze, but that patient, pleasant curve to his mouth remains as a resting position. There is a slight glance down and a flutter of his wings once Kaleb gets into the ugly stuff. Still, he manages to joke in a soft puff of air, "Sounds sorta like th' south. Everyone in everyone's business. Smilin' at 'em in church and whisperin' on the streets." And when his family started turning up mutant, well…it was a blessing the first two didn't 'show'. Looking back up, he tilts his head and lifts his hand up, canting it slightly counterclockwise. "Just a little that way. You are lookin' sharp at the very least. Sharper than usual," Jay smirks. "Who knows, you might just have a half decent time."


Kaleb nodded and fixed his bow tie. Okay, he had all of the points covered. "Driver'll be here soon. Man I hope I do not have to do this alone tonight. It'll be wall to wall terrible converations and feigning interest in other people." He relented to Jay's point that he might have a good time. "Yeah. She's pretty groovy, could happen." He let Jay help him spot anything he missed as he pulled his jacket on and looked back to him. He din't feel bad for Jay for his lack of advantage, but angry. he was angry the people he was about to go dining with helped create the very reason he couldnt and offered his unlikly friend a promise, "Hey, someday, man, someday we'll change it around. I'll let you know how it goes and if I'm out stupid late I might just crash at the house." Because Manhattan home wa scloser than the aprtment. He looked at the living room and back to Jay offering since he wouldn't be there to cut the noise, "Hey if you need to crash in here go ahead. I'll catch you in a bit."


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