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JP has been busting his ass over the last few weeks trying to make… something - anything really - out of the upstairs loft. It had walls and drywall and while it wasn't perfect it was framed in pretty decently. He was trying to build anything that might be some sort of perminant-ish residence. Well someplace for himself that was a perminant residence that wasn't also a mandatory state facility. Ahem. But hey there were a great set of matching chairs and now a non-matching sofa. The chairs werepotentially the odd discussion here. And there was finally the semblance of a room that existed to house JP's duffelbag. Hey, it moved OUT of his car which was a huge start. Tonight teh pots and pans were out collecting drips while the radio hummed away in teh background.
When you're a cat, there's not a lot of need for anything particularly permanent or well-constructed, which Severin displays by having spent much of the afternoon in the form of a large russet colored short-haired cat with green eyes, stretched out on a windowsill in a position that not only defies gravity but the laws of spine-related physics. He yawns.
Elmo has also been working his tuchus off, because the original wiring in this garage offends him. OFFENDS. He's been in the process of redoing every last inch of it, installing lighting, repairing everything broken that he happens across (which is a lot) and now is pulling off his goggles with a weary sigh. He wipes his hair out of his face and squints up at the leaking skylights. "First thing tomorrow," he says, like he's been saying for the past several weeks, "we'll get that sealed."
Arlo knocks on the door. "Hey boss," he calls. "I scrounged up some buckets." He finds things while he's cleaning up. Usually it's stuff he sets aside for the experts to deal with, but he can handle a few buckets without the garage blowing up. Hopefully. .
JP took a deep breath and sighed, "Ya know, I say this ev'ry day about our frere, Louie's, mouth? Yet still he never shut up. Mmmmhmm." Tiredly he shook his head and finished getting primer on the finished wall. Looking to Arlo he pointed with index and forefinger "'Dere an' dere. Merci, Arlo." The top of the coveralls were left to hang at his waist as he itched his chest through his white t-shirt with that hand that was only faintly dyed blue now. Walking by Severin got scritchies. "Yeaaaaah you the good brother an you know it too." Looking to Arlo and Elmo he murmured, "E'en as a cat he smug. I dunno how he do it. Kitchen safe yet?"
Severin rolls over a little when Arlo comes in to stare at him upside-down, head dangling off the windowsill, tail swishing back and forth slowly. When JP scritches him, Severin purrs contently like the lazy and imperious beast that he is. His tail flicks a little bit, curling around JP's arm and then straightening out again. He is, in fact, smug, even as a cat, perhaps even moreso as a cat.
Elmo grumbles, flinging a hand at JP like: feh. "Yeah, yeah. I know, but, seriously this time." He pockets his goggles. "Hey, Arlo, how ya doin?" he greets the other young mutant. "Buckets, good idea. Better'n using all JP's pans. Kitchen's safe, Jeanushka, at least until you start chopping those peppers again."
Arlo puts the buckets where JP indicates, and he takes up the pots and pans the buckets are replacing and goes to pour the water into the sink. He's in his janitor's coveralls, which look so strange combined with that fine-featured face. Whatever, janitors can be pretty. He glances over at Severin and says, "Oh, you've got a cat." He smiles, though he doesn't look all that sure of the beast. Not dismayed, just not used to pets.
JP grinned ear to ear, fingers still scritching the cat. It might be weird to some but it's what one does to cats. At the grousing JP just griiiiined and told the 'cat', "Aaaawwww, mon frere, you miss it. I work on makin a decent chili. Foun' this gal roun' the block here in Mutan' Town grow ghost peppers? MMmmmm Elmo findin out the hard way how we like removin paint off tha' walls." He looked back over towards where Elmo and Arlo were with a satisfied grin, "An tastebuds. I thinkin we order up a pie delivered after this. Maybe three? Two f'us an one for the cat?" Yes, Arlo, they have a cat. He offered though curiously, "Yeah, seems I got a possum too… that wasn't intentional…"
As long as there are scritches, Severin continues to drink them in, his eyes closing to mere slits and that purr as steady as a well-tuned engine. Eventually though, he does roll off the windowsill to land on the floor with a plop on all four feet. He walks over toward Arlo then, as though sensing that uncertainty, and testing it. He walks up real close then plops his butt down and just stares at the man in the janitor coveralls, tail tip flicking back and forth slowly.
Elmo seems about to say something, then, doesn't, eyeing Sev-cat. "You know, this is WHY you now have a possum," he says to JP. He joins Arlo at the sink to wash up. "I thought I escaped the ghost peppers when we came back from New Orleans," he says wryly to Arlo, "but I wasn't so lucky. How's whasisface doing?"
Arlo watches the cat, and when Sev comes closer, he leans down to give him a pet. "Hello, kitty cat," he says in a light and pleasant tone. He knows in theory how you're supposed to treat cats, and he's trying. Petting is a start. He still doesn't seem sure about what he's doing, but he's trying. To Elmo, he says, "He's doing fine. I hope he can stay over next weekend." He looks up and asks, "How're you guys?"
JP loosly pointed index and little finger to Elmo, "You will n'er not have to go back to a life without not havin green chilis and ghost peppers. I promise maman. I promised you and I nothin if not no honest thief, merci." There…. should be a bit of time set aside to explain how double negatives work to Jean-Pierre, but hey, the man was on a roll. Helpful to Arlo he turned his hand over. "Like this. Lettum warm up t'us. Goes a lot faster if there's a $5 spot in your hand." Truth. He knew Bonaventures. Hell he'll purr against someone's have for $5. That's good money, man. On what's his face JP nodded not really knowing much about em but hey, that sounded good, right? "Heeey sounds pretty groovy." How were they? He looked to Elmo to confer and shrugged, answerin Arlo, "Eh we ain' kill one another. Is a good week I thinkin." And a dishtowel was coming at his head in 3…2…1…
Severin nuzzles against Arlo's hand and purrs, and then gets up and wanders off to another area of the loft, like cats do. He's gone for a few, and then Severin comes strolling back out, person-sized in a pair of jeans and work-boots, pulling on a long-sleeved thermal shirt over his head with a grin. "We got a possum now, too?" he asks in that Louisiana drawl. He gives JP's shoulder a smack and a squeeze and then he's heading into the kitchen to rummage around inside and pull out a drink.
Elmo would hate to disappoint JP; he whips the bundled-up dishtowel at him. It just kind of floats over, of course. "Still alive, despite everybody's best efforts," he says with a kind of sour humor to Arlo. "Let's get our heads in the game and really get messed up next week, guys."
Arlo cocks an ear toward the loft. Strange sounds coming from there. Then Severin steps out and he says, "I didn't hear you back there." He sounds a touch mystified by this. He waves a little and says, "I'm Arlo. I do the cleaning up downstairs." He glances at Elmo, then. "Got a target in mind or just running with the face we're spoiled for choice?"
JP snerked and looked to Severin returning the passing squeeze to his shoulder with a tap to the ribs with the back of his knuckles in a return 'hey' and a wry grin. Life was the Bonaventure cosmic joke they shared between them. Though it didn't make it over JP dodged the towel anyways. Digging into his pockets he fished the keys out of his pocket and tossed them to Sev who caught them to step out for pizzas. Pointing to the two remaining he said "Don' get no wise ideas… I'm still drivin. I just haven't… told him that yet." The grin was abit mischevious and there was likely going to be a wrong turn deliberately in there somewhere. Still, he trusted his brother but also trusted his brother to be his brother and stayed attached to the car. Who wanted to miss out on fun. Looking to Arlo and back to Elmo JP furrowed a look, "I got messed up las' week and got yelled at by you AND Vitale. ."
Elmo scowls and waves that off, but he looks guilty. He can't help it. Over what, it's a mystery. It could be a lot of things. He retrieves the towel and hangs it up. "You deserved it," he says, while he focuses on exactly lining up the hanging edges of the towel.
"We couldn't help it last time," Arlo says. "They were gonna attack us anyway. I'm not saying we should go look for trouble, just that trouble's out there and if we happened to take a walk in the same neighborhood, just casual-like…" His black eye from last time has healed by now, so of course he needs to cruise for a new one.
JP eyed Elmo with that stare; dark eyes and heavy row all angular features and expression like a cobra in wait. Or… or he was making th car do swervy things with Severin laghing and swearing at him. Or both. Slowly the the machinst slid a look to Arlo and completed, "If we in the same neighbourhood it come t'find me I think that' for sure." His eyes slid back to Elmo and he said quietly, "May hafta go back fer that one guy. Arlo… have a point."
"Casual like," Elmo echoes Arlo, like yeah of course, why didn't I think of that? He sighs, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "Can't leave it alone, can you? Okay. We'll go see him again." He glances at Arlo, eyebrows up. "Guy preyin' on guys on the street. Big bastard. Can take a lotta voltage."
"Let's go get him," Arlo says without hesitation. Sure, his combat skills are fists and knives and a keen eye, but he's ready. "He queer-bashing or mutie-bashing? Just being a prick in general? Doesn't matter, but I like to know."
JP was in the running for fastest fucker with a knife in the five borroughs without enhancement but still, he stayed that ivory handled switchblade in his back pocket and his fists, though not having disagreement with Arlo's inclination. "All the above. Tuned me up pretty good. We wen' back after em. I think I puttem in the hospital but honestly? I wanna know if learnin occurred. I ain' gonna peel a guy if he did what I ask em to. That ain' no good and take away that incentive to do the fuck what I tell em later or others." JP considered the bigger picture thoughtfully and sucked at one eyetooth. "Gonna lettem know we run this cell block now either way. So step one? We find dem 'dolls' that got hit and make sure they's okay. See what we can fin' out from em bout what's goiin on out there."
Elmo shrugs, actually a little unsure. "I dunno, can you call it queer bashing when you pay to get sucked off, then ya don't pay after all, and slap some kid around for it? Dunno what that's called, other'n being a grade A putz." He shakes his head at JP, mouth pulled down. "What do you really think that guy coulda learned?" It's mostly rhetorical, but not completely. He /is/ partly asking JP what he thinks. Just shrouded in Jewish aggravation and irony.
"What a putz," Arlo says. He's learning his people's language from Elmo. "I can listen in on what he's doing if i know where he is. He might just pretend to behave when he sees it's us, but you don't know, you know?" He cracks his knuckles. "I can't wait to bust this guy."
JP sighed and looked ceiling-ward at the point where the drip was coming in. "Arlo, we already bust em. Technically twice…sorta." His thumbs fell to rest in his back pockets. He was onto something. "We don' have to look for em, Arlo. We know the guy. Goes by the name the Foreman. We puttem in teh futzin hospital. If eh out? He leavin folks alone? Fine. If not…then…we go. We got suspiscion he might be one' them self-hatin Mutants. I mean he payin other guys off and callin them named f'bein queer when he's the one shellin out the cash? Little sayin he ain't no Mutant too. However, his shit hauntin other people be done."
Arlo tells JP, "Yeah, well I heard you. I ain't dumb. I just don't think he's gonna change. His type never do. If he has? Fine. I'll leave him be. If he hasn't? I'll put him through a window. What I'm trying to tell you is he might pretend he's on the up and up when he sees you, but I can tell you what he's doing and saying when he thinks he's in the clear."
JP shook his head slightly confused, "Sees me? Oh I'm not the one he gotta worry about. Also the fucker's like 300 pounds. I wasn' even puttin em through no window with Elmo's help. I got eyes on em right now. Only question's gonna be he go back t'my guys and do em wrong or not." JP had guys?! maybe it was a community pride thing. "That all I need know. It's… if there gonna be a pain parade and you wanna get your banner on I let you know."
"It's just that I knew guys like what you're saying got hassled. They didn't deserve it." He sighs and gives up on trying to convince JP he's a superpowered spy. He just waves it off with his hand. "Anyway, I'm itching for a fight. Too much going on in this town to just sit by and let it happen."
JP set hsi ajaw and took a deep breath slightly irritated but admitting, "Yeah well in this case I'm the guy that got hassled." Which might explain more than what the bayou badass wanted to admit but it was a short way to end that discussion on 'but why?' Walking over he adjusted one of the buckets and noted, "Thing that get' me about hte rain is it always so loud and never sounds right indoors… As for spyin? No need. I know where he live. He can' keep me out. he told do not hire no one for nothin. All we gotta do is ask if he been around aaaand if so? Well that enough to violate the parole I gave em an' I only leniant once."
Arlo's eyebrows lift a touch, but it's about the only outward response he gives. JP was the one getting his thing on? Huh. He watches JP as he moves, standing still in his tracks; it's an old habit so ingrained he's not conscious of it, taking up a position as defensible as it can be, preparing for a fight that may or may not come. Also a habit of watching every bastard in the room and keeping ears pealed for ones that might be hidden. Severin still has him confused as hell. "I guess I just want to be useful, and I got my fists, but my mind's a better weapon," he says. "So, you know, let me know when it is."
JP took a deep breathand slapped Arlo's houlder in solidarity. "You an' me both, mon ami. You an me both. Hell you may got one up on me honestly. Look… I tell you before… I get it. I won' get int'a why. Business stay business. Genrally I can accept a loss as I usually don't take up a project I ain' willin t'do for free, however, this? This different and there's a dignifigant financial difference involved and that asshole almos' put me in teh damn hospital. Now I don' care. Ain't no first time and I can scrap and take it. I know you know there people out there that stuck and do not have that luxury of doin shit cause they feel like it- or think they don'. This about them. This about tryin t' make an asshole an asset. This about business an' community." He paused and shook his head looking back oto teh chairs and then the windowsill. "A' maybe revenge. Can' jsut wax a guy though. That sorta time you don' jes' wanna wind up doin."
Arlo starts, then relaxes. Oh! Okay, it's not a hostile act, it's… it's friendly. Arlo even smiles, if fleetingly, and when he does… he just has such a nice smile, replete with dimples. He should do it more often. Then in the blink of an eye his features turn serious again. "Yeah," he says quietly. "I think I get it, JP. And no, that's not the kind of time you wanna do. I just get so fed up watching the TV or lookin' at the newspaper and I guess I'm just bucking for a fight, but I'll follow your lead on this one."
JP nodded solomnly one freelancer to another and offered to him teh wisdom of the ages, "We all tired seein them headlines. The headline I don' wanna read is the one where they blame you and packin you away. So as much as I itchin for a good scrap? We do things a lil different. We organized. We playin the long game. C'mon," He warmed that wily grin with that bullshit baouy charm on it, "we… have pizza t'help bring up." There was that waggle of eyebrows.