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Jebediah slept in the office after he cleaned it up, waiting until well after Jay and Kaleb had gone up to the apartment to actually pass out. There was no lying with Kaleb, he couldn't tell Jay that he was going to go home afterward, Kaleb would hear him downstairs breathing and moving around and would inform Jay that Jeb was indeed still in the club so, Jeb just didn't bother with telling either of them that he had planned on going home at all, therefore, no lies were told. He stretches his arms and then makes his way into the bar after fishing out a book from his bag, Ancient Art History it seems. Safe enough, while it looks like a worn out text book, Jeb could probably convince Jay that it was just something he had taken in interest in and Jeb was not indeed, trying to balance college and managing the bar full time. Jay had more than enough to worry about already.
For someone that doesn't get to see Jeb very often, on this morning, without the chaos of the night before, someone might be able to notice that Jeb was thinning. His eyes wore dark shadows beneath them that told of more than just one night of bad sleep and were also slightly red rimmed now. He looks up at the apartment, wondering if either of them were awake and whether or not he should go upstairs and try to make breakfast for them. Everything is better with bacon.
Kaleb in truth curled up and felt like his head was ringing with fifty sirens and spent half the night trying to just tune them out. He was a sight at that having none of his army of things to meticulously put himself back together. Fingers had made attempt to come through his hair but it was imperfect, and his stuit bearing the wrinkles of having been slept in. It was a hell of a bender. He had located cottonballs for his ears. He was tired. Cranky. He had no bacon and no coffee. It would seem he wandered downstairs looking possibly lost or for any of those things.
"Good morning, beautiful." Jeb teases, his voice is a whisper though, knowing that Kaleb's ears were still hurting him. He takes in Kaleb's disheveled appearance as he walks over to him. Jeb knows that Kaleb is probably the grouchiest thing on the face of the planet right now. "C'mere, you're a mess, Miller, a really gorgeous mess, but a mess." If Kaleb doesn't stop Jeb, the younger Guthrie will fix his hair for him and then take Kaleb's hand. "C'mon back upstairs, Ah'll fix you some coffee. Somethin' to eat." His voice never rises above a whisper. "Ah'll call Jay's friend for you, too. Vitale. Get your ears fixed up."
Kaleb actually managed a faint grin at the utter absurdity of that statement right now. Kalebs eyes were tiredbut he was functioning alright being a half step removed, but fretting in his own way. A hand waved and lifted slightly, Jeb able to hear his own voice lift louder and change in reverb a bit. So weird. "I honestly am fighting to hear you right now over the tinnitis." He was remiss to admit that but felt no need to hide behind such a facade with the youngest of the New York Guthries. When Jeb tried to fix his hair he jsut closed his eyes and let him try murmuring something about it being 'doomed' it was long too and wanted, ever so much to hang in his face and go I'm here! But he was being turned around, "Yeah I tried to call his house. Wasn't home last night. Honestly? Not an emergency right now. I lived with it for seven years. I can handle a few days." He didn't have to open his eyes to know where the stairs were, even if resolution was fuzzy from interference. "Where we goin?"
"Back upstairs, Doug got a kitchen up here, we don't make anything to eat in the club. If Ah wanna get you fed, gotta take you back upstairs." It is strange to hear his voice lift louder and change but he takes the hint and speaks a little louder for Kaleb to hear him, hand still wrapped around Kaleb's own as he guides him back up the stairs and into the kitchen where he sits Kaleb down with a slight rub of his shoulder. He then sets to making a pot of coffee for him and making some breakfast, scrounging up some eggs and bacon. "You want some aspirin? Will it help?" He asks, thinking that Doug must have some around here. Taking care of Kaleb was an ample distraction from all of everything else.
Kaleb waved fingers like counting on an abacus and changed where the modulations were. Regardless of Jeb's efforts the sound opted to stay consistant. that's lucky! He caught Jeb's hand before he turned away and shook his head on the aspirin watching Jeb like… what did he deal something? What was the look?! Ah, concern, Kaleb style. "Hey, how're you doing?" He paused and offered, "It's a bullshit rhitorical question. I know. It's what we're supposed to ask and I know… not good."
Jeb is surprised when Kaleb grabs his hand this time. Kaleb wasn't one to initiate contact so this is shocking to him. He tries not to make a big deal out of it, especially when Kaleb is expressing concern at him which is also new. "Um… Ah'm.. Ah'm not great, Cabbage, to tell you the truth. All of last night… Ah'm.. Ah'm not good." He rubs at his own head and then turns his hand in Kaleb's own rubbing his thumb against Kaleb's palm absentmindedly. "Ah'm scared, Kaleb." Does Jeb start to tremble a little?
Kaleb watched and while his hearing wasn't great, Jeb got his full attention. He squeezed the hand in a mute understanding and lifted Jeb's hand to look at the bruising on the knuckled with a faint grin, "You remind me so much of your brother sometimes." He paused and thought about it and offered, "When I started talking like that once… not… that I brought up Julia." Yes Kaleb knew and used her name, "But some… pretty angry stuff and Jay kinda laid me out like that." He…just admitted to Jay hitting him? There was a certain weirdsmile of approval. It was faint but he offered, "You made the right call. You fucked all my plans, but if ti was Kellan? I'd have done that too."
Jeb at first assumes that Kaleb means he reminds him of Sam and isn't sure if that's an insult or not when it comes from Kaleb who very much does not like Sam. When he compares him to /Jay/ instead, Jeb is confused and then smiles a little when Kaleb mentions that Jay has hit him before. "Listen, Cabbage, Ah ain't mean to be rude or nothin' but Ah kinda ain't suprised that Jay hit ya before, you're a recovering asshole. You're gettin' better though, way better." He pats the top of Kaleb's hand. "Ah'm sorry Ah fucked all your plans and also, Ah ain't a lick like Jay. He's the good Guthrie. Ah done too much bad shit to be a good Guthrie. Ah just couldn't stand there and listen to him tear Jay down like that anymore. Jay didn't do nothing to deserve it."
Kaleb seemed to take this in stride and held his hands up offering no disagreement nor offense at the lack of a surprise there. "Either way, proud of you for making the right call. I might have… an idea how to help Doug though based off what he said. I need more information though and… I don't think Jay'll be keen on teh solution as it's a little underhanded but if Doug's not pulling any punchs? We don't have a lot of room to either. I know… the family hurts right now. We'll work our way through this like Jay and the guys did for me when the mad scientist tried to pull me apart and mess me up pretty good." First he's mentioned it but he was… working at talking about it finding the productivity in it.
"It was the right call to punch him in the face? Usually Ah get yelled at for deciding things with my fists." Jeb says and gets up to go over and procure Kaleb some coffee. "Tell me about your solutions, Cabbage, Ah'm all ears, enough about me. And…" He turns around then after starting the coffee and looks at Kaleb worry written into his features. "Mad scientist? Pull you apart? What the hell happened before Ah got here? Are you alright?"
|ROLL| Kaleb +rolls 1d20 for: 5
Kaleb dropped into a slouch int eh chair and just shook his Head. "Long story. You know… we talk about how…" He really hated the word but it worked for now, "Mutants have been taken all over the globe?" Kaleb's jaw tightened but it was what it was and quietly he said, "I was …one of em." It was not something he talked about almost ever and it really wasn't eh time to talk about it now, or, maybe it was? Tongue ran thoughtfully over lower lip lifting a hand in vague gesture,
"They drugged me and… my girlfriend at the time. I woke up secured to a hospital bed with tubes and… things and some chemicals running through me and I couldn't… I couldn't hear or feel…anything." He flinched in the smallest of ways, hand wavering before that shit was immediately caught ad laid to rest on the surface of the table, eyes fixed on an insignificant point. There was, in teh quiet, what was unintentional from teh very carefully constructed Miller, a tone that was just fear. "I couldn'tmove my libes. Everything was heavy and I couldn't… I couldn't stay awake. I couldn't call for help." Completely disconnected from his ability. "THey had me on some… blocker to try and control it and then splice something to my DNA, the genes and stuff that make you…well you… Doug's calling it 'core base code… but they…rewrote me. Accelerated everything and I couldn't control it and now I hear way… too much… constantly… and it never. stops." Hence Jay telling Jeb sound proofing his room would mean a lot. Eyes closed, damp. "I never wanted to see my family again so bad in my life. And Jay'd just finished coming to terms with the death of his roommate. It was… like a year ago August first."
Seallowing he slowly put hismself back together, "It's why I can't stand to see Jay go through this… a fourth fucking time. But also? WHy really? Doug may really need some help."
Jeb comes back over to Kaleb when he starts to talk, forgetting about making breakfast for a moment to come stand by Kaleb while he tells him about this. Jeb sits down next to Kaleb, mouth slightly agape as Kaleb tells him about all the torture he's had to endure. Jeb reaches over to take Kaleb's hand once more, holding it tenderly with his own. He doesn't interupt to ask any questions, he just allows Kaleb to get it all out before he speaks at all.
"Oh, god, Kaleb, Ah didn't know. Ah'm so sorry that you had to go through that." He says when he finally does speak. He reaches over, and very gently, swipes his thumb over Kaleb's cheek, beneath his eyes before he gets up, and wraps his arms tightly around Kaleb in a big Guthrie hug, something he's sure Jay has subjected Kaleb to plenty of times. "We'll get Doug fixed up. Jay's gonna be okay. We'll make damn sure of it. Everything is going to be okay. And, Kale?" Jeb pets fingers through Kaleb's mess of hair and leans back to look down at the other man. "Ah need you to listen to me for a minute, really listen. It's okay for you to sometimes not be okay."
Kaleb was rebuilding his core slowly which had a ton of practice and din't take long at all. Quietly he assured, "Good. Almost never am. I mean… I've grown up with my disability. I just cover for them really fucking well." He sighed not really talking about that either, but also there wasn't much to say on it. Hand squeezned Jeb's hand and elbow with both his. "…thanks. Ummm Doug said something about the brain is a computer and he effectivly fed it instructions. Short story? I know various ways instructions can be fed to the brain. EWe might be…able to override his logic loop."
"So you can tell him orders, in his head to break the loop? Could you order him to go back to the way he was before? And then it would just be over? Do you gotta do it more than once?" Jeb asks, releasing Kaleb to go back to finally procuring the other man food and coffee. "He was talking about a virus, right? Could you telling him stuff be like a pill? You gotta take more than one, right? So you would have to give him that more once to make it permanent."
Kaleb was still wrapping his brain around this and said "Some telepaths and that can convince you some things that aren't real are and vice versa. It's… frowned upon Obviously. Soundscan… deliver that information but you can't make someone, as you say, swallow the pill. Uhhhhh you know how Jay plays guitar and can read music?"
"Well, yeah, Ah can see how Jay might not like it but if it gets the problem solved, then we should try it. It'll probably go over with Jay better than me repeatedly hitting his head against a wall until he stops being mean." Jeb says, a small laugh escaping but it's bitter. "Yeah, Ah know." Jeb says, wondering where this is going as he cracks eggs into a frying pan.
Kaleb chuckled, "Yeah and we need Doug's brain better, not worse off. I mean… he's hurt and … he's damaged right now. We treat him like an enemy we will make him an enemy. He's tryin t'help. We need t'listen and find out what he thinks help is… and then tell em it's a dumb play." He paused and murmured, "Also maybe not kill Sam." Even Kaleb had to admit that was a bit far. "Ya know, ahving had …t'… ya know kill an unkillable guy? It's… really super not okay and it's ultra hard to do sooooo we might want to circle back to that both for Sam's same and also because it might give us a clue as to how he's operating and what he's onto to sabotage that." There was the tactical Miller again. Grim. Efficient. Now with Bacon!
He sat patiently trying to go back to the progress part. "So think on Jay reading music. He's scanning it, interprets it as he goes aaaaand he plays what's there. Imagine someone sneaking notes onto teh page eventuallyy overwriting the bars of msic? Then they got him playing… wht ever but it's not the song that he's supposed to be playing. That's not the sound of the song. So what I'm saying is since we need Doug to go back to playing the music as written? We add MORE notes to bring him back to the original written stuff but in a way he can follow the rbeadcrumbs on his own."
"This is why Ah think Jay wants me to just handle the club because Ah can't do anythin' but screw up all the time. It's hard not to wanna hit someone when he's being mean to my brother and it's hard for me to see him as a guy who thinks he's doing the right thing when he's actin' crazy like that. Ah'm pretty good here, managin' the club and stayin' the hell out of the way." Jeb looks back at Kaleb with a dangerous look when he says 'maybe not kill Sam'. He holds Kaleb's coffee hostage for a minute before he brings it over to Kaleb with one more warning look. "Ah know you ain't like him much but he's mine and Jay's brother. We love him. Ah don't want him hurt."
Jeb tries to comprehend what Kaleb's saying. "So you're gonna add the notes? Until he's playing the right tune again?"
Kaleb held his hand out for the cup and shrugged to Jeb, "Hence the plan t'find out how so we can make sure that doesn't happen. Also Sam might nowt know he's somehow got a vulnerability that could be exploited." He held upa finger, "If you kenew something obscure like if you got hit ina scertain spot would make you like have a heart attack you'd put armour on that or be careful right? If Sam doesn't know? Sam can't do that. I don't like him because he says mean things about my brother being gay." He held up a hand to put a hold on teh charge, "That doesn't mean I want to see same hurt, so… yeah. This whole thing is terrible, but it might give us clues as to who might also be in danger soooo we can help them." Using his mastermid powers for… saving lives. Who knew? "Besides I promised your mama."
"You've talked to my mama? And Ah know why you don't like Sam. Sam ain't gotta be your cup of tea for you to not want him to get killed because he's our brother. If Kellan said somethin' nasty to me, Ah wouldn't want him to die. Ah'd probably just hit him, though. Ah think maybe you just need to hit Sam, get it out of your system." Jeb suggests setting the coffee in Kaleb's hands before he goes to fix him a plate of eggs and bacon, bringing it back to Kaleb as well.
Jeb doesn't go back to make anything for himself.
"Yeah, Elmo was sayin' that viruses, they spread, they can be contagious." Jeb says to Kaleb mentioning other people might be in danger.
Kaleb looked up and countered, "THoughts and concepts are catching too. Like people thinking it's okay to talk shit about minorities, political agendas, voting, thinking for one's self, that tye-dye is a thing." COuld go either way really. He let Jeb think on it but offered, "Thanks… for breakfast." He noticed.