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Vic is having one of those rare moments where he's not working or at school or doing homework. He's in jeans and a t-shirt, sitting cross-legged on the floor with his hands on his knees, and he's staring into space. Maybe he's a robot and this is him powering down? Who can say. His curls are mussed, and he looks very relaxed.
Kaleb came out of his room wearing a t-shirt and his pajama pants. This is not uncommon for Vic or Kaleb or Jay or Max to see, but never ever the general public or someone that didn't live there. People might even correctly guess he dressed for dinner in the privacy of his own home because that's what you do. Really since the trouble withthe MET Memorial Day weekend he's spent most of his time away from outside people and remaining productive as a personal therapy. Positivly it seemmed to pay off. The month on teh island did as well. He came in and sat on teh couch, crossing his legs, rest elbows on knees and looked down at Vic. "I missed your birthday." Out of absolutely nowhere.
Vic lifts his head, blinks a few times, and a smile dimples his cheeks as he turns his head to look at Kaleb. "I didn't even think about it," he admits. "Every day is a gift." Kaleb dressed for comfort creates a relaxed atmosphere for the mote. Though, of course, how Kaleb wants to dress is nothing for him to get furtive about anyway. "How are you today?"
Kaleb muttered with his usual dry salt, "No, gifts you can send back when you don't like them and buy yourself something tasteful instead. I tried returning whole days but life demanded a receipt." Yeah he's not relaly changed. "I'm… good. I'm kinda trying to pan out my five year plan and relly wish your grandfather was about. That'd be…super amazing. As it is? Eh I'm weirdly not the one withthe problems. I'm enjoying this shit while I can. I can't hear out of one side of my head but it's not like this is new. I was jsut thinkig about cylical events and birthdays came up. I'm pretty sure Max is a Gemini…"
Vic's smile broadens. "I'm glad you're good. You've had a pretty bad time." His brow furrows with sympathy. However else the world sees Kaleb, to Vic he is a treasured friend who has been through some shit. People must be kind to Kaleb, in his book. "I don't know where Opa has been," he admits. "I'm going to see if Dad will teach me magic. Even if I never learn how to do it, I'd like to know how it works."
Kaleb arched an eyebrow, "That stuff really blows my mind." He grinned looking down to Vic with wry amusement, "Don't tell em cause I'll never live it down, but I'm kiiiiiinda pissed Billy takes apart what I spent years studying like it was nothin. I kinda hate em… but I kinda love em. I dunno. I think your brother and I are too much alike at opposite ends of reality. That's okay though. He's a twin too. We're like that."
Vic pats Kaleb's knee, and he says, "I think I understand what you're saying. For what it's worth, just because he can do those things doesn't mean he can understand them the way you can. I've learned that sometimes having to take the long way around teaches you more. Like… like you can flip a switch and the light comes on. That's easy. But the guy who studies how electricity works can do more with it than the guy who just knows to flip the switch."
Kaleb let the grin hand, dropped his legs and flopped over on teh curved couch so he shared a plane with his roomie. "Yeah and I'm the guy that wants to know all teh shit about electrisity without ever getting a job in teh field. Sooo it's weird. But like physics are there to make things work and he just… punches holes in them like a kid making a snowflake garland and it is cool… and super infuriating, but… " He let the smile stay since it near never comes out watching wondermote, "He made it, supposedly, that I'm kidnap proof now so… I mean I sleep again."
"Knowledge for the sake of knowing has value," Vic says. "Don't get me wrong. I love my brother, and he's super cool. It's just not for me." He smiles at Kaleb with all the pretense of a golden retriever. "I'm glad you're kidnap-proof. That's got to get nervewracking after awhile."
Kaleb furrowed his brow trying hard not to think about it. "Yeah I'm having fewer nightmares on it but they're still there. It's… still happening to people. Not-me people but people." Taking a deep breath he closed his eyes mulling it over with Vic, "Max said you can either be a politician or a teacher but hands are going to get bloodied either way but… I can't like… do both and I don't know what I need to focus o and it's not clear y aknow?"
Vic lowers his gaze. "We can save them," he says quietly. "I have to believe that. Just remember you have us, okay? I'm not a great thinker, and I'm no politician, but I can fight, and I can follow orders. Tell me what to do, Kaleb, and I'll do it." He's quiet a moment, then says, "The way I figure, Max is all the politician anyone could ask for, and the world always needs teachers."
Kaleb shook his head and mused, "Maybe. Can keep going after them with a strike force OR focus down on global policy and… how politics politic. But that's what Max means by can't do both. Unless one is Kellan being in two places at once? Super difficult. But like…I want my own island where we can put our people and they would be safe, but it'd also need to be sustainable. Hafta figure that part out. I want to keep that island we found though. I tell you what I ran across hiking?"
"We're lucky to have Max, because he has experience being a wise ruler," Vic says, not only with a straight face, but utterly sincere. "We'd always have to be ready to defend, but that's all right. Part of leadership is delegation. We find someone who knows what they're doing, and they can be in charge of the fighting." He does not volunteer himself as someone who knows what he's doing. No, that is not his thing, alas. "What did you find while you were hiking?"
Kaleb smiled warmly, his eyes not open, "He's pretty amazing. he's made mistakes. He's done some great things. He's still learning like teh rest of us, but his experience is invaluable. I just don't… know where things are going to go and with tho guys in teh private sector having all that dirt on me… well I dunno what they're going to do with it and THAT… t" He shrugged and yawned, "I don't want them to make me the asshole, Vic." Cracking an eye open he s free hand became animated, "Remember that room with the blue cystals we saw back when first island trip? We found the room where they create people like Max. Planned genesis as it were. There was a guy mummified in diamond in there. It was cool and scary… and he was till alive after thousands of years."
"Maybe if you got dirt on them," Vic says. He's just thinking aloud. There's no end game there. Tit for tat, mutually assured destruction. He can't quite wrap his head around it, and the notion passes unexamined. He shifts a bit to face Kaleb, and his eyes widen. "Oh wow. Is he still there? Did Max see? How would you even get him out? Diamond is the hardest stuff there is. Man, if he wakes up, it's going to blow his mind how much has changed in a thousand years."
Kaleb arched an eyebrow recalling it liethe events of someone else's car accident. "Oh Max saw. He attacked him telepathically ad tried to lock him down. I had to breka teh little diamond guy apart which I thought could bounce cound…elsewise, but too bouncy. Bork him. Almost broke Max. it was… kinda a grand Kaleb Miller mess. That guy was iiiiinsane." And that he dates Max and was throwing stones at that guy might be telling. "It's why I asked you to help heal him. I didn't want him pride to get hurt so… just thanks. For trustin me. I meant it though. I want to buy that place."
Vic says easily, "I always trust you, Kaleb. You're one of the smartest guys I know." His expression is rather gentle as he smiles up at him. "You should buy that island. It feels kind of like ours, doesn't it? The stuff we've found there? It's a safe little out-of-the-way place. I can think of lots of reasons for you to own it. Between the bunch of us, we can make it secure, too."
Kaleb stretched and folded his arms under his head considering this. "Yeah, I think you're right. We likely can, nand, while you're also right that's I'm brilliant it doesn't mean I'm always right. History has shown us that great ability is not paired with great judgement."
"Maybe," Vic says, "but anyone else I put my faith in is going to be the same, aren't they? No one's infallible. Not even my Dad, though if he's got flaws I haven't seen them." He might be wearing blinders when it comes to his parents, too. They are the forces of his creation after all. "I trust you to keep a cool head, though. Me, I know I get too emotionally involved to think straight, but I've seen you step back and consider the broader view."
Kaleb chuckled and looked amused, "I thought you said the brother view and I was going to say hey sometimes he is the mean one. Like when he kinda broke up with my ex for me. Buuuut," He thought about Strange and Kaleb offered, "Empathy." Huh? "He fights empathy. I can tell because he does the same shit I do. Too analytical. We're not feely people. We're thinky people…It is what it is. Hard to relate to people when they're beneath you but he's the fuckin Sorcerer Supreme. What're you gonna do?
Vic beams with pleasure at the mention of Kellan, even in the light that he can be the mean one. "She was bad for you," he says with full approval of said meanness, "and he doesn't like seeing you hurt." His gaze is drawn inward as he thinks about Kaleb's words. Really thinks about them. "I think that, for him at least and maybe you, to have such a brilliant intellect, it must feel like the more reliable tool. It has served you well." He smiles tentatively. "I'm not dumb, not by any stretch, but I feel things more easily than I think them."