|
![]() ![]() |
Kaleb called Jeb saying something about 'needing help' and inquiring if Jeb could come over. That was it. Upon arriving the apartment hadn't burned down and someone (obviously not Kaleb) had coffee in the coffee pot for him (in case of emergency) which left… what? It left Kaleb wading around his studio room. For all he was the youngest 60 year old ever his room was still that of a 20 year old and was super mod. He was pacing back and forth, suit pants with crip creases in teh front, waistcoat looking, eh a little bit leaner than Jeb remembered. Kaleb wasn't ever overweight, he actually had a considerable bit of muscle. Had. he was definiately leaner.
By now, Kaleb had to know that he need only tell Jeb he needed him and Jeb would throw down everything for him. Which is exactly what happened. Jeb had rushed over to the ritzy apartment complex that Kaleb and his brother stay in, rushed up the stairs, too impatient to wait on the elevator, concerned immensely. When he makes it up the stairs and lets himself into the apartment, he's gasping for breath. "Cabbage.. are.. you.. okay?" He breathes heavily between words, and even though he's gasping for breath, he can tell that Kaleb is looking thinner.
Kaleb flinched faintly shaking his head once. Reeeecalibrating. He boggled at Jeb, "Yeha I'm fine. I need help with this." He held up what looked like paint samples and sighed, "Our brothers aren't visual artists and Max is… not always on teh wavelength of the project." Kaleb could euphamize 'eccentric as hell itself' for days. He blinked and looked to Jeb, top to bottom to top again and blinked confused. "Why are you running? Are you being chased because I can throw them out."
"You eaten in the last week, Cabbage? Let me order us somethin', alright? You like sushi, right? Can get some delivered. Ah know a place. You want me to make you some coffee? How about a pizza?" Jeb is in full older brother mode despite the fact that Kaleb is older than him. "Ah ain't bein' chased, Cabbage, Ah was scared you were in trouble or hurt." He puts a hand on his chest, trying to catch his breath.
Kaleb blinked and boggled, "Yeah I eat just fine?" He shrugged and nodded to coffee pausing "God pizza does sound good doesn't it?" Huh. In socks Kaleb waded across teh floor looking and flipping between panels of colour. He paused and an amused grin actually graced his face. WIth a snicker the grin got wider and he shook his head, "If I was in trouble, trust me, everyone would hear about it and there would be marching orders left and right." He paused and blinked looking at Jeb, "You're in teh middle of a … thing. How's Doug?"
"Ah'm ordering us a pizza, where's the phone? What do you like on yours?" Jeb says simply and moves into the kitchen to start up a pot of coffee for Kaleb. He looks good and worried about the other man. "So what am Ah picking out paint colors for? What are we using it for?" He frowns when Kaleb asks about Doug. "He's still a big ol' asshole but Ah went and talked to my friend, and he's got another friend, Mister… Constellation or something, that thinks that maybe Doug ain't entirely rewrote himself, that some of him is still in there."
Kaleb asked "The bring me things box?" He blinked and sighed answering seriously this time, "Phone's on the table out there behind the pit with the couches." He shook his head again "Swear you sound like my nanny when you carry on like that though…" He paused and squint, "Her birthday is in like two weeks. I should have something sent." Cash equals caring right? He waited to Jeb to make the call and nodded to teh overall pla. Maybe a little bit of Doug was there? Good. "If that's the case they say what they're going to do>"
"Ah am your nanny. Someone's gotta make sure you eat and don't work your damn self to death. Why the hell ain't Max feedin' you? He's your damn boyfriend. He's supposed to take the hell care of you? Call him up. Give him a piece of my damn mind." Jeb grumbles while he takes a mug out to fix Kaleb his coffee and aggressively flips through the phone book to find the closest pizza joint. "What do you want on yours, Cabbage. Y'all New Yorkers are weird with your damn Aunt Chovies and what not."
Kaleb looked very confused. "Why do I have the feeling I'm missing something here. You're not Ms. Colleen for one. She is way not as young as we are. Two, Why are we acting like I'm a refugee from a war film?" He was quick to answer though, "Just tell them meat stuff. You can pick and choose." He may be an imperious little snot but he was still 20 and loved pizza like his actual peers.
"You're /thinning/, Kaleb." Jeb grumbles and holds up his finger once he's got the pizza place on the phone, telling them to just mess it up with whatever meat they've got as long as it isn't fish and add extra cheese before he hangs up. "You're losing weight. You have to eat. You have to take breaks and eat, Kaleb." He says and fixes Kaleb a cup of coffee and brings it over to him.
Kaleb looked confused and then? Painstakingly sighed. "Whaa- ooooh yeah I…" He sighed and set his jaw shaking his head, "I used to be in the water constantly. I was on my rowing team and . I dunno. I thought it was muscle loss from not working out. Then again my DNA was stripped and rebuilt so who knows." He paused and looked towards Kellan's door and back to Jeb and actually asked, "Why? It look bad on me?" OH for the fragile egos of the world be still.
"Cabbage," Jeb complains and pinches the bridge of his nose, grumbling something under his breath. "Like you don't know that you're one of the most beautiful men alive. You're gorgeous, alright? You're like artwork. You look fine, with a capital f. I'm worried you're not eatin' enough. I still want to kiss you just as much as I always do." Did Jeb say that out loud?
Kaleb rubbed the front of his vest idlyhaving himself his microscopic crisis of fashion. he was never buff but he also had no real inch to spare either. He started to grouse and stopped short, "I know it sounds stupid but it u-" He linked looking to Jeb and just. blinked. He didn't know what the protocol for this was and thus blinked again. "I can't tell if that's a compliment or if it was a loss to begin with but either way for the best. I'm mean and your brother would yell at you."
"You're not as mean as you think you is and it is a compliment. You were the first guy Ah ever wanted to kiss, so it's a compliment. And it would never work because Ah'm dumb and Ah ain't fashionable and Ah don't speak the same kind of language that you and Max do, Ah've realized this. My brother don't need to know." Jeb huffs at Kaleb. "Ah'm tellin' you that you're still plenty gorgeous."
Kaleb stood up and thought about that and said "I have it on good athority from the brothers that I really am mean and I trust them. It doesn't make me wrong Jeb, it just doesn't mean I'm nice about it. It's okay I promise." There was a faint grin that followed. "Oh! hey, sooo I'm htinking about having some of this repainted? I can't decide between like going with one with like the lighter grey or the cadet blue or like the darker blue or a darker grey… maybe this kinda green?"
"Darker colors are gonna make the room darker, so it really just depends on whether or not you're making this room a cave or what have you. The lighter colors are gonna make the room look bigger than it is." Jeb says as he pulls his wallet out to start counting out the cash to give the delivery guy when he swings by.
Kaleb looked to Jeb and shook his head, "Jeeeeb what are you - You are your brother's brother nayone ever tell you that?" He didn't elaborate but went back to looking around his room. "I think it's big enough it might make it feel last… I dunno the word I want. Less like a museum? I'm kinda over white on white. I'm kinda… I dunno over everything in a damn sterile environment."
"Don't drag my name out like that, you sound like my mama. Ah am the one who said you had to eat, so Ah'm payin' for it. Shut up, Ah got money." Jeb knows exactly why he's being fussed at. "Ah understand there. Why don't you do something better than blue then? Blue is just about as sterile /and/ it's scientifically proven to keep you awake and you need to be sleepin' more often. What about a warmer color? Like maroon or a deep purple?"
Kaleb considered this and looked up to Jeb blinking, "Yeah you're right. She did sound like that." Was Kaleb still talking to Ms. Lucinda Guthrie? Still it was something to think about and he looked at his swatches, and up at his room. Swatches. Room. Jeb. Room. And with that he dropped his choices in teh trash. Now he was on the hunt. "Jeb… don't you fucking change you hear me?"
Jeb watches as Kaleb tosses his swatches into the trash and is told not to change. "Um… what did Ah do?" He stammers out, following Kaleb in concern now. "If you did maroon, you could trim it in gold, that would look real regal. Purple, I would trim in a real light grey or maybe a very faint blue."
Kaleb pulled out his drawing pencils in many colours. Looking to Jeb he answered only, "Man we should get you a set of these. The graphite in them is real smooth. Not too soft you can't get a good line but it mushes and blends real nice." Finally one was selected in a colour that could only be between paprika and cinnamon. A small smile came oto his face and he thought about it. "Go fine withthe blonde in teh wood. Actually…warm. Huh." He was actually pleased by the suggestion shift to something closer to red. "Never didn't do Blue before. I mean I like blue but…huh. Almost feels like terracotta to me but not pink."
Jeb's mouth waters when Kaleb pulls out those drawing pencils. His pants might have gotten tighter if he weren't in… well, Kaleb wasn't polite company but… he was company. "Those are gorgeous, how expensive are they though? I can't afford much because you know… college and… oh, my brother, he ain't know about college, don't tell him yet. Ah don't want him worryin' too much especially with Doug on the fritz." He moves over to Kaleb's side, putting an arm over the back of his chair, leaning over Kaleb's shoulder to watch him draw. "Well, then that means it's your comfort zone, you gotta slip out of it. Now that, that Ah like." He points to the color in Kaleb's hand.
Two and a half of the walls had cloth hiding the foam behind and the cloth was ivory. He nodded as the cinnamon colour worked with it. "Well, oranges and avocaos are in vogue right now. I don't like avocado but… the cinnamon I'm kinda diggin." He looked to Jeb and held the pencil up toward that one wall of windows withthe vertical stipes that would soon be cinnamon orange. he paused though and blinked, "You didn't tell him? Shit. He could use the good news." He paused and tilted his head turning and blinked at Jeb his eyes getting large, "Jeb you got into college. Ya did it. When did you find out?"
"Are in vogue…" Jeb repeats back to Kaleb and shakes his head. "Kaleb, you're the queerest thing under the sun." He squeezes his shoulder and then bites his lower lip when Kaleb asks him if he didn't tell Jay the news. He shakes his head. "Ah don't want him to think that Ah can't handle the club and my classes when he's worried about Doug. Good news or not, he needs me to hold the damn club together. So, you cain't tell him." When he asks when he found out, Jeb ducks his head. "My classes started last month."
Kaleb looked to Jeb, one eyebrow arching. This is where anyone might expect him to roll his eyes or sigh, but he paused and considered the question offering, "Vogue. A French term meaning things that are trendy or fashionable in good taste. Usually something new and cutting edge and very 'it' or very 'now'." As for being the queerest thing under the sun he squint, "I try not to be, but I can't help I dress impeccably well. Also, you know we do not think that of you. You fuss over everyone with an accument that makes your mother proud." He really has been talking Ma Guthrie??
"Why try not to be? It's alright to be whatever you is. Yeah you do dress impec..impecac.. whatever that word was, you dress really well." Jebediah waves a hand at his inability to say that word. Jebediah has never had the poor view of homosexuals that being raised southern tried to grill into him, it hasn't stuck with Jeb, rolled right off of him. He rubs the back of his head when Kaleb starts talking about his mother. He shakes his head. "Ah ain't make my mama proud in any way, Cabbage but thanks for tellin' me so. Still don't tell Jay that Ah started school."
Kaleb boggled and looked around and answered candidly, "Because I wouldn't be imprisoned, I'd get institutionalized. My family would cut me off, leave me there, and we'd risk losing the majority of various contrancts and standings not jsut here but withthe government and overseas." He shrugged. For KAleb his word really was that simple. He sighed and took out a white notecard to scribble the orange on and shrugged. "I dont' even tell people I ahve a disability for the same reason." Which might be the first time he's used those words out loud to not Jay or Max. "The world isn't a nice place, but it is consistant."
Jeb holds up a hand when Kaleb starts talking about all the reasons not to be obnoxiously queer and sighs. "Alright, alright, Cabbage, didn't ask you for a lecture, just tellin' you that nothin' ain't inherently wrong with being queer except everyone /else/'s view on it." Jeb says with a sigh. He picks up his bag from the floor where he's left it and pulls out a sketch book, flipping quickly to an empty page and placing it in front of Kaleb in place of the notecard. He finds a black pencil and splits the page into four panels, sketching the wall in each one so that Kaleb has a coloring book of sorts to play with ideas on the colors and trim of the wall.
Kaleb nodded slowly, "That's right. Now you got the idea. People suck and there's zero wrong with us. But it's … you ever do any fishing? We talked about it. You know how sharks chill out, but you put blood in the water adn they come swarming? People are sadly a lot like that. This… however makes them very predicatable but the game is like a full time gig. That's." He paused his sketch and looked around at his cloth and foam covered room giving Jeb a faint grin. "Taht's why I like being home. Safe here. Relatively." He looked over, smiled, and nudged the box of colour pencils to the middle where they could both use them. "Kellan always was ya know. Weirdly I am because of him or… maybe I'm not. He's hard to say as he has a time share for half my brain and identity." another paused and he finally agreed, "And I won't say anyhting but you should. He can use some good news man."
"It don't matter why you is, it doesn't even matter that you are. You got Max and you and Max are fantastic for each other. So you gotta hide it for now, but it might not always be that way. We can hope. You don't gotta feel ashamed of your blood, don't matter if it is in the water." Jeb says and smiles when Kaleb nudges the box of pencils towards him. "Before Doug turned into a giant rat turd, that was something he taught me, nothin' about me or you is wrong, whatever way you are… that way is okay. You are right just the way you is."
Jeb picks up a deep purple and rubs it onto the wall as the main coat and then picks up the cinnamon red that Kaleb had earlier for the trim.
Kaleb was shit at drawing people, but Kaleb really had a mind for structure, design, and buildings that could be. And listening to those words Jeb said, as those bright blue eyes wandered the room thinking about it, that smile Jeb drew on him reappeared. It was neither lout nor boastful, but it was with a whimsy so very buried it's been relegated tomyth. "That's why I want to build a sactuary someday, Jeb. Max comes from one but even that one… has… some things going on. it's not perfect. More sceince over expression which I can get but it can be a little militant. Still, differences are celebrated. Soemday all goes well? I will make us a place that can be like that. Won't even need to fight. It'll be pretty great. And the rest of the world can fuck off and leave us alone."
Jeb is mesmerized by Kaleb's smile, so much so that it stops his breath for a moment and he has to look down at the paper to remember how to pull oxygen into his lungs again. "Ah remember you mentioning a sanctuary. Ah think that would be a good thing to have but that's also… puttin' all of us in one place, makin' us far easier to attack, you know? So you just, gotta think about that too. It'll be a target whether you want it to be or not."
Kaleb jut watched, that smile all up in his eyes. He was seeing the vision. "Which is why the cloaking screen and we stay off radar. Mostly. I've been working on diplomatic relations with the kingdom of Attilan. Hopefully by then we'll get a nice donation of Kree tech we can use to maintain our autonimity." He paused and said to Jeb having a mercy on teh vocab helpfully, "It's how they describe a group or nation left to their own business. But we'd finally be free, Jeb. it'd be amazing. No hiding. Two fellas with wings and gills holding hands in teh street with their kid with them. Greeting neighbours."
"A cloaking screen, huh? You should talk to Elmo about that, I bet he's got fantastic ideas about somethin' electric that could keep you from being seen. Guy's a genius." Jeb says that last bit like he's bitter about it. "He's just good at everythin', kinda makes me wanna hit him." Or kiss him, maybe both. "Anyway, as Ah was sayin', you should talk to Elmo about ideas on how to cloak you guys and really, about the structure entirely, he could probably help you out."
Kaleb nodded slowly and said, "When the time comes? I got Max workingon strategic surveilance. Forge fr defensive weapons systms. I was hoping Doug to continue working on those computers with me but… he's kiiinda in that same rut I've spent my life in. But yeah, Elmo? I know. he's worked fo rme on the project I've ebeen designing to protect the school."
"When you put a bunch of weapons some place, then you're inviting war, ain't you? Ah guess you gotta always be prepared for the worst, huh because if you ain't and the worst comes, you're screwed and it's your own damn fault." Jeb says, pushing the sketchbook over to Kaleb to draw on the next 'wall' in the diagram that he has set up for them. "Elmo is awesome in the most infuriatin' way. What project you been designin' to protect the school, Cabbage?"
At this moment, Kaleb can probably hear the pizza delivery guy walking out of the elevator with their pizza in hand.
Kaleb didn't look p but noted, "oooh pizza is here. they'll have it up shortly. But it's more complicated than that. Also note the world just views mutants as weapons anywas so it's moot. In addition you can't attack a soverign nation. there's rules and… others we can lean on for hel slowly. it's a work in progress. No it's not easy and I'm glad you see that. But… Firs tthingis first: Build a room for people to practice in that's safe that will grow with them. It's pretty damn cool. Should see it. Guy like you with some rane could have fun in that."
Jeb smiles at Kaleb mischeviously as he moves over to the door. "Tell me when he's right outside the door, before he knocks on it, okay? Ah wanna surprise the hell out of him." He grabs the money that he had laid out earlier, with a hefty tip on it. "Yeah, havin' different rooms fit to any mutant's needs so they could get better with their powers? That would be real awesome, your mind is an amazin' place, Kaleb. It works so fast."
Kaleb paused and put down his pencil and looke d to Jeb. There was an upnot and a sidenod for Jeb to go get in place with a wry grin. Kaleb the mischief maker? Whoooo knew. Who knew he even knew how to play. He took the sound around Jeb and aimed it inward so his feet made no noise. He moved with alacrity and hopped int teh cnversation pit to sit on the sunken couch witha wry amusement. He clarified, "One room, changes to teh mutant. well… three but they change. And…" he tilted his head looking at Jeb curiously hesitating, "um… thank you." Words he wasn't used ot hearing at all. A flurry of a hand motion informed Jeb the pizza guy is coming. Eyes closed, and Echo's head tilted down, a finger touched his forehead focusing. Free hand held up 5…4…3…2…NOW! He pointed ot the door for Jeb o fling open.
Jeb gets into place, putting his hand on the door knob to wait for the precise moment to fling the door open. His smile mimics Kaleb's all mischief and mayhem, like someone who regularly caused trouble. "Why, you're welcome, Cabbage, but it's just the truth, Ah've always found it fascinatin', how quickly your mind moves and that ain't even your mutation. You just are.. so smart." He watches, silent as Kaleb concentrates and then flings the door open at Kaleb's signal.
"Howdy!" he says excitedly to a startled pizza delivery guy. He hands him the money and takes the pizzas from him, two because they were both growing young men.
|ROLL| Kaleb +rolls 1d20 for: 9
Aas the pizza boy was about to knock at the exact moment Jeb opened the door the kid almost pitched into the room tipping hte pies forward and not only being startled but panicked as well, "Nooo! oh god I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm- are you okay?" Pizza boy to Jeb.R
From the conversation pit there was just laughter!! Oh man Kaleb was peeling with it, "Aaaaah so good. Make… aaah make sure you tip em" This might be unprecifented.
Jeb sets the pizza boy right, pushing him up by the shoulders while Kaleb laughs in the background. Jeb didn't even know that Kaleb knew how to laugh. That was exciting. "You're alright, pal. You're just fine." He slips the kid a couple more ones for the trouble of startling him. He chuckles as he sets down the pizza boxes and goes to drag out a couple plates. "That was fantastic, Cabbage!"
Kaleb was wiping tears from his eyes and walked back out of the pit shaking his head. "Maaaan, I have… not done something like that sinceprep school." He leaned on the counter and popped open the one pizza with so so many veggies on it. "God this smells good. Soooo I know you came over to help me with one of the world's many crisises but you waaaaant to stick around for a bit? hang out? Mr. Ed's coming on. Guy with a mutant horse. Pretty funny."
Jeb smiles when Kaleb wipes tears from his face, it makes him feel good that he made Kaleb laugh that hard. "You want me to stay? Sure, Cabbage! Ah would love to stick around. A mutant horse, you say? That sounds interestin'! You know, Cabbage, you can ask me to come over just to hang out any time you want. Ah would invite you over to my place too but it ain't nothin' like this place." He gestures to the apartment they were in and hands Kaleb a plate.