Devolve 2.0 The Reboot

( He wasn't sure what he'd done now, but he was going to find out. )

He'd spent most of the day in the greenhouses, weeding and watering, fertilizing and tending. It was soothing in a way he couldn't even begin to describe and even though his powers were starting to buzz under his skin again his vision was still mostly okay and he was actually fairly relaxed. That didn't mean he wasn't still grateful that the halls were mostly quiet and empty as he made his way back to his room. He mostly liked being back in the house, but it still freaked him out a bit when he came across more than one person at a time in the confines of a hall or stairway.

He was most of the way to his room when he stopped in the hall outside Josh's door. He hesitated for a moment and started to walk on, then turned abruptly back, raised a hand and knocked, quick and quiet.

Down in the basement, past the darkened weight room full of shadowy machines, and past the well-worn doors to the gym, the door to the indoor pool stood open. Inside, Jubilee and Molly were hard at work perfecting their cannonballs and underwater tea parties, oblivious to the late hour.

The night hadn't started so nicely. Jubilee took one look at Gert and Chase failing to see what was right in front of their faces and hightailed it to Molly's room, pajama-clad and armed with a movie, a plushie, and plans to colonize Molly's room until they both felt better. She hadn't expected to find Molly crying any more than she expected to burst into tears herself.

Somehow with all the crying and hugging and honesty, Jubilee spit out the short story of her crush on Jono. And with that, out came her anger at herself for getting so attached and for never saying anything. And how relieved she was she'd never said anything. And again her anger at Jono for not bothering to tell her, even though she was the one who had masochistically told him to go after Paige in the first place. She'd heard it from rumors, and personal feelings aside, that sucked.

Molly's situation twisted her up inside and made her want to confront Chase, so she could tell him to his face that if he thought Molly was being hurtful then he should just take a look at what an insensitive asshole he'd been. But it seemed like Molly wanted to confront Chase too and she said it with such a purple-ish gleam in her eyes that Jubilee quickly figured disarming the situation would go a little better.

Night swimming, she prescribed. Putting on a bathing suit when it's dark out always cheered her up, at the very least, even on the occasions she'd then scampered out to the lake to discover it was too glacial to jump in. But this time she led the way downstairs, to the pool in the basement.

Cool water washed away the sticky feeling of tears and soon they were laughing. They stayed underwater as long as they could and came up in bursts of bubbles. They jumped off the diving board until Jubilee's arms were sore from pulling herself out of the water. They were both wrung out from everything--Jubilee kept alternating between happy thoughts of the fact that she finally felt like she'd made sense of the world and unhappy thoughts of the sense-making Molly still had to do--so they headed upstairs. They fell asleep watching cartoons, spooned together under the covers, convinced that tomorrow would be better.

( Clinging to what's left. )

After speaking with Raven the evening after Tabby's altercation with Jim, Ororo went in search of Hank. She headed, first, for the lab Fifteen minutes to dinner time and the kids were gone, not that she could blame them. But it did worry her, as it always did, to see Hank working alone, but it also gave her hope. Not just for the future, but that they could just survive. More than half of the people she'd been closest to, who she'd known the longest in her life, were dead and gone. But not Hank. He would be in that lab, looking for an answer, from here to Armageddon.

"Knock knock," Ororo said from the doorway. She wore the same cargo pants she'd been wearing all day, plus an over-sized sweater that hung gracefully on her tall frame. Her milk white hair was drawn into a ponytail and it caught the light as she smiled at him, "I've come in search of answers."

Molly had decided that Sunday was a good day to visit Jimmy. He spent a good chunk of it keeping an eye on the gates, and she figured that it got lonely... and if anything exciting was going to happen on a Sunday, it was probably going to happen there. Of course, nothing exciting did happen, usually, but at the very least she would probably get a good arm-wrestling match out of the whole thing.

"So," she leaned back in her seat, looking up at the large man. "What's with the shades? Not that it isn't a good look or anything, because it totally is. It's just not usually your thing."

After Jubilee got done in the greenhouse, she'd gone through the usual routine. Shower, scrub nails, lament lack of nail polish, get dressed. It was late afternoon, already nearing dinner time, and there was really only one thing she wanted to wear.

In her favorite grey sweatpants and a massive faded Batman t-shirt, Jubilee took off down the hall. She hesitated for a fraction of a second in front of Victor and Molly's rooms, but she brushed off the impulse to go whining to them and instead headed for the stairs, which she circumvented via the banister. Downstairs, she made a bee line for the rec room, where she put on some cartoons and curled up on the couch.

Her whole body felt empty, as if she'd used up her monthly allowance of thoughts and they'd scoured her clean. Earlier in the day, it seemed like Ororo had sensed there was something up with her and she'd let her do whatever she wanted. As nice as it was not to be on fertilizer duty, Jubilee knew it was an indication she needed to snap out of her little semi-crabby funk. But as she gazed blankly at the television, it occurred to her that it might be a little harder than she thought.

"How's hope feeling today? Tired and sick of this place..."

Ali's voice sounded small to her own ears, accompanied by the piano in the music room. She'd been shocked to find it in tune, only to realize that there were enough big brains in these parts to keep one lousy piano in tune. Her playing started a little clumsy, but she carried on, unperturbed. It smoothed out as she continued on, her long fingers drifting over the keys as if she'd never been away.

"Red wine is fast, at the lip of your glass, saying I'm going to ruin..."

Last night had been fun, but working with Jono and Jay had reminded her of her old band members. Tabby, of course, was whirling like a tornado all over the place, but the others--nobody knew where they were or if they were alive. She didn't think about what happened to them and certainly never allowed herself to hope she might see them again. But she did allow herself to remember them, fondly and a little sadly, as she did now. There was never a song she played, even just goofing around, that El hadn't backed her up on. And Dan, tall and with nervous long-fingered hands that were never still, had always known exactly what to do when she or Tabby was upset.

"Everything...Everything. So its better my sweet, that we hover like bees,'cause there's no sure footing...No love, I believe."

It surprised her how lonely it felt to return to what was, for all intents and purposes, her home. Seeing her mother had been so welcome, so important, but after the first few days the thing she called 'survivor brain' kicked in again. The only thing she cared about was making herself useful, making their fortifications stronger, protecting the home base. It didn't occur to her to socialize, to bond with people. If she was going to be here for a while, obviously that had to change.

Ali had really only meant to play for a minute, just to recharge her batteries a little, but she felt almost drunk off the sound. It was a beautiful piano and as she continued to play, this time leaping into a medley of cartoon themes she'd once learned to entertain her friends' kids, her skin began to glow softly. Ali played, a smile turning into a grin, and shards of rainbow light danced around the room as if spun from invisible prisms.

Jimmy was trying very hard not to panic. He was on the grounds, he knew this place almost as well as the reservation back home. He could still smell and feel, but it was slow going because his spatial perception was completely destroyed with the two senses he was currently missing.

Usen, that was stupid. He should have kept avoiding her. Why in the world had he even thought confronting Tabby would be a good idea? That she would listen? She never had listened before and apparently, didn't listen to anyone who didn't tell her exactly what she wanted to hear.

And he shouldn't have been surprised at the flash bomb surprise at the end. He'd been stupid, brash and rude. And probably gotten what he deserved for it.

He hoped he was getting close to his trailer. He knew he was going the right direction, but that was it.

Paige was taking advantage of the fact that Mel wanted to use their bedroom to watch movies with some of the other girls in the colony. She'd excused herself, sure that none of the teenagers really wanted her there anyway... and even more sure that she didn't want to be around to listen to whatever it was that teenagers gossiped about now. So she'd headed down to the library, where she was sure she'd find something to read that would distract her for at least a few hours.

She was right, and about two hours later, she was still down there, curled in a chair, book in her lap. A few people had come and gone, but at the moment she was alone, enjoying the peace and quiet.

( Confrontation )

Jono started digging through his admittedly obscenely large playlist looking for proper horrors and zombie themed songs for Lee. Then he could rip them to her player.

So far besides Rob Zombie (Which was obvious, really what was Jubilee thinking, leaving him out?), he had a few others queued up and waiting for whenever she descended on him to critique his additions. It was a rather nice way to pass an evening. Especially since he was done with his scouting runs for the week.

Tapping off his fag in the ashtray on his desk, he took another drag as he opened his file of Tom Petty songs. He could think of one off the top of his head, but there were probably others as well. There was no need to wait for knocking, Lee would let herself in.

( Scouting out a new area )

Who: Betsy and Raven
When: Wednesday evening
What: One evening in Raven's room, Betsy decides to indulge her curiosity and ask Raven a few personal questions.
Where: In bed in Raven's room.
Rating: R for adult situations. Non-explicit mentions of sex.

( Of course, she only really knew enough about her now to know she'd barely scratched the surface. )

Even as a teenager, Ororo had loved gardening. Things flourished under her care, something she hoped daily would continue to hold true as she grew into her role as the community’s leader. But a crucial part of keeping a healthy garden involved keeping the plants from being crowded. Sometimes they grew too big and needed to be moved. Sometimes they wouldn’t flourish. Sometimes weeds invaded.

Right now, reluctant as he’d been to admit it, Jimmy was being crowded. The return of Tabitha Smith and Alison Blaire had been welcome, especially to her. She attributed some small part of their survival to the training they’d received at the school and that gave her a quiet hope for other former students. But welcome aside, Tabby had taken a shine to Jimmy that he seemed unable to escape. She knew how carefully Jimmy guarded his control and the heat of his temper when he lost that control. It was her private hope that he would someday come to peace with that aspect of himself and maybe even find a partner in life. The important part was that it had to come from inside Jimmy and the situation with Tabby was doing nothing but distracting him and holding him back.

She’d asked Tabby to meet with her and now she waited for the young woman to arrive. For lack of a better place, she'd suggested they meet outside, by the fountain. Ororo knew Tabby was notoriously stubborn and she hoped that wouldn’t feature too largely in their conversation. Unbidden, a memory of Al-Gibar floated into her mind as she waited. ‘There’s nothing you can’t say to a person, girly,’ He said, and she could still remember the booming quality of his voice, even when he whispered, ‘so long as you say it right.’

Who: Josh and Kevin
When: A week or two after Kevin first got sick
What: Kevin gets his final check up and decides to move back into the mansion
Where: Josh's office in the medlab

( Guess I'll just have to make sure not to get sick again, huh? )

The human colony was finally back to something resembling normal, and those who had stayed to help rebuild over the course of the month had all returned, having fixed and even bolstered the colony's defenses. The weather was also beginning to turn from cold and miserable to something a little bit warmer and slightly less miserable, and both of those events were enough reason to celebrate.

Instead of the usual carefully balanced dinner, the meal had been made with more of a focus on flavor, and had been laid out buffet-style in the dining hall. There were more treats than normal, and though many adults were aware that it was a sign that some of the chocolate and other treats were nearing the end of their shelf-life, it was still an impressive and well appreciated treat.

In the library, a decent selection of alcohol was laid out for the older residents, and in the recreation room, a couple of teenagers had put themselves in charge of keeping a steady flow of entertaining yet age-appropriate films running throughout the evening. Another resident had put himself in charge of music, and was taking requests in the dining hall.

((OOC:Here it is! Have fun! For everyone who was on the Saturday supply team, you'll be arriving home from the run shortly after the party starts.))