xp_logs | Kevin & Angelo | Early Saturday Morning, 1am (Reply)

Kevin and Angelo both seem to be missing the sun of their home turf and end up at Boiler Beach together

Kevin had woken from the same nightmare he always had. They'd gone away for a while, but now they were back with a vengeance. He couldn't figure what was with the haunting cropping up so fiercely again, but it caused him to wake up in a cold sweat. Great. As if it wasn't weird enough working off Scotland time, now he was waking up at midnight.

After showering Kevin decided to wander, as he always did when he woke up. He missed home, his real home. Georgia sun was totally different from the dreary weather in Scotland or the sun here. Vaguely he recalled a beach room in the school. He wasn't just making that up, was he? He didn't think he was. To prove himself right, or possibly wrong, Kevin set out only to find he wasn't hallucinating.

Holographic or not, it was a beach and it was both warm and bright. Kevin laid out on the sand, hands folded under his head. This was way better than the beaches near Muir had been, even if it was fake.

Angelo hadn't been down here in a long while but now, with another New York winter slowly closing in, he'd found himself missing California - mostly for the sunshine. And since he couldn't sleep, he made his way down for the comfort of the sun lamps in the basement.

Kevin's eyes were shut against the brightness, but he could hear the door opening. Turning his head, Kevin squinted at the figure. He wasn't sure if he didn't know the person, wasn't remembering them or the squinting was making his vision wonky. Either way, he just went back to his former position. After all, maybe the person wouldn't stay or didn't want to speak to anyone.

Angelo nodded to the boy who'd got there before him before taking his place on the other side of the room. It wasn't exactly that he didn't want conversation, but he wouldn't force it if Kevin didn't.

Kevin listened to the crunching of the sand as the other guy moved around the room. So he was staying. Well, Kevin had to at least be polite in that case. People who didn't want to talk generally made it obvious and then he could fall silent himself assured he hadn't been rude. Propping himself up on his elbows, Kevin realized how ridiculous he looked in the middle of this beach scene with his three layers of black clothing covering him from neck to foot. Oh well.

Tilting his head to the side, Kevin looked over at the other occupant of the room. "Yeh miss warm sun, too?"

Angelo was close friends with Marie, and he knew about Kevin's powers anyway. He didn't blink at the clothes as he glanced over in return. "Yeah. I'm from LA, an'... winter still gets into my bones, you know?"

Kevin nodded, boy did he know. "Winter here ain't lookin' too bad after a winter spen' in Scotland. S'all unnatural though. Bet LA winter's better than here. 'Lanta winter was nice. Sorta miss it,"

"I bet you do", Angelo said sympathetically. "I know the first winter I was here, I wouldn't leave the house when it snowed."

That made him laugh. "Ah like the snow. It's cold, bu' it's pretty. Leas' at firs' anyway. Then it gets dirty an' soppy an' i' just turns depressin'." Kevin didn't have any effect on snow, or ice or anything made just of water. That automatically made him fond. "There were some younge' kids at Muir an' Ah'd take 'em sleddin'. Was sort of fun."

"Yeah, Jamie an' Kitty decided I had to get used to it", Angelo said with a grin. "Happens quick when you've got a girl chasin' you round the house with snow an' walls don't stop her, an' her guy dead set on draggin' you outside into a pile of it."

"Now tha's cruel an' unusual punishment. Clearly you got on someone's bad side," he joked. Kevin had thankfully never been indoctrinated into the snow business. He'd gone willingly, which he was suddenly far more thankful for. "Sorry, mah name's Kevin. Awfully rude of me not ta introduce mahself."

"Angelo," he said easily. "Used to be a student here, graduated, got a job down at the boathouse, an' then Lorna bribed me into teachin' self-defense too."

"Threats and then bribes, wanted man." Kevin actually smiled, which was rare, but he was a little amused. "Ah was a student, then Ah went ta Muir for almos' a year. Now Ah'm back. Powers training ya know? Still functionin' on Scotland time, though. Makes my body clock all wonky bu' it jus' don't wanna fix isself."

"How long you been back?" Angelo asked with another sideways glance. "They say if you go to bed normal time for the zone you're in, even if you don't sleep right away, your body sort of gets used to it..."

"Uh," Kevin scratched his head, trying to remember how long it had been now. "'Bout a week 'n a half or so Ah been back now. Thing is, Ah just can' manage to stay up tha' late. It gets to about eight or nine at the lates' and Ah'm passing out no matter where Ah am."

"Coffee?" was all Angelo could suggest, half-serious. "Though maybe if you've been exposed to Moira's coffee, it's put you off for life."

Kevin made a face. "Ah'm not too fond of coffee. It makes me go crazy. Ah swear I've hallucinated on the stuff. Maybe those energy drink things? They even work? Maybe they'd be jus' as bad as coffee, though."

"Some of 'em do", Angelo said with a shrug. "But if caffeine does weird stuff to you, you should probably talk to the doctors before you try anythin' else. Mutations screw up what you can or can't eat, sometimes."

"Oh, great," he said, a definite lack of enthusiasm in his voice. "Mutation's gotta mess up lots of other things and then add food onto it? 'Sides, the coffee thing was before I wen' full-blown mutant. Not sure that matters er not."

"Precogs get high on chocolate", Angelo informed him helpfully, mostly to turn the conversation a little. "Swear to God, I've seen it. Somethin' pretty like high, anyway."

That made Kevin raise an eyebrow. "Li'e pot high or li'e LSD high?" Kevin didn't personally know the difference, but he knew in general what different drugs did to people. He'd always figured he was fucked up enough without adding anything foreign to the mix. His luck he'd take a downer and end up decaying everything by just breathing on it.

"Hmmm... I'd say more like LSD", Angelo decided. "It sort of opens up their powers, so they see more stuff, but the visions are really weird."

"They still real? Tha visions I mean, is it real stuff tha's gonna happen tha's jus' weird or is it like real stuff mixed with the hallucinations?" It was sort of interesting and it made Kevin wonder if people ever tested this stuff, did experiments to figure out the effect of substances on mutants. Probably some evil bastard would, 'cause who would willingly sign up for that? Kevin knew being a lab rat was no fun.

Angelo shrugged. "Don't think you can ever tell with precog. Not without whatever it was about actually happenin'... or turnin' out to be impossible."

"Weeeeird." Kevin, oddly enough, actually felt glad to not be someone else for once. It didn't make him any happier being himself, but it was better than seeing freaky things just because he was tired and needed to be in class early. "You got any weird food things like tha'? Maybe Ah got a coffee thing, bu' Ah don' think I got nothing else."

"Not me, nah. My power's not so much with the body chemistry, except I can hold my breath longer than anyone else. Forge's tried to explain, but... anyway. I'm good with eatin' pretty much anythin'."

"Lucky you, huh?" Kevin, of course, generally registered anyone lucky who could manage to function like a normal human being. "How come yer up at this hour? Ain't most people usually all asleep by now?"

"Couldn't sleep", was the casual answer. "You'll usually find someone up an' around most times of the night, dependin' on who's home." He wouldn't necessarily have called himself lucky, except in the circumstances of his life right now.

"Me neither," Kevin's tone was far less casual than Angelo's and far more sadly serious. "Don' usually wake up 'til at leas' three. Not so much tonight. People do seem to end up awake at odd hours. Jennie was up at five to go runnin'. Seems crazy to me. Why torture yerself gettin' up that early jus' to run? She could run later, righ'? Oh well," he shrugged. "She tha crazy one there, not me."

"Everybody here's crazy", Angelo told him solemnly. "Except the little kids. You'll get to learn that if you stay."

"Yvette didn' seem too crazy to me. Didn' talk to her for ages or nothin' though, so I guess she could be. Ah'd like to think she'd sane, though." Kevin liked Yvette. He sort of looked at her like a little sister, especially because she had a lot of same problems with her powers that he did.

"I love Yvette, but... well, ain't my place. But her story's not one of the prettier ones about how she got here." He shrugged. "Kid's been through a lot." Which didn't mean she was literally crazy, but did mean not okay.

"She from Kosovo, righ'? She tol' me a little. Said she got scared when she got here an' Paige foun' her. I didn' ask much. Ain't my place. If she wan'ed ta say she'd say without me asking mah questions, y'know?" After a moment he added, "Lo's o' people here been through a lot, huh? Sorta comes with the territory."

"Pretty much. Bad experiences with other people, bad manifestations, homelessness... take your pick. We've got a few came from normal happy homes, an' I think sometimes they feel left out."

Kevin laughed, a dry, sarcastic sound. "Well, Ah got all three o' them an' I think they oughta be glad they get ta feel left out. Wha' kinda club is that to wanna belong ta, y'know? It's like ya get a metal, 'congratulations fer bein' fucked up, but yay yer alive!' Trade off ain't really worth it, is it?"

"No", Angelo said quietly. "No, it really isn't." What he'd lost on his manifestation hadn't been worth all that much, really, but as he'd said years before... it had been his.

"There should be a consolation prize at leas'. A toaster or blender or sumthin'." It was Kevin's best attempt at humor to lighten the situation. Probably wasn't working, but it was really the best he could do and so he put it out there anyway. Otherwise he knew he was doomed to just drag the entire mood down further.

Angelo's mood hadn't exactly been in the highest place to begin with. He chuckled dryly. "We got the mansion. I guess that makes us luckier than most, if you're talkin' consolation prizes."

Kevin sat up fully, dusting the sand off his hands and arms as best he could. He looked at Angelo, gaze unwavering and asked, "Gilded cage still a cage, ain't it?"

"That it is", Angelo confirmed tiredly. "I mean, nobody's keepin' us here but ourselves. Any of us could leave tomorrow if we wanted. But when you come to this place with nowhere else to go... gets to be a time you can't really imagine bein' anywhere else. An' most of the time, you don't want to be."

"Not everyone comes 'cause they ain't got anywhere else ta go. Sometimes it ain't safe for other people with yeh out there." This was the exact point that had brought Kevin back. "People forge' we can be dangerous withou' meaning ta be. Yeh look like a normal person an' it's hard to tell. Safer fer them that some of us are here. Might be us tha' keep us here, but think where some o' us end up if we stayed out there and they found out. Prison? Dead? Worse maybe?"

That got a nod. "Chances are I would be. But then... the same'd be true if I'd never manifested." He shrugged. "Not all the stories start 'cause we turned out to be mutants. But I get your point."

"Yeah, not all, but 'nuff o' 'em. And bein' mutants usually makes them stories worse that started before it." Hell, mutation didn't help anyone, did it? Maybe the telepaths managed to get really good grades and the people with healing factors benefited. What about the rest of them?

"Usually", Angelo said quietly. "Not always. But 's because of the usually I got into the work I do."

Kevin nodded. "I know e'eryone got these dreams of equality and peaceful coexistence 'n stuff, but Ah don' see it. Maybe Ah'm just cynical's all." He liked to think of it more in terms of being a realist, though.

"That's the Professor's dream. But it'll take a hell of a lot of hard work before anyone gets to see it for real."

"You think it's actually possible? In our lifetime, Ah mean." He was genuinely interested in Angelo's opinion. Kevin's stance on it was obvious, he didn't think there was a chance in hell. Especially not when people like him existed and normal people had every right to be terrified of his very existence.

"I don't know", Angelo said quietly. "Some of the stuff I've seen, heard about, that's happened in livin' memory... I don't know if it can happen in the same world that could."

Kevin nodded. "Glad ta know I'm not the o'ly one lacking tha sunny optimism some people 'round here lucky enough ta have."

Angelo snorted. "Which people have you met? An' if you mean Laurie, she's... young." Even if she wasn't much younger than him in years, the difference was there.

"'Vette don' seem so cynical. Ah remember some happy, shiny sorta bein' 'round las' time Ah was here. Ain't talked to too many people since Ah came back though. Maybe they got more pessimistic since last November," he shrugged. Maybe everyone had gone cynic, but Kevin doubted it. Some people were just naturally optimistic.

"Yvette's got it just 'cause of who she is. Angel, too, an' I hope it's a good long time before they lose it. But even Yvette... she's had her moments. Shit happens, even to the students."

"Everyone's got momen's. Point is wha' they like normally. A down momen' don' make a dark person, just like a sunny moment don' make an upbeat person either. Friendly don' mean happy and antisocial don' mean miserable. What a person is, it's deeper than jus' that. It's about who they always is, inside, when you really look, y'know?"

Angelo looked over at him for a long moment, then nodded slowly. "Yeah, I get what you're sayin'." He felt the need for nicotine, suddenly, and fumbled in his pocket for his pack. "You smoke?"

Kevin crinkled up his nose and shook his head, trying to wipe the look off his face. "Nah. Never saw the point."

"Relieves the stress", Angelo told him, getting one out for himself and digging for his lighter now. "Calms you down. Especially", with a wry grin, "when you're irredeemably addicted."

Kevin only shook his head. "Punching things relieves stress too, yet no one out advocatin' that." Watching the beauty of things decaying seemed to relieve stress, too. Kevin wasn't going to mention that, though.

"You'd be surprised. You've just gotta pick the right things to punch."

"Ah don't reckon many people who punch things for stress relief really be worryin' about which things they punching so long's they got a target."

"Well", Angelo allowed, "that depends where they are. I mean, why bother punchin' a wall and breakin' your hand when you've got a fully-equipped gym downstairs, with bags an' practice dummies you can hit? An' if I need somethin' that hits back, my friend Sarah's usually up for it when I call her."

"Someone get pissed off enuff, Ah don't think they always gonna take the time go sauntering down to the gym to have it out. Get pissed off enough ya need instant satisfaction and all." At least that's what Kevin thought through observation. He didn't actually get very angry very often so it was all a moot point with him.

"Oh, that's happened too. I've punched my boss a couple of times, but it was always his own fault."

Kevin gave Angelo a look. "His fault?" Why did he not quite buy that?

"Provoked me to it on purpose the first time, practically invited me to the second time", Angelo said blandly. "I wouldn't do it if he wouldn't do dumb things."

"An' you jus' couldn' resist?" That didn't make Angelo sound much like the bigger person. Of course, Angelo may not care about being the bigger person either, so then that would work out fine.

He shrugged. "I was... what, sixteen the first time, an' you weren't there. Second time, maybe I should have, but he keeps nearly gettin' himself killed."

"You punched a guy for nearly gettin' himself killed? Seems counterproductive to me."

Another shrug. "Guess maybe it would, from the outside." He wasn't about to try and explain the whole complex relationship.

"Ah don't wanna know what it is from tha inside then," Kevin decided. Some people were just beyond his comprehension. That was something Kevin had always known. Angelo? Apparently in that category.