Evacuation - Movie Night: Yvette, Angel, Nori, Kevin, Jay, Julio and Monet

[x-penance.livejournal.com]

OCC: Backdated to yesterday evening, since my goodness we were wordy. Precedes this log.

The students staying at the Jones residence try to address the tension with a good old fashioned movie night. With mixed results.



Angel came staggering into the living room, balancing a tower of DVDs in her arms and she carefully scooted her way towards a table of any kind. "Okay, so yeah, we're back from the movie and snacks run. Dad's got like eighteen bags of stuff in the kitchen for us and he's totally promised to keep out of our way while we veg." Because vegging and watching TV and trying to be normal might make some of the unnormal stuff fade into the background.

Maybe.

Yvette unfolded from where she'd been perched on the floor, using the coffee table to try and work on some origami. As the scattering of small pieces of paper could attest, it hadn't been an entirely successful attempt - her control was too threadbare. But she gave Angel a small, slightly stiff smile as she reached to take some of the DVDs. "Your father has been very kind," she said. "To be having the very long slumber party."

Nori was seated on the floor as well, although she'd snagged a throw pillow to serve as zabuton, her knees tucked up under her chin and her hands wrapped tightly around them, holding herself as still as she could, although the drumming of her toes against the floor proved her control was far from absolute. She'd been watching Yvette's origami attempts, but had kept her silence for some reason, her eyes glancing about the room from time to time - an outward expression of the chaos building in her mind.

Kevin had, for some reason, allowed himself to be dragged into the movie night antics. He was sitting away from everyone else, though. He was relatively okay with all the proximity of the immense number of people on the first day. It had gone downhill from there and by now he felt if he tensed up one more time when someone got close to him that his skin seriously might just snap. One of his pillows was between his chest and drawn up knees his arms were wrapped around. Movie, movies were safe. People did stuff like watch the movie. Not a lot of movement. It'd be okay. Was he even remembering to breathe?

Jay sat by Noriko with an acoustic guitar on his lap, testing out the strings. A movie was just what they needed - a mild distraction from each other. Cross legged on the couch, he hunched over the instrument strumming the A with his thumb. He paused, listening carefully, and then adjusted the peg on the head. Checking the string again, he tried a few cords and glanced over Noriko's shoulder, letting the music temper the silence from her.

Kevin heard the strumming and peered over toward the group where Jay sat with his guitar. His head laid down on his arms as he watched everyone, generally trying not to attract much, if any, attention toward himself. With an expression that may have passed for a smile he softly asked Jay, "Ya gonna sing us lullabies later?" He was kidding, of course, but the jest only shown in his eyes, the rest of him was too obviously uncomfortable and rigid.

"I think music would be very nice. If it is not too loud." Yvette would have scrunched up her nose if she could, thinking of the music Laurie had gotten from Mr. Jono. She adored the music teacher, but not his music, always. "Perhaps after the movies?" She poked carefully at the cases. "Please, what is the "Labyrinth"?"

Monet had claimed the room's one armchair and was curled up in it, with a book open on her knees. She'd stopped reading on the grounds that she was bored, rather than that turning the pages got tricky when she was tired. "Labyrinth is kind of cool. I can't think how to explain it, though. Kevvy-pants? Can you explain it to Yvette?" Well, she probably could have explained it, but seriously, how often did you get to call someone Kevvy-pants?

Jay met Kevin's eyes and smiled faintly, mouthing a maybe. He continued to test the next string with another set of cords, shifting to sit comfortably on Kevin's other pillow. "Kevvy-pants?" he mused, raising a brow. "Should Ah ask how ya earned that one?"

Kevin raised a curious eyebrow at the maybe from Jay, which immediately turned to a bit of a narrow-eyed expression when he turned toward Monet. "Kevvy-pants? Ah knew you'd be trouble, didn' Ah? An' don' you ask me, Jay. Ah did nothin' ta earn tha' one." At least, he didn't think he had. Monet had definitely not had anything to do with his pants as far as he knew.

He was still glowering at her when he answered Yvette. "It's 'bout a girl who don' wan' her baby brother aroun' so she gives 'im ta tha goblins by acciden' 'cause she don' realize they're real an' then she realizes she was dumb an' goes to tha goblin kingdom ta get 'im back. Hijinx ensues. It's kinda cool, an' David Bowie's in it."

"Who's David Bowie?" Angel asked, finding a spot on the floor to sprawl out on. She stretched her legs up and tossed them over Monet's lap and she studied Kevin from an upside down angle. "He sounds kind of familiar. Is he hot? Bet he's old though. Blech, old. Yay, hot." She wiggled her fingers at the DVD cases. "Blast it all, my powers of fiery telekineses have failed me."

"Would you rather Big Kev?" Monet grinned at Kevin.

Kevin buried his face in the pillow he had with him, shaking his head. "Tha's...jus'...no, no Ah wouldn'." He tilted his head up enough for just his eyes to peer up and around the room. "David Bowie's a singer. British. Old. Young in tha movie though." Note to self: Find a way to torture Monet later.

Yvette had been concentrating on following the slang-laden English, and had finally parsed what was going on. She thought. "So, the movie is about the bad girl, and the old hot man?" She would have wrinkled her brow in thought, but her skin was too hard for that. "He is wearing the too-warm clothes and that is why he is hot?"

"Don’t listen to ‘im. He loves it. Big Kev - thou wouldn’t he have ta live up that name?” He smirked, and paused in his playing, leaning over the guitar to fish through the DVDs on the coffee table. “Ol’, ugly an’ better left ta tha has-beens o’ celebrities. David Bowie’s horrible ta hafta suffer through. Can’t stand that one song ‘bout the baby. Forget that one M. Pick ‘nother. ‘ere Yvette.” Jay held out a movie for her to read out.

"Hot means attractive. He was very hot, many years ago. He is now old and crusty and yrrch." Monet shuddered.

Kevin just blinked at Jay. That was not fair. "There will be no provin' mah suitability ta tha' nickname so y'all bes' jus' find another one of some sort." Evil. Jay and Monet in the same place was absolutely and unabashedly pure evil.

If Julio had ever been more uncomfortable in his entire life, he would be hard pressed to come up with a reason. Normally quite boisterous when it came to movie nights, Julio sat unnaturally quiet on the floor next to the couch. It was one thing to be in the apartment of his ex-girlfriend's father, it was another to be in this situation with Jay. He was about 30 seconds away from just going and hiding in the kitchen. And knowing Angel, he would probably be dragged out of there 30 seconds later.

Kevin turned his attention to the only person in the entire room who possibly looked less at ease than himself, which was really a feat to achieve right there. "Ya got any movie preference, Julio?" The name sounded strange with Kevin's accent, which had picked up a little Spanish accent when he'd said it. Southern Spanish accent, well, there was a serious bastardization if ever there was one. "Do we have anything where stuff blows up? C'mon, nothin' like mortal peril ta put things inta perspective, righ'?" He tried to grin at Julio, mostly because he felt bad that anyone may be feeling more out of place than he was. The grin only sort of worked when he tried for it, though.

Julio opened his mouth to say something, but then tilted his head, confused. "I do not believe I have ever heard my name pronounced like that before," he then shrugged. "As long as it wasn't Ju-lee-o," he added in a nasally rendition of an American accent. He also decided to not touch the mortal peril comment. Things most definitely could be worse. The whole "I knocked down a city" thing was putting things in perspective. "I suggested Transformers, but I was shot down, si?"

Kevin wanted to ask like what? but figured it was probably his strange conglomeration of an accent and it was best to just not ask further. Julio's impression of an American messing up his name did draw a small snicker from the Georgian. "Who shot down Transformers? Can we veto that veto?"

Angel cackled suddenly and pulled a DVD from...well, somewhere. "I already vetoed that earlier veto!" she said, gleefully. "Just 'cause we've seen it half a dozen times in the theater doesn't mean we can't watch it now! So says the person who went with the person who got the videos in the first place, nah!"

Monet grinned. "Awesome. But seriously, giant robots, are less fun in real life. Yvette can back me up there. Noriko? Do you want giant mechas or Labyrinth?"

Nori had not really even been trying to follow the conversation. It went too many places, and too quickly and her brain was buzzing too much to focus. Even Yvette, who spoke slowly and clearly enough, was nearly impossible to understand with her own version of mutilated English grammar. She'd gotten distracted when Jay started strumming on the guitar and even after he stopped she didn't reconnect with the discussion until Monet turned to her. But even not knowing what the hell they were talking about, one word stood out. "Mecha?" she asked, grinning suddenly. "Sugoi. Anime ga aru no? Un, sore. Let's mecha."

Monet laughed and flapped her hands at the television. She wasn't even going to try to touch the dvd player: the angle was dodgy and there was a growing, frustrating stack of pulverised keyboards to her name, no matter what the physio had told her about how only using her hands would get the co-ordination back. "Make it so, my minions!"

"Good lord, we're gonna watch that again. Ah' practically got it memorized word fer word." As cheesy as it was, he had been hoping for a romance, or a thriller so he could curl up into a blanket and doze. Maybe some inspiration would randomly come to him mid movie and he would have something to write about - some new chords for a genre he didn't particularly like. His note pad rested on the side table, abandoned but not forgotten, just in case. Oblivious to Julio's discomfort, Jay stood up and stepped over the guy to place his guitar off to the side. He quickly returned to his seat and reclaimed the pillow he held hostage, fluffing it before trying to get comfortable in the corner of the couch.

"Minions? Ah rather take offense ta that," though he purposely said this as he got up to first yoink the dvd out of Angel's hands and then to actually get it into the dvd player. Once the player's drawer shut he was faced with the issue of figuring out where to sit as his previous position wouldn't yield very well to movie watching. Damn excess of people! Begrudgingly, he ended up sitting with his back against the arm of the couch, his pillow going with him as he sat in the exact position he'd had. Noticing Jay's fluffing out of the corner of his eye, Kevin gave him a curious mock glare. Jay had taken possession of his other pillow. This, of course, meant trouble later when Kevin wanted to reclaim it. Generally if Jay was involved it was trouble. Glancing at Monet he made sure she was also on that mental list. Angel's addition was pending further consideration.

Watching Kevin trying to find a safe place to sit got him an understanding glance from Yvette, who was trying to shift so she could see the movie as well, but not poke anyone with her hair. She settled for a compromise, leaning her back against Monet's armchair - the older girl's invulnerability would protect them both for the time being. And she could hide her face during the scary bits. Which, as she remembered from one of the movie trips, were only scary to her, apparently. "Maybe I should be getting the popcorn?" she suggested hopefully as the opening credits began to roll and she remembered the scary robot monster of the first scene. "There is no movie without popcorn, yes?"

Nori's moment of good cheer passed as the dvd sprang to life. Ah, not an anime then. Which meant the chances it was in Japanese or had Japanese subtitles was slim to none. Sighing, she briefly lay her head on her knees before finally releasing her hold on her legs and stretching them out. The chances that she could stand to sit through a full movie when she couldn't even understand it were slim to none. "Anou... Nori is to walk. Is short," she added, standing up.

Kevin looked up at the Japanese girl and couldn't say he entirely blamed her. Even when he did the speak slowly and simply thing a lot of things were lost in communication. Action movie? Lots of fast talking there. "Don't get lost," he told her with a small little smile so she'd know he was kidding. His eyes landed on Yvette next with her choice of sitting near Monet. Yep, he'd considered that one, but he wasn't entirely sure if Monet was invulnerable from him or not. His powers did weird things. "Popcorn's good," he nodded, 'cause it looked like Yvette wanted an out at the moment. Glancing around, Kevin reached up to tug his blanket off the arm of the couch where it was folded. He couldn't lean against the couch too comfortably unless he had a hood, which neither of his shirts currently being worn did. That meant blanket. Of course, part of it was trapped under someone and from this angle he couldn't tell which person on the couch it was.

The blanket was trapped beneath Jay, refusing to budge, or acknowledge that Kevin wanted it. Instead, his attention was turned on Nori, who looked just as displeased as he did about the movie selection. "So tha majority rules,' he grumbled, lifting his legs onto the couch, sideways next to his folded wings. He took up nearly half the couch with the bulk on his back, but he damn well wasn't moving onto the floor. He had to sleep on the floor at night, so like hell he was going to sit there too. "Yvette, grab me a pop if yer gonna make popcorn too please?" Always sure to add some manners in there. They hadn't really talked since their first meeting - she didn't seem to want to - and he had a feeling she would continue to avoid him if he didn't break the ice.

Yvette nodded. Popcorn was just as easy to make for lots of people, especially with the microwave stuff Angel and Laurie had introduced her to. "Would Nori like to help me?" she asked, looking at the Japanese girl who seemed just as keen as she was to avoid the scary parts of the movie.

"Eh?" Noriko had been heading for the door when Yvette spoke up and she glanced back, tilting her head curiously. "Popcorn?" She spoke the word with a strange inflection, but it was understandable. Her hand tapped against her leg frantically as she thought. "Nori is how to know not..."

Oh. Yvette blinked, realising that Noriko was probably wanting some time alone, same as she and Kevin had been. "It is okay, I can do this by myself." A glance at the screen told her Bad Things were happening, and with that she scurried into the kitchen.

Nori didn't much care about the movie one way or the other - it looked like it might be interesting, but she didn't have the focus to deal with it in English. Instead she nodded at Yvette and headed out the front door.

Kevin was distracted in his attempts to reclaim his blanket by the exchange between Yvette and Nori, if you could call it that. Soon both of the girls were out of the room again and he tugged on his blanket once more to no avail. Way to develop a Linus complex, Kev, he thought to himself sullenly. He found a newspaper on the table, slipped it off, rolled it up and poked at Jay's leg which seemed to be what was holding his blanket hostage.

With a sigh, Angel twisted herself around and grabbed the newspaper in one hand. "I will totally torch this," she said. "You two learn to share or it's going to get totally too hot in here for blankets. Or, well, clothes." Turning back around, she scooted her legs further up

"Oooh. So, Jay, what's going on between you and Big Kev? Or is he still at the awkward stage?" Okay, so, she was totally twelve but she wasn't singing. Out loud. Monet grinned and switched to telepathy. ~Jay and Kevin, sitting in a tree...~

Jay's eyes followed Nori's exit after Yvette's and slouched a bit deeper in his seat. He didn't think Yvette was ever going to talk to him at this point and he shouldn't have opened his big mouth about Tommy - even though the guy was a complete jerk. Now he was getting the cold shoulder and hated where he stood with her. The poke with the newspaper drew his attention back to Kevin next to him, and he was about to take the paper, but Angel nabbed it. "Ah am sharin'," he said innocently. "Ah'm sharin' the couch." And he was, to an extent.

Monet's comment earned her a flip of the bird. "Normally Ah ain't vindictive, but Ah' can learn." He gave her a sweet, charming, fake southern boy smile, but it fell immediately, mirroring his dampened mood. Last thing he needed was Kevin to freak out about his sexuality, but he didn't think he was that obvious.

Monet blew him a kiss. "I think you just stole my heart, baby."

Kevin gave Angel a small glare. "Ah jus' wanna not potentially melt half o' yer dad's livin' room." Monet, however, just earned a very confused look from him. "Awkwar' stage?" His gaze flicked between Jay and Monet, clearly he was missing something. The question was, if it was enough that Jay flipped her off then did Kevin was to know? Probably not. "How 'bout you sharin' mah blanket with me, king o' theft?" First the bed, then the pillow and now the blanket. Jay was slowly consuming every he had. Kevin sighed, a defeated sound.

Jay made a gesture of catching her kiss, setting it on fire and letting the ashes slid through his fingers. "Lucky me." He still ignored Kevin.

"Children!" Angel scrambled for the remote, trying to turn it onto the actual movie and not the soap opera in her living room. "Movie now, big grr fight out later, yes?" She thbbted at everyone but then started to sulk, trying to use it to her advantage. "Just a few movies together, in one room, can we do that? For little old me?"

Kevin looked slightly sullen and resigned himself to the loss of his blanket. "Yes, ma'am," there was no mocking in his voice as he said it. Kevin balled up his pillow and laid it across his knees so he could lay his face down on it. Stupid mutation.

"I'll be good if you let me play with fire later. Can we, can we please?" Monet was damn well aware that this was not helping but she had to take her entertainment where she could get it right now. Like in things covered in fire.

Julio shot Angel a look. He'd been in a weird mood since they'd all first arrived, and the squabbling wasn't helping. "I think I shall go help Yvette," he said. And get the hell out of here.

Looking over her shoulder, Angel nodded. She could totally understand the feeling -- if it hadn't been her house and if she hadn't been so willing to try and make this work, she'd have been two steps ahead of him. "Good idea." Turning back, she started to flick through the menu options. The desire to set everyone on fire was starting to grow. John and Shiro probably would have been proud in their own way. Sticking a smile back on her face, she tried to relax.

“Fine,” he replied to Angel, glancing at Julio’s quick exit. Jay blew a random feather away from his face and watched it float down to the floor next to Kevin. A few others littered the floor and he wondered if he should pick them up, just to be polite. Was it even considered rude to molt in someone’s family room? “ Real nice M. Yeah, lets just set the whole place on fire, cause’ that’s the fun thin’ ta do. Am Ah the only one who don’ wanna watch this ‘ere movie?” he asked. “Why can’t we watch Brokeback or somethin’?”

"Okay, fine. No fire." Monet curled up in her armchair, drawing her knees up to her chin. "As for Brokeback, I'm vetoing on the grounds that it makes me cry and that makes my eyes go puffy."

"Tha's tha one 'bout tha cowboys, righ'?" Kevin had not seen Brokeback Mountain. He wasn't even entirely sure he was thinking of the right movie. He shrugged, still laying his head on his pillowed knees. "Ah don' much care wha' we watch so long as it ain't sappy an' borin'." He also did not see why Angel was getting all twitchy. Kevin just wanted his blanket. Monet seemed to be fine. So did Jay. Why was everyone else pulling a Kevin and acting like they couldn't breathe with so many people around? He just shrugged to himself and figured maybe they were all insane. Seemed likely.

"Yeah, that's the one." Jay got up despite Monet's protest and swapped the DVDs. "Let's just fastforward ta tha best part," he said, snatching the converter. "That'll make ya'll feel all warm an' fuzzy inside - let tha boys show ya how its done. Maybe ya could learn how ta be a better man, M." Burn.

They'd just reached "the best part" when Julio and Yvette returned, bearing large bowls of popcorn. The little Albanian's eyes grew round at the sight of what was definitely not giant robots fighting. There was wrestling, but it was two men in a tent, and they seemed to be trying to take each other's pants off...

There was a pause, and then:

"EW"

Kevin was very fond of Yvette. She was sort of like a little sister to him at this point. While he hadn't been expecting a guy-on-guy sex scene he also didn't have time to react, she did it first. Burying his face in his pillow he snickered until it turned into a laugh. Once it calmed he patted the spot next to him. "C'mon, 'Vette. Ah'll keep ya safe from tha guys." So not the context in which he ever thought he'd say that.

Julio set the bowl of popcorn on the table. Calmly. And then without saying a word, walked out of the room. He simply wasn't in the mood to deal with the idiots in the room anymore.

Monet shook her head. "Honestly, can we not even watch a movie without people having issues anymore? I mean, seriously, what's with Julio now?"

Kevin just shrugged. "Maybe he's scared of the man love? Er jealous maybe? Er....has cramps?" He was reaching here, but he had no idea what Julio's issue was. Kevin didn't see anything worth having an issue over in the first place.

Gratefully, Yvette scooted over by him, careful to keep a buffer of space between them and the popcorn bowl safely in her covered-over lap. Once sat, she put her hands over her eyes and refused to look at the screen. "Please to be telling me when the naked is gone?"

"Not a problem, Yvette!" Angel said, who in contrast was watching the screen with avid fascination. "It's like when the scary parts come on and we let you know. And I promise, no one will trick you and tell you when it's too early." She blinked and grinned. Oh, this was a movie she was going to like.

Pretty boys ruled over all.