xp_logs | (no subject)

Late last night.

Most nights Jono would spend in his bed, staring at the ceiling in the dim glow of his own light, but some nights that just became too boring and he walked around the mansion, trying every door on every level, just to see where he could get into. Now, however, he was heading for the rec room, to see if there would be something on in the telly.

Sarah lies on the couch in the rec room. Not only is sleeping on the first floor a little more comforting, but she certainly doesn't want any visitors tonight trying to convince her that she isn't a monster. She stares at the dark television, and finally shuts her eyes again.

Jono walks in, not bothering to turn on the lights and heads for the couch, thinking the remote was probably wedged between the cushions.

Hearing footsteps, Sarah props herself up on one arm and turns to peek up over the back of the couch. "Go away," she says sharply.

Jono stops. "Sorry," he offers flatly and not very apologetically, "didn't know you lived here instead of the dorm."

She sits up, crossing her arms. "Well I tried for a room in the basement, but apparently they don't house freaks in there." She's sleepy, and a little annoyed. "Somebody here obviously doesn't understand the complications of putting someone who has lived in the sewers for several years on the fucking second floor."

"I think no one here understands a whole lot," is Jono's even reply. He shifts on his feet, then comes a bit closer, his light falling on Sarah. "Thanks for the Rubik's cube."

"No problem," Sarah says with a shrug. "Figured it out yet? I would have probably thrown the fucking thing out of the window by now."

"Used to have one earlier," he looks around the room. "It's like riding a bike."

She watches him over the back of the couch, and scratches her leg. "I used to have a bike... when I was little. My first set of foster parents got it for me for Christmas or something. Of course, that was back when everybody thought I was just a sick little girl."

"So the bones have been popping out of you all your life," Jono states. "No wonder you're so good at throwing them."

"Well, not all my life. But they've aways been funny. Too big." She pulls a sharp, thin bone from her leg where she had been scratching. "The doctors had no idea what was going on. When I was nine, they started pushing themselves against the skin. Everybody thought I had cancer or something. And when the bones finally started breaking the skin, nobody wanted anything to do with me. Least of all my foster parents, or the eight sets after them."

If the story has shocked or moved Jono in any way, he gives no sign of it. Not that he had much to make expressions with anyway. "Yeah, I can see why. You're bloody ugly. But so am I. Is the remote there."

Sarah laughs, a hint of bitterness in it. "Yeah. Fuck you too." She grabs the remote from under her, and tosses it to Jono. She curls up her legs beneath her. "Go ahead and sit down."

He catches the remote and sits down next to her, clicking on the tv. The first few channels he flicks through are all showing late night newscasts. "I wondered if they'd stick me into the basement when I got here. Behind a door that says 'Look out for the monster'."

"Yeah. I had no idea what I was getting myself into when I came here. All I knew is I was leaving with a bunch of uplanders to go to some school."

"Did they tell you too you'd get 'help' here," Jono looks through a few more channels.

Sarah smirks, nodding. "Yeah. A super-secret school for the Gifted. Where I could learn and grow without feeling like a freak."

"At least I got the same spiel in a dashing British accent," even without having much inflection in his projected thought, it comes out perfectly sarcastic.

"Well fuck. I got cheated." She says, feeling another bone starting to push against her back. She tries to hold the bones in for a while, and hopes Jono doesn't notice her wince in pain.

Jono isn't even looking at her, staring instead at the mute, flickering images on the television screen. "Yeah," he says rather conversationally. "Maybe that's why St. John Whatshisname left."

Sarah shrugs, still holding the bones in. The dull pain is becoming sharper, and the bones are pressing out with more pressure. "I dunno. Maybe. Don't know enough about him to have any clue. Though, his mutation didn't sound all that horrific to me, you know? What help could that kid possibly have needed that he wasn't getting?"

"I meant he might've felt cheated by this place," Jono has settled to watching something with lots of cars and guns in it, his glowing chest reflecting faintly off the screen.

"Cheated how?" She says, finally letting the bones out with a long sigh. One presses through her leg, another through her arm, and a third pushes out of her back. She grabs the first two and drops them on the floor beside her. Then she twists around in an attempt to reach the one in her back.

"That this place wasn't all it was cracked out to be," Jono looks at her when she moves. "Want help," he asks, watching her trying to reach the bone.

"Yeah, if you wouldn't mind..." she says, turning and pulling the back of her shirt up a little. "It's right there." She points vaguely in the direction of the bone sticking out, just out of reach. "Just pull on it, and it'll come out. And I dunno. This school sure beats the runaway shelters I was at before I came here. I know that isn't saying much, but still."

There was a vague vibration of distaste from Jono as he gingerly touched the bone, then grabbed it more forcefully and yanked it out. He let it fall to the floor with the others. "Even if you have to sleep in the second storey," was all he said.

She winces a little when he pulls the bone out, he's not quite as gentle about it as she normally is. She nods slowly, turning back around to face him. "Yeah. At least here I don't get fussed at for having a mutation. I thought the last place I was at was going to kick me out for producing weapons." She rolls her eyes. "Besides, I can always sleep on the couch down here."

"I think," Jono says after a while, kicking the bones on the floor away from his foot. "I think they're all lying when they look at me like they didn't care what I looked like." He starts flicking through the channels again. "You could sleep here," he admits, "if someone actually slept around here instead of wandering around."

She shrugs again. "Maybe they were. But then again, maybe they weren't. I know I couldn't care less about what you look like, if it helps any." She rests her head on the arm of the couch, and smiles sleepily. "Yeah, if I could just get a little peace and quiet, I could get to sleep."

He turns the tv off then, giving her a vaguely amused glance. "All right. I'll go somewhere else." He stands up, dropping the remote on the couch and stuffs his hands into his pockets. "It was nice chatting with a fellow freak."

Sarah smiles again and stretches out, nudging the remote to the floor with her foot. "Night Jono. Hopefully I'll get a chance to talk to you sometime when I'm more than half-awake. Not like the conversation on my part would be much better, though."

"Yeah," he says noncommittally and wanders out, taking the light with him.