xp_logs | Kevin and Jake

Kevin and Jake finally meet in the library, only Kevin has no idea who Jake is and is still just a little too medicated.

One of the interesting possibilities of pulling stuff out of storage is finding items once borrowed and long forgotten. Including a book borrowed from the library that Xavier built. And that was why Jake had made a run out to the mansion library one fine summer day where he eventually found himself standing in front of a book shelf, comparing the book in hand against those on the shelf.

A person had limited opportunities for what they could safely get up to when they were as regularly dosed with pain killers as Kevin was these days. Sure, he could have headed down to the metal shop but that probably would have just ended up with him sawing off his hand. Dr. Grey-Summers would have been most displeased with that and Dr. St.Lawrence would point out that no amount of skin grafting could fix that. And then she'd probably scold both Kevin and Jean-Paul for not watching what Kevin was getting up to. He figured the library was safe and it got bonus points for having art books. Art books were brilliant because they had pictures.

As he rounded a corner to meander into a new aisle just to see what was there Kevin found someone he didn't know staring at the books on the shelf. Or maybe he was staring at the one he was holding. "Y'know, if you're not medicated and the words are moving you should go talk to one of the doctors," Kevin told the stranger, his natural voice soft enough to pass for the politely lowered voice most people used in libraries.

"That...is probably good advice," Jake took a moment to reply, giving Kevin a quick glance before turning his attention to the bookshelf long enough to insert his book between a couple already there. Let someone else decide if that's actually where it belongs. "Are you speaking from personal experience?"

"No, just a theory. Usually the words only move when the percocet kicks in." At least he was pretty sure the words never moved around on their own when he wasn't medicated. It was funny how the longer Kevin looked at the stranger the stranger he looked. Or at least the less familiar he looked while causing a niggling little feeling that Kevin had seen him somewhere before. "You don't actually live here, do you?"

"No. Well, not anymore, at least" Jake shook his head, leaning against a free spot of wall and studying the man. "Don't spend as much time out here as I used to. I don't think we've met before...?"

"Don't think so. Ah'm Kevin." He held up his gloved left hand and kept his bandaged Frankenstein hand down by his side. "Part of the Don't Touch Club," he told the other man by way of explanation for not offering a hand to shake. Normally Kevin would have but people could be weird about mutations and most people found it awkward to shake someone's left hand rather than their right. Obviously his right hand was a little incapacitated.

"Kevin," Jake repeated the name with a small flash of recognition. "Ah, the Kevin," he said, eyeing the man thoughtfully. He was silent for a moment, then offered offered a small wave in lieu of a handshake. "Jake Gavin."

"The Kevin?" The Southerner raised an eyebrow at the man with the funny accent whose name was apparently Jake. He'd heard that name around. Kevin just wasn't sure who he'd heard it from. "What am Ah, infamous? Like an Elvis impersonator?"

"Something like that," Jake answered, quickly calculating that he at least wasn't known as "the ex." And for the moment, he didn't offer any elaboration. "Though this place is a pretty small world, so no significant surprise."

Kevin was busy looking confused, which in no way lent itself as a sign of agreement with Jake's statement. "Yeah, maybe if Ah was Jay Guthrie it wouldn't be a surprise." Jay had been social, loud, had lots of friends, declared things to the world. Or at least he had been before he came back blue. Then he was loud, moody and violent with some serious attitude and introversion. That all led to infamy. Or maybe it was notoriety. Didn't those words basically mean the same thing as each other anyway?

"I'm friends with a lot of people here." Of course, with Jake "friends" might be a loose term. After a moment, he added, "Jean-Paul may have mentioned your name," as some small explanation.

"Oh, you a friend of Jean-Paul's?" The name being dropped had obviously piqued Kevin's interest. "Ah don't think he's ever mentioned you." He wondered for a minute if that was significant somehow. Jean-Paul didn't really mention many people in the way of friends, though. He was so paranoid about his memory being messed up and his mutation making him dangerous that he wasn't exactly social. Besides, Kevin didn't mention most of his friends to his boyfriend either.

The Southerner shrugged.

"Don't take that the wrong way or nothin'," he told Jake as if to assuage any worries about not having been mentioned. Kevin wasn't sure if Jake was that sort, but plenty of people were. "Our list of friends ain't exactly our main topic of conversation or anythin'. Actually, seems to mostly be 'bout how Ah'm not allowed to try to move things with the power of my mind anymore. Somethin' 'bout probably droppin' the tv and getting the doctor ladies all mad at me. Women with scalpels are scary, y'know."

Jake pondered the question just a moment before he responded. "Yeah, we've been friends for quite a while." Which, while true, conveniently omitted the parts of his and Jean-Paul's history when they weren't friends either. "Well, most of the women around here tend to be scary. The scalpels just give you something to focus on." He paused a second, trying to recall. "Can you normally move things with the power of your mind?"

Kevin frowned a little, shoulders slumping and hung his head in disappointment. "Nope. One day though, one day Ah'll master the Jedi mind trick and be able to move things with the power of my mind. Until then," he raised his gloved left hand and stared at it, "all Ah can do is decay things with the power of my sebum." Sebum was a strange word. Kevin thought about that, and how it sounded to decay things with the power of your sebum. "Wow, that sounds gross. Ah mean, more'n it's got to."

Jake's eyebrows lifted at the claim. "I suppose if I knew what that was, it might sound a little less...gross. At least I would hope so." He eyed Kevin, then the gloves. "So I take it the gloves keep your...sebum in check?"

"Um, no. The gloves make sure people don't touch my skin. Sebum's the stuff your body secretes to lubricate your skin." Somehow Kevin didn't think that the word lubricate was helping anything. "And your hair. If your sebaceous glands stopped working your skin and hair would dry up and, Ah dunno, die or somethin'. Mine just decays stuff, too. So hair, skin, it's pretty much all coated in the stuff. Like Ah said, the gloves just make sure there's no skin contact. If my skin doesn't touch something then the sebum on it can't go and decay it. Sexy, huh?"

If a small smile twitching was any indication, Jake would agree the choice of words didn't help Kevin's cause. Aloud, however, he only repeated, "No skin contact," as he filed that piece of information away. "That sounds rather...inconvenient."

Kevin only shrugged a little. "Mostly it's inconvenient for other people. Ah got used to it. Ah mean, Ah've gotta be careful 'bout stuff other people never think about and watch everyone else when they're near me but it's just habit now. Ah don't even really think 'bout it all that much unless there's someone new around."

"Yeah, I guess you'd learn to get used to it," Jake nodded as he studied his own hand, contemplative, perhaps looking for sebum. "Just a part of who you are. So's it useful at all?"

"It can be. For art. Or making a tree that fell on a house and trapped people weaker. Eating through stuff to make it easier to cut. Killing weeds. Decaying off someone's face when they're trying to kill someone you love. That sorta thing." Kevin had been listing off whatever had popped into his head first. Decaying someone's face off, that wasn't really the sort of image Kevin wanted to present of himself. But he'd done it. He had some lingering issues about how quickly and easily he'd made that decision but he had no regrets about it. Maybe that was what his lingering issues were really over, the fact that he had no issues. It came down to Yvette or a guy trying to throw her off a speeding train, which likely would have killed her. What was there to regret?

"Decaying someone's...never mind," Jake stopped himself, eyes slightly widened. "Sounds...painful. And I suppose handy in the right circumstances," he added, unconsciously rubbing at the shoulder joint that had once been removed. "So how long you been around here? Trying to get some control of your...sebum, or just like being around people who might not think that's the weirdest thing they've ever heard?"

"Ah'm told it's not really painful 'cause the nerves are destroyed so quickly. They could be wrong, though." Kevin sort of thought of the process like his hand having been exploded now. The parts of his hand that had been the most damaged hadn't hurt after it'd happened. It had been what had eventually been classified as the first and second degree burn damage spots that had hurt. Jay had probably experienced the effect the most of anyone alive and he'd never seemed to be in pain from it. Then again, that could have just been him being stubborn.

The question about why he was in the mansion, though, turned Kevin's expression a bit darker. "Ah've been here goin' on three years. Not really by choice, though."

"Not by choice," Jake echoed back. Well, that was something he could relate to. That's how he'd found his way into these circles too. He chased that thought and the tagalong memories away, though. "Three years," he said instead. "Surprised we've never run into each other before. Not that I was getting out here all that often even before I left the City, I guess. So...you and Jean-Paul, hmm?"

"Yeah...me and Jean-Paul." The wary tone in his voice was perfectly clear. A couple people were all too opinionated about his relationship. Kyle had been when he'd be irrationally cranky that one time. Jared had been fairly upfront about his opinions as well. Kevin could only guess at what other opinions may be held but unspoken. "That interestin' or somethin'?"

Jake's thoughtful nod didn't offer much to dispel any wariness. "Or somethin'" he said, as close an approximation to Kevin's accent as possible. You know, a Swiss French tinged Southern accent. "Or interesting too, I guess." He looked Kevin over, a thoughtful nod. "I guess I can see it. Except maybe the whole decaying thing. So...how do you...you know..." he trailed off, apparently no hesitation at the entirely inappropriate question.

Kevin didn't blush. His eyes barely widened at the question. Though, he supposed it wasn't exactly a question, wasn't it? You should never expect a person to answer something you didn't have the nerve to actually ask. That was Kevin's belief anyway. "How do we...what?"

"How do you f-" Jake cut himself off, remembering where they were. "Have sex," he substituted. With nerve.

Kevin just grinned and said, "Creatively. Why? You wanna watch?" He could have stipulated that they don't have sex or pointed out his virginity or the impending rotting away of body parts if they tried, but those answers were all less fun.

Any of which might have been a more satisfying answer. "That never ends up being as hot as it promises to be. Thank you for the offer, though," was Jake's eventual response. And if the words sounded slightly distracted, well let's just be thankful that Kevin wasn't a mind reader that might pick up on all those different scenarios that might define "creative" that began turning around in Jake's head.

It hadn't really been an offer, but Kevin was pretty sure they had both known that. "Suit yourself. Maybe you're just not voyeur enough to enjoy the view." Then again, Kevin had developed quite the voyeur streak. But that could have been rather person specific. He hadn't bothered to test it out to see if he was more of a broad spectrum voyeur. He didn't really need to. He got all the show he wanted already.

Kevin belatedly dropped his eyes to glance at books on the lower shelves in a vain hope to cover up the thoughts trailing through his mind.

"Voyeur is just a nice way of saying you'd rather watch others live life instead of living it yourself." Jake had no shortage of opinions, anyone could attest. Though a few could also attest he didn't believe half of them himself, half the time just throwing them out just for the hell of it.

"That sounds like a nice way of sayin' you're bitter and cynical," Kevin told him as politely as one could given what he was saying. "Ain't no one ever learned much about the world without being a little bit of a voyeur. Can't learn nothin' unless you're willin' to look at it, study it, understand it. You'd never have the Mona Lisa if people didn't embrace their voyeurism."

"Bitter and cynical," Jake laughed. "Well, I've been called that before. And worse, I guess. I suppose you have a point."

The mental note was quickly made that Jake hadn't denied that either were applicable. That didn't necessarily mean they were, but it was interesting. "Ah should probably go before Ah get yelled at by miscellaneous doctor lady with scalpel for over exertin' myself or somethin'. S'nice meetin' you."

"We wouldn't want angry doctors chasing after you," Jake agreed, giving Kevin a half wave. "Nice to meet you too. Say hi to Jean-Paul for me," he added, apparently as an afterthought.