2013.10.26 - Evening Meals

It's getting later in evening and most have already eaten and passed on to leisurely activities or their studies. Some, however, might be snagging a snack, or just looking for a change of scenery as they work on homework.

Partaking in a bit of both, Clarice is sitting not far from the kitchens. A bowl of chips sits not too far from the various notebooks and texts spread out. The purple elf is paying no mind to her studies, however, as she stares off into space.

An elbow is perched on the table, cupped hand supporting chin. The other hand is mindlessly grabbing handfuls of chips and stuffing them into her mouth.

Having completed classes last year, that makes Jocelyn a graduate now. But she's still doing X-Men work, and happens to be inbetween schooling at the moment. As in she couldn't start the Fall term of college due to being undercover in Genosha. So, mostly she's just helping out around the mansion, eating the food, and, well...okay, she can't say she's really mooching off the place. She's done her fair share of work lately! But still, the tall woman has found herself with more time than she's used to having.

Thus, the woman is coming into the kitchen having just finished a late workout, Jocelyn finds herself walking into the kitchen to get herself something to eat. And by something to eat what she intends on is what looks like a second dinner. The girl has a couple burgers, a salad, and two glasses of milk on her tray. She looks around and spots Clarice sitting at a table, working on homework.

"Mind if I join you?" Jocelyn asks, moving towards the girl. "They piling the homework on already, are they?" Jocelyn comments easily to Clarice.

The voice brings Clarice out of her reverie and and she blinks a few times, dropping the chips in her hand back into the bowl. Those white eyes come around towards Jocelyn and she tilts her head. As if she's just heard a foreign language.

Finally, however, everything processes into place and the purple elf gives a small nod. "Not at all." Clarice looks down to her homework and gives a little shrug, "I'm kinda... getting a lot of extra stuff to get me all caught up."

"Getting caught up, huh?" Jocelyn says, setting her tray down across from Clarice and moving to take a seat. "I think I might remember seeing you around off and on during the summer, but I was pretty busy then," Jocelyn admits. "I'm Jocelyn," she adds by way of greeting. The appearance didn't bother her, really. It mildly reminded her of Nightcrawler, and Jocelyn suspected the girl might get that comparison a lot. "I'm surprised they have you doing catch-up already, this early in the year. Usually they only have you do catch-up work if you come in partway through the year, I think". She shrugs.

"But, I'll admit I'm not a classroom teacher myself, so I don't know all that much about it," Jocelyn adds. "How're you settling in here?" she asks.

"So was I," Clarice says of the summer, managing a little smile. Her shoulders rise and fall as she shrugs, "I... uhm..." It's always awkward, that moment of explanation. The instructors all knew well about her past, but not the rest. New students showing up was part and parcel of the Institute.

"I... didn't really have a proper education. But they wanted me to have the chance to, ah... be with my peers, I guess?" Clarice is obviously not quite familiar with the term's usage or concept. "So... lots of tutoring."

As if suddenly remembering, the young woman adds: "I'm Clarice. Nice to meet ya."

"Ahh," Jocelyn says with an easy nod. "I grew up in the Detroit Public Education System. So I didn't really have much of an education coming in either," Jocelyn admits with a smile. "I graduated by the skin of my teeth, to be totally honest, but it's helpful out there," she says. Though the way Clarice says it, Jocelyn suspects there is something else to the woman's story. But, she doesn't pry for now. That'd be rude.

"How about you? Where do you come from?" Jocelyn asks out of curiosity. "Anything I can help you with? I'm finding myself with some free time, so if you need any practical help with things, let me know. Powers practice and stuff like that I can do. Calculus...uhh, ask someone else those questions," she offers with a grin.

"Not sure I care much about graduating," Clarice mumbles, with the age-old weariness of a teenager who really hates homework. She reaches for the chips again and grabs a few, munching away.

There's another glance to Jocelyn, but the white eyes drop away to stare at the books spread out before her. "I'm from... another time, I guess. Kind of." There's no telling how far the other girl is in how crazy the world can be. Clarice draws in a slow breath, "Uh... I dunno. Josh helps me with most of it. He's been my tutor since I got here."

The two young women are seated at the table closest to the kitchen doors. Before Clarice is a spread of notebooks and texts, plus a bowl of chips (that are dwindling). Jocelyn has a tray full of food for herself. "Powers, though... What can you do?"

"Ahh," Jocelyn says with an easy smile. "I'll add you to my list of people I've met from another time. Trust me, it's not that weird around here," Jocelyn tells Clarice. Jocelyn continues munching on her burgers. "Seriously, I've met at least a half dozen people from another time, and know of an entire team made up of people from the future". So, really, that idea of someone from a different time or dimension? Completely not news to Jocelyn.

"I'm an energy absorber. I can absorb, manipulate, and convert various types of energy. Also lets me heal people, which is a nice side benefit when someone decides to go on a rampage in the city because the vending machine gave them Diet Pepsi instead of regular Pepsi". There's a small grin at that. "How about you?" Jocelyn asks.

Remy slips into the cafeteria, looking a bit strung out. An unlit cigarette dangles from his lips- Xavier's Institute has few rules, but one of them has been a rather stringent admonition that Remy not smoke on the grounds.

Spotting the girls, Remy offers a short wave, hunched into his heavy leather jacket, and kicks through the swinging cafeteria doors. "You a bit late fer dinner," Remy points out from inside the kitchen, hanging his jacket up with a negligent toss. "Midnight meal ain't ready foah a bit yet. Y'all lookin' for a snack?" he offers, tying an apron off around his neck and waist.

There's a hint of relief on Clarice's features. Not having to go into the hows and whys? Always a good thing. Mostly because she doesn't know the hows and she doesn't want to get into the whys. Or was it the other way around? "I know there's some, but..." A shrug. You never know.

"Oh! My..." A slight purpling comes to the purple elf's cheeks. "My boyfriend is a healer." She lifts a hand to scratch at her cheek, looking both embarrassed and excited by the admission. It must be a new thing. "I... create portals."

The two girls are seated at the table by the kitchen entrance. Blink with study materials and a half-empty bowl of chips. Jocelyn witha t ray full of food. Remy has just entered and ducked into the kitchen.

Clarice looks to the cajun and blinks a few times. "Ah, I was just studying, but... I'm always game for a snack." One of her favorite things about this timeline? The ample delicious foods.

Into the cafeteria comes Kwabena, dressed in his typical civilian clothing, which equates to nothing more than boots, jeans, a black tee and a leather jacket. He carries a small tablet computer in his hand, and seems to be oblivious to whatever else may be going on in the cafeteria. From the corner of his eye, he plots a vector for the evening food lines, and makes for that area while tapping hurriedly into the pad with a sort of swift ferocity.

There's a brief wave from Jocelyn over to Remy, literally as he enters the room, almost like Jocleyn knew he was coming. Energy sight and all. "Hey there. I'm good with my meal. Just finished a workout, and I wasn't going to wait another few hours," she comments to the man. "Besides, if I can't heat up a burger, then how am I ever going to survive out in the real world?" the teen asks with a grin. Of course, to the Cajun, just heating something in the microwave might be borderline a sin. Not freshly made or anything, you know.

"Ahh, portals. Useful things, those. I make do with flying, but there have been a lot of times I wished I could just portal somewhere. I'm not all that fast, all things considered, with flight". She shrugs a little. "And yeah, healer. Manipulate life energy and make it heal the body more quickly. It's...kind of hard to explain if you can't see it, to be totally honest. And who is the boyfriend?" Jocelyn asks. She takes a drink of milk as she waits for a response.

Then Shift enters, and Jocelyn tilts her head at the man. She'd not seen him since Genosha. "Hey there Shift," Jocelyn says to the X-Man as he goes to get himself some food. Huh. Guy looked like he was in a hurry or something. But, things were crazy, so, you know, not that shocking.

"Well, ah'm preppin' breakfast fer tomorrow, so if any of y'all got any suggestions, you speak up," Remy says, flicking a long knife into his hand and spinning it lazily on his fingertips. "Thinkin' roast beef on sourdough wit' egg whites an' some cheddar?" he suggests, slapping a large beef roast onto a cutting table. From inside the kitchen, he can still see out into the cafeteria, and with expert motions starts slicing off pieces of roast beef as finely as a deli slicer machine, moving with quick, efficient motions.

Looking up, Kwabena swivels his head to see Jocelyn and Clarice sitting together. He blinks, then grins slightly. "Oh, hello." He may have been about to say something else, when Remy's voice reaches his ears. Turning about, he almost gapes at Gambit. "Well, shit!" he quips. "I heard you were around, but I didn't believe it." Setting the tablet down, he walks over toward the kitchen, grinning widely. "What's up, boss?"

"Everything is slow when you can portal," Clarice says with a bit of a grin. She grabs a few more chips and pops them in her mouth. Chomp, chomp.

Giving up on most of the homework, the purple elf starts closing things and stacking them up. "Hey Shift," she calls once Jocelyn points out the other guy's presence. "Boyfriend," she says to the other girl, with another dopey grin, "is Josh." There might have been rumors, who knows. At least in the students there were. One of those couples that took far too long to actually hook up.

The mention of breakfast suggestions does put a contemplative look on Clarice's features. She's considering, but that's broken when Remy describes what he's planning. "Mmm... that sounds good right now."

"Hey Kwabena. How're you doing?," Jocelyn greets Shift as he heads into the kitchen to meet up with Remy. Well, they could still see into the kitchen just as well as Remy could see out. Easy enough to talk to him from where she was seated. "Josh. Think I've seen him around," Jocelyn offers to Clarice. She didn't really keep up with the who was dating who scene. "Breakfast sounds good. If I'd known you were going to be starting on that, I'd have waited a little bit before reheating," the teen offers to Remy. But then again, Jocelyn would eat just about anything, so that wasn't all that surprising.

"Well, hell, ah kin whip up a couple right now," Remy says, grinning at the girls. He flicks the knife around on his fingertips, lifting his chin at Kwabena. "My brothah, how's it goin'?" he asks the man. "Ah heah you got de plague or sometin' on Genosha. Figgered after all dat time you spend in de red light district, you'd have caught it all by now." He winks at the girls and starts up one of the gas ranges, then starts fishing some eggs and cheese from the fridge to make a snack for everyone (wanted or not).

"Hello, Clarice!"

There might be something to explain Kwabena's more hurried, less angsty demeanor. Given all of the horrible things that were happening, one might expect him to be a bit less energetic. But no, it's a combination of having brought Reed Richards on board to create a cure, and... and...

... is that bourbon on his breath?

Remy gets promptly socked in his non-knife-wielding shoulder. Assuming the guy doesn't counter with a super-charged knife through his torso, which of course would only end up smack dab in the cupboard behind him with a few scoring marks from the knife.

"It was tuberculosis, and I'd say I got it from your moddah, but I know you're not dat dumb." Quietly, he reaches into his jacket, retrieving a flask that is secretly passed Gambit's way. Meanwhile, he's calling back into the cafeteria, "Well, I'm alive, Detroit. How's dat for kicks?"

It's that nebulous time between dinner and the late-night meal for all those starving kids who just can't get enough to stuff their bellies. For mutants, that can sometimes be a real issue. Powers use energy and food is fairly precious energy. In the kitchen, Remy is wearing a snazzy apron and slicing through roast beef. Shift is in there with him, the two engaging in some kind of banter. Jocelyn and Clarice are seated at the closest table: the former with a tray of food and the latter making a stack of note- and textbooks.

"He's been around for a couple years," she explains to Jocelyn. "He's all gold." Clarice has a bit of the twitterpated town to her voice, but she blinks a few times to clear her eyes. They get big as Remy speaks and she looks awed in a whole different way: "Really? Oh, thank you! I'm starving." Because chips are never quite filling enough.

"After the last couple weeks Shift? I'm not believing any reports unless I see the body for myself. And even then I'll be skeptical," Jocelyn responds to the man with an easy smile. Not after what happened with Jean and Magneto. Not a chance she'd buy into anyone being taken out these days. "Glad you've recovered from everything in Genosha".

A nod is given to Clarice. "Ahh, got it," Jocelyn says. It was hard to miss a golden mutant. Of course, it was hard to miss Jocelyn either, so she knew something of what that was like, just in a different way. "Thanks," Jocelyn adds to Remy's offer. She never turned down food. No, not a chance.

Josh Foley is heard before he's seen. With a strange, happy mood about him, he mumbles to himself down the stairs and through the rather echoey hallways of the X-Mansion. With a pair of easily identifiable white iPod headphones in his wears, he's quietly mumbling the words to a song as he crosses into the kitchen. Wearing a horrid, red tee shirt from a fast food taco chain, he slides the music player from his pocket to try to find the stop button. "Mummm-Blud blud blud pour mud thru my veins such a dirty dir-" Josh's words trail off as he looks up to see the others. Flashing a bright, gold-framed smile to them, he shakes his hair away from his eyes and tugs the headphones out. "Hey what's up, guys?" He announces himself. With a thumb's up to Shift, he rounds the center island with a salute to Gambit and sidles over to one of the chairs near Clarice. "Is that community dinner I'm smelling or are we fending for ourselves?"

"Hey, let's be fair. If anybody's ma was passin' out free diseases on Genosha, it was yours." Remy takes a quick nip from Shift's flask and passes it back to Shift, then picks up a wooden spoon and with just enough force to ablate Shift's powers, raps the mutant on the head. "Git outta mah kitchen, you degenerate," he adds, lightly kicking Shift in the ass. "Or ah make sure dat you git de sandwich dat ah dropped on de ground."

Remy nods at Josh, waving the boy in with a flicker of the knife. "Yeah, everyone sayin' breakfast soundin' good, so ah whip up a batch of roast beef sammiches for y'all," Remy explains to the boy. "Ah toss one on for ya," he says, without waiting to be asked. In short order, the smell of scrambled eggs and melted cheese fills the cafeteria, and the sizzling sounds of cooking fills the kitchen area.

Josh's thumbs up is answered likewise. "Oh, -he- sure is h- dammit!" Yeah, that's because he just got rapped on the head.

Tucking the flask away, Shift snatches a piece of bread and a spare soda before walking back out toward the others. "Well, here's to hoping de next coupah of weeks are fah less unpleasant," he says to Jocelyn, before popping the soda and sitting down. He glances to Josh and remarks, "You're still glowing."

"Josh!" Clarice seems quite pleased to see the golden-skinned mutant. She leans over once he's seated and plants a kiss on his cheek. Ahh, teenage love. You love it until it rots your teeth out. "I was trying to finish those math equations you gave me, but I just got a headache." More like lost in a daydream.

As the smell of food eminates from the kitchen, Blink gets a fairly pleased look on her features. "Mmm... Sorry, Josh, but I think it smells better than when you cook." It's also the food she smells right now. Shift's comment earns a bit of a giggle and a sidelong look at the teen next to her.

"Hey Josh," Jocelyn greets, remembering the boy more fully now. Right, they'd done some sparring and worked on healing powers together. That was who Josh was. "Just getting something to eat after hitting the gym," the woman says. "Join us". Of course, Josh is already pulling up a seat, but that's alright.

Jocelyn looks over at Shift and smiles at the man. "We'll see how it pans out," Jocelyn responds to him. She rolls her shoulders as she speaks and gives him a too-casual look.

"Was just talking a bit with Clarice, Josh. Didn't know the two of you were a pair," Jocelyn says to him. "And why is Shift saying you're still glowing, exactly? What happened?"

Leaning into the kiss to his cheek from Clarice, Josh's lips part in a wide grin. So the rumors //are// true, that after five months of hanging out and toeing around asking each other out, apparently it has //finally// happened. "No don't worry about it that's just side stuff to get you up to speed. I'll show you my notes later." Josh nuzzles in just a little and throws his arm over the back of her chair, scooting his chair a little closer as the legs make a loud SCROOOOCH against the floor. "And Mr. LeBeau is the BOMB in the kitchen. Thank you, Mr. LeBeau, I'm starving." Josh pauses a beat. "He taught me everything I was doing wrong in a kitch."

With a blush of bronze skin washing over his gold as his //glow// and couple-status with Clarice are brought up, Josh lets out a little laugh and scratches a finger over the bridge of his nose, right by his eye. How to answer that? "I, well, I'm just really happy, yeah, I finally stopped worrying that sharks were going to pop out of the walls and eat me for asking her to Homecoming. I got a great girlfriend out of the deal...and then met the Fantastic Four. It's been a rough week, but I've had a lot of plus to balance out the negative, yanno?" Josh replies to Jocelyn and Shift, flashing them a toothy grin. "I'm just looking forward to taking her out once we put this plague thing to rest."

A cherry tomato comes whipping at Josh's forehead from a good twenty feet away, inside the kitchen. "Son, ah tol' you once, ah tell you ten times, y'all call me /Remy/," the Cajun orders the boy. He waggles the knife warningly at Josh, then goes back to carving up roast beef. Bread comes off the range, eggs get whipped up, and Remy clangs the knife against a genine, old-fashioned triangle hanging near the buffet counter.

"Order up. Y'all young, stir yoah legs an' git up heah for yer food," he says, slinging plates onto the metal surface. Roast beef on sourdough, lightly (perfectly) fluffed egg whites, pepper and a dash of salt, and a thick layer of sharp cheddar cheese. It smells divine.

"I'll get 'em." Josh murmurs to Clarice, legs turning as he prepares to stand.

"I hate when you do that," Clarice grumbles, good-naturedly. Even with all the flirting, Josh has been a good tutor. That nerd. And she's willing to put up with being tricked into doing more work. It's like as not the only reason the purple elf is able to stick with the senior class.

There's a bit of a grin cast Josh's way as he scoots in. "Oh did he? I'll have to thank him." There's a look to Josh with a bit of a dopey grin. "Plus, you saved my life." Perhaps a bit of a stretch there, as she was in the best place /to/ be saved regardless, but you couldn't tell the twitterpated girl otherwise.

As the tomato flies, there's a *BLINK* as a portal opens to catch it. Behind Remy, another has appeared. What's that abut an object in motion...

She looks to Josh, grateful. Sure, she /could/ retrieve their meal without moving, but there's something to be said for chivalry.

That look from Jocelyn is noted by Shift with a crooked eyebrow. A smirk is given to Josh and Clarice, trailed by laugher when Remy's tomato is portables back to him. He casts a smirk at Jocelyn "Mutants and dere tricks." He stands and heads for the counter without sparing any haste.

Reaching out with her power as Jocelyn spots the tomato being redirected at Remy with her sight, she draws in the kinetic energy from the tomato's path and drains it. As a result, unless it is interfered with, the tomato should drop harmlessly to the ground. Really, Remy DID make them food.

Geez. Was Jocelyn getting more responsible in her old age (of nineteen)? The horror!

She does stand and go to get her food. "Thanks," Jocelyn says to the man, perfectly willing to eat more delicious food. It was definitely going to be better than the reheated burgers!

The girl can't help but smile a little at Josh's statement about the positive things, though. Not everyone could find something good to grab lately, so she was glad the guy could do so.

"Indeed. Us mutants and our tricks," Jocelyn responds to Shift.

"Remy. REMY. Sorry, man, old habits and all from classes. Some of the teachers want it, some of the teachers don't." Josh cringes as he presses a hand to the center of Clarice's back to rise. The tomato //almost// got him, and the more support-minded X-Teen wasn't moving fast enough to see it coming. Saved by the elf. He leans down to press a kiss to her temple, and with another SCROOOCH, his chair is nudged back and he heads to the island to collect his food. "I really appreciate it, Remy, thank you." He smiles to the man, grabs some bottles of Mountain Dew (hooray for pockets) and travels it all back to the table. Plate. Dew. Plate. Dew. He finishes the table setting and re-seats himself.

"I didn't save your life, Clarice." Josh ponders, looking over to her. "I just...I don't know." He talks himself into a corner, looking to his fork as he gets ready to eat. "Just didn't like seeing you hurt."

"You guys here are the only family I've got left, you know?" He looks over to Shift and Jocelyn, getting sentimental with them. "I wouldn't rather be anywhere else in the world right now, and Shift?" His brows knit together. "Thanks for believing in me enough to take me on the ride yesterday." He looks down to his food, digging in. "Are a lot of people traveling out for Christmas this year?"

"Oui, c'est non," Remy says dismissively, grinning at the boy. He wipes the knife blade off and without looking throws it sideways, where it sticks neatly into a wood block on the wall with his other carving knives. He reaches under the counter for a bottle of something brown and slides effortlessly over the bar counter, uncorking the bottle as he goes. He swaggers over to the table and spins a chair around, dropping unceremoniously into it and kicking his feet up onto a free chair. "You two, jes' /adorable/," Remy says, waving the bottle's mouth from Clarice to Josh. "Jes' like dat movie, de Notebook. All de kids, talkin' 'bout how you two are in loooooove, an' gittin' /married/, an' makin' out in de bushes between classes..." Remy bobs his eyebrows disingeuously and takes a hearty swig from the bottle, then sighs contentedly before sliding the fifth (which smells like Jack) across the table to Shift.

Jocelyn watches the duo and works on her food a bit. She's about to say something when her phone beeps at her. She glances at it and shakes her head. "Pardon me. I've got to get going. Plans with Jubes in a bit". She grabs the sandwich and starts munching it along the way out of the cafeteria.