ArchivedLogs:Kick in the Pants

Kick in the Pants
Dramatis Personae Joshua, Tian-shin	2014-12-20 A slightly awkward introduction, with bonus advice.
Location <NYC> {Funhaus} - Harbor Commons - Lower East Side
The house might have started out looking capacious and respectable, but it has since moved through various incarnations, always colorful, but never colorful the same way for longer than a few days. There is little in the way of what most people would call furniture: a sectional couch buried in fluffy cushions, three bean bags of varying sizes, a scattering of bookshelves, what looks like a human-scale cat tree in one corner, and a low, square table surrounded by zafus. The floor plan is largely open, criss-crossed by rope bridges linking small elevated platforms to the landing of the second storey, beyond which lie the bedrooms. The kitchen is separated from the living room only by a long counter, lined with stools. Even the appliances are decked out in unexpected hues, edged with designs that change on a daily basis. A row of tins and jars runs the length of the breakfast counter, none of which match and all of which bear brightly colored text describing their contents: teas, coffees, mates, and various herbal blends. Funhaus has changed colors again. /Probably/ while Joshua was sleeping -- okay, maybe not. He doesn't look like he's /been/ sleeping. His tan skin is a little too pale, his eyes a little too darkly shadowed. He has just /appeared/ in his living room, dressed in dark blue pants, dark blue button-down, all patched-out to boldly proclaim FDNY Paramedic -- only /just/ off work, if he's even off work. Maybe he's getting lunch. Dinner. Who knows. His knuckles scrub across his eyes, gaze flitting from wall to wall as if to /reorient/ himself -- perhaps his living room changes configuration as often as colors. He crosses it in a few loping steps. Sort of steps. Floor to shelf, shelf to grab hold of another shelf, pull himself up onto a rope, swing onto a bridge. Lazy-/sleepy/ motions like this is the normal way to get upstairs. Stifling a yawn. Tian-shin picks her way through the Commons courtyard, dark brown eyes fixed forward, intent on her path. When she does reach her destination, however, she hesitates at the threshold. She is wrapped in a smart three-quarters length coat, scarlet and closely fitted, with a matching beret. Her scarf, gloves, trousers, and boots are black, and she has a black purse with golden findings slung over one shoulder. One slender hand unclenches from the strap of the purse and touches the doorbell--gingerly, as though she expects to find it booby-trapped. And just before reaching the door to his room Joshua turns right back around. Swinging down the way he came. Rope to shelf to shelf to floor. He doesn't look any more awake when he pulls the door blearily open, blinking sleepily out at Tian-shin. He rocks back on a booted foot, gesturing her in. "Sup." His weight rests heavily against the door, fingers curled around the doorknob. "Oh!" Tian-shin's eyes widen, and her hand draws back. "Hi." A flick of her eyes takes in her host's weary carriage. "Sorry to disturb you. I'm here to see Tag--is he home yet?" She looks half tempted to bolt right then, but enters all the same--the door was being held for her, and it was not exactly warm outside. "You must be Joshua." There's only the slightly lifting of intonation to mark this last as a question. "Uh." The question seems to take Joshua by surprise. He steps back, kicking the door closed behind Tian-shin and turning his head. "-- YO. TAG. You home?" His head bows after this. Shakes, a moment later. "No Tag. His schedule's all the hell over the place. Did you need --" He looks around the colorful living room as though he might /spot/ the source of Tian-shin's visit. "... something?" His thumbs tuck into the belt loops of his pants, rubbing against the well-worn leather of his belt. His chin lifts in a quick jerky up-nod of acknowledgment. "Yeah. Tian-shin?" "Yes, Hua Tian-shin. Pleased to meet you." She extends a hand, firmly and confidently, for all her fumbling over words. "Terribly sorry, I ought to have checked, but my battery died--my phone, that is--and I wasn't far..." Tian-shin flushes, reaching into her purse. "Actually, I came by to drop something off." She produces a small rectangular parcel wrapped in glossy hologaphic paper embossed with ice blue snowflakes. The label upon it is written in Chinese. "For Tag," she adds, then immediately looks embarrassed for pointing out something so patently obviously. Joshua reaches out to meet Tian-shin's hand with his own scarred-calloused one. Firm grip, firm shake. His brows furrow just a little, head tipping as he examines her a little closer, opens eyes a little wider. "Huh." Blink, shake of head. "Oh right. That time of year, isn't it?" He takes the package, squinting at it as though he might discern its contents this way. Then setting it casually aside on a beanbag. "Need a charge?" He's holding his hand back out. Brows lifted. "That time?" Tian-shin blinks in her turn, perplexed. "Ah! No, it's just--I always wrap his presents, in the shiniest paper I have at hand." At his offer, she smiles--only now is her resemblance to Tag evident--and gives a small bow. "Thank you, but I couldn't impose on you so. It would take a while to get enough charge to even power it back up, and I'm sure I'll survive the trip home without it." "Time of year for presents," Joshua clarifies. His fingers curl inward, beckoning. "Won't take a second. I think. Indulge --" He cuts off, words interrupted by a yawn. "-- me, I'm practicing..." His other hand scrubs over his eyes, then drops to his side. "You don't come around much." He sounds vaguely surprised by this. "Ah, so it is!" Tian-shin chuckles, looking down, only slightly abashed. "I /did/ know that, I just hadn't planned it as any kind of holiday present." Comprehension dawns on her at last, and she produces a smartphone in a slim black case and holds it out to him. "It /would/ be awfully convenient. Thank you." At his last comment, though, she flushes--outwardly with red and inwardly with guilt quite abrupt and palpable. << I ought to just tell him. He's my brother! >> Joshua curls his fingers around the phone, eyes slipping closed. He slumps back against a wall -- for a moment his hair starts to fuzz outward, lifting into the air with a small cracklepop of static in the air around him. When his eyes snap open again he looks more alert than before, droopy-exhaustion gone and a livelier brightness to his expression. He holds down the power button on her phone -- when he hands it back to her the battery meter is reading a full charge. His brows have raised, though. Lips curled into a crooked twitch of smile. "Tell him?" Tian-shin watches this performance with undisguised amazement, only magnified when Joshua returns the phone to her fully charged. "Thank you! That is...remarkable!" She bows deeply, and does not seem to initially understand his question. "Tell him?" This echoed, uncertain. "Tell who--oh." Her eyes fly wide open and her free hand covers her mouth as it drops open. "Oh!" If she was embarrassed before, it could hardly compare to her current state of abject mortification. << This was exactly what I was afraid would--oh, sorry, this must be very irritating to you. >> Just then, the phone finishes booting up, and several hours' worth of notifications come through in a cacophony of chimes and bells. Tian-shin starts, nearly dropping the device, but this jolt seems to center her again. Though blushing fiercely, she collects herself and replies. "Tag. I have been meaning to tell him something for quite a while, but...I just kept putting it off." << I'm sure you know already, because...telepathy. >> "It's ridiculous, of course, he wouldn't--it's not that I think he would--" She sighs. "I'm a mutant. And it's complicated. Family-wise." << I should really go. I need a drink. >> "I'm a paramedic," Joshua elects to answer this all, first, "I have /so/ damn much booze." He flicks fingers out towards the kitchen in indication. Where the booze lives. After this, though, he just leans back against the wall, watching Tian-shin with head slowly shaking. "Already knew. Not cuz telepathy. Just -- knew." His brows lift again, questioning. "It's Tag. What exactly do you think he's gonna /do/?" Tian-shin stares at Joshua. She has moved beyond embarrassment and astonishment to a calm space of slightly surreal acceptance. "Don't mind if I do," she replies at last, dropping her phone back into her purse and the purse itself onto the kitchen counter as she goes poking through the Funhaus liquor shelf. "Tag? Probably...throw me a coming-out party? Nag at me to demonstrate? Try even harder to get me to move into the Commons?" Settling on a bottle of Gekkeikan, she starts hunting for cups. "Would you like some...of your own sake?" "What's wrong with the Commons? Pretty awesome here, really. I mean." Joshua's hands spread. To the house around him. See? Awesome. He waves off the offer of sake, glancing down at his uniform. Wandering over to the kitchen to grab some Hot Pockets out of the freezer and stick them in the microwave like he's only just remembered why he's even home. "Why /haven't/ you told him? You really think he's going to nag you that hard? I live with the dude. Not the naggy type." He hoists himself up to sit on the counter once he's switched the microwave on. "Nagging takes an attention span." Locating a teacup--a somewhat irregular one, glazed in brilliant metallic blue and purple--Tian-shin pours herself some sake and takes an unceremoniously large gulp of it. "There's nothing /wrong/ with it, but I lack a steady income." She shrugs. "And Tag--maybe nag isn't the right word. But he would be...enthusiastic about it. More enthusiastic than I am, anyhow. And maybe disappointed that I kept it from him, or that I still want to keep a secret." She unbuttons her coat one-handed. The purple blouse beneath it is relatively plain, and could be a man's dress shirt except for its fit. "But I know, it's bullshit. He would be fine, and I'm just being a coward." This last without much vehemence or recrimination. "Certainly doesn't lack for enthusiasm," Joshua has to agree on this one, huffing out a quietly amused breath. He pulls his hot pockets back out of the microwave, tossing them lightly from one hand to the other. "So if you know it's bullshit drop the bullshit." He sucks in breath through his teeth when he takes the first bite. Gasping, a little too hot still. "Yeah." Tian-shin leans back against a counter and nurses the sake. "I wish I had his enthusiasm sometimes. Or his devil-may-care attitude." There is certainly little of that in either her tone or bearing. "But I guess what I really needed was a kick in the pants." She lifts the cup as in salute. "Thanks." Joshua lifts -- his hot pocket, in return salute. "There's probably a middle ground between the two." His tone is a /little/ dry. "We're having a party tomorrow, here," he adds after this. "Not /us/-us. The Commons. Gonna be hella food. Hella decorations. You should come over more. It will probably," he says this somberly. Like a /warning/, "be very enthusiastic." Tian-shin chuckles over her cup. "The Winter Solstice party? Tag mentioned it to me--about forty-seven times." Then, straightening up. "I'm not exactly a party animal, but maybe I will drop by and be stupefied into wallflowerish silence by the sheer volume of enthusiasm." She does not say this as though she regards it as a particularly problematic outcome, but drains the cup in her hand and rinses it off in the sink. "Thanks again for the drink, and the kick." Joshua's chin tips up in answer to this. "I'm good at that. We get training for it special." He ambles back to the front door, unlocking it again to let Tian-shin back out. "See you around, then." He doesn't say it like a question. Tian-shin buttons her coat again, straightens her beret, and shoulders her purse. "Say hi to Tag for me?" As he is walking her to the door. "Though the way his schedule is--and yours, I'm guessing--I might see him before you do." She bows to him once more before he opens the door. "See you around."