ArchivedLogs:Sharing Lives

Sharing Lives
Dramatis Personae Desi, Lucien, Matt	2016-04-17 "{I probably shine brighter just for taking all this in stride amongst the panicking upper middle-class suburbanites.}"
Location <NYC> Tessier Residence - Greenwich Village
Understated opulence claims this spacious and well-kept townhome, the decor throughout the whole of it of the highest quality and carefully chosen. The front door opens onto the entrance hall, a closet close at hand to receive coats and shoes -- the pale hardwood floors gleam underfoot, unsullied by tracked-in mess from outside. The living room beyond the entrance is all dark woods and pale earth tones, comfortable couches and armchairs and a thick soft rug laid down beneath. Two large and painstakingly aquascaped aquariums flank the entrance to the dining room, with several brightly coloured species of fish within. Most of the rest of the wall space, notably, is taken up with shelves -- shelves crammed with books of every subject and genre. A study branching off of the main hall is cozy, small, done in pale blues and lined with books as well around the large computer desk and smaller futon, though these rarer books are cased behind glass. Another securely locked door leads to the basement, and another to the full bathroom downstairs. The kitchen connects to the living room; in contrast, it is sleek and modern and well-appointed, stocked by someone who takes their cooking seriously. And takes their alcohol equally seriously -- to one side of the kitchen there is a fully-stocked bar. The back door to the kitchen looks out on a small well-kept garden. The brilliant sunny spring day has mellowed into a most pleasant evening, balmy and clear. The windows on the first floor are open to let in the cool air, the smell of night-blooming flowers just beginning to drift inside as well. Dressed in a frilly purple tunic dress that faintly resembles some sort of tropical flower and a flared black wrap skirt, Desi is perched at the breakfast table in the kitchen, quietly absorbed in her smartphone. A round, glossy celadon teapot sits on the island counter nearby, faint curls of steam drifting from its spout. She smiles at the screen of her phone, and shakes her head, swiping something quickly before putting it away and standing to pull down mugs from a cabinet. "{Is it some kind of sixth sense?}" Lucien is just returning from The World Outside, though his /tea/ senses are pinging as soon as he slips in the front door. By the time he gets to the kitchen he's shed his shoes and jacket, leaving him in dress shirt and vest, slacks and tie, though he's already loosening that latter as well. One of his arms curls around Desi from behind, a quick squeeze of hug before he drifts away to lean up against the counter opposite. "{If there /are/ magical powers for knowing /precisely/ when to have the tea ready, I count myself truly blessed that my family has been gifted with them.}" Matt has been out in the garden, but finds his way inside when Desi rises from her place. He wears a seafoam green t-shirt with a white sperm whale beneath an eight-pointed star, and ancient soft blue jeans nearly worn through at the knees. Setting his laptop on the counter, he wraps Lucien in a hug before perching himself on a stool. He has kept in his hand a paperback copy of /Kushiel's Dart/ by Jacqueline Carey, and is now brushing one thumb over its fore edge thoughtfully. There's just the lightest touch of skepticism in his gaze when he glances down at it, as if he must persuade himself to crack the book open (he does not). "{I /have/ been known to use a timer, when multitasking,}" he admits, with a dramatic /sigh/. "{It is a grave fault in my character.}" "{Welcome home, and how was your day?}" Desi gives a thoughtful hum, leaning into her brother's embrace. "{/Seventh/ sense,}" she concludes, pouring out three mugs of tea. "{Always arriving in time for tea is a very useful secondary mutation.}" Though, with an appraising glance at Matt."{So is food-centered clairvoyance, I guess.}" She distributes the Three Treasures oolong to her brothers and keeps the last for herself. "{What did that book do to you, anyway? It's not common that you look so put out by one.}" Her voice is a study in neutrality as she sits back down at the breakfast table. "I suppose even your considerable prowess must have its limitations." Though even so Lucien does /tut/ his tongue lightly against his teeth at this admission on Matt's part. He takes the opportunity of the hug to sneak the book out of Matt's hand, a faintly wry smile on his face as he also hoists himself up to sit -- on the counter's edge, beside Matt's stool. "{My day -- contained one hundred percent less godawful child /prostitution/ fantasy than Matt's, evidently, so I think I am winning. Tell me yours was better too?}" His eyes shift from Desi to Matt as he lifts the book indicatively. "Should I put this in trash where it belongs? You'll thank me, I promise." He's leeeaning over the edge of the counter. Toeing up the lid of the garbage can so he can DANGLE the book, more tantalizing than threatening. "{And it is only useful,}" he adds with a much more /genuinely/ pleased smile to Desi, "{if tea is actually consistently made -- so I still feel appropriate in numbering you among my life's boons. Why /did/ we let you leave for college, again? Do you /know/ how much more often I have to make my /own/ tea?}" Matt makes no attempt to get the book back, and happily takes up his tea instead. "{To call that book 'trashy' besmirches the good name of trashy fantasy novels everywhere--and I do delight in a good trashy book.}" For all that, he sounds rather /calm/ about it. "{Do get rid of it, please. I care not how, so long as it's out of my sight.}" He leans over to rest his head against Lucien's side. "{We let her go,}" he reminds him, "{so she can follow in your footsteps and be a star.}" Desi's bright green eyes widen just a fraction, tracking from the offending book to Matt, her gaze keen and searching but not without sympathy. "{Here I thought you stopped reading because you needed to do work,}" she says quietly, bracing her elbows on the counter and wrapping both hands around her mug. She gives Lucien the barest lift of an eyebrow. "{I left for a college not ten minutes walk from home. But still, very inconsiderate of me. At least Matt was decent enough to continue living at home when he got a job. What would you ever do if he moved to Xavier's?}" There is a thunk as Lucien lets the book fall into the trashcan. The lid swings slowly back closed when he moves his foot, replacing it instead atop the can instead. "{It was a terribly poor decision on our parts.}" He's saying this with exaggerated rue -- in his mournful expression, at the least, though none in his light tone as he reaches to curl fingers around his cup and lift it. "{And don't even /suggest/ such a horror. You might give him /ideas/ and then where would I be?}" Here Lucien's eyes have widened enormously. "{I would have to make my own tea /multiple/ times a day. Gaétan certainly isn't about to.}" His eyes slip blissfully closed as he lifts the mug closer to his face -- not actually drinking. Just breathing in the steam. "How /is/ nascent-stardom treating you?" A faint twitch of his lips. "{-- /This/ week?}" "{I /did/ need to work.}" Matt sounds--just a little indignant, perhaps. "{So I suppose it was fortunate the book turned out the way it did.}" To his siblings' eyes, so familiar with even his subtler mannerisms, the tension in his shoulders bespeaks mild discomfort quite clearly. "{If I had found it more absorbing and less nauseating I might have had trouble getting through my students' essays.}" Here he shrugs, though he does not fully relax even after. "{That /is/ a thought...}" He's tapping his cheek with one finger, smiling from behind the rim of his cup. "{...a thought that I dismissed at once.}" This with a reassuring and slightly condescending pat on Lucien's back. Desi's head tips forward just a fraction, just the mildest suggestion of incredulity at seeing her brother /actually/ throw a book in the trash. "{We could ask B to build you a tea-making robot,}" she muses absently. "{But let's be real here,}" she looks at Matt, "{/You're/ staying,}" then at Luci, "{and you /like/ making tea for him.}" She doesn't answer Lucien's question immediately, glancing down at her phone for a moment first. "{There's been all manner of excitement at school over the demonstrations. Plenty of students terrified that The Mutant will come for them in the night, and plenty more whose parents and guardians are concerned about the security inadequacies of a city campus. There's talks of possible class cancellations this week.}" She tips back her cup for a long drink. "{I probably shine brighter just for taking all this in stride amongst the panicking upper middle-class suburbanites.}" "{A round of perfectly tedious essays is exactly what you need as a palate-cleanser before diving into something more captivating.}" A light thread of laughter curls through Lucien's tone. "{Though if their essays fail to hold your interest surely some of the fault is with you? Perhaps you need to assign more compelling subject matter.}" He /huffs/ quietly at the pat to his back, lifting a hand to brush away Matt's arm -- though the touch comes with a whisper of quiet soothing warmth, threading itself with familiar ease through that mild discomfort to gently nudge it back. He drops his hand back to the counter, leans slightly back onto it. His eyes return to Desi -- with a slight tilt of his head, brows just fractionally lifting. The sip he takes of his tea is slow, a small smile touching his lips when he lowers the mug. "{My love for the camellia leaf is deep and boundless. I cannot /help/ but want to share it.}" Though his mouth is pressing into a thinner line soon after. "Your classmates do not follow much news, I take it. /They/ are hardly the ones who need be concerned about --" Though he cuts himself off, his fingers pressing down harder against the counter. Lighter, now: "I admit that it is rarely worrying about your /brilliance/ that keeps me up at night. Of that I have never had doubt." "{I'm sure a tea robot would be delightful to have, especially when everyone is sick and lying about making pathetic noises.}" Matt taps his fingers in tandem against one cheek, considering. The tension has ebbed from his shoulders by degrees. "{Even so...}" he adds, leveling a fond gaze at his sister, "{you are not wrong.}" Quite abruptly turning back to Lucien, "{I'll have you know, many of my students' essays are quite engaging, if not particularly well constructed.}" He sniffs, sitting up a little straighter. "{The topic was 'Mutants in Contemporary Pagan Communities'--a wide net cast, which yielded a fascinatingly varied harvest. There was one entitled} 'Daemons in the DNA'..." He smiles indulgently and sips at his tea. The smile fades, though it does not vanish completely. "I imagine they follow the news plenty, but /where/ they get their news is going to affect how they view current events. {Besides...they were afraid of us long before the protests began. And you,}" his smile returning, more joyful than before, "{were already shining quite bright, too.}" Desi covers her lips with the tips of her long, slender fingers--a gesture copied from her eldest brother, though executed with the stillness and poise of a dancer--not really hiding her smile. "{Reading your students' essays for /pleasure/, Matt? You need to start wearing tweed and thick square-framed glasses. Refine your hipster school teacher look and ward off the hoards of infatuated teenagers all at once.}" At last she straightens up, shoulders rising lightly and then falling in a very noncommittal shrug. "{I really don't know what news they're following, or not following. There's definitely a pro-mutant contingent, too--smaller, mostly kind of gross and patronizing or fetishizing, but not all. My roommate's been pretty good about that.}" Then, with a very thin, lopsided smile. "Flatterers." It doesn't really sound like a /complaint./ "{He has a lovely tweed jacket. Such a nice cut. I /would/ say he doesn't even slightly appreciate it but I did see it on him all of once and it was Back to School Night so.}" Lucien's smile is quick and amused. "{Perhaps not entirely insensate to the schoolteacher charm after all.}" His smile does not fade, really -- just turns into a quick /snort/ into his tea. "Gross and fetishizing. {/That/ sounds like it would suit one of Matt's essays, right there. I made the mistake of visiting this --}" His fingers snap together. "{Ridiculous tea and candle shop in Harlem /with/ Jackson one time. I can only /imagine/ if the pups had been there.}" A faintly exaggerated shudder, as he sips at his tea. "You wound me. It's hardly flattery if it is well meant. {Is your roommate otherwise tolerable?}" "{Enjoying a work I must read anyway is not the same as reading /for pleasure/, but I'm not ashamed of liking my job, if that's what you're trying to insinuate.}" Matt flicks Lucien on the arm--just enough to sting. "{I /appreciate/ a good tweed jacket when I think to wear it, which is admittedly infrequent. Must you shame me for the profound impairment of my fashion sense?}" He /sighs/ heavily and settles his chin on the upturned palm of one hand. "{Several essays definitely delve into that, though for the most part my students seem to maintain irrationally rosy views about the intersection of western neopaganism and mutants, my best efforts to disabuse them of such notions notwithstanding.}" Eyes sparkling with mirth, his only reply to Desi is a sing-song, "Better flattered than flattened." "{You should just outsource your fashion sense to us,}" Desi tells Matt, her tone serious but her smile decidedly tending toward goofy. "{Did they try to worship him as some kind of archangel incarnate? An embodiment of the Middle Pillar? The White Light personified? Apollo made flesh?}" She rises a little higher onto her toes with each guess, until she is finally obliged to set down her mug. "{I happen to /enjoy/ flattery, thank you very much.}" Then, settling back down to her proper height and taking her tea up again, she cocks her head to one side at Lucien. "Alice? Yes, I like her--I've brought her by here enough times that I'm /sure/ you've met, at least in passing." "{You jest, but /several/ of those references were made quite in earnest. You should have seen the shade he turned. The shade he turned the /air/, for that matter. It certainly did not help the situation.}" Lucien is dipping his head to his tea again. Matt's flicking prompts a chuckle as he leans forward, /his/ head resting atop his brother's to dig his chin down against the elder Tessier's hair. "{/Shame/ you? In such a serious condition? I would never. You know that I only ever seek to provide succor to your ailment.}" He straightens, sliding down off the counter to hop back to his feet. "/Liking/ someone is a far cry from finding them a compatible roommate. I find her perfectly tolerable -- here. For all I know she snores terribly, steals all your food, trashes the room, and blasts Kid Rock while you try to study." Matt slides his palm across his face, his horror not all feigned. "{Not the Greek mythological figure /I'd/ have chosen.}" Though he does not elaborate on this. He reaches a hand up when Lucien's chin comes to rest on his head, patting blindly around until he finds a good spot on the back of his brother's neck to scratch. "{Some friends you just can't room with, and some roommates you never befriend. But there's a lot of middle ground in which to find ways to fit your life around another person's--far easier when they're also willing to fit their life around yours.}" Desi winces hard behind the shelter of her teacup. "{Well, that sounds just awful. Let me know the shop's name and I'll steer clear of it--and steer the Pagan Student Alliance clear of it, too.}" Her eyes dart between her brothers, her expression inscrutable. "{She takes forever in the shower,}" she admits, "{and isn't the tidiest person--maybe just a little /too/ easy-going. I don't know how compatible is compatible enough, but we talk. I think that counts for a lot.}" "Paper Moon. {Their selection is good, their ambiance just} -- leaves something to be desired." Lucien has drained much of the rest of his tea, setting the cup down as he turns to the fridge. "{I hope pesto and gnocchi is alright for dinner. I'm feeling remarkably uninvested in cooking. It is /so/ springlike today, though.}" His hand is resting on the freezer door, though he's /looking/ towards the window, one of several large basil plants hanging in the window. "{When it comes to sharing so much of your life?}" The smile he tips back over his shoulder towards his siblings is slightly crooked. "It counts for quite a bit."