Annoyingly, no-one around here seems to be offering any sort of help. Billie settles her hands on the young women’s shoulders, a gentle comforting touch, “We’ll figure it out, honey! Difficult to clean up broken glass. We can get someone else to tidy up, yeah?”

‘I’m all out of sorts and just needed—’ Billie eyes out the colourful liquids, she hasn’t the faintest idea what they could be, “What were they, exactly?”

--

      a long, winded exhale puffed out her cheeks. the touch was comforting, although unexpected, and an action that made her eyes squeeze shut as if one less sensory would help make sense of the mess of recursive thoughts. “ no, no, they’re plastic, ” she added, opening her gaze to the indicated objects and then to the elder. at least that was easier to attend to, and a first step as layla bent down and retrieved the busted and dripping packaging.

      “ they’re... they’re pedialyte's. ” and saying it aloud was enough to feel how silly it all was-- crying over a spilled drink. “ i’m... my health is a little bit off at the moment. these help. they help immensely and... it’s sounds ridiculous explaining it to you but... ” ridiculous couldn’t begin to cover what realization was dragging her through, but then exhaustion did well to make any emotion or thought overwhelming, didn’t it? 

      “ i just want to feel better, ” she added, keeping her attention on collecting all the various forms of plastic lest she see a look on the other’s face as displeasing as her own thoughts.

Royal Pawn always had a gem or two. Anything from clothes, to stupid shit to decorate her apartment with. Mari loved it, even if she spent half the time sifting through broken up junk and haggling with the man behind the counter, who always glared at her when she came in. She figured it was because she drove such a hard bargain, but maybe she was just obnoxious enough to be earning such a glare from someone who she gave her money to willingly. Mari was digging through some box full of the dustiest radios and walkmans, cassette players that obviously hadn’t been touched in years, and more technology she couldn’t quite place. “What can anyone even do with this junk,” Mari mused shoving the box down the counter in the direction of the other person in the shop. Like she could do anything more with them anyway. 

--

      layla hadn’t even lifted her head toward the referenced collection, too focused on the pieces she was examining that the box came into view like a prize being revealed before her eyes. no beat, no breath, no pause was taken from shifting her attention from the busted electronic in her hand to those displayed within the treasure trove of cardboard. diligently, she picked up each piece with quick thorough examination before moving onto the next, the next, the next for which model, mulling over what parts each held with soft, “ wows, ” escaping her lips at each worn and forgotten item. when the lingering question finally reached her distracted consciousness, she finally looked up to the other like a deer caught in headlights before regaining composure and time with the rest of the world.

      “ oh, um, sadly, these aren’t really good on their own. you might be able to fix some of these up, frankenstein the good parts together to make an almost new walkman but... ” the possibilities weren’t infinite but they were vast enough that spelling out a list would be extensive, and perhaps an information vomit she was prone to giving unwarranted. “ they’re far better for their parts. could probably salvage them into more radios than anything. it’d be pretty fun to make secret agent equipment... not gonna lie. ” 

Daichi and Little Fuji shared a look before following after her. Little Fuji was more interested in what she was saying, easily leaning forward to listen to her closely. “That sounds perfect,” Daichi said, mostly focusing on the part that it was double sided. How exciting. “No matter what, it won’t stop rolling, it’ll just flip over. That sounds good right?” Little Fuji nodded his head with the utmost excitement. “Then I’ll get it for you but your old man is gonna have to pay me back.” 

--

      “ i’ve no doubt the two of you will have fun with it, and i do mean both of you. and that’s payment enough. ” her smile was sincere but short lived, as her focus shifted to readjusting the array of parts and packaging back to both hands, a relief at least to stop the one from cramping and possibly dropping the wire and board collection all over the floor. 

      “ it’s also really kind of you to get that for him. i know i don’t understand your relationship, and i don’t presume to either, but from personal experience most people expect parents to get the nice things for their children. ” it was a compliment and commendation, hopefully received for its intention rather than an intrusive observation. “ the two of you must be very close. ”

Roxi was skating about like usual, zooming past New Yorkers, smiling wide as she heard a few people say ‘ watch it ‘ or ‘ fucking bitch ‘. Sorry, she had places to be, people to see! She didn’t have time to stop and apologize to every single person– Oh! Walking out of a store was a familiar face, Roxi ready to call out to the other until she witnessed the accident. That was when she came to a stop, air wheels disappearing and her feet touching the ground, now slow and steady steps were all she was. “Oh no, Layla!” Cried out the student. “Are you okay? Uh, I can… dry it all up for you? Can also pick up the broken bottles.” 

--

      the familiar voice was a comfort, even if no signs of relief eased her expression. “i- i’m just... i have to have-- ” a flood of explanations fought their way to her lips as she looked up to roxi with tired and desperate eyes. how could she explain its importance without sounding absolutely mad? logic would state that perhaps there was a flaw in her thinking if it was so easy to to reason away, sound mad for being so upset over liquid with an unique and helpful sugar.

      “ i don’t need them dry, i need them... i need them back the way they were. i can do this. i can fix it, i just-- ” layla knew the lies she was trying to convince herself, and in trying to explain to the kind company, they were unraveling fast with little argument to keep them alive.  “ shit. sorry. i’m... thank you for offering. i can grab the bottles. i just really needed them. i bought the last and i-- i’m sorry. you’re probably busy.”

Billie has never once, in her life, been to a pharmacy where the staff weren’t rude and or rushed. Literally never. Unfortunately, Billie finds herself at the doctor’s and filling in prescriptions far too regularly as she’s getting older. It’s bound to happen, of course.

“Oh, honey,” Billie bundles up her scarf so it won’t fall in the way, crouching down a little, offering a hand out to the young woman. The poor young woman who is currently sat in front of her mess muttering about ‘fixing’ it in a way that has Billie thinking she maybe desperately needed whatever she just smashed all over the ground. “I don’t think you can magically mop these up. You need a hand?”

--

      her hands tried to wipe the exhaust from her face to no avail, instead opting to take the proffered hand for what it was worth. still, her eyes didn’t leave the array of colors, the sense that her present state of well being wouldn’t get better despite knowing it was temporary. 

      “ thank you, ” she replied, weak and half-hearted despite the genuine intention behind the words. “ i need them, though. i could fix this, i could-- ” the same persistent thoughts swirled back into her mind, lies to herself she knew, but nonetheless felt real as layla assessed what inventory of her haul remained. a single bottle. hopeless. “ i don’t know what to do. they don’t have anymore. i- ugh, i’m all out of sorts and just needed-- ” a reprieve, sleep, the things spilled before her. finally her eyes lifted to her company, no words but a soft expression that clearly asked: what do i do?

      ——HIS EYES TRACED a line between each of the laid-out objects, mind working to try and connect exactly how they were related to one-another. he loved little games. he loved tricks and innocent chaos - the kind that had his side aching in stitches from laughter or his cheeks sore from a smile that was too-wide occupying his expression for so long. and here he stood, shoulder-to-shoulder with layla, eyeballing the ingredients to the deconstructed rube goldberg. he wondered what it would turn out to be. how it would cause that sweet, sweet innocent chaos that would ache his sides and cheeks.

      “ well, obviously i’m going to help. ” obviously. because it was very much out of the region of thought to assume evan would tell her to do it on her own. or worse —find someone else. he almost shuddered at the notion. “ alright. so explain to me, like i’m six, the current thought for the order of operations. ”

.

      “ like you’re six? you’re cleverer than that. even i know this, evan. even, evan. anyway... ” the persistent smile never left her tiers, bright as the sun-- whether it was glowing through the windows of the aged building it didn’t seem to matter. the sheer excitement was enough to keep her motors going, radiated in the jitters of her limbs despite fatigue tugging at her joints and darkening the circles beneath her blues. it only helped her eagerness to get started with the confirmation he’d be at her side to see it all unfold.

      “ first we put paste, glitter and water in the balloons, not enough to fill them because they need to explode and spread... fill the rest with air. they’ll be placed above the classrooms or dormitories depending when we want to do this. you know as well as i some of the staff patrol night and day to make sure everyone’s safe and that’s how the balloons will be set off. as they come down the main stairs, there will be this trigger string that will ready the pins attached to the balloons so they don’t explode early, opening the doors is what pops them. why is everyone coming out you ask? that is an excellent question: the trigger string also attached to siren that will be set off with the prepping of pins. why is the staff coming down the main stairs perfectly when everyone is in class? because at the bottom of the stairs is where the shaving foam will explode and attract their attention. the shaving foam is hanging from the door, that will be triggered to fall from the ledge by a string and ball rolling towards it. the ball will originate from down the hall after being guided by the baseboards after falling from a slope that...” 

      her silence was sudden, not even sounds of her thoughts trailing away left her lips as layla recalled everything she relayed, all the schemes built up in her head and understanding what it’d mean if they came to fruition. but what if... if she changed... no excitement was lost just temporarily put on hold with a long huff and a lift of her head, gaze redirected to her would be partner-in-crime with contorted features of concern. 

      “ ...okay this is starting to sound like hazing and i think i didn’t think this through. help? help. i got carried away with the chain reaction part, i didn’t think of how much damage and clean up there will be... maybe just the balloons,” she questioned, a little more confidence returned.

      it wasn’t the first and it wouldn’t be last. wasn’t that the truth for most things? it was surely true for many mutants, she was sure: pushing themselves to their limits or in some ways accidentally using up the finite resources they had to spend. at least hers could be registered, monitored or brought to obvious realization she had pushed too hard when her hands began to shake and the world suddenly traveled on a tilt.

      and normally she planned in advance, normally she was prepared with supplies that kept her going before a problem like this popped up, or before she’d let anyone at the institute be troubled at her expense. with shaky arms full of pedialyte and several other supplements that nearly wiped the pharmacy’s shelf supply into nonexistence, today was definitely not a normal day. still, with a lazy, wide smile, she remained polite, calm, steady, despite being shuffled out the doors, bags secured poorly in her grasp. it took one poor step and karmatic thought of how could they stay in business with such rushed service and half the bags slipped from her hand with a beautiful breaking of bottles.

      “ crap. i can fix this. i can fix this. ” but as the artificial colors seeped through the plastic and bled together over the pavement, her limbs reminded her at the moment she was drained-- any attempts to fix it with time wouldn’t be wise... and there were no future selves that had intervened to suggest she should even try. 

      “ i can fix this, ” she repeated, sitting down in front of the mess like a child in awe over spilled milk. “ how can i magically mop these up back into non-broken bottles? ”

gracie’s diner | open: @c23starters

ferris rushed into the diner with the confidence and determination of someone who knew exactly what they were doing and where they were going, when in fact ferris was the complete opposite. his hands were full of various junk - miscellaneous computer parts from work (both given by his boss and stolen), metal bits found in the dumpster behind his apartment, screws and bits bought from the hardware store - that were falling out of his hands, piece by piece, bit by bit. 

and he was focused, as he usually was, going straight for an open-table, not really thinking or area of who was around him, only trying to hold onto the schematics in his mind. trying to remember each piece and each part of his newest idea before it slipped out of his mind forever. (he didn’t trust himself to try to jot down that schematics of it, out of fear of losing key components.) this invention, he knew, was too important to lose. more important than the rocket boots he was working on in his apartment or the dual microwave/freezer that was still in its beta testing phase. (it still had some bugs he needed to work out - such as, how to keep the cold food from exploding and accidentally freezing soup.)

 this invention, however, was a game-changer. it was a gauntlet that would do pretty much everything. he could already see it in his mind - hologram projection, security bypassing, step counting. it would have a calculator and everything. and it could be a phone too! he thought, as he worked quickly with the parts in front of him. it’s like he could see the device already built, right in front of him. the silhouette of it before his very eyes. it was like a ghost. he just had to put it together before it slowly disappeared forever.

“absolutely not, no, no no,” the manager said, walking towards his table. “ferris, i’ve told you so many times, you can not do this stuff in here.”

ferris was barely listening, too busy building, grabbing pieces around him.

 the manager grabbed ferris’ wrench and, thus, his attention.

“hm?”

“ferris.”

ferris waved the man off. “i’m not ordering.”

“i know. that’s the problem,” he said. “either order something or leave. and besides, you can’t keep bringing your junk in here. it can fly off and get in the food. or it can hurt someone. this isn’t the place.”

ferris finally gave the man his full attention. “if i leave now, i’ll never finish it.”

“does it look like i care?”

“but this- this is the future! do you know what this will be capable of once i finish it!?” ferris exclaimed.

      “ but it’s certainly not capable of flying into other people’s food. that would require a motor, and there is none. ” the spill of parts over the table were what initially caught her attention, recognition of those she had worked with before followed by curiosity of those she hadn’t. naturally layla’s gaze drifted up to the owner of this fine display, latched onto the look on his face and how familiar it felt. how often had she seen that excitement in her father’s and uncle’s eyes, distorted behind magnified glasses and noses practically touching the soldering gun? how often did that same look befall her face in her various ideas she needed to see through? god was that what it looked like from the outside? but her quiet people watching stopped the moment the wrench was lifted away.

      “ he’ll have an order of eggs and bacon, sunny-side, with a cup of coffee and a glass of water, ” she continued, slipping into an adjacent seat at the fellow inventor’s table. “ and i’ll have some pancakes and a hot chocolate, please. ” her present smile grew even wider, pleasant as one could be with the intention to kill with kindness and a gaze that followed the man as he departed to relay the order.

      “ if you truly don’t want any of it, i’ll take it all, but would you mind if i stayed? i want to see where all of this is going. ”

“I don’t, do you, Little Fuji?” The little boy shook his head, Daichi nudging the kid with his elbow before standing up. “Looks like we’re fucked.” 

“Language, Kato-san.” 

“Yeah, yeah…” He only rolled his eyes before staring at the woman across from them. “You’re willing to forget the damage that happened?’

      “ of course i’ll forget it... that is if you pick a better rc to wreck. ” immediately she turned to the display of remote controlled goodies, a nod of her head to the both of them to follow before looking over them with consideration until the one she was looking for caught her eye. 

      “ if you’re going to be rough with them you need one to do the trick. this tyco, it came out last year and they modeled it to be double sided. if you wreck and flip, it keeps going on the opposite side. that’s a car worth having and i’ve seen it in action... better insurance, too. ” it was easy to get carried away in explanation, especially if it was something she was passionate about-- or in this case a passion of a close family member that leaked his knowledge to her. “ it’s not a tamiya but it still packs a punch. ”

alyssa didn’t do much when she wasn’t working, besides helping out the newer students at the xavier institute. she didn’t necessarily graduate from the school, but she was also not about being one of those people that didn’t have a career while they attended. laying on the ground, the first thought that came to the mutant’s mind was that she wanted to cause chaos. “the ground spoke to me and she said you’re a bitch.” she replied, a small smirk appearing on her lips. truth be told, alyssa wasn’t really able to talk to the ground itself, but she was able to move stuff off the ground and use it to her advantage if need be

      her brows furrowed together as she stopped abruptly in the earth that supposedly offended her. grass blade to grass blade she assessed individually before looking up to the other. “ well. that wasn’t very nice. and here i thought listening to bill nye would give me street-cred with the turf. ” a shrug and a half grimace shuffled the offense, though, as carefree as she was sure the earth was... well, to layla specifically. 

      “ it’s gonna have to do better than that, or at least start regarding me first. does it say the same about you?”

LOCATION && WITH WHOM : : THE SPARKLES MALL W / ANYONE @c23starters

Another day as his old friend’s babysitter but instead of sitting inside of the public library, he decided to take Little Fuji– his name was Hiro but Daichi liked Little Fuji better– to The Sparkles Mall. Let the kid have some fun, eat a shit ton of unhealthy food, look at some chicks– you know, men stuff. But Little Fuji had a different idea, tugging Daichi by the hand into a Radio Shack. “God, you’re so much different from your old man,” he said, crouched down, looking at whatever Little Fuji was looking at. Some remote cars and tape recorders. “He was nothing like this at your age.” Maybe that was a good thing, maybe his old friend didn’t want his first son to end up as a delinquent turned loan shark. “How does this even work?” He picked up one of the cars, moving it back and forth on the ground. “Do you push it or–” With one little shove, Daichi sent the toy car flying on the ground until it crashed into someone’s foot. “Damn, looks like someone wrecked my car, Little Fuji.” 

      “ it looks like someone wrecked my foot. hope you have insurance for that, ” she remarked back, ready to fight a playful argument. she shuffled her collection of circuit boards and resistors together, a mess of parts that looked like a robot spewed its internals into her hand while the free one reached and retrieved the car. she, too, had a childlike wonder for the goods of the store-- perhaps not for the same reasons or same products but layla could appreciate a good rc when she saw one.

      “ doesn’t look like it got scuffed, ” she noted to younger of the two, inspecting its unscathed sides thoroughly as she approached and proffered it out to the man who did the damage. “ i’m willing to forget the damage if you are, or i could be in a lot of pain if any trouble is started. ”

      “ the only thing is it’s a two-man job and i’m too tuckered out to help myself. i thought... you’d maybe like in on it? maybe i could get a different perspective on how to make this more effective? ”

Task One.

LOCATION && WITH WHOM : : GROCERY STORE W / ANYONE @c23starters​

It was the one time he was alone, Nicholas leaving Ava with Will and Gabby so he can do some shopping. It was a quick trip to the store, needed some stuff to make cinnamon rolls again. Or at least, attempt to make them. He was bad at this type of stuff, failed at least three times now. But he wasn’t a quitter and Ava really wanted some so– “Oh,” he said, stopping his cart just before he crashed into someone. “My fault, I wasn’t paying attention to my surroundings.” 

      “ no worries, honestly. i should mind where i stop dead in place, but that tends to be less adventurous and leads to less interesting days. ” on her toes she reached for the furthest can of condensed cream, even though it wasn’t the first and easiest to reach. layla turned her full, cheeky grin to the other, recognizing the voice but not making the connection until her eyes met with his.

      “ please don’t analyze that, ” she added, placing the can among the overflowing collection in her arms, “... or do. funny catching you here, to change the subject. are you getting anything fun to make?”