Room 330, Saturday Morning

[genesishero]

Evan was sitting on the edge of his bed, a piece of paper in his hand, which was shaking, just slightly. Old Lace was awake, but resting her head in his lap, coiled around him on the bed. Ozzy was curled up at his feet. He'd had the paper with him in an envelope for most of the week, putting off opening and reading it because of who it had been sent by.

Evan had a complicated relationship with Logan. Seeing his name on the Jean Grey School letterhead as he had pulled out the letter didn't help that.

The contents of the letter helped him even less, just raising more questions than anything else.

Uncle Cluster -- Fantomex -- was alive somewhere, and being kept in a high-security prison in The World.

Logan needed Evan there, to help get him out again.

Evan's time on the island was done. Just like that. Headmistress Pryde had left, apparently ages ago, Storm had taken her place, and Logan needed Evan's help to get Fantomex back.

He needed to pack. He had... more books than any one kid could carry, on any subject under the sun. He wrote a little 'Free' sign on a piece of loose paper, and had Old Lace help him lug the majority of them out into the hall. There were a few, mostly the ones he'd read with Sholeh while she was here and, um, the magazines that Wade had left for him, that he didn't have the heart to part with. Packing Ozzy and Old Lace's things came next. And while he did that, he placed handwavy phone calls, to leave messages for Rosalind and Mr. Constantine, to tell them that he wouldn't be back to work for them again. There was already a portal booked for him, courtesy of Logan, set to leave in just a few hours.

He would have argued if Logan had called him back under almost any other circumstance. The island was more a home to him than the Jean Grey School had been, after all. But then there was Uncle Cluster, who, in spite of all of the lies and hurt and everything horrible he'd done to bring Evan into the world, was still more family to him than anyone on the island. Maybe that was just the way Evan had been programmed. Maybe there was no way he would ever be sure. But right now he was certain of one thing.

It was time to go.

[OOC: Open door, open post. Last chance to talk to Evan before he vanishes forever. Feel free to loot the small mountain of moddable literature sitting out in the hallway.]

Comments

[not_a_moonie]

Alana was on her way back up to her room when she all but tripped over the pile of books. She knelt down to thumb through them like the good nerd she was; when she leaned her head in Evan's door,it was with a look of concern on her face.

"Hey, are you sure you want to give away every Barry Plodder book?" she asked. "'Cause I'll take them if you are."

[OOC: Usual weekend SP applies,I'm afraid. *clings to Evan*]

[genesishero]

"Take all you like," Evan replied, glancing up from the bag he was packing and attempting a weak smile. "I would be happy to know they're in good hands... they're good books, you know?"

Apparently most of the books in the hallway were, going by the cracked spines and the signs that they'd been read over and over and over again.

[OOC: Weekend SP is fine! <3]

[not_a_moonie]

"I know," Alana nodded. "I spent a whole shift at the bookstore reading the first one a while back. So, hey, thanks. Free books."

She raised her eyebrows at his packing. "Okay, so ... you're going home, huh?"

It wasn't exactly a hard guess. But it was a disappointment. Alana didn't see Evan that often, but every time she did she enjoyed talking to him.

[genesishero]

Evan winced faintly, and swallowed a growing lump in his throat.

"It's not quite home," he noted, "but yeah, that's close enough. My old school... the headmaster there says that my uncle needs help, and he needs me to be there for it."

[not_a_moonie]

"Oh, well, that sucks," Alana commiserated, leaning against Evan's door frame. "Do you think you'll be back once you're done helping your uncle,or is it going to take a while?"

[genesishero]

Evan rocked a little on the balls of his feet, and then lifted his shoulders slightly.

"I don't know," he admitted. "The last time I saw my uncle, he was dead."

Short answer: It's complicated.

[not_a_moonie]

"Ah." Alana bit a thumbnail thoughtfully. "Does that, um, happen a lot where you're from?"

Because in her world, dead meant dead. Usually.

[nobloodymessiah.livejournal.com]

Eleanor was on her way up to the fourth floor when she was distracted by the pile of books on the floor.

She peered into the room so that she could frown at Evan.

"You're giving away your books?"

For someone who worked at two different book locations, that seemed like a rather bad sign.

[genesishero]

Evan blinked up from the seat he'd taken on the edge of his bed.

"Most of them, yeah," he replied, giving a little, messy kind of exhale. "I can't take them all with me when I go."

Did that explain that? At least a little?

[nobloodymessiah.livejournal.com]

"You're leaving?" She hesitated in the doorway, not sure what sort of words were appropriate at a moment like this. "Did you graduate, or ... is everything all right?"

[genesishero]

"I haven't graduated yet," Evan sighed, shaking his head. "I got a letter, from the headmaster of my other school, who says that he needs my help saving my uncle."

He scuffed his toe against the floor. Old Lace wandered over to investigate the person standing in the doorway.

[nobloodymessiah.livejournal.com]

Eleanor held her hand out to Old Lace, wondering if the dinosaur remembered her. Maybe people all smelled alike.

"Your uncle's in danger?" she asked, her stomach twisting. "Does that mean you're ... going away for a bit, or are you ..."

It was just that he seemed to be packing, was all. It had less the feel of a weekend trip.

[genesishero]

Evan's toe tapped against the floor a few times while he mulled over his reply.

"My uncle was dead, the last time I saw him," he shared, because... that had explained a bit about how messed up everything was when he'd been talking to Alana. With Eleanor, he had the added bonus of feeling like it was maybe okay to add, "they locked me in a room with his body. I watched them pulverize his heart."

So being called back to save him seemed a bit off.

"I don't know what to expect, but whatever it is... I don't think I'll be back after it."

[notacokeperson.livejournal.com]

Karina had spotted the books and, while she didn't generally snoop, since that invited snooping back, the lure of free shit was enough for her to at least wander down the hallway.

When she realized whose books they were, Karina decided she wanted nothing to do with them. At all. They were probably evil books. Somehow.

"You're leaving?" she asked brightly.

Guess who wasn't sad to see you go, Evan!

[genesishero]

You know, Evan would have been totally okay with a chipper attitude from any one except for...

"Oh, it's you."

Even Old Lace was snorting in your general direction, Karina. Feel the disdain of a telepathic dinosaur.

"Yeah, I'm leaving," he confirmed, looking down at his bag. "Some family thing came up, and it's sort of a big deal. You can help yourself to the books, if you think any look interesting."

[notacokeperson.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Karina was ignoring the dinosaur. Because it was a dinosaur.

Reason enough to pretend it didn't exist in her books.

"Oh, thank god," she said, since they clearly weren't pretending to give a damn about each other.

Luckily.

"And, nah, don't think I will. I don't need anything that belonged to my murderer."

[genesishero]

Evan wrinkled his nose at her.

"You know, most people at least wait until someone's actually killed before they start throwing that accusation around. I haven't even done that on weird weekends, here. Some alternate reality future version of me that I've never been apparently has, but - thank goodness - I am so never going to grow up to have kids with you."

Seriously, the relief here was palpable.

[notacokeperson.livejournal.com]

"Who'd want to have kids with you?" she snapped. "Other me must have been sick in the head to even consider it, and that's before you destroyed her."

This was a friendly conversation! Really! Okay, no, since they weren't even pretending to keep up even the vaguest tatters of pretence at what had never been a very good masquerade anyway.

"So, I don't know, I think I'm entitled to being glad you're leaving." Karina pretended to think about that. "Yeah, pretty sure about that. Why are you leaving? Does someone actually want you or is the school kicking you out?"

[genesishero]

Evan wasn't going to point out that it was hardly fair that this was a matter of Him, and Other Karina. No Other Evan.

And he wasn't going to point out, either, that he'd heard something about her being part of that murder carnival last weekend on the radio.

"Do you actually care why, or are you looking for more reasons to gloat?" Evan raised an eyebrow at her. "Because, you know, I'm not actually in the mood to give you one."

[wildandbrave]

Cosette had gone out for a long walk early in the morning, but she had to go and meet her father for lunch, so at some point she had to come back to the room and get ready. She'd only meant to come in and gather everything she needed to go take a shower, but by the time she arrived she could see the pile of books out in the hallway.

And so she had to ask.

"You aren't getting rid of all those, are you?"

[OOC: Ugh, late, I haven't been on all day so I just saw this. Sorry. :/]

[genesishero]

"I... kind of, yeah," Evan replied, fiddling with Ozzy's collar awkwardly before tucking it into his bag. "Unless you wanted them? I can't really take them all with me."

Well, not without a lot of awkward shapeshifting, and a couple of wagons hitched up to the dog and dinosaur.

[OOC: That's totally fine! SP is love.]

[wildandbrave]

But think of what a memorable sight that would be!

Wait, no, that would probably be a bad thing.

"Take them all with you?" And that was when Cosette processed the packed-up state of most of the other side of the room, and her face fell a bit. "Oh. You're leaving, then?"

[genesishero]

Evan's own gaze dropped, and he nodded a little, sadly. This place was home. More home than any other real place in existence had ever been. He wasn't all too keen about the prospect of leaving, either.

"I got a letter from my old Headmaster," he explained, "who is... I guess he's the closest thing to a legal guardian that I have. Maybe. He wants me to go back to my last school, something about my uncle."

[wildandbrave]

"Oh, so you have family back there," Cosette said with a nod. "I can understand that."

She thought.

"It seems like a shame that you can't bring all the books with you, but that's the way of it when one has to leave in a hurry sometimes." Like, say, when your escaped-convict parental figure thought the police were onto him again. She frowned slightly as she looked at him. "Will you be all right there? You don't seem terribly eager about going."

[genesishero]

"I'm not sure," Evan admitted, sighing as he flopped down on the edge of the bed. "Stuff is pretty complicated when it has something to do with family, I'm learning. My uncle's in prison," instead of, you know, dead, "so I really don't know what to expect."