Once upon a time I could control myself [IRC log]
* Jekyll is present; it's been a while, so this is perhaps notable. Or not! Either way he is drinking something without alcohol, and doing some kind of paperwork. ...he's so exciting.
* Hasibe is present, and...she does have alcohol (martini!), curled up in the corner of a sofa. Possibly she is next to Henry, because they can only stay in that hotel for so long, so now they must come here and...hang out in the Nexus. "I think I forgot my cigarettes--"
* JackBenjamin arrives, though he has no idea if this is a good idea or a terrible one -- here at least there is space to think, but there is also booze he should not drink (much of) or he may kill...more people, awesome Jack. Anyway, he is tense as hell aaand was going to beeline for the bar, but. "Henry. Hasi." That passes for 'hi,' right.
Hasibe: "Hey, Jack." ...so she's guessing things have gone from bad to worse, recalling their last conversation.
* Jekyll eyes her, mildly. "That's not exactly a bad thing, I've heard." --a Jack! A ...yes. So this conversation about Hasi's various habits will be later. "Jack. It's- good to see you." You know, such as they are.
JackBenjamin: "And you, in one piece." Er. Word choice. He sounds really, sincerely thankful that this one thing has not gone to shit, though, and even comes over to give Henry a manly clap on the shoulder. Physical contact, amazing.
* Hasibe smiles slightly, sitting up straighter on the sofa; she's wearing jeans for once, so she can sit with her legs crossed, reaching back to mess with her ponytail.
* `Alexander pushes open the door halfway aaaand his cell phone rings and he steps back outside.
* JackBenjamin is belatedly and notably not really using his left arm, though it isn't in a sling anymore. His shoulder is just full of holes. :(
* Jekyll actually chuckles a little at that, which is a sign that he has ...a finely tuned sense of irony, I guess. More so than before! He returns the gesture, CLEARLY on Jack's right side. Obviously. "I'm not sure I can say the latter for you."
* JackBenjamin flinches away a touch because he is just that tense, and smiles in that flat, bitter way he does that ought not to count as a smile at all. "Hm? I'm fine. I got a little... shoulder injury." He'll just veer off to grab a (painfully inadequate) drink, shall he?
* Jekyll does not pry, even though like, he probably /should/, given his recent experiences and how no one was prying into them--right. "I see." And he looks at Hasi for a second, because they have to be communicating silently with their eyeballs like ...all the time. At least they're not communicating silently by making out! "Usually that segues into some fascinating sports-related story."
Jekyll: Okay, so he's prying a /little/. Gently.
* Hasibe is saying nooothing, she has her martini, but she glances right back at Henry.
* JackBenjamin laughs a note or two, which...does not sound right given it's followed by, "Bullet, this time. Sorry to disappoint." My he is knocking those bottles around roughly. He shouldn't even share that much, but he is having trouble caring right now!
* Jekyll manages not to say anything like, horrifically caustic in response, which is- more difficult than it sounds, because Hyde. Awesome. "I don't know if disappointment is really the word I'd use."
Jekyll: OR whatever form of speech is appropriate. It's 4:30 in the morning over here.
* `Alexander tries this again and enters, sticking his cell phone in his jacket pocket as he does. "Well hello."
* Hasibe leans forward, frowning. "When did that happen, anyway--hi!"
* JackBenjamin pours himself the world's tiniest glass of whiskey and takes complete advantage of the fact that everyone is distracted, so he doesn't have to answer them. "Alexander, it's been a while." He...kind of smiles? In a forced but really trying kind of way.
`Alexander: "It has." He smiles, as it's been a while! For all of them. "Quiet evening?"
JackBenjamin: "Blessedly. Would you like anything?" While he's back behind the bar giving his fidgety hands something to do.
Jekyll: ALEX. Omg. --Ahem. "Alex, how are you?" Henry's like, still alive! It's great.
`Alexander: "Yes, something strong, it's been /a week/." And he's going to come up behind Henry and ruffle his hair. :3 "Look, it's your head. Hello, Hasibe."
Hasibe: "Hiii, thank you for not doing that to /my/ hair." But she's going to fix Henry's, thank you, because...she can. (They're not in denial anymore.)
`Alexander: "I will only do that if you ever shave your head."
Hasibe: "/Never/," she says, tossing her ridiculous hair. If she did it would probably make her like five pounds lighter.
Jekyll: "Does this mean you've forgiven my haircut--no, I see not." He squeezes Hasi's knee, for much the same reason. All touching, all the time.
* `Alexander was doing that obnoxious "omg your head is a magic 8 ball" thing momentarily. Just. Fyi. And now he's going to sit down. "You two are gorgeous together, by the way." Since he's subtle.
* JackBenjamin chuckles a little under his breath for reasons he will not share with the class and fixes Alex a whiskey and coke, which he will bring back over there.
`Alexander: "/Thank/ you my darling cupcake."
Hasibe: "That is so sweet, thank you." She tucks herself into Henry's side, as though Alex prompted her somehow. Possibly they belong to the Association of Crazy People Who Date Henrys and have a psychic link. "'Cupcake', that's great."
* JackBenjamin winces. 'Cupcake,' huh. "Alex."
* JackBenjamin is fifty bajillion times more sensitive tonight, hi.
* Jekyll is totally not finished prying at Cupcake, by the way. But...later for that, apparently. "Fifty percent of us is gorgeous, yes." LOOK. He's allowed.
* Hasibe says NOTHING because if she argues with him they will become That Couple (they are already that couple, everyone else is going to leave this room diabetic), but she just smiles and nudges Henry's knee. Fff. "I should get another martini but I am lazy." :|
`Alexander: "I have called you a whiskey cupcake before," he points out. You thought it was endearing then, /Jack/.
Jekyll: "I'll get you something." It's ...going to be boozeless.
* JackBenjamin hadn't spent the day desperately asserting his masculinity via death, then. "I appreciate the whiskey part." Which he illustrates by raising his own.
* `Alexander does remember that phone call, but he's not one to mollycoddle - and doesn't think Jack would like it, anyway. "Cheers."
Hasibe: "Will you? Thank you." She smiles at Henry, and adds, to the others: "Alex, you can be a vodka muffin."
`Alexander: "I could." This pleases him.
JackBenjamin: "That sounds delicious. Hasi, you have to bake something with vodka in it again, one of these days."
`Alexander: "Of course I'm delicious--" shut up, Alex. He sips his drink. "So what have you all been up to? I haven't been internetting, a warning."
* Jekyll find some kind of appropriately bright colored thing which does not contain any alcohol and procures it for Hasi. And then Alex speaks, and ...he laughs, he can't help it. What has he been up to. "I have a job offer in New York." He phrases it sort of like a question, which is a little weird except for how it is perhaps the only sane thing that's happened to him in recent memory.
Hasibe: "Oh, I should! Once I have a kitchen again--I mean, I still have the apartment, but I'll save the vodka cupcake remix for when we're moved into the house. If we get it. On which note...like he says. New York. Ithaca, not Manhattan."
* `Alexander is kind of oblivious to horrors, it's ... a character flaw :[
`Alexander: "Oh? It's gorgeous up there!"
Jekyll: "Not the city," he adds, as an afterthought. "--Yes."
Hasibe: "It is! I'm excited, although I'll have to readjust to not having lingerie stores on hand whenever I want to shop." She'll have to take trips up to New York for that. ...clearly this is the most pressing issue, sure.
`Alexander: "Hey, you never know, there's a bunch of art colonies up there, I hear. Maybe somebody makes hand-knit designer spankies."
* Jekyll grins, wolfily. "I'm sure they have them, it's just lingerie made of hemp." Ithaca is full of crazy liberals, and it's awesome.
`Alexander: "See?"
Hasibe: "Maybe I'll just go without any entirely," she says, unruffled, "That'd work, too."
* `Alexander shrugs like that's clearly the right idea.
JackBenjamin: "Risque." Jack approves, in a distractedly detached sort of way.
* Hasibe feels enabled. "I am not going to pretend, though, the insanely left-wing aspect is a plus--that's how I like to be."
* Jekyll sighs, the most put upon person in all the universe. Except for Ewar. "Drink your- whatever this is." He doesn't know, it's just very colorful. Maybe it's some kind of fruit juice.
Hasibe: "Thank you," she says, sweetly, "Sit down, I'm cold." She's lying. "What have you been up to, Alex?"
`Alexander: "Work." It's thrilling. :|
* JackBenjamin finishes his whiskey and frowns at the glass. That was went way too fast, and he's still fidgeting. "There isn't any hangover-free alien booze around here, is there?" That's mostly rhetorical, but.
`Alexander: "Want me to make you a milkshake?" ... This is a serious question.
* Jekyll makes himself available for warmth, which is hilarious considering how low his body temperature actually is, now.
JackBenjamin: "Is a milkshake going to help me calm the hell down?" :| hi, Jack is snappy.
`Alexander: "It's possible." Alex gets up and goes to start making one. Enjoy his patient tolerance.
* JackBenjamin is quite possibly more irritated with that, but at least quietly so. He sets his glass down on a table with slightly more force than is necessary and goes back to fidgeting.
* `Alexander is not actually going to enable a fight, sorry Jack. He's making him a vanilla ice cream one spiked with rum and nutmeg, and it's going to be /amazing/.
* Jekyll is highly concerned now, uh ...more. "Jack-" Enough, he's just going to be direct, which is sort of nice to be able to do. "Are you all right?" A...side from the obvious.
* JackBenjamin shakes his head dismissively, too many times. "I'm fine, Henry. Why wouldn't I be."
* `Alexander looks over at Jack briefly.
Jekyll: "I don't know, Jack, I just know that's what I kept telling people, too." He doesn't really like- expect Jack to suddenly start confessing, because /he/ wouldn't, just- it's there.
* Hasibe is just going to curl her hand into Henry's over here because...look, they're like this. It is being toned down for the general public, presently.
* Jekyll squeezes her fingers without thinking about it--yeah, they're totally like this.
JackBenjamin: "Well thankfully I don't /have/ your problems, Henry." ....things Jack will regret later #2049. "I'm fine."
* Hasibe looks over at Jack, then--her gaze is incisive, moreso than it might have been prior to the past couple of weeks, but she is going to stay quiet. For now. Still; that was an interesting remark.
`Alexander: "...Jack." It's quiet, but.
* Jekyll ...kind of flinches, sorry, but, you know, it's not really all that unfair, considering his problems were pretty much entirely self-induced. He laughs, or a sound like it. "No, I suppose no one has exactly those problems- but I have help, too." Aaand he doesn't think Jack has that, but he lets it go there.
* JackBenjamin absolutely does not have help, in fact today has basically consisted of every one of his supports being pulled out from under him, so when he looks at Henry there, it is very...fragile, for the half moment he allows himself that. He shakes his head. "I shouldn't have come here."
* `Alexander sets the milkshake on the table - he can throw it if he wants, er - and gingerly sits down. "If you need to be mad, that's all right. We're your friends."
JackBenjamin: "No. I've been angry, I- I've killed a man today, isn't that enough?" He throws that out like it's nothing, the least sin, but even so he's getting up, shaking his head. "I can't- a king relies on no one; he has no such weakness."
`Alexander: "You're more than enough." ... He stops himself there, but his expression is pained sympathy.
* JackBenjamin laughs and it sounds more like crying; he can just hear the reverend's words, You are not the one He wants, and it's all he can do not to throw his empty glass at the wall. "We'll find out soon enough." And unless somebody stops him, he is getting the heck out of here. He has people he cares about less to be mean to.
* `Alexander looks down as Jack leaves, as if flinching slightly. "...He bleeds, but it doesn't purge him." Regretful.