Less Than Manly

Participants:

caleb_icon.gif gillian_icon.gif magnes_icon.gif

Guests:

joe_icon.gif lance_icon.gif

Scene Title Less Than Manly
Synopsis The Lighthouse gets a new house mate.
Date May 9, 2010

The Lighthouse

From the outside, the Lighthouse looks as if it has had better days. The massive tower rising out of the house has fallen from its former glory. It is no longer a shining beacon, guiding wayward ships in from the lost harbor — though some may argue its purpose now is even more admirable. In its current state, the lighthouse seems to be in disrepair. Though upon closer inspection it all seems to be in the details. The paint has chipped away, leaving a discolored patterns of grays, whites, off-whites, and more grays. The occasional graffitti tag is here or there along the large building. One would notice that the doors, the windows, and the integrity of the building are all quite sound and newly repaired. The lighthouse has just been left with the look of abandonement.

Inside is a completely different story. Upon entering the main door, one will find a completely furnished and cozy arrangement. A spacious living room lined with two large blue sofa's, facing each other, a coffee table between them and several large bean bag chairs have been planted in the room. Shelves have been hung on the wall to display various different pictures of the occupants. A large bookcase is against the wall, holding a large variety of books from Dr.Seuss to the Bible, and even a copy of the Qur'an. The living room is focused on the fireplace a small black fence encloses it, the wood stocked on the bricks in front of it.

Connected to the living room is a kitchen, complete with a large rectangular table capable of seating around four on each long side and two on each end. A sink, a stove, an oven, a microwave and two refrigerators complete the look. Several low and overhead cabinets line the kitchen. At the edge of the kitchen are a pair of doors, one leading to a bedroom and the other, which has a padlock on it, leads to the basement.

At the back of the living room a glass sliding door leads out into the backyard of the Lighthouse, but just before it a staircase leads to the upper levels of the structure.


There's such a vast difference between the biting bitter chill of the air outside, and the warmth of the Lighthouse as soon as the door gets open and they can scurry inside from the cold. Gillian leads the way, immediately stepping deeper inside so the two behind her can follow. It'd been a routine supply run, but routine is becoming— anything but. At least they got to the Garden and back, with someone in tow. "God that feels so much better," she immediately says, now that she's out of the wind and the cold, with the fireplace burning in sight, giving them some much needed heat. No shedding of the winter clothes just yet. "Hurry up and get inside and close the door before you let all the heat out."

There's the sound of activity upstairs, and in the kitchen, but they seem to have the living room mostly to themselves. With the exception of a young boy with shaggy hair sitting in front of the fireplace. He looks over, and then looks back. Joe's taking his duty of watching the fire a little too seriously.

Ok, very cold now, but yay they've finally gone to the Lighthouse (he's never been cargo before), Caleb quickly follows Gillian inside and shakes his head to get the snow out of his hair, he's dressed in blue jeans, a light grey t-shirt, a dark grey jacket with two purple strips around the shoulders, a black cross around his neck, black and purple sneakers, is wearing eyeliner and black nail varnish, not the best winter look but it's all he's got. He smiles at Gillian, "Yeah thats a lot better".

Magnes steps out of his snow pants and pulls his coat and all those layers off, including the mirror goggles, then just hangs everything up to dry. He's wearing a long-sleeved black shirt with the white words knitted into them 'Honorary Orphan', something the kids did while he was teaching them to sew and giving them little projects to do. He's also in his blue jeans and black snow boots, immediately heading into the kitchen. The Lighthouse smells like oreos and vanilla cake, considering he did a project similar to a large version of a strawberry shortcake, except instead of strawberries, it's oreos and fudge strategically placed inside and outside of the cake. "I'm gonna see if the cake is cooled now."

"I can't believe you're a baker. Real men don't bake, Magnes." Gillian teases him, as she makes sure the front door is locked and begins to take off her coat and gloves and scarf and all the things that she no longer needs now that they're in the safety of one of the warmest houses in the city. "Joe, this is Caleb. He's going to be staying with us for a while." The kid looks back over, waves a bit, but otherwise stays quiet. He's the stoic type.

"I might be able to offer you a bed, but I'll have to do some rearranging in order to allow it. But tonight you will probably have to sleep on the floor. We have a couple foam mattresses that we lay out, but there's bathrooms. The only rule is you have to make sure to leave the water running, just a drip. It's the only way to make sure it won't freeze in the pipes."

Caleb raises his hand in greeting to Joe, then turns to Gillian, "I'm cool withsleeping on the floor, and i'll remember about the pipes", he pulls his bag off his shoulder, "Errm, where shall i put this?", he looks around.

Magnes frowns a little, some of the kids in the kitchen watching when he uncovers the cake. "My cake was unstable!" he calls from the kitchen, staring at the partially collapsed cake. Though it does seem delicious, chocolatey, and vanilla. And the kids seem to be staring at it as if they still want to eat it.

"Actually I lied— there's more rules, but that's the 'don't freeze our pipes' rule," Gillian says, sure the young man can appreciate that, if he's had to stay somewhere without water at all. "If you need to take a shower, you'll have to use one of the bedroom rooms, you can probably use Brian's," she says, gesturing through the kitchen toward the bedroom that she's talking about. "Magnes has been doing a lot of the cooking lately…" Of apparently unstable cakes. "And that's why men don't bake!" she exclaims toward the kitchen, even if she's laughing. "I do some too, and so do the others. You can pitch in on anything you want. We'll go over the rest of the rules and introduce you to all the kids and people staying here later…"

Where to put the bag… "Just put it down near the staircase for now," she finally decides. "I don't know if we'll put you in the school room upstairs, or down here yet. Down here'd be warmer, though more likely to get— " Suddenly a set of dogs comes bounding down the stairs, two huskies with happy tongues and smiling faces. They bark excitedly and move to demand pettings. "They used to be outside dogs, but it became too cold even for them," she explains, as she allows one to jump at her. Caleb may find himself knocked over— they are big dogs.

"I'll still eat your unstable cake!" one of the kids says loudly, which gets followed by similar exclaimations. Yup, they all want to eat the cake.

Ok, shower, thats first on Caleb's list, he doesn't like being dirty, cooking however…, "I can make toast, i could attempt other things, however i can't promise they'll be edible", he smiles a little, "But i can help clean and stuff", he goes to put his bag by the stairs, then the dogscome in and sure enough, he's knocked to the floor, he tries to get up laughing.

"Baking cakes is hard!" Magnes protests from the kitchen, sitting a plate in front of each kid and doing his best to give them modest portions of cake. He walks out with four plates after putting the lid back on the cake. Two plates in his hands, one held in his mouth, and the other just plain floating in front of him. The floating cake goes to Joe, then one in his hand to Gillian. Caleb's is put on the table, and the one in his mouth is apparently for him, as he sits back on to the couch. The cake is rather delicious, it's just poorly put together.

"Beware the Lighthouse, where you may get jumped on by fluffy dogs, attacked by evil cats, fed floating cake, and— oh, well, it's still one of the warmest places in the city," Gillian says with a laugh, pushing at the dog, who might be considering stealing the cake, until she whistles a bit. "Back upstairs. Go." she orders, and they both follow the order. It's not that she's good with dogs, they're just welltrained…

"Hopefully the worst you'll have to worry about is getting fat," she says, as she moves to sit down with her piece of cake. "Cleaning is a good help. Anything else you're good at?"

Caleb just stares at the floating cake, "Ok, wow, dude that is cool", sad as it is he waves to the dogs as they leave and gets up, "I don't really have many household skills, my skills are more other things", such as cheerleading, "But i pick things up pretty quickly, i'll try to make myself usefull".

"Do you play the drums?" Magnes asks as he picks at his cake, sliding a broken piece of warm soggy oreo into his mouth. Creamy! "And there's plenty you can be taught. Me and Gillian usually do the snow removal, but you could put down the salt. And if you have any personal skills you can use to keep the kids entertained, or teach them, you can do that too."

"The kids need a lot to keep themselves occupied," Gillian admits, looking toward the windows which are glazed over with ice and snow in more than a few places. "They can't go outside much. Physical activity is at a low, because of it. Might be a good idea to clear out the upstairs a little and do something physical up there, like— I dunno. Karate lessons, yoga, something like that, to keep all of them from getting chubby off of cake."

Caleb shakes his head, "I don't play the drums, but i can play some guitar and i sing, if that helps", he takes a bite of the cake Magnes put on the table for him, which is supprisingly nice, "Yeah sure i could do the salt", at the mention of personal skills he shrugs, "I do cheerleading so i have some skill in gymnastics, and i've got about seven years self-defence training", he could attempt to teach some of the kids, if they listen to him that is.

"Wait a minute," Magnes has a wide grin that he's trying to suppress, focusing his eyes on the cake. "You're a cheerleader? I mean, like, a guy version of a cheerleader? Well… I guess you could teach Hailey and Maya. I could probably make some pompoms…" He's enjoying this way too much, and has neglected the fact that he himself makes clothes and is equally girly because of it.

Luckily there is Gillian there to remind him, "Don't diss the boy cheerleader, Magnes. You make costumes and do make up. And bake." It's said with a dimpled smile, before she looks back at Caleb, "We have a lot of musical people in the house right now, so we could easily get together a chorus of sorts with the kids. And self-defense classes could be cool. Any kind of gymnastics or cheerleading that can be done in a confined area would be cool too. As long as you're careful. If anyone gets hurt, we won't be able to get help easily."

Caleb is about to say an awesome comeback to Magnes when Gillian saves him the bother, he grins at her, "Yeah i'm a guy cheerleader, and i've seen quite a few cheerleaders naked, something most highschool guys dream of, have you Magnes?", he nods at Gillian, "I can try i guess, and i'll be carefull".

"Actually, I have seen a cheerleader naked. Did you get to touch yours?" Magnes shoots back, though there's no ill-intent behind it, just playful banter as he continues stuffing his face with cake. He tries to play off Gillian's come back, ignoring it in favor of continuing to stare at his cake.

"So you get to see girls naked if you become a boy cheerleader?" A voice suddenly pipes up out of nowhere. Lance may have been shot in the arm recently, but he's always around when he shouldn't be. A taller hispanic boy stands near him, too, looking like he might be grinning. "How do you get to touch them?"

"Oh no you don't," Gillian says, pointing a fork at them. "Colette and Tasha told me about the lines you had to write. Don't make me add 'I will not be a big ten year old pervert' to the list." And with that, she gives the boys a look. There are children in the house!!

Caleb doesn't say anything he just grins at Magnes, to the boy he says, "Pretty much, well i have, so yeah", then he catches the look from Gillian and shuts up.

"It's not a contest." Magnes says to Lance, motioning for him to come over. "You see, you can't treat women like objects, they have feelings and varied interests and most of the things that guys have." He turns slightly to face the younger boy, giving him one of those patient Mister Rogers expressions. "I know girls are becoming nice to look at, but you've gotta remember, you'll learn a lot from being friends with them instead of stealing panties and objectifying."

Lance does go over toward Magnes, listening intently, with the hispanic boy rolling his eyes and going back to his piece of the cake instead. "I don't turn them into objects! But okay, I guess."

"Magnes…" Gillian starts, before she rubs a hand over her face. It seems like he's the last person she wants to teach Lance how to act around girls. "Once you're done with your ice cream I'll give you a tour. Though it's not the biggest house in the world."

Caleb smiles, "Yo Lance come here", if the boy does come over, he'll whisper the secret his brother told him in the boy's ear, "Do that and trust me, girls will be all over you", ok, Caleb's being a little arrogant at this point but it won't happen often, and he is just trying to help.

Magnes scratches his head a bit, looking over at Gillian. "Hey, it's not like I ever got a talk like this from my parents, I learned most of what I know from comic books." He gives Caleb a bit of a look, apparently not too happy about the newcomer influencing the children! But he just stands and heads back into the kitchen. "I'm gonna make milkshakes."

"You guys are terrible," Gillian says as the young boy's eyes light up, and then watching as Lance moves away with his newfound knowledge. Whatever it is. "You just made cake, Magnes! We're trying to avoid having fat children!" Oh well. She stands up, finishing off the last of her cake, and holding out the plate to Lance. "Take this into the kitchen, mini-stud," she teases him, and he sticks out his tongue. "Take Caleb's too. Time for the tour!"

Lance complies, so that the tour can begin.


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