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Thread: Last Resort

  1. #1
    TheHolo.Net Poster
    Has been a member for 5 years or longer Tom Harriman's Avatar
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    Closed Roleplay [X-Men] Last Resort

    The brakes squeaked a little as the Impala came to a gentle halt, gravel crunching beneath her tires. A faint hint of a grimace tugged at the edges of Tom's features; the car was older than he was, and while he had gone to great lengths to keep her in the best condition possible, her previous owners had not been quite so gentle. Keeping her purring was like balancing a giant stack of cards: even one tiny twitch of a problem could bring everything toppling down into a gigantic bank-breaking heap.

    Still, it wasn't something that Tom needed to worry about: not for the next 72 hours, at any rate. He leaned forward, peering through the windshield at the sign that proudly welcomed them to the Ceres Regency Spa & Resort: the finest holiday establishment in New Mexico that offered a respectable discount to employees of Treadstone Industries. This weekend, the stressful chaos of Los Angeles was a few hundred miles out of sight and even further out of mind. For three days, everything he needed to worry about was sitting with him in this car.

    He turned to Alice, and offered her a smile. His organs had curled up into a little knot in the pit of his stomach as soon as they'd crossed the border into New Mexico; he couldn't even begin to imagine how Alice must be feeling. Hopefully though, it wasn't something that a few hours in the spa couldn't fix.

    The driver side door groaned open, and Tom clambered stiffly out, thoroughly regretting that he'd passed up the opportunity to stop at a diner for lunch an hour and a half ago. His stomach was fine, but if he didn't find his way to a bathroom soon, there'd be problems.

    Alice's door clunked closed; Tom's followed suit. The slightly too-quick third clunk made his stomach knot wriggle, not just because of the indelicate treatment of his beloved car, but because of what that third door slam meant. He'd hoped that they could leave everything behind in California, but as Katrina had so eloquently pointed out, "What kind of jerk brother would leave his baby sister alone with all this shit that's going on?"

    Alice had sided with Kat, of course; maybe out of female unity, maybe because it stopped this being their first "weekend alone" together. Either way, Kat was here, and Tom's credit card was getting billed for two rooms, two spa treatments, and double the sneaky unexpected costs.

    Thank god Treadstone pays well, he mused.

  2. #2
    Getting out of Los Angeles, out of California as whole seemed like a great plan. Civic unrest was a nice way of putting it, and while Alice had absolutely no intentions of joining any sort of that madness, she couldn't help but feel effected by it. The whole situation made her uncomfortable and unsure and.... well, as soon as Tom had suggested getting away from it all, she had practically jumped at the chance. Of course, the more that it had been planned, the more it made that weird fidgety feeling in her chest well up and... well... Kat couldn't just be left alone in a city on the verge of rioting! Who would she watch late-night b-movie horror flicks with?

    As the car pulled to a stop Alice stepped out, raising her arms above her head and stretching until she felt like the day's stiffness from sitting still was gone. The warm sunshine felt good as the last remaining days of summer stretched out across the New Mexico landscape. Another new place to add to her list.

    As her arms dropped back to her sides she cast a smile back over her shoulder at Tom. She really did have to give him credit. This was going to be perfect. Well, at least as much as it could be, she figured.

  3. #3
    Kat Harriman
    Guest
    Kat rolled her eyes, yet again. It seemed like her eyes spent more time rolled than they did looking forward, now that the whole mutual attraction thing wasn't such a big spooky mystery. Unfortunately, it seemed that Tom's deluded belief that he was successfully hiding his feelings was the only thing that stopped him from acting like a giant amorphous blob of pathetic sappiness. It was almost as if his entire concept of proper male romance conduct was based on cheesy American sitcoms from the nineties; which, she realised, probably was exactly the situation they were faced with.

    Clearly not about to get any kind of help from Captain Lovestruck, she crunched her way across the gravel to the boot - trunk, she subconsciously corrected, part of her ongoing efforts to Americanize herself and make her foreign status a little harder to spot - creaked it open, and heaved out her surprisingly small but surprisingly weighty suitcase.

    It was a talent that she had learned: one of the few useful skills that Jace had imparted in between his whole acting like a pretentious tool routine, and involved a lot of strategic folding, rolling, and wedging items into her shoes to make the best use of the available volume.

    The suitcase handle clicked and extended half way before Kat realised that maybe the wheels and the gravel wouldn't work together all that well. Momentarily, that shifted her ire away from her brother and towards whoever had decided to surround the hotel with a moat of the most impractical suitcase transportation surface known to man. With a disapproving grunt she abandoned the trunk, scanned her surroundings for something that looked vaguely like a lobby entrance, and stomped off through the gravel like a woman on a mission.

    "Come on, roomie," she added as she passed. "All this standing around is wasting precious luxury relaxing time."

  4. #4
    An apologetic and slightly amused smile was offered to Tom before she shrugged her shoulder and followed Kat. There was an unspoken agreement about the whole arrangement that she had come to terms with. Maybe not the same one shared with the Harrimans but she was pretty sure they must have had a similar line of thought: No Drama. Even if that meant letting Katrina practically run the show. It was easier that way.

    "So, what's up first? Pool? Spa? Raiding the mini fridge until your brother begs us to stop?" Another look over her shoulder gifted the older sibling with a sly smirk followed by an unspoken but mouthed apology.

  5. #5
    TheHolo.Net Poster
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    A mantle of resignation weighed down a little on his shoulders. This was something that he had learned to cope with a long time ago: that Kat expected her brother's friends to be shared in the same way that his toys should be. Perhaps it was the age difference: the nine years between the younger two Harrimans was a pretty broad gap, but it provided Katrina with a subversive 'in' with older people, which was presumably worth a fair bit in terms of school girl popularity points. Or, maybe this time it was just the reaction of a girl in a relatively unfamiliar city, clinging tightly to the only other woman she really knew.

    Tom knew he shouldn't judge; and knew that doing so would be explosively futile. At the end of the day, Alice and Katrina's well-being was one of his top priorities, and if a little stress-free girl time was what they wanted and needed, then that was what he'd let happen.

    Even if it did mean he'd be spending most of the weekend alone in the hotel bar.

    "I'll take care of check-in," he called, lingering by the car as Kat led Alice slowly away, trying his best to be the accommodating, facilitating brother that he was expected to be. "You girls have fun."

  6. #6
    Enter that nervous twisting sensation once more. It wasn't that they were both oblivious to the other felt, not anymore, but things still had for the most part gone unsaid. Not that Alice had ever thought that words did anyone much good when it came to such things. The sight of Tom standing alone at the car, failing miserably to hide that look of - not disappointment, not bummed-out-ness, - Alice was having a hard time coming up with a word for it in that exact moment, really. But that look, caused something in her to question if she really should be playing into Kat's whims.

    "Hey!" She called out and pointed directly at him as if aiming a weapon. "We'll catch up later. You still owe me dinner!"

    Me. Not us. Not the girls. She hoped he would catch her meaning...and then started wondering if that had been too forward. A blush threatened to start creeping into her cheeks and she quickly turned away back to Kat, fully expecting the younger girl to suffer from another bout of eyes-to-the-ceiling.

  7. #7
    TheHolo.Net Poster
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    Tom let the girls disappear from sight, and busied himself with the car. In theory that meant grabbing his own suitcase, and maybe snagging the odd half-empty water bottle so that they didn't end up going all weird and warm in the potentially stuffy car. In practice though, it involved the unpleasant task of clearing up some of the debris field of wrappers and teeny tiny bits of torn up paper that the bored and fidgeting Kat had apparently created. Clearly it was something she'd put a lot of effort into: creating this much mess in a relatively short length of time was impressive, and Tom was grateful that their road trip hadn't gone on any longer.

    Transferring the debris from the floor mats to his jacket pockets, Tom hefted up the suitcase and trudged off in search of a trash can. He asked at reception when he checked in and grabbed the key cards for both rooms; but they'd looked at him like he was a crazy person. Apparently, litter was some alien concept that no guest at the hotel had ever created before. The barely older than teenage clerk had been sporting a really annoying neon-white zit right there in the corner of his nose too, which was not only distracting but also filled Tom with the overwhelming desire to lean across the desk and jab him in the face with a pin.

    After politely declining the receptionist's offers of golf coaching, tennis coaching, and horse riding lessons, and then more firmly and adamantly declining them so his message would finally drill through the dim-witted youth's skull, he decided to try his luck in one of the rooms, hoping that maybe that would have some sort of bin technology going on. Alas it didn't, which seemed entirely absurd; frustrated beyond reason, Tom deposited the rubbish in a small heap on the dresser in his room, and set off in search of a place that would sell him alcohol.

    Unfortunately, while his bar search was technically successful, the only one currently staffed was in the "entertainment room"; as was the ages eight to sixteen karaoke dance party, where every parent in half the state had decided to dump their talentless offspring. As a pair of blonde and pigtailed twins did their utmost to murder and out of sync rendition of Michael Jackson's Triller, Tom slumped himself over a stool, and gestured to the barman for a drink. What arrived in front of him was a clammy bottle of Bud Light: not the soothing pint of chilled ale he'd been hoping for.

    Shoulder's sagging even further, Tom's entire body sighed.

  8. #8
    "You think that's bad," muttered a voice from two stools over, "Just wait 'til you see what happens when you try and order whisky."

    The man picked up his glass gingerly, nose wrinkling in displeasure at the contents. "Jack Daniels," he griped with a sigh of his own, shaking his head in dismay, "The Taco Bell of whiskies. It's cheap, and it's tolerable, but odds are you'll end up in the bathroom regretting it a few hours later."

    Despite his complaints, the man tossed the contents of the glass down his throat in one go, features crunching into a wince as the drink cloyed at his taste buds. He gazed into the glass for a few quiet moments, before gently setting it down on the bar and turning to Tom, offering a flash of a smile. "But then, what else can you expect of something made in Tennessee?"

    He breathed a single breath of laughter, gesturing to the barman for two fresh doubles. "Solomon," he introduced, sliding one of the glasses down the bar towards Tom. "You look like you could use a little cheap and tolerable."

  9. #9
    TheHolo.Net Poster
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    At a loss for how to react, and his British upbringing cowering away from the American predilection for starting friendly conversations with strangers, all he managed to do was accept the glass and offer a nod of gratitude.

    "Tom," he added as an afterthought, his manners eventually catching up to the situation.

    Silence fell; or at least, the two sad and lonely grown men sitting alone at a bar fell silent: the cat-wailing of the karaoke kids continued on in the background. Some cocky kid who clearly thought he was far more talented than he actually was currently gracing the stage, getting way too into his George Michael impression. That presented a possible topic to fulfil Tom's obligations for casual conversation.

    "One of those yours?" he asked, jerking a head of her his shoulder.

  10. #10
    Solomon's first reaction was a quizzical frown, followed by a sudden eyebrow leap of realisation.

    "The kids?" he asked, catching on. "No. God no," he stressed, perhaps a little too hard. He drew in a breath through his nose to reset his mind. "No kids. At least, not that I know of." A glimmer of mischief flashed on his features. "Am I right?"

    Another double of Jack was sunk in a single gulp; something that might have seemed alarming were it not exactly what you'd expect a man with his particular accent to do. He propped his elbow onto the bar, the glass dangling in his fingertips as he stared off into the middle distance. "No kids; no wife; no real family to speak of. Hell -" He chuckled. "- I'm on vacation in a luxury resort with my sister, because apparently I 'need to get out more'."

    He shifted a little on his seat, turning to face Tom more fully. "You?"

  11. #11
    TheHolo.Net Poster
    Has been a member for 5 years or longer Tom Harriman's Avatar
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    Tom couldn't help laughing at the irony. "I'm also here with my sister," he admitted with a rueful smile. "And Alice," he added quickly, "My -"

    His face screwed up into a frown. My what?Friend? Roommate? Girlfriend? Was there even a label for what he and Alice were?

    He sighed again. "To be honest, I'm not sure what we are. We live together, we both have feelings for each other, we've both admitted it to each other; but it always feels like there's something in the way, and it's not me she's sharing a room with, and I -"

    He trailed off, frowning in surprise at himself. "Sorry, I'm sure you don't want to listen to my relationship woes."

  12. #12
    Solomon let out a grunt. "I just spent seven hours in a car listening to my sister talk about nothing but makeup, shoes, and Jake Gyllenhaal. Anything is better than that."

    He fell quiet again, his face contorted into an expression of contemplation. "Maybe she's a mutant?" he offered, off-hand. "Or pregnant. Or an alien. Or maybe she's a lesbian, and there's been a torrid affair going on between her and your sister all this time, and she just doesn't know how to break it to you."

    A well-meaning smile twitching his lips. "Or, maybe there's just some baggage in her past; some bad ex relationship that's making her wary of jumping into another one."

    He shrugged. "Whatever it is, I'm sure she'll tell you when she's ready. Chicks love yakking about that sort of stuff."

  13. #13
    TheHolo.Net Poster
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    Borderline sexist remark aside, Solomon kind of had a point. Whatever Alice's secret, or reason, or whatever it was that was fuelling her reluctance; it was her reason, and wasn't really any of his god damn business until she decreed that it was. No amount of effort or action on his part was going to expediate that; he'd just have to keep being patient.

    Fortunately, he'd got plenty of practice.

    Tom's gaze settled onto one of the many pamphlets strewn about the bar, once again drawing his attention to the world class golf course on the grounds of the resort. As his attention lingered however, the details of the club house began to sink in.

    He snatched the pamphlet from the bar, and brandished it at Solomon.

    "They have a golf club."

    Solomon stared at him, blankly. Tom's voice became more insistent.

    "Golf clubs have really good bars."

  14. #14
    Realisation dawned on Solomon's expression.

    "You sir, are a genius -" he replied, and in an instant he was on his feet. Hesitation flashed across his face as the fluids in his body resettled, and another realisation dawned. "- and I need to find a bathroom."

    His eyes darted around the entertainment room, and settled on the sign he was searching for. "Don't go anywhere," he insisted, gesturing for Tom to stay put. "They don't let Texans into fancy places like that unless you're an oil tycoon, so I'm going to need you and that accent of yours to make me seem classy."

    Without another word, Solomon strode off with determination, only allowing himself a moment of distraction to check out the mothers in the karaoke audience to see if any of them were even borderline hot. Sadly none were, which was disappointing: he hadn't laid eyes on anything attractive since his sister had informed him it was "creepy" to stand around watching women play tennis on the resort's courts. Solomon had protested "But, Wimbledon!", but apparently that didn't fly. He'd been too disappointed to pay attention to the reason, but he guessed it was probably something to do with weird social conventions in Britain.

    As he reached the entrance to the mens room, he stopped behind the partial cover of a large potted plant, and peered back towards Tom, soldiering his way through the last of his Bud Light. Solomon felt a tiny flash of respect for the waste-not want-not attitude, but he screwed that up into a tiny ball and buried it in the deep recesses of his mind.

    His hand dove into his pocket and pulled out his slightly-too-chunky-to-still-be-fashionable cell phone, and jabbed a finger into 3 on the speed dial. The person on the other end picked up almost instantly.

    "I'm in, sis," he said in a hushed tone. "You're up."

  15. #15
    "Miss." The voice was annoying and insistent and came from behind in a whine that most reasonable people would never have been expected to achieve. "You'll need to put that away before you leave the lobby. We don't allow cell phones in the spa areas. You can check it in here at the desk or keep it in a locker."

    Diana clicked the little bottom on the top of her brand new shiny iPhone and waited for the locking noise before smiling at the receptionist. "Oh. I'm so sorry. Important phone calls and all."

    She stretched out a hand to reluctantly part with the bit of wonderful technology, giving the woman a stare that reflected just about everything except the smile still plastered on her lips. "Be a peach and take care of this for me, would you?"

    The rule was unforeseen and as she was forced to part with her only means of communicating with her brother, Diana suddenly found the only thing that could keep her cordial was envisioning the receptionist's fat face shoved into the fish tank behind her as she struggled and gulped down the salt water in place of her precious precious air. Not that Diana disagreed with the whole thing - a glance around at people who seemed to be wearing nothing but soft cotton robes and maybe a swim suit underneath gave the reason full bloom. Damn those camera phones. Though... she did have to admit that the temptation to take a photograph of one of the more brazen elderly women in the locker room and send it to Solomon with a text of Found your new girlfriend! I'll bring the eye bleach later. Enjoy! was hard to ignore. Oh well, sacrifices must be made.

    Now was the time to find her quarry. Or quarries as the case was. Solomon had it easy. One individual...and a guy at that. Men were always so easy to be trusting, especially if they were talking to someone they could relate to...or felt like they were helping a damsel in distress. Women on the other hand... women were pains in the ass. They could be catty at best and downright bitchy and standoffish without so much as a tiny provocation. Why the fuck hadn't the universe gifted Tom Harriman with a younger brother and a taste for men? No matter - it was time to go find these two broads and get to it. Not that the assignment was all bad. It wasn't every day you got to write off getting a massage as part of the job.

  16. #16
    Kat Harriman
    Guest
    Kat hugged the bath robe around her a little more tightly. The whole health spa thing had sounded like a great idea in principle. After all, the people on the daytime TV shows she'd wound up watching so frequently in Tom's apartment were always raving about how great they were, how great it felt, how relaxing, how therapeutic. All great. Great, great, great.

    What they didn't mention was the fact that you were expected to wander around practically naked underneath a fluffy white dressing gown, while getting stared at judgementally by the jaw-dropping combination of stunningly beautiful and confident business women, and employees who were far too attractive for it to be permissible. Because seriously: if the point of a spa like this was to make you feel good about yourself, there should be a rule forbidding good-looking people from entering the building, just so you didn't have to feel self conscious about the fact that your body had squidgy bits and flabby bits that didn't bulge or curve in the right sort of ways.

    Like, take the gorgeous redhead across the way, being talked at by one of the staff people about the phone she'd neglected to part with. For starters, the fact that her head was genetically coded to sprout flowing copper curls like that was just plain unfair, especially when you compared it to the dirty blonde wavy locks tucked awkwardly into a bun on the top of Kat's head. Then there was the fact that with looks like that, she was probably a model or an up-and-coming movie star, or married to some rich and handsome billionaire with a luxury mansion in Malibu, and -

    "Am I pretty?" Kat blurted out, her voice a little uneasy as her tentative steps kept her as close to Alice and familiarity as personal space would allow.

    "I mean, like -" Her eyebrows fidgeted into a frown. "- guys used to hit on me back home, but British guys will pretty much hit on anything if it stays still long enough. But no one has ever, like, looked at me the way I catch Tom looking at you, and I just..."

    She trailed off, her ears suddenly beginning to feel profoundly warm.

    "I'm sorry," she said with a nervous twitch of an apologetic smile. "You probably don't want to talk about Tom stuff, especially not with his sister."

  17. #17
    "What?" If the question had caught her off guard, everything that Kat said next only added to it.

    Alice had never been great at comforting other people, especially when their words were echoing sentiments her mind was having trouble getting around. And then Kat had to throw another dash of the unexpected into the mix. A slow breath was taken as she tried to collect everything raging within her into one single line of thought. It was funny how just the mention of anything even remotely involving Tom could throw her off. She cringed internally as she swore she could hear the soft music playing throughout the spa suddenly and threateningly crackle.

    "It's just... complicated."

    And just like that everything was back in place.

    "You worry too much. Some guy will come along eventually and he won't be able to stop staring, trust me. Besides... American guys find the accent cute. You're doomed if you start going to College." A sudden thought came to her as she laughed. "Of course, that's if your brother lets any guy even close to you. So glad I didn't have that problem."

  18. #18
    Kat Harriman
    Guest
    Kat chewed and sucked on her lower lip, hoping that would stop her expression from doing anything more awkward and embarrassing, and stop her mouth from saying more stupid stuff. She stopped long enough to allow a nervous laugh to escape.

    "I'd be more worried about that coming from Jace than Tom. Jace is the one who decided he had to be a surrogate dad because our real one was away with work so much, and I guess it kinda went to his head a little. Jace is the one who'd insist me and a guy had a chaperone with us first, like, fifty dates... and Tom is the one who'd volunteer, and then would sneak off to a bar so we could have some privacy until we called him for a ride home."

    A tiny smile tugged at her lips. "I mean, sure, Tom is pretty protective and stuff, but I think he'd hate himself if he ever found himself getting in the way of someone being happy. If you think I worry to much, you just wait until you've seen Tom trying to plan a party, or fretting over what present to buy. Tom just -"

    She frowned. "Tom just tries too hard. He wants to make everything better, and sometimes he just doesn't know when to stop."

  19. #19
    "Oh..." The word left her quietly. The whole discussion was making her fidgety and questioning if any sort of actual relaxation was actually going to occur. Alice might have found it amusing and sad at the same time if she thought about the both of them long enough and the sorry state they seemed to be in.

    But damn it all, they were here to have fun. And despite every want to just retreat back to the hotel room and curl up on one of the two beds and watch some horrible horror movie from the late 60s...Alice had already decided she was determined to actually make use of this vacation. A quick breath was let out as she looked back at Kat.

    "Alright grumpy... Enough sulking. How about we hit the sauna first?"

  20. #20
    Kat Harriman
    Guest
    A sharp-tongued Disney-themed comeback flashed into existence in her mind, but fortunately didn't make it all the way to her tongue: on reflection, referring to Alice as bashful was probably hitting a little too close to the mark. Instead she over-exaggerated a sigh, and slumped her shoulders in surrender.

    "Okay," she agreed, "But only if we can find one that's empty. Sitting around sweating in bikinis when the air con in the apartment breaks is one thing -"

    Her mind shuddered a little at that particular memory. Not that there was anything unpleasant about Alice in less-than-normal clothes; quite the opposite, in fact. But not that kind of opposite. Well, okay, maybe that kind of opposite, but only a tiny bit. But like, what had been uncomfortable was the whole not really knowing each other part, and the Tom clearly having the hots for her even if Alice didn't realise it part, and the I have a better idea of what the girl you're sweet on looks like naked than you do part, and all that stuff. Because Alice probably looked pretty good naked. Not in a lech way, but like, in an objectively, Tom has a lot to look forward to and it'll probably be worth the wait sort of way.

    Kat felt the prickling warmth of her ears threatening to turn pink again, and rapidly rugby-tackled her train of thought in a new direction.

    "- but doing it in a wooden box full of strangers is not exactly my idea of a good time."

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