Hard times in the Windy City [Potatuh]

”Yeah that’s the place.” Michael said with a nod. ”Not my first choice in a place to stay, but its affordable and the bed is comfy, so no complaints from me.” With a shrug he would look at the others before choosing to cross the street across one of the line walkway things when the green walking man popped up. It only took them about a minute or so to cross really, and then they were only a few minutes from being within the warmth of his room. His was on the second floor, so they would have to climb up some cold looking metal stairs, walk until they reached room 210 and then Michael fumbled through his pockets until he found the key that he was looking for, inserting it into the lock and walking in.

With a flick of a switch, the light would cut on and reveal the large queen sized bed that dominated the room, one television across from it, a door to a bathroom and of course the large curtains that would barely prevent light from flooding in. One thing that he noticed when he walked into the room was that it was still as warm as when he left it, and that was a good feeling indeed. Once everyone filed in and the door was close, then they could all enjoy the wonderful heat of the room instead of standing around in the intense winter cold of Chicago.

”Well here you are, my humble abode for now.” with that Michael would toss his jacket off into the corner and fall back on his bed loudly. His food stuffs would jostle about on impact, and reminded him that they indeed were still there, and the homeless that came with him would choose to sit on the floor and begin to eat away on their own food. Michael would open his large bag of rather fatty chips, and pull one out, plopping it into his mouth and chewing as it would crunch loudly with each chew.

Jack smiled as he entered the motel room. The room's heat was much welcomed by not only him, but seemingly everyone in the group. Jack had grown tired of the constant temperature changes, and he was glad to finally stay put for once. He walked over slowly to an empty part of the room, his bags of  food in his hands. He sat on the floor and allowed his bags to empty out all over him.

He ripped open his bag of chips, the smell causing his stomach to growl louder than ever. After emptying the bag in about three bites, Jack emitted a loud burp. "Excuse me." he said, already working on opening his box of small cakes. After he had devoured his second box of cakes, he smashed the wrappers in his hand and threw them into the small trash can in the corner of the room.

Making his way back to the small portion of carpet that he had reserved for himself, Jack rubbed his eyes slowly. He yawned as he sat down next to the bed, propping his head up against it. Tiredness was always a side effect of his eating, although it didn't really seem like the result of his ability; Jack was just a lazy guy. He let out a sigh of contempt as he stared at the blank TV, slowly beginning to close his eyes. "I'm just gonna take a quick rest." he said drowsily to the others in the group. "Wake me up if something hap-" he didn't even finish his sentence before he was snoring on the ground, a small puddle of saliva beginning to pool in his mouth.

It was interesting to watch the Metahuman snack upon his chips or whatever they were, devouring one after another without really taking a break. Michael would scoot up against the headboard, pulling one of the pillows out and using it as a prop and devouring the food that he had bought methodically. He noticed that his current outfit was not the type that could be worn to relax, and with a thought his jeans would warp into soft feeling sweat pants, and his shirt would turn into a muscle shirt. Now he was ready to relax or whatever he was doing now, still keeping an eye on the eating wonder as he himself slowly ate his food. When you did not really require much food, then hunger did not force you to stuff your face full of food like it seemed to do for the male.

When he burped and apologized for it, Michael could not help but smirk. He had a certain charm to him, like some kind of puppy or something like that. Jack noted that he would take a nap and not longer after saying that he dozed off, while Michael simply rested his hands over his chest and look to the others that were silently sitting. ”So are all of you going to sleep on the floor?” Michael questioned rolling until he rested on his elbows, looking to the misfits that he had made follow him.

”I mean I know people seem to have a problem sleeping in bed with someone else, but who knows whats on the floor?”  Andrew snickered lightly, reclining against the wall.

”Not to seem rude or anything, but I just don’t trust you enough to crawl into bed with you or anything.”

”Fair enough.” Michael said with a roll of his eyes, plopping back, thinking over it for a moment and taking the covers from his bed and tossing it at the group huddled together. ”Not feeling tired really, so you can have it.” He sat there until the sun came up, and that was when Michael heard a knock at the door, walking quietly enough not to wake anyone that wasn’t already woken up by the knock. When he opened the door, what waited was a small letter at his feet, sealed with a strange sigil in wax. Looking around, Michael closed the door, sat back on the beds edge and stared at it blankly for a moment.

Jack had a weird dream that night.
It was a recurring one, which often seemed to be the worst kind. In it, he was standing in a shallow lake of some sort. There was a dense fog, and Jack was barely able to see. As he looked out across the foggy water, he could make out a dark figure. Jack had to strain his eyes to see the silhouette, but he knew it was there.

He called out to it, hoping for a response. There was none, the same as every other time he had this dream. He moved towards it, a slow walk at first transforming into a light jog. He had to push himself harder the longer he ran, as the water got deeper the closer Jack got to the figure. Soon he was up to his neck in the dark, murky water and he could almost make out the facial features of the mystery person.

Although Jack knew deep down that he would not make it to the figure, he kept walking on, the water level increasingly rising. He soon saw that the figure was a man, and the man had his back to Jack. Jack reached out his arm, straining to grab the figure by the shoulder. He took a final step towards the man, and plunged into the water. There was always no ground at that part of the dream. Always.

Jack sat up from his dream lightly sweating, although he had come to expect it. The sunlight from outside pierced the curtains of the motel room, shining in Jack's face. He took a quick look around the room, slightly confused as to where he was. Once he saw the group of homeless people huddled in the corner with a blanket, Jack remembered. Standing up, Jack looked towards the bed, its occupant also seeming to be awake. He nodded at Michael and offered a simple "Good morning." as he headed towards the bathroom.

Michael pressed an index finger under the wax that sealed the letter, and with some force the paper would rip, and he opened the letter forcefully. Reaching into the paper sheathe of information, he would then read over the letter that was directed for the dark haired jack ass, which was a rather uninspired nickname, or was it meant to insult him somehow? Either way he would have to have a word with the man that was coming up with such uninspired insults, because he was not hurt in the least. In essence it was probably the red haired woman’s gang looking for payback, and they had enough theatrical sense to let him know that he had messed up. With that small bit of nothing done, he heard someone wake up and begin moving around, that someone being Jack.

He would tell Michael good morning, though somewhat groggily from having just woke up it would seem. ”Good morning.” he said in return as the male would then walk to the bathroom, Michael folding up the letter and inserting it in his pocket, before leaning back against the pillow. ”I wonder what it’s like to need to sleep.” He mused to himself, looking over to the homeless that he had saved from sleeping in the cold for one night, and his mind wondered over that for a moment. However, he would let that thought slide and recline in the motel bed as his eyes shot up towards the ceiling.

He ran a few fingers over the prickly stubble that formed over his chin, and some under his nose as it connected with the chin stubble. It always seemed that having some of this facial hair made one appear older, and occasionally Michael found it to be attractive in a way, so he wore it when going out and about the human world. ”So are any of you awake?” Michael ventured to ask, rolling over on his bed to look down on the trio huddled together rather adorably, though something about it also brought up a sense of…disgust within him, contempt for what they were and what humanity as a whole would do to their own. Of course Andrew would be the one to awaken.

”Yeah…thanks for the blanket.” He said somewhat tired, Michael smirking as he rested his chin on both palms. He watched the human for a moment, wondering if he were a human at all. ’Do I have something on my face?” He said with a slight smirk, perhaps a little unnerved by how the male was simply staring at him, and that was when Michael realized that. Without even needing to be told, the silver orbs would dart elsewhere.

”No, nothing on your face…I just spaced out there.” He stated plainly, rolling around until he was sitting on his rear, and heard Jack return from whatever he was doing.

When Jack entered the bathroom he twisted the knobs on the sink, allowing a cold stream to pour from its nozzle. He cupped his hands underneath the drizzle and quickly splashed the puddle of water that had collected in his hands onto his face. Drying his face off with a towel, he turned off the sink and exited the bathroom.

As he entered the main space of the motel room, Jack noticed that Michael had shifted on his bed and was now talking with one of the homeless people, whose name was Andrew if Jack could recall correctly. Jack walked over to the bed and sat its corner, scratching his head gently.

"If anyone wants," Jack began, "I could go and bring back some breakfast." he offered. "I think I saw a fast food restaurant when we were walking here." he added.

Michael shifted, noting Jacks offer to get them breakfast from a near bye fast food restaurant, one of which he forgot the name. He considered staying within the room with the rather interesting homeless individuals, but then again something within him wanted to learn more about the strange male that had a tail. It could be his natural curiosity taking over, but then again Michael was always known to be the inquisitive one. ”Would be nice, I am feeling a little peckish.” Michael noted looking over to Andrew, who was still the only one awake among the mass of sleeping homeless within the corner.

”Though if you don’t mind I would like to come with you.” Michael added with a smirk as he pushed himself from the bed, clothes shifting once again to take the form of what he wore the night before, grabbing his jacket from the corner as it would become a simply dark blue hoodie. ”Besides, the exercise wouldn’t hurt.” He didn’t really have any intentions of being dissuaded on his choice to accompany the male on his trek for fast breakfast food, crossing arms over his chest as he waited for Jack to lead the way. He would have to do some guess work, as it seemed that Andrew had drifted back to sleep, but something told him that he would not mind anything that he got.

Jack stared in amazement as he watched Michael's shape take form. "That's pretty cool." he said, wide-eyed. Shuffling his feet toward the exit of the room, Jack grabbed the doorknob, turned it, and pulled. As soon as the door opened, a strong gust of chilling wind blew into the small space that the people had occupied. "Great," said Jack, beginning to shiver as he entered the outside world, "another warm day in paradise."

As soon as he and Michael had both exited the room, Jack stuffed his hands in his pockets and began walking down the sidewalk. "So," he began, not wanting the journey to be filled with awkward silences, "what brings you to Chicago?" He had been wondering that about Michael since they had first met. Of course Jack would not be surprised if Michael chose not to answer, or was even suspicious on why Jack himself would be in the Windy City. Either way, Jack eagerly awaited Michael's response.

It seemed that Jack was impressed by his little clothes changing trick, but then again who wasn’t? Even Metahumans seemed to bear some surprise when Michael revealed his rather unique talents that his Ethereal Energy allowed, even though it wasn’t a pretty color like the variety his father used anyway. Still, his wonder made Michael smirk despite himself as he dug hands into his pockets and followed Jack into the now slightly warm Chicago air, as the sun shone warmly down upon the through a light cloud cover. Well it would have been warm if there wasn’t a chilling breeze that instantly caused him to shiver against his will, and the small amount of hard covering his arms would form goose prickles at the sensation.

”What brings me to Chicago?” This was something that really required thought, as he did not really know why he came to the windy city in the first place. He hummed lightly for a second thinking up the answer, eyes looking up as the followed one of the white clouds floating about the sky slowly. ”I don’t know really, something about the city just drew me here. I guess you could say it was a strange energy or something like that.” There was indeed a familiar energy, one that was unmistakably Ethereal Energy but he knew that he could not go near it, something within him telling him otherwise. Whoever the strange Ethereal user was, Michael would try his hardest to avoid them, and so far he was doing a damn good job in that.

”So what brings you to the city?” Something within him said that someone was watching them, a tingling at the back of his neck, but he ignored if for now. It was nice, this walking about the city with the strange male, even though he was only killing time as of now.