14716/Caught in the Act

Caught in the Act
Date of Scene:	18 April 2023
Location:	Radical Arcade
Synopsis:	Jubilee needs let into the arcade. Monet finally gives up something that's causing her a great deal of pain. Last on Mutants 90210..
Cast of Characters:	Jubilation Lee, Monet St. Croix, Noriko Ashida

---

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    Everyone knows that the Radical Arcade closes promptly at 9:30PM on weeknights. If it was open, the allure of CRT screens and joysticks lubed up with potato chip grease would be impossible for students to resist. No one would ever make it to their first classes on time the next morning. Who would even want to play video games at night, anyway?

    ...

    Jubilation Lee's face is pressed against the glass window in the center of the arcade's locked door. She stares at the the vintage machine through the glass, her vampire eyes able to clearly see them even in darkness and shadow. "This is some Beeeeeeeeeeee Es!" she mutters to herself, dragging out the 'B' in BS. Jubilee pounds the palm of her hand against the thick glass two times -- bang, bang -- and then stops supporting her own weight.

    Jubilation slowly slides down the door and onto the floor, dragging her fingers against the thick wood allllllll the way down. It's a hammy overreaction to a small inconvenience, but that's how Jubilation Lee got on the floor outside the Radical Arcade, glumly staring up at the ceiling. Should any social rivals come by, that's how they might find her...

Monet St. Croix has posed:
And she's making enough noise for one of the late nighters to pick some up. Monet St. Croix comes on down then to glance over at Jubilee, looking in what imght almost pass as fascination before she goes back to her normalcy, glancing over the girl for a few moments.
    "Can'ty ou turn to mist? Or is that something the more advanced of your brethren can?" It's something that for all she knows is relatively simple! OR Jubilee could turn into a bat or one of thsoe things.
    M would glance over at Jubilee. "Or didn't you live in a mall for awhile? Shouldn't you be able to pick a lock?" M goes to casually recite those skills that as far as she's aware the girls hould be wholly able to do to get inside.
    Moving to advance casually towards Jubilation.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    "Oh great," Jubilee mutters, long before Monet turns the corner. Like any other predator, vampires have senses naturally tuned for their prey and, as it happens, her prey is the living. They have the aroma of how they spent their day. They have noisy heartbeats.

    "I forgot how," is her answer to the suggestion to turn to mist. She did it a couple times, sure, but that was a while back. So much has changed. "Besides..."

    Jubilee rises to her feet -- it's an unsettling sort of motion, grace beyond measure, and gestures to the heavy wooden door that keeps them out. It once protected some of the mansion's wine stocks. Now, it protects Pac-Man and his on-again-off-again beau. "...This isn't the issue."

    "/That's/ the issue..." Jubilee explains, pointing at something inside the arcade. Her finger is pressed against the glass, perfectly aligned with a sign just barely visible in the darkness. It's a sign that explains that the arcade is for 'Xavier's Students, Faculty, and Guests'

Monet St. Croix has posed:
Monet St. Croix would glance over at it, "And what does that have to do with anythign? You are an.. Alumni, are you not? Or a Guest?" She would go to lean over against the wall as Jubilee gets up over in such a smooth way and evaluates the girl. Her mind going up to try and quickly scan Jubilee's surface thoughts.
    However, Monet is not a particularly adept telepath so if the girl is trying to shield them, M is likely to get very litlte of it.
    "Or is there something about invitations that applies?" That was more of a myth of vampires from Van Hellsing, not something that was actually real, wasn't it? There's no actual -tone- of jibing in her voice, just general sort of curiousity as tow hy the girl isn't going on in for something she wants so much.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    Jubilation's surface thoughts aren't like the thoughts of the living. Her mind is a nightmare, weighed down by a constant state of tension. There's a fabric of Jubilee in them -- bright, energetic spunk sprinkled with fun and earnestness -- but there's something else, too, and she's fighting against it. Instead of a typical mind, one where the thoughts and feelings flow freely, Jubilee's thoughts are actively trying to remain in the fight. Thoughts of blips and bloops of arcade machines and 1-UPs and that very specific concave shape of the 1P/2P button on the Donkey Kong machine swirl around in a vortex, zigging and zagging abruptly to avoid the overwhelming darkness that threatens to consume them. Flashes of agony and despair, the indignity of living somewhere that's no longer home, among people who were once her friends that now fear her, and, of course, fantasies of doing something horrible and brutal to Monet St. Croix, threaten to take control. These thoughts aren't the ones invading, though. These are the natural thoughts and desires of a vampire and they're trying to defend themselves against Jubilee herself.

    Somewhere, in all of that, yes, there's something about needing to be invited in to the unfamiliar arcade. It was added to the mansion after Jubilation's resurrection and she's never been in there.

    "Yeah, I gotta..." IDEA.

    "Hey, how about /you/ go in there and invite me in?" she suggests, both eyebrows rising above the top of her Ray Ban sunglasses. After a moment, she lowers the eyebrows, now trying to appear cool and aloof about it.

    "I mean, like, whatever..."

Monet St. Croix has posed:
Ah, this makes sense. It works within what little she knows of vampires.. Well, some types. There are a great many different oens after all. Races? Subspecies? Monet makes a mental note to look into the phenology of vampires another time, and then goes over to the lock to work at unfastening it. The sheer back and forth within the girl's mind of trying to hold herself in and maintain control is very much like Logan's, if she had to put a comparison to it.
    "Very well, Ms. Lee, as a guest to the Mansion you are hereby welcomed over into the arcade and to enjoyy ourself for the duration of your time at the Mansion." Monet goes to say that in a magnaminous sort of voice. But depending on how close Jubilee is paying attention to M's body language - pupils, facial expression, light shifts of posture.. It's all feigned. Very much at this poitn just pushed forwards for the sake of appearances and little else. For whatever reason (if noticed, at least) Monet's shell is a little more propped up than usual.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
Cleaning the Arcade is something Noriko does after the Arcade closes.  This comes after a multitude of tasks and personal activities she saves for dusk and post-dusk.  Given her position at the school, she has access to the Arcade and some other areas after hours, but she grumbles as she fumbles with her keys, "Takes all the fun out of it-crap," not having even noticed the others yet.  Alongside her, in record time, little stacks of soda and a pile of chips and snacks begin to mount up like The Sims in fast forward.

"Uh...hey," Noriko blinks at Monet and Jubes.  "Just cleaning up," and re-stocking, but the speedster doesn't see it fit to mention something obvious.  She tries to whip her hair back a little but it statically floats into her peripheral view again.

Monet St. Croix has posed:
As the two would enter, Monet would turn over to Noriko, "Ah, I was not aware that you were coming. Would youcare to power things up then for her?" SHe would gesture over at Jubilee as she would glance about. "And I hope that it doesn't take you too long to finish." M's being irritable for the sake of being irritable it would seem.

Or at the very leas tputting up a great deal more effort into it than usual.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
"Not sure why it would matter how long it takes me to finish," Noriko says with a shrug.  "Is someone planning on using the Arcade for a group thing or something that I don't know about?"  The speedster is arms full of chip bags as she drives by Jubilation with a little peck on her cheek, squeezing ahead of everyone else with a light woosh of air.

"What crawled up your butt?" Nori asks in a curious cavalier tone in a pause right before she situates the chips left over from the daytime.  There aren't many.  

Monet St. Croix has posed:
Monet St. Croix would shake her head over, "Never -mind-." She goes tog rate her teeth - less so at Noriko, and moreso calming herself from whatever was irritating the prissy b*tch on this late night. Her irritableness is in full force now,b ut she's attempting to keep it not directed over at Noriko.

"And -nothing-. Merely some.. Family issues of which I have little influence over."

Noriko Ashida has posed:
"Have you tried running away?  Beating someone up?"  This is Noriko being /helpful/ and her first ideas to solve all problems apparently.  "I like to do art when I don't have control over things."

There's a little blur as Noriko sets up across the arcade with her stack of new chip bags.  She starts shooting them over a cluster of machines at the table in what appears to be a steady stream of perfect shots.  "It's hard to think of ideas when your mind is racing on shit you can't control.  Have you tried bashing your mind clear?-What's going on?"  She interjects on herself when she sees Monet's irritation rising, finally.  Did she do that?  Noriko rifles back through what she said, trying to remember if she was mean in the last minute.

Monet St. Croix has posed:
Monet St. Croix would fold her arms together and shake ehr head. "Those are inappropriate for em to do." Whether because a woman of her stature /cannot/ engage in such simple things.. Or if she does so she may never find control again. Unless one is able to read her body language, which has gotten even stiffer than usual, it's hard to tell.

"And I do not have any ideas. It is a circumstance over which I have litlte influence over, and I must merely accept that. Some things are ones we cannot change."

Noriko Ashida has posed:
It's not that Noriko can't normally read body language; but probably because she doesn't want to wait for it to roll out.  Nor has she ever displayed any interest in Monet's attitudes aside from wanting to stoke the woman further and further.  Today seems different.  "It's not like anyone needs to know it is you."

"...Well, if you can't do something, can someone else do something?" Noriko asks right before she snatches up some stray debris students didn't clean up.  It's like she's looking for a loophole.  "I've been told sometimes it helps to talk about things.  I don't understand it but I think one of Kitty's posters says something about it."

Monet St. Croix has posed:
There's a look of pain over on Monet's face as it looks like she's at war with herself.. And she looks exhausted for just a few moments before she slumps and says quietly. "There is not. My brother has kidnapped my sisters. There is no way to locate where he has taken them or pursue them. He has said that if there is any attempt made he will kill them both. They are roughly ten years old each."

Noriko Ashida has posed:
Noriko suddenly ceases all movement, but there's a flicker of electricity that escapes from the cuffs of her gauntlets.  Her jaw is tightened.  "I can relate," she says darkly as her mind flashes away from the moment.

"How did you find out?  Like, what's the point?  To screw with you?" only Noriko doesn't say screw, but the cruder variety.  "Look, even if you can't do anything really, doesn't mean you can't like-no that's stupid."  There is no stress relief for something like this...like Noriko's charge, it's just something that builds and builds.  She hangs her head for what ends up a brief moment.  "I think healthier people would say go do something in the Danger Room alone but..." she sounds doubtful.  She tries to imagine what Monet might do to relax and it leaves a frumpy frown of distaste on her lips.

Monet St. Croix has posed:
Monet St. Croix would close her eyes, and looks to shudder for a moment then and says simply, "Because he showed me them after he took them. He.. Feeds on us to survive." By that she means mutants. "He locked me away with him for a time. And now he's going to do the same to my sisters. To satiate and feast upon until he consumes them entirely."

There was exhaustion on her face. Admitting she could not go after them. That they were living through the same torture that she had.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
"What do you mean he..feeds?"  Noriko tilts her head.  "Why does he have to imprison people.  Is he like, sociophobic?"  She can't remember the word for agoraphobic so, she improvises with confidence.  "How did you get free?"  Her brain seems to be on rapid fire, kind of hopping along without control, a possible lowering of her inhibitions.

"I escaped my father, but I left my little brother behind..."  Noriko admits somberly, causing the short stream of questions to halt.  "If you need help...with whatever..."  But she runs out of emotional maturity before she can fully say her offer, leaving it implied.

Monet St. Croix has posed:
Monet St. Croix would shake her head, "I was rescued. And he feeds off life force and energy. Not.. Quite the same as blood, but an equivalent. They will be meat puppets for however long until he discards them. I was /found/ and I lived for that long as he foundm y state amusing and my.." Her voice actually does crack for a moment before it anishes, right before her face is forced back to it's normal demeanor.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
"If it was electrical I could probably detect it somehow but bioelectric stuff is kind of shitty at my natural range.  Too much noise," Noriko offers with little enthusiasm.  "There's all sorts of shit in this world, even magic.  He's got to slip up somewhere, and maybe that just means it's important to stay ready...if you were found, we can find them."  How?  No idea, but Noriko sounds oddly confident about this.

"Don't give up," though what the Japanese girl probably /really/ meant was don't lose hope.  Her softened expression is the only indication of how her intent leans.  That and maybe the fact that she's not biting Monet's head off for once.

Monet St. Croix has posed:
Monet St. Croix would shake her head, "It's not as simple as that. He's a.. Magical being that can alter reality via the use of psionics and manipulated life force and can create his own separate parallel dimensions when he has sufficient energy. IF he's pursued he will simply vanish and go elsewhere, and.." She would shudder.

"I'm sorry, I'm babbling."

Noriko Ashida has posed:
"Wow, he sounds like a pain in the ass...Nah, babbling would be saying the same thing over again," in Noriko's world, voracious for anything to soothe her eternal boredom (aside from the empathy she actually seems to possess).  "I've been kidnapped a few times, believe it or not.  Usually people distract me or trick me or drug me.  If we find him and make our move, we'll probably need to go at him at multiple angles.  Maybe lure him out, anything."  Now /she's/ babbling.

"Ignore me-just thinking aloud-It's going to take time-" Captain Obvious states, interrupting her flow again.  "And practice...but I'll help however I can.  I can do whatever you need to make the most of it...the time," she tacks on in explanation as her brain cycles back.

Monet St. Croix has posed:
Monet St. Croix would close her eyes, "I'm sorry, I'm not in any good state to offer any sort of.. Useful information now or commentary. Please forgive me. And forget we had this conversation." And if the exhausted girl could manage to add it in, she would say 'don't tell anyone'. But the words couldn't quite come out. But if Noriko looked at her face she would be there.

"Have.. Fun with your fiance playing games."

Noriko Ashida has posed:
Monet's reaction surprises Noriko, well not exactly her reaction, more that Noriko wasn't the first to bow out, to be exhausted by the pace or content.  "Oh...I-okay.  Yeah that's not why I'm here but-Bye."  The speedster tries to make sense of the tricky conversation and her role in it, but simply falls back into the notion that she doesn't like talking about her family either.

"I won't tell anyone," because Noriko knows that when things are shared, it just means one has to have more conversations about it.  "See you later."