15917/Just Checking In, Honest

Just Checking In, Honest
Date of Scene:	22 September 2023
Location:	Jubilee and Noriko's Apt - College House
Synopsis:	After hearing about the recent mutant kidnappings, Jubilation checks in on Noriko. It doesn't go great but it could've been a lot worse!
Cast of Characters:	Jubilation Lee, Noriko Ashida

---

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    Word on the street is that mutants have been getting kidnapped. It was mostly a problem in Mutant Town, but that's close enough as far as Jubilation Lee is concerned. Her former fiance, former roommate, former everything has a nasty habit of getting kidnapped and, deep down, Jubilation was looking for any reason she could to justify checking in on Noriko. Though her goal is to make sure the speedster is safe, there's no harm in looking good for the visit, right?

    Jubilee's glossy, obsidian-black hair cascades down her back in sleek, silky waves, framing her heart-shaped face and highlighting her almond-shaped eyes, piercing and full of life. Normally, the vampiress would keep them covered by sunglasses, as they can sometimes be overwhelming to mortals, but not tonight. In fact, her perfectly winged eyeliner might even be trying to draw attention to them.

    The rest of Jubilation's makeup is a work of art, enhancing her facial features without overpowering them. Her lips have been done with a glossy, rosy hue, though if she has anything on her cheeks, it would be easy to miss. She has, instead, leaned into the other-worldliness of her much-too-fair skin. Apparently inclined to make an impression on all senses, Jubilee chose a subtle, floral scent that lingers delicately in her wake.

    Instead of a garish outfit of bright colors, the clothing of a girl, Jubilation chose a tailored, figure-hugging qipao, red with a pattern of golden flowers, that steps a couple inches above her knees. She carries a matching purse -- the sort that's too small to hold anything useful. A pair of dangling pearl earrings glint in the light of the hallway and a delicate gold bracelet circles one wrist. Her nails have ben freshly manicured and glisten with a natural polish. She wears no rings.

    It's an outfit and presentation that Noriko has never seen before. It's clear that Jubilation is either going somewhere important, meeting someone special, or perhaps that this encounter holds deep significance for her.

    And... she can't go in. Jubilation Lee, dolled up with maximum effort, stands like a dope in the hallway outside of the apartment she used to share with Noriko Ashida. She stares at the brass doorknob and tries to reach for it, really she does, but the vampire just...can't... seem....to....reach. She'd gasp if she could. Vampires can't enter homes that aren't their own and, it seems, this one is no longer hers.

    Jubilee stands up straight, takes a moment to regain her composure, and gently taps the back of her hand against the door. After knocking, Jubilation smooths the front of her dress and takes a step back so anyone opening the door can get a good look.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
WHO-IS-IT!  Noriko's mind lashes out like some kind of psychic tear, her heart thumping at a growl's pace, revving like a little motor to the keen and sometimes fast hearing of a vampire.  A creature disturbed.

"WHA-?!"  Noriko calls out in what is elongated for her, but curtly short for anyone else.  She pads along to the door thump-thump-thump-thump.  It's clear, not in a billion years did she expect Jubilation to be behind the door.  She doesn't even bother to check through the eyelet thingy.

The door creaks open with a quick squeak.  "Jean if that's you; just leave me alone.  Rogue, if you don't have an offering go away..."  Noriko, or something approximating her, squints back blearily at Jubilation.  There's a flash of her state that surely has enough time to burn into the back of Jubilation's eyelids even after the speedster disappears.  Some of these things things she can hide.  Some she cannot.

Disheveled.  Thinner.  Much thinner, and paler too.  Her hair even looks a little stringy, or was that greasy?  It's hard to tell in that moment of an imprint, but it's definitely dull like her eyes, which look as if someone took the coal out of the feisty dark gaze.  Some of these things she can hide.  With a shower, with better clothing, but Noriko doesn't have anything in her closet to rival her guest?  Is Jubilation her guest?  Is she coming to reclaim something?  The thought of another part of Jubilation or her memory leaving seizes the speedster in the middle of her shower, causing an electrical burst and a little shout from the shower.

"I'm fine!"  And then Noriko's there again.  It's three beats, but her hair is still wet and she didn't even have time to put on any socks or shoes or sandals or anything.  That might be because she was way too busy shoving a bunch of mess into garbage bags and then shoving them into the bedroom and into the closet out of sight.  Maybe.  She might have also dropped some of them from her window.  Maybe.  A girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do when a girl, no a /woman/ shows up looking like that.  Sure, it's meager, and Noriko is only dressed in what Jubes knows is her finest.  It's no dress, is probably appropriate for a dive bar, and is topped off with her leather jacket as if she's pretending she's just on her way out.

"Oh..."  Noriko takes a breath as she slowly widens the crack made by the door, expanding her view of Jubilation.  Her mouth hangs open for a half moment before she says, "Jubes."  She sounds authentically surprised, like she somehow put her reaction on pause or saved it all this time.

"You knocked," Noriko observes, kind of shell-shocked by Jubilation's arrival and appearance.  "You're here...You look, great."  She wanted to say beautiful, gorgeous, but even those words feel like strangers, and they wouldn't be good enough anyways.  "Hey."

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    "Thanks. So do you." It's either the total truth (as Jubilee sees it) or it's an expertly crafted lie. If Jubilee is shocked by Nori's appearance, she's not obvious about it. The vampire remains steadfast, keeping up the appearance of a strong, confident creature of the night. Unflappable. Powerful. Dangerous. It's easy to wear that costume when all she's doing is standing out in the hallway looking good, but once Noriko presents something that requires a response, Jubilation's house of cards collapses. She tenses a little, with one shoulder rising slightly into a near constant half-shrug. It's the posture of a girl who doesn't know what to do and doesn't know how to be the woman she's dressed as.

    "Oh, like..." she tries. "I, uh, had to?" Jubilee's answer isn't a question, no, but her tone suggests that she's not sure how Noriko's going to react. "...We, like..." Jubilee hesitates for a beat but eventually finds the courage to say the words. "...We have to knock." With the deed now done, Jubilee fixes her posture and makes it a point to stand up straight, as though she's addressing a stranger and not someone who used to make her hair frizzy whenever they could find a spare moment together.

    "So, uh," Jubilee begins. She glances at either end of the hallway before turning her attention back to Noriko. "Can I come in?"

Noriko Ashida has posed:
Noriko's brow draws together in confusion or skepticism at Jubilation's response, but there's only a flash of it before it clears.  The speedster keeps picking up on all of the nuances, drawn into the hyperfocus that natural expectation and being out of practice gets her; she keeps finding herself in the molasses reality of her own velocity.  The slight tenseness and awkwardness around the edges that inhabits her former fiance does not escape the speedster.

"Yeah.  I know," Noriko responds flatly, but not annoyed, just with an emotional flatness that helps her fjord the moment without bursting into a lake of tears.  She opts to inhale tensely in response to her own words.  "Please.  Come in," she finally says when Jubilation's formal question pulls her out of that daze she keeps falling into.  Her fingers spark before she even feels the well of emotion rising up like a silent wave that has been lurking in dark waters.  She turns abruptly and leaves the door open behind her.

"I'm sorry I don't have anything to offer you," but herself, Noriko thinks, though what she means is there are no Capris Nights on hand.  There's a pre-packaged feel to the moment, holding Jubes emotionally at arms length while she tries to swipe at forming tears between words way faster than she's speaking.  It's a velocity juggling act, but one of many she's done throughout her life.

Eventually, her slow-moving show for the vampire comes to an end and Noriko sits down on the couch, unable to hide anything from Jubes anymore, not that her heartbeat isn't already giving everything away.  It's erratic, like a frantic hummingbird.  "Why are you here?"  Nori was never that great with matters of tact, but the question as innocent in tone as it is awkward and direct.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    "Right..." Jubilee should've known that Nori understands the rules, just as she does. What Jubes wasn't prepared for, though, was needing to be invited through /this/ door. But, time marches on and it's just not her door anymore. She steps inside and carefully closes the door behind her. It's not her trademark shove with her foot. She's wearing heels and, again, it's not her door and she's a guest.

    "That's okay... I, uh...." The words are difficult. Everything is buried under layers of subtext and meaning and she knows she needs to be careful with what she says and how she says it. The problem is that Jubilation Lee is not one who is known for being careful.

    "...ate. Already." She does her best to say it as plainly as possible, so as to discourage speculation as to who she ate and, perhaps more importantly, /how/ she ate. Was it from a bag or, if not, was it a romantic encounter or just a few minutes with a degenerate fang banger?

    For a moment, Jubilation hates the world for depriving her of the frantic heartbeat she should have right now. The danger and uncertainty of the moment should be exhilarating but... it's not to the living dead. There is nothing beating inside her chest and it's just not fair. Then again, what is?

    Maybe it's the natural cruelty of a vampire or maybe just Jubilee trying to play things cool, or perhaps even just an honest mistake. No matter what her motivation might be, Jubilation misinterprets Noriko's heartbeat. "...I'm not going to do anything to you. Like, uh, hurt you, I mean," Jubilation adds, choosing that exact moment to look away and give the speedster some privacy with her circulatory system. She pretends to busy herself by picking up some random object and examining it.

    "...I just. You know, I was just in the neighborhood..." Jubilee tries, doing her absolute best to avoid looking at Noriko right now. It's a terrible, awful lie and, considering Jubilation isn't letting Nori see her eyes, it's possible she doesn't want to get away with it. This is a delicate exchange and she must play her part, but there's no rule that says she can't lose on purpose.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
Noriko tries not to think of what that exchange is like, was like for her, but her heart races at the thought of it before her expression sinks for a flash.  Then her mind races through the possibilities, the other people, person.  Would it be worse if it was just one person?  All of it makes the speedster look a little wan, green about the gills like a wave came over her.

And in that moment, she could only wish she were the living dead.  All these bodily functions rising up on her from one moment to the next are just annoying.  Annoying!  "What?"  Genuine surprise and pain strikes across her visage.

And then that obvious lie.  Noriko shakes her head like she's a cartoon getting the twirly birds out of her head after getting bonked.  "What?"  She repeats in more astonishment and slight annoyance.  "I mean, why?  Why were you in the neighborhood?"  She backpedals in desperation as she openly worries her lower lip and also falls prey to lazy rumination on how beautiful Jubilation is.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    What difference is it why she's in the neighborhood? Well...

    It's incorrect to believe that vampires don't have empathy. Or, more accurately, that Jubilation doesn't. It's one of the keystones of humanity she has managed to keep and, to her kind, it's one of her greatest weaknesses. Her desperate attempts to keep that spark of humanity alive can bristle her vampire nature. Sometimes, there's a motivation to do something evil, something cruel, as though it might even things out, but what if that moment of empathy reveals that she has already been cruel?

    Jubilation looks down at her outfit. Her bracelet. The little clutch purse she would never, ever use. She wanted to leave an impression, to linger in Noriko's thoughts after she left. Maybe she wanted something more.

    But... it just looks like she's stopping by on her way to a date.

    Shit.

    Jubilee turns and takes a few steps towards the couch, towards Nori, with both hands outstretched at first. "Oh, no, no, Nori...I..." Jubilee tries to interrupt, as though the window to straighten this out might be closing. "I'm not...I... I'm not meeting anyone." She puts her arms down to avoid the appearance of an embrace.

    Jubilation gives the door another glance, as though she might bail on this plan. Technically, mission accomplished, right? She saw that Noriko hasn't been kidnapped. She saw it with her own two eyes. Then again, the odds of the problems of Mutant Town reaching Xavier's are slim to none. That's not really what this was about.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
"I-"  Noriko is flustered by Jubilation's response, but really she's just flustered overall.  It's Jubes.  At first Noriko thinks maybe Jubilation is objecting to sitting down.  It feels like a stab, even that minor violation of the social graces she'd been raised with, even the ones she never adheres to.  Then Jubilation's words feel like a weird backhand, backlashing her into her thoughts she can't escape.  Heartbreak, jealousy, no heartwrenching.  Her body shorts out again with a little burst of electricity, leaving a burn mark on the couch next to a few others that have appeared since Jubes left.

"Why are you here Jubilation?  You left me.  Your things are gone.  Did you just come here to gloat?"  Lashing out has long been Noriko's only defense, much like a cornered animal.  She'd rather Jubilation see her angry than cry, but even her voice begins to crack as electricity rippled out along her skin erratically, one along her forearm and another microstorm that tracks along the trail of moistness left by the tears she was swiping away, the evidence now obvious.

"No one's stopping you from leaving again," Nori says with a cool deadness when Jubilation glances back at the door.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    People who take that kind of attitude with baby vampires rarely live long enough to even realize the mistake they made. They usually end up as horrible smears on the walls. The lucky ones become chalk outlines. The fact is that only the old ones have the discipline to keep in control. Somehow, though, Jubilee has spent the last two years holding it all back, denying the overwhelming urge to just be what she is, to keep Noriko safe. Who could blame her for wanting to let the genie out of the bottle just a little bit just this once?

    It comes as a sudden, though intense display of evil. Jubilation, that sweet flower of a girl who popped countless pink bubbles with her gum, snarls at the speedster, even hissing at her, fangs and everything!

    "Why do you have to be such a /bitch/ all the time?" Jubilee shouts. The emotional landscape of the room suddenly goes barren. Everything good and warm and hopeful in the world is replaced with hopelessness and despair as the dark curse of the vampire elevates her presence to something larger than life. It's brief, though, and Jubilee's vibe reverts to that of just an angry teenager after a couple of seconds. When it's over, though, she's near the door. It's still closed, though. If Noriko decides to take back her invitation, Jubilation will need to leave as quickly as she can.

    "I came to check on you, Noriko," Jubilation explains. She's angry that her motives are being questioned, sure, but it's just a regular, non-supernatural angry, at least. Still, she called her Noriko and not Nori. Maybe that's just as scary.

    Jubilation's expression betrays her, though. Her eyebrows have perked slightly, head tilted just so. She looks away. "Sorry..." For calling you a bitch, she thinks.

    It's obvious what you mean, Jubes. You don't need to say it.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
Noriko knows this.  She knows people rarely live to tell the tale of tangoing with a vampire, of tempting one, of pissing one off.  Those people no longer exist.  As Jubilation's presence increases, that Darkness she holds back, Noriko rises to her feet, gauntlets clenched as electricity ripples up her biceps and shoulders in reply like some nutjob standing in the face of hurricane.  BRING IT ON!  Her body screams, but her mouth does not.  Do it!  Take me out.  She stares into the gaping maw of Death...and doesn't care.  As if the hopelessness and despair are now her native element.  She's ready to be wasted away.

And it takes /everything/ in her not to tremble.  Her body is taut like a lightning rod.  She might have answered Jubilation's rhetorical question with, 'Because I am one,' but Jubilation's Heebie Jeebie mode is...effective, distracting?  No, definitely effective.

"Oh...Yeah I am a bitch," she agrees more softly, crestfallen, the electricity along her body receding with awkward effort.  "You could have sent a raven..." though Jubes knows Nori's never been good with the ravens after one got tasered accidentally.  It's like they all know who she is, even ones in other parts of the state.  But what Noriko meant to say by this was, and does say is, "Thank you."  She can't express how alone she feels in the world with the vampire gone.  Like one of her ribs is missing.  She can't breathe.  And the world is so much harder to get around now.  Something she doesn't know how to fully articulate.  What is it like to feel like the last person alive in a world full of people?  Completely alone.

So she settles for something simple, with no planning.  The words just tumble out.  "I've missed you...I'm glad you're okay."  That you haven't been assassinated yet.  Noriko knows Jubilation is probably safer now that she's no longer attached to a human plaything...mutant or not.  "Wait-why?  Did something happen?"

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    Noriko agreeing with her about the bitch comment makes Jubilee's heart sink. "Stop, I don't think you're a bitch, Nori," Jubilation admits, trying to say so as quietly as possible. She'd just like that particular moment to pass. "I shouldn't have said that..."

    "It's a bad time to be a mutant," Jubilation explains, taking a few steps away from the door. After a beat, she shrugs a shoulder. "...I mean, more than usual. I heard from Rogue that ...." Jubilee hesitates, backtracks a little, wanting to make sure it's clear she happened upon Rogue somewhere and didn't come visit without seeing Nori.

    "I was hungry and went to Harry's to maybe, uh, drive someone home..."

    It's code. It's clear that she means find a drunk and feed from them. After all, she doesn't even have a driver's license.

    "And Rogue was there. She was saying how mutants have been getting kidnapped, like, because of all that 'cure' stuff....and, well, you seem to get kidnapped more than, uh, most..." She can't hide the smile that forms as she thinks of Noriko in the Before Times. Before she left. Before she died. Just... before.

    What Jubilee conveniently leaves out is that mutants in /Mutant Town/ have been getting kidnapped. She's keeping some cards close to her chest. She takes another couple of steps further from the door and closer to the speedster.

    "Oh, yeah, I'm okay," Jubilation lies.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
"I'm not even sure what the appeal is in kidnapping someone like me.  There's so much effort involved," Noriko says as if she hasn't been snatched up easily before.  After surviving years on the streets, making it across continents to her second country she'd only ever known about in media, her string of kidnappings have left a little mark on her ego.  She chews on her lower lip, betraying her own knowledge that she does seem rather kidnappable, even if she won't acknowledge it verbally just this moment.

"I don't get what that cure thing has to do with mutants being kidnapped."  Noriko clearly has had her head in the sand...or maybe to the ground, different ground.  Maybe some sand too.  "I went to one of those rallies or whatever in Mutant Town..."  Why would she want to go to another rally after what happened the last time Jubes and her found themselves at one...  "The ones where they were handing out that cure thing."

Noriko's eyes lift a little when Jubilation's steps take her closer rather than further.  "Are you?"  Okay?  Really?  Because Noriko's eyes could do all of the talking for her.  "I'm not...Everything feels wrong without you."  So...pointless.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    "Oh come on, everyone wants you," Jubilation replies with an easy smile. "You're like Boardwalk in Monopoly. Very kidnappable."

    That smile fades a little when she's forced to remember /why/ mutants are being kidnapped. "I don't know either," Jubilation admits. "I wasn't paying too much attention until she said that people were getting kidnapped. I was just kinda listening in, anyway. She was there with this guy who really /really/ loves his swords. Weird guy, like weird weird." Deadpool.

    "Yeah, don't, uh, don't go to Mutant Town right now," Jubilee adds, looking away again. "I mean, uh, do what you want, obviously, but, like, don't."

    Jubes doesn't answer Nori about whether she's really doing okay, but her eyes lower as the speedster admits that she isn't. "That's just the withdrawal," Jubilee explains, sounding oh-so-sure about it.

    "You'll be fine."

    /Has/ Jubilee explained that at any point? That she believes Noriko has been poisoned by her presence and turned into a 'Renfield,' the derogatory slang for someone compelled to be subservient to a vampire?

Noriko Ashida has posed:
"Yeah.  I am Boardwalk."  Noriko's more like Free Parking with how invincible she thinks she is, but she really can't be all that bad on the scale of speedster hubris right?  Riiiight?

"Are you sure his swords aren't some kind of euphemism?"  Noriko says it wrong, but really because she learned the word through hearing it.  She doesn't know how it is spelled, and her mouth just wants to go 'phem' for better or worse.

As for the Renfield Poisoning theory, it hasn't been explicitly shared to this writer's memory, but Noriko is clearly able to put two and three and four together along with some imaginary numbers.  "Don't reduce how I feel to some drug like I was addicted to you or something.  I'm not an addict and that's not what this is," she bristles...mildly, for Noriko that was mild.  But taken into account that she's /bristling/ at the Duchess of Westchester?  And that darker self that goes by no name?

But it's more than a bristle.  The tears finally break in a tidal wave down her cheeks.  She can no longer see.  And now the electricity is flowing freely throughout the pools of salty tears.  The scene swims slowly behind the tears in a fishbowl blur, softly waving in the ripples of the saltwater like kelp in the sea or heat waves rising from raw asphalt.

"It's not withdrawal," she cries out, unable to control her voice and the hurt coursing through it.  "I know what withdrawals are like."

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    "Mmmnope, they were real swords. Metal. Pointy. Two," Jubilation answers without even a moment to think about it. "I don't have a whole lot of experience with, uh, driving stick... but pretty sure those were real swords." A few more steps are taken to place Jubilee further from the door and closer to Noriko. It's just something that's happening, for better or worse.

    But then the tears come and stop Jubilee from moving forward any further. Jubilation lowers her eyes, unwilling to watch the mutant's pain unfold in front of her. "You're right... I should've just sent a raven," she admits. Jubes takes a step backwards, away from Noriko, but doesn't turn to leave.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
"It wouldn't of worked.  They hate me.  They would have just lied."  Noriko has no idea how ravens work, but she's pretty sure they can be used as spies by vampire kind somehow, so the idea that they could lie or actually communicate in any intelligent way seems just as plausible to her right now.

Even the speedster can see Jubilation's blurry form retreating a step, and she takes an instinctive step in the vampire's direction as if to stop her, her gauntlet outstretched at a tiny angle as if she were reaching.

"I'm glad you came.  I'm just sorry-I'm a mess.  I wasn't planning on crying," the next time she saw Jubilation, but Noriko doesn't clarify or elaborate or even finish the thought.  It's emotional babble, all-truth.  "Please."  Don't go.  "Ravens can't hold a candle to you," which suddenly sounds awkward after she says it, as if she would ever look at a raven like she's looking at Jubilation right this very moment.  "That came out wrong," she admits with an awkward, blubbery chuckle.  "One second."  When Nori says one second, she always literally means one second or less.  She suddenly has a wad of tissues in her grip and her face is all cleared up, if still red and splotchy.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    Jubilee shrugs at Noriko's suggestion that ravens would lie. It's probably true, but that's not really important right now. As Noriko steps closer, Jubilation's posture shifts slightly, just a micro-movement, to lean towards the speedster. Whatever might have come of that gets sidelined by more raven talk.

    "I /dunno/, there's probably, like, at least one that could hold a candle. There's probably some super cool raven out there bragging about how she can do the most cartwheels in the whole...group? Flock? Uh... squad?" Jubilee's smile fades as her quip unravels. "Whatever! They just call it 'cawwww!' anyway since, like, that's the only thing they say..." Enough about ravens, Jubes!

    "No, no, I'm sorry. I mean, like, I just wanted to come and check on you ----" Jubilation holds for a second as Noriko zips away to get the tissues.

    "---and, like, make sure you didn't get kidnapped and stuff." It's not an easy case to make considering the lengths she went to with her outfit and hair and makeup. It doesn't match her story.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
Noriko's brain refracts into a million directions as she's left to dissect Jubilation's minute body movements as the vampire babbles on about ravens, but Nori wouldn't miss the raven babble for the world.  She smiles.  It's a soft smile, but it lingers.

"Uh huh," Noriko doesn't buy it.  "You look great, was that for me or the people you thought might have kidnapped me and definitely were having tea in my absence, squatting in my pad while I was tied up in the corner."  It's an elaborate cartoonish fantasy that just twirls out of her mind and mouth effortlessly.  On top of being quick in the feet, she's also been quick on her feet, even accounting for all that speedster advantage.  But this is what all that brainpower is focused on right now.  Some Saturday morning cartoon version of a kidnapping where Jubilation the vampire duchess shows up to kick some butt while looking fabulous and making her drool.  "I mean I won't say no to it," she concludes after her mind races through it all.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    "It's laundry night," is Jubilee's answer. Along with that answer comes a playful shove from one of Jubilee's hands. Of course, shoving a speedster means that they /allowed/ it to happen, but the attempt is made. There's no mistaking the purpose of the shove. The playfulness. Oh, Jubilee, you are walking a dangerous path.

    It would probably be fine if it was just that, right? Everything will be fine.

    Jubilation folds her arms in front of her chest and smirks. "Wait, why would they kidnap you and not take you anywhere?" she points out. "Jeez, for someone who's been kidnapped more than anyone, you're kinda dumb..."

    Jubilation has all but mastered that 'pretend mean' tone usually reserved for flirting, but it's possible that's not what this is. It's possible. Jubilation tilts her head forward and gives the speedster a smug smile.

    Damn it, Jubes.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
Noriko's small grin just broadens like a flower welcoming a bee.  She can't help it, drawn into Jubilation's playfulness.  She keeps her feet planted so she can easily be pushed off her balance.  Oopsies.

For a moment, Noriko is able to forget what is really going on, that Jubilation will leave here.  That she has to ask permission to enter.

Noriko chuckles softly just before she answers, "Duh.  That's /why/ I was kidnapped, because I was so dumb!" as if Jubilation should have been smart enough to figure it out.  "You better be careful or my dumb might make you more attractive for kidnapping.  It's clearly contagious."  She waggles her eyebrows...is that supposed to be the dumbness coming for Jubilation or is there some idea of Nori being the captor?  Noriko didn't think that far ahead, but at least she owns it by not doubling back prematurely.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    "Well, I better get out of here or else I'll get more of your dumb on me," Jubilee replies. If asked, she'd probably say Noriko's quip was average at best and not reflective of her true abilities, but she's playing along just the same. Unfortunately, time moves forward and all good things must come to an end. Whatever rhythm they had been building together would need to stop.

    "I really should be going," Jubilee points out, her tone becoming serious as she glances over her shoulder at the door.

    And then, without warning, she takes the final step to close the gap between them and slips her arms around Nori to draw her in for a hug.

    "Your dumb is getting on me," she whispers.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
Noriko wished she could draw out the moment in a meaningful way, but Jubilation's words bring her crashing down.  "Yeah," even Noriko can't revel in the weakness of her 'win' though really it's the sense of the moment passing like a barreling train out of her life.

The speedster's heart sinks at Jubilation's words as they become more serious.  She wants to say no, don't go, but soon she is ambushed by the infinite that is waiting to see what Jubilation's ambush really is.  A hug?  A kiss?  Or just a touch of the hand perhaps?

Noriko leans into Jubilation, her frame ghoulishly wispy.  She isn't disappointed by the outcome and tucks her chin just slightly against Jubilation's shoulder.  There's nothing weak about Nori though, even in this state.  Her embrace is warm and unbreakable.  "Be safe."  It's all she feels allowed to say.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    "You too," Jubilee whispers. Though reluctant to let go, Jubilation eventually does. One hand lingers long enough to drag gently against Noriko's arm as she breaks away. This time, Jubilation turns towards the door and begins walking towards it. With her back to the speedster, Jubilation pops open her clutch bag and removes the only item inside. She places the banana on the kitchenette's counter as she passes it.

    Jubilation stops at the door and turns to face Nori again. She lifts one hand and gives an unenthusiastic wave. After a couple beats, Jubilation breaks the silence again. "...It doesn't smell great in here, Nori," she gently points out. "You know, in case you wanna do something about that for next time I visit..."

    Jubilation smiles a little and shrugs one shoulder. "Up to you," she adds before opening the door and heading out.