15934/An Explosive Reunion

An Explosive Reunion
Date of Scene:	24 September 2023
Location:	Nevermore Point (Manor House)
Synopsis:	Noriko stalks Jubilation at her new, old house. Things are prickly. Then things are fiery. Then things are splodey.
Cast of Characters:	Noriko Ashida, Jubilation Lee

---

Noriko Ashida has posed:
Noriko just wanted to know if Jubilation was okay, but one thing lead to another, and with a little bit of help from Monet, she's pretty sure she's now a full-fledged stalker, especially when she just happens to 'run by' more than three times in a day faster than she knows Jubilation can see her. But it's not like Jubilation doesn't have other senses, like a sense of smell, and Nori's been working really hard on that. She's been overdoing it. No longer does she simply smell like here and there (since her 'here and there' was basically that filthy apartment dorm). Now she smells fruity, fruity like a kitchen lemon, and she's not sure how she feels about it, nor has she given any thought to the fact that Jubilation might have picked up a whiff of it earlier.

Point is, she's here, and the speedster isn't really sure what she's expecting to happen as she hovers on the edge of the property like some vampire waiting for permission to cross a threshold.  Fidgeting with the edge of her shirt, she's already caused it to start to fray and then suddenly she finds a shrub to hide behind.

The shrub shakes.

Ugh, all this extra clothing.  Sure it's just her leather jacket that's really adding anything that could be classified as bulk, but for the speedster, it's annoying.  The new drag, the different dimensions, the way it snags vs the way her tshirts snag.  Some things are nicer.  Some things aren't.  For some reason...for some reason...Noriko takes off her jacket as she starts to sweat.

"What the-"  Sweating is just-it's not-Noriko pauses her thoughts to collect some sweat and sniff it.  Disappointingly odorless.  "Maybe just not enough?"

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    The heavy door to the manor house opens despite the whining of its ancient hinges. Whatever citrus might be lingering is immediately overpowered by the smell of fresh, hot pizza. A young man in his twenties stumbles out and stops at the end of the porch. He holds an empty thermal bag with the Pups & Pies: The Pet Store That Makes Great Pizza logo printed across its top. He rubs the side of his neck and stares off into the distance, confused and unsure. He reluctantly walks down the steps and makes it a few feet before turning to look at the house he just left. He's not sure why, but he'd really like to go back in... But, he has other deliveries to make tonight, so he continues to walk down the overgrown concrete path that leads back to the street.

    "Hey, hey, you left the...!"

    Jubilation Lee appears from inside the house with the palm of her hand supporting an unopened box of pizza. She puts her hand on one hip and sighs. Sniff. Sniff. Wait.

    Jubilation tosses the box of pizza back into the house and lowers herself into a readied stance. Sniff sniff. "So, like, I got some advice for you amateurs!" Jubes shouts into the night. "One... Why would you do this at /night/?! Should'a come during the day when I'm all Jane Doe again.... And.... Two.... I know all about that stupid lemon scented holy water meme from Tiktok, you posers!"

    Seems like Jubilee thinks she has a pest problem. Wannabe vampire slayers?

    Sniff sniff. Sniff. "AHA!" she cries out just before kicking a lemony scented bush...

Noriko Ashida has posed:
Weird things can happen when one is living so fast they aren't aware of what is slowly creeping up on them, which is kind of what happens to Nori.  In her mind, she's only been here what feels like the last half hour, or what would feel like to a human.  In reality, she's not been there all that long at all, and even it's been even less time since she saw the young man stumble out.  She turned away, and some might say, inward on herself, at the realization that Jubilation is live feeding on other people.  What that's like, and the whole cluster storm of electrical activity more tumultuous in nature than that of a human.

The bush is kicked and, startled, Noriko discharges off of multiple points of her body.  The bush being the nearest thing around, all those bolts dash for it, and a dying leaf flares up as Noriko scrambles into/against the bush.  "Ow! It's-me!"  She could have just run off.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    There's a little shriek that comes from Jubilee at the sight of the fire. She's scared of it, part and parcel of the vampire curse, so she's quick to jump backwards and raise her fists, as though it might punch her or something. She lowers her guard at the sound of a familiar voice.

    "Nori?" Jubilation asks, sounding totally confused by this turn of events. She hesitates a beat before remembering. "...Sorry I kicked you. I thought you were one of those kids who follow the Frog Brothers on Tiktok. Long story."

    "What are you doing?" she questions, staring down at the speedster and what remains of her once mighty bush.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
There's a moment where Noriko realizes what is going on before she smells it or feels any heat; it's only through Jubilation's reaction.  She tenses up like someone who has started the TV at night way too loud and then there's a puff of smoke where the fire once was.

"Sorry I set your bush on fire...?"  and this.  This.  She blinks at 'Frog Brothers' until she hears 'TikTok.'  One of those things.  "Uh, I don't know.  I-um-Monet told me you were here and-awhile back but-  I just wanted to see you," she realizes why she keeps finding herself going past this place on every run or errand or whatever.  "I didn't really think ahead-and I didn't realize it-I just keep ending up-" Every words she pulls out of her brain ends up heading toward a proverbial brick wall or a deeper grave.  "I'm not trying to stalk you or anything," she adds quickly.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    "That's fine. You can buy me a new bush," Jubilee jokes.

    Noriko's explanation for how she learned about Nevermore Point draws out some mock frustration. Jubilee tilts her head towards one shoulder and rolls her eyes. "Monet," she repeats with some exaggerated annoyance for effect. "What an a-hole." She does a little spin with her hands outstretched to gesture towards the creepy house that she's been hiding out in. "Well, here I am. Jubilation Lee: home owner. I think it's a little haunted, if I'm being honest." She shrugs casually, ain't no thing.

    "Well, tonight's your lucky night, I guess. That guy left the pizza, so, like, you want it?" Jubilation asks, gesturing towards the open door. She gives it a little nudge with her foot and it opens up a bit more to reveal the steamy pizza box just sitting there on the floor of the parlor. "I feed my stalkers," she adds, holding a smirk for maximum sass.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
"I just wanted to know if you were okay but-she was just helping me. I asked to to see if you were okay, told her I didn't know where you had gone." Noriko actually sounds kind of rushed, like she's trying to cover for Monet. When Jubilation spins, Nori grins slightly. "Well a vampire did move in," she stage whispers with one gauntlet up as if she's confiding in Jubilation. It's awkward. She realizes it is awkward. She's trying too hard and it all feels wrong. What happened to her cool?! As if disgusted by herself, all of her animation leaves her features, leaving her in a sulky hunch. "Pizza? Yeah...I mean I guess I could eat. Stalkers gotta eat," she says with a noncommittal shrug as if she didn't know what the pizza guy was doing there or it doesn't bother her one bit because she's not a baby about all that. Nope. But the beat or two afterwards is as long as she can hold out on the pizza. Suddenly she's spinning the box idly with one hand while chewing. The box wobbles and all show-ffery ceases to save the pizza. "So this is the place?" She holds the pizza box against the side of her hip so she can still handle the other slice. Her gauntlets are already filthy with sauce and grease.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    "I guess it's dumb to expect the mind reader to even wonder if I wanted people to know," Jubilee gripes. Mutants with psychic powers were never the most popular at Xavier's, after all. "They should make them all take a class on boundaries.... " Jubes stops and stares forward. "Listen to me... inventing more school... Who have I become!?" She shrieks at the horror of it all, eventually falling back to her patented smirk.

    "Anyway, no, I think it was haunted even before me," Jubilation adds. "Like, I tried to paint it... and take down all those creepy portraits in the smoking room -- get a load of that, it has a smoking room! -- but it was all back to how it was by the next night. I think it likes itself the way it is." She shrugs, totally unplussed by the whole thing at this point.

    "Plus, it was free and free is for me!" Jubilation explains. "Belonged to my late, uh, well, you remember. Sevvie told me about it. She's pretty nice..." Severina is not a vampire Jubilee should be trusting, but that's a problem for another night.

    Jubilation trails off, distracted by Noriko's progress with the pizza. She stares at the speedster's gauntlets for a few seconds. "...Uh... you maybe want a napkin or something?" she wonders. "...Or a bib? Or a shower?"

Noriko Ashida has posed:
"Now you're a true monster," on account of inventing more school, "But you're right."  Noriko has long since avoided telepaths like the plague, so her association with Monet at any level is...odd, and obviously a special exception.

As Jubilation explains the house's obstinance, Noriko looks around at her surroundings with a different eye.  "Maybe your house is just alive," she says with a shrug.  "Sevvie?"  Noriko's nose wrinkles up in a flash of disgust that goes away.  Instead of tugging at that thread she stifles all her dumb impulses by stuffing her face with more pizza.

"Huh?"  Noriko then looks down at her gauntlets and realizes she hadn't been religiously cleaning them off.  "I-"  But that last one just throws her for a loop.  'shower?'  Her cheeks flare up bright red at the thoughts of shower and the mental image of Jubes and-overload.  "Do I smell?" she suddenly blurts out in paranoia that maybe she just couldn't smell herself.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    "Alive?" Jubilee repeats, both eyebrows hiked up. "...Nori, don't be a dumb. Houses can't be alive. This one is /haunted/. I'm almost sure of it." She looks around and nods confidently. The interior is precisely what one would picture a haunted house would look like. "I mean, it seems okay now, but you should see it on the anniversary of all the murders..." Is she kidding? Who knows!

    Jubilee's answer to Nori's question about her smell isn't immediate. She hesitates for what could be an eternity. "...Well," Jubes begins, trying to find the right words. "....not like you used to." She gently bites her lower lip and suddenly shrugs. "But, don't listen to me! You can't go by my nose..."

    Not an answer!

Noriko Ashida has posed:
"Okay, if you say so," because Noriko knows if anyone knows a place is haunted it's the people squatting in it.  "Anniversary of /all/ the /murders/?"  She gives Jubes that skeptical look all rascally children have gotten more than once in their lifetimes.

"I knew it."  Jubilation's nose is the only nose that matters as far as Noriko is concerned.  If it can't pass the test of a creature that is a natural hunter of humans right?  Yeah, that's why.  Uh huh.  "I mean...do you think the house would mind if I took a shower?"  Noriko has spent longer talking about the shower than it takes her to have one.

Apparently no answer means 'yes' in Noriko's book.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    "Yeah, all the murders. A place doesn't get this haunted with just a couple. Gotta swing for the fences if you wanna turn the creep up to eleven!" Jubilation declares while pretending to hit an invisible ball with an invisible bat. She extends the moment indulgently by staring up and into the distance, watching her imaginary home run knock an imaginary satellite out of its imaginary orbit.

    Jubilee extends her arm out and pretends to lean on the imaginary bat like its a cane or something. "...Uh, sure, like, I mean, you'll probably find out pretty quick if the ghosts get tee-oh'd about it," she answers. Is she joking? Maybe!

    Jubilation flops backwards onto an armchair that must have come with the house. She drapes both legs over one of the arms of the chair and pulls out her phone. "There's a bathroom with a shower up the stairs, second door on the left. If you reach the marble busts that follow you with their eyes, you've gone too far," Jubilation mutters, still staring down at her phone screen. Something causes her to grin a little and start tapping up a response using the on-screen keyboard.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
Noriko, like the good scene partner she's always been, picks up on Jubes' act without skipping a beat and watches the 'ball' go over the fence.  She makes the calls of the crowd a metally echo into her gauntlets before dropping them and realizing she just mussed her face.

On her way upstairs, she goes slower to ask, "Have you met any ghosts yet?  Are those real things?  Ghosts?"  Noriko just assumes this would be the first thing she asked those paranormal types.  She does a quick look around the spooky surroundings, but looks back down to see Jubilation already responding to someone...else on her phone.  Nori sighs softly and then zips into the shower where a lot of POPs can be heard initially before she gets things under control.

Noriko takes her time, spending a good thirty seconds doing who knows what aside from getting clean.  It doesn't usually take her that long.  This was certainly long enough for her to possibly not interrupt Jubilation's messaging, right?  Nori bets on it, showing back up to dunk the pizza box into Jubes' recycling and then finally she ends up lounging with one foot up on a chaise, her gauntlets resting staggered about her midsection.

"So...you aren't going to get some kind of supernatural restraining order on me now are you?"

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    "Yeah, try not to tick them off!" Jubilation calls back regarding the possibility of ghosts. Everything she's saying sounds like a joke. It's almost like Nori is getting a dose of 'Jubilee' instead of Jubilation, just as she did when they first met.

    Jubilation is content enough with whatever's on her phone screen to ignore the popping noises from upstairs, but she does briefly look up when the lights on the first floor flicker a few times. Once it normalizes, she's back to texting or whatever she's working on.

    "Don't be silly, Nori, that would be an overreaction. I'm just gonna move," she jokes, grinning at the thought. "Gonna ask Sevvie if I have another house somewhere..." Tap tap tap tap. Tap tap.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
Noriko knows this is 'Jubilee' and she felt herself falling prey to those superficial charms all over again, but it also reminded her of what they are, how things are, like a hook coming back on her with a barb.

"You know she's probably got this place bugged.  I bet she used real bugs too."  The speedster shudders in a blur at the thought of Severina whispering to spiders to do her bidding.  "You could probably could just make me forget somehow right?  If all else fails, a good," she makes a clicking noise with her tongue, "to the head would probably work.  It's not like I'm made of steel or whatever they say that guy's abs are."  Her knee bounces, sending soft vibrations out across the floor.

Just like the barb though, after Noriko had reacted, Jubilation's words came back to skewer her.  Jubilation did move to avoid her already.  She rises.  "I'm sorry for showing up like this-I just, I wanted to see.  So I will go now," she announces like a polite intruder before turning to leave.  "Thanks for the pizza," she mumbles.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    "Sevvie? Nah, she's actually really nice," Jubilation insists, still tapping on that phone of hers. "You'd like her if you just got to know her..." That seems unlikely. Noriko might be the only one able to see through Severina's act and understand the danger she represents.

    In a famous piece of literature, someone once asked a vampire 'how did you do that?' and the vampire replied 'same as you, just a series of simple gestures.' Though a speedster is going to clock a vampire even on their best day, there's a supernatural element that's hard to beat, sometimes. Combining that supernatural element with a series of simple gestures, Jubilation isn't on that chair anymore. Instead, she's approaching Noriko from the door that would have been her exit.

    "I could just tell you to forget," Jubilation points out, her tone suddenly garnished with sinister undertones. Noriko would no doubt be familiar with this. It's not deliberate. Jubilation lives her life on the thin line between beauty and beast and, from time to time, hints of the monster inside are bound to surface.

    Jubilee doesn't do anything threatening, but she doesn't move out of the way. She folds her arms across her chest and tilts her head towards one shoulder. "Do you want to leave?" she wonders, suddenly coy.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
Noriko stops immediately.  She can see Jubilation coming, but it's always surreal to see something moving that fast for her, and it's a good thing she does see her coming.  "I ALMOST SPLATTED YOU!" Noriko bursts out, though she only has one foot extended.  She tries to catch her breath like someone who almost got into a wreck.  Then it's gone in an instant.

"...No.  Do you want to tell me to forget?"  Noriko's sunk right back down into the intensity of the moment.  The answer to this question matters.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    It's an important moment, an important question, but Jubilation might have been taking vampire lessons. Instead of outright answering it and providing Noriko with the currency of information, Jubilation throws a complication into the exchange.

    "Can you, like, not think about what /I/ want? What do /you/ want, Nori?" Jubilation asks, both eyebrows hiked up as though she thinks she's making some amazing point here. Vampire lessons or not, her valley girl presentation unfortunately takes away some of the edge. She walks past the speedster and flops back onto the arm chair, both legs dangling over the arm of the chair again.

    "I mean, you showed up, right? 'Cuz you wanted to," Jubilation points out. Her face is once again illuminated by the glow of her phone screen. "Maybe you should be riding that 'cuz I wanted to' vibe for a bit, you know?" Her attention is, once again, captured by her phone screen.

    Whatever will Nori do...?

Noriko Ashida has posed:
"I told you /no/ didn't I?  Why can't I answer /and/ think about you?  I mean, it's a pretty tall order to get me to stop thinking about you, what you might want."  But then Noriko realizes Jubilation isn't paying attention to her again.

The speedster's brow draws together with a petulant quality before she walks over to Jubilation and leaaans over her chair to simply touch the phone and it immediately shuts down.  "I want you.  Not this phony mask of you."  She locks eyes with Jubilation and doesn't back her gaze down.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    "I'm talking, like, in /general/" Jubes replies, dragging out her words to sound exhausted by the whole thing. "...I mean, you hire /Monet St. Croix/ to do her best Nancy Drew impression, then you /sonic/ your way over here, hide in that bush, probably peeking in the windows and stuff... And all of that is just about the most /Lee/ stuff you could do, and then suddenly you go all Ashida again! 'I am so sorry for coming. I have brought shame upon my family.'" Her impression of Nori's inner Ashida sounds like a robot.

    As good-natured as the impression was, Jubilee begins to get irritated. "Yeah, like, I /know/ it's a tall order," Jubilee replies, matching Noriko's tone to some degree. She's still tapping on stuff on her phone, like most people her age would be doing. "This is what happens..." She's alluding to the unsubstantiated Renfieldification that is supposedly going on.

    *ZAP*
    "What the---"

    Jubilation watches as her phone screen goes dead. Her eyes follow a path from the edge of the phone to the tip of the metal finger touching it. Startled, angry, and probably a bunch of other emotions about it, too, Jubilation tosses the busted phone to the side and rises from the chair. She reaches out to shove Noriko away as she leans forward to get all up in her face! Jubilation's hand is held out to one side, fingers curled into a loose claw. The empty space near her palm becomes unstable as hundreds of colorful micro-explosions begin to snap-crackle-and-pop into a white hot ball. This is going to be really bad.

    Except...

    Jubilation's eyes don't seem to have the same rage as the rest of her. In fact, they lower to glance at Noriko's lips for a moment before rising to once again meet the speedster's gaze.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
By all accounts Noriko should be running for the hills, the sea, the edge of the known world.  She just de-juiced Jubilation's phone.  Even if Jubes weren't a vampire...

But Noriko remains calm, stoic even.  She said it with true conviction.  This really is what she wants and for the first time, she feels like she has the power in the room.  She has spoken and now it's up to Jubilation.  There's no backing down from the moment, no flinching as the light from that brewing lethal tiny sun in Jubilation's palm as it flickers across her face.

It seems that Noriko is exceptionally practiced at remaining absolutely still.  She squints slightly as if a challenge had been thrown down, a subtle check in the chess game.  Well, more like the bold opening move.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    Jubilee's fireworks were once thought to just be bright lights and pretty colors, but there's a ball of energy building in her hand as atoms get ripped apart by the micro-explosions of her plasmoids. Instead of growing larger, the destructive force increases with each additional explosion that rolls over on itself. It's beginning to look like a single ball instead of a cloud...

    With Noriko squaring off, refusing to budge, refusing to flinch, and Jubilation matching that intensity with her own, the chances of a destructive outcome are very, very high. But...

    Her eyes lower again, another glance at Noriko's mouth. Instead of continuing to grit her teeth and bare her fangs, Jubilation's mouth hangs open slightly as the evil of a vampire and anger of a petulant young adult clash violently against much sweeter sentiments. The tension hangs in the air as Noriko's fate remains uncertain. Would she get torn limb from limb by an uncontrollable monster? Would this turn into a violent exchange of mutant powers? Or would---Oh. Neither of those come to pass.

    Jubilation suddenly closes the gap between Noriko and herself and presses her lips to the speedster's. She doesn't need the breath, but the contact comes with a sudden hissing of air as Jubilee breathes in as much of Nori's scent as she can. One arm is wrapped around Noriko's back and grabs her opposite shoulder. Jubilee's other arm dangles dangerously to the side, hand still loosely containing a destructive ball of plasmoids that she seems to have forgotten about...

Noriko Ashida has posed:
Noriko is very aware of the lethality of that growing swell of energy.  She's never tried to outrun something like that before and she doesn't plan to.  Still, her jaw tightens slightly in defiance, defiance of her mortal instinct to run, to survive. Her true desire wins out, to be with this being or die.  Her feet remain planted.  Her will obeyed.

Even when Jubilation moves first, the speedster doesn't have to study the vampire.  She feels the crackle of energy in the air between them.  She will take what she wants even as she arrives at the edge of ultimate surrender.  The buzz from Noriko's lips is at a high hum when they meet Jubilation's.  Was she wound up, ready to strike?

Where Jubilation's body is cool, Noriko's is warmth is revved up, radiating, and she's not pulling away just because Jubilation's hand might melt her.  She will reach out and try and grab Jubilation's wrist to keep them at bay though, especially as she draws closer, slipping her arm around the vampire's waist.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    Jubilation doesn't say anything, but her protest can be felt. She jerks her arm away to keep Noriko from grabbing her wrist, a desperate attempt to keep the ball of destruction away from the speedster. Jubilee twists slightly so her arm extends behind herself and remains a safe distance from Noriko as it crackles with ferocious energy in the palm of her hand.

    In the heat of the moment, Jubilee stumbles forward, further invading Noriko's space, as she desperately keeps the kiss alive. They've been apart for literal months and, finally, the floodgate has been opened.

    Suddenly, the arm wrapped around Noriko stiffens a little as Jubilee presses herself against Nori. She breaks the kiss and arches her head backward and begins to scream. A horrible smell, one of burnt flesh and ozone and fire fills the air as Jubilee's hand disappears into the growing ball of micro-explosions. Her scream remains constant and grows louder as she struggles against the destructive force swirling around her hand.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
Noriko emits a small sound of protest at Jubilation not letting her help, but then her brain races forward in thought to realize Jubes can feel whether her power is ebbing or surging.  Suddenly she relents, not making a thing about it, especially since she too doesn't want the kiss to end.  She just wraps her arms around Jubilation, unaware of the growing heat until the vampire breaks the kiss.

The speedster smells the burning flesh first before noticing the heat.  It's just the nature of the gauntlets.  "Jubes! No!"  Noriko instinctively tries to reach out for Jubilation's grenade of a hand to throw herself on it, so to speak, to smother it?  Impossible.  To shield Jubes?  It's just dumb instinct like someone throwing water on a grease fire.  Sweet, but dumb.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    Unlike real explosions, Jubilation's plasmoids don't actually /have/ to explode. They can be as destructive as she'd like, as bright as she needs them to be, but it takes concentration and effort and this was not a moment that afforded her much clarity of thought. All she had was the knowledge that, unless a priest came by to bless the plasmoids, she'd have a better shot against them than Nori.

    As Jubilation feels the Noriko shift, a split-second decision is made. There's not enough time to extinguish them, to render them harmless, but she could move them. Before Noriko has an opportunity to make contact, the plasmoids disperse all at once. The white hot orb suddenly breaks and thousands of colorful explosions spill from Jubilation's hand and spread across the floor, away from the couple.

    The floorboards, area rugs, and furniture that are caught in the wake snap-crackle-and-pop into near nothingness, exposing the void of the cellar and foundation. A supporting beam cracks as it struggles to maintain the weight of the house without its load-bearing partners. Without giving a moment to react, the beam snaps again and the remaining section of floor supporting Noriko and Jubilee buckles, sending the pair tumbling down into the exposed basement! WHAT WILL THEY DO?!

Noriko Ashida has posed:
Noriko sees all of this play out agonizingly fast and slow.  She reaches but she's just not fast enough.  How?  It's just weird when something is faster than she is.  At first, she moves to make sure she'd take the brunt of the-wait, it's moving away.  The speedster watches as Jubilation's hand cannon blows away the floor.

"Woah!"  Crack.  "What-"  Noriko scrambles but there's nothing to hang onto but Jubilation in the darkness.  THUNK.  Noriko's gauntlets smash as soon as they hit the ground.  "Oww.  That knocked the wind out of me," she says, immediately sitting up.  It's so quick other people would think she's faking it.

"Jubes...Jubes are you okay?"

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    Jubilation lies silently on her back, just staring up at the gaping hole that used to be the ceiling of the basement and the floor of the parlor, depending on perspective. There's a lot of bad in this situation. The pair is not only in an allegedly haunted house, but in the /basement/ of an allegedly haunted house, universally accepted as the scariest part of the whole thing. Portions of the first floor are gone and several load bearing structures are destroyed. Jubilation's hand was shredded by sub-atomic explosions of her own making. Ghosts probably watched Noriko shower earlier. A lot of bad.

    Finally, Jubilation speaks.

    "So, not only do you owe me a new bush, you also owe me a new first floor of my house," she says.

    And then Noriko would feel Jubilation's good hand searching for hers in the darkness.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
Noriko's brain immediately jumps from wanting to acknowledge that Jubilation's hand is blown off to acting like it never happened.  She doesn't want to look.  She doesn't want to know if...worse, something has staked Jubilation.  Some vengeful part of the house.  "This is definitely going to piss off the ghosts," she tries to crack a joke after Jubilation finally speaks.

"I can fix this..."  Noriko says as she stares up at the gaping hole.  She doesn't sound entirely sure that this is the end of the damage.  She blinks a little and then she squeezes Jubilation's hand when they find each other's.

"I'm going to get us out of this okay?  Everything is going to be okay.  But we need to stop your bleeding."  She looks around for anything she can use, but is already shedding her jacket.  "Once we bind your arm-"  Noriko goes into a fast blur and then slows down, blinking a little.  She shakes her head.  "Once we bind your arm we can work on getting out of here okay?" she says with a surprisingly gentle determinedness.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    "Must be all the termite damage," Jubilee adds, still staring up at the missing hunk of house. She smiles a little, finding peace in their situation. It fades, though, once Noriko begins zipping around and shredding jacket. "Hey, Nori, Nori!" Jubilee tries. Unable to get the words in, Jubilation stands and brushes her legs off with her good hand.

    "Nori!" Jubes cries out.

    "Hey, put the brakes on! Lets go down the checklist, here. It's not the sun. My head's still on. Nothing through my chest. Not a priest in sight. Silver, garlic, none of the above. I'm /fine/! ....See?"

    Jubilee holds up her other hand, the one that was caught by plasmoids, and uses it to wave at Nori. Her fingers are burnt to a crisp and, yet, somehow still moist. Bits are missing. Her pinky and index fingers dangle limply in impossible directions. It's...

    "...Ew," Jubes says, now finally getting a good look at what she did to herself. "Maybe, uh, don't see."

    "Listen, while you work on getting us out of here, I'll be in what remains of the upstairs," she adds with a smirk before heading over to the staircase that goes from the basement to the first floor.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
Blink-blink-blink. Jubilation gets Noriko to slow down and stop. Her eyes get wider when she sees the dangling fingers. Her mouth opens, but she doesn't get anything out. She covers her mouth. She still has a stomach, ate that pizza, and has biological functions unfortunately. She almost loses her 'lunch.' Her mind swims with all of the images of how the hand got that way which it was trying valiantly to avoid and Noriko reaches out with her free hand to steady herself. "Oh...Just be careful. There's lots of wood around here. Let me help you up okay?" she insists through her wooziness. "I think I hit my head," Noriko confides when she draws close. Likely excuse.

"Can't we at least wrap it up loosely? Or...put a bag over it?" she asks as they traverse the staircase.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    "Nope, actually, you gotta kiss it," Jubilation jokes as she continues up the stairs. She dangles the cooked hand in front of Nori's face and starts making kissy noises with her mouth. It only goes on for a couple seconds, though, before Jubilee laughs her way up the rest of the stairs.

    Finally, with some actual fear in her tone this time, Jubilation realizes something important about the injury. "Oh, major bummer... my ski ball hand," she complains.

    Though the fate of Nori and Jubilee remains a little uncertain, Jubilee won't be going for any high scores for the next couple nights.