16359/The Mannequins Come To Life At Midnight

The Mannequins Come To Life At Midnight
Date of Scene:	17 November 2023
Location:	Nevermore Point (Manor House)
Synopsis:	Jubilee shocks the local vampire community by announcing that she hereby quits (abdicates) her role as duchess. Noriko Ashida arrives just in time to help Jubes escape a mob of elder vampires riled up by Severina. The two escape to... the mall!
Cast of Characters:	Jubilation Lee, Noriko Ashida

---

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    Nevermore Point, the traditional residence of the head of state in the Great Vampire Nation of Westchester is normally a bleak, lifeless place. Recently, after Jubilation Lee moved herself in completely, the manor house's rooms were once again filled with life. Well, maybe not life, per say, but...noise, at least. Pop music. Lots of pop music.

    But... tonight... There's a crowd assembled at the bottom of the porch steps that lead to the manor house's heavy door. Jubilee stands on the porch, looking down at the cadaverous gathering of vampires and familiars. They all seem to be on the older side in appearance and mannerisms, locked in whatever fashion sensibilities were popular when they were alive. It's a lot of frock dresses and velvet suits. They're not pleased and, in the center of them, one vampire stands with presence and authority. Severina the Necromancer, a title given to her so long ago that no one quite understands why. She could've been the one vampire to rule Westchester had Jubilee not accidentally stumbled her way into that position. Alas.

    "Oh yeah?" Jubilation says loudly, glaring defiantly at the crowd assembled in front of her house. "Well, if that's what you think, here's what /I/ think: I don't give a fuck!" She's reached a boiling point about something. "Nothing's changed. Anyone who tastes mutant blood, even a single drop of it, gets to enjoy a nice, warm sunrise! Anyone got a problem with that?"

    The rabble rabbles a little until Severina rouses it. "Please, please, my friends, please. If the Duchess wishes to steal what rightfully belongs to us....Who are we to oppose her?" she calls out, a sinister smile lingering...

Noriko Ashida has posed:
Noriko has had her bags packed for awhile, and for awhile longer she was staring at them.  Bags.  Plural?  She has one.  Some shitty diving duffel, bright reddish orange, faded, likely from some consignment store.  At the door, she glances back at the living room and is scathed by memories still fresh.  She locks it behind her and leaves the key on the mat.

She just needs to make one more stop, she tells herself.  Misplaced something, she tells herself.  Jubes must have grabbed it or one of her cronies when she moved out, she tells herself.  There are many things Noriko tells herself on the run over to Nevermore Point, the place she swore not to return to.  If only she could remember what the thing was in the first place.

But as soon as the speedster rolls up onto the block, she spots the pale gathering.  The villagers! she thinks.  Her heart jumps faster than the rest of her body.  She swallows.  She needs to be shadow.  She needs to be unseen, unheard.  With a flicker of electricity off her heel, she races down to slip into a rather overgrown evergreen and attempts something to hide her heartbeat.  She tries to go slower than "slow", she tries to let the world slip by her faster, she tries to clear her mind.  For an instance, the world seems to speed up, but it could have just been a trick, and her erratic heartbeat is problematic.

Noriko listens.  She watches.  She notices that she's in a giant tree with lots of branches.  She remembers branches are wood.

And she watches.  She listens.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    Severina's manipulation stirs the crowd of elder vampires. Some of them haven't cared about anything in at least a hundred years, but she plays each of them like a fiddle tonight. A chorus of murmuring spreads and echoes around, building and building within the confines of the crowd. Ancient, powerful, and entitled, the elder vampires who have haunted Westchester in secret for all these decades, have not taken kindly to the youthful Jubilation Lee. Still, they've been in the shadows, quietly lurking until the time was right. Until Severina decided that the time is right tonight.

    "Please, please, don't disrespect our dear Duchess with your interruptions," Severina continues, maintaining an obviously false smile. "....I'm sure she has a perfectly good reason to deny you of what's yours for so long.... I'm /sure/ she has a perfectly good reason to choose /them/ over /you/.... Her own kind...." Severina directs her smile up at Jubilee, but mostly so she can keep steady eye contact with her. It's eye contact that says 'I'm doing this to you.'

    The crowd of vampires spreads from Severina suddenly, all at once, without even being asked, so she can be more visible. And there it is. Plain as night. Dangling from Severina the Necromancer's pale neck are the magical amulets that were given to Jubilee and Noriko by the Justice League Dark all those years ago. The amulets were a safe guard to ensure that Noriko couldn't be accidentally killed by Jubilee, should the newly made vampire lose control. The amulets that were mysteriously lost. Jubilation's eyes widen as she stares down at those necklaces, giving Severina exactly what she wants. It's only for a moment, though, before Jubilee rolls her eyes and defiantly tilts her head upwards. She won't give her the satisfaction.

    "Nevermind, nevermind!" Severina continues, joyfully raising her voice over the building dissatisfaction taking over the group of vampires that surround her. "...Nevermind that our old friends in Manhattan and Brooklyn say that we're the same as our dear, dear duchess... How they say we /upend/ the natural order... How we are just so /pleased/ to have the pleasure of serving one who is so /vibrant/ and /young/...Nevermind that they say how /endearing/ it is to see us growing /predictable/ in our /recklessness/...." Severina's tone rises with each word, her voice taking on some very, very familiar notes. Her head snaps left-right-left as she moves through the phrase. Those words. Endearing by being predictable in their recklessness. That's exactly how the mysterious stranger described the litter of kittens when they gave them to Noriko that day... That's exactly the way she said it. That's exactly how she tilted her head, left-right-left.

    Severina smiles sweetly up at Jubilation, not breaking eye contact with her. "Of course, of course, they've all heard the rumors of what our dear, dear Duchess was doing with her /food/..." she continues. "...But, like we'd all say when hearing them /laughing/ at us behind our backs.... The Duchess of Westchester /cares/ for her people. She'd /never/ behave so... /grotesquely/......"

    Jubilee just stares back at Severina, both arms crossed in front of her chest. For someone very likely about to meet her final death at the hands of an angry mob, she's remarkably cool about it. And, fortunately for any potential eavesdroppers, the faint smell of mutant blood isn't enough to distract these monsters from what they really came for tonight.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
Noriko doesn't have super hearing, and the foliage and dead bodies standing around do a good deal to obscure certain words, making the mutant squint as if that would help bring clarity.  She takes the moment to count the vampires present, sizing them up, thinking what creatures of the night, what forms they might take in pursuit.  An idle thought.

Severina's projection tears Nori out of the brief reverie.  Each word sews into Noriko.  She breathes through gritted teeth, drawing her breaths out slow and measured...until she hears those words, which seem to slow everything down.  No, slow /her/ down.  Sound waves begin to sail by at speeds she cares not for, words she cares not for.  At first she feels impervious, but then, with a sudden realization, she is terrified that the world will roll on faster and faster and faster, pulling her slower and slower as if she were face to face with the event horizon until...She doesn't let her mind go there.  Far enough already.

Noriko would like to tune Severina out, always.  The vampire is insufferable, and here it is on full display.  But that little phrase that made her fall for those furry creatures pricks her conscience, setting her blood to boil.  She clenches her fists and small lick of electricity peels off into the air and winks out like a lightning bug.  No fires start, but Noriko can feel the a swirl of charge building deep inside, rushing to the storm brewing in her medulla oblongata.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    Jubilation finally opens her mouth. "Blah blah blah, /boring/!" she shouts back, falling back into the ever important duty the young have to remind their elders of their own irrelevance. "Try not to trip over your own cape with that lame It Sounds Nice But It's Really A Threat routine you got off the back of a box of Count Chocula. You wanna know why I----" Jubilee stops, distracted by another vampire emerging from the shadows.

    He's just as ancient as the rest of them, but he's wearing fashionable street wear and has his hair spiked. He walks with his smartphone held out in front at arms length, as though it's the end of a leash and he's being pulled by an invisible dog. "Oh, wow, Miss Jubes, you've got that stank face, mad salty, yo, like, big yikes!" he says, awkwardly churning through the Gen Z slang on his way to join what he thought was just another gathering. He's a little late, but it took some time to change out of his 18th century clothes and spike his hair with gel. He looks up from the glow of his smart phone's lock screen -- Too Many Failed Passcode Attempts, Locked For 1321 Hours -- and finally notices what's going on. He tosses the smartphone off to the side and flattens out his hair before taking a spot in the angry group of elders.

    "....Huh..." Jubilee says to herself, staring quietly as that pathetic attempt to fit in with today's youth gets abandoned right in front of her eyes. Ehem.

    "Okay, so, you wanna know /why/...?" Jubilation repeats, getting louder and louder as she explains herself to Severina and the angry mob she led to her house. She puts both hands on her hips, doing her absolute best to squash the urge to pace back and forth. She just stares back at Severina, brow lowered to properly communicate just how much she hates her. "You can tell those hoity-toity Ubervamp City Sippers you love so much that the reason you're not allowed to suck mutant neck is because your 'dear, dear duchess' is worried that they'd kick your asses! Like, seriously, Logan'd go all snikt snikt snikt on you before Noriko zips in and gives you all electric wedgies just for fun!" Jubilee is really drawing on that west coast 'I'm better than you' vibe that all valley girls can summon when they want to.

    "See, you /think/ you got me to ditch her," Jubilee shouts, losing that valley girl vocal fry in an instant. "You /think/ I did it because I wanted to show you that I'm just like you, like, all 'bleeeh!! and stuff....'" She does the stereotypical Transylvania bleh! noise like Bella Lugosi to properly make fun of these ancient coffin stuffers. "....I didn't do it for you. I don't have /time/ to care what you think, I'm too busy being /awesome/. I did it because you tricked me, plain and simple!"

    This detail seems to satisfy Severina and her supporters, but Jubilee doesn't give them a chance to respond before she just keeps going. "...Yeah, so, big deal, you tricked me. You made me think I was turning Nori into, like, Stephen....." Jubilee gestures to a particularly pathetic guy in the crowd. A mortal. A familiar. "....Sorry, Stephen..." Jubilee adds quietly, giving the sad-looking thirty-something a brief, apologetic look before returning to her unrehearsed speech.

    "Right, Uh...Oh, right. Oooo oooo...." Jubilation raises her hands in the air to mock the angry mob. "....Jubes loves Nori....Oooo...How could she love a mortal.... How weirrrrrd....." She stops and rolls her eyes. "Please. Haven't any of you seen Jerry Springer? They had a guy on there who loved a broom. I..." Jubes abandons that point. "...Nevermind. I forgot. 'What's a TV?'" Another mocking jab for the elders.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    Jubilation crosses her arms across her chest and finally seals her fate, marking herself for final death. "So, like, if you dopes can't handle how awesome I am....If you can't deal with me because I love who I love....Then....I...." Jubilee looks out on the crowd of bloodthirsty monsters and says the word that she looked up on Wikipedia.

    "Abdicate!"

    As soon as she says it, the rules change completely. The angry mob that was once held back by ancient traditions no longer had any reason to suffer Jubilee's antics any more. Without title and position protecting her, Jubilee is just some punk kid who had been making a mockery of them for last couple years. A punk kid who, to many of them, looks awfully tasty.

    "Oh....Right..." Jubilation mutters to herself, briefly pretending like she forgot about this. A quick blast of fireworks bursts from her hand, giving her the necessary cover to leap forward and take off running down the driveway and away from Nevermore Point and the angry mob that had come for her!

Noriko Ashida has posed:
This being slower than the world business is new to Noriko, something she's only felt when dangerously electrically depleted which she wasn't even sure she experienced in the first place.  But right now?  She's churning with energy.  It continues to flick off her in stunted tendrils of soft light like those in her eyes.  They start small, nascent things, not even big enough to threaten the foliage around her.

While the speedster listens, she keeps an eye on the crowd of vampires, looking for any sudden moves as Jubilation seems to posture the oldtimers.  When Jubilation says she was tricked, there is a tiny flash in the evergreen that disappears as soon as it appeared.  Jubilation is doing a good job keeping the attention of her audience, so it goes unnoticed.  Maybe if the vampires had turned around, they would have noticed something in the darkness, something about to shoot off.

The speedster's eyes narrow as she sees the word 'abdicate,' naturally kicking up to her baseline velocity.  Everything warps into a slow before Jubes can even get the whole word out.  Noriko springs up to take hold of a branch, breaking it clean off with a CRACK in the process.  It was the speariest looking one.  A bolt of electricity lights the tufts of foliage on fire as she leaps out of the evergreen.  As Jubilation runs in her direction, Noriko launches the flaming branch at the pursuing mob, well clear of Jubilation's head.  Still, she yells, "DUCK!"  She's never thrown a branch before.

Instead of blasting the vampires away, Noriko saves her charge, the same charge that has her hair swirling up behind her in that hypnotic way, going so fast it looks slow again behind the refresh rate of the average eye.  Instead of burning them to a crisp, she bolts forward in a blink and lifts Jubilation up in her arms before she can even acknowledge anything.  They have only a moment, there with the roar and hiss of the Night behind them.  Trickles of electricity lattice Noriko's cheeks down the tracks of tears as she casts a smile upon the former Duchess.

Suddenly Noriko angles Jubilation toward her and takes off /FAST/.  She takes off for the only other place she knows at first, the Mansion.  But she knows she can't lead a pack of elder vampires there.  There are children there, and surely every vampire in Westchester knows of where Jubilation used to live not so long ago.

Once they get about halfway, Noriko brings them to a stop to check behind her.  The words come fast, rushed.  "We can't go back to the school, but I think I know where we can go, but-are you okay?"  It was fast, after all and Noriko's not sure how that will affect Jubes in this current form.  She doesn't actually look at Jubilation.  She has to keep an eye on her surroundings, constantly scanning.  Were they tailed?

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    Jubilation backs up her escape with a few more clusters of fireworks that spread from her fingertips. The vampire mob is helpless against the curtain of light that drowns their fully open pupils. Severina hisses angrily as her sight is momentarily taken from her. There's more panic in the crowd as a flaming tree branch shatters the breast bone of one of the elders and turns him into a thick cloud of dust that's going to be hell for their familiars to dry clean tomorrow. The branch has already sailed past her and done its damage before Jubilee is even able to process the word and wonder if she was supposed to duck or if there was a duck nearby. Before the thought is able to travel across her brain stem, she's being carried off by someone else instead of her own two legs.

    "Wait, wha... Nori?" Once she's able to process this sudden turn of events that happened in an instant, Jubilation stares at the speedster in disbelief. After a beat, Jubilee furrows her brow. "I had that handled, you know..." she points out. Despite insisting that she's a big girl who can totally solve her own problems, Jubilation shyly reaches up and links her hands behind the speedster's neck, choosing to demote herself to damsel.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
"Yeah I know, but I got bored," Noriko offers with sheepish grin and a shrug.  She sets Jubilation down briefly to lean toward the wall of a bus stop awning to stretch her calves.  "I happened to be in the neighborhood when I noticed all your pals wanting your attention and I thought I'd skip the line."  Well, get rid of it.

"Nice moves by the way."  Now is not really the time for chit chat, so she doesn't broach anything here, now.  Noriko isn't used to running from fast creatures and has no feel for it.

"Are you okay with the mall?  I think we can lose them there."  Noriko had to think twice about her idea to take Jubes to her subway hideout for similar reasons she didn't want to lead the vampires to the school.  There are people who live there, who can be caught unawares in the darkness.  Cheap fuel for their pursuers.  "Is it still open?"  Like a squirrel, her head keeps twitching this way and that.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    Noriko's sheepish grin gets a single-shoulder shrug and an easy smile in return. "They were kinda being a-holes the whole night," Jubilee replies, as though that was just a sleepover that ended early. No attempt to explain what Noriko just witnessed. No inquiries into just how much the speedster heard. Just a silly way to break the tension of what might end up being her last night. It was a good ride. When Jubilee is set down, she smooths out her sweatshirt and plucks the spandex bicycle shorts from her butt to remove the unintentional wedgie from the trip. Such a prim and proper young lady.

    "Yeah, you too. I didn't know you could throw like that. You should've gone out for the track team," Jubilation replies. After realizing her comment wasn't clear enough to stand on its own, she looks away and awkwardly tugs on the bottom of her hooded sweatshirt. "...You know...'cuz, like, the javelin..." To really drive it home, Jubes reaches back and slowly throws an imaginary javelin off into the distance to demonstrate. Smooth.

    Mall. Mall. Mall.

    Even just saying the word one time is enough to Beetlejuice Jubes back to the here and now. "...The mall? Am I okay with the mall? Who do you think you're talkin' to?" she answers with a big, fangy grin. But, is it open? "Who cares, let's go!" Without even thinking, she reaches out to take the speedster's hand but pulls away almost immediately. Instead, Jubilation's hand finds its place on the back of her own neck. She awkwardly rubs it a couple times and tilts her head in the direction of the mall. "...It's, um, it's that way."

Noriko Ashida has posed:
"We had one?" at Xavier's Noriko means, since she certainly was being 'homeschooled' in Japan.  "I didn't know either.  I don't do a lot of throwing now."  Given how dangerous it is of course.  "Plus maybe I'm only good when I'm shish kabobing dead thin-"  She sees Jubes' reaction to the Mall summoning spell before she even gets a reply.

"Yeah I know," Noriko knows she's thinking in a paranoid way, despite how cool and calm and collected she may seem, her brain is both fast and slow on the uptake, like a hamster spinning a wheel finally realizing it is going nowhere.  "So you wa-"  There's a little involuntary spark that reaches out to Jubilation, only bringing even more attention to, yeah.  Noriko jams her hand in her pocket, which is not where it needs to be.  Then she pulls it out with the thought that she might set her jeans on fire.

"Okay uh-" Noriko doesn't want to say JUMP ON MY BACK NOW.  She doesn't want to say anything.  What would she say?  In a sudden panic, Noriko blurts, "Okaylet'sgo-they'recoming."  Jubes gets tossed over Nori's shoulder.  She doesn't even have to carry her fireman style, just right over her shoulder.  This isn't the best way to be carried, and it centers all of Jubilation's weight on one side.

It's a quick jaunt to the mall and requires Noriko to double back on their route.  They arrive at some kind of side of the building that abuts the parking lot.  It's where the smokers usually loiter on their breaks.  They are in shadow though, just outside the splash of light illuminating a metal service door entrance.  Jubilation knows that one of the pedestrian entrances is around the corner, and Nori spotted it on the way over.

"We're on your turf now," which is to say, lead the way. Noriko looks back to Jubes to make sure she's okay from the journey.  Jubilation is more durable as a vampire for sure, in so many ways, but Noriko always worries about people's stomachs no matter what they are...and the trajectory of their mouth.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    "Hey!" is all Jubilee has time to say as she's picked up and put over Noriko's shoulder. Well, that's that.

    Jubilee has gotten used to Noriko and doesn't often make a point to draw attention to the girl's oddities. She's used to the feeling of electricity, especially now that her physical form is really a corpse that, somehow, she can still use like she never died in the first place. That feeling of electricity can be almost pleasant, but the stomach churn that comes with moving too fast under a speedster's control is a tough one to overlook. When they come to a halt outside the mall, Jubilation bends forward and stares at the pavement. If she could breathe, this is normally when she'd take measured, controlled breaths to ward off the vomiting. It passes.

    As lovely and luxurious as a recently fed vampire's hair might be, it's no match for the acceleration and directional changes of a ride on a speedster. Jubilee's dark hair sticks up in all kinds of directions, chaotic, matted, and gently knotted like a doll whose child lost her brush. There's a brief hesitation where Jubilee looks like she might reach up to fix it, but she abandons that idea almost immediately and, instead, decides that she'll just act like she wants it to look this way.

    "Okay," Jubilation answers, accepting her role as the one who would guide them through the next leg of their journey. She pulls her phone out from the elastic waistband of her shorts. It has been erupting with sounds as tech savvy vampires slide into her DMs to find out if the rumors are true. She doesn't bother responding. After checking the time on the lock screen, Jubilee tucks her phone back into her shorts and nods. "C'mere..." she says as she stands with her back against the wall just next to the metal door. "The register jockeys over at the Orange Julius usually bring their last trash bag out right about now. We'll sneak in behind them when they come out..."

    Like clockwork, the door opens and a disinterested teen comes out with a garbage bag held off to the side. It's leaking, but he only cares as far as keeping the garbage water from getting on his shoes. Loud music can be heard spilling out from the earbuds tucked in his ears. His sights are set on a nearby dumpster. Without delay, Jubilation sneaks in through the open door, expecting Noriko to be right behind her.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
Noriko can't help but be distracted by Jubilation's hair.  Once one has seen that lovely flowing river of hair, it's hard to reconcile it with the image before her.  Like Jubilation, there is a brief mental hesitation in Noriko before she accepts the truth of the lie that Jubilation always intended it that way.

The speedster taps her foot anxiously while Jubes handles her phone.  It sounds like a pattering drumroll or the paw of a dog getting scratched right in that perfect spot.

Noriko steps over next to Jubilation and leans back against the wall to wait.  Le sigh.  Clockwork takes forever.  For Nori, 'now' never means now.  She uses this brief moment to finish her stretching right before the door begins to open.  Noriko immediately flattens against the wall as if Jubilation might notice her screwing around.  It isn't till they've slipped inside that Noriko hits the ground with a THUMP, but only after scrambling comically like a dog on rollerskates trying too hard.  Garbage water.  Her cheeks flash bright red for at least half a second, impossible to miss if looking.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    "We've got a few minutes, too. That one always stays out there for a while before going back to work," Jubilation explains without looking back at Noriko. 'That one.' A mortal, let alone a part-time Orange Julius employee, is almost not even a person. It takes Jubilee a few steps before she turns to make sure that Noriko got inside behind her. She waits with both hands on her hips until the speedster stops flailing and hits the ground. Jubes lowers herself to one knee and holds her hand out.

    "C'mon, I think I know where that pesky roadrunner went," she teases. Her smile is effortless, carefree, and without strategy. Just a smile.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
From down here, Jubilation is just as gorgeous as ever.  It takes Nori a moment to register what Jubilation is doing.  At first it's coming at Nori in slow motion.  Her head cocks to the side and then lackadaisically to the other side with an easy grin, unable to resist mirroring.  Jubilation has always had an infectious quality, especially when it comes to Noriko.  It's a balm, clearing the speedster's blush with ease.

"Thanks," Noriko mutters as she takes the offered hand, warm in cold.  Luckily Nori is as heavy as she looks.  "Listen...about what you said..back there..at the manor.....I was in that Christmas tree on your block..."  Noriko confesses quietly.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    Jubilee rises and gives Noriko's hand a quick yank. "C'mon," she says. "Old Navy did one of those window displays of a mannequin family camping in performance fleeces. There's a tent and everything. They're not gonna care since, you know, they're not alive." She pauses for effect. "...I mean, not until midnight..." She's joking, right?

    She leads Noriko through the maze of hallways used exclusively by mall employees. Part of being Queen of the Mall Rats is knowing the mall inside and out, including the parts that are normally off-limits to the general public. "If you're lucky, the Great American Cookie might still have one of those giant cookies they slice up like a pie," Jubilee hints. Whenever they come to a fork, Jubilation makes the choice with no shortage of confidence. Left. Left. Right. Straight. Through the door. Right. Left.

    "What? You heard me ab...abdic...." Darn it. She forgot already. "You heard me quit my job?" Jubilee questions. "Or, um, the other stuff?" Left. Right. Straight.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
"What?" It's not a real question.  Noriko's unfamiliar with the commercials.  "Wait the fleeces or the mannequins aren't going to care?  I have it on good authority there's a-midnight?"  She briefly wonders if this is a reference to the commercials she's never seen.

The speedster doesn't go to the mall anymore unless she has to.  She had a great fascination with them when she first came over which was quickly dispelled after she was kicked out of one of them.  Normally she might be paying attention, but she can't help constantly looking over their shoulders.  "There are giant cookies here?"  Her eyes are wide.  "A younger me is so jealous of a younger you right now."

The speedster reaches up to rub the back of her neck before she takes off on Jubilation's heels.   "Both.  All of it.  I thought-"  Does it matter what she thought?  No.  "Too bad no one Jerry Maguired with you."

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    "Yeah, everyone knows that all the mannequins come to life at midnight," Jubilee replies, not bothering to stop or look back as she leads them through the bland, forgettable service corridors. She begins to drag her finger tips against the concrete walls, if for no other reason than attention deficit. Left. Right. Right. Left. Jubes moves through these halls with the same familiarity she would have back at Xaviers. "If you're good, I'll put in a good word for you!"

    The speedster's interest in the giant cookies draws out a private grin from Jubilee. "Yeah, like, remember in Willy Wonka when the one girl gets turned into a blueberry?" Jubilation asks, continuing down the hallway with both arms extended to approximate poor Violet Beauregarde's size and shape. "As big as /that/... And sliced like a pie!" She says it a second time because, hey, a cookie sliced like a pie is funny!

    Jubes abruptly stops at an unmarked metal door, easily missed since it's painted the same color as the walls: beige. She spins around to face Noriko and shrugs one shoulder. "...Yeah, like, you were right. She's a mean girl," she offers before blindly turning the door handle that's behind her back. Jubilation leans backwards and rides the door as it opens and reveals the splendor that is... The Lost Pond Mall... after closing.

    To Be Continued...!