16447/The Mannequins Come Alive At Midnight Part 2

The Mannequins Come Alive At Midnight Part 2
Date of Scene:	30 November 2023
Location:	Lost Pond Mall
Synopsis:	After they make preparations to hide out in the mall, Noriko breaks the news to Jubilee that she's leaving town. It goes about as well as could be expected. Badly.
Cast of Characters:	Jubilation Lee, Noriko Ashida

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Jubilation Lee has posed:
    ...In part one (+scene 16359), Noriko Ashida helps Jubilee escape a mob of angry vampires. The two have just snuck their way into the Lost Pond Mall after hours using one of the service hallways...

    Jubilation folds both arms across her chest and surveys the lower east wing of the hopefully empty Lost Pond Mall. Sure, there's bound to be at least one overnight security guard and maybe a custodian, but it's a ghost town, otherwise. She remains silent for a couple seconds, just watching and waiting for whatever might happen to happen. Would someone catch them? Were they followed by angry, elder vampires hoping to get a taste? So far, the coast is clear.

    "Welp," Jubilation begins, keeping her voice down but above a whisper. "...I guess we got away with it...." She sounds skeptical, like this is a road she's been down before. Her gaze naturally falls to her hands. It was a sudden shock from a security guard that forced Jubilation's mutant powers to emerge, all those years ago when she was hiding out in a shopping mall.

    Jubilee perks up suddenly, as though she was still working at Burger Shack and her manager just walked in. You have time to lean, you've got time to clean, Jubilation!

    "Right!" Jubilee announces. "...So, I'm gonna probably see if Old Navy still has that window display with the family camping and stuff. There was a tent last year. No reason anyone would look inside." She jerks her thumb in some direction, presumably towards wherever Old Navy might be. "Thanks for, like, doing the Speedy Gonzales thing to get me here," Jubilee adds. Her voice trails off, as though she's expecting that they'll now be parting ways.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
Noriko has an annoying habit of being way ahead of everyone else, like scouting an area out just as others are surveying it, but with elders on their tails, this time is different. She sticks to Jubilation like glue, not moving a muscle save to constantly scan their surroundings at all times a bit like a squirrel. When the coast seems to be clear, for like, forever (to Nori at least), she whips out a quick sigh of momentary relief.

"I don't think the mannequins can hear us," Noriko says not even at a stage whisper! She smirks, but it fades slightly when she sees Jubilation's eyes fall to her own hands. "Earth to Jubes," which seems to do the trick, at least to Nori. She nods to Jubes' announced "Right!" and slows wayyy down to listen to The Plan.

"And I can get whatever we need wherever we need no problem," Noriko offers as if it's no big deal, like lifting a pinky. "I mean, if you need it," she more quickly railroads back over her previous words with a duck of her eyes. "I didn'-Yeah no problem." Something switches in Noriko and there is a flash of evidence that she doesn't stay in the moment, a telling twitch to the left a centimeter or two. She's getting really good at that, somehow knowing where she was in a space and time.

"How could I not?" Noriko leans at the waist as she stuffs her buzzy, vibrating hands in her jacket pockets. "What you did back there? What you said?" She unconsciously wets her lips and grins as she thinks about the 'fuck you' bravery, the 'fuck it all'. "You're amazing," and what should have at least been a few more dramatic seconds later, but wasn't in Jubilation's timing, "That was kinda hot," and what was supposed to have been at least even a few more dramatic seconds after that, but certainly wasn't at all, "So which way is Old Navy?"

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    "The mannequins have many spies. Can't be too careful," Jubilation mutters as she finishes surveying the barren wastelands of commerce.

    Jubes starts walking from the door and into the mall proper, presumably towards Old Navy. "Oh," she realizes. "...Nori, I'll be fine. It's not my first time." To demonstrate her readiness, Jubilation slowly spins around with both arms extended, as though taking in the majesty of the first gentle snow of the season. This is a mall. She's got the home field advantage.

    "Oh... yeah, like, I'm awesome, I know," Jubilation agrees with a casual shrug, as though trying to deflect any serious compliment that Noriko might intend for her. It's the too-cool-for-school attitude she's rightly famous for. She leaves the 'that was kinda hot' remark unaddressed.

    Jubilee stops and puts both hands on her hips, watching the speedster carefully. "I can take care of myself, you know..." she gently points out. Jubilee has skipped over all the hemming and hawing and arrived right at what she expects is the goodbye. "I don't need, like, a babysitter..."

Noriko Ashida has posed:
"Yeah, sure," Noriko plays along unconvincingly as she glances from mannequin to mannequin. She strolls just off of Jubilation's left shoulder, as if tagging along. A toothpick appears between her teeth at some point. This is just how much time she has to kill sometimes, or is she trying to look cool? Didn't have time to hit up a gas station for cigarettes? Oh yeah she doesn't smoke, but it's so hard to get all those old cigarettes are cool ads out of her head, having grown up with them and not getting the War on Drugs PSAs that the Americans got interspersed at the time.

WHY IS SHE SO DISTRACTED! Noriko curses her nerves. Ugh. Jubes always made her head spin. Noriko softly sighs to herself after Jubes casually shrugs off her compliments. One of these days she's going to do these things in the wrong frame of velocity. It's happened before. Not like it won't happen again, but for now Noriko is restlessly ducking in and out of her and Jubilation's natural velocities, as different as they are. All the while, her flutteringly vibraty hands betray her nerves.

"Yeah, I know." Noriko feels a part of her crash and burn like she was flying and her wing clipped something sharp. "I was there because you left something and-" She was leaving. Was? For once, Noriko looks at a loss for words, just suffering the moment, no compensating with her powers. Vulnerable.

"I guess for a second there, it felt like one of our old adventures." Noriko grins wistfully, her head slightly tilted. "But you probably already have plans for a whole camping empire and Old Navy clans and a sorting beanie and all that..." Her fingers curl into fists as she tries to keep her emotions or the friction from setting her jacket on fire. Somehow, her face has no tells, even if her fists are kind of pressed against her midsection.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    "Well... I didn't plan all of /that/!" Jubilation answers, shaking her head vigorously, as though her reputation might be at stake. She is not a planner. "...But I think I should lay low, like, for a little while, at least. Can't go back to that house since...you know..." She doesn't bother elaborating. The house is the property of the Duchess of Westchester and, as of this evening, that's no longer Jubilee. It finally sinks in.

    "And going back to the school seems like something a dope-on-a-rope would do..." Jubilation points out, lowering her eyes a little. This is the down side of always /doing/ and rarely /thinking/. She doesn't have a plan.

    "...So, like... home sweet home, I guess..." Jubilation adds, gesturing at the vast emptiness. "When I get settled, maybe you could come visit. Bring a housewarming gift... From a store that isn't in here, obviously." She grins and even rolls her eyes at herself for good measure. For no reason other than nerves, awkwardness, and attention deficit, Jubilation plucks the mysterious toothpick from Noriko's mouth and sticks it in her own. She waggles it up and down before moving again. After a few steps, Jubilation stops again and slumps her shoulders aggressively, as though trying to appear like she sighed about something.

    "Nori..." Jubilee begins, looking over at the speedster with both eyebrows hiked up. She hesitates. "...Do you maybe wanna, like, hang out some time?" she wonders.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
"Of course not," Noriko shrugs, her frame a little too tight, which she notices, and then visibly relaxes. No spurts of electricity though, remarkably. "Yeah, going back to the school..." Noriko suddenly realizes that she blew out of there and will have to go crawling back probably. Plans? Nori realizes she's just as guilty of not having any as Jubilation admits her situation in realtime.

"So Logan is a dope-on-a-rope, got it," the diversion is a momentary relief from thinking about her situation, from thinking about Jubilation, whom seems to pop up between every other half completed thought like she's EMPing Nori's brain. This isn't going well, she thinks, just before the toothpick is plucked. There's a blurry flutter of the speedster's eyelashes, an unconscious, surprised gesture that melts at Jubilation's sigh.

Somehow Noriko finds herself on a tightrope of emotion, suspended in the moment after Jubilation utters her name. She can already imagine a frown forming. "Fuck this," she mutters to no one but herself as bolts leap up from her fingertips, catching the roughened patches to catch fire. The heat is felt before it can do any real damage and Noriko merely pats her pockets to extinguish what could barely start. She presses her fingers against her jacket pockets and takes a deep breath to center herself and draw herself back down into the frequency of the moment.

But what Noriko was expecting, or fearing, doesn't come. "Jubes..." Her shoulders hike upward with the truth of the moment, shifting her weight to the side, "I want to hang out with you right now." The words draw her out of those tense positions.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    "Now, huh?" Jubilee looks away, as if considering something. She's really just waiting an appropriate amount of time for maximum dramatic effect. "....Well, that's going to throw a /huge/ wrench in my... /plans/...." Both hands come up to do finger quotes for 'plans.' They both know Jubilee had no plans. "....But.... I guess I'm just gonna have to throw those out and /improvise/..." Without warning, Jubilation hops up onto a nearby bench, finding her footing on the thin metal of the arm rest. "Okay... Here's the deal..."

    Jubilation's nose wrinkles a little as the faint scent of burning jacket reaches her. "....I think your jacket is on fire," she points out. It's not enough to derail her completely, though. She just moves along. A finger is pointed into the great beyond of the mall. "...Sleep Number is that-a-way... you check it out and grab one of those hundred dollar pillows... If I'm gonna be squatting for a while, I think I need some fluff under my noggin... I'm gonna swing in to one of those department stores and snag some jammies. Not sleeping in /this/.... And, of course, I'll make a little pit stop at the Great American Cookie and yoink a piece of one of those cookie pies for you.... /Maybe/....." (Definitely)

    "Oh, yeah...." Jubilation hops off the bench and tilts her head in some direction. "...Gonna hit up the skate shop, too."

    "Mama needs some wheels."

Noriko Ashida has posed:
As Jubilation does her dramatic consideration, Noriko tap-tap-taps her foot. "Yep," huge wrench, "All of them," all the 'plans.' When Jubes hops up on the bench rail, Noriko one, two, flops back onto the bench, her hands in her pockets again. "Hmm?" She lifts her head to look up at Jubilee.

"Was-on fire," Noriko provides, as if just filling in Jubilation on some background information, not really meant to completely interrupt. She tilts her head to regard the Sleep Number Way. "They've got different sizes-I'll figure it out." The pillow she means. "Are you just going to sleeping bag it or should I see if they've got any sheets-Only a piece?" Noriko sounds disappointed. "Won't that be more conspicuous than just making off with a whole pie?" Greedy. Hungry and greedy.

"I guess I should go get some supplies," this means calories, "maybe take a power nap," which is something like a 2-3 minute affair, though she could get away with a lot less, and has in classes. She knows this won't be a fraction of enough activity to fill the time it will take Jubilation to accomplish all of her tasks with sufficient buffering for fun. "Ohhhh, do they have an arcade here?" Her brain is off the beaten path, not realizing how all of these questions and sidetracking might come across to Jubilation. "I mean you know this all takes me like no time at all..." she mumbles as if to make sure Jubilation knows even though she's sure she must know already. Augh. Some thoughts only come in retrospect.

As if on queue, Noriko's stomach growls. "Gogogogogo," she wiggles her fingers at Jubilation and little licks of electricity pop-pop-pop harmlessly but with great effect as if she could prod her along. "I'll save room for dessert," she says as she peels away from the vampire, just over her shoulder with a smirk.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    The inclusion of a power-nap gets a good-natured roll of Jubilee's eyes. Ah, the whims of a speedster. "An arcade?" she questions. "But, what about..." Jubilee doesn't bother finishing the sentence. She knows that it's enough for Noriko to infer the rest of her question and spending that much time with a speedster has given her decent intuition for when she might be interrupted. As far as she knows, Noriko and electronic devices are no bueno, making an arcade kind of a tough hang for her.

    Jubes follows the ping-ponging of Noriko's planning with relative ease, moving on to the question about bedding. "I don't care," Jubilee replies with an indifferent shrug. She hesitates before rethinking it. "I guess a sleeping bag." The question stirs some awkwardness from Jubilation, not wanting to presume or, worse, create some kind of emotional misunderstanding with Noriko at this critical time. It's best to play it cool, she figures.

    "Yeah, yeah, I'll get you cookie," she answers, pretending to sound annoyed. 'Get you cookie' is about as non-specific about quantity as it gets. "...If you're good." And then, as Nori instructs, Jubilee go-go-go's.

    As a member of Gen-Z, Jubilation had no reason to be drawn to skating, but her mother loved skating and, as a result, Jubilation loves skating... so much so that she put a lot of use into those Heely sneakers that have the hidden wheels. Sometimes, though, a girl just needs the real thing and pays the skate shop a quick visit. The metal gate that remains lowered when the store is closed is lifted easily by the vampire's cursed strength, allowing Jubilee total access to skateboards, in-line skates, apparel, and.... "What the hell have they done?!" Jubilee exclaims, holding a pair of classic two-by-two roller skates up by their laces. She gives the abomination a scowl before tossing them to the side. As far as she's concerned, skates have always been and will always be in-line skates -- Roller Blades. That's what she takes.

    After a few more stops, Jubilee is just about ready to make her way back to Old Navy and its alleged window display. She's skating now, ripping through the mall on a pair of flashy in-line skates. Her old sneakers are tied together, held tightly by their laces. She has a large shopping bag from one of the department stores, filled to the brim with her 'shopping' haul. For some reason -- largely just evidence of her absolute deficit of attention -- she's now wearing a giant foam cowboy hat, rocking a large pair of Elton John style sunglasses, bedazzled to the brim with fake diamonds, and has an unopened giant Pixie Stick (that's three whole feet of pure sugar!) dangling from her mouth. She skates through the empty cooridoors without much worry, totally prepared to glamour any would-be threats into forgetting they ever saw her, hopping up to grind along the edge of benches, leap across trash bins, and generally just have a good time with it. Smash Mouth's All Star is so loud it can be heard spilling out of her earbuds. Her singing is so loud and so bad it could be considered a war crime. A stream of hundreds of colorful explosions follow her like the tail of a shotoing star, spilling from the palm of her empty hand held high above her head.

    "....You'll never know if you don't go! You'll never shine if you don't glow! HEY NOW, you're an All Star, get your game on, go play! Hey now, you're a rock star! Get the show on, get paid! All that glibbers is blahhh wah wah wah waaaaa wa wa wa wa!" She slips into just making noises but who cares? This is a girl who just had the weight of the world lifted from her shoulders tonight.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
Lucky for Noriko, she's too fast to hear Jubilation's solo performance. Where Jubes takes her vampire skills, Noriko just hopes no one is a mutant that can somehow spot her. Speed is stealth. And velocity in this empty hub of a place, now quieter (kind of) somehow as she streams through it. It feels like a playground. What an old memory. What an innocent time.

Noriko heard Jubilation but that doesn't mean she doesn't have her own ideas about how Jubes should sleep. Still, that can wait, the speedster's appetite cannot. She takes off to do a quick check for the remnants of some lazy employees' daily efforts. Jaded adults and lazy teenagers. What would she do without them. After heading off her growling stomach, Noriko packs up some 'snacks' for later. Looks like she's made herself at least one Orange Julius though.

The speedster hits up a department store and roots around in the back to grab a smattering of pillows. She hits more than one, spreading out the breadcrumbs she leaves behind. This pile of pillows, plus the furry blankets that is draped over the lot of it, well it looks like it /should/ be a bit bunch, but Noriko's balancing it with one arm, while she has a big fluffy sleeping bag under other arm. Somehow, the sleeping bag looks small in comparison.

By the time Jubes has gotten back, Noriko has setup the tent with a cozy flooring of pillows, topped with those furry giant blankets. She's hung a little led lantern up inside, though it keeps flickering, especially when she bumps into it. The sacks of food are still outside of the tent. Things like fresh fries, not fresh hot dogs, some old scone, a bag of chips, things like that.

When Noriko hears Jubilation coming, she winces. "I kind of got sidetracked and got a lot of food but I didn't eat it yet!" she exclaims as if this somehow would make it better than focusing on the fact that Jubes just got driven from her home and needs to be set up BUT OMG THE FRIES AND SHAKES. So when she meets Jubilation at the door of Old Navy (yeah she could hear her through the glass), Noriko's looking pretty defeated, surrounded by her loot at her feet.

Until Nori sees Jubilee. Then she just smiles. She looks down and also checks out the skates Jubilation chose, "Nice wheels Gorgeous." There's just something about Jubilation that obliterates all of that worry in Noriko and simultaneously creates it, well, different worry. Noriko's duffel bag is also next to the food, not inside the tent, but she doesn't say anything about it. One moment she's standing there, leaning against the door frame while commenting on Jubes' new digs, the next moment, she has a box of fries in her hands like she's just been waiting forever for Jubes to get there. Still, as always, she tries to keep her cool. Jubes knows better.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    Jubilation taps her phone screen to pause the music and gives Noriko a thumbs-up of approval as she nears the glass window display. She does a quick spin and reverses direction, skating in through the store's main entrance backwards before sliding to a halt. "Jubilation Lee, reporting for duty. I've brought back supplies from behind enemy lines!" Jubes declares before tossing that oversized shopping bag on the green carpet meant to look like grass for the camping display. Something about Noriko calling her Gorgeous sours Jubilee's expression, even causing her shoulders to tense slightly. "Uh, thanks," she mutters as she rolls past the speedster on her way to the tent. The rules for how they are supposed to act with each other are so unclear. So nebulous.

    Jubilation bends forward and pokes her head through the flap to take a look at her new home. "You know.... We don't grant wishes!" Jubilee announces before skating backward enough to completely exit the tent. "...It's like the inside of a genie's bottle in there. So many pillows...Oh, right, here." Jubilee extends the giant Pixie Stick for Noriko to take. "You still like these, right?" Her eyes lower to the fries and chips set out in front of the tent. "Oh, I see you're on a diet," she jokes. "Me too. Only O-Negative for me these nights. If you wanna fit into those summer fashion capes, you gotta start now. I hear that black is in this year. And last year. And the year before that. And the one before that. Vampire couture hasn't changed much over the years." She's joking. How would she even know, anyway?

Noriko Ashida has posed:
Noriko tenses up at Jubilation's reaction. She knew she should have gone with a stupid cowgirl accent. She just swallows and tries to give herself a quarter of a second to clear the flush of her cheeks. "Yeah. Well that was kind of the idea. So you could just skate and dive right in," she shrugs as if this were the most logical thing in the world.

Noriko takes the stick with her free hand and grins. "Yeah," she admits. How would she ever say no to a giant Pixie Stick. "Well I have to keep my figure somehow." Fry munch, fry munch-fry-fry-fry flurry. "Are you seriously only drinking O-Neg?" she asks as she inspects the stick's flavor.

The speedster takes a deep breath. The remaining fries are gone. "Jubes," there's a measure of concern in her tone. "What are you going to do when daylight comes? And someone wants to buy a tent?" Noriko knows Jubes has her ways but she can't help but be concerned.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    "No, O-Negative tastes like..." Jubilee hesitates, trying to find the right words to explain to a mortal what O-Negative tastes like to her. Is taste even the right sensation? "...It tastes like... I dunno... the broken dreams of someone in their forties who works at Dairy Queen and gets bossed around by a part time assistant manager who's friends with his kid." Jubilee hesitates again and then nods silently, satisfied that she described the taste of O-Negative correctly. She sits down on one of the fake plastic logs outside of the tent.

    "Nori, it'll be fine. I've done this before, remember?" Jubilee points out. She's no stranger to living at the mall. Jubilee bends forward and starts unlacing her skates. "A. All the light in here is fake. So, unless the roof caves in, sun's not going to be a problem. And /Two/.... This tent is just the window display. It's just, like, supposed to trick families into thinking they're gonna put on matching fleeces and go camping in December or something. No one's buying this tent." With that settled, Jubilation kicks off the skates, revealing yellow socks covered with images of cartoon ghosts. Her phone starts firing notifications like a machine gun as local news continues to spread to the tech savvy vampires of Westchester.

    Jubilation's attention is briefly captured by the flurry of activity on her phone screen. She gently bites down on her lower lip and begins rapping her fingers against the on-screen keyboard. "...Is Mega Bitch one word or two?" she wonders aloud. "...Or is there a hyphen....Oh! Auto correct got it!" Jubilee taps the screen a few more times before slowly lowering her phone. She tucks it into the elastic waistband of her shorts and awkwardly strums her fingers against her knees. "...It's one word," Jubilation adds after a long silence. Very awkward. Very uncomfortable. Much embarrass.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
Noriko thinks of the poor kid that will jump into that tent in a game of hide and seek. "Yeah but they may kick you out," in the sunlight. Noriko is just as impulsive as Jubilation is, only when she's out with others she has way too many cycles to think about things. "And you'd have no idea b-" but then Jubilation's phone starts blowing up. "Fine I'll just eat my fries." She pulls out a second helping. These are tossed up into the air and somehow caught with ease every single time. Somehow very obviously.

"I feel like you should have known that..........Who are you calling a megabitch?" Nori arranges her next group of fries in the air into what approximates a question mark before she has to eat them. "I thought we were having fun," while ignoring the fact that they ran away from Jubilation being hunted down by an angry undead mob. "Should I just go?" It's hard to ignore the gulf of silence and all of the strangeness in the air between them.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    "Who do you think?" Jubilee answers, taking on a mildly irritated tone for maximum effectiveness when talking about someone behind their back. It's kind of pointless to try to sound annoyed when there's a question mark made of fries being tossed into the air. Though, these are the oddities that one grows accustomed to thanks to the well-rounded education that Xavier's often provides. Noriko's reaction draws out some hidden confusion. "...Huh? Wh---No, no, Nori, no. Not /you/.... I'm talking about my so-called friend... My so-called..." Jubilee searches for the word. Nothing seems right. "....Sister?" she wonders, immediately regretting it. Westchester's former vampire head-of-state, The Malefactor, kept a trio of sister-wives and Jubilee was to replace one of them, after all. "...Severina," Jubilation finally says, her voice dropping to a whisper. There's no shortage of scary stories about Severina and the various powers she may or may not have. For all she knows, Jubilee could accidentally summon her by saying her name.

    "Severina the Megabitch," Jubilee whispers again. The effect is significantly diminished when said in a whisper. Oh well.

    Jubilation strums her fingers against her knees again, looking away from the speedster. These two have been through so much, said so much, done so much, and things have never been so cloudy. "So, what's with the backpack?" Jubilation asks, not bothering to tiptoe around the issue. She didn't open Noriko's backpack, but she saw it. People often mistake Jubilation Lee as being aloof or even dumb, but she noticed the speedster's backpack right away. She saw how lumpy-full it was and her keen sense of smell, while not as fine-tuned as that of the elder vampires, told her all she needed to know without even opening it.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
"Ohhhhhh." Nori's mouth should have been full of the question mark, but she found time to dispose of it. "Eww don't call her that...Call her your step sister or something."

"Well I approve of Megabitch," not that it matters, but Nori proclaims it before tossing a few fries into her mouth, and then a few more, and a few more.

"Just some stuff..." Yeah, so there might be some dry salami in there for the road, so what. "I was leaving...I told you I didn't know what was going to happen or show up to rescue you or anything." It sounds so much worse than simply saying it was happenstance.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    Leaving. Jubilation's eyes lower as the words sink in. "Oh," is the only sound that comes before a long silence. Jubilee stares at her hands for a few seconds while trying to figure out what to say next. Two hands. Five fingers on each of them. Ten fingers total. There's a school of thought that it's really four fingers and a thumb on each hand for a total of eight fingers and two thumbs, but those people are crazy. What's really the difference between a thumb and a finger? What if we've all been wrong this whole time and we really have ten thumbs and zero fingers? If someone had a toe on their hand, would it still be a toe or would it be a finger? Jubilee's mind runs laps around these intrusive thoughts.

    "Where will you go?" she finally asks.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
Noriko watches Jubilation's reaction, trying to puzzle it all out, but eventually she just despairs and her stare lists away. Then suddenly the question comes. "I hadn't figured it out yet." The truth is, it wasn't well thought out at all. Kind of like a desperate tear away from everything. And it doesn't take her long to get to Jubilation's former manor.

"Sleeping spot is kind of a lesser priority," than what? Noriko looks at the ground, the fake logs for a moment before asking, "So you know I wasn't all messed up by your blood now...?"

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    Jubilee lifts her gaze. It's almost too subtle for a normal person to notice, but Jubilation's eyes widen ever so slightly as images of false memories fill her mind. People, humans and mutants alike, frozen in terror as their blood splatters across the floor in wide arcs. Children crying out for their mommies and daddies who will never come to save them. That gnawing, scratching reminder of how good it would feel to just be what she is and do what she's supposed to do and that, with Noriko gone, she'd have nothing to stand in her way. It's over in an instant and Jubilee looks down at her hands again.

    "Yeah," Jubilee agrees with a wavering tone that makes her sound like a kid dangling from a tree branch and pretending like they're not scared that it's going to snap. "...You gotta make sure you've got an eating spot first." Her smile is subtle, strategic, hesitant, like an American diplomat meeting with post-war Japan.

    "My blood?" Jubilee questions, falling out of that calculated posture so she can have real thoughts and figure out what Noriko means. "No, Nori, no..." She sounds frustrated at first, as though this is the hundredth time they've talked about this, but the tone softens into nothingness as Jubes realizes that they never really got to talk through this stuff much before their individual tempers got the better of them. "Not my blood. That was just one time," Jubilation reminds. She let Nori experience the transcendent bliss that some vampire blood, her own, can bring. But just once.

    "Just, like, being around us, like, /at all/, can really scramble your brains," Jubilation explains, remembering what she read about the intoxicating, hypnotic effect that vampires can have on mortals just from prolonged exposure. "...The 'good vampires' can do it on purpose," Jubilation adds, raising both hands so she can do finger-quotes to properly communicate just how annoyed she is about the constant reminder that she's just not great at being a vampire compared to her peers. In life, she was a C- student, at best, and she's a C- vampire in death.

    "...But, like, I'm pretty sure my razzle dazzle is turned up to 11 all the time."

Noriko Ashida has posed:
There is no insight into the vampire's mind, those electricless 'thoughts', mere shadowplays, a puppeting of cells.  There are parts of Jubilation that Noriko no longer can feel.  It's not something she's ever told Jubilee, but it's a stark reminder that this individual is /not/ alive.  Not just cold, but devoid of the hum of bioelectric life.  A constant reminder, even more so than Jubilation's cold skin.  So she waits for the other signals, the ever so slight widening of the night creature's expressions, anything that could ever be called involuntary on a vampire, if there is such a thing.

"I won't be eating as much," Noriko reveals.  She doesn't mention the fact that the dumpsters can't really feed her, even if she uses her natural quick velocity to do more diving.  She lets the silence between their words unspool as it does.  "Oh.  So...that doesn't-?"  She's obviously uncovered a misunderstanding.  Is this why she wasn't begging for Jubilation's blood?  Or is it because that was sacred to her?  Something she didn't want to mix with bondage like her reliance on drugs to survive long ago.  It wasn't survival.

"How are-" you supposed to tell?  Noriko doesn't bother finishing her question.  She knows Jubilation is probably as in the dark as she.  Nori did read that book.  Whether she remembers all of it or her mind discarded information to make more room is another story and she certainly doesn't want to draw attention to Jubes' grade in vampire class.  "Can they not do it on purpose?"  Oops.  There's a flash of an expression on her face, lips pressed together in mild disdain.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    Jubilee stops Nori right there. "No, no, it does," she warns sternly, as though she's trying to squash any bright ideas that might form in the speedster's mind. "...But, like, it was just the one time. That's not enough." Having it just once is bound to give a mortal a pretty nasty need for it the next morning but, like any other faux addiction, it would pass.

    Jubilee's eyes lower for just an instant as Noriko asks about what other vampires are able to do on purpose. To the mundane, Jubilation is a kick-ass vampire with a lot of really cool abilities. To the undead, however, she's nothing special and average, perhaps below-average, at best. She'll say that she chooses not to because she's not ashamed of what she is and thinks it's lame to hide it, but the truth is that she was only able to retract her fangs a couple of times and forgot what she did. Don't even mention transforming into a bat...

    "I don't know. Like, maybe? Or maybe they just don't care and can just crank it up to the extreme when they want to... I didn't get the brochure," Jubilation complains, even rolling her eyes for some of that good-natured sass the world expects of her. "No one tells me jack squat and the ones who do are probably lying to me," Jubilation adds, revealing that she's not as oblivious as she once seemed. There was probably a Logan Lesson (TM) from years ago that taught her the benefits of letting people underestimate her.

    "I don't want to, like, blow your mind or anything with this, Nori..." Jubilation begins before looking up at the speedster. "...But, like, believe it or not, but... most of them don't like me that much." Other vampires, she means. Whatever 'serious business' points Jubilee earned by revealing that she knows that she's often lied to by other vampires are immediately lost as she also reveals that she's oblivious to the fact that Noriko was trying to tell her not to trust them all along.

    "Can we, like, do something else?" Jubilation asks abruptly. "I mean, if you're, like, leaving town or whatever, it would be cool to hang a little before you go. Like, you know, as friends."

    Putting her money where her mouth is, Jubilation perks up. "I could try..../AGAIN/.... to teach you to skate. Mall's nice and empty and skating where you don't belong is the best."

Noriko Ashida has posed:
"True," Noriko acknowledges the thinking Jubilation does for her, reminding the speedster that vampires aren't Jubilation's best sources of truth...or really anyone's.  "It's not like anyone at Xavier's helped me with my powers beyond these gauntlets..."  she commiserates Jubilation's lack of tutelage, as if the world is shit everywhere, though she doesn't mention or doesn't think of all the countless other things Xavier's has provided for her.

...hang...as friends.  The phrase sends Noriko into hypervelocity quicker than she can think, a flash of electricity shooting down her leg to the ground where it leaves a scorch.  The world hangs at a near standstill and for a moment, Noriko wonders if she can even get back to the world of others.  She's not /trying/, but she's there, way higher than her normal baseline, an instant terror as if she bottled her world into this moment.  If some part of her doesn't let go, the next words will never come out.  They'll never hang 'as friends.'  It's a futile notion, and Noriko instantly recognizes it for its infantility.  In a private moment, she wonders whether she should just go, whether she should write a note, whether she should have ever even been here in the first place.  As these thoughts shoot through her head, suddenly she finds herself back into her regular blurry velocity.  Her forehead wrinkles as she clamps her emotions and her velocity down.  Jubilation's next words instantly flutter out at a reasonable pace.

"Yeah.  You can /try/."  Noriko drums up a smirk as she feels her nerves kick in more than one way.  For all of Noriko's bravado and flair, Jubilation is the only person she feels even marginally safe with while on skates.  "I haven't been practicing," she warns.  A faint smile forms as the thought of skating with Jubilation takes Noriko back to a simpler time.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    "Yeah, but, it's not like no one /tried/..." Jubilation points out, suddenly finding herself standing up for the school she loves...loved...so much. Someone would need rose-tinted sunglasses to think that Xavier's was able to help everyone equally with their powers, but the reality is that results vary. "...And it's not like you had anyone lie to you on purpose..." Jubilation deflates a little, shrinking down as she reminds herself just how duped she was. How long was Severina lying to her? How much of what she learned about the vampire world was just total bullshit? How many of her would-be friends were actually lying to her, too?

    "But, like, yeah, I get what you mean," Jubilation adds, leaning back a little so she can reach into the waistband of her spandex shorts and pluck out a stick of gum. She absently starts unwrapping it, just like she would on any other night. She's Jubilation "Jubilee" Lee and, for better or worse, she has a brand to maintain and, unfortunately, Noriko Ashida has been getting more "Jubilee" than "Jubilation" lately. And, to that end, Jubilation practically launches herself upwards so she can properly pose with her hands on both hips. A pink bubble begins to form in her mouth, filling with the oxygen-rich air her lungs had no use for.

    The bubble *POP*s, forming into a wrinkled, pink husk dangling from Jubilee's bottom lip.

    "That's your first mistake, /Ashida/... Practice, practice, practice!" Jubilee lectures, shifting her weight over one hip so she can convey her contempt for Nori's worry about practicing. The shriveled wad of gum crackles as Jubilee draws it back into her mouth. "Forget all that jazz. You just gotta shove those little piggies into some skates, yank on the laces till your fingers hurt, and just start cruising!" Both hands have been thrown into the air in a V For Victory pose. Dorky? Yes, but only when those arms are attached to someone who isn't Jubilee.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
"I know," Noriko says softly in response.  The speedster fights the sudden urge to wrap her arms around the vampire, a mortal instinct, a reflection of deeper feelings.  It comes across as a blurry hesitation that she morphs into an awkward gesture, the velocity changing midway as she reaches up with both gauntlets to fold them along the back of her neck.  She can't thread them.  They'd slip over each other if she wasn't actively mindful of it.  It's a gesture she would never make naturally due to them.  She draws in a deep breath.

"Gotta have my coach to practice," Noriko excuses herself from Jubilation's faux figurative tuts.  For a moment, Jubilee can pull Noriko back to some place of feigned confidence, as if seeing a mask makes it easier to don one.  Easier to disengage from lurking emotions.  At the pop of Jubilee's bubble, so does Nori's, the other side of the coin emerging in her mind as she sees that old mask.  Noriko knows what it means, and its presence doesn't come without some strange lingering sting.  She shoves that down, all the thoughts.  They only bring sorrow.  Every part of her aches for the magic of that night on the lake, for the race down the hill to get burritos...so she leans into that feeling, letting it warm her before she summons one of those old disarming grins.

"So did you get me a pair?  Or am I going to have to hit up that skate shop and meet you somewhere we aren't supposed to skate?" everywhere.  If Jubilation did get a pair for her, they could be right below the speedster and she wouldn't notice.  She doesn't dare steal her gaze away from Jubilee.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    Mistaking Noriko's abrupt change of velocity and position for gangly, herky-jerky evidence that the speedster doesn't belong on skates, Jubilee's expression flattens in an instant. Both eyebrows peek over the top edges of Jubilation's dark sunglasses as she watches the other girl try to make sense of her own gauntlets and where they belong. "...Huh....." is all she says, slowly and quietly, and meant just for herself, as different parts of her brain and body quietly confirm that, don't worry, they saw it, too.

    Jubilation lingers in that moment, allowing the memories of their time together to knit their way across her consciousness, drawing on the stark differences in their personalities and the way they're represented in the way they move. Noriko's speed was always incredible but it sometimes meant going back and forth between the physics of a pachinko ball and the cartoonish plight of the coyote from the roadrunner cartoons. Jubilee, doomed to be endlessly slower, instead goes through the world like a ribbon in the wind, guided only by The Rule of Cool to get her where she's supposed to be. The differences between the two were always obvious, but only a fool would deny that, for one reason or another, they always moved towards each other.

    Jubilation steps forward, just an inch or two too close for normal conversation. Noriko would find that her gaze is returned, uninterrupted, by her own reflection in Jubilation's sunglasses, as the vampire doesn't dare look away. "I got you skates," Jubilee answers, just above a whisper, staring up at the speedster and the infinite possibilities of the moment. At some point, she picked up the shopping bag, which now dangles from her pinky finger, hand hovering down at her side. She stares, STARES, up at Noriko, as the tension continues to smolder. Eventually, Classic Jubilee Antics (TM) release the tension, smothering the embers by raising the shopping bag between their faces and only allowing a too-close view of the store's stupid logo.

    "But you're not gonna like them," Jubilation warns from the other side of the bag. Inside, Noriko would find a pair of skates designed for a child: thick, plastic, bright blue, yellow, and red reference colors. Training wheels.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
The speedster is used to accounting for every inch of space, so Jubilation's step forward disarms Noriko for a moment.  Just behind that old look of Noriko's is an undercurrent of pain intermixed with hope.  It isn't a moment of vulnerability, but the visibility of old scars, a weathering etched Jubilation didn't invent, but a story added to on Nori's heart.

She got me skates...already.  Noriko takes a breath, her lips split slightly...until that shopping bag pops up between them.  Noriko lets out a single soft laugh and pushes the shopping bag to the side, but it just swings back in place, a pendulum from the vampire's grip.

"They're skates.  Of course I'm not going to like them," Nori says with a roll of her eyes before grabbing the bag and sitting down.  In an instance, she's on her feet again, her hip cocked to the side as she pouts with the proper amount of contempt for her footwear directed at the only one to blame.  "You're right."  But at least she's not fallen over 20 times already trying to stand up.

Suddenly Noriko's hand is at Jubilation's shoulder like a kid reaching for the side of the pool.  She bends forward to feel more balanced like any amateur or baby learning to walk without proper support.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    "Hold your horses, hold your horses," Jubilee complains. She sits on the edge of the plastic, decorative log and goes to work putting her own skates back on. She's about to make the same joke she's heard a thousand times and repeated a thousand more herself -- I don't know why I even bother to take them off! -- but catches herself, luckily distracted by the deep creases in the fresh-out-of-the-box laces as she ties them. The skates she chose to swipe for herself lack the distinct kindergarten qualities of Noriko's and actually have laces that need to be tied.

    "So, like, those skates said 'five and up' on the box and, like, I thought... Nori's 'five and up' so they'll be perfect!" she jokes, fangs peeking as a grin extends across her face. She continues working on tightening her laces, feeding the newly created slack through the next pair of holes, and repeating until getting all the way to the top of the skates. "Just... go easy on them. I don't think the dummies over at Fisher Price designed them for any half-pipes or rails or anything!" Jubilation adds before absentmindedly muttering a rhyme her mother used to teach her to tie her shoes. Jubi-lee, Jubi-lee, playing by a tree, criss-cross the tree, try to catch me, Jubi-lee, Jubi-lee, jumped in the hole, popped out the other side, beautiful and bold....

    "Okay!" Jubilation announces loudly as she stands, skates back on her feet, laces tied, gum chewed. She watches the speedster try to get her bearings on the plastic skates before taking action.

    A pair of room-temperature hands make contact with the speedster. Jubilee gently grabs Noriko's shoulder and pulls her back so she can stand upright. The other hand presses against her stomach, trying to prevent her from bending forward again. Jubilee hesitates, distracted by the warmth she feels through Noriko's clothing. "Uh..." she begins, hesitating for just an instant. "...Don't, uh...like... You should spread your legs a little and find your balance that way.... don't bend, like... Use your legs."

Noriko Ashida has posed:
"I've been trying not to break them this whole time," Noriko explains for all the fast things Jubilation naturally missed.  "I could flick these training wheels off."  To be fair she could probably repeatedly flick the skates apart if she were so bored.  Noriko catches the little tying rhyme and grins to herself.

Noriko hasn't moved a muscle.  Apparently that pose was...setup, like someone stacking a bunch of precarious cups.  She scrambles her weight back to both legs equally when Jubilation repositions, the wheels beating on the ground and quickly slipping out from under the speedster.  When she stops...

"I'm a cartoon now," Noriko announces as if this were all Jubilation's fault and she should know...that Nori's a cartoon that is.   But truly, as unsure as it feels, when Noriko surrenders to Jubilee's touch, she isn't steered wrong...but there are...inherent distractions afoot.  The warm touch is unexpected and sets off various sparks.  It's also suddenly more difficult to breathe, but Noriko tries to hide that by overcompensating and breathing a lot less.  Meanwhile, her body seems to get warmer, like she just stepped out of some overbearingly warm and stuffy Christmas hearth.

Noriko ends up in a squatted position like a softball infielder getting ready for the pitch after a body buckling shuffle.  It's awkward for skating, but it's highly secure.  Then finally she straightens again, finding the position unacceptably uncool.  "See?  I got this."  Her voice is ever so slightly shaky, and there is a strange low grade vibration in her body she would definitely get rid of if she could.  The shakes.  "I wish I had learned this before I got speedy," she reveals in passing, as if that would make it any less scary to put on a pair of skates with her kind of power.  It isn't, but in Nori's mind, it would have been.  It's obvious to any experience skater that she's holding stiffness in her body, a rigidity brought on by fear and lack of experience.  But this isn't anything Jubilation hadn't seen the first time she tried to teach Nori, even if Noriko fronts like she's way better now.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    It's not clear why Jubilee breaks away. Maybe she's embarrassed. It's unlikely, given that the emotion has a difficult time getting enough momentum inside Jubilee to cause problems. Maybe she's just naturally distracted by fun and interesting things. That's true enough, but it's not what's happening here. Getting turned into a vampire at eighteen years-old has a lot of downsides -- Jubilee will never be able to rent a car or run for president -- but if it has to happen, then having it happen at eighteen is about as good as it can get. Being stuck at eighteen means being stuck with the surges of feelings and hormones that people are meant to move past at some point. Jubilation suddenly pulls her hands away from Noriko, mutters something contrite that could be mistaken for an apology, and rolls a safe distance away. Her movements on the skates are fluid and natural, without thought or worry, as she makes it look like she's just trying to have fun skating around inside the mall. Against all odds, her cheeks have a tiny hint of color as the blush of life briefly returns to Jubilation's face. It's hot and uncomfortable and something she'd rather keep private if she can. Just until it passes.

    "Yeah, it would probably be a lot easier..." Jubilation replies, skating around with demonstrative joy, twirling and doing little tricks, as though they might help keep Noriko's attention away from the color that has briefly returned to her face against her will.

    "My dad said I could skate before I could walk..." Jubilee brags, rolling across Noriko's line of sight on one skate, keeping her leg stiff and extended to the side like a figure skater. "...But I'm pretty sure he was joking...."

    "But... my /mom/ used to say that when I was born, I came with skates but I left them inside her... and that's why my first pair didn't come in a box," Jubilation adds, not thinking too deeply about it as she skates across the speedster's line of sight again, now moving backwards with a gentle rocking of her hips to keep the momentum going. "...And how my dad was /so happy/ when she finally took them out of there." Jubilation laughs a little, rolling her eyes and shaking her head at what a goofball her parents were. But, as if on cue, her skates slooooooooow to a halt just in time for when Jubes finally understands the implication of the joke. Her expression fades into a thousand yard stare. "....."

    "EW!" she cries out, every muscle in her face tensing up at the same time.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
Luckily even Noriko's more rapid moments are consumed by trying not to make a fool of herself, well lucky for Jubes.  Her own sensations pass so quickly in the scale of things, but they also have a way of circling back on her.  She even glances at Jubes, but the color doesn't register.  It's something that seems so human that it passes right under Nori's eyes and she chalks it up to physical exertion, even though that doesn't make any sense in this post-death world either.  But all of those things are subconscious, slips, fill in the blanks from the brain without her permission.

"No I believe him.  I bet you found some skates and just were like...kneeboarding it around in the crawling stage."  Noriko smiles and starts to move positions like an old lady on ice.  Though, she's still on her feet, for now.  She tries to move in slow motion (for her), thinking about TV dream sequences and willing her body.  She also closes her eyes.

In the background, Jubilee rattles on about the origin of her skates, causing Noriko to first smile, and then laugh.  Instead of turning though, afraid she might launch in the other direction, she just sails past Jubilation with mild speed straight into a giant potted plant, her arms rapidly flailing, accidentally chopping off some of the leaves and giving the plant a haircut in the process.  She's still laughing when she lands, seated in the pot with her skates somehow hanging out, still on her feet.

"I was going to say that's cute, but then-that's hilarious," Nori laughs throughout, not minding her little crash.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    "We will never speak of this again," Jubilee affirms, not even looking up to see if Noriko heard her. Without strong command of her ability to glamour mortals, she's careful not to sound too forceful when making declarative statements. Accidental eye contact while saying it wouldn't do them any favors. Instead, Jubilation pushes off and resumes skating around and around, not really even paying attention to it and just letting the skates take her where they may.

    After enough time has passed since accidentally thinking about her deceased parents and their alone time, a few seconds, Jubilee returns to Noriko's side and comes to a halt next to the potted plant. She gives the speedster a couple of encouraging, platonic pats on the shoulder. "Right about now is when I'm probably supposed to remind you of all the other stuff you're actually good at," Jubilee explains with a wide grin. "Like... so you don't get too discouraged by being this bad at this one thing." She lets her skates roll forward slowly so she can lower herself to the floor and sit.

    "Did you tell anyone you're leaving town? What about work? Who's going to go on all the grocery store runs for all the good snacks?" Jubilee asks suddenly. "...And buy those giant insoles for Rogue's boots?" For several years, Jubilee has been stoking the rumor that Rogue's feet are abnormally large. It's a confirmed lie but it's still fun.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
Noriko extracts herself from the plant with pursed lips at the weird pat.  Not really the vibe she was going for, but she knows she has no control over her cool in this situation.  And a moment later Noriko just shakes her head as if trying to clear it of cobwebs, the cobwebs of her relationship with Jubilation that make her feel like there's more to come.  She can't help it.  She can't help that she wants to impress Jubilation somehow either.  She tries to let this rumination roll off her back, so to speak, and drops down to the ground too.

"One day I'm going to be amazing at this," Noriko declares.  One day.

Jubilation's questions pepper Noriko with uncertainty as her eyebrows arch.  "I forgot...to leave a note.  Shit.  I imagine Jamie will pick up the slack.  There are enough of him around that they can all carry the insoles together," she says without skipping a beat.

"Maybe I should stick around till I take care of that...stuff...  Fuck it."

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    "Plus you gotta tell them where to send your last paycheck..." Jubilation adds, looking upwards as she searches her brain for other things that she could point out. "Plus, like, don't you need to give notice if you're gonna quit? Like, eighty-five years notice or something?" Like she's one to talk. Jubilee quit her own job as Duchess of Westchester earlier this evening with absolutely zero notice. She didn't even do anything to quit her fast food job a few years back. Her tragic demise conveniently came with a death certificate and that was enough notice to satisfy Burger Joint.

    Jubilee falls silent. The only sound she makes comes from the stretching of gum as it forms into a pink bubble in between her lips. It expands much slower than usual, as though she's using it as a focus for a meditation session instead of just filling a moment. When the bubble eventually pops, she speaks again.

    "I guess that's enough skating for one night," Jubilee decides suddenly. Without even waiting a beat, she's already standing. The skates gave her absolutely zero trouble.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
"I don't know.  I've only ever been fired.  I figured if I left without a note, I'd be fired and that would be...done?"  Noriko shrugs, completely unaware of the potential for this kind of leaving to raise up the alarms.

Nori spots Jubilee's bubble out of the corner of her eye.  Briefly she wonders how fast things are actually going.  She just watches, not looking around for any context clues on purpose, trying to call out when the bubble is going to pop in her mind.  Annnnnnd-

"Oh, yeah I guess one crash is enough right?"  Don't want anyone getting suspicious when /all/ of the plants have been massacred.  One is enough for one night.  "Plus I'm not sure how many big plants they have like this left."  Noriko gladly gets herself out of the kiddy skates and puts her high tops back on.  She taps her toes together and lets out a little zap of electricity between them with the crack and flash like that of a child's fourth of July firework.  The next moment, she's on her feet, just staring back at Jubilation, the skates in her hands.  "So...are you going to invite me to crash in your tent or am I going to have to camp out in the subway or go back to Xaviers with my tail between my legs?"

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    "Yeah, but you work for the /school/...." Jubilation points out, emphasizing its supposed importance. It would be easy to find her enthusiasm confusing, but there's a big difference between 'school' and 'the school.' In between classes and homework, it's a great place. "It's not like leaving a chalupa in the deep fryer and never showing up again. It's the school. You can't just not tell them. People will miss you." By now, both hands have found their places on her hips in a combined effort to make her look particularly naggy about this. "People will be like... " She extends both arms forward, as though everyone at Xavier's is some weirder version of Frankenstein's monster. She lowers her voice and slacks her jaw a little to really sell the impression. "...Oh gee, that's weird...the box of Captain Crunch is usually just full of dust by now... I guess Nori didn't eat it. Where could she be?" Jubilee shrugs and lowers her arms, abandoning the impression entirely. "...Or something like that," she adds, privately deciding that it was stupid.

    Jubilation hesitates for a beat, watching as as a wisp of electricity from Noriko's toe-tap arcs upwards and traces a path up one of her locks of hair. She returns her hands to her hips and makes a big show of frowning and pretending to be annoyed by it, as though it's a sitcom and she has to wait for the live studio audience to stop laughing before she can continue.

    "In my tent?" Jubilation repeats. She looks away, presumably in the assumed direction of the Old Navy window display that has suddenly become her new home for the time being. "Wait..." Jubilee's brain manages to connect some dots. "...You said you just left without telling anyone. Why would you need to do the tail between your legs thing?"

Noriko Ashida has posed:
"Yeah and now I don't," Noriko says as if someone who says 'I quit' in the woods has quit.  "It will take care of itself...I mean I could have told them I wasn't kidnapped."  That might have been a good thing to do.  "But there's no sign of a struggle or anything," she goes over out loud as if she actually believes this is an acceptable outcome.

"Jubes...It's not like they can catch me."  Aka stop Nori, which apparently she expects them to try somehow, even if it's just through verbal pleas.  The speedster sighs softly when she notice those hands go back to the vampire's hips.

"Well, I kinda left early this morning, as in between stupid teacher patrols."  In the dead of night.  "So I've already been gone for a whole work day," she explains.  "I had to go get all my cash, which meant I had to hit up a ton of atms today."  Why she didn't just go into a bank and withdraw however much she wanted?  No doubt because then she'd have to wait in line FOREVER.  Noriko would rather stay in motion longer than not.  "That's what is in the duffle."  Not clothing, not essentials.  CASH.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    Jubilee rolls her eyes backwards and silently scoffs at Noriko's insistence that she doesn't work there anymore even though no one knows it but her. "Oh big deal, you've been gone a whole day...." Jubes points out, wobbling her head from side to side. She begins to skate around again, keeping her speed low and slow to avoid interrupting Nori too much with the clatter of wheels rolling over tile. It's just something she's gotta do. She's wearing skates. Gotta skate. It gives her something to focus her attention on while her face betrays her actual opinion on what the speedster is saying: disapproval. Skate skate skate.

    Jubilee shifts her weight from hip to hip to preserve her momentum while skating backwards, now looping through a slow figure eight right in front of Nori. After completing two full loops, Jubes rolls to a halt, perfectly positioned right in front of the speedster with both hands on her hips again. "Well, if you're too busy to do it yourself, I can tell everyone 'fuck you' for you, if you want," Jubilation finally replies, staring down at the seated speedster. Her dark sunglasses might block her frown from being seen, but eddies of disapproval can be felt as the vampire manipulates the emotional landscape of the mall with her dark powers. It's feels just like being frowned at.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
Noriko can practically, no she /can/ feel that emotional rainstorm brewing.  Her own discomfort is reflected with a frown.  She watches Jubilation with a small measure of envy too, how she moves so effortlessly on skates.  Noriko has thought about skates before she ever met Jubes, and how cool it would be if she could skate.  But it wasn't until she met Jubilation that she realized just how jealous she should be of skaters, particularly this one.  There's something about the phrase, skating circles around someone, that appeals to the speedster.

"Whatever, I'll just go sleep in a dumpster," Noriko nearly pouts out in a mutter.  "I don't even remember what I was coming to your house to get anyways," as if this has any bearing on anything at this point.  She rises and stretches.  "Clearly I've outstayed my welcome already."  Suddenly she is standing, then she has her duffle in her hand.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    "Why don't you just go sleep in your /bed/ back at the Mansion?" Jubilation protests. She extends her arms outward and flails them like she's doing a Jim Carrey impression and that's the direction of Xavier's, as if to say... it's over there! Noriko's sudden slide into this attitude just pushes Jubilee to be more of a wise-ass. "So, like, is that a 'yes' or 'no' for whether you want me to go over there and give everyone the finger for you?" she asks, really trying to drive home how little she approves of this decision. "It would take you like five actual seconds to say goodbye to everyone, even one-by-one, and you're just gonna...go...?" She pronounces 'go' like a brick just falls out of her mouth. Short. Guttural. Thuddy. It's like the word is so disgusting that Jubilee needs to get it off her tongue as quickly as she can.

    "You know what, Nori? I thought you were a good person," Jubilation begins, trying her best to say the words without being too harsh about it. "...But a good person doesn't do this."

Noriko Ashida has posed:
"Because I can't sleep there!"  Things that might have been rhetorical aren't for the speedster.  She has to sit with the wondering of if they are for way too long.  "If I wanted to give everyone the finger, I would have.  No," she says, not realizing that leaving like this really is saying 'fuck you' after all Xaviers has done for her.

"I don't want to say goodbye."  Nori wants to say goodbye to this part of her life, to all the things that remind her of Jubilee.  She looks back to Jubilation, already half-turned.  "I'm /not/ a good person."  For Nori, that ship set sail a long time ago.  "I left my brother with my parents.  What do you expect?  If I say goodbye they'll just find some way to keep me there.  I'm sick of being kept places for my own benefit."  Maybe that's a line she's had to stomach before.  There's a sickly acidic edge to her last sentence.

"I can't stay there, so I'm leaving and I don't want anyone to stop me.  A good person would just waste away there until they are nothing.  I feel more alone there than I ever did out on the streets.  I'll shoot them a postcard."

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    "Then get a different pillow or whatever if you can't sleep! Or a different room!" Jubes shouts, really laying it on thick with the tough love. "And, okay, so, you don't want me to deliver a personal fuck-off-from-Nori to everyone, that's fine. But by leaving like this, that's what you're doing. You're giving every one of your friends and family the middle finger with a side of 'eff you!'" Jubilation replies, throwing both of her middle fingers up into the air and brandishing them proudly to an imaginary crowd of spectators, as if she's standing on stage to reveal the newest iPhone. "Seriously, like, you act like your time at Xavier's was like a prison sentence," she adds, lowering her voice a bit so she can properly modulate her sarcasm. "...Like... News flash, Nori! It wasn't a prison. You weren't a prisoner. It was a school. You were a kid. Kids go to school!"

    "And, seriously, you're not a kid anymore. You're an adult, Nori. They /can't/ keep you there and you know it!" Jubilee shouts, throwing both hands over her head. Her voice gently echoes down the corridor, bouncing back after reaching The Gap. Jubes falls silent for a few seconds, waiting for the echo of her words to fade away.

    "Plus..." Jubilation continues, lowering her voice and mollifying her own tone. Her shoulders tense as she looks down at her hands. "You promised you wouldn't run away again."

Noriko Ashida has posed:
Noriko doesn't elaborate.  She grits her teeth against Jubilation's shouted suggestions, trying to hold back the emotions which threaten to tip her over an edge.  "Actually, I wasn't allowed to leave.  Now that I've graduated, I can.  Yeah, it was a school.  Not my family.  Why do I have to tell all those people goodbye?  I'm don't even have any real friends there anymore.  I mean, I had to cry to that stuck up-," Monet.  But Jubilation is talking again.

"That doesn't mean they won't try.  There's nothing for me there anymore," Noriko's decided.  "It's not like I'm going to get a college degree and it's not like I'm going to stick around there-" forever.  She doesn't have forever.  The word reminds her of her separation from Jubilation, her jaw is set stubbornly against Jubilation's shouts.  "Why would I want to be here?  We were going to get married Jubilation.  You left me!  It's never going to happen!"  Noriko's eyes storm.  The words could easily be misunderstood to be her wish.  In Noriko's mind, marriage is as impossible as the sky can't be green and never will be, since Jubilation's wisdom revealed it wouldn't be right.  "I'm sorry if I don't want to be here.  I'm sorry if I don't want to say goodbye.  I can't say goodbye."  The speedster is talking fast, very fast.  "If I say goodbye, I will hurt someone.  I will explode.  So no.  I don't want to say goodbye.  If I start caring about something, I'll care about everything," And right now, she can't care about anything.  "Don't you get how fucking dangerous that is?"

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    Jubilation starts unlacing her skates at a rapid pace. She was sure that reminding Nori of the promise she made years ago, that she wouldn't run away again, would have put an end to this, but it didn't. She yanks the laces through their holes without really watching what she's doing. She's staring at the laces and the work she's doing to them, but she's not seeing them. It's all automatic. She uses this moment to openly tease Noriko about her abrupt change in tone. "...Aw, Jubes, you won't let me sleep in your tent, so I guess I just gotta leave town forever...Maybe I'll pass Logan if he's leaving town forever again, too...." she says, using an oafish sort of voice that might be appropriate for Lennie from Of Mice and Men. After just a second, the left skate is off. Her effort to unlace the right one happens with even more frustration. When the top criss-cross of the laces gets all tangled, Jubilation yanks a couple more times, harder and harder, until she finally just rips the laces out and ruins the skates entirely. Her foot comes out and she rises to her feet again. It was a necessary time-out.

    "You know what, Nori, fine. Go," is what Jubilee says, not even trying to hide her own frustration. Her index finger comes out and points at Noriko. "But don't try to turn the totally lame and cowardly mistake you're about to make back on me and what I had to do! And...No matter what you think, no matter how many times you say you don't have any friends there, that we're not your family... you're wrong!"

    Jubilation bends forward and scoops up her skates, both the good one and the other that she ripped to shreds to get the laces off. When she rises, she shrugs a shoulder, sunglasses now clinging for dear life on the end of her nose. "Yeah, Nori... Yeah...I know. I know what that's like," Jubes replies quietly, her tone peppered with sarcasm, as though her understanding of it is obvious. She doesn't wait for a response. Jubilee has already started walking to the window display and the tent in just her socks. The ruined skates get dumped into the first garbage can she passes.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
Noriko stays quiet, very quiet as Jubilation begins to mock her.  It's only because it is Jubilation that Noriko steels herself to stand there and take it.  She deserves this and she knows it, so she stays, as if this will be some sort of penance for her conscience.  Her silence doesn't last forever.

"I don't even know why you are trying to convince me to stay.  Say goodbye?  Do it right?  Yeah I get that, but me leaving-YOU WERE MY FAMILY!"  The thought interjects her own words, slicing through, white hot, something the speedster can't deny in that moment.  "I'm not blaming you for anything.  I just don't want to be there.  I can't.  If I stay I'll become something worse than a coward.  And...I just can't anymore."

As Jubilation walks away, Noriko digs the heels of her gauntlets into her eyes as if that would stop any tears from falling.  Electricity continues to race up and down her body, clustering like a living landscape.  "You didn't have to do anything!  You're so worried that you might be taking away my choice that you already did it!" she shouts half out of trying to get control, half just slinging her emotions at Jubilation's back as she walks away.

"You act like it's okay because you love me, but it's not.  It's not okay and I'm not okay!"  Everything in Noriko wants to lash out further, to tell Jubilation to fuck off and go ahead and live in her fairytale mall forever, alone, but she can't.  It would make her feel like she had some kind of armor against the world, if only for an instant, but instead, she vibrates with electricity.

Suddenly there's a loud crack above the rest.  Noriko leaves scorch marks behind on the floor.  The duffle is left there, but Noriko is nowhere to be seen (if Jubilation looks).

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    None of Noriko's arguments get a response. Jubilee said all she needed to and, in a shocking display of maturity, doesn't let the speedster draw anything more out from her. She just gets started shoving all of the shopping bags and odds and ends she collected into the tent so anyone walking by while the mall is open won't see any reason to think that it's anything more than just a pretend tent in a window display. Jubilee ducks her head and enters the tent, too, once everything else is in there. "For the record!" she shouts. "...This is a tent, so, like, I can't slam the door behind me! So, like, just pretend I slammed the flap, okay!" She zips it up with some mild aggression. There. That'll show her.

    Jubilee doesn't see Noriko leave. The crack of electricity is enough. As soon as she hears it, Jubilation lowers herself into a seated position, surrounded by the stuff she collected throughout the mall. The snacks she got for Noriko to munch on when they watched a movie on the tablet she yoinked from one of the electronic stores. The giant cookie she was planning on pretending she didn't get but then reveal at the last minute. The second pillow that was tucked under her own in the shopping bag. Jubilation leans forward and presses her eyes against her legs and begins to cry dark streaks of blood into them. Her hands tangle in her hair, as though the extra touch might bring some kind of comfort. It doesn't.

    Soon, she would have to get started carving up some wooden stakes. And, not because the mannequins come alive at midnight.