17146/Doing The Unthinkable

Doing The Unthinkable
Date of Scene:	09 February 2024
Location:	Jubilee and Noriko's Apt - College House
Synopsis:	Noriko learns that Jubilee has done the unthinkable: accepted a job at the school.
Cast of Characters:	Jubilation Lee, Noriko Ashida

---

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    "She could be back any second..." Jubilation mutters to herself, glancing up at the heavy door that connects the apartment to the hallway. She's kneeling on the floor of the living room next to a trio of cardboard boxes that have been packed up, closed, and taped. She's currently going through notebooks and the contents of a Trapper Keeper and deciding whether the item should or shouldn't go into the cardboard box. Jubilation keeps glancing up at the door, apparently anxious that someone's going to burst through and catch her...

    ...Packing.

    As always, Jubilation is a force of chaos. A couple of plastic pouches of blood have been sucked dry and absently left on the floor. Music fills the apartment at a volume no one would ever use if they value their hearing. "She's a mess, she's a mess, now the girl is stressed, she's a mess, she's a mess, she's a mess, she's a mess.....!" Jubilation abruptly joins Lady Gaga's singing and makes it worse. She's not sorry.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
Noriko is used to coming home with no one to answer to, no one to disrupt, and as a speedster, her time living alone left many more impressions than it would on the average mortal.  So she comes in like a hurricane.

Before anyone can realize her entrance to the room, let alone building, Noriko is staring at the tableau playing out before her.  Her heart thrums through her chest, in her ears.  She knows some kind of sound is happening in the room, continuous sound, but not sure what.  Probably music.  Music.  Boxes.  Music usually means happiness, transition, PACKING.  Her insides twist.  She runs to the toilet.

There's a soft gust of wind that announces Noriko arrived followed by the sound of ceramic shattering.  A single word.  "Fuck."

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    The downside of digital music is the total lack of record screeches to properly spice up an uncomfortable moment. Fortunately, Noriko's electric entrance disrupts the delicate ones and zeroes inside Jubilation's smartphone enough to distort the music into a twangy mess of discordant notes before it just ceases entirely. Jubilation looks up just in time for her hair to flutter helplessly in the speedster's wake.

    "Fuck," is also what Jubilee says. She rises to her feet and pads down the hallway towards the bathroom door. "Nori?" she tries, knocking against the door with her knuckles.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
The perils of living with Noriko can sometimes be like jogging with a 10 second skip protection CD player in the 90s...periods of enjoyment.

The knock at the door.  What?  Nori thought she had more time.  She looks back at the mess of the toilet tank.  Time to do /what/?  "It's-"  She takes a deep breath and the water can be heard running, then water being spit out.  She can't hide this, so Noriko cracks open the door.  "I threw up...I broke the toilet," she confesses at last, well it feels like at last to her.

"I'll clean it up, just-" Noriko is not used to having to talk her way through things.  She often just fixes everything herself or just bypasses various obstacles in life.  "You may not want to come in here."

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    "Ew, you /barfed/?" Jubilation translates, leaning into the postured disgust about this thing that everyone does at some point. "Gross!" She leans back from the cracked opening in the door frame. She's played her part. She said ew and that it's gross. Box checked. Now, the important question. "Are you sick or something?" she wonders. Jubilee reaches up and clamps down on her own nose with her thumb and index finger to block some of the smell. It's no use, though, as vampire noses are sensitive to the odors of their living prey.

    "How many times do I have to remind you that the food at the toy store isn't really food. It's plastic," she teases.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
"I don't think I get sick..."  Noriko sounds genuinely shocked, as if she just realized this in the moment.

"Plastic isn't food."  But then the shock eases so quickly and that sinking feeling is back, pinning her on the spot as if it is pulling her into the ground.  Too distracted by these sensations, she hardly registers Jubilation's played part, or the playful way she's acting.

"What's going on?"  Noriko gives Jubilation that knowing, haunted look that says it all...it says, 'You know I saw you PACKING on the way in!!!  YOU DO!' but she doesn't say any such thing.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    "Well, what do you call that technicolor yawn you just did, Nori? Like, I think maybe you /can/ get sick..." Jubilation points out. Her voice is nasal and annoying since she's pinching her nose closed while talking. She sticks her foot out so she can hook it behind the door. She steps back and retracts her leg, gently closing the bathroom door with the maneuver.

    I knew it, Jubilee thinks to herself. She guessed the speedster would react badly if she came in while she was packing up the boxes. "Well, look, when you're done doing the backwards dinner dance in there... and done cleaning it up.... I'll be in here," Jubilation answers, finally unpinching her nose. She goes back to the living room, apparently unwilling to discuss this through a door.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
There's not much Noriko can do about the toilet.  She can disinfect it, so she does.  She can take a shower so she doesn't feel like puke, and the few zaps she gets from the dusting of water she gets is enough to give her a wakeful feeling.  It only takes a moment, like getting a body spritzer.  Meanwhile, her brain is like a fried egg, repeatedly revisiting the image of those boxes.

Finally, Noriko retreats to the bedroom to grab her gauntlets and a fresh change of clothes, some cozy sweats.  Then she comes out.  "Well I don't know what that was," she says as if this all happened but a moment before.  She doesn't always get her timing right, a small thing that pops up when living with the speedster for so long, that she has to actively think about how long something might have been for other people.  But that little guestimation has become more like a minigame of life she's taken stabs at lately instead of with her normal surgical precision.

With her head still damp, instead of going directly to Jubes, Noriko blurrily pads over to the fridge to break out an emergency burrito she had wrapped in foil.  A plate is added to the blur on her way to the couch where she sits with her legs folded and the plate balancing across her lap, empty, since the burrito is in her hands.

"If I was sick I wouldn't want to eat right?"  Noriko could eat the world right now.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    "If you're saying that you can't be sick if you're hungry... then...I guess you can't get sick," Jubilee agrees, even rolling her eyes with a good-natured grin. She approaches Noriko and reaches out with her hand... and takes the plate off her lap. They both know the burrito isn't going to live long enough to know what it's like to be set down on a plate. Jubes brings it back to the kitchen and returns it to the cabinet.

    "Right..." Jubilation begins. "So, like, you probably noticed the boxes..." she says. Accuse.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
"I guess that's what I'm saying."  Noriko isn't really fully following.  She's devouring between words.  By the time Jubilee gets back from the kitchen, the burrito is nearly vanished.  Noriko seems nonplused by this routine and Jubilation's anticipation.

"Yeah.  I noticed the boxes.  My stomach noticed the boxes.  Now the toilet knows there are boxes.  What the fuck Jubes?"  The foil looks like the jacket of something eviscerated to get to its contents.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    "It's not what you're thinking..." Jubilation insists, not even bothering to ask the speedster what she's thinking. Even though she's a vampire and doesn't really fatigue, she sounds exhausted with this. Things between her and Noriko have been weird and unclear, but it's not hard for her to deduce what's going on. She can recognize the way the speedster goes to pieces when she's worried about her. It's an emotional minefield that Jubilation navigates without much ease.

    "You gotta take a chill pill, Nori," Jubilation decides is the best way to express how she feels about this side of Noriko. She bends down and grabs one of the loose papers among the scattered items on the floor. She holds it out for Noriko to take and read for herself. It's an offer letter from Xavier's, welcoming her in her new role as Director of Resident Life. Jubilee sticks her foot out and uses it to turn one of the cardboard boxes that has already been taped up, allowing the speedster a good look at the writing on its side. The words 'Jubilee's Office' have been drawn on with a Sharpie.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
"I ate a whole burrito!" Noriko exclaims lightly as if this were like eating a giant chill pill, but nearly simultaneously she thinks, 'Yeah, it should have been bigger.'  "You can't blame me for being cagey," which is an admission on her part.

Noriko can't think of a reason why Jubilation would be handing her a paper.  She can't think of a good reason and she can't think of a bad reason.  She hangs in the moment, looking at the extended hand as if Jubilation were handing her a bomb and she should casually consider taking it.  "What?"  The irony of Jubilation's title isn't lost on the speedster, but she was not expecting this.

"Oh.  Oh!"  The second one is brighter and Noriko is sitting straighter.  "Jubes that's great!  What does a Director of Resident Life do?  Make sure the students don't die?"  That seems like it might be a difficult job.  Noriko doesn't think this through.  She shot beyond relief straight into excitement.  "Do you have to search for drugs and stuff and give them life pep talks?"

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    Jubilation's answer to Noriko's comment that she can't be blamed for being cagey comes in the form of a shift of her expressions. The position of her eyebrows and the almost invisible wrinkle that appears on the bridge of her nose makes it clear that Jubilee is already blaming her. She even rolls her eyes a little.

    Jubes folds her arms across her chest and gently glares up at Noriko while she reads the letter, making sure to hold the expression until she's sure the speedster has seen it. "Well..." Jubilation begins, trying to summon her understanding of her new job. "...I..." (don't know?) "...I mean, like, I'll basically be in charge of the dorms and, like, all the fun stuff we have for the kids who live here..." She nods her head at her own explanation. That'll do.

    "I don't think I'm gonna be doing that..." Jubilation answers hesitantly. "...I just want to make it so everyone who lives here loves this place as much---" The vampire hesitates again, eyes searching upwards for Noriko. She knows the speedster doesn't have the same love of Xavier's that she does. After a beat, Jubilation's expression solidifies as she makes up her mind to just state the truth.

    "...As much as I do," she finishes, staying firm even if she's about to get made fun of.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
Noriko tries to ignore the eye-rolling like a thorn in her side.  She squints really stubbornly and hard at it for a few moments before ignoring it completely.

"Darn.  I was hoping I could mock up some teen pamphlets for your desk or whatever.  Maybe I'll do it anyways," Noriko determines a moment later.  At Jubilation's hesitation, Noriko's brow furrows.  "Well I'm sure it'll be awesome.  I mean you got me to stay, so it will be a piece of cake."  Noriko occasionally likes to throw out her idioms, not realizing they are really just dating her knowledge to old tv she could get in Japan on the regular.  It's one of those subtle things that set her apart when she thinks she's totally passing as an American native (and probably is to most people).

"Why are you being all weird?" the speedster just outright asks.  Something about having to wait forever for answers to what is happening in life that lends one to...expediency.  "Do you want to do this?"

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    "Yeah. I really do..." Jubilation answers without skipping a beat, surprised that she'd even be asked that. She looks down and continues to gather up some of the items on the floor so they can go into the next box. After tapping a stack of papers on the floor to even up their edges, Jubes looks up again.

    "It's just...I've never had a 'real' job before and, like, I don't want to screw this one up..." she admits, gently rolling her own eyes at herself for saying that. Jubilation stuffs the papers into an open box and reaches for a little bushel of pencils and pens. Instead of putting them into the box as carefully as she grabs them, Jubes just opens her hand and gives them a chaotic toss into the box. A few of them even miss.

    "...Why can't I just have, like, a normal job? Like, one that won't matter if I suck at it..." Jubilee complains, laughing a little under her breath. "...I mean, I messed up my last one so bad I almost got staked through the chest, remember?" Jubes sweeps her hand across the floor to gather up the pencils that missed the box and lets out a little huff of air she kept tucked away just in case she needed to make a point.

    "Being bad at this job would be kinda worse," Jubilation points out, frowning as the thoughts form. "I mean... I don't want to let my family down." After another moment of Jubilee's pity party, she lets out a frustrated noise and tosses the remaining pencils into the box. "Screw this!" Jubilee announces, not bothering to even wait to be cheered up. "...I'm gonna be awesome."

Noriko Ashida has posed:
For once in Nori's life, she's too late.  Out of practiced politeness and cultural heritage, she allows Jubilation the stage to go on and on, to let her be heard.  There are times where she opens her mouth, but there are times when it's obvious no sound should follow...like all of those dramatic hand movements.

Noriko tries to find a time to get a word in, but it's hard.  This isn't something the speedster is good at, which is why she interrupts people at times.  "J-"  At least Noriko doesn't snatch up the pencils before Jubes can deal with them herself.  There are things Noriko has been working on.  Seriously.

"I was going to say, I have no doubt you're going to be amazing at this."  Noriko can't help but smile, happy to see Jubilation stubborning her way back into her element.  "So don't worry about it. There will be plenty to learn but you're going to be great at it."  Then he just tosses the box of pencils up in the air so they clatter and roll all over the floor.  All of them.  Noriko's just grinning.  To Noriko, it's like giant confetti.  In that impulsive rapid moment afterwards, they hang in the air, and then Noriko remembers she's the only one who can experience it when she looks to Jubilation.  Suddenly she's back in the same frame of velocity where the world has more sensical sound but seems to lose a part of its private vibrancy for the speedster, like stepping out of one's secret garden.  "Sorry.  I just got excited," she says, though she's still grinning.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    Jubilation opens her mouth, perhaps to elaborate or even change the subject entirely, but she stops and stares as pencils go everywhere. Her good ones. The Lisa Frank pencils she ordered online once she found the one website that carries unsold whimsical stationary from before she was born. Jubilation narrows her eyes and doesn't say anything about it. She just shakes her head. In the time-has-no-meaning universe of a speedster, Jubilee's micro-expressions are practically screaming that she's had-it-up-to-here, as they say, with Noriko. Jubilee says nothing, letting Nori figure out for herself whether she should pick those up or not.

    Jubilation rises to her feet and walks past the speedster to grab a roll of shipping tape she left on the kitchen counter. "It's so weird to not have to clock in and out," Jubes confesses, finding that distantly cordial tone that someone might have in a relationship when things have been tense for a while. She looks down at her phone's clock. "...Like, I'm getting paid right now..." Jubes grins and returns to the boxes with the tape. "...It's so weird."

Noriko Ashida has posed:
For Noriko, people's micro-expressions are on full display and are often agonizing like the inner thoughts of a person are to young telepaths who haven't been inured to their gifts yet.  Noriko will /always/ have to wait and relate on different wavelengths and she's never given a thought to it because in her opinion, that would be a waste of time...Okay she might have given it a moment to complain about it before, but beyond that!

For Noriko, she's how many cycles of thoughts beyond the last moment now?  She's had time to accidentally impulsively over analyze the horror of the suspended moment when she notices a negative reaction tinged on Jubilation's features.  "Ugh.  Sometimes I wish I could drink," she says no one but herself before dropping back into the moment to face the onward spiral of life.

When Jubilation walks past her, Noriko picks up the pencils and puts them all back in their rightful place.  "Does this mean you can tell me what to do?  Like, cleanup in dorm five?"  She smirks, obviously amused.  The subtle shifts in tones ruffle Noriko's feathers.  She doesn't always understand such subtleties, but it's not something she would readily admit to either, so these moments are...unsettling on multiple levels, and put the speedster off her game, even if only for a moment or two.

"It's cool...Do you want any help or-"  Noriko actually asks instead of just taking over like she might have in the past with Jubilation and her boxes.  She sighs, her mind still mulling over Jubilation's cordiality with her or, the echo of it.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    "No, that's okay. I don't need you charging up the papers so they make me look like Bride of Frankenstein just from touching them," Jubilation answers, shrugging one of her shoulders with a smirk. It's not just balloons and socks-on-carpet that can carry a charge, but it's such a tiny thing for her to zero in on. She has the laser sharp focus that only comes when a relationship has entered the Cold War phase of an argument. A new fight is coming or an old one was never finished.

    "I don't think I can boss you around," Jubilee answers, looking up as she pulls a strip of tape from the roll. "...I mean, not like /that/, anyway..." Jubilee's new job doesn't give her any new forms of authority. She looks down at the box and shrugs again. "...But...Director of Resident Life /does/ sound pretty important. So...let's say.../yes/, I can," Jubilation decides, finding her way back to her smile.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
"I think maybe you can request things of me?  Officially I mean, but yes, yes let's say you can,"  Noriko offers, knowing there is blood in the water and the waters are dangerous, but she lives in those waters and just keeps proverbially wading on, waiting for the inevitable clash.

"I really need to get better at that stuff don't I..."  Noriko mentions of her rubbing off some of her charge onto things.  "Well, we should celebrate the new job before you become way too serious and weighed down with responsibility."  Then she laughs at the thought of that even being possible.  It's not in her mind.  Jubilation is still that effortless creature in Noriko's mind.