4543/Child Labor

Child Labor
Date of Scene:	30 December 2020
Location:	Home Depot
Synopsis:	Logan gets stuck with Jubilee and Noriko as his assistants when he makes a Home Depot run. Nori is taught the art of patience... (believe what you will faculty) and some mutant racist jerks make Jubes sad. Noriko blows her mutant cover, and Logan is such a great role model! Scott's credit card is one of two casualties.
Cast of Characters:	Logan Howlett, Noriko Ashida, Jubilation Lee

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Logan Howlett has posed:
    The three make quite an odd sight. Logan trundles along, glowering down at a scrawled shopping list, as the two asian teenagers follow along. The cart is quite heavy by now, as it is laden low with seeds and fertilizer and some lumber, nails and more. But it hasn't fallen to Logan to push it. No, that falls to the girls. He moves slow enough to make sure they can't lose him, and he glances back at them now and again to make sure he still has them.

    A pair of tight jeans, battered boots, and a faded 'BOWIE CREEK FISHING WEEK 2002' t-shirt, under a flannel. His sleeves are rolled up around his thick, powerful arms.

    "The one kid busted the sink in the girl's dorms, so we need to add some stuff to the list," he growls. "Forgot." Well, that'll likely add more weight to the cart AND more time to this thrilling adventure. He glances up and about, the short, thicc man looking for the right aisle. "Who sorted this place? Gambit? I can't find crap."

Noriko Ashida has posed:
Noriko doesn't wear one of those fancy obfuscation things her player can literally never remember, five times and counting now.  Apparently the school administration who shall not be named is more keen on this particular teen adjusting...to people thinking she's some kind of rave-steampunk crossover kid.  Her gauntlets get a lot of stares.  More than her hair, though that nearly gets people to look her way first.

Noriko's wearing what amounts to a thirdhand track suit.  It isn't suitable for the weather, but it's not like she decided to get in a vehicle to get down here.  The short run kept her warm.

"Yeah. I know.  I had to take a fucking shower," which is, complicated.  Especially doing it on time to get to class.  She sighs as this is taking waaay too long for her.

"Can't you just give me the list?" the speedster says every so quickly.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    Jubilee is totally not dressed for this. Yellow jacket, round sunglasses, black short-shorts, and white heelys. Perfection. The ride over was spent insisting that she wasn't cold and, no, she didn't want to go back to the room to change -- she was fine how she was! It was all worth it for those first few moments after arriving at the Home Depot -- the vaulted ceilings, the dusty brown floors, the weird smell of sawdust! Jubilee spins around in place, both arms out as she does. And then... cart duty.

    "You gotta use the /app/!" Jubilee exclaims with a grin. She tilts her heel backward to engage the wheels in her heelys sneakers. Jubes briefly lets go of the cart and skates forward to circle around Logan as they walk through the aisle. She's holding up her beloved rectangle, pointing the screen at the groundskeeper. The Home Depot app has been loaded up and is nagging about location services, notifications, and background app refreshing.

    She skates on back to the cart and takes her place next to Nori. "Oh! That's an even better idea. Give her the list, give her the list, give her the list!" Jubilee chants, egging it on as best she can.

Logan Howlett has posed:
    "No. You gotta learn patience, kid. That's why you got stuck with me for a bit. Just as Jubilee, here."

    Logan furrows his brow as Jubilee skates around him, and he squints at the app before he sternly shakes his head. "No. That stuff makes you dumb," he grumps. He doesn't really mean it, but he doesn't want to give into the girls, either. He has to set a precedent! ...Right?

    He points at one of the nearby aisles. "Plumbin'. That's our girl. Come on." He stalks along, the three gaining a few looks from people passing by. Their outfits, sure, but also them being here with Logan. They hardly look related. An employee offers him a curious look and he snarls, "Juvie work release program." He then stuffs his hands into the pockets of his jeans and leads the way down the aisle. "What's you two to get stuck with Logan duty, anyhow?," the Wolverine asks, glancing back at the two girls. "Shave Hank? Take a joyride in Chuck's wheelchair? Steal Summers' pocket protector? Gotta be somethin'."

Noriko Ashida has posed:
"Do you know how many damn times I've been /taught/ this 'lesson' in only a year?"  Noriko totally takes her hands off the cart to air quote with lightning jumping between her fingers.  Oops.  She shrugs.

"Stubbornness makes you dumb," Noriko quips quickly.  "You aren't going to get smarter leaning on things that make your life more efficient so you can accomplish more.  I can't even use that shit if I wanted to."  Someone made this kid too damn smart...or she just slipped into some kind of speed moment to work out a thousand different lines to use.

When the employee looks their way, Noriko holds her hands out as if to be cuffed and shoots off a sardonic smirk.  "Mind your own fucking business.  He's not into kids and I'm 18 anyways.  Perverts."

That taken care of with a few glares for good measure, Noriko comments dryly, "They ran out of horse shit in the barn...and laundry...and dusting...and I think some kid squealed about some other kid who will not be named just happening to try and fail to hotwire a car in our presence."  Noriko is /always/ in detention.  The street kid was selling pumpkin bong kits to all ages at the Halloween celebrations to clear out her inventory, though the fact that she was only telling the older ones what they were for and giving them the rest of the kit /might/ indicate that she has a soul somewhere inside.

"The question is what did /you/ do to get stuck with us?  Together."

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    When Logan mentions her name -- Jubilee -- she flashes him a cheery smile, as if he was taking attendance, and ends a snap-point his way. Pew. That's me!

    As the three of them turn the corner and move to the next aisle, Jubes reaches her arm out to pluck an item from the end cap. It's some of that Bond Instantly On Anything kind of glues that comes in a caulking tube. Oh, the mischief they could sow! She tosses it innocently into the cart and immediately turns away from it.

    Jubilee wasn't going to self-incriminate, so Logan will just have to do his own detective work to figure out why they were stuck with him. Almost in sync with Nori, though, Jubes has a question of her own: "What did /you/ do to..." she begins, stopping once it's clear that Noriko was asking the same question but faster. Jubilee grins at the other girl and then turns her head towards Logan, raising her eyebrows for an answer.

Logan Howlett has posed:
    Logan grunts at Noriko's question, and he offers a glare and snarl to one of the strangers who stares a moment two long. Soon he stops in front of the piping, and he begins to look through the bins for the right size and length.

    "I mighta smoked in the lake house. Again. And..." Logan trails off, mumbling something about getting caught by other staff swimming in the lake sans his shorts. "I don't get the issue. You were all asleep and it's right next to my damn cabin." The man tries to drop the subject as he scoops up a length of pipe and tosses it into the cart, right beside the caulking Jubilee snuck in. "Well, fine. Don't...do whatever you did...again."

Noriko Ashida has posed:
"Seriously?  That's all it takes?  That's stupid," Noriko determines, perhaps a shade disappointed.  She suddenly pulls her hands away from the cart and checks her power gauge.  Her hair is kind of standing on end a little more than its normal windswept look she can never get away from.  "One sec."

Noriko walks at a normal velocity around the corner to an aisle where no one is there or paying attention and suddenly whips off at near instantaneous acceleration, leaving scuffs on the floor.

After discharging in one of her 'safe spots' and quickly mourning the death of a woodland creature that stumbled into her zone, she ends up right back where she was, hands on the cart, not having missed a beat.  Well maybe one or two given she had to make a speed-stealth exit without anyone seeing her take off.

"They're probably worried about you cutting --"

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    "-- something important!" Jubilee finishes, her eyebrows hiked up and her smile extended as far as it could go.

    "I would have thought you would've had to do something pretty evil to get paired up with /us/..." Jubilee points out, blowing a huge pink bubble with her gum. The bubble expands and expands and expands until the material just can't keep hold.

    *POP*

    "Wait... What were you smoking...?"

Noriko Ashida has posed:
"And who'd you buy it from?  I'm sick of running to the city."  Pssh, Noriko runs to the city every, single, night.  She's even always late for curfew.  She squints at Logan, or the back of his head.

Logan Howlett has posed:
Logan opens his mouth to respond to that question from Jubilee, but he doesn't. Instead, the man points a finger at one of the shelves that are out of the short man's reach. "Hey. Grab me one of those, will ya?" He turns and peers down into the cart, then, grunting as he spots the caulk. He considers grabbing it, but then smirks a little bit to himself. He brushes his fingers back through his wild hair and turns away.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
"He opened his mouth," Noriko says as if his omission were definitive proof that he was smoking something naughty.  "I'm going to go sniff out the truth when we get back," she promises Jubes right in front of Logan.

Naturally, Noriko does not think Logan is talking to her to get the 'one of those' that she is totally not paying attention to.  But then, seeing an opportunity (and totally not yet picking up on Logan creating the opening for him), Noriko hops up and tosses like two or three to Jubes, giving her the time between each one to bury them...or not.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    "You opened your mouth!" Jubilee adds to Nori's assault, egging it on as she points her finger accusatorily at Logan. She turns to her roommate and pinches her index finger and thumb together and then brings it to her lips and noisily sucks in some air through her mouth. The internationally recognized sign for blazing.

    Almost like clockwork, Jubilee is ready to catch the items that Nori tosses down to her, relaying them into the cart, one after the other. It's like they had a plan already worked out ahead of time...except they didn't. At the tail end of their volley, Jubes leans to the side of the aisle, supporting herself on one foot while the other is stuck out into the air for balance. She grabs an ornate golden door-knocker and slips THAT into the cart. For their room, naturally.

    "So... do you have, like, glaucoma or something?" Jubilee wonders aloud, blowing another large pink bubble. Her idle hands have already fished out the pack of gum from her pocket and extends it towards Nori.

Logan Howlett has posed:
    He turns to glower at the two before he moves to climb up onto the shelf. The shelf breaks IMMEDIATLY, snapping as if the man weighed way more then he looks. Screws and nails scatter and roll everywhere, and Logan steps back with a low growl in his chest. "...Shit. Y'know, I think we got everything we need...."

    The groundskeeper points at the cart and turns, trying to swiftly escape from the spilled goods as people peer over in this direction.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
Noriko looks up and down the aisle.  Logan does incur looks, but people just seem to feel uncomfortable looking at the odd group, so it doesn't last long.  This is when Noriko spurts around pick up all of the debris from the shelf-fail.  She goes so fast that people aren't really able to perceive her.  She was there one moment, gone the next, and no one is looking at the stuff on the floor.  They are all staring at /Logan/.

Noriko ends up in the bathroom, in a stall, but she forgot to put the screws and stuff back, so...she looks down into the toilet and quickly dunks them into the bowl.  Then, she walks out without washing her hands!

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    Jubilee's pink bubble *POPS* almost in precise timing with the shelf coming down and the screws going everywhere! "Oh fuuuuuuuudddddggggeeeeeeeeee ...." she says, in slow-motion from at least one of their perspectives. By the time she was finished saying 'fudge' (only, she didn't really say fudge, right?), the mess was handled by her partner-in-crime.

    "Yup!" Jubilee agrees heartily. "Got everything we came for!" Jubilee turns the cart towards the front of the store so they can begin wheeling it that way.

Logan Howlett has posed:
"Now I -know- you freaks gotta be Muties," comes a drawl from nearby. A couple stands at the mouth of the next aisle. They look like they are in their thirties, and are dressed in standard Millenial wear. Beanies, tight jeans, band t's. The woman is holding a toddler in her arms as they both glower at the three. Logan slows a bit and he glances at Jubilee, and then Noriko as she returns. She grits his teeth for a momentm and Jubes has spent enough time with the man to know he's carefully weighing his response.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
Noriko rejoins with her group thinking no one was the wiser, but when she hears those words, she doesn't see Logan.  She doesn't see Jubilee.  She doesn't even see the toddler or these white hipster parents.  Her metal joints protest as she squeezes, fists forming.  Lightning starts to bolt up and down her arms.  "At least we have a reason to be freaks," she grits out, her eyes lighting up blue with tiny lightning storms...the small and growing rumbles, the cracks and pops like heralds.

Noriko /is/ controlling herself.  But her natural state is much faster, so her chest is rapidly puffing in and out.  Anyone else would hyperventilate and pass out...anyone else couldn't even breathe that fast.  No humans at least.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    Another *POP* from Jubilee's gum as she stands there, holding onto a Home Depot cart filled with some things they came for along with other things they're leaving with, and being called a freak. She blinks her eyes a couple of times and turns her head towards Logan. It was a moment they've shared many times -- someone saying something horrible to her and then that slow head turn...

    Her fists are balled up at her sides, quivering there as she struggles with what to do. After a few moments of conflict, Jubilee's hands relax and she takes a quiet step towards Logan. She turns her body to face him, curling slightly to the side to give the humans a view of her shoulder. Jubilee's eyes lower, not wanting to look at Logan, Nori, or anyone, really.

Logan Howlett has posed:
Well, that done did it. Logan stares at Jubilee for a moment, watching her expression change, and her normally spunky posture shift. He might talk some crap and act grumpy, but Jubilee is practically an adopted child. Her and Rogue...And Gabby...and X-23...okay, maybe Batman doesn't have a monopoly on that habit.

Either way, Logan responds to the shift in mood by taking a step towards the sneering couple. He moves fast for such a muscled man, honestly. His fist connects with the man's stomach, and he sucks in a breath with a pained sound, his eyes wide. That hit like a mack truck...likely due to his adamantium skeleton. The man doubles over and drops.

Logan turns and points a meaty finger at the gaping infant and the terrified woman. "Make sure your kid doesn't grow up to be garbage like you two. You have a kid. DO BETTER." His boot comes out and connects with the man's face, sending blood and teeth across the linoleum. The man then turns as people stare, one of the employee's likely calling 911. The groundskeeper fishes the card from his wallet and tosses it at a cashier, though he does not stop to actually get the goods scanned, or get the card back. "Come on, girls. I'll help ya put that knocker on your door." He reaches into his flannel and pulls out a cigar and a lighter.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
It's only by the grace of the growing rage inside Noriko that she doesn't wilt like Jubes or start crying or fry everyone around her.  It also helps that Logan beats her to the punch.

"Yeah, and your husband's a 'freak' by the way.  He's been hiding it," she spits out as if one of her mutant powers might be to detect other mutants.  Then Noriko turns and sees the downtrodden Jubes.  So she stops by the candy rack and just takes a whole box of something, and some energy drinks...at normal fucking speed so everyone can see it.

"You happy I went slow enough for you losers?"  Then Nori catches up with her friend and her new favorite role model.