7724/Welcoming Committee

Welcoming Committee
Date of Scene:	07 September 2021
Location:	Exterior - Happy Harbor High School
Synopsis:	Irie and Maddie meet a new student, Cynthia Ferguson, and make her feel welcome.
Cast of Characters:	Madison Evans, Raven Darkholme, Dyani Zitkala, Irie West

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Madison Evans has posed:
    Okay, sure, the last time Madison climbed a tree - it didn't go well. But I mean really - it's not like the same thing could happen twice. Right? ... right?
    And that's why there's a Jedi in a tree - //again//. This time she's trying to get down a balloon that's gotten stuck in the branches. It just looks unsightly, and really, this is the sort of things that animals eventually eat, and get sick, and die. She carefully tests each limb as she creeps towards the balloon, and streeeeeetches out a hand - finally getting a crash on the string and pulling the balloon free. Wooo! First part accomplished.
    Now she just needed to get back down...

Raven Darkholme has posed:
It may not be the official first day of school, that was a week or so ago, but for Cynthia it was the first day of school in nearly two years. Truth be told her testing placed her at college level in most courses, but Happy Harbor was willing to accommodate that, as there were several others in her range. It was a wonderful sensation to know she would finally actually be learning, and not faking it.

When the day came to an end, she was still just as excited and loaded down with new books in her pack. Ritz and Clarice both were on speed dial when she was ready to be 'picked up from school', just thinking that made her giggle a little inside. Walking now toward the parking lot, she stops... there's a girl in a tree looking... stuck.

"Hey uh... do you need help?" She calls up the tree.'

Madison Evans has posed:
    "No, no. I think I'm good. I just... ummm... How many feet up do you think I am?" Madison asks a bit uncertainly, looking down towards the ground, with her hands on one of the branches above her to help keep her balanced. She has a view of a clear spot to jump for - and if Jedi can jump up this high, jumping back down shouldn't be a problem right.
    "Nevermind. I've got this."
    She doesn't really wait for an answer as she concentrates on that corner of her mind that lets her do the impossible, and she jumps. Unfortunately, she misjudges the distance to that clear space - and bangs her arm on a branch on the way down. "Ow!" This throws her concentration a little and she falls a little heavier than she'd intended, dropping heavily to her knees, and scuffing them with a hiss of pain.
    "Ow. Ow. Okay, not my bed jump. Oof."

Raven Darkholme has posed:
Cynthia winces at the landing and moves over to offer a hand to help the girl up.

"Um, jumping wasn't the best choice you know." she offers as she extends her hand toward Madison. "Are you alright?"

Madison Evans has posed:
    "I though I could manage the distance!" Madison answers, as she lets Cynthia help her up to her feet. She checks her arms - one of them has a scrape on it that's bleeding - and then her knees, which is when she lets out a hiss of annoyance. "Oh, maaaaan. I tore my knee." The knee of her pants, that is. I mean, she also tore up her knee, but that isn't what's upsetting her.
    These jeans were still pretty new.

Raven Darkholme has posed:
Noting the blood, Cynthia winces again. "You should probably get that looked at," she comments, there is an accent to her voice that American's would hear. Even as she says this, she pulls a piece of linen out of no where to offer to Madison to clean the wounds off with. "Though, if you don't like that idea, I have some antiseptic and band aids."

Madison Evans has posed:
    Madison lets out a huff of annoyance. "The skin'll heal..." she remarks. "The jeans won't!" She does accept the bit of linen, though, and dabs at the wound. Of course, it just wells up with blood again a moment later. She takes a deep breath in, letting it out slowly as her hand hovers over the small scratches on her knee. One breath. Two breaths. Three...
    She dabs at the wound again, then smiles with there's barely any signs of the cut left. "There. See? It's good."
    She turns her attention next to the longer, slightly deeper scrape on her arm.

Dyani Zitkala has posed:
Cynthia watches the girl tending to her own wounds, then steps back because well, she did her part, right?

"I could have gotten you down," she says. "Without you hurting yourself, but you seem to be alright, got it all controlled."

Now she offers Madison another piece of linen, again out of no where, and some antiseptic spray, and finally a few large band aids.

Irie West has posed:
Irie comes out the front door of the School, with books in hand. She's shuffling them around to get them in order so she can put them back in her backpack. When she looks up she sees Maddie on the ground under a tree with a strange girl. Instantly she's by Maddie's side and her books have been put away.

"Oh gosh!" She says when she sees that her best friend is bleeding, "What happened?"

Madison Evans has posed:
    "Yeah?" Madison asks Cynthia. She accepts the supplies - all without seeming to remark that they came out of nowhere. She peers up at the tree, then back towards Cynthia. "Can you fly?" she asks curiously. She then turns her attention to spraying down the wound, and wiping up some of the blood, before she startts putting on the bandaides over the worst of the scrape.
    "Oh, it's nothing to worry about, Irie! I misjudged my jump a little. I'll get it right next time! And luckily, umm..." She looks towards Cynthia, and then finally seems to realize she doesn't now the girl's name, "//she// was here to help. Hi! I'm Maddie by the way. This is Irie. Man. That color purple looks awesome against the rest of your skin, doesn't it?"

Dyani Zitkala has posed:
Cynthia has no back pack on, no indication that she's a student other than her age and being at the school.

"Oh, hi," she offers to both Irie and Madison, "I'm uh... Thia. Just started here."

She looks up the tree again, then back to Madison as she adds, "No, I can't fly, but I'm a gymnast, that tree is nothing."

Irie West has posed:
"Well...." Irie says uncertainly. "At least you didn't break anything this time. How high did you get?" Ah, yes. The important questions. When her name is mentioned she turns and waves at the girl. "Hi, Thia!"

Madison Evans has posed:
    "A gymnast? That's cool! I never learned anything like that," Madison says brightly. "Well, it's nice to meet you, Thia. I don't think I saw you in any of my classes...?" she muses in a thoughtful tone, before looking towards Irie to see if she'd run into the other girl before.
    Of course, this is about when Irie asks her question. "Oh! Um.... Right about toooooo..." she points at a branch pretty high up the tree, "there! There was a balloon stuck in the tree, and I didn't want any critters to eat it, someday, you know?"

Dyani Zitkala has posed:
Again Cynthia looks up the tree. "It the idea to climb and see if you can stick the landing?" She asks, trying to understand what is actually the goal here. She looks back to the pair, clearly they know each other and are already friends.

"I... I just started today. Testing put me in senior classes, and a few of the advanced classes."

Irie West has posed:
Irie assesses the tree branch Maddie was pointing to. "Nice! Soon you're gonna be able to leap /over/ the tree!" She folds her arms together, "I don't think any critters are going to /eat/ the balloon. Maybe a bird or a squirrel would get tangled in it though. Here. Let me take care of it for you." Blink and you'll miss it. A blur of yellow and red, and the deflated helium balloon is deposited in the trash.

"Oooh! You just started!" she says to Thia. "Welcome to Happy Harbor! We're all cool here. Except for Thad. Thad is a butt-weenie."

Madison Evans has posed:
    "Well. It's just - if I'm gonna jump up - then I better be able to jump down, you know?" Madison answers. "I'm just... you know. Still working on it." The up //and// the down, to be honest.
    She beams at Irie at the other teen disposes of the balloon - and then lets out a groan. "O.M.G.," yes, she says the letters, "Thad is suuuuuuuch a butt-weenie!" she protests, letting out a sigh. "Just steer clear of him entirely. But it's no wonder I didn't see you in any classes! I'm only a Sophmore, you see."

Dyani Zitkala has posed:
"It's your landing," Cynthia says. "I could show you how to tuck and roll on landings, disperse the energy of the fall to your whole body rather than one part, if you'd like."

She looks between the two, "How is Thad a... butt-weenie? What does he do?"

Irie West has posed:
"I was gonna say, if Thia is a gymnast maybe you could take lessons from her, Mads," Irie says. "After all you see the Jedi do flips and stuff all the time. You gotta know how to do that and not hurt yourself."

"Thad is like..." she says trying to figure out how to describe him. "A butt-weenie. He likes to bully the smaller kids, you know. Get all up into your personal space and thinks all the girls like him."

Madison Evans has posed:
    "That's not a bad idea," Madison muses in a thoughtful smile - before beaming brightly at Thia. "Yeah! I'd like to learn something like that!" she agees, beaming from one girl, to the other.
    "We should be nicer though, Irie. It's not his fault that his mutant power is turds-for-brains."
    Her expression gets more serious as she adds, "Sorry. I don't normally say stuff like that about folks, it's just- I mean. I saw him push down this other kid, and took some of her stuff, then he goes around the corner and he just... tosses it in the trash. He's just a jerk."

Dyani Zitkala has posed:
Cynthia's eyes narrow slightly at this news about Thad, and already she is formulating ways to teach this Thad a few lessons. She's keep an eye on him, figure out his game or what his reasons are for his actions, then take suitable action.

"Thanks for the compliment by the way," she comments then instead of what she's thinking. "The Vitiligo was the result of injures during the attack on Genosha, guess I'm supposed to be purple all over, it just never happened. I'm more than willing to teach you a few things about gymnastics, they cross over well into combat moves."

That's when something Irie said comes screaming back to to her mind, "Wait... Jedi?" She blinks a few times and looks at Madison. Every part of her brain is screaming to just say it, there are no Jedi, but that's not how you make friends and clearly something was up. "You?"

Irie West has posed:
"Ooooh!" Irie says, eyes lighting up. "Purple all over! That would have been cool! We got a kid here, Junior, who's all pink." She squinches her face trying to remember her name. "Bethany I think?" She looks to Madison for confirmation. "Anyway. She was teased a lot in middle school, but not so much here."

She remains silent on the Jedi front, letting Mads talk about it since it's her thing. The speedster knows that Jedi aren't a thing but a girl's got to have goals you know?

Madison Evans has posed:
    "Genosha? Gosh. I'm so sorry..." Madison says with slightly-widened eyes. "I mean- not that you're //from// Genosha. I bet it's- is was - a real lovely place. I just- I heard what happanead and- umm... I'm sorry?" she asks uncertainly.
    Then soldiers on, rather than lingering in a moment of foot-and-mouth disease. "Oh, umm, yeah, me. On account I can heal, and jump real high, and run fast, and throw things just right, and- well. Lots ot stuff like that."

Dyani Zitkala has posed:
The explanation doesn't seem to help Cynthia much, she's seen a lot of people who can do those things and they most certainly weren't Jedi. She looks over at Irie, perhaps for some sort of cue or help on how to fathom this. There is no such thing as Jedi, just mutants with... oooh... now she gets it.

"Well that's damn cool!" she offers then, having figured out the game. "I mean there's lots who can do that, but how they use those abilities, that's what matters, right?"

Irie West has posed:
When Cynthia looks at her for her, Irie just gives her a small shrug. Just go with it. "Yup! And Maddie's getting better every day with her powers! As for me," she says, putting her hands on her hips in a superhero pose, "I'm a speedster. Kid Flash! Fastest girl in the world!"

Madison Evans has posed:
    "That's what matters," Maddie agrees, beaming at both of the other girls. "I mean, when I get better at it - I'll be able to do loads more than getting kites and balloons down out of trees! ... I'll also be getting //cats// down out of trees, too!" She's joking, right? ... right?
    "Anyways. You'll like it at Happy Harbor. I wasn't so sure at first - on account of moving all the way out here from California and leaving all my friends behind and everything - but if I hadn't, I wouldn't have met Irie. Or you! And that would be a bummer."

Dyani Zitkala has posed:
"Well, I may not be worth it just yet," Cynthia jokes. "I could be a butt-weenie, I'm not. I'm just a mutant, but I could have been." She grins, then out of thin air pulls a six pack of coke cans, still ice cold. "Anyone want one?"

Even if they don't, she sets the cans on the grass and pulls herself one off. "I haven't been to a real school in over two years, so I'm already liking that part. So, if there's anything I can do to help either of you, let me know."

Irie West has posed:
"Naw," Irie says. "I have a good feeling about you. If you were a butt-weenie you wouldn't have helped Mads." There it is. The logic is air tight.

Her eyes go wide as a six pack just materializes out of no where. "Woah!" She says, taking one. "And they're still cold! How'd you do that! I'd have to, like, run all the way back to the Tower to get some soda, and that would take me, like, a second or two!"

"No," she says, shaking her head. "We should be the ones asking if there's anything we can do for /you/. Well. I mean. I'm really ahead on the sciences, and the math, but not so much on the social studies and English parts."

Madison Evans has posed:
    Madison can't help but snicker. "O.M.G! A whole second!" She drops down onto the floor next to Thia, taking one of the sodas and popping it open, taking a sip. "Yeah, I'm with Irie. We should be trying to help you! My friend Cam'd never forgive me if I didn't help out a new student. They're aaaaalways going off about inclusion and making everyone feel welcomed and appreciated, you know? They're cool like that." She takes another sip of her soda before asking, "What else can you appear?"

Dyani Zitkala has posed:
Getting comfortable, Cynthia pulls her phone out to send a text to her sister and Ritz: Met some cool girls, hanging out, will contact again for ride.

"It's my gift," she then answer. "I have this pocket, no idea /where/ the pocket is, but I can put things there. They get suspended in time, staying just the way it was when I put it there. I put the coke there this morning, right out of the fridge." She shrugs a little. "I've been able to do it since I was little."

Irie West has posed:
Irie sits down next to Madison, cracking open a soda of her own. (Maybe it isn't the best idea to give a speedster caffeine and sugar) She shoulderbumps her friend. "Yeah! That's, like, /forever/ for in Flash time. I bet my fa.. uncle could get it in under a second."

"Pocket?" Irie says eyes going wide as she scootches a little bit closer. "What kind of stuff do you have in there? Is that why you don't have a backpack? How big a thing can you put in it. Oh! Can you put a living thing in it? That would be handy, especially if they were, like, injured or something. Put them in stasis, pop them out when you get to a hospital. What's the weirdest thing you ever put in there?" Oh boy. You've got her going, now.

Madison Evans has posed:
    "So, like, if you made like... 3 dozen donuts, you could have one or two a day, and they'd just stay fresh the whole time? ... AND WARM?" ...they could make anything. Big loaves of sourdough! A massive pile of fries and onion rings! A whole jug of hot cocoa! "Man. That must be sooooo cool," Madison muses thoughtful.
    Then her eyes get even wider. "Dude. Like if there was bomb counting down - 10, 9, 8, 7- and the bomb squad's running out of time, and they haven't even evacuated the area - and then you come in and you're like 'Yoink! Pocket!' And you save the whole New York metro area from nuclear distruction! Or whatever.
    "I mean, it could happen. Right?" She looks between the two other girls eagerly.

Dyani Zitkala has posed:
Cynthia takes a large drink of her coke as she listens to the very familiar questions Irie was asking, not one of them was new. However, Madison provides one she hadn't heard, well the question was the same but the desire items were not.

"Okay, that was a lot of questions so give me a minute. I have all kinds of stuff in my pocket, including an 18-wheeler. I think the largest I can go is a train car, but I've never been near one to test it. I can't put living people in there for longer the sixty seconds or they die, it's something that I work on with... uh... mice, but I hate it. I need it to be longer, but I can't stand the idea of killing a mouse."

She takes a drink of her coke, "Weirdest thing? One person's weird is another person's normal, so... I can't really answer that  one." She looks over to Madison. "Donuts and bread? Got a craving? But yeah, I could put those in and they'd still be warm. I took milkshakes to Genosha from Bushwick, cold or hot, it stays that way." Pulling her phone back out, she shows them both the clock ticking away on the screen, second by second. Then the phone just disappears in a purple puff. "Yes, the bomb could be counting down and when I touch it, it stops." The phone reappears, the time exactly twenty seconds slower that it should be, but the numbers exactly as they were and counting on. "See?"

Irie West has posed:
"A whole 18 wheeler?" Asks Irie, eyes big. "Why do you have an 18 wheeler in there?" Her eyes dart around trying to think of scenarios where one would want to suddenly have a large tractor trailer handy. "When you pop things out you could do it in the air? How far away can you pop them out?"

"I've seen a lot of powers, and a lot of them are just... bang! Zoom! Pow! That kind of thing," she says smacking her fist in her hand in demonstration of 'pow.' "But yours sounds really /useful/. Some peoples really aren't that useful outside of a fight."

Madison Evans has posed:
    "Well. Now you know who to go grab if there's a bomb threat!" Madison says brightly - furrowing her brow in puzzlement to adds, "Wait. Doesn't that 18 wheeler belong to someone? I mean - don't they want it back? And the stuff inside? Or did it belong to bad guys?" She takes another sip of her soda, while glancing briefly at her watch.

Dyani Zitkala has posed:
Cynthia whistles innocently, taking another drink of her coke.

"Well, it used to belong to someone," she comments idly. "It doesn't so much any more. I... was going to give it back! But they started shooting at each other and blaming each other and I choose to run instead to save my own butt."

She sighs, "I didn't tell my sister that part, nor have I looked to see what's in it. I just knew well, that the two sides weren't nice people and they were arguing over it. As for how far... I've managed to master up to ten feet from myself, but not much more. I'm still working on it."

Irie West has posed:
Irie's brows furrow. "How did you get into a place where there were two sides of people shooting each other for a truck?" She looks up at Thia, "You could have been hurt! You should probably find out what's in there. Could be anything. Drugs. Guns! If it's something dangerous you'd have to go to the authorities!"