7981/New Apartment, Who Dis

New Apartment, Who Dis
Date of Scene:	25 September 2021
Location:	Jubilee's Apt - College House
Synopsis:	Jubilation gives Noriko a set of keys to her new apartment, including one to the third lock she installed herself. They discuss vampire sleeping arrangements and decide to take advantage of the fact that Noriko can't electrocute Jubilee on account of her being dead alread. So, naturally, they decide to go swimming.
Cast of Characters:	Noriko Ashida, Jubilation Lee

---

Noriko Ashida has posed:
Noriko keeps to a schedule now.  One that has her sleeping after school right up until dinner time.  Then she eats a massive meal, and goes out on her evening run into the city.  Usually by the time she's done, her nocturnal girlfriend has at least batted an eyelash.  But...that schedule, well, not everything is what it seems.

Knock.  Knockety knock.  It's kind of sluggish for the speedster, perhaps lazy.  "Juuuuuubes," she sing songs loudly in the corridor.  "Wake uuuuuuuup."  She ends up sitting on the ground, curled up against the door, which is likely to produce a little jolt to whomever touches it next.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    Rogue has given up her assigned apartment in the College House so Jubilation could move in to it, for the apparent safety of Noriko Ashida. Living in such close proximity to a fresh vampire was determined by Xavier's faculty to be a "bad idea." After moving in, Jubes has made a couple of modifications befitting a person in her situation. The window curtains have been pulled shut and reinforced with hanging bath towels, allowing almost no light to pass through. The fireplace has been blocked off by Jubilation's empty suitcases. Otherwise, the apartment looks like it's nearly empty except for a large, cardboard box used to move wardrobes that has been tipped over onto its back in the center of the living room.

    Jubilation is drawn out of her slumber by the knocking at the door. The front flaps of the wardrobe box open together and Jubilee emerges. She sits up all in one fluid motion, arms crossed over her chest and eyes closed. How the flaps opened is a mystery. "I wonder who that could be..." Jubilee mutters as her eyes open. Her pupils do not change size as she adjusts to the light. It's not necessary.

    After climbing out of the box, Jubilee walks over to the door and reaches out for the knob. "Who is it?" she calls out, grinning from ear to ear. The shock from the knob told her exactly who it is. Click. Click. Click. She unlocks the knob, the dead bolt, and the second deadbolt she installed herself after watching a how-to video from YouTube.

    "Nori," she says with a smile after opening the door. "You've come to visit me!" She seems absolutely delighted by this. No one has come since she moved here. No one dares. Jubes kneels down and reaches out, perhaps to drag Noriko inside.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
Noriko was asleep, yes, for that short of a period of time, but this should come as no shock to Jubilation. She yawns, covering her mouth as she looks up.  "Took you forever to answer," she says with a smirk before reaching to give Jubes her arm, scruff of her shirt, whatever.  The speedster gets up to her feet and wraps her arms around Jubilation.  "Did you get my notes?" or did she remember to deliver them?  Noriko rubs at the back of her neck a little.

Nori's wearing her running shorts, hot yellow short shorts and her blue and orange kicks Jubes gave her.  She's also wearing a black sports bra and tank.  Does she smell sweaty?  No.  Does she ever?  She rubs a little at her eyes and then reaches out to pull Jubes into a helloooooo kiss.  Hello I haven't seen you in way way way too long kiss and I don't want to let go.

Teenagers.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    Jubilation wasn't expecting Noriko, for some reason, so she's dressed in a way not-at-all meant for visitors. She's wearing a pair of pink fleece pajama pants and a black tank top. If she knew Nori was coming, she'd probably be wearing less.

    "It takes me forever to do everything, remember?" Jubilee teases. Such is life when one of them is a speedster and the other isn't. She returns the kiss with the same eagerness that Noriko brings, her eyes closed, but she's the one to break it off. Perhaps for Noriko's safety...

    Jubilee stares at Noriko, right in the eyes. She blinks a couple of times and then lifts her eyebrows. "I....I love you, Nori," is all she can say. Her tone is painted with admiration. After all, Noriko immediately brought her in for an embrace. She didn't ask if Jubilee was hungry, if she was in any danger, or anything like that. She treated Jubilee as a person and not a monster to be feared. She is a monster to be feared, perhaps, but...

    Jubilee walks towards the wardrobe box and picks it up, expecting that Noriko will close the door. She moves it out of the way and turns towards the speedster. "Notes? No, I didn't see any notes," Jubes answers. "You wrote me notes?" Jubilee grins, fangs easily seen, as she considers that. Passing notes back and forth throughout the school day... it's teenage romance at its finest.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
Noriko has a little flash of confusion she wouldn't mean to normally hide from people but would probably be too fast for Jubilation to notice if she were not what she is now.  "It does," Noriko half jokes, the half joking practically being a joke in and of itself.

The speedster seems calm and completely at ease, even if she has some tell tale signs of little sleep, like circles under her eyes.  "I love you too..."  The door is closed and Noriko still has plenty of time to catch Jubilation walking away and her eye.  "Oh....yeah.  I-oh shit what if I gave them to the wrong person."  She reaches up to run her fingers through her hair as she starts to pace, an old baked in gesture that is stopped short as the mechanics get tangled in her hair.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    "Well, I'm sure they'll get here..." Jubilee says with a smile. There's some deviousness in there, as though Jubilee is making a point: no one would cross her right now. If she's meant to be expecting a note, it's extremely unlikely that the messenger would fail to deliver it.

    Nori... Look at the door," Jubilee suggests quietly. She's very careful with her words and tone. Compelling Noriko Ashida to do something with her supernatural influence? Out of the question. She would never. Jubilee is not wearing her sunglasses, so perhaps she's gaining some confidence in her new abilities?

    The door has three locks. The knob and deadbolt are the standard fare and the school very likely has copies of those keys. There's a brand new security lock that Jubilee has drilled into the frame and door: a lock she saw on the door to Jerry Seinfeld's apartment. Most importantly, it's a lock that the school does not have a key for. "Nori..." she begins gently, holding her hand out.

    In the palm of Jubilation's hand is a key ring with three keys. Two of them are gold and well-worn but the third is silver and brand new. "You are welcome here," Jubilation says with a smile. It's a weird way to say it, but some of that vampire influence might be creeping in. Being welcome in a place is a significant thing for vampires.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
Nori quickly frees herself from her own hair trap.  It's not that Noriko hasn't noticed the changes in how people have treated Jubes or in the girl herself.  But all of these changes are sudden, and she isn't yet bathed in the mindset and these things just do not occur to her...so it isn't uncommon for Noriko to immediately calm down, like she does now as she immediately realizes something bad would have happened a long time ago.

"Hmm?"  Noriko turns her head, looking back to the door.  She looks down as soon as Jubes' hand begins to extend.  The girl knows this is important.  It would be important if Jubilation were not a vampire, if they didn't have all this stuff about territory and guests, and weird internal codes or whatever they might be.  But Noriko doesn't hesitate to embrace some level of understanding for being granted this honor.

"Thank you..." As Noriko reaches to take the key ring from Jubes' palm, she murmurs, "I would have broke in anyways."  But she doesn't.  Well, her hand stays there for longer until she gives a warm squeeze.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    "You are the only person who has that third key," Jubilee adds. The new, silver one. "The school doesn't have a copy. In case they..." She doesn't say it. "In case they change their mind." That would be a problem for everyone involved.

    "So!" Jubilee perks up. "I have a kitchen now, so, like I said... I'm going to cook you dinner! Just like a --" Her words fade, her eyes lower. Some of that east Asian upbringing has reared its head in her thinking. "...Just like a cook." That's not what she was going to say, but it works well enough. Jubilee has never expressed any interest in cooking.

    "So, like, did you just come to say hi... or did you want to hang out... or..."

Noriko Ashida has posed:
"Good," Noriko says darkly with a dip of her eyes and chin.  She's glad to see that Jubilation has taken precautions.  But it's just like the speedster to suddenly light up and bounce back with, "So people can't walk in on us."

Noriko moseys into the kitchen, eyes sweeping around and giving the fridge a good up down, estimating its volume.  "Can I stash some stuff here?"  She looks over to Jubilation and grins a little.  "I'd like that.  You don't have to like...fill me up.  I can pre-game if you want."  A term Noriko has appropriated from her drunken peers and college kids to apply to filling up with food so as to not eat others out of house or home or make it look like she's being starved by the school.

"To hang out.  I mean.  If you aren't busy?"  Noriko shifts her weight from foot to foot.  Even in her pajamas, the vampire is unnervingly beautiful and Noriko is somehow finding her nervous gaze settling in all the wrong spots in quick succession.  "Or?"

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    "Busy?" Jubilee nearly laughs. "What could I be doing?" Her dance card has been remarkably empty since her return from death. She has been keeping unusual hours, which has isolated her a little bit, but the sense of fear among the other students is notable. Noriko's status as Certified Badass has been locked in, as though that was even questioned.

    Jubilee nods her head at Noriko's question about the fridge. "Yes, knock yourself out," she says, making sure not to be making eye contact while saying it. "What do I need it for?" She never outright discussed her status as a vampire with Noriko, but she's sure that the other girl knows what others have been saying.

    Jubes glidewalks to the couch and lowers herself onto it. "So. Let's hang out, then!" She smiles and rakes her fingers through her hair. "What should we do?"

Noriko Ashida has posed:
"Hunting?  You could be hungry," of course Noriko would still be thinking about food...hunger.  If Noriko's been statused as a Certified Badass, that's news to her.  "Cool.  I'll have to go to the store then.  We should go together," she rattles on with her head inside the fridge as she gets a real feel for the space.  "What do I don't know.  Leftovers?"  What does she know indeed.

Noriko turns down the cooling in the freezer and the fridge to max first.  Then she's checking windows, the bedroom, the toilet flushes, and there's a spurt of water from the sink made known by the plumbing kicking up.  And she's back.  Her hair is a slightly coiffed, and wasn't a moment ago, which is much more obvious when she hops over the couch to sit next to Jubilation.  "I don't...I don't really know if you still like to do the same stuff now," she admits.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    And that's the first time the toilet has flushed in this new place. Another thing that Jubilation doesn't need to do anymore. Sad.

    "Hunting..." Jubes repeats softly, her eyes falling to the floor. It's a hard word to hear from Noriko's lips. "...I'm... I'm fine." It's an uncomfortable topic. "I...hunted last night." Deer.

    "We could watch a movie...A ...." Normally, 'vampire movie' was a coded message between them. It meant that they would be watching a movie without watching it. After all, who actually wanted to watch a vampire movie? Unfortunately, it's weird to suggest that these days. "Or... Or I could make you food now?" She doesn't have the ingredients, but that's easily remedied.

    Jubilation reaches out and rests her hands on her knees. She stays quiet for a few moments before finally breaking it. "...This is weird, isn't it?"

Noriko Ashida has posed:
Noriko presses her lips together awkwardly at having mentioned the hunting.  But the beginning to suggest a movie, a /vampire/ movie, makes Noriko laugh a little.  "You know one day you'll have to tell me what is all fake and what's the most accurate film," she says in jest and smiles at the mention of food.

"Well I mean a few days ago we were sleeping in the same bed so yeah.  I feel like someone threw us back in time to a time that doesn't exist," Noriko says with a little sigh of relief.  "I'm not sleeping well," at all.  "So I'm just off," she tries to explain, "On top of it all I mean...Have you asked for a coffin yet?  I bet they would spring for one.  I mean you have a nice fridge and what is that for?...to fill the fridge hole?"

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    "I'm not some vampire expert, Nori," Jubilee gently corrects. "I'm just... me. I mean, I don't even remember getting bitten." And she wasn't. Jubilation's transformation was from a dark magic that would soon make itself known.

    "That's how it normally works, I mean...Right?"

    "Remember when you came into my bed for the first time?" she asks, her voice full of fond nostalgia. "And then the next morning I threw all that junk on /your/ bed so you couldn't use it anymore?" Jubilation's smile grows to maximum size as she recalls those happier times. The comment about a coffin, though, draws her out of it.

    "Ew!" Jubes protests. "I don't want to sleep in a coffin!" The cardboard wardrobe box says otherwise. The truth is, Jubilation is slowly being drawn to certain preferences and a rectangular box that's vaguely coffin-shaped is certainly one of them. She would absolutely, positively sleep better in a coffin. Noriko's point about sleep, though, gets a nod. "I'm not sleeping so well, myself..." The truth is, she's sleeping perfectly fine, but it's a supernatural sleep. Magic that Jubilee has no chance of understanding pulls her to slumber once the sun begins to rise. Still, it's not the same kind of slepe as drifting away, drunk with love and lust in the arms of Noriko.

    She extends both arms out towards Nori. "Come here..." she requests, batting her eyelashes a couple of times.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
"I just meant one day when we have no choice but to call you one," a vampire expert that is.  "That day," Noriko teases by poking Jubes with her foot.  Jubilation's words get a little look though, that spark in her eye.  "Yeah.  I remember."

"Well we need to upgrade your sleeping box.  Pretty cool you can fold it away though," Noriko calls her on it.  The girl is not oblivious to even the slower shifts in her girlfriend, but she's never explicitly brought them up.  "Maaaybe, it has something to do with sleeping in a crappy box?  Hmm?"  She asks, head tilting with a little smile before she blurs into Jubes' arms without a moment's hesitation.

"I don't want them to separate us.  Ororo said it wasn't to keep us apart, but...I think we need to figure some stuff out Jubes.  In case...things...all she talked about was finding people to change you back...You know that I love you, just the way you are right?  I don't want anyone or anything to take you away from me," she admits.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    Jubilation squeezes Noriko tightly. "Yeah, you're right," Jubilee says softly, not letting go of the speedster. "I...I should look into my sleeping situation." She really would benefit from a coffin. She knows it. Even Nori probably knows it. Jubilation sighs softly, knowing she's in the arms of the one person she shouldn't lie to about the coffin. The one person who she doesn't need to lie to about it.

    "A coffin would be really nice..." Jubilee whispers, ever so softly, her eyes closing tightly. Noriko is the only person she would dare admit that to. Only living person, anyway.

    Finally, Jubes releases the squeeze. "I know..." is all she says. She knows that Nori loves her. Noriko is the only person who hasn't taken the easy bait of strategizing how to turn Jubilee back. Noriko is the only person who didn't make Jubilee feel like there was something wrong with her. Jubilation knows Noriko loves her just the way she is. She knows.

    Without too much of a desire to linger in this melancholy, Jubilee manages to crack a smile and pull back from Nori. "Maybe we should actually /watch/ a vampire movie at some point? Take notes? Learn some things. That would mean that we'd need to come up with some other kind of movie to 'not' watch."

Noriko Ashida has posed:
"We should look into it.  Maybe go...look at them?  Just to get an idea?" Noriko offers gently.  "You don't have to do all of this stuff alone you know.  I don't want you to."

"I can always build you a coffin just the way you want it...soft or firm," the speedster says with a grin.  "And we can decorate it however you want.  It'll be cool and scare the shit out of all the kids.  You'll never have to write anyone up again."

Finally let go, she just tucks herself in next to Jubilation, curling her legs up.  She looks up.  "That's actually a good idea.  What are things you like to not watch?  Wait did they give you a TV?  Jubes we have to get a TV."

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    Jubilation turns her head so she's facing forward, staring at the logical place that a television would be placed if she had one. Huh. "I guess I never noticed," she mutters absently. The lack of television was a minor detail that she didn't take in upon moving, but now that Noriko has mentioned it, it's rather unusual. "Maybe they think we don't watch TV," Jubes suggests with a shrug. We, in this case, meaning vampires.

    When Noriko curls up, Jubes scoots down so she can lean her cheek against the other girl's shoulder. A smile forms as Nori proclaims that she'll build a coffin for her. Jubes gently presses her hand against Noriko's stomach, a brief shove to nowhere. "You can build coffins?" she teases. "Why do you know how to build coffins?" The point about how scary a coffin might be for the other kids causes that smile to fade. Jubilation lowers her eyes.

    "I don't want to scare the other kids, Nori," Jubes replies gently. "More than I already do. Besides, I don't write people up." Jubilee is the kind of RA to teach the secret smoker kids how to remove the safety locks that keep the windows from opening all the way.

    Noriko's point about Jubilee potentially having new preferences commands the girl's imagination for a few moments. She thinks about that -- which movies did she want to watch and, in this case, not watch? Maybe she'd be able to appreciate movies that she used to hate while alive? Maybe there are other opportunities to take advantage of?

    "Nori!" Jubes exclaims, her eyes opening wide. "I know what we can do!" She turns and smiles widely at the speedster. "Go get your bathing suit."

Noriko Ashida has posed:
"Possible.  It's okay.  We've got plenty of dead heads for one."  Nori's money is Jubes' money apparently, but it kind of always has been.  Except for the money she uses to go get supplies and take back to her old haunts.  It's not really money the girl thinks of as anyone's, as if it was never meant to be in her hands long.

"We don't have to make it look scary Jubes.  We can make it whatever, like fun and inviting inside like a fort.  Jubes I can make your cardboard coffin look like a cardboard coffin...with cardboard alone."  Noriko did live on the streets awhile.  Cardboard is your main building material that is readily available thanks to the transplantation of the Amazon thanks to Amazon and its forest of boxes.

"We just need to brainstorm.  It doesn't have to be a traditional coffin."  Noriko has /raced/ over the question of how she knows how to build coffins.  Raced.

The sudden exclamation in close proximity gives Noriko a little jolt (not literally), just an infinitely quick twitch in her limbs.  "..."  Bathing suit?  All she has is her standard issue Xavier's one which still smells like new, aka, gross.  "Go get it or get into it?"  Either way, Noriko curses herself for not going to get something more flattering.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    "Oh, no, we should keep saving for Japan," Jubilee replies, shaking her head. Their dead heads should not be spent on a television. "I don't need a TV. I can watch on my laptop if I want to. Plus my phone. Plus the Rec Room TV. Plus your TV." It was once their TV, but times have changed...

    "I don't expect you to understand this, but, there's just something..." Jubilation tries to explain but false starts. She tries again, finding new words to express this. "...It just seems like a coffin would be, I don't know... /right/." Jubilation is feeling the infant's natural call to her mother's arms, though in this case it's vampire to coffin.

    Jubilee smiles and shakes her head, rolling her eyes for good measure. "Get into it," she clarifies with a smirk. "What good is a bathing suit without you in it?" Jubilee rakes her fingers through her hair and then shakes it out.

    "You can't kill me, right? So, why don't we go swimming?" Jubilee's smile gets as wide as it can as she waits for Nori's reaction to that.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
Noriko doesn't know all of Jubilation's Japan dreams, but she knows there are a lot of them.  A whole list came spilling out of Jubes at first mention of it, so much so that Noriko realized how embarrassingly little she knows about her own country and city.  So she knows how important it is to Jubilation and she knows how important it is for her.  "I'll find us one.  I promise I won't use the Japan funds," she says, raising a gauntlet finger.

"I'll make it the way you want it.  That's the point," Noriko says with an easy smile.  "I only demand that there's enough space for me too...and that it's comfortable."  Yes.  Noriko has demands for /Jubes'/ coffin.  "I get it," but she doesn't confirm for Jubilation whether she does or not.

Noriko presses her lips to the side with a worry wrinkle in her brow.  "Okay but...you have to help be my lookout and keep people away."  Even with all Nori's reticence, she really can't seem to do anything but give in...she doesn't need any supernatural help with that.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    The truth is, Japan isn't particularly important to Jubilee apart from it being Noriko's homeland. She's just the sort of person to spring to life at the prospects of planning things, as though making sure the trip is fun and jam-packed is her personal cross to bear. It's one she bears happily.

    "Of course there can be space for you. You're okay sleeping in a coffin?" Jubilee questions, tilting her head down as she inspects Noriko's face. She sounds skeptical. Coffins seem to be repulsive to the living.

    Noriko agreeing to go swimming draws another smile from Jubilee. She leans in and plants a kiss on the speedster's cheek. "It's night time. No one will be there," Jubes reminds with a smile. She stands up and walks over to the door that leads to the apartment's bedroom, something she just uses for its closet space. "I'll get changed," she explains, lingering in the doorway.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
It's good that she does, because Noriko would be lost in more ways than one planning a trip to her homeland.

"I don't know."  Noriko had only thought of laying in Jubilation's arms in pillowy goodness.  She wasn't really thinking about what sleeping in a coffin really means.  How it closes.  "I mean as long as there's a way for me to breathe through that should be fine right?"  Apparently, the morbidity of sleeping in a coffin doesn't even cross the girl's mind.

Noriko grins at the little kiss.  "You never know.  Sometimes the teachers are buttheads," she says with a laugh.  "And I don't want any of the pets falling in."  Apparently Noriko is thorough when it comes to her paranoia.  She watches as Jubes pull away with that ethereal grace, transfixed.  "Hmm?  Oh.  I should get changed too."  But she's lingering too.  Look Jubes is her girlfriend!

Noriko smirks in the silence and then suddenly appears close, leaning in, "Race you to the pool," she whispers.  POOF!  She creates her own little back-breeze on Jubilation in her wake like some giant puffed a little gust of air at the girl.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    Jubilation stays there, leaning against the doorway. She's apparently not willing to go and change until Noriko leaves, perhaps to add some mystery and intrigue. "Breathe?" Jubes questions. It's almost like the thought hadn't occurred to her. It's been a little while since she has last taken a breath. She shrugs her shoulders. "We'd have to test that. I mean, we could always poke some holes."

    As soon as she feels that gust of air, Jubilation smiles widely. She lets out a tiny squeak of excitement -- they are going to go swimming! -- and steps into her bedroom. Jubes changes at normal speed, apparently unwilling to use any of her newfound blurry vampire speed. She has noticed that doing that makes her hungrier...

    Jubilee has been at Xavier's for a little while and has accumulated a number of bathing suits. Picking the right one is difficult. She stands in front of a full body mirror, holding each candidate in front of her body. Jubilee's reflection is unreliable -- its movements aren't exactly perfect reflections of her own. As she moves, the reflection seems to need a moment to catch up. Her own smile might be wide and friendly, while the reflection's seems darker and more mischievious. Eventually, she settles upon a bright yellow triangle tie bikini.

    After taking a few minutes to draw on some black wings using waterproof liquid eyeliner, Jubilee pulls her hair into a tight ponytail and then heads out! With a towel in hand, she locks all three of her apartment's locks -- click, click, click -- and starts to flip-flop her way down the hall and on her way to the pool!

Noriko Ashida has posed:
"We'd just need a slit," Noriko returns to call out through the apartment and leaves...yeah!  She got to use her keys!  Something Jubes found out when she left.  It's a quick hop skip up to the room after getting yelled at for no running.  Like, she saw the mouth open but who is to say what they said right?

Then she's back in the room.  The room.  The room where she has no idea where that bathing suit is and she has to find it STAT if she's going to pull off what she wants to.  All of the clothes fly up into the air like dominoes and then fluff back down to the ground with a mega FLOP.

Noriko stands in her ugly one-piece with flip flops in gauntlet, towel over her shoulders, lotion, and check.  She dumps all the pool stuff in one spot and yoinks the TV.  Then she rushes down in nothing but her swimsuit (because when you're that fast it doesn't matter) with the TV like a wet bandit.

At the front door, she stops, waiting till she sees the door to the college building creeeak open.  In Jubilation's wake, she slips inside and rushes the TV up.


Click, click, click.   "There you go.  New home."  Nori leans forward and plants a little kiss on the screen.  Click, click, click.

Nori races back up to cut through the school to get to the backyard, picking up her stuff along the way and at the last second she drops her flip flops and hops into them with both feet at once like someone popping up on a surfboard.  The plastic of the thongs immediately pops through the shoe from the force and snaps back to smack her shins.  She grins, gritting her teeth.  "Here!"