8212/So Close And Yet So Far

So Close And Yet So Far
Date of Scene:	12 October 2021
Location:	Jubilee's Apt - College House
Synopsis:	After Nori puts her foot in her mouth, Jubes storms off. Nori makes chase and reveals that she's not handling their new living situations as well as Jubilee thought.
Cast of Characters:	Jubilation Lee, Noriko Ashida

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Jubilation Lee has posed:
    These two haven't had too many fights, but being chased back to wherever you're storming off to is part and parcel in a relationship with a speedster. Jubilation doesn't even bother closing the door to her apartment. Being so easily caught after a storm-off might create the impression that the gesture itself is meaningless, but such is the nature of a mutant relationship: anything to make it seem normal. Pointless storm-offs are the only storm-offs.

    And so, Jubes stands there, leaning against the small counter in the kitchenette and arms crossed in front of her chest.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
Noriko just couldn't leave things as they ended.  She tries to give Jubilation a courtesy wait...the courtesy to walk back to her place...her place.  It echoes through Nori's mind darkly as she storms back and forth, blurry walking a bare spot into the lawn where she circles until she guesses Jubilation has gotten back.

Finding the door open, Noriko's heartbeat spikes immediately, like some cracked out hummingbird.  Suddenly she appears.  "You scared the fuck out of me-why'dyouleavethedooropensomeonecouldhavejustcomrightin."  The speedsters words get faster and faster as she paces back and forth in that tiny space.  She stops when she stops speaking.  She tries to catch her breath which sounds like clipped little panting.  "Fuck-I'msoglad-you'reokay."  It wasn't even that long.  Jubes didn't really have to wait for Noriko.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    "Someone /did/ come in," Jubilation points out with a smirk. She stands there, staring at the speedster as she has her little meltdown. Jubes pushes off from the counter top and vampire-blurs to the door. She closes it at normal speed and then casually walks back to Nori. "You okay?" she asks, eyebrows hiked up. She leans her weight to the side, puts her hand on her hips, and just stares.

    "...Nori, what the hecky?" she questions, now just gobsmacked at how worried she got over a door that hadn't been open for more than a few moments.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
"I have keys.  You don't have to leave it open for me," the speedster points out in all seriousness, trying to reign in how quickly she's speaking, but simultaneously realizing how much she is crashing and burning by the hike of Jubes' eyebrows.  "...what the-hecky?"  Noriko /stares/ back at Jubilation suddenly.  "Seriously?  I'm fine.  Just can you please not do that?"  Why is she insisting?  It's clear by her sheepish nature that she knows this request is not normal, that she doesn't want to.  "Always shut the door behind you.  It just scared me."

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    Jubilation squints back as Nori doubles down. "Nori," Jubes starts, trying to get a word in. "Nori," she tries again. Jubes blinks very slowly. "Nori!" is her final try, nicely timed after Noriko is finished. "Take a chill pill!" People still say that, right? "...I left it open because I knew you were right behind me."

    "Why are you acting like this?"

Noriko Ashida has posed:
Nori saw enough old movies growing up that she's aware of the phrase and she immediately takes in some deeper breaths.  She looks more relaxed even if it happens so quickly.  Well calm enough to answer, "I-I wasn't sure how long had passed and I didn't want hunters to get you," she admits, torn between respecting Jubilation's right to storm off in peace and her own paranoia.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    Jubilee blinks, stunned, and takes all that in. She opens her mouth, a frown forming, but then... her expression softens. Perhaps Nori's perception of time is different from her own, she figures. The door was open such a short amount of time, but how could the speedster even know that? Jubilation closes her mouth and smiles with just her lips.

    "You don't have to worry about me, Nori," Jubilation says softly, taking a step towards her. She reaches out with one of her hands and places it on one of her gauntlets. "No one is going to 'get' me. Okay?"

Noriko Ashida has posed:
"I know I sound like an idiot.  Like a kid."  BUT VAMPIRES ARE REAL JUBILEE AND SO ARE THE HUNTERS AND THAT'S REALLY SINKING IN.  "There are people who want to kill you out there," the teen says with conviction, her gauntlet bunching up into a fist.

Noriko seems wholly unaware of her time perception slip.  Only, a little confused, something that fades easily under Jubilation's sureness.  "You don't know that-and-...and I'm not even allowed to sleep around you or live around you."

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    "There are always people out there, Nori..." Jubilee replies, her voice getting even softer. Such is the life of a mutant. It's not all that different from vampire.

    "You're wrong about that. It's me who's not allowed to live around /you/. It's for your protection. From /me/..." The words do not come easily, especially the last two, but Jubilation gets through them.

    Jubilation's eyes lower. She had hoped the opportunity would have presented itself to explain to Nori what she's been up to these past couple nights, that she had been co-horting with some confirmed vampire hunters in the city. But is now that time? No way.

    "Nori, just relax..." Jubilee whispers. "Look... I'm going to show you something, okay..." She takes out her phone and pulls up a video. It's a recording of her most recent session in the Danger Room. She turns the phone in Nori's direction and hits play. It's not a long video, but it shows Jubilee going into slayer-mode against a small group of feral vampires. In the video, she gets into a fistfight with one of them, sweeps them down to the ground, and then straddles the creature before jamming a stake through its chest. The second one immediately falls dead, as Jubilee had immediately thrown a stake across the holographic environment and into the creature's heart.

    "You don't need to worry," Jubilee explains. "But I love that you do."

Noriko Ashida has posed:
"I know there are.  I know," Noriko says with a desperate sense of emotion coursing through her.  There are always people out there.  The words are stamped on Noriko.  To her, to some side of her, this seems all the more reason to do what she's saying!

When Jubilation draws all the spotlight on her being wronged as the predator, Noriko quiets, but her blood pressure rises.  Her chest feels tight as she breathes.  Or maybe it's all in her head.  Her dark brown eyes flit to Jubilation and then back to the screen as she waits for it to unfold.  "I know...I know...I just can't help it."

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    "Nothing is going to happen to me," Jubilee repeats. She sounds so sure, like only a teenager can. "You really don't have to worry. I promise." Jubes smiles and shrugs her shoulder. She turns and walks to the refrigerator so she can open it. There's nothing in there except a single can of Sprite. She retrieves it and walks back to Nori. "Here," she offers, holding the can out.

    "Have some Sprite. The hiccups will slow you down, maybe." Not literally, of course, but it might keep her from speaking before her thoughts are formed, at least?

Noriko Ashida has posed:
Noriko silently drills Jubilee's words into her head.  Nothing will happen to her.  Nothing will happen.  When the Sprite is extended into Noriko's view, she snatches it up and is already waiting on gravity to do its job.  Half gone, she lowers it, keeping both gauntlets around it.

Jubilation is right.  The drink helps quiet the speedster providing some kind of basic biological succor.  "Jubes I don't want to live like this.  Separate."

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    Jubilation frowns gently as that thought bounces around in her head. What were they fighting about, anyway? It doesn't really even matter anymore, probably, and she's happy to just let it go. Instead, here's Noriko struggling with things. Jubilation looks around at the apartment and its fixtures. It still seems like student housing. She hasn't made it her own in any way, shape, or form.

    "What are you suggesting, Nori?"

Noriko Ashida has posed:
Whatever they were fighting about has long since left the fear possessed (and maybe more) Nori.  And Jubilation's question is one Noriko has to ask herself, too.  But the answer is already there, she finds.  "I want us to live together again."  She wants so much more than that.  She doesn't want to be left in the dark when something 'medical' that people thing is too much for her to hear is going on with Jubes.

"I'm going to talk to Ororo.  I'm going to tell her that if I can't live with you here, I don't want to live here."

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    "No!" is Jubilee's immediate response to that. It comes out like shriek, immediate and brief. Her eyes are wide, brows hiked. She reaches out with both hands, as though on instinct. "Nori, you can't do that. If they say 'no'..." Jubilee frowns and glances at the door. "Then you'll be further. Farther. Further? Whichever one."

    "If they call your bluff, then what?" Jubilee shakes her head and crosses both arms in front of her chest. "Think of something else."

Noriko Ashida has posed:
Jubilation's reaction hits Nori suddenly.  Her own eyes widen in response.

"It's not a bluff...If they say no you'll come with me won't you?"  It wasn't Jubes' first instinct, and perhaps that is unfair (it totally is), but Noriko can't help the little sting that course through her.  Still there's that hopeful look in her eyes.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    Jubilee stares at the speedster. Her mouth hangs open, the tips of her fangs just barely visible. "Come with you if you... You mean... leave?" she replies quietly. "Leave Xaviers..." Those two words really don't seem to compute when paired together. Jubilee looks slightly pained, her brow wrinkled and mouth open.

    "You told me you wouldn't run away again," Jubilation reminds gently. "You promised." It's an artful dodge of the question.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
"I promised that if I ever left, I would take you with me."  Noriko also made her own promises of not leaving; it's true.  She stares back, in shock from the wave of realization that Jubes is dodging the question, bringing up that.  All of this.

"It's okay.  Fine."  Noriko brushes it off.  "I get it."  The Sprite is set down, not finished and Noriko just looks straight forward, not wanting to look Jubilation in the eye, her gaze listless.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    Jubilee nods, Nori's answer jogging her own memory of the events. "Right," she says with a nod. "That's right." Her lips curl inward, eyes rolling to the side as she lingers in those memories. "I don't want to leave, Nori," she explains, gaze lingering on the can of Sprite. "But, I'll... I'll do it. I'll go if you do."

    Her frown lingers. It's clear that this place is special to her and she doesn't want to go.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
"It's your home," Noriko says solemnly.  Although Xavier's is the place that took Noriko in, Jubilation was always home for Noriko.  Noriko has always struggled with accepting anything beyond the girl.  "I won't ask you to do that," she decides with a deep breath.

Noriko's shoulders slump forward as if she has something to carry, but it's not something wholly new.  "I can't."  She already knows it when the words spring to her lips.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    "Stop," Jubilee says with some authority. She's not glamouring, though, and seems to have found some control of that ability. "Nori, don't be silly. You're going to and you /can/." Jubilation puts her hands on her hips and cracks a small smile. "You wouldn't leave me here," she insists.

    Jubes lifts her eyebrows and stares at Noriko, waiting for any and all reactions.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
"Of course I wouldn't leave you here!" Noriko reacts so quickly she doesn't have a moment to realize how big her reaction is.  She's even on her feet.  "I'd stay."  The two words pierce her and deflate her back down.

"Sorry," Noriko mumbles self-consciously, her gaze twitching away.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    Jubilee frowns. She picks up the can and holds it out for Noriko to take back. "Why are you acting like you just got punched in the stomach?" she asks. "What's going on?" She turns her back to Noriko and pulls the unusual sapphire necklace from her neck. Jubes stuffs it into her pocket and walks across the tiny living room and leans against the arm of the couch.

    "You've been acting like... I don't know.."

Noriko Ashida has posed:
"I just can't keep doing this," Noriko blurts, Sprite now in her hands/gauntlets.  "I can't sleep.  Or if I do, I'm not sure when I'm doing it-acting like what?"  Noriko's conversational vector shifts suddenly at Jubilation's words.  She isn't aggressive about it, but opportunistic?  Demanding?  Okay maybe a touch aggressive.  It's a hairpin reaction.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    I just can't keep doing this. Jubilee stares at Nori, just...stares. She doesn't believe the words she's hearing. That's the classic sentence, isn't it? I can't keep doing this. Jubilation closes her eyes and tilts her head down a touch. She falls silent for a few moments that feel like an eternity.

    "Can't keep doing what?" she asks quietly. Everything else has fallen by the wayside. Nori's question gets forgotten.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
"I can't keep being apart from you.  Sleeping in different places.  Living in different places, apart.  It's too much," Noriko begins to blubber as her emotions slide all over the place.  She sniffs, but it's too late and she knows it.  Her eyes gush forth, only making it harder for her to rein in her power as she cries and cries about the puddles of tears on her lap and how she can't stop crying, but then suddenly she does, the sound dying down like a toddler running out of steam.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    "Nori... I don't like it either!" Jubilation insists. She pushes off from the arm of the couch and walks back across the living room towards the speedster. "But I'm putting up with it so they don't make me go away! Or... I don't know, hire a slayer or something..." More and more, the idea that the faculty would do something like that to her starts to seem rather absurd. Jubilee's bottom lip sticks out a little as she pouts.

    "I don't know what to do... I mean, what /can/ we do?" Her eyes lid, taken with the sight of Noriko Ashida crying like this. Jubes turns her head and looks around at what was supposed to be Rogue's apartment.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
Noriko's grits her teeth against new tears when Jubilation insists.  It probably wouldn't matter what she said, but the mention of them hiring a slayer makes Noriko roll her eyes.  "They don't want to kill you.  They think this can be reversed."  It's not like they haven't touched on the meaning of a possible reversal before and Noriko cuts herself short.  There's a gap of silence.

"I can only tell Ororo the truth."  Noriko's eyes are red and puffy already.  Curse of being a speedster.  She's probably rubbed them a billion times between pauses for breath and all sorts of occasion.  "Or I can sneak over every night."

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    Jubilee frowns at the eyeroll. Another one. "Yeah, well, you know what I was before I was like this? I was dead, so, if they want to reverse it..." She shrugs, her voice trailing off. It's not a credible fear for Jubilation, as it's largely in her hands. "I'm not letting them /near/ me," she adds. Jubilation turns and walks to the door. She turns the knob and opens it.

    "Let me know how it goes," she says softly. "But, I guess for now I should... go eat."

Noriko Ashida has posed:
"I know.  I won't let it happen either," Noriko says empathically, locking her gaze with Jubilee.  "They'll have to go through me first, and that's impossible so..." Noriko shrugs, seeming to calm down as they talk about things they feel like they have more control over, more security in.  "I'm glad...you that you can take care of yourself."  Noriko blinks and rises to her feet when she sees Jubilation heading there.

"Oh yeah.  I forgot.  Breakfast."  Jubes must be starving, the speedster thinks to herself.  Noriko spurts over to stop and give Jubilation a kiss on the cheek, then another on the lips before she parts.  "If you want to hang tonight, let me know...somehow."  Noriko shrugs and smirks a little.  "Smoke signals?  Whatever.  I'm going to go take a nap."  And then she's gone.