8501/Dasha's First Halloween

Dasha's First Halloween
Date of Scene:	31 October 2021
Location:	Back Yard
Synopsis:	Dashenka learns about nachos and vegetarianism. Before Dash and Roxxi can explore the maze though, they meet a spicy Belle, with a meaty sense of humor.
Cast of Characters:	Dashenka Ivanov, Roxxi Smith, Laxmi Mallick

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Dashenka Ivanov has posed:
Dashenka has never done Halloween before. In fact she'd never heard of it until recently and it still mostly confuses her. She gets that it's a holiday of sorts, and there's celebration of spooky stuff and tons of candy (all of which are too sweet for her) but the /why/ of it still kind of escapes her.

Still, she shows up for the party. The staff and other students (who aren't intimidated by her size) have encouraged her to socialize, not that she knows how to do that. She didn't have a costume, but Roxxi came to the rescue with a pink unicorn onesie that somehow fit her huge frame.

So she stands there, with a solo cup of punch in hand, entirely uncertain as to what to do. She talks to students and staff if they come up to her but the stiffness in which she holds herself belies a kind of awkwardness that she feels.

Roxxi Smith has posed:
     Roxxi dressed as retro Harley Quinn in her two-toned bodysuit and jangly hat, sits at a table near the pool. Other kids are in the pool swimming or eating at tables like Roxxi. The rest are running through the maze and pumpkin patch! Roxxi pulls off the paper backing of a second cupcake, as she watches a pair of younger kids rough house in the pool.
     As she shoves the cupcake into her face, she finally notices Dash. Waving frantically, Roxxi calls her over. "Did you eat yet? Have you been through the maze?" The smaller teen asks of her much larger friend.

Dashenka Ivanov has posed:
Dashenka catches the furious waving out the corner of her eye, and looks a little bit grateful to see a friendly face. She makes her way over to the table and gives her a nod. "Privyet Roxxi," she says. "I have not eaten yet and I have not been through the maze. I tried the cup cake but it is too sweet for me."

Roxxi Smith has posed:
     Roxxi grabs another cupcake off her place and scrapes the icing off with the back of a plastic knife. "Try it like that. It's still sweet, but not AS sweet. Also, I think there's some nachos and chips, and you know, real food. Hamburgers, hot dogs..." The Faux-Harley sits up in her seat to look around over to the food tables. "and pizza!"
     After resettling in her seat, Roxxi gives the other teen a succinct nod. "After you eat, we can do the maze!"

Dashenka Ivanov has posed:
Dasha takes the offered cupcake sans icing and carefully peels the paper wrapper off, and takes a large chunk out of it. "Still sweet," she says after finishing it. "But not as much."

She stands there and listens to her food choices. Hamburgers, hot dogs, and pizza she knows. "What are nachos?" she asks.

Roxxi Smith has posed:
     Roxxi seems to be feasting almost exclusively on sweets. She unwraps a mini chocolate bar, and eats it as Dasha finishes her cupcake. "Oh, Nachos? Well, they are tortilla chips, you know corn chips, with ground meat, cheese, and other stuff on top." She scrunched up her nose and rubbed it hard. "Hard to explain, but there's nothing sweet on it."

Dashenka Ivanov has posed:
So that's what that strange station was. Build your own nachos. She looks over her shoulder and moves over to it, silently watching a student load his plate with nachos. Following suit, she lays down a layer of tortilla chips, a layer of queso, then beans and meat, then more tortilla chips and queso, then some chunky salsa, sour cream and guac.

Coming back, to Roxxi's table she sets the plate down in front of her, and takes a tentative bite. "Hrm," she rumbles. "This is good."

Roxxi Smith has posed:
     Roxxi continues to munch on the candy and sweets she has still piled on her plate, as she waits for Dash's return. She picks up a plastic, what looks like a foot, from one of the neighboring pool chairs and lofts it into the pool. It quickly gets grabbed by some of the other kids and incorporated into their games.
     As Dash returns, Roxxi can only watch. After the first bite, Roxxi smiles broadly. "Yay, see, I knew there was something here you would like!"

Dashenka Ivanov has posed:
Dashenka offers another curt nod of the head. "Da. I have found that I like hamburgers as well. Hot dogs... not so much." She noshes on nachos for a little bit, watching the kids in the pool play. "I did not realize there were so many children at school," she says, turning her ice blue eyes back to Roxxi. "So many mutants."

Roxxi Smith has posed:
     Roxxi nods. "I pizza." She grins broadly and returns to her snacks. As Dasha mentions the number of mutants, Roxxi just nods. "Oh yeah, lots. And this is only Xavier's school. There's also another High School, Happy Acres something, here in New York that also has 'special' students. There's just a lot." She rubs at her nose again, smearing her white face paint further. "I am just glad I found a place where it's okay, to be a mutant."

Dashenka Ivanov has posed:
That last comment gets a curious tilt of the head, a rare show of emotion. "Why would it not be okay to be a mutant?"

Roxxi Smith has posed:
     "Oh, well..." Roxxi pauses and considers the question as she chews on the end of a mini twizzler. "Just some people feel that way. Because we can do things, and we are different, and I guess that scares them." She sips from her own solo cup, before continuing. "My last Foster mom said mutants were an abo-min-ation. That we were unnatural, and a sin. She tried to get me cured." Stated almost uncharacteristically matter of face and near mono-toned. For her, at least.

Dashenka Ivanov has posed:
"This is true," she says deadpan. "I am scary."

However, despite being relatively new to social situations she's actually fairly adept at picking up social queues, and Roxxi's change of tone causes a great scowl. "This does not make sense," she says. "There is nothing to cure. I do not know what sin is, or abo-min-ation, but I do not think we are it."

Roxxi Smith has posed:
     Roxxi just shrugged and unraveled a mini buttercup from its wrapper. "Well, you know, a sin is something against the bibble. And Jesus. And all that stuff." Roxxi gives another in-depth definition. "Some of her cures were worse than the others, but you know, it never changed anything. I was always still a mutant in the morning. Anyway, she was pretty mad at me, so I eventually went to a group home after that."

Laxmi Mallick has posed:
     Coming out of the hedgemaze with a cup of punch in hand - Laxmi lets out a loud gasp and the a nervous titter as one of the ghosts manages to jump out and startle here. She moves quickly away from the maze, and towards the pool to take a break, the skirts of the 'Belle' style golden dress she's wearing swishing around her feet though- wait. Are those 'tacos' afixed vertically around the bottom edge of the skirt? ... why?
    Her steps slow as she overhears the sounds of the students voices, and the young woman looks between the two students, a curious and polite expression taking place of the fright she'd had a moment ago. "Namaste. I'm not intruding, am I?"

Dashenka Ivanov has posed:
Dashenka's scowl deepens. "I do not know this bible, or this Jesus, but they do not sound like kind things. This woman was not kind woman and never should have been given children." She gives Roxxi a nod, "It is good that you are here, then."

She looks over when Laxmi greets them "Privyet Laxmi," she says. "You are not." She scoots over with her nachos to give the teacher enough room to sit down.

Roxxi Smith has posed:
     The Psuedo Harley shrugs. "Well, Jesus is supposed to be kind, and the bibble has some good stuff in it too. I just think sometimes people get the messages all mixed up. But yeah, well, before I got here I ran away from the group home. And then I hitched to Mutant Town. And then I met Miss Laxmi," She motions at the teacher's timely arrival. "Logan, and Henry. And they brought me to the school!" She ended cheerfully.
     Once she stopped talking, Roxxi has a moment to take in the full effect of the teacher's costume. "Oh I get it, Taco Belle! Marie was Belle too, but.. without the Tacos." She was finally returning back to full brightness.

Laxmi Mallick has posed:
    "Everything's better with tacos," Laxmi says brightly as she joins the two students, nodding gratefully to Dashenka before she takes a seat.
    "The Bible is a complicated document. It does indeed have some very positive elements and messages in it. But unfortunately, there are also some very negative aspects to some of the passages within it. And there are people who try to twist more ambiguous passages in ways that they believe prove their point of view." She shakes her head sadly. "I think it's a real shame when people use it as an excuse to justify their hatred."

Dashenka Ivanov has posed:
There's a slight furrow of the brow as Dashenka asks, "What is taco belle?" She listens to Roxxi and Laxmi try to explain the religious icons to her, and she dips her head in a nod. "Then it is the people who are wrong," she concludes.

Roxxi Smith has posed:
     Roxxi could only shrug. Her foster Mom did what she did, and thought what she thought, and there was little that could be done about it now. So instead, she pulled out another piece of candy.
     "Oh well. Do you know what Mcdonald's is? It's Kinda like McDonald's, but Mexican food. Well, kinda Mexican food. They have tacos, and Nachos, and all that. I really like the churros." Roxxi concluded.

Laxmi Mallick has posed:
    "It's a fast food restaurant," Laxmi explains. "The dress is a sort of... word joke. A visual word joke." She takes a sip of her punch before adding, "And I think you're right, it's the people who're wrong. We can only hope that they'll be able to learn to be more loving and accepting to more people, but that's not an easy thing to achieve if you've been fed a diet of hate and false facts, unfortunately. It's such a pity."

Dashenka Ivanov has posed:
Dasha takes in this new information with a nod. "I know this McDonalds. I heard other kids talk bout it, and asked what it was." She silent for a bit as she downs a few more chips of her nachos. "I was told of Happy Meal."

Roxxi Smith has posed:
     Roxxi was happy to let the heavier talk slide. Instead, she tugged on one of the jingly ends of her jester's hat. Muffins, tucked at her belt wore a matching but much tinier version. "Not sure if Taco Bell has a happy Meal. Maybe a kids' eal meal of some sort." She laughed and shrugged. "When you finish your nachos Dash, we should go through the maze!"

Laxmi Mallick has posed:
    "I honestly haven't even eaten there before," Laxmi admits in a wry tone. "It doesn't seem like the sort of place that would cater well to vegetarians, but I couldn't resist the humor of the costume idea." She sips her punch again, then nods towards the maze as she adds, "It's good fun, as long as you don't mind being startled. There's people in ghost costumes jumping out at you from blind corners in there - startled me more than once, I'll admit."

Dashenka Ivanov has posed:
"Hrmm." grunts Dashenka. "This is a good thing that you told me of this," she says to Laxmi. "So I will not go bear on the peoples." She continues to munch on the nachos, the plate rapidly disappearing. "What is vegetarian?"

Roxxi Smith has posed:
     "Yeah, I went through it earlier with Jubilation and Nori. And it didn't go so well. But I wanna try it again!" At least Jubes only punched someone and didn't go full vamp on anyone. Roxxi looked down at her plate full of empty wrappers. Well, that explained the antsy feeling she was starting to experience.
     Fidgeting with her plate, Roxxi tried to explain vegetarian, even though it was likely Laxmi would fill in the particulars. "Oh! Vegetarians don't eat meat, Dasha!"

Laxmi Mallick has posed:
    "I was raised to believe that all living things have the spark of the divine in them, and so deprieving something which contains the divine of its life - of its right to live - would be quite wrong. But others have different beliefs about the nature of reality, of course," Laxmi replies easily. "And we must all walk the paths before us the best we can."

Dashenka Ivanov has posed:
Dashenka looks thoughtful for a moment. "I do not understand. Is the divine not in plants?" She doesn't know anything about spirituality. "I could not be vegetarian," she concludes. "Polar bears eat mostly meat."

Roxxi Smith has posed:
     Roxxi shook her head. She had no idea what life forms harbored the divine. Likely it depended on who you asked. Pamela Isley would likely argue plants had more divinity than any meat creature.
     Standing up, like the chair could no longer control her, Roxxi spun in place. I'm going to head for the maze, join me when you are ready Dash!" She then began a series of kart wheels, handsprings, and aerials across the lawn.

Laxmi Mallick has posed:
    "Some believe they do, some believe they don't. Some point out that you can eat most plant foods without killing the plant. Eating an apple doesn't kill the tree. Picking leaves from a chard or kale plant doesn't kill it, either. Wheat is harvested after the stalks have dried and died naturally. Other simply point out that animals are a 'higher' form of life, and killing them is more sinful. Even within Hinduism, it can be very complicated, with many different beliefs, and opinions," Laxmi explains with a slightly wry smile.
    "But indeed - polar bears must eat meat. You must care for your body, and do what's necessary, and there's no sin in that. I don't believe so, anyways. But you should go enjoy the maze, with Roxxi," she encourages Dashenka with a friendly smile. "I'll be your first maze! Have fun, girls!"