Owner	Pose
Noriko Ashida	It's been a downright gorgeous day for a run so it's been one for the zoo.  Noriko didn't elaborate why she wanted to go to the zoo.  After all, why does anyone want to go? The day started out with a big breakfast at the mansion and a little warmup run before the trek out.  Nori was made to surrender her backpack at the front desk after some difficulty from her over the whole thing. Noriko spurts out of the bathrooms and comes to a stop out of view as if it were habit, given how short the distance was.  She strolls out from behind that wall over there with her leather jacket on...in July and searches about for Jubes quietly and at a torturous normal pace.  She's since gotten her hair back to its usual electric blue color from the darker shade it was before.  "Jubes?"  The notion of calling out for Jubilation leaves Nori feeling small and helpless as her impatience mutates all too quickly to a kernel of panic pricked by circumstance. The speedster sees a sign for the cafeteria and just automatically starts off that way as if she were just following a sign home while in the woods.  Food always makes her feel good.
Jubilation Lee	Meanwhile, Jubilation dresses for an outing in July the same as she might for an outing in November. Black spandex shorts are the order of the day, today, and they juuuuust barely make it past her butt. She also wears a pink t-shirt with a neckline that has been cut to reveal more of her shoulders and the smallest hint of cleavage. It has also been cropped to reveal her midriff. The words 'GENUINE CLASS' have been screen-printed on the front. Her hair has been pulled up into a girlish ponytail, while her eyes are perpetually hidden behind a pair of dark Ray Bans. White Vans sneakers and pink lip gloss complete the outfit.     "Hot coffee! Hot coffee! Hot coffee here!" The crowds of people forming human obstacles between Noriko and the cafeteria seem to disperse, as if by magic. Oh, but it's not. Jubilation Lee is running back from the cafeteria with what appears to be a coffee mug held high above her head. It seems to be repelling people who don't want to get scalding hot coffee spilled on them. In her other hand, two water bottles.     "It's important to hydrate, Noriko Ashida..." she teases while holding one of the bottles out for the other mutant. She sets the coffee mug -- completely empty -- on the top of a nearby garbage can. Who knows where she found that?
Noriko Ashida	Jubes all-seasonal outfit is always one Nori has been supportive of and likely has very little understanding of just how much discomfort Jubes goes through when it comes to temperature.  Sure Nori gets cold and overheated like everyone else, but she's also used to sprinting around to regulate her temperature as much as people do with clothing.  Given Jubilation's seeming boundless energy and acrobatic way of getting around, Nori simply assumes Jubes must be in the same camp even if at a different scale.  There's a lot of added benefits, but the one where it makes Jubes easy to spot is not in play during the summer. Fortunately for Nori, Jubes has the uncanny ability to part seas of people in an endless amount of ways, saving Nori from having to go find a corner to start a faster-than-sight sprint search, an urge she's been resisting.  An urge she knows isn't normal.  As soon as she sees Jubilation she let's out a little sigh of relief. Nori briefly slows down for a beat when making contact as she takes the bottle, one of those little courtesies born out of habit just for Jubilation.  Connected by a bottle between them and that fraction of a moment of considering each other in the subtle awareness of the now nearly subconscious ritual.  Noriko smiles.  "Thanks," she says sincerely before having to get a quick peek at the coffee mug contents to confirm her suspicion that her girlfriend is indeed smarter than her.  "Nice trick." "Don't-...next time-"  Noriko presses her water-moistened lips together quickly in frustration.  "We said we would meet-I'm sorry I just thought you were going to wait for me."  The speedster's mind keeps trying to race forward, skipping over important context and then rediscovering things like they did agree to meet after Nori hit the bathroom and they did meet and Jubes was on her way back.  Noriko's face flashes red.  "Did you see the sea lions?" getting it on she means, and there's no way Jubes can't hear them.  Her face flashes red again but she immediately bursts out into a laugh.
Jubilation Lee	"Sorry..." she says, though her tone doesn't have a whole lot of contrition. It was a pretty minor thing, after all. She went and got water bottles. One of Jubilation's legs is kicked up and allowed to rest on the top of the wooden fence that lines the shrubbery. It's a classic gymnastics sort of stretch. She bends forward at the waist and slides her fingertips down her leg so she can hold the stretch for a few moments. Jubes turns her head to watch Noriko, perhaps to see if she's watching, but her expression falls flat as Noriko starts interrupting herself. She leaves the leg up on the post for now and stares at the speedster. "Yeah... it turns out that people really don't want to have hot coffee spilled on their heads..." she explains quietly. "Who knew?"     Before Jubilation is able to ask Noriko about her apparent nerves, the sea lions are brought up. "Oh, yeah!" she exclaims. "What's worse... one of them saw /me/. I swear, he must've looked right at me." She mock-shudders. "I swear, I feel like I've been Weinstein'd by sea lions." She starts unscrewing the cap of her own water bottle, struggles for a second, and then brings the cap up to her mouth she can use her teeth on it.     "Is something bothering you?" The words are muffled by the whole opening-a-bottle-with-her-teeth thing, but it should be obvious what she's asking.
Noriko Ashida	It's hard to not notice Jubilation's stretching session.  It's hard not to admire it.  The speedster's eyes twitch to more appropriate areas once or twice out of ingrained cultural propriety but that's about as much as Noriko can hold out against Jubilation's charms. Nori laughs and chokes on her water a little at the thought of the sea lion staring Jubes down which bears absolutely no resemblance to her staring Jubes' stretching session down.  Nope.  She clears her throat. "I don't like flying," Noriko blurts out in response as if she plucked one of the knots right out of her stomach; it is that present on her mind...and it's true.  She doesn't.  It is something bothering her.  Still.  "I bought the tickets...I should have had someone else buy them in their name.  I didn't think about it.  I can probably still get the refund and do it," it all comes pouring out of her mind and mouth quickly between small anxious sips of water.
Jubilation Lee	No one would blame Jubilation if she expressed disappointment. After all, a free trip to Japan is absolutely something worth looking forward to. No one would blame her if she scoffed or whined or anything like that. Remember, this is the girl who nearly took up arms after the Xavier's kitchen stopped stocking the s'mores Pop-Tarts. She wasn't known for handling disappointment so well. But, these are the kinds of moments that test people. Test situations. Test relationships. So, how would she react... to this?     Jubilee's leg comes down from the fence in a carefully rehearsed motion, as though it's a movement she's done countless times. Gymnastics is just about the only graceful thing about her -- normally, she's like a bull in a china shop with most things. Instead of looking disappointed, upset, sad, or anything of the sort, she looks like she's working out a problem. Suddenly, her eyes light up and she reaches out with both hands.     "Okay, so, here's what we do. We'll take over the Rec Room and turn it into, like, a ramen shop, right... And we'll have ramen there. And...and.. I could take the money I was saving up for the trip and get us, you know, a pachinko machine or something, like, used on eBay, and we could set it up there, too. Oh! And, we can pile a bunch of stuff into the bed so it's even smaller. It'll be like we're at one of those coffin hotels in Tokyo!"     "Ooh, I bet we could mess with the air conditioner back at school so it gets really humid like Japan, too! And find some of the drama club kids to do kabuki theater! And...And..." It seems like this would continue if she's not stopped.
Noriko Ashida	Noriko was never thinking about what she might be communicating between the lines given she's so consumed with the small world of her own thoughts (which pretty much consist of the categories Jubes and Everything Else).  When Jubes' foot hits the ground, Noriko turns her gaze downwards, stiffening up a little at the sound as if some part of her she can't control expects something that never comes. Not from Jubilation.  These subtle quick changes are known by those who can read them as if by sense, who have had the practice of being saturated with Nori's presence, for they go by too fast for normal recognition. Out of shame perhaps, Noriko clings to her downtrodden look even when she takes Jubes' outstretched hands.  In fact, she just begins to tear up rapidly.  It's like a mini steady stream of tears, no tributaries, just a straight shot down to drip so rapidly it might not be dripping, technically speaking. Noriko just quietly cries, but finally, with no end in sight, she interjects, "No no no.  I mean I need to do it under different names.  I don't want my father finding out we're there," she explains with sky high paranoia as obvious as it is.  "We're going to Japan.  I'm going to ask the headmistress if she can help me like...I don't know, I need a way to go to sleep and I want a way to discharge, and-" how much of this is really necessary physically versus emotionally isn't blatantly clear. "We should do all of that stuff anyways for the kids when we tell them about our trip," Noriko adds quite lucidly before her the look in her eye goes vacant with racing background thoughts.
Jubilation Lee	Jubilee moves her hands away from Noriko's so that she can reach around for a proper hug. One hand comes to rest on the back of Noriko's head, buried in her hair. For her part, Jubilation just stands there, pressing herself against Nori and letting her cry. A pair of teenage boys snicker as they walk by. It's unclear if they're snickering at Noriko's display of emotion or not, but Jubilee has been rather tense lately. A lot of time spent working out, practicing her punches, and so on. She has been a little bit on edge, so she doesn't let those two guys go by without a talking to.     "What's it like to see two hot Asians embracing somewhere other than in your web browser history!?" she shouts angrily at them before pulling Noriko closer.     "We'll figure it out," she whispers softly into Nori's ear. "It'll be alright, you'll see."     At the thought that they might turn Westchester into New Tokyo, Jubilee gently nods her head. "Okay, we can do all that," she agrees. "But maybe without the pachinko machine. I've never searched online for one but I bet they're expensive." She lifts her eyebrows and peers up at Noriko, as if to see if her spirits are lifting or not.
Noriko Ashida	Noriko just tries to ignore the boys, but her jaw tenses a little until Jubes speaks up.  She breathes in the proverbial shadow of the girl she clings to, "We can just fake a pachinko."  Then she looks down, meeting Jubilation's gaze, which only starts the waterworks again. "No...I'm not sad.  I just can't believe-," Noriko tries to explain through the seemingly misplaced tears.  "I never meant for us to not go.  I just, that you would do all of that for me-I'm happy," she mumbles, smiling and still crying as she buries her face into Jubilation indiscriminately to try and hide the tears. "Can we just go and stuff our faces with food that isn't overpriced?  I feel like all the animals are staring at me."  Noriko probably means the humans at this point, because between the two of them, they have drawn some attention. They're just a few steps away from where Noriko whisks them away.