Logs:Onboarding

Onboarding
Dramatis Personae Astrid, Nanami, Spencer
In Absentia	2020-10-05 "Is this a Halloween thing?"
Location <XAV> Back Patio - Xs Grounds
This patio is expertly laid out for relaxing singly or in groups. The section nearest the back door is a more or less conventional veranda, the mansion's eaves--supported by elegant white wooden columns joined with matching railings--extending out to shelter the long porch swings, rocking chairs, and a chess table from the elements. Down the stairs or the ramp from this is a fan-shaped expanse of slate flagstones populated by clusters of deck chairs and picnic tables, always changing in number and arrangement, and stone planter boxes bursting with seasonal flowers and ornamentals. The centerpiece is an elegant pavilion with a hot tub open for use year-round, even if the transition in and out may prove chilly in snowy weather. It's starting to feel like fall For Real, a faint nip in the air and the leaves just beginning the process of change. Somewhere prior to the weekend a new structure has cropped up on the patio, a three-sided hut-like structure of wood with bamboo thatch as its roof. An eclectic mix of decoration has been growing to adorn it -- dried flowers and kids' artwork, carved pumpkins and cutout ghosts. One small dark-haired teenager clearly fresh-off the recently-finished soccer practice -- still in cleats, tall socks, shinguards, black shorts, a baggy sweatshirt tossed on over her tee, hair pulled back in a ponytail, is peering curiously at some of the decorations. Nanami's brows have pulled into a somewhat puzzled frown, eyes skimming from a string of origami black cats to a -- her finger lingers on something that looks rather like a lemon. Any feeling of quiet and solitude near the newly erected structure is slowly etched away by a low scraping noise that gradually grows louder. It’s that sound of hard rubber grinding against cement accented by a rather loud thud timed with each new section of the sidewalk. As the sounds draws nearer, the source becomes clear - a skateboarding teen headed straight for the stairs heading down from the patio. Astrid is relieved that the weather has started to cool down and has decided to take advantage by getting outside more often. She lives for colder weather and is dressed for it with a loose fitting black hoodie, black beanie and just too short dark blue jeans. As her trajectory takes her closer to the stairs, she catches sight of the new structure and pushes her left foot down into the backlip of her skateboard, screeching to a halt. In the blink of an eye, the structure has a new occupant -- no transition, no flash of light, it's as if someone has just edited him into the film. Spencer looks exhausted and disheveled, but pleased with the basket of brilliantly colored leaves on his arm. He's wearing a blue hoodie with white contrast stitching unzipped over a gray t-shirt with the Amulet of Daylight from Trollhunters, slightly oversized blue jeans, and gray canvas sneakers. The kippah clipped to his unruly brown hair is printed with overlapping autumn leaves to match the bounty he brings with him. "Oh hey!" His greeting is bright and cheerful, even if he himself looks about ready to fall over. "Please come in, if you wanna," this is to Astrid. Then he turns to Nanami, indicating the fruit she's examining. "That's an etrog. It's for a ritual, with those." He waves at a bundle of vegetation, bound together with securely, if somewhat clumsily, braided palm fronds. "You never seen a sukkah before?" Nanami looks up at the grinding noise, her frown deepening. It only melts away once Astrid comes into view; she lifts her chin to the newcomer once Astrid is close enough to greet, returning to her study of the not-a-lemon afterwards. Not for long, though. Spencer's abrupt arrival makes her jump. "A what?" is probably answer enough. "Is this a Halloween thing? We don't really -- get fall at home." She's eying Spencer's basket of leaves dubiously, her arms crossing over her chest with a small uncomfortable shiver that does not at all match the following: "I like the orange ones." Her eyes skate toward Astrid next, more curious. Skip up, down. Linger on the skateboard. "Howzit. When you get here?" As graceful as Astrid looks flipping the front of the skateboard up toward her left hand, her first couple steps on solid ground is anything but. She flashes a short-lived, toothy grin to both Spencer and Nanami as she refinds her footing. She squints towards the fruit in question, squirming her right arm free of her backpack's shoulder strap to swing it around front and shove her skateboard into elastic straps. Once secured, she unzips the bag to grab a large pair of black plastic framed glasses that sit crookedly on her face. “I don’t think it is a Halloween thing?” Astrid says in a slow, low monotone rhythm, clearly not at all positive in her answer. She wriggles her nose, trying to straighten her glasses hands free. She shakes her head to the question in regards to the sukkah and glances back to Nanami. “Last week.” "Sukkah," Spencer repeats, "it just means like. Booth." He indicates the structure with an exaggerated flourish of his hand. "In Hebrew. Not a Halloween thing, though." This with a nod at Astrid. "It's our harvest festival. I mean 'us' like Jews. It's pretty much my favorite holiday, ever." But he frowns suddenly. "Holidays? Holiweek." He sets his basket down on a table with a few small, decorative gourds. "I was gonna put some of these leaves on string, or stick them up in the roof. So it looks more autumn-y." He leans on the back of one of the camp chairs that have been deployed in the sukkah, turning his smile on Astrid. "Welcome! My name's Spencer, what's yours? How are you liking it here so far? "Huh." Nanami peers at the decorations with a bit more interest. "I thought you meant ritual like witches. But that's cool, too. What do you use a lemon for?" She's folded her hands into the sleeves of her sweatshirt, folded the sleeves into each other, and now she drags one of the lightweight chairs around with a heel to plop down into it. "Yo. I'm Nanami. Welcome." Though she hasn't been smiling before, a small one does touch her face as Astrid (un)gracefully finds her feet again. "Relatable. Or --" Another frown pulls at her brows. "Well, used to be when there was an ocean around. Maybe I should learn to skate. Used to have a board under me all the time back in Hawai'i but I don't know anything about the wheel-kind. Look fun though." “Sukkah.” Astrid says, chewing on the word slowly. “Never heard of that before, but makes sense as I grew up areligious.” She glances back to the structure, giving it one final nod to further cement the word with the physical image of the booth. She too is curious as to what the lemon is all about, and attempts to hide any eagerness when the question is asked by Nanami. “I’m Astrid.” She smiles. “Nice to meet both of you.” She shoves her hands into the front pockets of her hoodie and attempts to straighten her glasses again with just her nose. “It’s pretty cool so far.” She pauses, head bobbing in a series of nods. “Yeah… I like it. Plenty of room to ride around.” Her eyes shift over to the long stretches of sidewalk. “Never been to Hawai’i, or New York before now I guess.. Never surfed either… that’s what you are talking about, right? Surfing?” "I guess some of our lesser-known holidays are kinda witchy." The scrunch of Spencer's brows is thougthful, but he doesn't seem offended. "And we do light a lot of candles. But yeah, you wave the etrog and the lulav, I mean those plants, around to the four direction, plus above and below -- wow that sounds super witchy. Anyway, if you stick around a bit I can show you." He finally drops himself -- with evident relief -- into the chair he had been leaning on. "Skateboarding is awesome. I gotta spare board if you wanna try it out sometime. Maybe you won't even fall down so much if you already got the balance from surfing." His eyes go wider. "Oh! If you haven't been down into the city yet, there's so many great skate park there. Like, 'official' ones and ones that are just like, empty lots some kids fixed up for skating." "That does sound real witchy," Nanami agrees. "What's the booth for? You gotta contain it once you've summoned --" Once she gets this far, though, she balks, looking to Spence's kippah back up to the roof with a small twist of lips and ending a little bit more flat than she began: "... God?" Less confident here. She pulls one of her legs up into the chair with her, tipping her head back to continue her examination of the decorations. "Etrog. Lulav. Yeah. I'm gonna watch this." She shakes her ponytail back behind a shoulder, biting down on one lip in consideration. "Dunno. Surfing, sometimes you still fall plenny. Just learn how to take it. Maybe it's different if the ocean's not coming at you. You don't laugh when I fall, I try your spare board." “Witchy is good.” Astrid shrugs, loosening her left hand to tug at the beanie and push back a stray strand of dirty blond hair peeking out the front. “And I have plenty of time.” She looks back to the booth and then Spencer. “I have not been to the city just yet and would love to check out the skateparks.” For the first time, her voice cracks the monotone and some excitement, though understated, starts to creep in. “My pops use to take me down to skate under the Burnside bridge.” Said with the assumption everyone knows exactly what she is talking about. “That park is awesome.” The backpack is slipped off one shoulder at a time and set down next to the chair she falls into. “I agree and bet you’d pick it up pretty fast.” Glasses are removed, flipped around and squinted at. It doesn’t seem to do much of anything once they are back on Astrid’s face, but an attempt is made to clean them with her hoodie bottom. “I got an extra board too.” "Oh, the sukkah is where we fight God," Spence explains very seriously. He can't hold it for long, though, and cracks into a wide grin. "Just kidding! We'll fight God pretty much anywhere. The sukkah is for us to eat and sleep in all week and just generally hang out and enjoy the fall weather." One of his leg bounces, jittery-quick. "I won't laugh!" he assures Nanami, wide-eyed and earnest. "I still fall off, too. Sometimes it sure seems like the ground is coming at you!" His head bobs happily. "Where's Burnside Bridge? We've got a big one under the Manhattan Bridge." 'Fight God', Nanami mouths this in silent echo, her head bobbing slowly at this. Despite this, it's the latter half of Spence's Sukkot Explanation that earns her response: "-- You sleep in this? In the fall?" She extricates her sleeves from one another (though not, quite, her hands from the sleeves), waving one sleeve around the open-walled hut and its thatched roof. "Jew... ish people more badass than I thought." Her eyes dart quick back to Astrid. "Where's --" Though Spence finishes this question, too. "I been to the city, but not -- seen much of it. Maybe," she suggests, too-casual, gesturing to both the others, "sometime we all go? Check out a skate park. You can show me how to not fall off so much." What Spencer says about the sukkah causes Astrid to lean forward like she is trying to get a better vantage to listen. She crosses her left leg over her right knee, which looks awkward and gangly. She’s by no means tall, but her spindly form gives a skewed impression, making her seem to have more weight in the height department than she actually does. “Fight God?” Brows furrowed quizzically as she echoes Nanami word for word. She doesn’t seem concerned about the sleeping in the sukkah part. “I’m not sure I understand? What would you be fighting God for?” “Portland.” She says with that same toothy grin from earlier as she leans back into her chair. “Oregon.” Twisting her head towards Nanami, “Yeah, you’ll definitely eat it.” Unconsciously rubbing at her right elbow like some phantom road rash pain is bothering her. “That’d be cool.” She adds in response to them all going to the city to check out some skateparks. “I just can’t promise I won’t laugh.” "We are pretty badass!" Spence beams. "But I also have a really warm sleeping bag." He tilts his head. "I mean, the cheeky answer is we're descended from a guy who was named for fighting God, but also like...a lot of our tradition is built on examining and questioning and debating scripture, and how to apply it to our lives in meanful ways. Obedience to God doesn't mean obeying without question." Here he shrugs. "To us anyway." "Whoa, Portland is pretty badass, too, from what I've heard." His head bobs again, quicker and more excited. "Yeah, let's do it! I grew up in the city, I know so many great places." He jumps up, as if planning to head into NYC right that very moment, but then adds, "I'm just gonna go grab a board so I can wave the lulav and the etrog while skating. That's not traditional," he adds hastily. "But it would be amazing if one of you could record me doing it. Be right back!" And with that he vanishes as abruptly as he came. "Scrapes I can handle," Nanami says with a ghost of a smile. "All I heard about Portland lately is --" Once more her mouth twists to the side. "-- Yeah, kind of badass. Wait, you gonna --" But whatever question she had for Spence is pre-empted by his abrupt disappearance. Her eyes widen, but only briefly. "He does that a lot." She's sinking back into her chair, folding her hands together again. "Guess we gonna get get some religion up in here." Astrid nods along. Nods while she listens to Spencer explain what fight God means. Nods to both their comments in regards to Portland, a place she misses dearly. She doesn’t have time to fall deeper into her thoughts though as Spencer suddenly vanishes. “Guess I will have to get used to that.” She doesn’t specify if that was meant for the sudden disappearance or getting some religion.