Logs:Meetings & Murky Pond Water

Meetings & Murky Pond Water
Dramatis Personae AJ, Nahida, Tok	2024-05-18 "You hear music too or am I officially losing it?"
Location <XAV> Gardens - Xs Grounds
From indoor gardens to outdoor, though without the protective greenhouse glass the back gardens do not last all year round. Still, the gardens out here are well-tended and well-worth spending time in, as well. The paths wending through the beds of flowers and herbs and vegetables spread out through the school's back grounds, tended by students as a credit class. Benches offer seating and a small pond is home to koi and turtles, as well as a few frogs. At the far back edges of the garden, a droning buzzing marks a few stacked white boxes as beehives. It’s later in the day on a cool but not too cool Saturday. The gardens are quiet, lacking the activity it would have earlier in the day. Tok is, not so much sneaking, but certainly walking quietly through the winding paths of the garden, cardboard box in hand. They heard about there being bees, and well, you could make a whole lot of people’s days a lot more interesting with box of bees and a dream. They do, however, get distracted by the koi and turtles. They lean over the edge of the pond, cardboard box forgotten beside them, as they watch, long fluffy tail waving back and forth and their eyes dilated like a cat’s. They’ve got their hand in this probably kinda nasty pond, poking at some of the turtles and attempting to poke at the koi without spearing them with a claw. Nahida is dressed bold today, springlike, layered-gauzy wide leg pants that look almost like a skirt, top tucked into it in a multicolored swirl, a light vest open over top that, in neutral tones that match her neatly-draped hijab, provide some contrast to keep the bright colors from overwhelming. Her path through the garden isn't loud but it is marked distinctly by the quiet jingle of the many gold bangles around her wrist. She has been swiping something on her phone but looks up as she nears the pond, arching an eyebrow as she watches Tok's claws in it. "I don't think the fish are enjoying that half as much as you." There's a distinct and heavy Bangladeshi accent to her words. Behind the two - well not directly behind the two - a few rows back, AJ heads to her favorite bench. It's anchored under an oak tree with an already thick canopy of bright green leaves and budding leaves. Dressed in a black zip-up hoodie, blue skinny jeans and her doodled-on converse, AJ is ready to day out for awhile. Slung over her shoulder is a cloth guitar cartyibg-case which is adorned with numerous pins. She settles on the bench and takes out her guitar: a lot has happened this week and she needs to process it all. She pulls out her most prized possession: a Gibson electric guitar, glossy and the perfect amount of heavy in her hands. She only spent a few moments tuning it before age started to play an sibg a song she been working on for some time. Tok yelps and nearly falls into the pond, managing to catch themself at the last second to avoid taking a dunk. They laugh, “HoLY shit did you see that??” They’re still laughing as they manage to get themself out of the precarious position, and look back towards Nahida. “NAH I AINT bothering them too bad! Just sayin hello.” They grin, full of sharp teeth. “Ooo cool bangles! They’re shiny.” They stick out a hand from where they’re sitting on the ground, the same hand they hand submerged in the murky pond water, “I’m Tok! Nice to-“ Their ear flicks and they tilt their head curiously, “You hear music too or am I officially losing it?” "I know. Sriyani told me already that you are very interesting and very weird and went ghost chasing with them only the other day." She's slipping her phone somewhere away into the flowing folds of her pants, and giving Tok a lengthier examination. She definitely does hear the music, because she glances -- very briefly -- past Tok to where AJ is playing on the bench in the distance. She's looking back to Tok soon enough, and suggests, very solemnly: "Music? Are you sure you didn't bring the ghosts home?" Aaj is fully unaware of the disturbance she's causing, too lost in the embody in her head and translating it through her fingers and into her instrument. She switches the song to something more poignant abd rife with grief from her time in The Panic Room, pushing out the loneliness, the fear and anger shed been living in for ages now. This was the rest time she was playing it qbd she pictured that she was standing on a stage, blinded by apitlightz. Around her were mutants, their faces empty, blank slares for her to fill later when it came true. Back up vocals sang with her, instruments likened up the song as she sang it breathlessly. Tok grabs at their hair, “Wait. Seriously? You don’t hear anything? OH GOD I thought I’d have more time before I went crazy! Or got haunted! I knew it’d probably happen eventually but so soon? I’m gonna start seein’ the hat man now. You think he’ll help me with my assignments? No that’s a stupid question of course he won’t.” They’ve begun pacing, and stop in front of Nahida, “OHOH You wanna help me defeat a ghost? They’re singing uhhhh emo music? I dunno what it is but a ghost that sings emo music is probably the spookiest kind of ghost there is so it will be dangerous.” Nahida takes a veeery small step back as Tok starts pacing, her expression one of curious intrigue. "Quentin will help you with your assignments, if you can deal with him. No haunting required." Her eyes flick past Tok again, and then return to the smaller teen. "Do I look white to you? I'm not seeking out a ghost to fight it. If it's a ghost that died at this school, anyway, it probably has dangerous powers and is full of angst." AJ has to break the fantasy when she hears distant, loid voices. She wants to see if they're coming hercway but they're not. Not yet anyway. She decides to pack it in for now and starts to put away her guitar, zipping up the Gibson. Once packed, she headed back for the greenhouse, a path that would take grr directly past Tok and Nahida .... Tok perks up, “Quentin? Quentin! I’ll find him.” They inspect Nahida, “And NAH I guess not! Still betrayed though. I bet this Quintin guy would help me fist fight a gho-“ Tok pauses. “The music’s stopped. Maybe the ghost got bored. I know the feeling. I get bored real easy.” They pick at their ear, inspect the ear wax, and flick it into a bush, “I never got your name, I could give you a nickname if you want but I don’t think calling you Bangles is right and that’s the only thing comin to me right now. OH how about Bagel? Heh. Cause it kinda sounds like Bangles.” Nahida's lips have thinned just a little, twisting slightly down as Tok pulls out the ear wax. She takes another small step back. "Absolutely not," is her firm reply to Tok. "My name is Nahida. It's fine how it is." When she's put a little bit more distance between herself and the earwax she relaxes slightly. She digs her phone back out of her pocket, though mostly just to bop it absently against a palm. "Sriyani is always chasing new thrills. No big surprise you got on immediately." Once more her eyes slip past Tok, chin tipping slightly in AJ's direction. "I think your ghost took flesh." AJ is in rge muddle of stepping over a flower bed when sge freezes, staring up at the voice. Her mouth runs dry in a short panic. Oh c r u d! That's Nahida! AJ felt severely underdressed and shabby in the presence of the fashion--forward, brand name outfit she wore. AJ was so flustered, in fact, that she stumbled and hit the toe of her shoe on q decorative rock! Ste tipped forwards and, hands foolishly remaining on her guitar vase straps, dropped to the ground direct on her face! “Oo Nahida. I like it. And yeah we got on great!” They chatter excitedly, but their face falls at Nahida’s last comment, “Wait wh-“ Tok spots AJ, followed by the probably loud noise of her falling, and shrieks, but it’s got an animalistic hissing sound in there too. They jump behind Nahida to place her between themself and the “ghost”, tail puffed out, veins and eyes pulsing a soft white for a moment before quickly settling. “GEEZ! Gave me a freakin heart attack!” They grab at their chest. “Heh…heh…. Damn. Uh. Are you okay?” They ask, peeking out from behind Nahida. Fashion-forward, to be sure, but there's no brand name on Nahida's current clothes. She's looking a little wide-eyed -- first to AJ as she stumbles and then to Tok as they shriek-hiss. Her arms have curled tight around her chest as if this would protect her from -- who knows what, but it's very noisy all of a sudden. Her brow creases in concern and she takes a small step forward to peer down at the fallen girl. "Are you hurt? What happened?" "Ugh -" aJ picks herself up. "Mother-freakin'-stupid-rock-!" She announced with a slight hism, Her knee through the hole in her jeans bloody. And then a foul chemical smell wafted in the air as a few little bubbles of black-tinged-neon-green. The acid hissed in the air before AJ screwed her eyes darted and willed her glands to shut off the best she could. Thankfully there were only a few droplets around her knee and nothing more. "F - fish pond -- water, please!" She requested, eyeing the fish swimming about in three.. Tok’s eyes widen at the smell, and their tail stills. “Uhhh- UHH!” They look around frantically. They dart over to the pond, quickly take off their sweat jacket, and dunk it in the fish pond so that it’s sopping wet. They skedaddle back over, trying to keep some distance, and shove it towards AJ, “UHH Here take it! Is this good?” Nahida is backing away quickly at the sizzling. Her eyes shift slightly incredulously the short distance between AJ and the koi pond. Her brows lift, her lips compressing thin. She tucks her flowing pants carefully around her legs and takes a small step forward, reaching out to brush her fingers light and distasteful against the sopping jacket. Tok is holding two identical jackets, now, both soaked. "You shouldn't have to fry your own clothes over this," she explains, as she backs well out of reach of AJ again. "Yes - yes that'll work, thank you!" She gasps, taking the jacket and quickly ties it around her knee. AJ winces a bit, but the sizzling quickly dissipates. She unties it and at the most a few tiny holes and burnt through where the jacket was driers. Bur her knee was still skinned raw and bloodied. "Yeah uhm, thanks again. I know it can get freaky when I start to like, bubble, bubble toil and trouble, heh!" Tok’s mouth is hanging open at the second identical jacket. Their eyes dart between Nahida, and back to AJ, and back to their jacket. “That. Is so cool.” They quickly put back on the jacket AJ didn’t use, despite it sopping with pond water. “How does that even work!? How many jackets can you make? Is it only jackets?” They look at AJ and take a step back, just to be safe, “And YEAH! No problemo!! Is your blood like, lava??? That’s so cool.” "I don't know about freaky," Nahida says, carefully, still very much keeping her distance, "but I would rather not burn. I like my skin. Intact." Her slightly pinched expression is softening, though, as is her stance. "Jackets would be such a specific mutation. Very funny. They tell me once there was a boy here who's power was summoning hats. Only that." Her brows are drawing down again into a -- still faintly concerned -- frown, as she looks at AJ. She bites down on her lip, the worry in her expression growing. "Probably the ground is filth, no? I think probably you need to clean that. I'll go and tell the nurse, anyway." She's slipping quick and quietly jingly, back through the garden and into the mansion. "Oh uhm n - no I just have extra glands that make this acidic goo that forms a shell around me ... I'm working on controlling it a bit still," sge explains to Tok before addressing Nahida. "Oh, yeah, but uhh, it's cool! Like don't worry about me girl!" AJ nervously moved her hands about, limping after her. "Lime you know me: I hurt people way easier than igeg hurt! ...wait that's, that's not like - I mean - uhm, heh, I'll be just fine!" AJ feels so nervous around her; after all she's practically royalty here at the academy! Tok watches Nahida leave, and stares at AJ with wide eyes. They’ll begin to hop along side her as she limps, “What kinda acid?? What can it go through? Can it go through steel? What about glass? Most chemically things can’t go through glass right?” They ask rapidly, “Is it like sweating so you can’t turn it off?” "It's kind of my own? It's not found anywhere else. It's one-of-a-kind," She explains to the new student. "It can go through almost anything it touches sooo, yeah, Glass and steel included. So if you notice patches on my skin please stay bCk until it's been neutralized with water! Biologically I can't turn it off I just hols it back until the glands fill, then I have to release them." Tok’s tail waves back and forth excitedly, “That’s sweet! You ever cover yourself in duct tape to stop it? Oh wait…it would just burn through the duct tape huh…” they frown and tap their claw against their chin. “OHOH what if you just stayed in a tank of water all the time. Hey, if you have a weird acid thing that’s only stopped with water, why aren’t you carrying like, a bottle of water with you all the time? Isn’t that kinda careless?” "I don't think it'd be healthy or safe for me to do it. And I usually do, I just ... forgot, thus time." She sheepishly admitted. "But for when I absolutely have to release more ooze I usually go swimming or take a shower so it doesn't hurt anyone or damage anything." AJ thought for a moment. "What about your powers? What can you do?" Tok nods, “YEAHH I get it! I forget things a lot too.” At AJ’s question, their ears flick downwards nervously, and their tail wraps around their waist. “Hmmm….okay! You literally sweat acid so how bad can it be. But SHHH!! You gotta keep it a secret or else nobody ever wanna tell me their things any more. Promise?!” AJ's shy exterior quickly melts away as she feels the energy of Tok bleed into her and immediately make her feel safer. "Yeah don't worry dude! Most people here barely talk to me anyways. I'm still getting used to feeling safe enough to be social!" Tok grins, full of sharp teeth. “I can….uh….swap our hair! Or your acid. But I wouldn’t do that since I dunno how to stop your acid. Which would be bad. Been there done that.” They shiver, eyes darting quickly to the ground, and back up, “OR your eyes! Things like that!” "I don't recommend swapping my powers with yours. It takes a lot of mindfulness to stop it and you don't have the natural glands so it may actually hurt you. I don't wanna take that risk and neither should you." AJ pauses. "Our hair though ... aw'right, show me! This I gotta see!" Tok nods along interested, “Oooo that makes sense! Heheh would be a cool story though! Local mutant melts through own organs with their own mutation! Now that’s a headline. The way I would wanna go out.” They say. They inspect AJ’s hair for a moment, then shrug, “AH why the hell not! Always thought green hair would be cool!” They crush their eyes shut, and the bright exposed veins across their skin burst with a white glow, and their eyes launch open with a sudden glow to match it, focused in on her hair. Their eyes and veins pulse once, and suddenly in a blink, their hair turns to long and green, distinctly AJ’s hair in the exact style she had it. It instantly would begin to glow to reflect their excitement. AJ would probably notice the dark brown-black hair that nearly obscures her vision suddenly plopped on her head. It’s a little greasy, due for a shower, and would end at around her neck. “Ta da!!” Tok says with spread out arms. "Wow," AJ murmured on shovk and began to feel up her new locks. "Wow!" She did her best to fix it and her ponytail as she tried to look at her appearance in her phone's camera. "Dude ths is so sick!! What do 6ou think about mine?" Tok is giggling, their new hair most likely pulsing glow in tandem as they play with it, “So cool! It’s so green.” They swing their head around, watching how it moves around. They point at AJ, “HAH! You got my hair. Maybe I need a hair cut.” They say with a tilt of their head, observing their hair now on AJ. “Well! This lasts for like, an hour-ish then it’ll swap back. OR if you want yours back now I can give it back.” They say idly, semi distracted by their new green strands. "I know! It's impossible to just make anything look decent with it sometimes!" She told them with a short laugh as she brushed locks of their hair out of her face. "I think I'll take my hair back now, uhh ... actually I didn't catch your name," She motioned to Tok with a tilt of her head. Tok nods, and with a bright flash of white eyes and veins, their original hair is now back on their head, and AJ’s is back on hers. “There we go!” They jab thumb towards their own chest, “The name’s Tok! What’s your name? I could call you Miss Mountain Dew cause your hair’s green. And cause Mountain Dew is kinda toxic probably.” "I'm AJ AJ Hayashi," the girl introduced herself and then laughed "I think that's too complex of a nickname. AJ is just what people I'm cool with call me. But if you wanna call meMountain Dew or whatever, cool! As long as I get to call you Scrat." Tok nods, “AJ it is! With the occasional Mountain Dew thrown in there.” Their ears perk up at the name Scrat, “SCRAT?! HA! I like it! You got a deal.” She grinned playfully. "Well, I'll see you around, Scrat," She said with a friendly wave goodbye, separating from Tok as she headed for rhe doors that would bring g her back into the school.