Logs:Matching Amounts of Angry

Matching Amounts of Angry
Dramatis Personae Spencer, Naomi
In Absentia	2020-10-31 I think you have a right to be sad and mad, too.
Location <XS> Great Hall
The largest room at Xavier's, the Great Hall is designed to hold all of the mansion's residents and then some. Built for the mansion's bigger functions, it serves as the school's dining halls on ordinary days, and ballroom when needed. On school days, long trestle tables stretch across the hall, high-backed chairs with plush cushions offering seating for the students. The Great Hall has been transformed into a haunted forest for this year's Halloween Dance. Silhouettes of gnarled and eerie trees have been applied to the walls, huge spider's webs dangle from the ceiling, and the round tables encircling the dance floor are covered with tablecloths that make them look admirably like giant stumps. It's all a little bit cheesy, but in good fun. There's plenty of non-alcoholic punch (or 'Witch's Brew', 'Fairy Wine', and 'Bug Juice', depending on your choice of color) and sweets to go around, and a wide selection of spooky and not-so-spooky music encourages the attendees to dance as if the full moon outside were not hidden behind rain-laden clouds. Spencer is dressed up as Sea Hawk from She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, but he's willing to settle for 'pirate' to those not familiar with the show. It's a well-designed costume, but hangs a bit loose on him -- it's hard not to notice how much weight he's lost just over the course of the last two weeks, and harder to miss his shaved head when he's not wearing a wig as he is right now. He's been dancing a lot tonight, albeit very intermittently, and his pale face is sheened with sweat. This time when he blinks off of the dance floor to collapse into a chair he does not look very likely to get back up any time soon. Naomi startles, nearly spilling some of the ‘Fairy Wine’ onto the floor, when Spence pops into the chair beside her. “Je-SUS,” she yelps, then - “Oh, hi Spence.” She’s been sitting here for a little bit now, holding her solo cup like a lifeline. Intermittently, she looks like she might get up and join the dancing, but inevitably sits down again. Her costume is less clear, more mismatched - a teal halter top dress, flared out instead of hugging her legs, covered with a blue and gold fish scale sash. Instead of silver or black metals, tonight her jewelry is all gold-coloured, with two bangles on each wrist, two gold hoops in her ears, and a gold coloured clip holding her locs in a high bun. There is a dusting of blue eyeshadow on her lids, and faint flecks of it are caught in her scales. The shoes are just black ballet flats, which currently sit on the floor in front of her and not on her feet. Held side by side with a still from the She-Ra episode Princess Prom, maybe someone could make out who she was supposed to be. Nobody had gotten it right so far. Now that Spence is here, though, Naomi stirs. She straightens up in the folding chair, turns her head to look at Spence with bright green eyes. “Hey - you Seahawk?” She gestures up and down the boy’s body. “That’s a real good costume. I love that show.” Perhaps somewhat hypocritically, since he was definitely the one who did the surprise, Spence also starts when Naomi does, his voice cracking mid-yelp. "Oh hey Naomi!" For all that he looks about ready to keel over on the spot, he sounds cheerful enough. "Thanks! It was real hard picking someone honestly, that show is so great --" He breaks off suddenly, his eyes flitting from the fish scale sash to the jewelry to the dress, getting larger and larger with each tick of movement. "Waiiiiit," comically drawn out, "are you Mermista?!" Naomi flushes, like she was caught at something she wasn’t supposed to be doing, not correctly identified in her costume. “Yeah,” she answers, “from the Princess Prom episode.” She fidgets with a bangle briefly. “It ain’t all accurate and good-good like yours but I found this fabric at the thrift store and it was easy to borrow some hoops and I already had this dress for church and -“ She’s gotten more and more excited throughout the run-on sentence, but catches herself at the last second. “Anyway, I know Netossa is the only Black princess but I couldn’t pull hers together, so I thought, maybe Mermista would be okay.” She frowns at this, briefly, before continuing to talk at Spence. “I thought you wasn’t coming - you’re always,” she makes a popping sound “- cancer stuff, POP down at the city, POP and like that all the time.” "Aaaaaah!" Spencer flutters his hands rapidly in the air. "Oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh that's amazing!" He looks fit to bounce right out of his seat -- and might well have done if he were not so weak. "And you have her fancy prom outfit too, I'm just regular Seahawk but we match!" He seems to reel his enthusiasm in deliberately. "Oh boy I bet you would have made a great Netossa, too! But also! Mermista!" He blushes just a bit, though it shows easily on his colorless cheeks. "Oh -- I mean, yeah I guess I'm kinda tired but I wasn't gonna miss this. Teleporting doesn't actually take as much out of me as walking these days." He bites his lower lip. "The city's been wild, though, no matter how you're getting around." The excitement is contagious - Naomi is smiling widely now, the skin under her scaled forehead crinkling. “We do match!” This seems to please her almost as much as it excites Spencer. Her legs kick out with with excitement. “We shoulda done a photoshoot or something out by the lake. Like they do for cosplay, ya know?” She stills a little bit at the mention of city, biting her own lip in a mirror of Spence’s face. “Whaddya mean wild?” She asks, slightly hesitant. “I know cops been out - is it getting bad again?” Her eyes are wide as she looks to Spence. “Are you scared?” "Whoa that would have been great!" Spencer gushes. "But maybe not as great as accidentally matching, huh?" His leg bounces up and down rapidly. "Wild like people are rising up for justice. Wild like cops are trying to shut us down." He bites his lower lip. "Not just cops, it's all these off-duty bigots roaming around looking for mutants to beat up." He frowns at the question. "You know, I'm not sure? I'm scared of a lot of things." His fingers flutter lightly with excitement again. "Maybe I'm scared of all that's going on, too? But mostly I'm sad and mad." Naomi giggles. “It’s pretty cool, accidental matching. Like we on the same brain cell or something.” The ‘Fairy Wine’ has been fully abandoned at this point, and Naomi sets the red cup on the floor beside her chair. She leans in closer to Spence, like they’re sharing secrets and not the main news story of the month. “I’d be sad ’n mad too, I bet.” She frowns. “But I’d be real scared. But I guess I can’t POP myself outta there if shit gets too real.” The hypothetical concerns her. “You the only, like, kid down there? I been wanting to go. With -“ She pauses, thinking. “I dunno, just go I guess.” Spence bows his head. "You didn't know him, but you could have and now you never will." Ducks his head further. "Sorry. It's just, I think you have a right to be sad and mad, too. He was part of your community, too, even if you didn't know it." He chews on his lip. "But yeah I mean. It's a whole lot more dangerous if you can't -- POP. I never go alone, though." His huge gray eyes brighten. "You can come with me if you want, sometime? I'll keep you safe! I can POP another kid with me." Naomi goes similarly solemn for a moment, though it’s a little at odds with the current song playing over the loudspeaker (The Cha-Cha Slide, to which several chaperones were dancing possibly too enthusiastically). “Mmm, I’m mad, for sure, maybe not as mad as all y’all though.” Her eyes go wide as Spencer offers. “Oh my god, really? That would be -“ Now she’s bouncing in her seat - “that would be so cool oh my god oh my god.” Her face flushes again. “I mean, like, I just been wanting to go help somehow. Yell at some cops ’n fash ’n stuff.” "There's no wrong amount of mad except none at all, I think." Spence nods seriously. "People all have their own perspectives, right? And they're all important. That's part of what makes a revolution a revolution, really." He shakes his head. "Sorry, I'm not saying it right. But, yeah! If you wanna come with, I'll take you. We'll do so much yelling." He blushes again. "Might have to take a lotta breaks, but, you know -- I'm always ready to dance again after a little rest." Naomi's mouth forms a little o as Spence goes on, eyes going even a little bit wider. "That's deep, Spence. You def saying something right." She grins, wiggling her feet back into her ballet flats. The song changes - someone at the DJ booth is clearly a 2000s kid - to the Cupid Shuffle. Naomi looks at Spencer, now a little hesitant. "You all rested up, Sea Hawk?" Her eyes flick to the dance floor, where a grid of kids and chaperones alike are lining up. "I ain't danced in a li'l bit." Spencer's blush intensifies. "It's not -- that deep, right? I mean -- I don't know. Just. People's voices are important, but some just don't get heard as much as others, you know? And that's messed up." He glances over his shoulder at the dance floor as the music and lighting changes. When he looks back his eyes are gleaming, and he takes Naomi's hand as he hauls himself up and launches towards the dancing. "Adventure!" Naomi's blushing now, too, as she grabs onto Spencer's hand, but she's also laughing at his Sea Hawk impression with glee. Hand in hand, they rush to the dance floor, where the song is helpfully providing instructions: "To the left, to the left, to the left, to the left..."