ArchivedLogs:Snow Globe

Snow Globe
Dramatis Personae Lia, Jack, B
In Absentia	7 January 2015 Just...with the snow on the /outside/.
Location <XS> Conservatory
Tall panes of glass keep this large indoor garden warm year round. Tended to by the school's groundskeeper, the conservatory is lush with plant life, a carefully cultivated paradise within Xavier's walls. The room serves as a classroom as well; in the center of the garden a ring of seats forms a small circle, a favorite locale for some teachers to hold court. A snowy day in a conservatory near noon is a very unique experience, /bright/ and sparkly with what sunlight makes it through the clouds reflecting on snow and glass. Icy and wintry and yet...warm and full of greenery inside. Snow without the cold. Lia is taking the opportunity to enjoy the snow and the sun with not a great deal of time between classes. As on most weekdays during class hours, her ash brown hair is coiled tight into a bun at the back of her head, Xavier's hoodie and shockingly purple leg-warmers thrown on for warmth over pale blue leggings and a black leotard. She is currently...spinning in place, eyes fixed up at the snow continuing to fall, feet seeming to do most of the work in moving her on their own. Her galaxy-patterned backpack has been discarded on the ground a little ways from her, a lavender thermos peeking out of its side pocket. Snow has to be Jack's least favorite weather event. In any form it falls in. And he's glad he's not out in it. Dressed in jeans and the usual Xavier's school hoodie, the invisible teen's sporting a pair of gloves today too. It's just walking and thinking that leads Jack to the Conservatory today, backpack slung over one shoulder. He pauses in the doorway, the spinning motion catching his attention. He blinks a few times at Lia before lifting a hand in greeting. "Uhh...hi, Lia..." he trails off, head tilting to the side. B /is/ out in the snow -- or, at least, was, racing through the snowy gardens outside to pull open the conservatory door, letting in a freezing blast of icy wind before ze shuts it again. Ze probably hasn't been out in it terribly /long/, not really bundled for the cold. Leggings -- that happen to /also/ be galaxy-patterned, swirling against a black background -- under a silvery crushed-velvet skirt, scrunchy black and silver leg warmers, /big/ stompy ankle boots with huge silver buckles, a black asymmetrically-cut sweatshirty-type jacket on over a silvery-blue top beneath. Silver makeup on hir eyes and lips and chromed polish painted to make hir sharp claws gleam. Ze has a blue dragonfly-bot riding on hir shoulder, and a small spherical object cradled in one arm. Hir gills flutter rapidly as ze leans against the door to push it /firmly/ closed. "... eeeesh." But then quiet, watching Lia dance with a small crook of a smile twitching at hir lips. "Snow dance? Does that make the snow /come/ or make it /go/?" "Hello," Lia says at first, dreamy-distracted and not looking up to reply to the uncertain greeting. She squeaks a little at the sudden cold draft, /that/ finally drawing her attention to B and hir door. "It comes /and/ it goes. Swirling down. Spindrifts." Her eyes widen as they take in B's attire, smile spreading slowly to match. "You are so pretty. Pretty-shiny. Like the snow." She moves closer to the sharktwin first to inspect all the pretty fabrics. The fluttering gills draw her hand nearer to them, however, casually and as if out of habit, perhaps seeking to stroke them down. The cold blast gets a reflexive shiver out of Jack and he looks towards the doors quickly. When he sees who's entered the room, Jack frowns a bit but still lifts a gloved hand to wave. "Hey," he offers. Shifting his backpack to the alternate shoulder, Jack steps a little farther into the conservatory and looks around. "I'm hoping the snow goes away sooner rather than later." A faint blush creeps up B's cheeks, darkening gleaming-blue skin to a faintly more purplish shade. Hir smile brightens, closed-lipped but warmer. "Oh! Oh. Thank you. I like your dancing. It's -- drifty," ze decides. "Like the snow." Ze doesn't pull away from Lia's outstretched hand, head tipping very slightly to one side to allow the stroking. Hir eyes slip half-closed, arm tightening against the sphere ze holds as hir dragonfly lifts up into the air with a small hum. "Me, I'm kinda hoping enough of it falls to go sledding. There's some pretty excellent hills. Here." "Not yet, not yet. If it is going to be so cold, it may as well snow." Spoken like one who never has to commute through it, this is, still glittery-eyed and smiling. Lia's fingers do meet with the gills at that head tilt, petting downward softly. "I was following the snow," she agrees, smile only curling upward further at both thanks and compliment alike. "Which dragonfly did you bring? What does your ball do? Are there sleds here? How do you use them? Can I go?" For all the excited slew of questions, the stroking of her hand remains steady and even, like petting a cat. When there's no immediate negative reaction to his presence, Jack relaxes and bits of tension ease out of his shoulders. He takes a breath and looks up at the falling snow for just a moment before his attention returns to the other mutants. "It was some good dancing. I hope you didn't get dizzy," he remarks to Lia. The topic of sledding brings a faint whistle out of Jack. "I haven't done that since I was a little kid. Does it snow a lot up here?" "This is Blackberry." B's answer comes with a tip of webbed hand upward towards the hovering robot; hir voice is quieter, a faint rumble of purr thrumming at the gentle petting. Hir clear inner eyelids blink closed a moment before her outer ones squeeze shut. "And the ball --" This is interrupted briefly by a buzz from hir jacket pocket; ze moves to pluck hir phone out of it, glancing at it but then slipping it back away. "-- It's a holographic projector. For my computer. Or the bots. I left it in the workshop so I was just -- running. To get it." Hir nose crinkles up at the slew of questions, eyes opening again to look up at the snow falling on the glass. "Yeah there's sleds and -- if it snows /enough/ you can use them, um. You just -- sit on them? And push off? And they --" Hir hand makes a kind of downward /swoop/ through the air. One shoulder lifts in a small shrug. "It snowed /so/ much last year. But some years not a ton. People always try to get Professor Munroe to make more snow if there's not enough but she doesn't really like doing that a lot." "Not dizzy. You have to hold your head right. Spinning is important." Lia's hand lifts long enough to spin around once more, only to rest then on the set of gills on the other side, resuming the motion there. "Hello, Blackberry. You sound delicious. I will not eat you, though." That is very reassuring. "You make a hologram? Like R2D2? Is it a princess?" She bounces up once on her toes. "I want to go. I like to fly. Fly on the snow!" Her excitement settles in a bit at the talk of weather manipulation. "Thou canst not stir a flower without troubling of a star." Nod. "It must be hard to ever do a thing with a weather." "The robots have names?" Jack asks, a little surprised by that. He sounds amused at least. "Are they all named after berries?" he wonders aloud. He gives an impressed whistle when B explains what the ball is but he refrains from asking how it works. He's sure he probably wouldn't understand anyway. "I'm tempted to ask her if she'll make it warmer but I guess she wouldn't like that either, huh?" he asks with a chuckle. "They all have names," B agrees with a deeper blush, "well. All /mine/ have names, I've been giving away a /whole/ lot of Tribbles lately and I don't know if. Those have all been named. The dragonflies are --" For a moment ze looks puzzled at the fruit comment, but then shakes hir head. "No, they're all named after, um, rabbits." Ze rolls the sphere into hir palm, purring a little bit louder and tilting hir head to the other side at the continued petting. "Holograms. Yeah. It's an interface for my computers? Like I --" In hir pocket hir phone is buzzing again, and ze grimaces. Takes hir phone out to swipe it quiet again before tapping at the ball. "-- see look this," now there is a video feed floating in the air, projected upwards above the ball. The three of them standing together in the conservatory. "-- is what Blackberry is seeing right now and I can --" A small flick of hand pulls up a number of also-hovering icons -- that, though floating holographically in the air, respond to B's touch, shifting and moving when ze flicks at them. The dragonfly hovers over closer to Jack, a small display under the video feed scrolling text that is in Vietnamese rather than English. "-- control them. It's, um, basically just a fancy kind of desktop and mouse and keyboard all rolled into one," ze concludes with a deeper blush. "And I don't know if it's a princess. It could be, I guess? We could name it one." Hir teeth scrape against hir lip before ze shakes hir head, laughing quietly. "I don't think she'd do that, no. Like maybe we'd have warmer weather and over in Michigan they'd freeze to death. Or if we got extra snow suddenly California's having worse drought. It's -- all got a. Balance to it." "Not all berries, no. /Watership Down/," Lia surmises from the few dragonflies to whom she has been introduced. "Oh, /fancy/ holograms. Not just fuzzy recordings." Someone has been ruined for holograms by watching a few Star Wars movies in recent memory. Either way, this is intriguing enough to make her leave off her petting. "Oh. Oh! You can see through its eyes without /being/ it. What does it say? Alien languages..." The science fiction theme on the brain /might/ be influencing her interpretation of the Vietnamese. "Hard to do things with a weather," she reiterates with another solemn nod. "Or /it/ could be R2D2. The princess was really the hologram part. Fuzzy picture." "Those Tribbles were cool. Did they all find their way out of hiding?" Jack asks, remembering his introduction to the Tribbles and how he hid one under a couch like asked. "There's a rabbit named Blackberry?" he asks, head tilted to the side quizzically. The technological display draws his attention quickly though. When he gets a look at that video feed, Jack shudders slightly. Sure he can see himself if he looks in the mirror or looks at himself but he's seeing himself like everyone else does over that video feed. "It's fancy but still cool," he says, avoiding looking at the video feed and shifting a little uncomfortably on the spot. "Yeah...weather's all one big connected system. Must be a really complicated power to deal with..." he trails off. "I'm pretty sure it's not alien language, Lia," he says, looking her way. He's not sure what language it is but he's relatively certain alien isn't an option. "Oh! Oh it could /totally/ be R2." B actually bounces slightly on hir toes with this decision, smiling down at the sphere in hir hand. "It's way helpful anyway. Though doesn't have /much/ of a personality yet. I'm sure I could change that." Ze bobs hir head in a nod at the question of Tribbles -- briefly frowning again to reach into hir pocket and silence another buzz from hir phone. "Yeah, they all found their way home. I've improved them a bit since. They're -- a little smarter. A /lot/ more cuddly." Ze squints down at the readout on the floating display, lips pursing thoughtfully. "It's pretty much an alien language. And it says -- uhm. Well a few errors right now, Blackie's having some trouble with reading you. I think I'll need to adjust... rrrrmh." A quiet thrum, this time more growl than purr, rumbles in hir before another swipe of hand pulls up a terminal and a holographic keyboard. Ze sits down to set the sphere in hir lap so that ze can type, rapidly. “What's a Tribble?” Apparently the crew selling Star Wars did not also sell the Trek as hard to Lia. “You could give it more fun noises. That would be personality.” She smiles a little smugly when B says it's essentially an alien language. Winning! “Facial recognition? Is it having trouble because it can't see correctly?” That introductory computer course did /something/, after all. "Glad they got back," Jack replies, imagining it would be sad if one of those little fuzzballs was trapped somewhere. "They're little fuzzy things that make a nice noise. From Star Trek," he explains for Lia. He glances at the video feed again and lets out a breath. "I think the problem is more that I can't be seen..." "Yeah, he. Tries to learn people by -- I just need to teach him better. Vocal recognition maybe. It shouldn't be hard he already recognizes /my/ voice and who to take orders and not take orders from so I'll just. Need to make him start /actually/ cataloguing people by voices I don't -- know why I haven't --" B's sentence devolves into quiet muttering to hirself in Vietnamese as ze types, though after a moment ze glances up with a blush and a circling of fist against hir heart. "Right yeah, no, the Tribbles are -- I'll show you one of the episodes some time. And maybe give you a few, I think you'd like them. Um, /my/ Tribbles don't replicate and take over everything like in the show, though. They're just for having company." “I like fuzzy things. And company,” Lia allows, nodding at the mention of perhaps taking in a Tribble or three. “They don't let us have fuzzy pets. Except special times. Like when I had an Obie.” Her brows dip toward one another. “Do they count as pets if you make them?” "People usually think of sights before sounds," Jack shrugs. He falls quiet until B mentions replicating and the invisible mutant chuckles. "That's probably a good thing. Everything I've read about replicating robots tends to end badly." "You're totally allowed to have pets so long as you get dispensation from the administration, you have to convince them you're together enough to --" B trails off, here, looking up for a moment to look over Lia. There's a beat of silence before ze blushes, glancing down to hir terminal. "-- Uh right, I mean, no, the Tribbles don't count. As pets. /I/ actually identify people a whole lot more on smell and sound than on sight, but I'm," B /frowns/, here, shifting a little uncomfortably, "not a robot. I haven't figured out yet how to make them smell as well as I do." “Oh, I did not know that. When I had Obie they said just because it was Obie and I found him in a bathtub when I was a statue.” Lia nods excitedly at that. “I could have Tribbles, then. Without dispensation. For cuddling and company.” Her head tilts slightly at that puzzle. “Robots usually do not breathe. You smell by breathing air in a nose. With a bulb that takes smelly chemicals and makes them a smell in your brain.” Science classes, also paying off a bit. "Yeah, I didn't know robots even could smell at all," Jack remarks. He looks at the dragonfly for a moment, imagining a nose on it. "Smell is probably better than taste though. I think it'd be a bit...unusual if your robots flew around licking people," he tries to joke. "Huh? Why would they need to /lick/ people to -- it's a robot, it doesn't even have a tongue. /Or/ a nose. It wouldn't need /either/ of those things to smell or to taste, just a receptor that can pick up chemicals for analysis and -- well. A way to process and analyze them, but, it doesn't. /Have/ those things right now, so." B's phone buzzes again; this time the notification for email pops up on the holo-display. Ze swipes it away with a small frown. "So it'd be way more of a modification to teach the dragonflies to smell than it would be to teach them to identify a larger inventory of sounds. They're not equipped for it at all. My carp can smell, though. /And/ taste. Even though they don't have noses or mouths." B finishes hir typing, closing the display and tucking the sphere carefully into the opposite pocket from hir phone. "I'll get you a few, then. How many do you want? They do best with company so I've defaulted to giving them away in threes but." Ze shrugs, quickly. “I would not mind if the Tribbles licked. Like a puppy. They do not have to, though. And should not feel self conscious if they do not have tongues. Sometimes there are not tongues.” Seriously, it's a thing! Or so her tone implies. “I like carp.” Lia makes a little fishy face which apparently expresses her liking for carp. “They have pretty patterns sometimes. R2 is in your pocket!” The girl giggles, then bounces forward to provide B with /hugs/. “Oh, thank you! I will have to watch the Star Trek so I know how to care for a Tribble properly. If they like to be in threes, that is a good number.” Jack sighs, shoulders slumping. "Just a bad joke..." he trails off, waving it off. "I'm worse at comedy than I thought," he chuckles a little wryly. He goes quiet again, stuffing gloved hands into his hoodie pocket. "I knew a kid without a mouth at all once," B muses, just before a quick smile breaks across hir face at Lia's fishface. "Mine are -- all /kinds/ of colors, I'd show you but, um, winter isn't the best time for being in the lake so --" Ze breaks off when Jack speaks up, shoulders tensing and eyes abruptly shooting open wider. "Oh. Oh, was that a -- I don't -- always parse --" Hir brows pull inward, fingers fidgeting at hir phone as it buzzes again. A lift of hand and a gesture calls the dragonfly back to hir shoulder before ze circles hir fist over hir heart. "... I don't know how to. Update my /own/. Conversation algorithms." “That does happen sometimes.” Lia's brows knit even further at this for some reason, unpleasant memories flitting around like little spooks in her brain. “I would like to see them. I am doing swimming and diving for my winter sport. Inside, where it is warmer. By the time /outside/ is warmer, I should be able to swim in the lake better.” Lia soon mimics the fist circling over heart sign. “I did tell you I do not always understand jokes. Perhaps it is not your jokes that are the difficulty.” Her eyes are drawn to the yet again buzzing phone. “Your phone is excited,” she informs B. "It's okay. I'm really not that good," Jack chuckles. "Been falling flat with lots of people," he adds. He watches the dragonfly head back to B and takes a breath. "I should probably get going. Class soon. It was good running into you again," he offers with a little wave. "When outside is warmer, I'll show you the robo-carp. I could put one in the pool but." B shrugs a shoulder. "Sorry I'll shut the phone up." Hir cheeks darken again, flushing nearly purple with a small flutter of gills. "Oh -- right. Yeah. Class soon. I should maybe also. That." Though ze doesn't seem in that much of a hurry to leave the conservatory just yet, dipping hir head in a nod to Jack but not actually moving. “It is okay,” Lia says of the phone. “Sometimes I get excited, too.” Her eyes fly open wide in that large, prey-animal-like way they have. “Class! Oh, class. Should not be late. Tardy.” Those eyes dart around in search of her backpack, feet scampering over to collect it. Stretching his neck as he turns, Jack offers another quick wave before heading out of the room and deeper into the school. He's hoping he won't be late so he's walking a little more quickly than usual.