Logs:Rebel Magic Knitting Witches

Rebel Magic Knitting Witches
Dramatis Personae Harm, Mina
In Absentia	2019-02-21 "Do you know real actual /magic/, is this like some kind of cult, are you for real, can you /teach/ me magic, you really had /goats/ that's the /most/ //amazing// thing are you magic are the vegetables magic are the goats /magic/ are the goats /witches/ oh my //god//."
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. It's chilly out, but also sunny, which makes the Conservatory an extra popular place to hang out after class. By now the benches are all taken up, but Harmony has solved that problem by sitting down in the soft bed of mosses beneath a carefully tended cassia tree. They're wearing a loosely knitted rainbow sweater and purple woven wrap pants trimmed in blue, a shoulder bag made of bicycle inner tubes and sandals made from hemp twine sit beside them. They are knitting what looks like a long tube out of a bright sunset ombre yarn, their hands moving ceaselessly over the thin polished bamboo needles. Among the colorful and striking student body of Xavier's, Mina doesn't really look like much, but /today/ she stands out for the simple fact of being a new face in a small group. The curious glances and occasional whispers are probably not doing much to soothe new-school nerves, but she's gamely affixed a bright (if a little strained) smile to her face regardless as she explores her new surroundings. Even within the confines of the school, she has bundled up. A flouncy sunset-ombre skirt worn over thick black leggings, tall scrunchy pink and orange socks on top of the leggings, a very fuzzy-soft stripey black and pink and yellow and orange sweater over a shirt that mostly can't be seen but whose wide collar is fashioned after monarch butterfly wings where it folds over the neck of the sweater. No shoes. A huge yellow cloth hibiscus flower is pinned into her dark hair, holding it somewhat off her face though it's mostly been left loose. "Oh!" She bounces onto her toes as she nears Harmony, smoothing her hands down over her ombre skirt. "We match! I mean, okay, we don't match you're not -- you know /wearing/ that but we /could/ match. Might match. What are you making? Is it something /warm/, it's awful here." Harmony looks up when Mina approaches, and smiles when she speaks. "Hi! This is a sock, and yeah, warm is the idea. I'm from California." The last part sounds like something they've grown used to saying, perhaps even in this context. "I'm guessing you're also from somewhere with nicer weather. Wanna sit down?" They nod at the mossy ground beside them, their hands never stopping work on the sock, though they've slowed down. "I got some rice crackers." "Awright!" Mina's smile brightens at the mention of rice crackers. She accepts Harmony's invitation gladly, sitting down with a whump and letting her skirt pool around her. "/Thank/ you. I was just in California! But not like for real you know I just was in the airport for like a /year/. I feel like I've been traveling for a week and I missed lantern festival and being on a plane is not the same thing at /all/. You're good at that!" Mina has been watching the ceaseless motion of Harmony's hands. "My tutu always tries to teach me and I /want/ to learn but how do you hold still so long, you know?" "My name's Harmony. Or Harm, for short." Harmony actually does stop knitting to pull out a Ziploc bag of mixed rice crackers, opening it and setting it on the ground between them. "No problem, I still have soooo much new year junk food back in my room. Sorry you missed out, though." They pick their knitting back up but just studies Mina for a moment. "Where were you coming from?" Their hands start moving over the needles again. "You know, it's funny, I picked up doing this /because/ I couldn't hold still, and this is a way to like...sit still but also move? If that makes sense. Who's...is your /tutu/ like, someone in your family?" "I'm Ka'imina'auao," Mina gives this mouthful of a name through a mouthful of rice crackers, eagerly snatched up and crunched, "But most people think Mina is easier. And it's my --" She hesitates, frowns, picks a fleck of seaweed off her teeth with the corner of a nail. "I guess my grandmother." A little uncertainly, though she's much more confident about: "I was coming from Hawai'i. Have you been doing it long? Was it hard to learn?" Her hand flutters toward the knitting. "Ka-imina-aoo?" Harmony slowly repeats, or tries to. "Sorry, can you run that by me again? I'll try til I get it right, unless you prefer 'Mina.'" They cock their head at Mina's explanation of her relation to her tutu, but doesn't ask for clarification. "Wow, Hawai'i! It's like /never/ cold there, right?" They squint down at their knitting and adjust the last stitch minutely. "I've been knitting since I was like...I don't know, seven? Nothing /this/ complicated, just like, scarves and stuff. It was kind of hard at first, but I always had a lot of help." They smile, but it's slightly said. "I mean. With /everything/, really." "Aooaoh," Mina clarifies, before repeating her name again. "But either is fine." She leans closer, peering at the stitching as Harmony adjusts it. "I don't know, I thought it was plenty cold last week before I come /here/." She snags another handful of crackers, tossing them lightly in her hand before licking a couple up out of her palm. "Do you miss it? California, I mean." "Ka-imina-aooaoh," Harm tries again, much closer this time. "Mina." They laugh, "I guess it's all like. what you're used to. I thought /San Francisco/ was cold whenever I visited. Then I came /here/. At least I had the whole fall term to get used to it. You're jumping right in the deep end" Putting down the sock again, they scoop up some rice crackers for themselves. "I guess I miss the warmth, but mainly I miss my um...family. Community. Friends. Animals." "It's not always like this, is it? I don't think I have enough clothes." Mina tugs at her thick socks, pulling them a little higher. "Family's its own kind of warmth. What's yours like?" Then, almost an afterthought: "What's it like /here/?" "Not /always,/" Harm says, laughing. "It was like, in the 70s when I first got here, and they say it gets pretty hot in the summer." They dump the crackers into their mouth and crunch away, picking the sock back up. "Yeah, it is," They sound kind of unsure. "Mine's...complicated, I guess. Most of them don't really want me around anymore." Then they shake their head and shrug. "Here is...I don't know. It's like there's a billion weird little unspoken rules that you don't know about until you break them. Rules about who you sit with at lunch, rules about how to talk to teachers, or not, rules about how to use your powers, or not. But at the end of the day it's just a really big house with a lot of people in it, trying to get along. It helps me to remember that." "Oh -- sorry that sounds. Tough. Is it because of the mutant thing?" Mina blushes, her nose wrinkling up. "Sorry that's totally not my business. I just, from their spiel when they talked to me about this place it sounds like a lot of people aren't very, um. Understanding." Her face scrunches up further after this. "Okay weird rules and weird cliques and probably people judging you if you screw up so that sounds like, um, /high school/." Her tongue pokes out of her mouth. "Except /cold/ high school where you're living with everyone /including/ teachers, /why/ did I sign up for this again." Harmony looks up at the sun shining through the branches of the tree. "Sort of, yeah? Tried to help out with my powers, didn't know how to do it right, messed up...pretty bad." They stare down at their knitting. "I guess probably everyone's got kind of a weird story for how they ended up here, huh?" They look back at Mina, also blushing now. "Oh, really? I never went to regular school, so I thought this was like...a special mutant boarding school thing?" They grab some more rice crackers. "Why /did/ you sign up for this? Not that it's my business, either!" "I don't know, you're kind of the first person I've /really/ talked to. I've said hi to a few people but it's been kind of." Mina shakes her head. Combs her fingers through her hair, tucking it back behind her ear. "Anyway so I don't know how weird people's stories are are they like /weird/-weird? I kind of figured mutant school would be..." Her tongue pokes out, swiping across her lips. "I don't really have a weird story. Things were sort of -- disruptive at home so we thought it was better here." Quick shrug. A sharper smile. "But yeah high school's /generally/ full of complicated social rules and people telling you -- or not telling you and just expecting you to /know/ -- what to do and not do all the time. What did you do for school /before/?" "Now I'm not so sure. Maybe my idea of what's weird is also kind of...off?" Harm blushes harder. "I was home schooled, all my life -- sort of? It was in a commune, so really more like we just had our own tiny school. It's probably why I've had a hard time settling in, because this is /so/ different from what I'm used to. It's not /terrible/, but I hope you'll have an easier time, anyway." They perk up suddenly, brown eyes twinkling. "Oh yeah, me and a couple of the other students who knit or crochet were thinking about starting like a yarn circle. Except we couldn't find a faculty sponsor. But like...maybe we should do it /anyway/. In secret. You should come, if you still want to learn." "A /commune/?" Mina's eyes open wide. She leans in closer, her voice rushed with excitement. "What, like some kind of hippie thing? I've always wanted to be a hippie. Not, like, with white people and weed, just with goats and flowers and a big vegetable -- did you have goats?" Straightening, she smooths at her skirt, looking over Harmony's sock-in-progress. "You sure I don't need to know how to knit to do like. Anarcho-knitting? Cuz I'm down." "I guess it's a hippie thing?" Harmony cocks their head. "We call ourselves witches. But most of the community /is/ white, we /do/ have really good weed -- and also lots of flowers and vegetables. And goats!" They lift up the sock-in-progress, smiling fondly. "This is from our goats, actually. But yeah, no experience required, I'll show you the ropes. Yarns." Mina claps a hand to the side of her face, her mouth opened into a small O. "/Witches/?" Now in a conspiratorially hushed tone. She bounces a little in place with excitement. "Do you know real actual /magic/, is this like some kind of cult, are you for real, can you /teach/ me magic, you really had /goats/ that's the /most/ //amazing// thing are you magic are the vegetables magic are the goats /magic/ are the goats /witches/ oh my //god//. Is the knitting magic? Can we do magic knitting? Can we have a rebel magic knitting /witch/ circle? How do I be a witch?" She crossing her legs primly, hands folding in her lap as she sits up, looking /ready/. Eager. Expectant. Harmony leans back a little, eyes wide. "Um...uh, I -- I /do/ magic, but I'm not...it's not like knitting. Though..." They frown, looking down at the sock in their hands. "I guess I do magic /with/ knitting sometimes. And with goats. And with vegetables." They shake their head. "I'm used to doing magic /with/ people and here...I don't know. If you still want me to teach you, I'll try. But I think being a witch is at least partly about figuring out how to be a witch." A deep blush rises in their cheeks. "Here I am talking like some kind of expert, but if you ask three witches you'd probably get five different answers." Mina wriggles a little in place where she sits. Her hands squeeze tighter at each other, and then she hops to her feet, brushing lightly at her skirt. "Amazing! Okay. It's settled then. We're going to be in a secret anarchist club /and/ I'm going to be a witch, my sisters are going to be /so/ jealous." There's a bright and delighted smile on her face as she dashes off, leaving Harmony to their knitting as abruptly as she interrupted it. Harm opens their mouth a couple of times but doesn't quite manage to get a word in the four-minute takes off, so they just settle for "Bye!" Once the surprise wears off, they break into a smile, and then a chuckle. Then, don't bring another handful of rice crackers into their mouth, they go back to knitting.