ArchivedLogs:I, Dead Girl

I, Dead Girl
Dramatis Personae Harm, Marinov, Mina
In Absentia	2017-09-13 "I only got regular razor hands."
Location <XS> Gardens
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. "{I four boy,}" Mina is busy declaring, in... well, it's /meant/ to be Mandarin, though the sentence she's trying to repeat at the moment should actually be "{I am a girl.}" She's beaming -- hopeful! Expectant! Surely /this/ time her pronunciation isn't terrible. Spoiler: it's terrible, even leaving aside the mix-up of vocabulary. Perched on a bench out in the gardens, she has a notebook and textbook on her lap; she's dressed right now in a cheerfully green and vine-printed sundress, a pink cardigan over it, flowery sandals on her feet. Kind of a restless bounce in her posture as she looks over at her tutor. "{Is}, not {four}," Harmony corrects, switching between Mandarin and English fluidly, "but the sounds are close! Also {you are a girl}" not a {boy}." Sitting cross-legged beside Mina on the back of the bench, they are dressed in a long woven tunic in purple-pink spectrum colors, belted at the waist with a cornflower blue linen sash, and brown wrap pants. They're busily knitting a long rectangle out of pink ombre yarn that matches their tunic, hands moving fast and smooth though their eyes are on Mina and not their work. "So let's try again: {I am a girl.}" Marinov is walking through the garden barefoot, eyes cast down as they catch the movements of the moving vegetation. Their ears perk up at the sound of a voice that they don't quite understand. "Ah? What-?" they start before looking back up, "Oh." They are presently in a high-necked sleeveless red top and a pair of black yoga pants, likely returning from a jog. "Prosti. Didn't mean to interrupt your... studying?" "Wait wait wait say that again? {four}... {death}?" Mina's hopeful look hasn't faded. "{I death girl.}" The hopeful look brightens into a bounce of excitement at the sound of Approaching Person, though her smile freezes on her face for /just/ a beat when Marinov comes into view. The startle doesn't last, shifting easily back into a warm: "/Please/ interrupt my studying I'm probably driving poor Harm totally crazy. I think my ears are /broken/ it all sounds the same to me. I'm s... {I'm sorry}," this one she at least gets right! "that I'm a terrible student!" She doesn't seem particularly /abashed/ about it, at least. "You should let me cook for you or something to make up for your patience. -- Hi by the way I'm Mina!" With a cheerful wave to Marinov. "{Is,}" Harmony repeats. "{four} is the number four, and {death} means..." They suppress a snicker. ".../death./ Or dead, depending on the context. 'I, Dead Girl' sounds like a badass band name, though!" Looking up at Marinov, their eyes go wide. Their knitting needles stop moving momentarily. "Oh! Hey there. I'm Harm, and she's not driving me crazy at all, but it's good to take a break sometimes. We're doing Mandarin. And..." she adds to Mina, blushing a little, "you don't have to cook me anything but I definitely wouldn't say no!" Marinov stops walking when they are in more comfortable conversational difference, looks between the two and then chuckles to Mina, "Well, I'm happy to deliver you from studying! Or at least, like, momentarily disrupt it." They consider momentarily, looking skywards, "I, Dead Girl could be a good movie title, too. About... I mean, I guess a dead girl who narrates? It wouldn't be a good movie, just a good title. I'm Marinov. Taylor Marinov. Nice to meet you, Mina. Harm." They pronounce both names deliberately, trying to commit them to memory. "How are you liking it here so far?" "Oh /man/ do you all want to start a band? I don't think you'd have to /be/ a girl to be in I Dead Girl, I don't think there's /any/ girls in Mean Girls. I play," Mina screws up her face a moment in thought, "Ukelele. That'll fit in a band, right? Hey do you know anything about making movies? We could make a movie if a hand doesn't work out." She's already closed her notebook, clearly not all /that/ attached to the studying. "MarinovTaylorMarinov you could be the suave spy in the movie? And I don't know it's a lot so far but I've met some cool people and the lake is gorgeous. Have you been here long?" "Nice to meet you, Marinov." Harmony smiles, a thin, shy smile. "Do you prefer that? Or Taylor? Also...uh..." They blush again, or more. "What are your pronouns?" Their knitting needles start moving again, clicking softly against each other as they lay down a new row of stitches. "I don't know anything about making movies, but I play the mandolin. And oh, yes, there's great people here, and grounds are /so/ beautiful." Their smile pulls hard to one side. "Not so sure about the classes, yet, though." "Marinov's fine, lots of people call me that. But Taylor's fine. Or Tay, if you want to be real familiar," says Marinov, nodding a few times, "And my pronouns are 'they' and 'them', spasibo. And you?" They tilt their head slightly and then decide, "I think I'd be a rad suave spy, so, I'm very on board with the movie idea. I don't play an instrument, unfortunately. I can sing, but I'm not really sure I'm 'lead singer of I, Dead Girl' material." They pause a moment to think, "I'll have been here for two full years at the beginning of October. And yeah, I love the grounds here. I spend a lot of time in the woods so, if you see something out there you think might be a panther, don't blast it with force beams or whatever, if that's a thing you can do." "Taylor. Cool. Definitely the spy. I'd probably be like. A really inept sidekick," Mina says with a grimace, "I don't think I'd make good villain material. Are you a good villain?" Now she's peering curiously at Harmony. "Oh! I... {am a girl}?" SO HOPEFFUL this time. "I don't have any force beams, do people here have force beams? /Are/ there panthers around here? The mountains look like they could be full of cougars or bears or -- does anyone ever get attacked by bears?" "Oh! I -- um, I'm not sure, but I think...I'm also a 'they'? I think." Harmony frowns down at their knitting for a moment, then back up at Mina, smiling. "Yes! You got it right!" To Marinov, though. "Mina uses 'she' and 'her.' I could probably pull off a good villain if I put my mind to it. I had better start practicing my nefarious laugh. Play with chess pieces with a knowing smirk." They blink at Marinov. "Not to worry, I don't had force beams. Or anything like that. And if I did, I still wouldn't randomly blast wildlife." "Well, I dunno if any of the students do force beams. But like, at least one has, like, force blasts," says Marinov, before adding, "I don't think I've heard of anyone getting attacked by bears or cougars around here. I'm probably the scariest thing you'll find in the forest there, if you go on walks through the woods." They tilt their chin up slightly to sniff at the air. "I think it's the sidekick's job to seem a little inept, so that the hero can be all the more heroic! At least, I think that's a trope. I dunno. I'm actually not good at film studies either." "Woah! We /probably/ need to get someone with some sort of death ray on board for I Dead Girl. Unless they're invisible death rays, that's not very impressive. Maybe just lasers? Oh or giant razor hands! Does anyone have those?" Mina scissors her first two fingers together in the air. Chopchop. "How's your evil laugh /now/? Can we hear it?" "Or we could just...add in special effects like they do for movies?" Harmony sounds deeply unsure. "I'm not sure how, though. With computers, I'm sure." They frown. "Maybe finding someone who shoots lasers might be easier, at least around here!" They put down their knitting for a moment and steeple their fingers together, drawing a deep breath and emitting a long, low, insidious laugh -- that quickly becomes less insidious as they break into /actual/ laughter. "I think Jax could be our... hm... what do you think of the title 'on-set death ray consultant'?" asks Marinov thoughtfully. "Maybe he could supply baking to the crew, too. Did either of you have some of the rec room mystery desserts? How were they? And... We'll have to ask the new batch of students if any of them has giant razor hands. I only got," they flex their fingers to produce claws demonstratively, "regular razor hands." Their ears perk up as Harmony tests out their evil laugh, and Marinov laughs along the moment when the sinisterness starts to drop off. Mina's eruption into giggles has absolutely nothing insidious about it. Her hands clap together a couple times, smile wide. "Okay so we /also/ gotta add in a training montage that's /entirely/ Harm practicing his... their evil laugh. And your razor hands are /perfect/ but we should probably paint them gold or silver or something for proper razory /bling/. I think this'll be a /hit/!" A brighter light comes into her eyes at the mention of mystery desserts. "I had some cupcakes the other day they were /so/ /good/. Apparently there's cookies today? Is that a /person/ who puts them there I thought the Rec Room was just enchanted or something. Anyway if it's a real person they should totally be enlisted to help because those were /good/ actually now I want cookies." She's bouncing up from her seat, clutching her book to her chest. "Wait, there's someone who shoots /death/ rays?" Harmony is still recovering from their 'evil' laugh, but looks alarmed all the same. "I suppose it's appropriate for a film called 'I Dead Girl'? But I did have some of those cupcakes, too, and they were /delicious./" They crane their neck at Marinov's claws. "Wow! Yeah, those would look /great/ in silver." Their eyes flick back to Mina. "Well, studying works up an appetite. Let's go get some of these magic cookies, huh?" "Silverclaw would be a rad codename for my character, so I'm down for getting these things painted," says Marinov, chuckling as they look back and forth at their hand, "You two have fun getting magic snacks, I think I'm gonna actually head back out for a little more running." They start walking backwards where they came from while doing double finger guns, "I'll see you both on set."