ArchivedLogs:Snow

Snow
Dramatis Personae Amy, Rasa	2015-02-01 '
Location <XS> Foyer and Great Hall
<XS> Foyer Xavier's foyer provides a suitable introduction to the opulent mansion. Teak-paneled, wood floors immaculately polished, vaulted ceiling ribbed with dark wood boning, there is no doubt this school was built with no expense spared. The hallways branch off to the separate wings, with the grand staircase spiraling upwards to the residential dorms above. Sundays a free days at Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, allowing students to wander the campus and some to even leave campus to head into Salem Center or New York City, with the proper chaperons. Rasa came back from one such trip earlier in the day and has had time to deposit some things in hir room before heading back down to the foyer to meet a new student. The senior at Xavier's is dressed warmly in response to all the snow outside, dressed in magenta sweat pants over what looks like fluffy slippers, but those fluffy slippers match the cream colored fur on hir arms, neck, head, and tail, the hairs somewhere between four to six inches long and standing up where they might. Hir eyes are a golden color, surrounded by white lashes. Hir face is mostly bare and a pale cream color, decorated with flecks of iridescent scales. Those scales disappear into hir hair line and seem to appear between the hair follicles at random intervals. Ze stands in the appointed meeting spot with a folder marked with a large X and labeled 'Orientation Guide' on the front. Amy is barely 15, and barely a high school freshman. She's also just barely gotten here only a day before. She has a room, but that's about it. Wandering around in the foyer, she looks, and finds the spot she's supposed to be at, she guesses. "Hi! I'm Amy." Rasa flashes the girl a small smile and nods. "I'm Rasa. I'm one of the student ambassadors. How are you doing today?" Ze glances out one of the many windows at the bright, gleaming landscape, the sun illuminating the snow. "Staying warm at least? I'm here to show you around the campus and answer any sort of student type questions you might have. The teachers are available for anything I can't answer. So... what did you want to see first?" The folder of information is handed to Amy, the insides filled with different maps of areas that are free spaces and things that are off limits, rules for the students to abide by, different clubs that kids can join, and a lot of other information for later reading. Amy smiles and nods, stretching a little, arms going behind her back. "I'm alright thanks, it was a long way to get here, but I got a room last night. I'm going to try not to go outside if I can help it." she laughs. "The school's all inside they said, right? I mean." She then takes the folder and pages through it casually. "Thanks." "Something wrong with outside? You allergic to sunlight?" While the questions may normally seem sarcastic, Rasa asks in earnest, concern wrinkling hir brow. "Well, yes. Majority of the school classes are inside. We have stables and a workshop that are not in this building -- and a whole lot of land around us. I'm sure we can find some sort of protection for you, if you do need to go outside." Amy laughs and shakes her head. "I'm not a fan of the weather here. It's so cold. It's way too cold. I hated just getting here from the airport." "Oh. Do you need different clothes? I hate to ask, but do you have parents you can ask for clothes, or do you need help with that?" Rasa looks the teenager over with a small tilt of hir head. "Because you will not stay healthy without warmer clothing. Chills aren't good for a person and you can't really study if you're thinking about how cold you are." Amy smiles and shrugs. "I probably do need like a better jacket but, you know what, I really don't want to go outside in that unless I have to anyway. I'm sure like, my mom is going to pick some stuff up and drop it off before they go back home. Thanks though." "Oh, Okay. I guess that's your choice." Rasa's brows rise as ze looks the teen over and sweeps a hand in the direction of the great hall. "Well, how about I show you around then. If you'll follow me, I'll show you where we eat most meals." Ze starts to head in that direction, glancing back toward Amy to make sure she is following. <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. Amy follows along, looking around. "so this is where um, most of the eating happens? It's really big, bigger than like, I guess I expected. How many people are even here?" "Yep. It's kind of big, but we have a fair number of teachers as well as students who live here. I don't know exactly how many." Rasa steps in further, looking around the room and then pointing over to the wall where there are tables set up with different chafing dishes and small labels for their contents. "We have a wide variety of food served every day because we have a wide variety of people with specific dietary needs. A couple of my friends are obligate carnivores, while others can't eat anything but vegetation. Our bodies kind of develop in strange ways. If you have dietary needs, you can tell our cook and she'll take care of it for you." Amy chuckles as she throws her armos over her head to stretch. "I just imagined this place being pretty small you know, since mutants are supposed to be so you know, weird." She then sighs, and looks aorund. "So there have to be lots of options, that's good. Especially since I probably won't want to go outside half the year." "Really?" Rasa's brows rise once more as ze looks at the girl, but holds hir tongue. "Okay. Well, Mutants are different, by definition of the word 'mutation,' Professor Xavier brings in students who need help from all over the world, so we do have a few more than your standard population." Ze stuffs hir hands into the pockets of hir sweat pants and pads further into the room, drawn in by the food. "It's not as big as a public school, but it's not a tiny, single room school." Amy bites her lip. "You know what I mean. I mean like, I am one, so you know, I'm not trying to say anything bad." she stammers. "It's jsut um yeah, I didnt' really realize there were so many." "No, I'm mostly baffled by your aversion to winter. Yeah, it's not all that pleasant, but the notion of spending half the year inside without sunshine? That seems odd." Rasa grabs a tray and a plate and starts looking over the food. "I'm used to normal looking mutants thinking the rest of us are... even more different. You've likely not had any experience, so your opinion will be forming over the time you're here." Amy laughs at that, and shakes her head. She thne gets out her phone, and taps at it. "It's 35 degrees here in Westchester. It's 70 degrees where I'm from. This cold is something I can't believe." She then chuckles and shrugs. "Yeah. I mean. I never imagined I was one until you know, my voice started doi ng things that really weren't normal." "With the proper gear, you don't feel it as much. Yeah, you have to cover your skin and wear layers and keep the snow out, but there are a lot of really fun winter activities. I'm sure you'll toughen up eventually." Rasa selects a sandwich and puts it on hir plate before grabbing a bag of potato chips. "I'm sure it was uncomfortable, learning you were different." Amy shakes her head. "I don't know, maybe if I had like a full body arctic suit I wouldn't feel it, but at the very least my face was freezing off last night. Ugh." Then another stretch, before she goes to snag some chips herself. "Had a big dinner last night with my parents, not reall super hungry right now." Amy then adds "Well, it was more like.. I just broke every window at school and now we hads to figure out what to do." "I see. Yeah, a huge public display like that can cause problems. My parents handled it by moving around and having me disguise myself." Rasa picks up hir food and heas to the end of the line to grab a brownie. At the end of the line, ze grabs a paper bag, slipping hir food inside. "It's okay if you're not hungry. You can always come back here -- or to the kitchen to get food when you need it. There's a couple people who need to eat very regularly, so food is always available for that reason." Amy grins "I like that. Being able to eat when I want, pretty much." S he then cracks open the little bag of chips to start snacking a little on it. "So thanks for showing me here, this is probably the most important place for me to know how to find in the whole building, you know?" "Well, this room keeps you alive, but if you miss your classes because you got lost find the classroom - that will actually cause you problems with the teachers. The rules for school are pretty much the same universally. Show up when you're supposed to, do your homework, have a learning attitude. It's kind of the most normal part of this place." Rasa gives a little shrug and moves over to a table, pulling out a chair to sit for a little while. "So, what do you like to do?" Amy laughs aloud at that. "Well you know what, having nearly had big trouble for what happened in the 8th grade, I'm ont realy worried about missing a class here. It can't be worse. She then snags a bottle of juice to go with her chips. "Yeah, normal can be a nice change of pace, you know? What do I like to do.. I like to go to malls and hang out and stuff. But that's going to be tough to do now." "Well, this is still a school. Don't forget that. Teachers get tetchy when students don't show up." Rasa unwraps hir sandwich and takes a bite, listening. Ze has to wait until ze has cleared hir mouth. "Well, I wouldn't put it out of the question. There are ways to get out, you know, if you can brave getting through the cold weather. Salem Center's pretty close. They don't really have a mall, but they have shopping." Amy grins "Brave the cold. Ig uess when I get too bored of school I'll do it. But ugh. It totally snows here doens't it?" "It's supposed to start snowing again tonight," Rasa replies quietly before taking another bite. Amy loses the grin fast, and winces. Her head moves as though to try to look out a window, and she lets out a little groan. "Ugh I'm going to hate that so much." she sighs, then drowning her troubles in chips and jucie. "Yep. Just the way it is. Apologies." Rasa continues eating, breaking open hir bag of chips while ze chews. Amy laughs weakly, after finishing the little bag of chips, and is now focused exclusively on the juice. "Thanks, so where are you from?" "I'm from a couple different places. Don't really know where I would call home. Been to Chicago and DC and New York City before settling here." Rasa pops a couple chips in hir mouth and chews quietly before adding, "And soon, I'll be leaving again. Graduating." Amy stretches a little, then finsihes her juice. "See, so youv'e been like in all sorts of cold places. And congratulations!" "Yeah, well, it happens. The entire planet isn't tropical." Rasa leaves hir food for the time being as ze gets up to grab a drink. "And they aren't cold all year round." Ze makes hir way to a coffee pot to pour hirself a large mug with a good amount of hazelnut milk to turn the liquid a lighter color. Then, ze stirs in sugar. Amy laughs. "Well California isn't tropical either. It's like... just warm and part of it desert." She then looks around for where to toss her trash. "I tried coffee once. Didn't really like it. Too bitter, really." "The lower half of California is warm, anyway. The upper half gets winters and snows, too." Rasa returns to hir chair more slowly, careful not to slosh hir coffee. "You can add cream and sugar and chocolate and caramel until it suites your tastes, but at the same time, it is an acquired taste." Amy smiles "Well sure there's mountains but... even in like San Francisco it doens't really snow. I mean snow. Ick." "We're just going to have to agree to disagree on snow," Rasa replies, settling back into hir seat and sipping at hir coffee. Amy grins "You really like the cold don't you?" "Not really. I don't really care one way or another. I just... well, you keep bringing it up. Like really bringing it up." Rasa shrugs as ze moves back to hir sandwich and taking another bite, quiet while ze chews. Amy laughs. "Well I just moved here, and it was my first impression, sorry." "It's okay. I'm sure you'll find something else to capture your attention eventually." Rasa smiles pleasantly, finishing hir lunch. "How about we finish that tour and I show you more places... on the inside?" Amy laughs. "It is kind of a disruption. I was going to school, then I got home schooled, now I moved 2500 miles from home." She then stops and sighs. "But it had to be done. And sure, thank you."