Logs:Conservatorial Encounter, Onset of Winter

Conservatorial Encounter, Onset of Winter
Dramatis Personae Karin, Kieow, Nessie
In Absentia	2019-12-05 Kieow experiences early winter
Location Xavier's School Conservatory
Tall panes of glass and a many-gabled glass ceiling protect this large indoor garden from the elements, while welcoming in sunlight to keep it warm year-round. Adjoined to the southern face of the venerable mansion and surrounded by more conventional gardens beyond, the conservatory is all Old World elegance from the outside. Within, however, it is lush and green and in certain corners--whether despite its careful tending by the groundskeeper or because of it--seems practically wild. Footpaths and a burbling artificial steam wind through the space, connecting its disparate parts. Benches are scattered throughout, thorough soft grasses or mosses under certain trees also invite rest. The outside wall is lined with tropical and subtropical plants. The ferns and cycads and epiphytes are kept moist by artfully hidden misters that also give the place a sort of magical ambiance, dense foliage wreathed at times with drifting patches of mist. Nearest the building is a desert in miniature, with a few impressively sized cacti as well as palo verde and other trees adapted to arid climes. Between these, and by far the largest section, is dedicated temperate zone plantlife from around the world, the beds growing more carefully manicured and the pads less winding as one approaches the center, where a clearing with a small ring of seats is a popular spot for some teachers to hold court. "Nonsense!" A small figure draped in quilted raw silk garments stares out the window of the conservatory with wide eyes. It is difficult to tell from her tone if this nonsense is actively offending her or bewildering her more. Her skin is light tan, covered with papery scales and small pine needles pressed down against her body. the top of her head is more densely covered in longer fir and little knobby nodules between clumps, signally new growth. "Utter and complete nonsense," she remarks again, her Thai accent apparent, but her English is clear and well enunciated. Her pale face is cleared of the rougher bark and smoothed with a thin coat of pine sap, adding a crystalline appearance to her cheeks and nose. She gives one last confused huff and turns away, hugging the deep red garment to her form and shivering. She steps away from the windows and moves towards the plants further in, leaning down to cup their limbs gently as she examines them. "I do not know how you tolerate it, little one. Teach me, for even inside, I am like... ice." There's a quiet click-click-clicking, soft and skittery against the stone path. Nessie has her head down; rummaging in her backpack -- it's slung half off her shoulder to hang around her chest, her brows furrowed as she searches within it. When she digs a notebook out of it she has a kind of triumphant look on her face -- that quickly fades. Wide-eyed, uncertain, she shrinks back on all six of her segmented legs, staring at Kieow with beady pure-black eyes. She hugs the notebook against her tatty red sweater, tilts her head slowly to one side. "Are you talking to the plants?" she finally ventures, curious. As going outside has begun to prove increasingly inconvenient for Karin with having to negotiate more layers to counter the chill weather, she is found in the conservatory with greater frequency. A bookbag is slung over shoulder and hanging at her left hip, she has fully engaged the hood of her slightly too large sweatshirt-hoodie which reduces her peripheral vision to zero. The empty left sleeve is prominent, along with the bulge giving away the position of her left arm. She enters the conservatory proper, halting just inside and breathes in deeply with closed eyes, before vision is restored and forward movement is resumed. The call for, or of nonsense reaches Karin, and her steps become quiet while she determines who made the declaration/accusation, and as she commonly does, lingers to take in the physical details of two of the school's many visibly different students. It's a behavior she finds difficult to avoid, at least until the subject of her fascination notices and looks back to remind her of its impoliteness. In this case, two subjects, one with a somewhat more unsettling outward appearance, but hearing the short speech helps remind Karin that there is usually nothing to fear from anyone in the school. Karin then sneezes, as the difference in humidity between conservatory and connecting school do battle in her sinus cavities, leaving her silence as its first and only casualty. The sleeve of her hoodie is used in the aftermath to clean up, which earns a slight frown directed at herself when she realizes that was probably a poor choice, but it was at least an isolated poor choice with few witnesses. She rubs the affected sleeve over the leg of her pants to conceal the results. At least a little bit. Her right hand grips the strap of her bookbag, and she sets it down on one of the seats in the great circle. There's a quick stiffening of shoulders, before a cleansing breath and a serene expression appears on Kieow's face. -- for all of about 30 seconds. When her eyes turn and see Nessie, there's a shrieked yelp and some stumbling backwards on her side. She swallows hard and considers the room, then the other ... girl?'s approach, her poise and tone. She plants her feet and takes a step forward, her words a few notches above a whisper when she replies. "Uh... are you talking to me?" Sure, it's painfully obvious, but still, a question worth answering. The sneeze threatens to draw Kieow's attention away from her study, but she holds fast, keeping her eyes locked on Nessie. "Bless you?" The words are hollow. Girl? Who knows! There's certainly very little in the curve-less muscle of Nessie's torso or her shapeless ratty sweater or her huge scorpion thorax that indicates much either way. Her eyes open wider at Kieow's shriek; she skitters backwards a few steps, hugging her notebook tighter. Her shoulders hunch inward, and her enormous barbed tail lashes overhead. "Y... yes?" She doesn't sound entirely confident about this. "I guess? I don't have to." Click... click... click... she's a little slower as she backs a few more steps away. "Sorry. I didn't mean to, uh." She glances to the surrounding plants. Then to Kieow. Then to the plants. "Interrupt your -- moment." Left unhindered to observe, observe Karin does, less focused on the unusualness now and more the exchange. She leaves the bookbag on the seat that it was set upon and braves getting closer, giving the lashing tail a healthy amount of space. She moves to get a better look without clearly positioning herself to appear united with either side of the awkward exchange, a loud sniff deals with the aftermath of the sinus wars. There's a palpable moment of silence as she casts glance between both and then speaks, at first barely audible then a vocal push has her clearly saying "Hey. I'm Karin." Kieow is quick to press her palms together and bow her head, stepping forward a few feet to keep the space between the two of them at least consistent. "Oh no! It's my fault. I am ashamed at how I scream. It was surprise. just large black over head." She waves her hands to gesture to Nessie's appearance, never quite lifting her hands over her head. "Surprise. I am too new. New to America, new to here, new to mutants." She draws in a deep breath to settle herself and then mutters in an even tone, "and completely forgetting the good words from English. You'd think I wasn't fluent or something. Please... don't go. If anyone should go it should be me. I am ashamed at myself." She turns her head and puts her palms together once more, bowing her head to Karin before uttering, "Khiew Wan - ahh, Kieow for short." "Hi." Nessie's greeting might be directed at either of the other girls. Hard to say who -- it's a little clipped, a little terse, her tail still swishing and her eyes flicking rapidly between them. "New to -- where did you come from?" Her lips press together, her calloused fingers plucking stiffly at the spiral binding on her notebook. "There's kind of a lot of us here. Probably -- best if you get used to it." Her brows crease, and she looks over at Karin, pausing a long moment and then looking down at the path. "I guess -- mostly not, uh. Not exactly a lot of ones like me, though. So maybe you don't have to get that used to it." Karin turns her eyes down when the visual distinction topic is brought to bear. Her right arm keeps moving without real purpose, fidgeting. She feels awkward, and it shows. "Everyone's got something," she offers, a bit lamely. "Wasn't staring," she adds. "Just...figuring out." She tries out the name Kieow offered, both before and after abbreviation. She tries offering her hand for shaking purposes, or grasping purposes, or whatever one does with hands once they have them held hostage, between the two again, deliberately showing no favour. It's still an awkward movement for her, displayed on her face. "No, I am the rude one who is staring. I should know how that feels. I am a plant. I am also very sorry." Kieow lets her hands fall to the sides, then clasp behind her back. When Karin's hand is offered, she bows instead, not accustomed to touching strangers. "I have... been here for three days --- well, depending. What is the counting system here? Do you count today as one of the days or just complete 24 hour cycles? Everything is so much to get used to. Before that, I stay with my brother a few days. He has a roommate with huge wings, so I should know better. And Hub -- er Shane took me shopping. He is definitely ... hub... takhrub chomp chomp -- Bitey?" Her palms come together once again, but this time it is to anchor against each other as she demonstrates teeth with her fingers. "Oh. And I am Thai." Nessie stares unblinking at Karin -- it's hard to say exactly at *what*, given her lack of pupils. "Right," is all she answers to that first comment. "Um." Her forehead creases. She plucks harder at the binding of her notebook; doesn't return the offered handshake. "You're all kind of new, then. I mean, you're new*er* but she just got here this year too. I mean, here to the school, I think -- I've never really even been out of New York. And I don't think Karin's, like. New to the *country*. Not that I know of. I don't actually know. Maybe you are," she suddenly realizes with a trace of excitement, rising just an inch or so higher on her many legs, "you could be from the moon for all I know, I don't think I've really heard, like, one solid fact about you." She rolls her shoulders, shifts her backpack to settle a bit more comfortably. "That's so cool though. I mean, that you're Thai. I *so* wanted more Asian students here, we're *way* outnumbered." Not that Nessie's own ethnicity is *particularly* apparent to look at her. With hand just sort of left there, untouched, Karin lowers it to her side. "...sorry," she ventures to say. It's quieter than other things she said. "We um... count both," she informs at Kieow's question about days, which is the latter half at acceptable volume, the former at barely audible. Under Nessie's scrutiny, she seems to shrink slightly, though no sign of backing away. "Family's Danish," she offers as a counter to the vacuum of facts. "Um. From Denmark," she clarifies. "Never um... I never left state." "Oh, well, I am proud to be Thai every day, but I am glad it is also a good thing for you. Please, tell me the secret, fellow Asian - how does one not freeze here? I have all of these wonderful new clothes, but it is still.... Cold. And it is nonsense. What is this temperatures in the single digits? I know it gets colder in Chiang Mai and therefore I should be accepting of this... weather, but I am a Southern girl. I do not comprehend this... nonsense." Returning to her former flustered state reminds her of something "Oh! And Yes, I was talking to plants, but I thought everyone does that. Does it not help them grow? and make people at peace?" Kieow then turns her attention to the other girl, and studies her with evergreen colored eyes. "Are you exhibiting normal American behavior? Or does this herald from Denmark too? I will let you know that I am not acting as a good Thai girl should act. I should be quieter in public -- but I suppose this is home now and I must treat it as so." She smiles brightly. "I would invite you all to my home, but it is not very pleasant for people like me. Kahr-leen can go. Stay with my family and eat the best food with fresh lemongrass and fragrant spices. Be warm for those of us who cannot." "You know, I can't hear almost anything you say." Nessie has, at first, been tilting her head just so -- perhaps trying to hear Karin, it's hard to say; she gives up on this enterprise soon enough, turning her attention to Kieow instead. "What? It's not nearly single digits. It's not even really cold yet. Just wear more clothes. And no, I don't think everyone does that. I don't know what helps plants grow, though? I don't really grow plants. I figured they just sort of grow themselves." She shifts with some discomfort, her sharp feet clicking against the floor and her shoulders tightening again at the mention of How A Good Thai Girl Should Act. She looks down at the notebook in her arms, looks back up at the others, starting to edge backwards again. "I -- better go get started on my homework. They didn't waste any time with piling it on." Karin's face turns directly to Nessie. "Sorry," she utters clearly, sincerely. "Working on that." The admission is a little harder. She takes on a more determined look. "It's just me. I'm messed up. I talk too quiet." As though pained for some reason, her eyes close and her head dips slightly. At suggestion of being shipped off she does not appear to find that at all agreeable. more alert-seeming suddenly. "Uh. I'm fine here," she says. "I can show you um...how to be warmer." When Nessie shows signs of escaping, Karin looks slightly defeated, just nodding. "Ah ha! Plants do grow on their own in their own homes, but when they are placed elsewhere, they need tending or they will die. There have been studies, I believe, how mutually beneficial growing things are... and talking -- but..." Kieow trails off as Nessie's demeanor changes once more. She opens her mouth to say something, but instead addresses Karin. "Messed up? Is this a cleaning thing or a mistake thing?" she glances back to Nessie and nods once more, hands moving to heart's center as she bows from the hips. "I wish you all the best with your studies and hope to see you again soon." "Messed up is..." Karin trails off, casting another glance in the direction of Nessie as the many-legged teen departs before Karin turns her head to directly face Kieow. "Different with people..." She takes a second to gather her thoughts, having a difficult time finding the right words. Her voice goes halfway to quiet again but still audible, "Stuff happened. Broken now. Hard to fix. Messed up." Eyes are closed again, or at least eyelids have dipped far enough down that it's hard to tell the difference without a careful look. "So it was a bad mistake and something is broken and it's hard to fix -- is that it? I am hopefully not being a pain, I just am not always sure how local language handles different... things." Kieow is grasping for words at the end. Karin takes a noticeable moment before responding again. "I'm quiet, because for no reason, I'm scared not to be," she informs before her eyes are open again. Her steps then take her to the bookbag she had set down, lifting the flap and watching it for a few seconds, lingering on its contents. She re-closes and picks up the bag and then approaches Kieow again. "I'm sorry for confusing you," she says. "I didn't mean to. You said...you were cold. You mean in here or all over?" "Unless the temperature is nearly 40°, I am cold. It is how one is when they leave a tropical climate." Kieow smiles and bows her head. "I should probably get going too. I hope that you find many reasons not to be afraid and are able to lift your voice soon," The Thai girl, gives another head bow before turning to walk away.