Logs:Lush and Suffocating

Lush and Suffocating
Dramatis Personae Astrid, Kieow	2020-10-04 "Plus, I guess, the suffocating of home isn’t bad."
Location <XAV> Girls' Hall - Xs Second Floor
The basic layout of the room is a carbon copy of every other room in this wing - two beds, two desks, some windows, and a pair of wardrobes. The occupants provide their own decoration to otherwise leave their mark and make the space theirs. Kieow's side of the room is sparse to start. There's a rather large planter that initially takes the place of her bed, covered in a raw silk quilt despite the warm September weather. Later, that quilt moves to the mattress that is wheeled in next to it. The girl sleeps with her feet in the dirt for a good deal of those initial nights at Xavier's, but as she moves through the recovery process, her original bed becomes one for flowers and other plants. Vines of ivy and morning glory climb from the dirt toward the window, twisting around the metal frame of the actual bed over time. The walls bloom with colors as well, with large pictures of Thai plants and family members, stylized like photos of celebrities that no one but Kieow cares about. As the sun's light finally disappears, Kieow stands in the room, carefully hanging a new poster / picture - this one of herself and two youngish men. One carries some physical similarities to the plant girl -- but in very human flesh tones, while the other is definitely a white boy - who happens to be missing an arm. She hums to herself as she finishes putting it up, constantly peeking toward the door to see if anyone is coming in. She's a bit of asparagus today, a tiny bit taller than she's been in the past few days, but a lot of that is the fact that the leafy bits that take the place of her hair are pointed and stacked high on her head. Her long sleeved shirt is bright yellow with a bee woven into the center of the knit, little white peter pan collars folded over the sweater's hem. Her baggy pajama pants are pink with little animate cats all over them. If one side of the dorm can be described as sparse, the other half is absolutely cluttered. It’s obvious that Astrid lacks in both organization and tidiness. This isn’t to say her side is dirty, it just exists in a constantly evolving state of disarray. Walls are covered with tattered and torn posters of professional skateboarders with concert posters, and photos of her family scattered within. Most of the family photos are of her and her sister skateboarding or her and her Pops skateboarding. There’s an obvious theme going on. Stepping into the room with a backpack slung over shoulders and skateboard held by one of the trucks, Astrid takes a quick scan of the room. She’s like a blackhole for color dressed in her oversized black hoodie, black skinny jeans and crooked black plastic framed glasses. Eyes immediately dart to the unmade bed on her side, matching plain gray sheets and comforter scrunched together at the foot of the bed, before catching sight of her roommate. She cracks a quick toothy grin. “Oh, hey.” She spits out in her low monotone voice that often sounds like she’s stuck in a constant state of utter boredom. Backpack is tossed onto the floor as the girl and skateboard simultaneously fall into the messy bed. "Oh! Hi hi!" Kieow puts the final touch of decorative washi tape on one corner of the poster before turning back to her roommate, cleaning invisible dirt from her hands. "I... uh, I don't think we've had much of a chance to talk before. I am sorry about that. But maybe, if you have some time, we could fix that?" She smiles brightly and moves around her bed into the somewhat shared space in the neutral zone between their 'sides.' "I'm Kieow, fresh from Thailand. I mean. I could give you my full name, but that usually bothers people. Kieow is nice and easy. It means sweet green. because... well, I'm green - most of the time anyway." Left heel is used to kick off the right shoe and then vice versa. Astrid is in her own little world, eyes giving the room another scan to see where her backpack landed. She’s gotten used to a quiet and barely there roommate, and definitely does not expect to hear multiple sentences coming from the other side of the room. She doesn’t quite jump, but her body quickly stiffens as Kieow starts to talk. The surprise quickly wears off as she loosens back up. “Oh, no need to apologize. I just… Well, I’m not really sure what all I assumed.” Toothy grin cracked again. “Fresh start then? I like it. I’m Astrid.” She pops up from her bed, walking towards the “neutral” zone with her hand extended. “Nice to meet ya.” Kieow grabs Astrid's offered hand and shakes it gently. She is a little cooler to the touch than most people, seemingly room temperature, but it's not overwhelmingly noticeable. "Nice to meet you too! I'm sorry. I also got some very polite English going on and it with Thai culture and you're probably going to hear that a lot. Anyway, I've got my human bits kind of... more figured out now, I can actually talk again. And in English! You can say what assumptions you had. It's fine. I could also just say... Well, I got sick like so many people around the world these days, but because I'm a mutant, I kind of was more plant than human for a while. Forgive me for nervously chattering too. It's just ... a very strange time." She rubs her hands on her thighs again before turning her desk chair so she can sit on it, curling her legs up underneath her in the process. “Again, you don’t need to apologize at all. It’s fine, really.” Astrid makes no special note of the slight difference in body temp as they shake hands. Once her hand is free, she uses it to remove her glasses, wiping at the lenses with the bottom of her hoodie in an attempt to clean them before they are replaced. “Oh, you had Covid? That sucks.” She doesn’t mean for her words to have come out sounding so blase. “What I mean is I’m sorry you had to deal with that. Luckily no one in my family has contracted it so far. Was it just you?” She takes a couple steps back before plopping back down into her bed. Nodding in agreement, Astrid absentmindedly gives their room a halfhearted look. “Strange times indeed….” "I think maybe some of my other siblings got it too, but there were no symptoms. Maybe I would have also been safe, if I wasnt so... different." Kieow glances out the window out of habit, fixing her eyes on Astrid's reflection in the darkness. "So, I've heard you're from Portland! What's it like there? Is it like here? I have only been to New York so far, so I don't know much about the US, except that it is really big and there are many climates. What do people do there?" “That’s good, right? No symptoms?” As Kieow’s attention falls to the window, Astrid takes a better look at the picture of the Thai flora and ivy climbing towards the window. “You have heard correctly. I am originally from Portland. This is my first time in New York… out of the Pacific Northwest actually.. It’s, well, different. There are volcanoes that jut into the sky that makes everything feel surreal on a clear day. The weather is usually overcast and rainy, but you can always count on the sun to come out… well, maybe not always, but it does happen. And the trees…” Sitting up straight, it’s the first time any real sign of excitement creeps into her voice. “The trees are amazing!” She glances at the posters across the opposite side of the room. “You’d love them. They are old, tall, young and short. Rhododendrons and flowers everywhere. Very lush, green and… well, suffocating!” She laughs. “I imagine it's similar to Thailand in being lush from pictures I have seen, but a different type of lush maybe?” "Ohh. That sounds nice. We don't have any volcanoes in Thailand -- well, not live ones. The ones in Indonesia are close enough, I think - or really, too close for comfort. When I was little, I learned about Krakatoa and I had nightmares for a week." Kieow turns back around and smiles brightly at Astrid. "Not anymore. More of a morbid curiosity though. "And suffocating? Like, so hot you think you might die, but the air is so heavy with flower smells and spice that it's like walking through wet vines all day?" She follows Astrid's gaze and nods. "Oh, I want to see all of the trees and plants of this part of the world. I am trying to find time to get my brothers to take me to the botanical gardens, but finding time when both Bua and Fon are free is hard." “Not having active volcanoes around is just fine by me.” Astrid returns the smile, wiggling her nose in a failed attempt to straighten her glasses. She chews on her bottom lip, nodding along for a short little stretch. “Oh… I… well, not suffocating because of the heat. It’s usually on the colder side. Suffocating from all the plants. They are so abundant and just grow and grow and grow.” She takes a second, chewing down onto her bottom lip searching for a better word. “Claustrophobic? Yeah, claustrophobic, that’s a better word for it.” A nervous laugh slips from her lips while her head resumes it’s continuous bobbing. “So, both of your brothers live nearby then?” "Oh. Oh! So would you rather I didn't grow any in here?" Kieow looks over at her oversized planter and the greenery starting to take over the abandoned soil. She gnaws on her lip for a while. "And you don't mind me growing here? I mean, I don't want to be suffocating." Astrid laughs that nervous laugh again, shaking her head. “Oh, no, I don’t mind at all. It’ll remind me of home, right? Plus, I guess, the suffocating of home isn’t bad. Just a way to describe it. ” She pushes her feet down to the ground, standing up with outstretched arms and a rather exaggerated yawn. “I’m a little hungry. Up for heading to the kitchen?” "Oh Yeah, For sure! I can eat!" Kieow hops up as well, clasping her hands behind her back before she moves to the door and out of it.