Logs:Of Flowers and Fractiousness (Or, Anime Heroine Beginnings)

Of Flowers and Fractiousness (Or, Anime Heroine Beginnings)
Dramatis Personae Harm, Kavalam, Ruby
In Absentia	2019-02-05 "Who shat in your frappe, friend?!"
Location <XS> Roof
The view from up here is phenomenal, a panorama of the expansive Xavier's grounds, forest and lake and rocky cliffs alike. Even without the view outwards, the rooftop itself holds its own delights, in the form of the tiny jewel of a flower garden tucked away up here, tended by one of the school's teachers. From the edge of the roof, with a veeery careful jump, it looks like it just might be possible to reach the treehouse in the old oak tree. Punxsutawney Phil may be wrong more often than not, but it's undeniably a glorious day today. The sun is bright and warm over the Xavier's grounds, and a short while after class has let out for the day there are plenty of people scattered out among the playing fields, trees, lakeshore, enjoying the respite from the punishing cold that had been there just days before. The sounds of chatter drift intermittently up here to the roof, which at the moment is far more peaceful than the grounds below. Not /un/occupied, though, but most people would be hard pressed to notice the skinny teenage boy inhabiting it. Not because he's particularly subtle, mind! Kavalam is perched on the wooden edge of the rooftop flower garden, plenty /visible/ in yellow-trimmed bold blue polo shirt and jeans, leaning over to absently work the bulbs of a few narcissuses out of the ground. The flowers have apparently been fooled by the unseasonal weather, very un-winter-time buds beginning to open already. Despite his complete lack of /hiding/, though, he's still extremely overlookable to most people. His mutation's stubborn Somebody Else's Problem field clings doggedly to him, strongly encouraging most anyone else nearby to simply pay him no mind. The other teenager here is somewhat more noticeable, dressed in a loose 3/4 sleeve linen tunic dyed in a gradient of pink to blue, with gray wrap pants of the same material. Harmony is also working on the garden plot, mostly just pulling up weeds that are taking advantage of the warm weather. Their black hair flops over their eyes as the glance sidelong at Kavalam, though they don't seem very bothered by the removal of the bulbs. "Do you want me to help you transplant those?" Ruby, who was breathing in the refreshing spring-like air, turns to Harmony. "What was that? You wanted an extra hand to transplant some bulbs?" She looks at Harmony perplexed. "I don't really think I'm dressed for that," she says, and gestures at her immaculate school-uniform chic outfit, including a skirt of custom-weaved tartan she designed for Xavier's. Kavalam gnaws, briefly, on the calloused skin beside one chewed-up thumbnail. He seems unbothered by the dirt already dusting his hands. "Is it hard?" He's regarding the bulbs with some skepticism. "I thought I would just. Put dirt." One hand loosely describes the shape of -- a bowl? A pot? Hard to say. It's only after Ruby speaks that he looks up, scrunching his eyes together behind his glasses. It's only when he speaks again that he makes himself noticeable. Not precisely appearing, but incorporating himself into her awareness where before he just. Wasn't. He's staring at the tartan skirt with the same skepticism the bulbs just got. "You're trying a little too hard, hmm? Don't you think?" There's a heavy dose of accent in his words, crisp and precise and very much rooted in the Indian subcontinent. "Oh! No, I was asking him." Harmony smiles shyly, indicating Kavalam with a tip of their head. "It's not that hard, just most people don't plant them deep enough and they end up tilty." To Ruby they say, "I'm just weeding right now, it's pretty low-dirt, and I have extra gloves you feel like joining, but no pressure!" Their own hands are covered with green gardening gloves decorated with cartoon ladybugs. "You're...Ruby? Right?" Ruby made a very undignified peep and bristled when Kavalam edited himself into her perception. Now that Harmony is talking to her, she stops bristling, smiles, and says "Yes, that's right. Nice to meet you formally, Harmony! I'm afraid I have a bit of a black thumb, so I should stick to admiring the flowers from a safe distance." Ruby looks toward Kavalam and crosses her arms, but forces her smile to continue. She pauses. She won't let this shy, rude student get under her skin. Pretending she didn't skip a beat, she warmly says, "A pleasure to meet you. I see you've picked up the school colors for your outfit as well. Might I have the pleasure of knowing your name now that you have mine?" Ok, maybe she let him under her skin a little. "How deep is 'enough' deep?" Carefully, Kavalam wiggles another bulb looser in its soil. His lips press together, brows lifting. Just a touch. His dark eyes flick rapidly over Ruby before he answers with a prim sniff: "You can call me Kay. Why the uniform?" "About the length of a hand spade," is Harm's answer to Kavalam, then, looking at the boy's complete lack of tools, "or just your hand." They chuckle, shaking their head at Ruby "I was /about/ to say I'd be impressed if you could mess up weeding, but I should not underestimate the power of a black thumb." They glance from Ruby to Kavalam, then back, their expression unexpectedly neutral given the awkwardness of the encounter. "Wait, we have a uniform? I didn't know!" "We--Xaviers--don't have a uniform, but it's what I feel comfortable in while actually /in school/," Ruby says smiling, but looking a little abashed. "So, I did a little research into the school, her colors, and so on. I've been wearing mostly solids, but the plaid skein finally came in! Aaaaaaand..." Ruby takes a step back and focuses her attention on performing for Harmony. She bends, opens her palms at her feet, moves her hands up close to her legs, curves around her skirt, in at the waist, up to her shoulders, and over her head. She snaps into a classic anime school-girl pose, one leg bent so her foot is level with her tush, one hand out slightly to the side, and another in a V sign. "TADA!" she announces, and winks at Harmony. Kavalam glances between the skirt, the popped foot, the peace sign. Slowly, he turns to meet Harmony's eyes. Blink. Deliberate exhale. "As I have said." He gestures with the displaced bulbs toward... all of Ruby. A moment later he sits a little straighter, a small smile flashing across his face. "If you like," this he offers magnanimously to Harmony, "I could make you disappear." After a short consideration, lip curling in mild distaste: "Or her." Harmony stares at Ruby kind of blankly through this performance. "It's great that you've found -- or made -- clothes you feel comfortable wearing," they say finally, blushing. "But I'm relieved that we don't actually have a uniform." Their eyebrows wrinkle slightly in confusion and they open their mouth, then close it again, as if thinking better of whatever question they almost asked. "Thanks, but that seems like it would be...awkward?" They force a smile, too, though the blush doesn't go away. "Lets put a pin in the fabric for now, Harmony" said Ruby. Ruby scrunches her face and glares at the so-called Kay and says, "We're apparently on a nickname basis, Kay, but you've offered nothing but veiled ridicule and and naked threats. I think the critical topic here is, "Who shat in your frappe, friend?!" What /is/ your problem, Kay?" "Threats?" Kavalam puffs this out in a short, mildly incredulous breath. "Sure, yes, of course we are all very threatening, here." He gets clumsily to his feet, wobbling on the edge of the garden bed and slipping off backwards. "The ridicule, though. Not that veiled. In my defense, you --" He does a not-all-that-exaggerated mimicry of Ruby's former anime-pose, peace sign flashed up beside a kind of rictus grin before he settles back down onto both feet, settles back into his previous bland expression. "Were being ridiculous." "Why are we pinning fabric...?" Harmony frowns, which finally seems to distract them enough to make the blushing stop. They straighten up, tugging off their gardening gloves and dropping them in their tool bucket. "Um, I think she means that whole making her disappear thing." "Yes, what Harmony said!" Ruby says, pointing at her hopefully-friend. "Really," Ruby says, exasperated, "If I was interrupting a private discussion, you could have just told me to leave. If you were concerned about Harmony's comfort, you'd ask." She hardens her tone, "No, you spent your energy on being rude from syllable one! And I took the bait, like a fool. "Well, I'm done upping the passive-aggressive ante. Tell me, Kay, would you like me to leave this conversation? Say yes, and I walk away." Kavalam's eyes roll upwards. "Right, of course, clearly that was a threat, which is why I had just offered to do the same thing to Harm. Do you even remember where it is you are? Or are you just here for the --" The flick of his fingers towards Ruby's outfit is quick and dismissive. "Prep school aesthetic." He pauses at the last question. His shoulders sag, and he exhales slowly. His eyelashes flutter half-closed, eyes lowering to the flowers in his hand. "It is no matter to me what you do," comes his answer at length. He is slipping away from the garden bed -- and from notice. The conversation is slipping away with him, its details already beginning to melt into obscurity, leaving only the emotions he stirred up behind.