Logs:Of Gaysians and Glucose (Or, Sweet Beginnings)

Of Gaysians and Glucose (Or, Sweet Beginnings)
Dramatis Personae Harm, Kavalam, Kelawini, Remi	2023-02-05 "Maybe they not doing girl-boy kine dorms no more, ey? New gender is mutant."
Location <XS> Harm and Kavalam's Dorm - Boys' Wing
This is a double occupancy room, quite generously sized by dorm hall standards. The entirety of it is colorfully decorated, in rather different styles for the most part but with some obvious overlap. Bright fabric hangings cover much of the wall space, leaning heavily on one side toward abstract knotwork and fiber art and depictions of Hindu deities and legends on the other, meeting in the middle with mythical creatures from a variety of cultures on hand-batiked cloths. The former side is a bit cluttered, baskets full of yarn and half-finished projects taking up more surfaces than they really need to, while the other side is relatively neat if not immaculate, with half-finished sketches of people scattered on the desk. Both nightstands have been covered with tapestries and repurposed as altars, the one on the yarned side with two white candles, a handful of stones, and a little bowl of sand, the other with a small brass Nataraja statue, a matching offering plate with a few wilting flowers, and an also matching incense burner shaped like a half-open lotus blossom. Dinner has come and gone, but it isn't quite late enough just yet for the dorms to be winding down for the night. While some students are hastily cramming in the last of their unfinished homework before classes tomorrow, others are very clearly making the most of the tail end of weekend -- music spills out of several doorways, people congregate amiably in each other's rooms, there is an ongoing Nerf-battle loudly spilling through the hall-rec room-several dorms. The door to this dorm is ajar -- inside Kavalam, already dressed for bed in soft grey and black flannel pants and an old t-shirt advertising a dance recital from the Natyashastra Dance Academy, is splitting the difference between study and relaxing. There's an audiobook of The Outsiders playing from his computer, which he -- may be paying some attention to, who knows. While the narrator catches him up on his English class reading, he is seated cross-legged on the floor beside an upturned milk crate currently serving as a platform for a large wooden Carom board. Judging by the neat lines of small discs he has collected on his lip of the board, he is doing pretty well. Harm is kneeling on the other side of the Carom board, where there are few tokens to be seen, though they seem unbothered by this as they line up their next shot. Their hair is parted asymmetrically, most of the bangs swept aside, falling low enough to almost but not quite cover one eye, while the rest are gathered into one tress, intricately twined with many-colored yarns. Their red sweater is loosely knitted enough for the sparkly black shirt underneath to show, and their wrap pants are a darker red edged with gold piping. Flick! They send the disk caroming across the board, missing any mark so thoroughly it's hard to say what they had actually been aiming for to begin with. They wince, but never stops smiling all the while. "...it's got round disks," they're explaining, "and the Queen is red. This is obviously a very auspicious game." Kelawini is lying on her belly on the more Hindu side of the room with her chin propped up in one hand, facing the carom board, certainly not close enough to be playing. She is watching the board, though, and it seems plausible that Harm was speaking to her. There's a not-quite shivering hunch to her shoulders, which may have something to do with the sheer amount of midriff she is baring between a gray cropped long-sleeve knit shirt festooned with zig-zag stripes in red and yellow, and the dark indigo jeans low on her hips. "Is it," she wants to know, "still lucky if you lose? Cuz you went lose plenny tonight." Being directed to the room by the Administration, Remi made his way through the halls of the boy's dormitory, ducking underneath the nerf bullets that flew overhead. Reading through room numbers as he trawled along he found the door he was looking for. He took a deep breath and knocked confidently on the door. He told himself to be confident and just go and make friends! He opened the door and forced a smile, "Hi! I'm your new roommate!" he cheered. Standing before the three is an extremely feminine boy standing at a tiny 5'2" tall. His hair reached down to his rear and was a split-dyed pink and black. He stood before them in an oversized pastel green jumper, which was far too big for him, hanging off his slender yet curvaceous frame. He was also wearing a pastel pink checkered skirt with a pear of lilac sneakers and thigh high white socks. He propped his luggage up against the doorframe and took hold of the lollipop in his mouth. "Oh, sorry...I was told that this was my room? Do you both live here or is one of you visiting?" he said to the two that he could see. Although it was rather odd to see someone playing a board game by themselves, but hey. At least they'd always win. "Auspicious for me." Though perhaps Kavalam speaks too soon. The new face at the door is a bit of a lucky break for Harm -- Kavalam has just pocketed the red queen coin before Remi arrives, and the surprise guest makes him miss-flick his next shot, failing to sink the next disc. With a small sigh, he returns the red coin to the very center of the board and turns, peering curiously -- first at the newcomer, then their luggage, then back to their face. There's a sort of resignation etched into his own expression when Remi explains he was directed here. He rubs a hand slowly against his face, idly turning his powder-dusted striker between his fingers. "You are not Harm's new roommate." When he speaks it is -- for Remi, at least, not so much the two who already were aware of him sitting there -- an oddly dissonant experience. It does not feel quite like a Sudden Appearance -- not at all like Kavalam was invisible and abruptly became visible -- but more like he has simply spliced himself into Remi's awareness: obviously he's been sitting there this whole time, perhaps somehow Remi simply managed to miss someone sitting in plain sight in the centre of the room? Stranger things have happened at Xavier's. Then, eyes very slightly narrowed in mild curiosity behind his half-rim glasses: "This is the Boys' Dorm." "Oh no!" But Harm doesn't actually sound or look in any way upset at Kavalam's auspicious shot. Nor the slightly less auspicious shot after. "It's auspicious for us both, round things all around." They turn to Remi, blinking owlishly. "Hey! Uh..." Their eyes flick first to Kavalam, and then to Kelawini, then back to the newcomer. "She's visiting," they add, helpfully. "But we live here." This gesture encompasses themself and Kavalam. "I'm sorry," this is to Remi again, a little tired and a little sheepish. "No matter how many times I tell them, the administration keeps forgetting I already have a roommate" Kelawini rolls onto her side, perhaps to emphasize her curvy silouette when she asks, "I look like a boy to you?" She doesn't sound offended, or teasing, or even sarcastic. Curious, though. Perhaps a little skeptical. "Maybe they not doing girl-boy kine dorms no more, ey? New gender is mutant." She aims this last with a sharp hook of a smile at Harm, then sits up straighter and looks at Remi a bit more closely. "Are you a boy?" she asks, after a longer delay than most might take to decide the gender of the person they've just met. A whirlwind of thoughts rushed through Remi's mind. Firstly that person was definitely not there when he walked in, or was he? Remi simply summed it up to "mutant shit" and decided to move on knowing that he'd break his brain if he tried to understand it right now. Putting a hand on his hip his eyes moved towards Kelawini, "Do i look like a boy to you?" he retorted with a chuckle and a hearty smile. "I'm Remi, yes i'm a guy I just like skirts and shit." he sucked slightly on his lollipop. "So, they do this kind of thing a lot? I'm really sorry for bothering, I was just trying to find my room, I could have sworn this was the room they told me to go to but they obviously made a mistake." he sighed, rubbing his head. It had been a long day. "I literally found out I was a mutant yesterday and then it was all hey Remi do the mutant stuff and I was brought here." he bowed. In his confusion he just did what his mother told him to do when he met new people and bowed respectfully. "An unfortunate number of people come here expecting Mutant Hogwarts." Kavalam removes his glasses, cleaning them fussily against the bottom of his shirt. "Unfortunately, the only way in which the comparison works is how completely incompetent the administration is at understanding what students need." He lifts the glasses up to the light, squints at them, cleans them again and then replaces them on his face. Pushes them into place with a fingertip, and peers at Remi again. "Oh, no." Now he sounds gravely dismayed. "Is this because you are a gay." He's looking at Harm, now. At Remi. Back to Harm. Back to Remi. At the bowing: "Oh no. It is the Asian." "It's not your fault." Harm somehow still sound apologetic. "The administration messes up a lot, but this specific thing they've done several times. I keep thinking, how hard can it be to just mark the room occupied?" They turn their palms up, helpless. "Anyway, welcome to Mutant Hogwarts, Remi. I'm Harm." Their bow in return is shallow, just a forward tip with their hands braced on their knees. Their smile is small, maybe shy or maybe uncertain, though it curls a little bigger at Kavalam's conclusion. "I wouldn't put it past them if it was both. And I mean. I do like having an Asian roommate!" "No, but it's no up to me, right?" Kelawini seems faintly amused. "Plenny boys like skirts and shit. So you having kind of a wild weekend, huh? Sorry they're running you around when you're brand shiny new." She snorts. "But yeah I bet they take one look at you and think, oh yes we will put the gay Asians together." She stretches and scoots to the edge of them bed. "And they probably don't think Kavalam is even Asian. More likely they think I was, before him." Remi lets out a chuckle of the idea of just lumping all the queer X-kids together because they didn't know what else to do with them. "If that's the case then i'll definitely have to talk to the admin and demand another room!" his cheery tone continues as he lays his luggage down on the floor and perches atop it. "I hope you don't mind but can i rest here for a little bit, like you said, it's been really busy. I'll leave whenever you need me too don't worry." an anxious smile spreads across his face as he ties his long hair up into a ponytail to keep it out of his face. "So, and i'm sorry if this is offensive to ask or anything. Do you mind if I ask you all what your powers are?" his eyes lit up in an excited manner, he had met mutants before of course but never when he was part of them. "Perhaps," Kavalam suggests to Harm, with a small furrow of brow, "you could ask to have your own room. Tell them you need it for the trans reasons. Extremely difficult for you to be comfortable around gendered people. Entirely too much gender in your living space. Throws off all the vibes, no?" He scoots back just far enough to slouch against the edge of his bed beside where Kelawini is sitting. His head tips back to look up at her. "I am only Asian in the UK," he informs her seriously. "Here, I am --" He offers an exaggerated shrug instead of finishing this sentence. "It would be a lot to expect white people to know where are the locations of the countries they pillage." His head lolls to the side, and he turns his oddly intent gaze back on Remi. "I mind just a little. Mostly because no matter what I tell you, you will ask me again in future." "Yeah, I can also tell my advisor..." Harm trails off here, mouth pulling to one side. "I'll tell someone they screwed up, in case they give you trouble." Their frown eases at Kavalam's suggestion, though the dawning of their enthusiasm for his idea is slow. "Wow, you're right! I don't know if they'll buy it, I mean..." They gesture vaguely at Kavalam. "...I don't actually mind you gendering all over the place. But maybe if they have it marked down as some kind--special accommodation? Maybe they won't forget about that." They frown again, speculative. "Maybe." At Remi's question they bite their lower lip and looks down, intently studying the Carom board as if it will provide an answer. When they do answer, it sounds a little dubious, "I -- heal people." "You should camp out in the teacher's lounge," Kelawini tells Remi earnestly. "That place is swank, and really, they've left you no choice. Too much gender for this room." She blows out a not-quite-raspberry that nevertheless gives the impression she's deflating. "Huuuu! I wish they would forget where Hawai'i is. Too much to pillage still. Some people mind you asking, but my power?" She studies Remi for a moment, eyes not quite focused. Then the phone in his pocket comes to life on its own and starts playing "Technologic" by Daft Punk. Over the chant of "buy it, use it, break it, fix it, trash it, change it, mail, upgrade it, charge it..." she adds, helpfully, "That." Looking around the room at the three he smiled at each of them individually -- when his phone began playing Daft Punk, he couldn't help but listen for a few seconds and bopping his head before switching the music off. "Okay so, mysterious, healer and a... gods, what's the name. A Technomancer, right? I think" he seemed to be talking to himself but he shook his head and focus outwards again. "I'm a Glucokinetic. kinda weird but i can do stuff with sugars." he looked timid as he gave an extremely vague description of what he could do. "Yeh, i'll probably just crash in the hallway until I can talk to Admin tomorrow morning. I'd do it now but in all honesty, I'm kind of over adults probing me for answers and shit right about now. ya know?" he put his lollipop back in his mouth and cupped his hands together. He focused for a minute and when he opened his hands, they were full of hard candies. "My hands are clean, I promise. You guys want one?" he held his hands out, offering the sweets to the three. "I make people forget me," Kavalam says this with a deliberate kind of casualness. He's returned to spinning his striker -- a little faster, now -- between his fingers. His brows hike way -- way up -- at Remi's explanation of his powers? At the demonstration? Maybe a little bit of both -- he's leaning forward to stare at the candies in the other boy's hands. His mouth twists downward. "Are those -- did you just. Ooze out those candies. Extrude them." Now he's pressing back against the bed once more. "I -- will stick to non-flesh candies." His eyes flick to Harm in a brief and silent question before he offers: "If you would like to sort this mess in the morning, you can sleep on the floor tonight." His teeth bare in a thin brief slice of a grin. "-- You will not even notice I'm here, anyway."