ArchivedLogs:Appearance

Appearance
"I would definetily go on a date with you."
Dramatis Personae Mai, Marinov, Maron	2017-01-08 '
Location <WES> Croton Gorge Park - Westchester
Situated on the east bank of the Hudson, this large park offers events year-round and a plethora of activities for nature lovers. With playgrounds, facilities for camping and swimming, boating and fishing, plentiful trails for hiking, biking, horseback riding, cliffs for rock climbing, grounds for winter sports, and ample ground to just sit and enjoy the weather, these park grounds are a great place to relax year-round. The grounds are well-tended, and with a host of avian and herpitological life, early mornings often find animal lovers scoping out the grounds in search of a glimpse of some rare bird or lizard hiding in the trees or rocks as well. Maron is alone on one of the basketball courts, a wee tiny thing clad in jeans, Ugg boots, a thick brown stuffed jacket, and a white cap on her head. Is tossing a basket ball through the hope unenergetically, lost in her own thoughs. Mai had this bright idea to go check out that special school that all of her friends are constantly talking about, of course, she forgot to look for the exact address, only remembers it mentioned that it was in Westchester, which as it turns out, is a bit bigger neighbourhood than she thought, and she has gotten promptly lost, just sort of wandering aimlessly, though she will probably call it 'exploring the neighbourhood' herself, because that doesn't sound as silly. At least she found -something- now, a park! She always liked parks, so she heads there to take a look, hands stuffed to the pockets of her jacket. There doesn't seem to be a huge crowd in the park, but at least it isn't completely deserted as she sees someone playing basketball at least, and makes her way closer. Maron spots the stranger approaching and looks wary. "Hey." Mai isn't the most imposing looking person there is, as she is fairly short, although still slightly taller than Maron, and the friendly smile on her face hopefully helps too. She takes one hand out of a pocket to give a little wave to the girl. "Hey. Hows the score?" Maron dribbles in place. "You live around here? I'm Maron. Want to shoot some hoops?" Mai shakes her head some at the first question. "Nope... not really. I live in Manhattan, was just... uh looking some place that I heard some people talk about. Haven't found it yet!" She notes with a chuckle, then gives a look up towards the hoop as she considers. "Hmm, well, I could try, no promises that I will give adequate opposition though, I am bit short for basketball." she notes with a laugh, then looks a bit awkward as she realizes that Maron actually -is- even shorter, which makes her to quickly add. "Oh, I am Mai, nice to meet you." Maron laughs. "Yeah I know, I'm a mouse. It's cool, basketball isn't really my game. Gymnastics was." She hands the ball over. "It's nice to meet you too, Mai. Pretty name. You're looking for Xavier's School? You're way lost, it's on the other side of the county. I applied there too but I haven't heard back from them." Mai takes the ball, looking it over for a few moments and weights it before doing some of that bouncing it that people who play basketball do. "Oh yeah? That sounds cool, I can do some of that stuff too, although I never really specifically practiced gymnastics, but there was a bit of overlap I guess in martial arts training." she offers in reply before tossing the ball towards the hoop, like how hard can it be? Well, seems hard enough that it doesn't go in but just bounces off from the board around the hoop. "Oh how did you know I was looking for that? And really? Other side? Damn... I must have taken the wrong turn somewhere..." Maron chases the ball down and dribbles it back. She makes a shot of her own, leaping up slightly and cometing the ball in through the hoop and back toward herself. "Um..it's a gift. You know martial arts? That's way cool. Karate or kung-fu?" Mai watches Maron having lot better aim than she does in hitting the hoop. "Nice throw." She offers, before getting somewhat confused at the next part. "Whats a gift? Oh and, uhhh thanks, kung-fu, my dad taught me like ever since I was a kid." she explains, then realizes something from what the other girl said earlier. "So uh... you live somewhere near here then, if the school is like far away? You said you applied to it?" Maron tucks the ball under her arm, regarding you thoughtfully. "Kung-fu is the shizzneh. I'd love to learn that. Hey if we both get in will you teach me? Maybe we can get a room together. Are you Chinese? I'm Japanese. Well, half-Japanese on my dad's side. Yeah, I applied there." Mai bites her lower lip a bit as she considers that. "Uhh... well I could try at least, though I have never really taught anyone so not sure how good I will be at that. Umm and well, I don't even know yet if I am going there, was just thinking about checking it out since have had several people telling me about it... at least one of them actually goes there too." The question about her ethnicity makes her giggle a bit as she motions over her face. "I thought this would have been a give-away for that." Maron watches you again, once more wary. "There's only one reason people go to that school. Are you...geez, how do I say this without sounding offensive? Are you a mutant?" Mai arches a brow some at that sudden wariness, though soon she realizes the reason when Maron speaks, smiling and actually looking somewhat relieved after the question. "You know... thats like exactly what I was thinking about how to ask from you, but I am glad you beat me to it, as I have somewhat... uhh bad track record in offending people accidently. But yeah, I am, I take it that you are too then?" Maron nods, bouncing the basketball again. "Yeah. It's ruined my life. I've already decided that if Xavier's won't help me out then I'm taking the big black train, dig?" She hands the ball to you. "I put my mom on a walker for the rest of her life because I accidentally -hugged- her too hard. Nice, isn't it? So what can you do?" Mai blinks a few times at that. "Ouch, damn, that sucks! So... your like really strong then? Good thing that I didn't end up offending you accidently then!" She offers with a light laugh to try to lighten the mood. "Oh, I can like... move things, without touching them. What was that word again.... umm telekinesis, yeah thats what someone used to describe it. I am pretty bad in all the fancy terms." Maron nods. "Yeah, I get it. I wish that's the kind of stuff I can do. Yeah, super strong. Anyway. I don't like to think about it. I'm just hoping the school can teach me how to effing turn it off." Mai is playing some basketball with Maron in the park, which probably looks somewhat silly taking in how short both of them are, not going to see too much dunking for sure! Also, judging from how Mai manages to nearly completely miss even the board behind the hoop, too many half-decent throws either, at least from her. "I am no expert for sure... but uhh, I don't think things like that -can- be turned off... but I guess you can learn to control it better? I am also still a bit in the figuring out what I actually can do part." She admits. Maron , tiny at under five feet and bundled up against the cold, trots after the ball. Retrieves it and brings it back to Mai. Shoots once again, sinking the orange sphere through the hoop once again. "I don't care about controlling it. I just want to learn how to shut it off. The side effects are the worst. I wanted to be a professional gymnast. Now I can't, if I don't learn how to turn my freakness off." She hunts down the wayward ball again and gently tosses it to Mai. "Anyway. Sorry for sounding morose. Hey hey, if you teach me kung-fu I'll teach you how to bake." Marinov is on their phone, posting a meme on social media of a funny dog telling a dog pun. They laugh softly to themselves as they approach, but upon catching a scent on the wind, they glance up towards where Mai and Maron appear to be playing basketball. The teen blinks and continues towards the others, and is wearing a plaid kilt along with a blazer, forest green vest and black tie. They tuck the phone back into their sporran. "Hey Mai," says the teen, nodding once towards Maron in a casual sort of way, "What's going on?" Maron startles visibly upon seeing the newcomer. "Whoa! Mai..you know this guy?" Mai gives a smile as she watches Maron hitting the hoop perfectly again. "I can already see whos winning this game." she notes cheerfully, then offers a more solemn nod to Maron as she explains her dilemma. "I know how you feel, it sucks. But just have to try to figure out a way to make things work." Then at the mention of baking she cheers up some. "Oh you can bake? That sounds far more useful skill in everyday life. I know a bit about cooking myself but haven't really tried baking, that could be cool." Then her attention is drawn towards the other, familiar voice, lifting her hand to wave to Marinov. "Oh, hey! Sorry for calling you so abruptly... I thought I had a great idea to go check out your school, since everyone keeps telling me about it... but I think I got lost. Probably should have checked the address a bit more closely than just 'Westchester'." Looking between Maron and Marinov for a moment, and then motioning from one to the other. "Oh, right, sorry. Marinov this is Maron, Maron, this is Marinov." she does the introductions. Marinov's ears turn lightly at Maron's question, and they look to Mai to answer it. "No need to apologize," says Marinov, seeming a bit uncomfortable at the 'sorry' word itself being used. "Nice to meet you, Maron. I'm Marinov. Taylor Marinov." They look between the two girls and wonder, "So you were trying to visit Xavier's? It's sorta gated anyways, yeah? So... you would've had that to deal with if you made it. Did you set up an appointment with them or anything?" Maron grows visibly excited. "You go to Xavier's?" She really doesn't mean to be rude. "Do you..know if they got my letter?" Mai blinks a few times at what Marinov says, as she hadn't quite thought it out that much. "Oh... right... boarding school. Well, I am feeling pretty dumb now." she notes with a light laugh. "I guess I wouldn't be able to just come visit at random, right? I really need to get better at this whole planning ahead thing. Just like lot of people have been telling me that I should finish school, so I had been thinking about applying to Xavier's, but I would like kind of want to at least see what the place is like first. But hey, at least this trip wasn't complete waste as I met someone new." is added with a look towards Maron. "Your letter? Was it, like, an application letter? I'm guessing that they probably got it," suggests Marinov, "But I mean, I'm just a student there, yeah? I'm only sixteen, so I tend not to go through the administrators' mail." They scratch the back of their neck and continue, "I mean, I can tell you what the place is like, if you want, but I'm pretty sure you can book an appointment if you call or whatever. If I had known in advance, maybe I could've invited you as a visitor or something." They lick their teeth, slitted eyes turning towards Maron. "So you just met Mai today?" Maron is visibly pleased by Mai's off-hand compliment. Tucking the basketball under her arm again she blows her cheeks out. "Yeah. It wasn't so much an application as an oh god please help me sooo...I don't know what's going to happen." She grins. "Yeah. China Doll here thought she could beat me at hoops. Haaaaaa." "Oh, you can do that? Damn, now I am feeling really silly for not calling you earlier. That would be really cool from you if you could like arrange that and show me around some?" Mai replies to Marinov, Biting her lower lip for a moment before she digs into her backpack for a moment, and pulls out what looks like a sketchbook. "I guess it was because I wanted to like surprise you, and give you this..." She explains as she flips through several pages in the sketch book before finding the page she is looking for, showing it, which is a pencil sketch of Marinov, portrait style, its by no means professional level or anything, but it is decent enough that it is easy to tell who it portrays. "I hope it looks okay? I hadn't really drawn much fur before, it took several attempts to get it to look at least somewhat decent." She explains. The words from Maron make her giggle as she leans over to nudge the girl a bit with her elbow. "Hey! I told you before we started that I had like not played basketball." Maron snerks and sing-song voices. "~"two little mutants sitting in a tree.~" The rest of the song gets cut off by the demands of her bright pink Iphone. "Excuse me, guys." Speaks into the phone. "Hi mom. No, I'm at the park shooting hoopps with Mai and Taylor. Sure, I can do that. No, don't do that. Just-just wait for me to get home and I'll help. Kay. I'll be home soon." She hangs the phone up, fetching a small notepad from her backpack. "Sorry dudes, I have to bail. My mom needs me. But hey, here's my number and email. Call me, we'll hang." She tears two seperate sheets off, handing one sheet to each of you. "It's been really A-sauce meeting both of you. Thanks for keeping me company today." Marinov squints at the sketch that Mai shows them and says, "Yeah, that looks good to me. I'm not really great at drawing, I mostly only do it for my designs and stuff, yeah?" Their eyes drift over the picture to also check for evidence of what they are wearing in the sketch. This is an important detail! At least for the felinoid teen. "And well, usually the visits are for family or whatever? Visitors are pretty uncommon on school ground, mostly 'cause they don't want people gawking at us monsters." They gesture towards their face. "Not good for the self-esteem for the place to be treated like a zoo. But if you want to see the grounds for going there, I imagine that's fine. Plenty of people join in unusual circumstances." They then nod towards Maron and say, "Alright, well, nice meeting you. I suppose I will seeya later, especially if you go to Xavier's. Small school." Maron smiles. "I seriously hope I can. I'll call both of you soon. Promise." She casts a quick glance around to make sure we are unobserved. She crouches. Her strong, pretty gymnastics sculpted legs pulse with contraction, snding her off in a leap that carries her twenty feet high and forty feet across. The tiny mutant bounds this way until she is out of sight. Mai gives a look towards Maron at that phone conversation, offering a nod and a smile to the girl as she accepts the piece of paper. "Thanks, was nice meeting you too, I will text you or something to give you my number in a bit, see you around!" she offers, before returning her attention to the sketch, its a portrait so it only shows like chest and up, but for that part she has drawn Marinov is wearing a pea jacket, pretty much like when she first met them, though of course since its pencil drawing there is no colors. "Oh well, you do much better stuff than drawing, like you make actual useful stuff, like that shirt and hat for Paige, I only wish I could make something that useful. I wanted to give you at least something in return, but uh... most of the things I am good at don't really produce lasting physical things as result, so drawing you was best I could think of." She explains, nodding then at the explanation of the nature of visits to the school. "Oh, I can absolutely understand that. I wouldn't want to be stared at in that manner either. I will do my very best to not stare." She promises. As Maron bounds off, Marinov says flatly, "And here I thought I was gonna have a shot at the standing long jump when I got old enough to do the Evolympics." They shake their head and look back to Mai, "Well, I think any sorta art is important, you know? Not just the stuff that you can wear, that just happens to be the stuff I am good at working with. And don't feel obligated to give me anything; I just knew that Paige doesn't have a lot of clothes, and if she wore the cardigan I gave her, she wouldn't have a hood, so the hat was needed." Mai blinks in surprise as she sees Maron just literally leaping away. "Oh... thats pretty impressive." she admits. Nodding then to what Marinov says about the art. "Yeah, I agree, all kinds of art is beautiful. But well, I like drawing, I hope that some day I will actually have the money to get proper education in it, so far I am mainly just self-taught. Would be cool way to make a living." She explains with a shrug. When the topic turns to Paige she offers another nod in agreement. "Yeah I wish she will get the whole stupid registration thing done so she can get a proper job and get her life in order. She is so nice to everyone always, she really deserves better." "A proper job," repeats Marinov, grimacing a feline grimace at the thought, "Yeah... well, Paige has it rough, especially with fur coming in. Even with her registration up to date, it's gonna be pretty tough for her to get a job. But yeah, she does deserve better, I agree. I just... hope you don't expect her to hear back on applications real quick. It's hard enough when you're a mutant who at least looks like a flatscan, but when you look like... well, like us. I dunno." Their tail flicks back and forth a couple of times as they fall silent. "If you want to go to school for art, you're gonna have to build up a portfolio. But if you go to Xavier's for school, they've got good arts classes." Mai winces a bit as she sees that grimace. "I just meant... like you know, pretty much no place will even consider you if you don't have the registration done, like I was super lucky to get the job I have now thanks to an old family friend arranging it to me. And no, I don't expect it, I am happy to let her stay as long as she needs to get her things in order... it is nice to actually have someone to talk to, anyway, you know?" She explains, then adds. "Oh... you heard about the fur already? Yeah, she took that rather heavily..." The mention of art classes at Xaviers does perk her interest. "Oh they do? The place is sounding great already!" "Yeah, she sent me a series of pretty weird text messages, but I guess she was just feeling off while the fur was coming in," says Marinov, glancing about the park. "But yeah, I think I know what you mean. I have two roommates back at the school, mostly leave me to my devices, though K.C. can be sorta nosy. She has a pitbull that stays in our room, too, which is fine by me. Dogs are great." They pat their sides lightly with their hands, realizing they don't have any pockets in the present outfit. "But yeah... I have confidence that Paige'll do alright, it's just, it might take some time. I'm glad you're there for her." Mai can't help but giggle a bit at the mention of the text messages. "Oh, to you too? I also got a bunch of them that made me kind of confused. I have been thinking about asking her what some of the more strange ones meant... but I am not sure if she will even remember sending them." Smiling at the mention of their roommates dog. "Oh? Yeah I like dogs too, though I couldn't really in good conscience take one while living middle of the city, even if I could afford it, just wouldn't feel right for the poor thing, if I would be leaving somewhere away from the city though, then definetily." "Yea, see, I don't get why people call me a cat person, I've always been more of a dog person," says Marinov, taking a jocund sort of tone, "Anyways... yeah, I dunno, it seems like she might've been having some kind of fever dreams or something. When my manifestation happened, I was a real mess too, that kind of shit can be really physically traumatic, so I'm glad she's doing better now." Mai smiles at the talk about dogs and cats. "Well, I can see why people might get that impression, like optical illusion?" she offers jokingly. "Oh, that actually reminds me, I was meaning to ask if you could talk to her about that. Since you have like gone through more or less the same thing, you could probably like offer her advice on how to handle it much better than I can. I have tried to help her but I am all the time worried that I just say something really dumb since I don't really have any experience with anything like that." "Huh? You mean about growing fur?" says Marinov, rubbing their neck lightly, "I mean... it's pretty similar to any part of the physical mutation, except ultimately you can just shave fur off if it's really a problem." They shake their head and say, "I talk to Paige pretty frequently, though, so if she has any questions about... fur care? I'll be sure to keep her in the loop. I'm not sure if there's much to say about it except that it's a bit rough that she's going through that." Mai nods slightly. "Well, I just mean that she was like really freaking out about it... which had me rather worried. Though maybe it was just the initial shock? I hope at least that she is feeling better. I know I would definetily freak out too if I would suddenly grow fur." She admits as she looks down at her own hand as if to make sure that isn't happening. "Yeah, it's a pretty terrifying experience," says Marinov flatly, "But it's not the worst thing that can happen to a person if they already have an obvious mutation, I guess. If I looked like I do and /didn't/ grow fur, I'd probably be even worse off, 'cause at least spots have some kind of visual appeal, but weird naked feline face... fuck, that sounds terrible, too." They shake their head and sigh, "Anyways. Don't worry, I'll have the physical appearance mutation stuff covered for her to talk about." Mai nods a few times here and there as she listens intently on what Marinov is explaining while she tries to picture what feline face without fur would look like. "Yeah... I can see what you mean there. That probably would look weird. Though as you are, I personally think that you look really good." She offers with a smile. Nodding once more at the last part. "Thanks, I really appreciate it, and I am sure Paige will also." "Yeah, spots are always in," says Marinov, looking down at their exposed leg. "And thanks for saying so. I actually used to be a pretty good looking kid by conventional standards. Well, if you like the whole androgynous blonde look. I... think I look fine now and all, but sort of not like... attractive, that's for sure. Sometimes I sort of expect it to just switch off, even now, but I know it won't." Mai listens curiously at what Marinov is explaining, which reminds her of her original confusion over their gender when first meeting Marinov. "I personally think that as long as you are yourself happy with the way you look, that is all that matters, like you can't really change anyone else's views anyway, only yourself. People in general worry way too much about what others think about their appearance. I know I do that too... like I am not exactly the most..." she struggles with finding the right word here, though the way she is gesturing over her, fairly modest, chest with her hands probably gets the idea across. "... you know, but I am definetily not going to change anything about that." Marinov puts a hand on their own chest for a moment and then they shrug a shoulder. "I think it's a bit of a different sort of situation, looking like I do, versus not being particularly busty. Appearance means a lot in the world we live in, unfortunately, and just not letting it get to me is not exactly going to be enough." Mai nods in agreement to what Marinov says. "Oh, yes, absolutely. I didn't mean to sound like they would be similar, it was just an example, probably bad one. And yeah... it does. I sometimes think that if everyone would be blind, the world would be much happier place. You are doing great work though about making things look better though, with your designs. Like right now, you are by far the most stylish looking person I have seen the whole day. I would definetily go on a date with you." The last part is said fully seriously too. Marinov laughs and says, "Well, sometimes it's nice to wear a kilt. Pretty great to have the sporran to store stuff in. But yeah, I'd love to have my designs and stuff take off and become more popular. An old schoolmate of mine is into design, too, and she does top rate work. I might have to connect with her at some point..." The teen picks up their phone out of the sporran again and says, "I should get going, gotta be back, it's a school day tomorrow. Next time, you should make an appointment with the school, I'm sure they'd even give you some directions!" Mai gives a smile to Marinov as she listens. "Oh that sounds like a good idea, maybe you could like become partners or something?" she suggests, looking at her phone too after Marinov says that they need to go. "Damn, its that late already? Uh... this is kind of embarrasing... but which way is the closest subway station?" she really did get lost. Starting to put her sketchbook away when she realizes she still has the Marinov sketch there and she carefully tears the page off from the book and hands it over to her friend. "Here, don't forget this. Oh and... if you could like arrange that visitor thing you mentioned earlier? That would be super cool.... anyways, I don't want to keep you here so you don't get in trouble or anything for staying out too late. Was great to see you again." she then stuffs her sketchbook back into her backpack and closes it, getting ready to leave herself too. Marinov takes the sketch that is offered to them, nodding. They carefully roll the page so that it can be held more easily, so long as the paper is cooperating. "Thanks Mai. And yeah, I'll take a look into it, or at least get you a number you can call to arrange that kind've thing." They gesture in the direction of the nearest subway station and say, "If you walk that way, just head down the street there straight and you won't be able to miss it. Have a good night Mai." Marinov nods once and starts running back towards their school; Marinov is fast, but it's no 40-foot leap.