Logs:Liminal Zone

Liminal Zone
Dramatis Personae Avi, Harm, Naomi	2021-01-06 "Sorry, who's eating mutants?"
Location <XAV> Great Hall - Xs First Floor
The largest room at Xavier's, the Great Hall is designed to hold all of the mansion's residents and then some. Built for the mansion's bigger functions, it serves as the school's dining halls on ordinary days, and ballroom when needed. On school days, long trestle tables stretch across the hall, high-backed chairs with plush cushions offering seating for the students. The second day of classes after break is going a little more smoothly than the first, people starting vaguely to fall back into some kind of rhythm that is not solely governed by jetlag and vacation hangover. Even so by the end of classes many students are starting to drag, too tired or too hypoglygemic or too out-of-class-practice for the long block schedule. Among the trudging mix at the lunch line Avi's unfamiliar new face is overbright, chipper in a way that is probably not inspired by the plateful of chicken casserole or uninspiring garden salad on the side that he's carrying away from the small selection of mix-and-match food dishes on offer today. He pauses only a brief moment to scan the room before wandering over, still bright-smiled, to take up an open-spot at an only partially-filled table, already peeling off his worn old Waffle House hoodie and draping it over the back of his seat once he's set his food down to leave him in just a black and yellow colorblocked long-sleeve shirt and jeans. "Yo," is his amiable greeting to everyone and nobody. Sitting at the table, Harm is already halfway through their lunch, more hungry than enthusiastic. They're dressed in a loose-knit rainbow sweater over a soft gray thermal shirt and blue jeans, their glossy black hair falling partly across their eyes. "Anyway, so they almost wouldn't let me come back," they're telling the others at the table, "because they thought it was because of mutant things that we disappeared. Which...I guess...maybe it was?" Their frown fades away when they look up to see Avi approaching, though, replaced by a bright and friendly smile of their own. "Hi," they reply, "you wanna sit with us?" They're waving to an empty chair before he has a chance to reply. "I'm Harm." On the edge of the conversation, Naomi takes a break from stabbing halfheartedly at her meal to look up, confused, at Harm. “Wait but how is it gonna be a mutant thing you think that dimension was in search of mutants to eat or something?” This seems to trouble her slightly, but Avi’s approach takes her attention away. Her long-sleeved green crewneck shirt is tucked into her own jeans, locs pulled back into a ponytail on the crown of her head that she pats self-consciously as Avi joins the table. “Hi. Welcome to... lunch. I’m Naomi.” Her gaze catches on Avi’s hoodie, and the smile grows a little more. “Oh man I miss Waffle House they don’t have any up here.” "Disappeared? Dimension?" Avi's wide eyes are growing even wider as he settles into his seat. "Harm, Naomi," he repeats to himself with a nod of his head, eyes darting between the others as he echoes the names. "I'm Avi. And yeah IHOP just does not hit the same. Sorry, who's eating mutants?" "Oh -- sorry um..." Harm chews on their lower lip. "Back over Thanksgiving break a bunch of us...kind of got sucked into another dimension? Long story, bad times." They quirk an eyebrow at Naomi, their expression a little uncertain. "No one's eating mutants...that we know of! I was thinking more maybe it was someone's power that opened up the original portal that was in Staten Island. I mean how else does stuff like that happen? I guess -- science?" They shrug exaggeratedly. "Sorry you dropped into a weird conversation, Avi. I've never been to a Waffle House, but IHOP isn't as great as a lot of people keep saying." “Ohhhhhh I get it.” Naomi nods at the explanation. “I just thought it was more weird 2020 shit.” To Avi, she adds, “It isn’t usually ‘dimension hopping’ weird around here, I think. Ionno though I’ve been here like one term.” Her nails drum slightly against the tabletop. “Oh man Harm you gotta try Waffle House the vibes are exquisite, IHOP wishes it was Waffle House." "Wait, you telling me that other dimension shit was for real for real? I thought 2020 memes was just like -- running away with themselves." Avi is clutching at his fork but has forgotten his food in his sudden curiosity. "Yeah I'm still tryna find somewhere around here to get that real good 2 am sleep dep pancakes feeling like I haven't been in New York but a minute but it's a big place? Somewhere's gotta have that maybe-just-midnight-breakfast, maybe-a-gateway-to-the-fae feeling yeah? 'specially if you're telling me New York's got gateways for serious." Harm has put down their fork, their eyes gone a little wide, their face a little pale. "Yeah, that was. Real." Their shoulders hunch, hands withdrawing into the slightly overlong cuffs of their sweater. "Um...Sinkers and Suds in Salem Center is kind of like that, I guess? They're only open till midnight on weeknights but it's later on weekends." Their smile is incongruously nervous. "I'm sure there's lots of other places in New York, but you'd be better off asking an actual local." Naomi’s finger tapping speeds up, just slightly, before abruptly coming to a halt. “Yeah. We missed the memes, sure they were wild.” She shakes her head. “Vibes aren’t right at Suds but they got great milkshakes, anyway.” She takes up her fork too, pushing the casserole around on her plate. “Where you from then? We got people from all over ‘round here.” Avi's eyes dart between the other two, his smile dimming before he drops his attention to his food. "-- Yeah, sure. I'll do that, then." He takes a quick bite of casserole, washes it down with a gulp of water. "You Lael's sister?" he asks after this, glancing up to Naomi but quickly back down away. "He's my roommate now." The question just gets a small shrug, a small quirk of lips. "Everywhere. Nowhere. Kinda been all around. Neither you been here real long, then?" Harm frowns. "Wait, what's wrong with the vibe there?" They sound less defensive or affronted than just confused. "I guess I see gateways to the fae kind of everywhere. A lot Xavier's kids go there, which...can be a plus or a minus, depending how sick you are of us at the moment? Maybe that might be boring if you're used to -- everywhere." A hint of a smile returns to their face. "Or Waffle House at two a.m." They start to shake their head at the question, then stops, tilting their head to one side, blinking. "Woah, actually I've been here a whole year now!" Their cheeks flush dark. "Maybe I don't actually have an excuse not knowing any good midnight breakfast spots other than the really obvious one." "Oh I mean the vibes aren't wrong they're just--" Naomi's face scrunches up as she searches for the right word, "-- Ionno, white? And grounded. Not very liminal zone. Menu rocks though I mean it about the shakes." Her eyes go wide at the recognition. "Yeah, that's me. He talmbout me already?" A hint of nervousness there, quickly brushed off with a laugh. "Not like you going down to the city every weekend, right? We should ask people who live there -- Oh there is like a mutant cafe in the city do you know it?" This is back to Avi. "I just came this summer but Lael's been here a minute." "Everywhere?" Avi's brows lift curiously, his eyes skimming the great hall curiously. "Like what do those look like though?" His nose scrunches, a short laugh bubbling up. "I been here like a day so it might take me a bit longer than that to get sick of y'all, I'm still working out how to get from my dorm to class on time." He shovels more food into his mouth, covering it with his hand as he eats. "Mmmnah. We was just talking 'bout family. I was mad jealous like I thought it'd be dope if my sister got powers too." His hand drops once he swallows. "Someone to figure all this out with? Maybe the reality's not so cool, I'unno." "Everywhere," Harm confirms, sounding -- almost kind of serious about it. "It can look like anything. A gap in the trees, a break in the weather, a totally ordinary object that's suddenly extraordinary, a pause between moments..." Their eyes search the hall. "Sometimes an actual door. Sometimes a person." They blush again. "Maybe it's just me. I grew up kind of..." They shake their head and just settle for, "...weird. I think the reality's just different depending on your perspective, maybe. I'm mad jealous of any siblings at all. Someone who's on your side no matter what and...maybe kind of gets where you are?" Naomi shifts in her seat, her cheeks darkening slightly. “Lael’s pretty great but maybe that’s not the same for all siblings, you know? Ionno I think it’s different if you like, both get powers as a teen, than me ’n Lael’s situation. I had a lot of time t’ get used to his hair, him getting used to me ’n my shit? Not so much.” She pokes at the casserole again, eyes pointed downwards “Our older siblings, I love ‘em but - they ain’t exactly ride or die for both of us.” Head back up to Avi. “How old is your sister maybe she could still be one of us, you know? The timeline is a liiiiitle flexible.” Avi's brows scrunch up as Harm speaks, a slight uncertainty creeping into his expression. "I haven't been here long enough to tell if you're messing with me," he decides with a small shake of his head, continuing to work his way through his lunch. "Sorry about your older siblings," he adds, "I'm glad Lael's cool. I mean, he seems cool to me but I only known him a sec. My sister's great, it's just the two of us. She's younger so," he sits up with a spark of hope, "still time I guess. I sure had no clue until just last month when bam --" His hand slaps lightly at the table beside his tray to punctuate this for effect -- -- and leaves his entire meal frosted over and stuck to the table within a thick layer of ice. His eyes go wide, an excitement brightening his face "-- oh man did you see that I did it --" That quickly turns into a sudden slump of shoulders, a resigned tone as he tries futilely to wiggle at his fork, frozen solid in the block of ice. "... oh man. Did you see that. Damn." Harm blushes fiercely now. "I'm not messing with you," they say quietly, eyes averted downward. "I guess it's easy for me to envy, I'm an only child. But anyway, I hope your sister has an alright time adjusting to -- all this. Whether or not she also turns out to be a mutant later, you know?" They do not start when Avi slaps the table, but their eyes go wide when the ice spreads over the table, then lift to the boy. "I saw that!" They stretch out a hand, still partly hidden in their sleeve, and presses their fingertips to the edge of the frost. A smile lights up their dark eyes first, then the rest of their face. "Oh! That's amazing!" Then they notice the state of Avi's meal, and wince sympathetically. "They'll give you more," they offer, encouragingly, "this sort of thing happens." “Holy shit.” Naomi’s eyes have also gone wide, looking with wonder at the sudden frost. She pokes at an edge of the ice with her fork, the tines scraping against the frost. “Oh man you a Frozone type mutant that’s cool as hell!” Naomi looks up at the other students, delight dancing in her own expression. Then down at Avi’s plate. Nods at Harm’s suggestion. “I ain’t really ate mine yet, if you want my fruit or something. Or I can grab you a new plate.” By the time Avi looks back up he's smiling again, bright and delighted at the others' reactions. "Oh man right? Cool as hell, huh? It'll be," he admits with a laugh, "maybe cooler when I know how to make it go right. Or --" he's scraping his stubby-short nails against the slab of ice, "know how not to. Still." His grin is appreciative at Naomi's offer, but he's getting up all the same, with a glance to her fruit and then around the elegant dining hall. "Oh man thanks but I hope this place can afford second helpings now and then, they do not look like they finna go broke over some extra chicken and noodles." There's some amusement in it, knuckled rapping against the frozen plate, when he adds rather unnecessarily, "don't let nobody take my spot."