Whistler: Yvette, Nori// Yvette, Jay - Wednesday afternoon

[x-penance.livejournal.com]

The conference is going well, albeit, not always excitingly. As they break for lunch, Nori and Yvette chat a little about cultural differences, and then things get very Not Boring very quickly.



"...and with that, we'll break for lunch. There's a buffet available in the dining room, please, try and mingle and share your experiences, and we'll meet back here in two hours."

There was an almost audible relaxing of bodies as the speaker left the podium, with people getting up to stretch their legs, to collect their bits and pieces and begin wandering into the aforementioned dining room. The conference wasn't very large - there were less than half a dozen of the Beta Flight volunteers, outnumbered by the experts and government officials and the rest - and as a result it was very intensive. Lots of talking and slides.

For her part, Yvette slid from her normal crouch on the chair, and adjusted her gloves and socks, making sure her skin was covered. It was a reflex these days, whenever she was around people. Besides, it let her hang back a little and wait for the room to clear, so she wouldn't have to dodge any kind of crush.

Noriko had stopped paying attention a good while ago, and the pages they'd been handed at the beginning of the day were well covered with spindly armed, large eyed girls in school uniforms. The man sitting on her left had frowned at her when she'd first started doodling, but the young woman on hre right had seemed somewhat impressed. Nori had ignored them both, focusing on her drawings to keep from fidgeting. Now, though, people were up and moving, and she was pretty sure that meant food. Sticking her pen back into its pencil case, and the case and her papers into her bag, she hopped up, making for the door.

As the Japanese girl moved past Yvette, a page fluttered from her bag, where it had been haphazardly stuffed. "Nori!" the small red girl called, bending to pick it up carefully. "You dropped the paper..." She held up the page, but was distracted by the drawings. "Oh! These are so pretty!"

"Eh? Ara... Hello, Yvette." Noriko turned and smiled at the other girl - she was kind of fond of the only girl at the school who was shorter than she. She shrugged, though, when she saw what Yvette was looking at. "Mou, Nori is not good to..." the word escaped her, so she just pointed. "Sore... that. E wo suru."

"I think you are very good. It is... how you say? Kawaii?" Yvette had certainly learned that word on the Japan trip, having heard it so often. "Cute, yes?" She looked around, almost guiltily, and said, in a slightly softer voice. "And the long talks, they can be very boring."

The Japanese got a grin out of Noriko as she took the page back. "Maji de," she said, "Nori is not good. In Japan school is friend... Yumi, sugoi jyouzu. Yumi is future be... anou... manga-ka." She wrinkled her nose at her lack of vocabulary, then quickly moved on. "Nori is talks very not understand."

"The... comic book, yes? Book with the pictures to tell the story?" Yvette had picked up some of Nori's more common Japanese terms, and 'manga' was definitely on the list, with the number the girl read. "And it can be hard, yes, to understand. So many big English words!" She cocked her head at the dining hall. "Would you like to eat lunch with me?"

Nori nodded. "Ii-yo. Let's lunch." Sticking the page of drawings more securely into her bag, she turned and headed out of the now very empty conference room. "Is Yvette this interesting?"

"Some," Yvette replied, falling into step with Nori - the Japanese girl was one of the few people short enough for her to do that with. "Using your powers to find and save people, this is very interesting. I think this is the thing I want to do, when I am finished the school." She glanced at Nori, curious. "And you? When you are grown up and can leave the school, what would you like to do?"

The advantage of talking with Yvette was that, even when she used words and grammar Nori didn't know yet, she spoke slowly enough that the Japanese girl could usually follow her. Shrugging, all she said was "When can leave is leave." The way she said it, it sounded like she'd not put any real thought into it, but the truth was that any plans she had had were severely derailed when she manifested.

"Oh." It seemed sad, that Nori couldn't see much more than leaving the school as her future. "Leave to where?" she asked softly, half afraid of irritating the other girl - Nori did tend to have a bit of an impatient streak.


Noriko shrugged again. "Is not know. Is not can leave for power. Is not control." There was an air of unconcern about her, but it was a bit on the flimsy side.


"Not for always." Yvette had to say it with hope, for her own sake. Inside the dining hall, the convention goers were congregating around the buffet table. Yvette hung back a little, waiting until the crowd had cleared a bit. "At least the food is very good? When things are boring?" she joked.


Nori grinned at that, seeming to relax slightly. "Yes, is good. Kedo... Japan talk's food is better. Was. Was better."


"Except for the squid ice cream. When we were there, Kyle told me there was ice cream with the squid." Yvette wrinkled her nose. "The tentacles do not belong in the ice cream."


"Tentacles?" Nori asked, blinking at the unfamiliar word. "What is?" The line for the buffet was getting shorter, but she still hung back, having learned how littler her suite mate liked crowds.


"The squid, it is having the tentacles?" Yvette waggled her long gloved fingers at Nori. "The squid's... legs?"


"Aaa, wakata. Is not tentacles in ice cream," Nori said, hesitating on the new word, trying to cement it into her memory. "Is... anou..." She pressed her hands together, miming mushing something.


"They are putting the squid in the blender?" Yvette began, curious, but was cut off by movement by the door. A worried-looking man, one of the Beta Flight staff, she remembered, was speaking urgently to the woman in charge of the conference. After a long moment, she raised her hands, and called for silence of the room at large.

"Excuse me? I'm sorry to interrupt, but we've just received news. There has been an avalanche, further up in the mountains. One of the smaller villages has been buried." A moment of stunned silence, and then the urgent buzz of voices and the woman waved her hands for silence again. "Obviously, you here are the closest response team, and we need as much help as we can get. Transport is being scrambled as we speak. If you could all make your preparations and meet in the foyer in twenty minutes..."

Around them, the room erupted into activity. Yvette looked at Nori. The woman's English had been a bit more formal than she was used to, but she'd understood enough. "There are the people, needing help," she said, eyes wide and flaring bright.

Noriko's eyebrows drew together as the woman started speaking and the crowd responded, but when Yvette explained it all became clear. "Sou ka..." She hesitated. "Is we... tasukeru... help?"

Yvette nodded. "Yes," she replied, reaching out to take Nori's elbow carefully in one gloved hand, and beginning to steer her towards the rest of the Xavier's people. "We are to help."



Once assignments have been given, Yvette encounters Jay having some trouble.



People were passing in and out of the lodge, each busy with a specific task given to them. They all had something in mind and it showed on their determined faces. Fifteen minutes ago, all the mutants with flight were given harnesses, Jay included, with directions to air lift people to safety from the town, ones that were higher up where helicopters couldn't reach without causing another avalanche. Jay didn't know how to use the harness and instead of following everyone, he stood nearby the door, trying to figure out how to put it on. There were so many clips, and loops, that he tried it several times different ways but couldn't manage to fasten it properly, let alone, get the right direction.

A small shape, wearing a Red X jacket that was a little too big for her, was one of those leaving the lodge - even amidst the crowds Yvette was clearly recognisable with her dark-red skin and hair. Seeing Jay fumbling with his harness, she paused, indecisive. He seemed to need help, but she still wasn't 100% comfortable with him. Less so after the conversations she'd seen between him and Kevin on the journals. However, this wasn't about her, it was about doing what they'd been trained to do - or what she'd been trained to do, at least. Jay wasn't part of Red X yet, coming along because Mr. Garrison had thought it would be good for him, she guessed. No wonder he looked lost.

Making a decision, she approached. "Can I be helping?" she asked softly, ready to go at the first sign of Cranky.

Frustration was more like it. He could already see from his position next to the window, the direction the flight mutants went to go, and he felt panicked that he was being left behind. They had even said they would show him how to put it together and he lingered back, knowing he was the only one who didn't knowhow to use it. Stupidity racked his nerves, paying attention more to the fact that the group in flight was slowly starting to go out of view, than his straps. He thought about just giving up and taking off to catch up, but what if he couldn't land anywhere? It would be impossible to hook it up properly mid flight.

He hadn't even seen Yvette approach him and hastily looked over his shoulder before snapping a strap around his waist that didn't really fit correctly. Was that meant for his shoulder? "Oh uh," he looked down, unhooking it and tried to pull the harness off. "No, Ah'm just workin on it. Ah'll get it."

Yvette suppressed an eyeroll, although her eyes flashed brighter briefly. Boys. They were so dumb sometimes, all pride. "This part? It is to go around the leg," she told him gently, pointing out the correct loop. "And this is for the other leg."

"Huh?" He glanced down at the strap she was pointing at, fumbling it in his hands, he stepped into it, and then the other as instructed. "Ah knew that." He tried to fix the straps that were going behind him, and that were suppose to go over his shoulder, turning the nylon, but it seemed twisted and he looked out at the window again. They were almost out of sight. "Ugh, could ya get this?" he asked, pointing to one of the straps in a hurried motion.


"Please to be kneeling down?" she instructed, stepping behind him. She could see how the straps went - thank you Mr. Dayspring and your climbing classes - but Jay was so much taller than her. Well, everyone was, just about. She took hold of the strap, untangling it with a few sharp twists.

"Please to wha--" he gaped. Then he caught on. For a second there, he thought she was suggesting something else. He knelt down, his wing careful not to brush her as she fixed the strap around it. Because she did that, he could loop his arm through, and reached back to do the same with the other. Finally it seemed to fit through, but there was this whole other piece that was hanging below him, andhe figured when he started flying, that it would make sense. With a final click in the front, he adjusted it and seemed a lot happier. "Thanks Yvette," Jay touched her shoulder over the jacket before collecting up the remainder of the harness. He bolted outside, and wasted no time to getting into the air but not without a trip in the snow that almost sent him sprawling.