10250/After Giving Thanks

After Giving Thanks
Date of Scene:	29 November 2019
Location:	Second Floor, Xavier's School
Synopsis:	Vi and Brad chat briefly about family and thanksgiving pie.
Cast of Characters:	Haunt, Vi

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Haunt has posed:
At the top of the main staircase, sitting cross-legged, is the invisible teenage boy, Brad. He's visible in the sense that he has one of his blue hoodies on, heavy pants, and shoes that all show up, though he is headless. He's sitting against the upper railing of the overlook, people watching those that go up and down the stairs. He's by himself, with a little white to-go box in his lap and a plastic fork.

The fork travels from the box with a morsel up to disappear into where his head would be, if he'd had a head visible.

Vi has posed:
Vi ate in the dining room at the urging of the Guthrie clan and a couple of others. She always eats quickly. Not gluttonous. Just making sure the food on her plate ends up in her stomach and not someone else's. Afterwards, everyone went off to watch Charlie Brown holiday specials. They didn't make much sense to Vi. Some of the language seemed to her to just be strange waa-waa noises. She wasn't sure what language it was, but it wasn't one she spoke.

And so she'd slipped away while the others were engrossed in a discussion about why Charlie Brown kept trusting Lucy. She'd headed up the stairs towards her room, until she came to the second floor landing and noticed she wasn't alone.

Vi glances up at the clothing, slowly consuming it's meal. "Brad?" she asks, after a moment of recalling what his name is. "Is that you?" she asks. He's the only invisible student she knows of, but that doesn't mean there isn't another.

Haunt has posed:
The fork lifts and waves a little bit after conferring some of the contents of the box up into the invisible face. It's a fun little show, the fork waggling itself, since Brad's hands are invisible. He swallows presumably, and then answers soon after.

"Hi. I'm not sure who you are, but hi," Brad greets, openly. She hasn't said enough to where he can decipher her voice, but she is moving quietly: so he has a suspicion. Still, hard to tell for sure, really.

"Did you have a good Thanksgiving?" Brad follows his question up, adjusting his position somewhat, so that his leg stops falling asleep from his sitting position.

Vi has posed:
Vi's expression turns abashed. Which he also won't be able to see, but it probably can be heard a little in her voice. "Oh, sorry. It's Vi. I explained the layout of the ground floor for you. When you were counting steps," she reminds him.

Vi glanced down over the railing to the floor below. "I guess I did. I've never had a Thanksgiving before so I'm not really sure what's a good one or a bad one. I got to see a bunch of the city," she tells him. "So that part was nice. It's amazing how tall the buildings are. I can't even feel the top of them," she says, shaking her head at that thought.

Vi walks over nearer to Brad. "What about you? Did you have a good Thanksgiving?" she asks him. "Did you watch the lessons taught by Charlie Brown today?"

Haunt has posed:
"Sure, Vi. I remember. Ummmmm. I didn't watch anything, no," Brad says, with a sort of amusement in his tone. He lets the phrasing sink in: the blind boy probably did not watch much of Charlie Brown. "I'm also not really interested in it. It's kinda lame," Brad shrugs, moving the fork around in the box.

"I went to dinner with my family, they dropped me off maybe half an hour ago," Brad clarifies. "It ... it was okay. It wasn't great. It was okay." He stirs in the box a little bit more. "How come you haven't had a thanksgiving before? Are you from another country?" he wonders.

Vi has posed:
Vi walks over to where Brad is sitting. "Can I sit with you?" she asks him softly. If allowed she takes a seat beside him, if not stands over near the railing to the stairs. "Yes, I'm from another country," she confirms. She has a noticeable accent, that a decent ear might think is Eastern European. While a really good ear would think it's kind of odd, a bit of a hodgepodge of different accents from the region.

"It was a different kind of place. Really different. No school. No phones, no TV. Just work," she says, without really going into too many details for now. Word has slowly been filtering out amongst the students, but most still don't seem to fully understand where she is from. The name 'Echo' gets used some, but what kind of name is that?

Vi crosses her arms, hugging herself a bit. "I wish it had been better with your family. It's nice that you're able to spend any time with them," she says quietly, arms tightening a little more. "They said this is a day for spending with family. And, apparently eating a lot of food."

Haunt has posed:
"That's exactly what it is. It's being thankful for things you have, and people you have. Family, or friends, depending on how you feel about it or what you have. Or maybe it's both, if your friends are your family now," Brad answers. He waggled his fork towards the area next to him, welcoming her to sit.

"I have leftover pie. Do you want to try it? It's pumpkin," Brad offers, friendly, and similarly welcoming in his tone. He's willing to share. "Unless you're already stuffed," he chuckles.

Brad then sighs some. "I was excited to show them that I can turn off my invisibility for a short bit. And they were really happy. They haven't 'seen' me in years. But it wasn't like how I imagined it. I thought it would be /perfect/. It wasn't. It was okay. Just. Not what I thought. They didn't urge me to come home or anything."

Vi has posed:
The petite nineteen year old takes a seat beside Brad. When the pie is offered, she smiles at him. Vi knows that offering to share his food doesn't mean the same to him it does to her. But she can't help but feel a little heart-warmed by it just the same. "Thank you, I had some earlier. It was good. I put some aside in the kitchen for later," she tells him. Because her little mini-fridge is already chock full of food. She hasn't gotten over hoarding quite yet, but has learned what is perishable and what isn't.

Vi rests her hands in her lap. "People talk about this school being really special. That the people who finish here go on to places that most people are not allowed? Maybe they want that for you?" she asks. Trying to help. "And you said they were really happy?" she offers, hoping it helps Brad focus on the good parts.

Haunt has posed:
"Yeah. I think they want me to get my vision back and... you know, be visible more than just a few minutes," Brad laughs, trying to agree with her, it sounds like. He's possibly smiling: it's in his voice. He's trying. "I guess I just wanted them to do unrealistic things. Sorry, I didn't mean to lay that on you. What kind of pie do /you/ have?" Brad asks, really abruptly veering the topic. Or perhaps he just likes pie a lot.

It does seem like he does, as he is still continuing to eat it: pie lifts on the fork towards his head area, and it moves inside his mouth with the food, then the food is just gone. "Though they probably have pie and turkey for DAYS downstairs. It seems like this place would be like that. This is special pie that my mother gave me, though." So it has a special place.

Vi has posed:
Vi's smile can be heard in her voice. "It sounds like even a few minutes is a big step," she says. "I hope they are able to do more. They've helped me as well," she says, her own smile growing a bit, and a hand straying to the pocket of her jeans.

"I had pumpkin pie. With a white sweet cool thing on top. Though I saved some cherry pie. I had it once before. The cherries are delicious. Very sweet," she says with a big grin. "And they don't make you sick to your stomach if you eat too much like the cake does," she adds.

Vi's hands rest back in her lap. "Do you think ever think about what you want to be? A teacher or..." Vi trails off. Realizing the list of occupations she can come up with is a very short one. "Or some other job. DO you think about things like that?" she asks.

Haunt has posed:
"The white stuff is probably 'whipped cream'," Brad says, eagerly. He's enjoying the mental image, it isn't just informative! "I ate all the cream off of this already," smirks the boy, tapping the fork into what's left in the box. It's not just one slice, but the other slice is also naked of any whipped cream. For reasons Brad just mentioned.

"What do I want to be? I originally wanted to play sports. But now I'm hoping to be a musician. And when I'm visible more full-time, if that happens - nobody'll know I'm a mutant freak, and I can do that. So. I'm hopeful. What about you? A teacher?"

Vi has posed:
Vi is quiet for a few moments, long enough Brad might start to be debating if she should say something, when she finally says, "I'm not sure. It isn't something that we ever thought about before. There wasn't anything but what you were," she says quietly. Someone just trying to survive.

"I told the people at SHIELD I might like to help people like they do. There's a man who works here and he helps people in the city. He's going to let me work with him. I'm not really sure how things work, like this," she says, resting her chin on her hand. "But I liked that I get to see the city with him. So... maybe SHIELD? Maybe working with him. He called it X-Factor I think it was," Vi says.

Haunt has posed:
"So you didn't really have dreams, really. Just living day to day, in the moment?" Brad suggests, sighing. "I understand that. I mean. A little bit. I thought, why have any dreams of anything, I'm just a blind kid that's going to someday get hit by a car because the driver didn't even see me, and slowly die in the street invisibly," Brad describes. A little dark, there.

"But I think this place really does a good job with hope. Maybe a little hope. Stay day to day until maybe you get a dream. Like SHIELD. But maybe just relax and eat pie until then. Get a little fat." Brad smiles, and attempts to gently pat her forearm once with invisible hand. Just that; he isn't sure if she's jumpy, but his way is a bit touch-centric since he's blind. "All the pie."

Vi has posed:
Vi gets a smile and gives a soft laugh. "Thank you. This... is a whole different world. I think I'll be ok in it. Just, so much to learn," she tells him. "And, the pie is very good. I had something called barbeque that you should try if you get the chance," she adds with a smile.

Vi glances around. "I'm glad you came here, Brad. Glad you got to see your family and have them see you too. Family... it's not something to overlook if you can help it," she says. He won't see the tears that gather and leak down her cheeks. "I think I'm going to go to my room and go to bed," she says, her voice carrying a little more emotion than before. "Have a good night. And enjoy your pie," she says. She hesitantly reaches over to touch his shoulder and squeeze it before rising and heading off.