xp_logs | Kitty and Marius, Wednesday afternoon

Marius just has no luck with meeting people in the kitchen...

There was a possibility Marius disliked the current slow slide back to humanity even more than he had the first. At least the first time around one of his hands had been back to normal in fairly short order. Unfortunately, the drawback of making a uniform change meant that all his limbs were at the same stage of awkwardness. Forget wearing the gloves -- he may have been back to walking on two legs again, but anything aside from a strategically ripped pair of shorts just didn't work.

Still, at least he could handle gripping objects again. He wouldn't be playing the piano any time soon, but doors no longer posed a problem. This, he decided, was a good thing, because the prolonged shift was wreaking havoc with his metabolism, and the last thing he wanted to deal with was being thwarted by the intricacies of a refrigerator door.

Kitty was paying no attention as she worked, getting a snack together. As she worked a soft hum could be heard, fairly intricate, definitely not just some catchy tune, and she stopped every now and then to go through a series of dance steps, each time slightly different as though she were refining them. Not that most of the school's residents would really have been able to see the difference. Mayonnaise gripped in her hand, Kitty lifted up onto her toes and spun away from the counter to put it back, and came face to snout with Marius. Shrieking slightly in surprise, Kitty stepped back. "Oh my God, you scared me."

Marius' twitch-reaction would have been more modest had his normal impulse to back away not been complicated by the current lack of heels, which resulted in a little more flailing than he would've liked to display during a first impression. He grabbed the doorframe and steadied himself.

"Same here," he said, the words only slightly garbled by what remained of his muzzle. He flashed a grin that still contained slightly too many teeth to be reassuring.

Kitty tried not to be overt about watching his 'smile' a little warily. Fangs were definitely not her favorite sort of teeth these days. "Sorry about that. And, um, about the shrieking. Shouldn't have, it was rude. Um... sandwich?"

"No worries, an' no thanks," Marius replied cheerfully, moving towards the refridgerator. "May be off four legs, but as she stands blood still comes off more appetizing than condiments." He opened the refrigerator with minimum difficulty and extracted a plate of raw steak Rahne had been kind enough to cut for him while he waited to reacquire the fine motor skills required for effective utensil manipulation.

He took his food to the kitchen table, taking another look at Kitty. He couldn't place her mutation. Not an energy-projector, not a psi . . . and while she wasn't a shapeshifter, something about her power seemed similar.

Kitty shivered slightly at the mention of blood being appetizing and turned away, collecting her plate. Realizing she was being rude, though, she looked back over her shoulder. "Oh, um, I'm Kitty, by the way. Haven't seen you about before now. Nice to meet you."

"Marius." Then her name sank in, and Marius brightened -- and tried to ignore his tail's attempted thump against the seat of the chair. "Oi, I remember you -- Brunette-Genius-Dancer-Hot girl, right?" Which probably wasn't the best identifier, but Marius thought it sounded better than the alternative "Dances With Mustard Girl."

Kitty couldn't help the little laugh. "Yes, that's me. And Marius, then you'd... be..." Her smile vanished entirely as she realized who he was. "Oh."

Marius nodded, missing the change in expression as he turned his attention back to his plate. "Met Jamie," he said as he selected a piece of steak with his bare hands and flicked it into the air, catching it with a snap of his jaws. Utsensils were still out of the question, and his muzzle was just short enough that eating from the plate seemed ridiculous. "Nice bloke. Helped me out the first week or so."

Kitty flinched back at the sound of his jaws snapping together, all but shrinking into the counter behind her. She did, at least, manage to stifle the whimper that tried to escape. Marius. Energy sucker. Power stealer. Trapped in a wolfish form after draining Rahne.

Marius swallowed the hunk of steak, flipped and caught another. It was only once he began chewing that he noticed the look on Kitty's face. He gulped down the meat and cocked his head.

"You feelin' all right?" he asked. She looked pale. Very pale. And . . . strangely far away for someone who was backed up against a counter . . .

Running away through the wall would be rude. Kitty tried to decide if she cared. "I'm..." she started. "Ye... No... I don't know. I'm sorry. I need to not be here." More accurately, she needed him to not be there, but it would be easier to leave herself than to make him.

Marius blinked, less offended than puzzled. His senses may have been sliding back towards the human end of the spectrum, but his nose was still senstive enough to pick up the sudden wave of fear. And since she'd barely blinked at the fact that he was still on the hairy side of a Lon Cheney impression, this didn't seem to make sense--

Wait, that sounds familiar . . . oh. Right. Dracula-fanboy-serial-kille . . . oh.

This could get bad. For a start, he liked Jamie, which meant Marius preferred not to give the man's girlfriend a nervous breakdown. "Ah . . . sorry, hadn't thought that -- uh . . . I'll just be stayin' right here, so . . ." Marius started to raise his hands in a placating gesture, then realized that might not be such a brilliant idea without the gloves.

Indeed, it was not a brilliant idea. Kitty only got a moments glance at the mouthes, but it was more than enough. There was no stifling the whimper this time, and suddenly instead of shrinking into the counter she was... well... shrinking into the counter. She managed to stop the instinctive flight reaction before she actually ended up outside the mansion, but it was close, and the appearance of a half-girl/half-counter creature might have been rather unsettling.

In the rational part of her mind, Kitty knew she wasn't being fair and that Marius had nothing whatsoever to do with Vlad. The irrational part of her, however, really wanted to run away really fast, regardless.

Marius' automatic apology was momentarily delayed by his brain's efforts to process that Kitty's lower half had just disappeared into part of the counter. Still, he managed to limit his stare to a mere half-a-second; the fear-smell roiling from her now was so intense it was making the muscles in his neck and back tighten, and he doubted staring fixedly at her would do anything to help the situation.

He sought for reassuring, then gave up. Instead, Marius forced his muscles to relax and lowered his hands carefully into his lap, hoping to at least prevent a potential misreading of his body language. He settled back in his chair and gave her a close-lipped half smile.

"Seems I've got no luck meetin' girls in kitchens," he said, shaking his head. "No worries. I'm past the chasing-things bit, so if you want to leave you can use the door -- unless you prefer the wall." His smile went wry. "Favour, though? If you could ask Jamie to give us a few days before rackin' me one for this I'd really appreciate it. I'm still a bit rough from Monday, and if I'm goin' to be pullin' my testicles out of my small intestine I'd rather it happen when I've recovered enough to survive the experience."

Kitty forced herself to keep breathing slowly and evenly as he moved back into the chair. "I'm sorry," she said, and it only came out a little bit broken. Wrapping her arms tightly around her waist she shook her head. "Not... not your fault." The fact that she wanted to run screaming into the woods had nothing to do with him personally. "Jamie... not going to... just, not. He's... I'm... not."

"That's a relief. Gettin' to the point where anybody wants to brutalize me they have to make an appointment." He had to keep reminding himself to untense. Something about the smell of her fear set him on edge, but he was determined to make the effort. He was in a position to know this kitchen had seen more than its fair share of terror lately.

Marius cocked his head at her, keeping direct eyecontact to a minimum. "I know I'm breathtaking, but can't say I've ever made a girl swoon into a peice of furniture," he said, nodding at where her waist joined the countertop. "This is normal for you, right? Because I don't think Jamie'll be so understandin' if he comes back to find his girlfriend now includes a silverware drawer and ample storage space for pots an' pans . . ."

"Normal, yes," Kitty said, glancing briefly down and then quickly back up as though she didn't want to let him out of her sight. Steeling herself, she stepped forward, out of the counter. "I phase. It's my power. I can be insubstantial if I want..."

"Ah, no worries about me, then. My power's strictly touch." Marius rolled his eyes. "Which probably makes me the only mutant here whose power can be thwarted by a big step backwards, but that's fine. Given how much spackle Mr. Marko's been usin' on the walls lately, might be a good thing the potential for accident only extends to arm's reach." She was still nervous, clearly, but at least she'd come out of the counter. Marius considered this progress.

If Kitty were less shaken up by everything, Marius' comment would probably have elicited a number of tests and experiments that could be done, but as it was she was simply somewhat reassured by his words. She nodded vaguely. "Maybe you're the only one here now who's like that, but there've been other contact based mutations here before," she offered.

Marius nodded. "Moira told me about Rogue. Said she absorbed powers an' life-force. Whatever that is." He shrugged. "Don't know. Way my powers work is about as metaphysical as a round of PBSC donation, so stuff like that sounds a bit dodgy if you ask me."

Kitty shrugged. "Couldn't say," she said, "just know that... right now, not so much with the comfortable with it." There was probably something rude about staying insubstantial, even if she wasn't standing in the middle of the counter and Marius couldn't tell. Or maybe because he wouldn't be able to tell, even though he was the reason she was doing it.

"You, me, an' all bits of the world that don't think it's normal to floss your palms." Marius raised a hand for inspection, then shrugged and dropped it again. "Like to say you're safe from me an' that, but I can't. Doubt it's much help, but I'd rather have out with it now than have you learn if my schedule goes off an' I've gone too long between meals. I'm not completely full of shite." He gave her a half-smile. "Like I said, not quite reassurin', so no offense taken for going untouchable if I'm lookin' at you funny."

Kitty got even paler, if it were possible, but she nodded. "That's... that's fair. 'Preciate the honestly. Maybe."

Marius nodded. "Moira compared it to lettin' people know you're a diabetic case you end up in insulin shock. Guess it's close enough . . . uh, except for the bit where I black out, go mental, and wake up somewhere else wonderin' where all the bruises came from." He realized this wasn't helping, and shook his head with a sigh. "What I mean is there's such a thing as fair warnin', is all. No worries, though. Moira thinks we've got the bulk of it worked out, and if worse comes to worse you can just jump through a wall 'til someone comes to knock me a good one. This lot's been fairly consistant about that."

"Oh, trust me, I have no doubts that you would get harshly dealt with if you attacked me." A small, rather vicious smile flickered onto her face as she remembered what Jamie had done to Vlad.

"You'll forgive me if I'm not eager to test the theory," Marius winced. Despite the lack of teeth and claws, he wasn't particularly eager to start a row with a man who could assign an individual pair of hands to each of his opponent's limbs and still have more than enough left over to punch him in the vital organs. Or grind them into his pelvis, for that matter.

Still, at least the fear-smell was subsiding. It was amazing how often the promise of imminent harm to his person seemed to calm people.

"At any rate, no worries," Marius said, nodding towards his plate. "Right now I'm more'n happy to eat the usual way." He flicked another piece of meat into the air and snapped it up with an unk. He swallowed, licked his lips, and returned her look with shrug and grin. "By comparison, that is. Sorry, that'll be less ironic in a week or so."

Kitty had relaxed enough to unwrap her arms from around herself, instead shoving her hands deep in her pockets. Her own snack, she knew, was still sitting on the counter, but between his appearance and table manners and the fact that she'd run into him at all, she wasn't terribly hungry anymore. And putting it away would mean phasing back in. "Enjoy your dinner," she said, giving him a wide berth and never actually turning her back as she headed towards the door.

Marius nodded in reply, and dropped his eyes back to his plate for the last part of her retreat. Definitely no luck in this kitchen, he decided, selecting another piece of meat. He could smell the food she'd left on the counter, briefly considered calling her back for it, then dismissed it. Given her reaction to Marius when he was merely sitting at the kitchen table, who knew what she'd do if a sandwich-weilding temporary werewolf came chasing after her.

Marius sighed and tossed himself another chunk of meat, contemplating the lonely sandwich stranded on the countertop. It looked like he'd be experimenting with the paw's ability to manipulate cling-wrap after dinner.