xp_logs | Nico & Catseye

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Nico and Catseye meet, and promises are made.

Catseye was napping on the roof of the treehouse when a noise from the woods snapped her out of her drowsy state and put her senses on full alert. She crawled on her belly over to the edge of the treehouse and spotted Nico approaching. Eyes narrowing as she assessed her prey, the stealthy hunter calculated the speed Nico was going and the angle she was at from the girl, and when the moment was right she leapt off the roof to land on Nico's shoulder, yowling as she flew through the air with the usual warcry, roughly translated as "FlyingCatDeathFromAbove!"

Nico had decided to take some time outside, mainly because she just hadn't had the time to walk around until that moment, but also due to her desire to know the Mansion as best as she could; she wasn't fond of getting lost every time she wasn't paying attention. Visiting the treehouse had sounded like a good idea, and so she had headed that way. While the purple hunter preparing for attack, an unsuspecting goth simply strolled down, wondering if she would find wildlife in such a...green place.

She had to jinx it, of course.

It wasn't easy to stop the urge of yell and most likely threw the cat away, but fortunately Nico was in a particularly benevolent mood. While Catseye would notice she got completely surprised, Nico quickly pulled herself together, lifting the cat from the skin of its neck like she had lifted cats before, giving Catseye a purposely fake serious look. "I'll be having grilled cat tonight, then."

Catseye wriggled when Nico voiced her threat, pretending to be afraid and trying to break free of the grasp. Twisting, she managed to free herself and land on the ground to shift into girlform, laughing goodnaturedly. "Nico better not try to eat me! I do not think cats would taste very good grilled. Pastrami is muchmuch better! And deer. If I catch you a deer will you eat that instead of me?"

There was a smirk on Nico's face as she looked at her friend. "Really? I've been told the purple tone gives the meat a particularly spicy taste." Nico laughed as well then, but to keep the act, pretended to measure the purple haired girl's offer. "A deer you say? No that would make a very fine offering, but I wonder if a little cute cat like you can take something that big."

"I am not just a little cat!" Catseye replied indignantly, "I am a mutant girl and a regular cat and also I am a BigCat!"

One hand covering her mouth, Nico pretended surprise this time. "Well excuse me, I did not know." Nico crossed her arms behind her head, looking at Catseye with curiosity. How did she changed, anyway? Not that it mattered, but like many mutants, the explanation was weirder than the power itself. "Hmmm...how big are we talking about?"

"I am a mountain lion sometimes!" she responded proudly. She was taking very deep breaths through her nose, trying to implant Nico's scent into her brain so that she could shift into BigCat and show Nico if Nico asked, and not worry about BigCat being predatory or defensive because of the unfamiliar scent. Her control over BigCat still worried her when she was around new people. "Have you ever seen a purple mountain lion?"

Nico took one hand to her chin. "I've seen pictures...but never of a purple one." She noticed her friend was doing something with her breathing, but she didn't know what exactly. "Hey, if you don't want, you can show me any other day, really." Forcing her to do something could be bad for Nico, but she was actually thinking more about Catseye's safety; it was as if she had stopped caring about her own well being, worrying about the others, even when they could end up being more dangerous to her than to themselves.

Catseye tilted her head, thinking. "Can Nico take out her magic staff and be ready to teleport away if the BigCat thinks Nico is not a friend and tries to bite or scratch? Cat... I think BigCat will know you are a friend but sometimes I cannot think what BigCat will do. BigCat does not think like a human," she explained. "Regular cat does but not BigCat BigCat is only an animal." She gave Nico a shrug. "Or else I can do it another time when we are friends for longer because when people are friends with me for a long time then BigCat knows they are part of BigCat's colony and BigCat would not hurt them."

It was tempting to see a giant purple cat, but Nico was far from having a deathwish. "Well, thing is, I can only do a spell once; I guess that's why it's called Staff of One. If I try a teleporting spell, anything can happen, and I mean anythíng you can imagine, so I

think it wouldn't kill us to wait some time." Nico grinned at Catseye. "Alright, it wouldn't kill me for sure if we wait. Anyway, I can use some magic for you; it will be a gift for you, something special." Nico was about to bite a finger when she considered it better. "Does me biting my finger and bleeding a little bother you?"

Catseye shook her head in the negative. "No it does not bother me. You do not have to do magic for me Nico it is okay I do not know what magic I would want you to do anyway." Whenever Amanda used to use magic it always seemed to turn out badly, like turning people into frogs. "What kind of magic would you do?" she asked anyway, curious.

Nico shrugged. "Well, that would depend on what you wanted. I mean, it's like giving a present to someone you like or something." Nico gave that thought a couple of seconds , chin resting on one of her hands. "Do you like someone Catseye? Not like a friend, but well, stronger? Imagine you would like to give something to that person; that would be what I'm talking about. Something that makes that person happy." Yeah, it made sense on Nico's head, but maybe she was being a little too complicated; the girl didn't know if her purple friend actually liked liked something or not, or if she was well informed about what that meant at all. "What I'm trying to say is: what would make you happy?"

"I like Pastrami," she answered thoughtfully. "Watching movies with Nick. Playing in the woods with friends. Naps with friends. Reading. Driving. When you say," she tried to clarify, confused, "that you want to give me a present because you like me, and then ask if I like someone not like a friend and ask me to think of a present I would give that person and that that is what you are talking about, giving something to me that I would give to someone more than a friend, are you saying you want to be a couple with me?"

Nico blinked, once. Slowly. "...No? Nothing against you Cats, really, but at the moment I don't think about being a couple with anyone...and I'm pretty sure I still like boys." She smiled none the less. "Pastrami? I think I could make something..." What, a giant Pastrami man? Nico wasn't sure she had a good handle on magic yet. "You know what, why don't we just, uhmm...drive? That is, drive me somewhere, and tell me more about that Nick guy; I haven't seen him so far."

"Okay that is a good thing," Catseye said with a touch of relief in her voice, "because I am a couple with Nick and I cannot be a couple with two people I do not think that is The Way Things Are. I can drive and tell you about Nick but only if someone has a license because I am still learning. Do you have a license?"

Nico raised a finger, but didn't say a thing. "I'm younger than you." It was interesting, she had just realized that. Things were getting oddly complicated. "Alright, scratch that; let's just walk on the woods, then we can talk all we want, I guess."

"All the students are younger than me," the catgirl pointed out. "Because I was a cat for fifteen winters and lived in alleys eating and being warm so I would not die and I did not go to school like humans are supposed to."

"Well, there's nothing wrong with that I guess, since you are here now, being a person and a cat, which makes sense on it's own interesting way." Nico hoped she had given her the right answer, or at least something close to that; upseting the catgirl suddenly seemed way too easy, so much it was scary.

Catseye laughed at the comment. "No nothing is wrong with that. Now people say I learned a lot of human things veryveryfast because I have only been trying to be a human for five winters and I can read and drive and type on the computer and do plays and science and math and work at Elpis and do Red X Field Leader Training!" She preened a little with her hair, proud of her accomplishments. "But I need to learn about what is a good present to give someone you are a couple with," she pointed out. "Things like this are still confusing."

Well, Catseye was certainly fast, Nico didn't doubt that. "Eh, I don't even know how to drive yet, so yeah, you are quite the fast learner." The topic of gifts came out again. "Well, what does Nick like? Books? Computer games? Any sport?"

"Nick likes books. He likes video games but mostly I think he likes plays and Shakespeare."

"Uhm, Shakespeare." Nico decided the guy had pretty interesting tastes, but didn't say a thing otherwise; she liked theater, but never cared much about the ones making it, or the meaning some people tried to give to every movement and phrase and light falling on stage. Not that Nick was like that, she guessed. "Well, I think I can do something for him regarding Shakespeare", said with a convinced smile.

"Do something? You're going to do magic for Nick?" Catseye asked, intrigued.

Nico shrugged, as if it weren't that important. "Well, I would be doing magic for Nick because you asked me; we can even tell him I usually wouldn't do something like that." It sounded like a good idea, to have Nick -and Catseye- see together a play as if they were inside of it, or talk with Shakespeare for a while; she was confident of knowing how to formulate the spell.

With a squeal, Catseye leapt to embrace Nico in a hug. "Thank you! I think Nick would like some magic Shakespeare very much!"