Nico, Amanda & Hank - Medlab (Backdated to the 21)

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Amanda takes Nico to the medlab the day after her examination to hear it's results, and Hank enjoys seeing an apparently responsible Ms. Sefton.



Mumbling complaints, Nico entered the medlab again, followed by a diligent Amanda. Hank had asked her to go back for the results of some blood tests and another over examination, which sucked; Nico had been restrained from trying her new trick until the blue doctor said she was alright, and Amanda would kill her if she presented to the medlab with another nosebleed. Turning to see Amanda, the girl stopped at the door. "Did you ever heal someone here? I mean, taking in count how you do it..."

For a second, Amanda's expression was unreadable - it was if she'd been turned to stone, face going completely blank as she remembered blood and panic and Remy lying on a medlab exam table, ripped open like a gutted pig. Then she nodded. "Twice, actually. My brother Kurt fried his skin off getting stuck in a teleport and I borrowed energy from Logan and Cain - he's not here any more - to Heal him. Under medical supervision." She pressed her lips together for a moment and then continued. "The first time I did it, I didn't ask, I just took. I saved a life, but I freaked out everyone because of how I did it and I wound up being expelled. You don't ever use your powers on someone else without asking. Remember that."

"I seem to recall having said something similar once," Hank said with a smile as he walked through the doors that led into the office area. Heading right for the sink he began to wash and scrub his hands until he was satisfied with the sterile smell wafting off them. "How are you feeling today, Miss Minoru?"

Aw shit

Amanda's face was exactly like Nico didn't want it to be, and her answer didn't manage to hide all the bad memories she had suddenly brought back. It wasn't what had happened to Kurt, but the other healing she hadn't even put a name to that seemed to hurt the more for her. Nico was about to start yelling at how could she get expelled by saving a life when Hank pretty much interrupted the conversation; maybe that wasn't the time to go through memory lane anyway. But anyway, she had to get done with the whole medical stuff now.

"I'm feeling pretty good; a little bit anxious, bit okay none the less." Sitting on a bed, Nico kept her eyes on the blue doctor. "So, how am I looking on your charts?"

"The short answer is that you're healthy, though you could use some better nutritional standards- in other words you could stand a healthier diet. Other than that, we need to look at the long answer." He shot a smile to Amanda and chuckled, seeing her in the role of care taker was delicious irony.

Hank continued after patting one of the exam tables- indicating for Nico to sit down- "The tests seem to indicate that when you used your abilities, you caused a gratuitous amount of blood to rush to your brain, along with endorphins and adrenaline. Normally, this is regulated by your body naturally to prevent too much swelling of your grey matter, but because this was not a natural event, your body had to expel the blood somehow. You may know from your history classes that the ancient Egyptians," Hank held up a long, metal hook, "would use something like this to remove the brains of mummification subjects. The quickest exit point for excess blood is the nose and because of the large amount of adreniline, your head also hurt."

Hank smiled, "Like I said, in short you're fine, but," his smile faded, "you need to be more careful."

Amanda tried hard not to grin as the hook made an appearance. "Take it from one who knows, Nico. I gave myself brain damage doing too much magic too soon," she added. "Doc McCoy here had to ban me, for my own good."

"Ah." Nico couldn't manage to put more words together, the full idea of what she was getting into sinking in slowly. So she was toying with the possibility of melting her brain if she used too much magic? Now she was going to really pay attention to what she was doing. "Brain damage? But you are here, on your feet, and if we ignore the accent and the out dated vocabulary, you are pretty okay..." Nico grinned back at Amanda.

"I was lucky," Amanda put it simply, deliberately ignoring the slight to her heritage. "I can't do the spell that broke my brain, tho', and I go in for regular check ups, just to make sure. Magic's tricky like that - the human brain wasn't really meant to be doing any of this, and we have to keep that in mind before we do the equivalent of grabbing onto the high voltage cables."

And now Nico was burning to ask what spell made Amanda go haywire, but she was getting better at spotting the moments she was better with her mouth shut. Instead, she decided to get more information from Hank. "Dr. McCoy... can the brain grow used to this not-so-normal activity? I mean, I'm not considering pushing any limits here," added as she turned to look briefly at Amanda for a second. "But with regular exercises do you think I might get some more endurance? At least on the physical sense, I guess." Because Nico had the idea that magic, in the end, was something you learned to handle, so on that sense she should improve with time, which wasn't the same as getting a more resilient brain; there was no use on being able to channel a lot of magic if that meant to explode her head.

Hank took a moment to carefully consider the question before answering, looking to Amanda for some help before he spoke, "With time, rigorous practice, meditation and training, you could, I suppose, condition your neuro-chemical receptors to be more used to this sort of thing. However, this is a magical issue and as I'm a man of science, I'll have to differ this question to the talented Miss Sefton."

Amanda blushed a little, still a little bit the sixteen-year-old schoolgirl when she was down in the medlab. "You can train yourself to deal with more," she agreed. "But you've got to take time and care and not push too hard. You've got the talent, which means your brain's got the ability to funnel magical energies, but you can't do it all at once, no matter now much raw talent you have."

All in all, it sounded like a fair deal; take times with calm, and live another day. But what if...? Nico sighed; the whole thing was based on Nico not being in the need to use her magic for anything else than training, at least for a good while, and while the mansion was probably the safest place to work on it, the place had a thing for trouble. "Well, I guess I'll have to be patient." She didn't sound patient though, but she didn't consider that was the point. Looking up at the older witch, Nico tried to give her an innocent smile.

"Can I do magic now?"