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xp_logsAs arranged in this email, Nico has a training session with Amanda and during the course of things, they talk about Nick, Julian, sex and how to have fun. Backdated to September 10.
As she had told Amanda, Nico had been doing magic, not everyday -she knew better than to liquefy her brain now-, but with enough constance she had certainly improved. While she still wasn't quite capable of doing what she considered awesome magic, she could very well do most of the basic spells anyone 'magic' should be able to -as long as she kept speaking backwards-, and her potion making, spell writing, curse breaking skills were certainly better, considering that almost a year ago she was just a girl with a stick on her chest. She hadn't really realized how much time had passed, but she could feel a growth, of some kind.
Hand lifted, palm extended, Nico was holding a shield; it didn't have spikes, and it was almost transparent; a great change from the thing she had managed to pull long ago. "Okay", said as she squinted her all black eyes. "Try not to throw me against a wall when you break this one." She might or might not be grinning.
Back at the school, they would have had words about gesture crutches and the need to use powers without them, but magic was a whole other kettle of fish and when you had to click your fingers to summon a werelight, you weren't about to insist your student learn to shield without using her hands. At least, not until you could do it yourself. "Much better," Amanda said approvingly, and then a somewhat feral grin appeared. "Brace yourself, grasshopper."
The older witch shoved her hand forward, almost like she was punching, but far too far away to actually touch Nico's shield. Instead, an invisible wave of force shot out of her closed fist with a hint of exhausthotdogsubway smell and the faintest sound of sirens and horns honking, pure New York converted into energy.
It didn't matter how many times she saw Amanda's magic at work, Nico still felt like just staring at how someone could simply pull a city and make it magical energy. She had seen it a number of times now, so her surprise wasn't enought o throw her out of balance. The punch...that was another story entirely. The first moment of the impact made her think she could probably hold it this time, but a fraction of second later she knew the shield was going to give in, so Nico acted as fast as she could, focusing in the area that had been hit, and send the blast all over the shield.
The result wasn't as good as she would have liked, as the shield broke, a somewhat muffled pang of pain at the back of her head, and she felt as if someone had just tackled her; Nico took a couple of steps back, but managed to stay on her feet, and away from the wall. "Progress!", said in a triumphant tone before she could feel the blood dripping from her nose; she had grown used to it by then. "And so the bell rings", muttered as she reached for a napkin before the blood ruined her shirt. Any more magic and she would start getting headaches. "Isn't there a way to, I don't know, bounce a wave of energy?"
"Sit," Amanda ordered, directing her apprentice to a chair even as she was reaching for the box of tissues that was part of their standard training equipment and holding them out to Nico. Once Nico had obeyed, she continued: "You can, but it's a bit like two bulls bonking heads - if you aren't the stronger bull, then you'll find yourself sitting on your arse with a headache while the other bull goes off and fucks all the cows." Sometimes Amanda's metaphors were colourful, to say the least. "What you want to do is redirect the energy. Use your shield to angle it in a direction that isn't going to do any damage. It takes less power and means less strain on your shield."
That actually made sense. A lot of sense. It also sounded pretty complicated. All Nico could think was a Jedi making those beams bounce on their swords -and that looked pretty damn difficult-. "So, using the other person's own strength against them? Sounds clever." She had needed a moment to pick the right analogy, and the right 'sounds like'; Nico didn't mind Amanda's colorfulness; she had learned to like that, after all, although she wasn't sure if her mentor would appreciate if she ended up talking like that. Maybe she would, just to spite her. A little. "I guess you really need to be pretty badass to shrug off energy blasts and bullets without needing to save energy", added a moment later. "But as long as you have a city, it's like you can use the energy with a looser leash...I guess?" Always wanting to learn more about how a mutant-witch's powers worked, of course.
"It's swings and roundabouts," Amanda replied. "Yeah, I can merge with a city full-on and be all badarse, but the downside is I lose the control - it's not so much me using the city's energy as the city using me. As long as the city and I are in agreement about what we're doing, it's not such a big deal, but sometimes it's not always the case. Plus it's pretty bloody scary, being that close to losing myself completely. So I tend to skim the surface, take a little bit here and there, and leave the big booms to people like Wanda and Remy." Amanda chuckled at that, thinking of how either would respond to having what they did called "big booms". "But back to shielding... A lot of it's how you approach it. You're coming at it thinking of the shield as a brick wall, something to bounce power off. Try curving it around you, if you can. Think of it as a globe surrounding you."
Nico wanted to argue that it was like saying 'I could totally rule the world, but then I get headaches', but there was something about the whole 'losing herself' that made it sound a lot more serious; could Amanda remain stuck inside of a city? Had it happened already? Those were questions way too complicated to both formulate and expect an answer -on the other side, she had told her pretty much the story of her life already...-. "I'm sure both Wanda and Remy would wrinkle they noses at that name. Well, not Remy; he doesn't look like the wrinkly type." He looked like the 'ace-of-swords-in-your-face' kind of person, and she didn't know how accurate that might be. "So, a curve, something to make the attacks...bounce?" Like rubber? She probably could do that. Probably.
"Say, have you ever made anything bounce that way?" Like a rocket? That would be sooooooo cool.
"Let's not mention that to either Remy or Wanda and we'll save them the nose wrinkling and the exploding cards in the face, okay?" Amanda snorted and headed over to the fridge to get a beer for herself and a bottle of water for Nico - magic tended to be thirsty work. As she returned, she continued: "Yeah, curves tend to be a bit more flexible in terms of what they can do - you can deflect things off, rather than push them straight back." Amanda handed Nico her water and screwed the cap off her beer. "And don't get any ideas for self-study, but yeah, I've bounced stuff off a shield. Bullets, mostly. Fire a couple of times." She winced and added: "I also found that walls don't work if someone decides to drop a grenade over the top - nearly got blown up that way."
She sure as hell didn't want the wrinkling and the exploding cards happening any time soon, so Nico nodded like a good girl -which, in other situations might have been a worrying thing- and moved on. She was going to frown and point that Amanda got all the cool drinks for herself, but on second thought, she wasn't the one which brain hadn't shot blood through her nose just then. "Then you would need to make the shield...bigger? Or maybe all around you, like a sphere." Which sounded like even more work, but hey, grenades. "Well, unless you also have a healing factor, I take it you managed to cover yourself anyway." Which was good, because she didn't know if she would like to have Amanda in a wheelchair...or whatever would be remaining of the woman. Ugh, bad thoughts.
"So, what have you been doing?" A chance of topic sounded like the best thing to do.
"Sphere," Amanda agreed. "I got lucky and managed to get off with a few bruises." She made a point of telling Nico these sorts of things so the girl realised that her line of work wasn't all glamour and James Bond-like escapades; the cold harsh reality was, any one of them could be injured or killed on a job.
"As for what I've been up to... I went back to Nova Roma with Amara for a while. Selene's magic unravelled and there's a town full of people with two sets of memories in their heads, so I was trying to help out. Not exactly my thing, but anything to do with Selene, I tend to get involved." Amanda took a swig of her beer and looked pointedly at Nico's water. "What about you? What's this about hot dates?"
Nico was well aware of all that...but she had sort of made her mind a while ago. That was why she hadn't even bothered inquiring about the X-Men; while she could see what the trainees found appealing, it wasn't what she wanted; it wasn't her world, in a way. Still, she felt ages away for having even a chance to ask Amanda something akin of a suggestion about letting her in. And she was sure it wasn't only the older witch's opinion that would decide said matter.
It was perhaps the thoughts going through her head that Amanda's question about the 'hot dates' took her by surprise, making her blush a little as she hurried her bottle of water. "Ah, well, um." Very informative, Nico. "You knew Julian and I...are dating, right?" Had she told her? She couldn't remember, and the two of them had kept things so calm that, well...maybe she hadn't really told anyone.
"Ah, that explains the looks when you were helping me out with Meg." Amanda grinned, shamelessly teasing her student. "Julian, huh? He treating you properly?"
"Huh, yes; we hadn't really done anything so far, but yes, a couple." She looked down, a small smile on her lips. She liked to say it, and take things calmly; maybe that was the only thing she could take calmly, actually. Her face shot up soon after though, cheeks reddish as she tried to collect her thoughts. "Yes! I-I mean...he didn't really have that much experience, or any experience at all...so I sort of did most of it." If she would ever tell this kind of stuff to someone, that someone was Amanda. "He's a real gentleman", added, as if she needed to tell Amanda that.
'Fuck, I feel old,' was Amanda's thought, but she snickered at her student. "I know it takes two to tango, but make sure one of you is using protection," she warned. It wasn't like Nico's parents were around - or probably even capable - of the practical advice that went with having sex. "The last thing you want is getting up the duff. But I'm glad he's taking care of you; I don't know a lot about the guy, but he seems like a decent sort, at least as long as you ignore that whole feud thing with Nick." Amanda keep an eye on the journals, and an eye on the students, an old habit from the bus run. Besides, it was entertaining sometimes.
Nico's face lit up a little more with scarlet. "I'm totally protecting myself." She had learnt it a good time ago, actually, and being in the mansion didn't really manage to make her forget about it; she hadn't foreseen it to come in handy like that, but she wasn't complaining neither. "He and Nick...", Nico sighed, blush going away. "Boys. One can't keep his feral side on check and the other has to pick on him every time he can...could." She really hoped Nick was okay. "I'm really hoping they manage to settle things down, someday." If Nick ever came back, at least.
"Good. Sometimes people seem to think love will stop them getting preggers and forget about all that stuff." Amanda grinned at Nico, amused by the blush, before sobering up at the mention of Nick's return. "Yeah, I'm sorry about Nick. We're all looking for him, in our own ways."
"Not getting preggers, that's for sure; I'm ridiculously young to even think about that." And still studying, even; she was so not becoming 16 and Pregnant's main attraction, no sir. Curiously though, said thoughts were helping her to get that blush under control. "I...already used a finding spell. And a teleportation one, so the Staff can't really bring him back." A part of her wanted to whine about being so selfish and unprepared to get to that, but the other one knew that it wouldn't bring her friend back any soon like that. "Do you think he's...alright?" She wanted to say something else, but saying alive would be a little too much for her.
Amanda sighed, looking down at the bottle in her hands. "I don't know, Nico, I really don't," she admitted. "I tried a location spell of my own, but I couldn't fix on anything. There's no sign of anyone answering his description turning up at any hospital in a three-state radius. I'm not the be all and end all of magic or hunting down folks, but it seems weird that there's no sign of him."
Well, that didn't sound good, not at all, but if they hadn't found him, it meant he had to be on the move, which was good in itself, since it meant he was alive, and probably well. Probably. It was better to be hopeful rather than pessimistic, though. "As long as we keep trying, it will be fine. I know it will." It was a little stubborn on her side, but it was either believing it or leaving herself vulnerable to even more depression in her life, which was something she wasn't willing to allow.
"And what about you?", asked as she changed the subject without much subtlety. "Are you seeing someone? Having hot dates, perhaps?"
Again, Amanda let the change slide - her own experiences told her that it was more than likely Nick was dead in a ditch or a Joe Doe in a city morgue somewhere, but she didn't want to squelch her apprentice's hope just yet. Time would do that. She gave Nico a crooked half-smile and shrugged: "Nothing particular. 'M an old lady these days - all work and not much in the way of play."
One hope crushed at the time was certainly something Nico could learn to appreciate, in a way. So she just carried on, giving Amanda a rather shocked look. "Oh my, that can't be right. We need to get you something to do then. And, you know, something besides having a girl's night here; you need to go out and breathe some air, eat some ice cream in a park...I don't know, walk a dog and watch a crappy movie." Maybe she was mixing the things she wanted to do, but Nico supposed it was better than sitting around with paperwork. "Or travel, but not for business. Do you have much paperwork?"
"Not much today, no - I cleared my schedule for you," Amanda replied, shaking her head a bit at the thought of her student taking her social life in hand. I'm really, really old. "So I'm at your mercy if you want to try and fix me. Just, no dogs. 'M more a cat person."
No dogs, sure Nico could work with that. "Admittedly, I'm a cat person myself." Or she had been, until Catseye left the mansion, leaving her familiar-less. It was a pretty selfish thought, considering what had prompted the other girl to leave. "Cats are harder to walk around a park though", noted as she casted the other thoughts asides. "We should totally do the ice cream part, and the walk park, and see if there is something horribly stupid on screens." And just hang out, she supposed, suppressing as well the realization she would like to do all those things with her parents.
"That all sounds like a bloody good idea." Amanda grinned at Nico. "After all, all work and no play and all that, right?"
"Sure thing", replied the girl as she rubbed her hands together. "Let's get down to business then."
As she had told Amanda, Nico had been doing magic, not everyday -she knew better than to liquefy her brain now-, but with enough constance she had certainly improved. While she still wasn't quite capable of doing what she considered awesome magic, she could very well do most of the basic spells anyone 'magic' should be able to -as long as she kept speaking backwards-, and her potion making, spell writing, curse breaking skills were certainly better, considering that almost a year ago she was just a girl with a stick on her chest. She hadn't really realized how much time had passed, but she could feel a growth, of some kind.
Hand lifted, palm extended, Nico was holding a shield; it didn't have spikes, and it was almost transparent; a great change from the thing she had managed to pull long ago. "Okay", said as she squinted her all black eyes. "Try not to throw me against a wall when you break this one." She might or might not be grinning.
Back at the school, they would have had words about gesture crutches and the need to use powers without them, but magic was a whole other kettle of fish and when you had to click your fingers to summon a werelight, you weren't about to insist your student learn to shield without using her hands. At least, not until you could do it yourself. "Much better," Amanda said approvingly, and then a somewhat feral grin appeared. "Brace yourself, grasshopper."
The older witch shoved her hand forward, almost like she was punching, but far too far away to actually touch Nico's shield. Instead, an invisible wave of force shot out of her closed fist with a hint of exhausthotdogsubway smell and the faintest sound of sirens and horns honking, pure New York converted into energy.
It didn't matter how many times she saw Amanda's magic at work, Nico still felt like just staring at how someone could simply pull a city and make it magical energy. She had seen it a number of times now, so her surprise wasn't enought o throw her out of balance. The punch...that was another story entirely. The first moment of the impact made her think she could probably hold it this time, but a fraction of second later she knew the shield was going to give in, so Nico acted as fast as she could, focusing in the area that had been hit, and send the blast all over the shield.
The result wasn't as good as she would have liked, as the shield broke, a somewhat muffled pang of pain at the back of her head, and she felt as if someone had just tackled her; Nico took a couple of steps back, but managed to stay on her feet, and away from the wall. "Progress!", said in a triumphant tone before she could feel the blood dripping from her nose; she had grown used to it by then. "And so the bell rings", muttered as she reached for a napkin before the blood ruined her shirt. Any more magic and she would start getting headaches. "Isn't there a way to, I don't know, bounce a wave of energy?"
"Sit," Amanda ordered, directing her apprentice to a chair even as she was reaching for the box of tissues that was part of their standard training equipment and holding them out to Nico. Once Nico had obeyed, she continued: "You can, but it's a bit like two bulls bonking heads - if you aren't the stronger bull, then you'll find yourself sitting on your arse with a headache while the other bull goes off and fucks all the cows." Sometimes Amanda's metaphors were colourful, to say the least. "What you want to do is redirect the energy. Use your shield to angle it in a direction that isn't going to do any damage. It takes less power and means less strain on your shield."
That actually made sense. A lot of sense. It also sounded pretty complicated. All Nico could think was a Jedi making those beams bounce on their swords -and that looked pretty damn difficult-. "So, using the other person's own strength against them? Sounds clever." She had needed a moment to pick the right analogy, and the right 'sounds like'; Nico didn't mind Amanda's colorfulness; she had learned to like that, after all, although she wasn't sure if her mentor would appreciate if she ended up talking like that. Maybe she would, just to spite her. A little. "I guess you really need to be pretty badass to shrug off energy blasts and bullets without needing to save energy", added a moment later. "But as long as you have a city, it's like you can use the energy with a looser leash...I guess?" Always wanting to learn more about how a mutant-witch's powers worked, of course.
"It's swings and roundabouts," Amanda replied. "Yeah, I can merge with a city full-on and be all badarse, but the downside is I lose the control - it's not so much me using the city's energy as the city using me. As long as the city and I are in agreement about what we're doing, it's not such a big deal, but sometimes it's not always the case. Plus it's pretty bloody scary, being that close to losing myself completely. So I tend to skim the surface, take a little bit here and there, and leave the big booms to people like Wanda and Remy." Amanda chuckled at that, thinking of how either would respond to having what they did called "big booms". "But back to shielding... A lot of it's how you approach it. You're coming at it thinking of the shield as a brick wall, something to bounce power off. Try curving it around you, if you can. Think of it as a globe surrounding you."
Nico wanted to argue that it was like saying 'I could totally rule the world, but then I get headaches', but there was something about the whole 'losing herself' that made it sound a lot more serious; could Amanda remain stuck inside of a city? Had it happened already? Those were questions way too complicated to both formulate and expect an answer -on the other side, she had told her pretty much the story of her life already...-. "I'm sure both Wanda and Remy would wrinkle they noses at that name. Well, not Remy; he doesn't look like the wrinkly type." He looked like the 'ace-of-swords-in-your-face' kind of person, and she didn't know how accurate that might be. "So, a curve, something to make the attacks...bounce?" Like rubber? She probably could do that. Probably.
"Say, have you ever made anything bounce that way?" Like a rocket? That would be sooooooo cool.
"Let's not mention that to either Remy or Wanda and we'll save them the nose wrinkling and the exploding cards in the face, okay?" Amanda snorted and headed over to the fridge to get a beer for herself and a bottle of water for Nico - magic tended to be thirsty work. As she returned, she continued: "Yeah, curves tend to be a bit more flexible in terms of what they can do - you can deflect things off, rather than push them straight back." Amanda handed Nico her water and screwed the cap off her beer. "And don't get any ideas for self-study, but yeah, I've bounced stuff off a shield. Bullets, mostly. Fire a couple of times." She winced and added: "I also found that walls don't work if someone decides to drop a grenade over the top - nearly got blown up that way."
She sure as hell didn't want the wrinkling and the exploding cards happening any time soon, so Nico nodded like a good girl -which, in other situations might have been a worrying thing- and moved on. She was going to frown and point that Amanda got all the cool drinks for herself, but on second thought, she wasn't the one which brain hadn't shot blood through her nose just then. "Then you would need to make the shield...bigger? Or maybe all around you, like a sphere." Which sounded like even more work, but hey, grenades. "Well, unless you also have a healing factor, I take it you managed to cover yourself anyway." Which was good, because she didn't know if she would like to have Amanda in a wheelchair...or whatever would be remaining of the woman. Ugh, bad thoughts.
"So, what have you been doing?" A chance of topic sounded like the best thing to do.
"Sphere," Amanda agreed. "I got lucky and managed to get off with a few bruises." She made a point of telling Nico these sorts of things so the girl realised that her line of work wasn't all glamour and James Bond-like escapades; the cold harsh reality was, any one of them could be injured or killed on a job.
"As for what I've been up to... I went back to Nova Roma with Amara for a while. Selene's magic unravelled and there's a town full of people with two sets of memories in their heads, so I was trying to help out. Not exactly my thing, but anything to do with Selene, I tend to get involved." Amanda took a swig of her beer and looked pointedly at Nico's water. "What about you? What's this about hot dates?"
Nico was well aware of all that...but she had sort of made her mind a while ago. That was why she hadn't even bothered inquiring about the X-Men; while she could see what the trainees found appealing, it wasn't what she wanted; it wasn't her world, in a way. Still, she felt ages away for having even a chance to ask Amanda something akin of a suggestion about letting her in. And she was sure it wasn't only the older witch's opinion that would decide said matter.
It was perhaps the thoughts going through her head that Amanda's question about the 'hot dates' took her by surprise, making her blush a little as she hurried her bottle of water. "Ah, well, um." Very informative, Nico. "You knew Julian and I...are dating, right?" Had she told her? She couldn't remember, and the two of them had kept things so calm that, well...maybe she hadn't really told anyone.
"Ah, that explains the looks when you were helping me out with Meg." Amanda grinned, shamelessly teasing her student. "Julian, huh? He treating you properly?"
"Huh, yes; we hadn't really done anything so far, but yes, a couple." She looked down, a small smile on her lips. She liked to say it, and take things calmly; maybe that was the only thing she could take calmly, actually. Her face shot up soon after though, cheeks reddish as she tried to collect her thoughts. "Yes! I-I mean...he didn't really have that much experience, or any experience at all...so I sort of did most of it." If she would ever tell this kind of stuff to someone, that someone was Amanda. "He's a real gentleman", added, as if she needed to tell Amanda that.
'Fuck, I feel old,' was Amanda's thought, but she snickered at her student. "I know it takes two to tango, but make sure one of you is using protection," she warned. It wasn't like Nico's parents were around - or probably even capable - of the practical advice that went with having sex. "The last thing you want is getting up the duff. But I'm glad he's taking care of you; I don't know a lot about the guy, but he seems like a decent sort, at least as long as you ignore that whole feud thing with Nick." Amanda keep an eye on the journals, and an eye on the students, an old habit from the bus run. Besides, it was entertaining sometimes.
Nico's face lit up a little more with scarlet. "I'm totally protecting myself." She had learnt it a good time ago, actually, and being in the mansion didn't really manage to make her forget about it; she hadn't foreseen it to come in handy like that, but she wasn't complaining neither. "He and Nick...", Nico sighed, blush going away. "Boys. One can't keep his feral side on check and the other has to pick on him every time he can...could." She really hoped Nick was okay. "I'm really hoping they manage to settle things down, someday." If Nick ever came back, at least.
"Good. Sometimes people seem to think love will stop them getting preggers and forget about all that stuff." Amanda grinned at Nico, amused by the blush, before sobering up at the mention of Nick's return. "Yeah, I'm sorry about Nick. We're all looking for him, in our own ways."
"Not getting preggers, that's for sure; I'm ridiculously young to even think about that." And still studying, even; she was so not becoming 16 and Pregnant's main attraction, no sir. Curiously though, said thoughts were helping her to get that blush under control. "I...already used a finding spell. And a teleportation one, so the Staff can't really bring him back." A part of her wanted to whine about being so selfish and unprepared to get to that, but the other one knew that it wouldn't bring her friend back any soon like that. "Do you think he's...alright?" She wanted to say something else, but saying alive would be a little too much for her.
Amanda sighed, looking down at the bottle in her hands. "I don't know, Nico, I really don't," she admitted. "I tried a location spell of my own, but I couldn't fix on anything. There's no sign of anyone answering his description turning up at any hospital in a three-state radius. I'm not the be all and end all of magic or hunting down folks, but it seems weird that there's no sign of him."
Well, that didn't sound good, not at all, but if they hadn't found him, it meant he had to be on the move, which was good in itself, since it meant he was alive, and probably well. Probably. It was better to be hopeful rather than pessimistic, though. "As long as we keep trying, it will be fine. I know it will." It was a little stubborn on her side, but it was either believing it or leaving herself vulnerable to even more depression in her life, which was something she wasn't willing to allow.
"And what about you?", asked as she changed the subject without much subtlety. "Are you seeing someone? Having hot dates, perhaps?"
Again, Amanda let the change slide - her own experiences told her that it was more than likely Nick was dead in a ditch or a Joe Doe in a city morgue somewhere, but she didn't want to squelch her apprentice's hope just yet. Time would do that. She gave Nico a crooked half-smile and shrugged: "Nothing particular. 'M an old lady these days - all work and not much in the way of play."
One hope crushed at the time was certainly something Nico could learn to appreciate, in a way. So she just carried on, giving Amanda a rather shocked look. "Oh my, that can't be right. We need to get you something to do then. And, you know, something besides having a girl's night here; you need to go out and breathe some air, eat some ice cream in a park...I don't know, walk a dog and watch a crappy movie." Maybe she was mixing the things she wanted to do, but Nico supposed it was better than sitting around with paperwork. "Or travel, but not for business. Do you have much paperwork?"
"Not much today, no - I cleared my schedule for you," Amanda replied, shaking her head a bit at the thought of her student taking her social life in hand. I'm really, really old. "So I'm at your mercy if you want to try and fix me. Just, no dogs. 'M more a cat person."
No dogs, sure Nico could work with that. "Admittedly, I'm a cat person myself." Or she had been, until Catseye left the mansion, leaving her familiar-less. It was a pretty selfish thought, considering what had prompted the other girl to leave. "Cats are harder to walk around a park though", noted as she casted the other thoughts asides. "We should totally do the ice cream part, and the walk park, and see if there is something horribly stupid on screens." And just hang out, she supposed, suppressing as well the realization she would like to do all those things with her parents.
"That all sounds like a bloody good idea." Amanda grinned at Nico. "After all, all work and no play and all that, right?"
"Sure thing", replied the girl as she rubbed her hands together. "Let's get down to business then."
