xp_logs | Amanda and Nico - backdated to December 19

Following her talk with Jean, Amanda gives Nico some Tough Love. And a field trip.

(For the sake of continuity, Jean is a silent passenger in Amanda's head. ;) )

Not for the first time Amanda found herself wishing the Xavier family estate wasn't out in the middle of nowhere. Or at least, not in a major city. Then she could have just 'ported from work to the mansion, instead of driving every day. Not that she begrudged the need - Nico needed all the support and help she could get after her manifestation.

Breezing into the mansion, unpeeling layers of winter woollens along the way, she made her way upstairs to the student floor and Nico's room. The door to the girl's bedroom was closed, as it had been since she'd been allowed out of medlab. With a small frown, Amanda knocked briskly. "Grasshopper, 's me. Hope you're decent, 'cause I'm coming in whether you are or not."

Something that could probably be best qualified as a grunt was the sole answer Amanda would get from the other side of the door; truth was, as soon as she could recluse herself, Nico had done so, to the point she only exited her room late at night to get something to eat through the next day, and then spent all the time she had brooding. Or thinking, but it didn't seem to take her anywhere besides the past events. Megan's arrival didn't change much, but the girl had started fearing she would end up draining her roommate, which only fueled her angst and got her planning an escape from the mansion, futile as it was, because out there she was an easier target than before.

She was currently on her bed, of course, in a pajama she had overused a bit too much lately, blankets covering her entirely as she simply tried to ignore Amanda's energy registering in her mind. A few days on the mansion and she could tell who was who. For a moment, a little voice in her head tried to reason the fact this was her mentor, and probably the closest thing she had to a confident, and so deserved a better treatment, but most of herself just wanted her to go away. Hence the grunt.

Amanda's frown deepened and her jaw jutted in a familiar expression of stubborn determination. Without responding, she opened the door and strode in, heading for Nico's closet and yanking out the warmest coat she could find. "Right," she said, tossing the coat at her student's head. "Put that and some shoes on. We're going out." Her tone left little room for argument.

Nico's head appeared as she gave the world a sheepish look, and then focused on Amanda. "What for", asked in a tone that demanded some serious explanation. She bit whatever remark she was going to say next though, as she realized who she was talking to; straightening on her bed, she just left the blankets fall. "Not dressed for out", announced groggily, both from being tired and from that other hunger that lingered in her now. "Nothing to do out there anyway."

"And I don't care. Two choices, grasshopper. You get up and get dressed and come with me, or I bubble you and drag you out kicking and screaming." Amanda folded her arms over her chest. "When was the last time you took in energy?"

Nico's eyes went pitch black, and a crack appeared from her right eye, oozing that dark energy she used now. "edistuO sehtolc", mumbled as the room seemed to crackle with static, her pajamas disappearing as another set of clothes appeared on her at the same time. Picking up the coat, she gave Amanda a silent stare for a moment. "I'm not sure. I think I already killed all the bugs in this floor though."

"Then you definitely need to come with me." Amanda seemed unfazed by the display of power, but internally she was deeply concerned. And saddened. But Nico didn't need tears and pity, she needed to learn discipline and control, for everyone else's sake as much as her own. "Come on, time's wasting. I've parked the Broomstick out the front."

Sighing in defeat, Nico nodded and walked out of her room, preparing herself for all the energy signatures in the mansion. "Alright, lead the way." She felt like she needed to apologize to Amanda, explain her she didn't mean to be so...cold at her, but words didn't come out. She just stood outside, waiting for the older witch to lead the way.

Amanda nodded and turned, taking the lead, a sulky teenager following. It wasn't until they were safely in Amanda's car and heading south, away from Salem Center but not on the usual route to New York either, that Amanda finally spoke again. "You've had a shite time of it, Nico, and I'm sorry for that, but you don't have the luxury of feeling sorry for yourself. Not now." A signpost appeared, pointing towards Graham Hills County Park and Amanda turned off the main road towards the woods. "You've got power now. Problem is, it comes with a price tag. And no amount of hiding in your room is going to change that."

"With great power comes great flaws." That's as deep as she would go for the moment. Sulking in her seat, she just looked out the window in silence. They weren't going to the city. Amanda wanted her to feed on something, alright, but her mentor wouldn't throw her in a crowd and let her kill someone. "Where are we going?", asked with a lot more interest than she had showed before.

"Somewhere you're going to visit a lot," was the reply, Amanda glancing over at her student with a brief expression of satisfaction. There was her girl. They reached a snow-covered parking lot, the only vehicle there, and stopped. Amanda got out first, looking around for tracks in the snow that might indicate someone else had been there. Nothing, which was good. "Come on, grasshopper, we're getting up close and personal with Mother Nature," she called to the girl still in the warm car.

It just wasn't in her nature to give up for too long, after all. She just needed some prodding and she would be right on track. Maybe not right away, but soon. "Oh really?" she asked as she exited the car, hugging herself as she followed Amanda. "So you want me to feed on something, I get it, but unless you want to plug me to a generator, I don't know how I'm going to get this thing under control, you know?" It wasn't even the season for her to try and absorb energy from the sun, so whatever the woman had there, it better be good.

"Practice makes perfect, didn't you know?" Amanda tossed back over her shoulder as she picked a hiking trail and began picking her way through the slush and mud. The air was bitterly cold and she wrapped her scarf around her face and neck more firmly. "See, the thing is, grasshopper, you need to feed your mutation. If you don't, it'll find a way to do it for you and you know what that means."

Yeah, she knew what it meant. "I'll go all energy vampire-like on the mansion folk while I sleep, I guess?" It was the first time she defined herself as that out loud, and it sent shivers down her spine; the definition was to close to Selene's. "Uh, I guess that would be bad news for them in the morning." If they ever wake up. She needed to change the subject, fast. "How many...um, how do you call someone who is both magic and mutant? Double-freak? How many of us are around? You, that Selene bitch who's dead, me..."

Amanda snorted a brief laugh. "There's more of us than you'd think - my old teacher, Dr. Strange, made sure I didn't go about thinking I was a special snowflake. It's rare, to have a mutation that lends itself to magic - something about the two doesn't usually blend - but there are others than just you and me. I know of at least two, but statistics say there's probably more."

"I just don't want to be alone." Well, that had come a little bit more honest than she had intended to. "Let us trust statistics and that Strange guy, then." She wasn't somehow expecting to meet one anytime soon. Looking around, Nico kicked some snow in silence. "Are we there yet?"

Pausing to take a look around, Amanda nodded. "Yeah, I think we're far enough in. I don't know your range yet, so I guess we'll find it out as we go." Sher found a rock and brushed the snow off it before sitting down. "All right, grasshopper, go for it. Power up time."

Sighing, Nico decided she was going to have to do that one way or another. "Have you thought of why I can't...hurt you? Maybe I'm unconsciously shielding you or something? Or strong magic people can't be affected, I don't know..." Her eyes went black, but no cracks appeared. Slowly -she wasn't too confident on how to control her power yet- things around her withered and died; a few birds fell from the sky, and she felt how a number of little animals died around her. It felt horrible and good at the same time. "It...has a taste", informed as she looked at Amanda with those creepy eyes of hers. "Unsurprisingly enough, humans taste better."

"They have more complicated lives. 'S like comparing a fancy pasta dish cooked by Gordon Ramsey with mac and cheese out of a box," Amanda pointed out. "At least, that's what I noticed, when I was doing the same thing as you."

Nico frowned as she focused on anything but Amanda, looking away for a moment. "Okay that? That doesn't make it any easier to bear with. Now I'm curious about it, and God knows the last thing I need is to think about... experimenting." But she wouldn't, and that was the part that bothered her the most. She had already tasted it and she had loved it way too much, and she knew it could be potentially addictive, but nobody said that after your first shot of heroin, staying clean was the best part of it. Not by a long shot. "So every time I'm hungry... you will take me somewhere empty of people?"

"Sorry. But yeah, that's what we'll do, at least at first. The same time, we'll be working on your control. You can do it, you showed me that in the caves, it'll just be a matter of working on it until you can pick and choose what you drain and how much you take." Amanda gave her student a brief smile. "I learned how with the Healing, after all. And once you're a bit more stable powers-wise, there's some people I want you to meet."

Nico just sighed as her eyes returned to normal. "Okay, any more of that and I might start draining rocks or whatever." She would add that it could really help if she get a cow or a big animal...but all in all she didn't think she could actually kill one. "I should try to get energy from the Sun or something in Summer. Or make a fire and see what happens." It was a good way to test her limits, anyway. The 'some people I want you to meet' didn't sound too good on her ears. "Oh really? Who are these people you want me to meet?"

"Magic users. Some who taught me, some who know a lot more about the whole magic thing than I do. I made a mistake, not doing it earlier and now you need to be ready, before Arcana comes back for you." Amanda's face clouded and the blonde witch suddenly looked young - and afraid. "I don't want to lose you, grasshopper, but I'm not a match for her. We both need help."

"Don't- Don't say that." Her draining stopped, she felt oddly vulnerable. Sitting next to Amanda, she sighed as she made an effort not to lean on her. She was weak, clingy, and the older witch didn't need that. "Okay then, but I have the suspicion some of them won't be too happy to see me."

"They'll just have to deal." Amanda put her arm around Nico's shoulders. "You're my apprentice and they're just going to have to get used to it, same as they had to deal with me in the end." She snorted a little at the memory. "When we get back to the mansion, I want you to do something for me. Consider it homework."

Nico, of course, leaned against her. She was like that, and couldn't seem to change. Not when she needed it so much, at least. "Good to know, then. And sure, I guess I shouldn't be just fooling around, right?"

"I want you to get out and be social again. No more hiding in your room away from people. Go out and do things, talk to people, be around them," came the perhaps surprising answer. "If you get to a point you need to power up again, call me and I'll come get you, but it's really important that you be around people, no matter how hard it is."

She had seen it coming, but hearing Amanda say it was a surprise nevertheless. "I guess you are right", conceded, although not particularly cheerful about it, and feeling like it would not end well. At all. "I'll go and try to be social, have some fun, I don't know. Just...come fast if I call." A beat. "Please."

"As fast as I can," Amanda promised. "But it's not just about being social and having fun. The more time you spend away from people, the easier it'll be to think of them as nothing more than fuel sources. It's a lot harder to feed on someone you've talked to or hung out with, get me?"

"I would never--" But then again, she would have never done the things she had already done, so there was no point on complaining. "I bet that's how she saw everyone." It was not necessary to say who was Nico talking about. "Do you think that caring makes it different?"

"What do you think, Grasshopper?" Amanda replied with a slight smile, but her eyes were fixed on Nico's intently.

"I certainly hope it does", she replied with a little shrug.