Nico and Sharon - Catching Up!

[x-catseye.livejournal.com]

Nico and Sharon have lunch to chat about what they've been up to, with Sharon learning of Nico's latent mutant ability and how it's affected her friend's life.


Catseye waved excitedly from the booth she'd snagged at the fish and
chips place near the Brownstone, happy that her friend had been able
to meet her to talk. Now that Catseye was back living at the mansion,
she was worried she would see her friends who lived in the city less,
and wanted to make sure she avoided that by leaving plenty of time in
her schedule for visiting people. She was even contemplating using her
savings to buy herself a car to make the trip easier. "Hey Nico!" she
called out happily, beckoning her over.

Nico waved back as she made her way towards her friend, half amazed at
how things changed; she wouldn't have imagined that Catseye would be
the one going to college while she...didn't, but she was happy
for her; better one than none after all. And somehow she knew her
purple haired friend would take more advantage out of it than herself,
so it was all good in the world. "Hey, hope I didn't make you wait for
too long."

Shaking her head, Catseye turned a menu Nico's way. "I just got here.
I was checking out the thrift store next door. Still looking for cheap
kitchen gadgets," she smiled. "Is everything okay with work? You
didn't have trouble getting away did you?"

Kitchen gadgets, another thing Nico had no idea of how to use."Eh, as
long as I do my part they are pretty laid back." Sure, her part wasn't
that big just yet, but Nico had the feeling it was going to get a lot
busier for her in the near future. Sitting in front of Catseye, Nico
smiled in return." So what have you been up to? And I want the long
version."

"I don't have a very long version," Catseye chuckled, sipping the
water the waitress have brought when she'd been waiting for Nico.
"I've been working on my X-Men training and doing my courses for
college. Learning how to cook many new things. Lorna, the new
nutritionist and chef at the mansion, says I'm her assistant." She
grinned at that. "It's a lot of fun. But I want to know what you've
been up to though," she pressed her friend. "The long version."

Nico took a deep breath before she started. "Well, let's see...
magical training has been a thing since forever, but after my mutation
kicked in I've been doing all sorts of things, which is kinda awesome
I guess? Although I don't really think my mutant ability is all that
awesome by itself. Sucking things out of their energy until they
crumble to dust is a bit morbid..." And it didn't matter she still
favored the black on her overall clothes. "And then...well, apparently
my parents tried to get rid of my crazy magical ancestor that wants to
end the world, and they got killed by their trouble. And Arcana
Minoru- I know, weird name, is alive and kicking." A beat. "Right, you
didn't know she was a magical ghost that haunted my family before
that. We Minorus are odd, to say the least."

Pausing to get some air, Nico gave her friend a short, simple smile.
"And I'm working closer with Amanda now, too. And Julian and I aren't
a thing anymore. Uh, did you know we dated for a while?"

"Julian?" Catseye paused to think. "No, no I do not think I knew this. So you and I are both single!" Nico didn't seem that upset that she and Julian weren't 'a thing anymore' so Catseye figured it was okay to joke about it. "We should go visit the clubs and pick us up some... hotties, yesyes?" she grinned. "So tell me more about this crazy ancestor who is... alive and kicking and wants to end the world. Is that why you work for the Trenchcoats now? So you can help find her or something?"

Nico frowned a bit, but she kept smiling. "Sadly, I can't really get too personal with anybody until I learn to control my mutation. I could kill somebody if we get too...intimate, you know." She had discussed the topic a number of times and it was still making her blush a bit. "Yeah, my ancestor...well, she's evil, I think that's a given. We don't really know what she wants besides making my life impossible." A small lie, there, because Nico couldn't tell Catseye that Arcana wanted to make her end the world as they knew it; it would be one of the many things she had to cover in the future. "Yeah, that's partly why. I also think I can be of help to Amanda over there, since the other helper went away or something. And I get to train with them and stuff, so it's all cool."

Catseye didn't share Nico's embarrassment at talking about intimate details but the fact that her friend blushed made her grin a little before she nodded sympathetically. "I'm sure you're a big help to Amanda with the Trenchcoats!" she assured her friend. "And training is always cool. Well, not when it's painful," the catgirl chuckled, thinking of her own recent experiences with X-Men training. "Lookit us, in training. A little bit different from me being your familiar and you blowing things up in the woods, huh?" she giggled. She sobered up after the waitress came to take their orders, though. "But what's this about your mutation killing someone?" she asked. "I... thought your mutation was that the ickybad Staff thing lived inside you and came out all the time?"

It wasn't that she had reservations, but rather that the topic was all kinds of uncomfortable for her now. Well, she had forgotten Catseye hadn't been around when her mutation started. "Ah, you still remember that? I would like to keep my familiar if possible...and no, that's magic. Remember how I couldn't do much of it on my own and needed the Staff of One all the time? Well...stuff happened; stuff involving my parents and Arcana, and my latent mutation started to act up. It's fittingly creepy." Nico's eyes went black for a second, just to show Catseye. "I drain energy from living things, also organic things if I focus...and then I make it magic energy. Useful but dangerous for everyone around me. Specially if it involves touching, or kissing, or...you know."

"Reeeeeeally?" Catseye mused as she processed this, eyes widening. "Sort of like how Amanda uses city energy to make her magic, except with people like how Marius feeds on people?" That was the term he used when he did it, right? Feed? That was what Catseye thought it was, anyway. "Do you need to do it to stay alive, or have I been reading too many books about vampires? Because if you do," she said seriously, leaning in close and meeting Nico's gaze, "you can use my energy if you ever need to. I have lots of it!" She grinned at this, trying to make her friend smile. "After all, what are familiars for, right? If you want to keep me I'm veryvery happy to be your familiar!"

Nico flashed her the most awkward smile in her repertoire. It was very awkward. "I need it to stay, um, balanced, but I can usually go on for a week or two without draining -that's the term I use- things or people. But if I run too low on energy then I just start doing it without realizing, and that's dangerous. And you don't need to worry, I have a system working that lets me get the energy I need so I'm not suffering or anything." She had to thank Amanda for that. "You can totally help me in other witchy stuff though."

Making a mental note to keep closer tabs on Nico in the future- she didn't want her friend doing anything dangerous if she could help it by volunteering her energy, after all!- Catseye grinned at her and didn't pester her further about the topic, saying only "not suffering is always good!" Her eyes lit up at Nico's last comment. "Ooooo can I really help?! Exciting! How's your supply of eye of newt? Should I go out and hunt some newts and bring you their eyes?" She stared at the other woman, appearing completely serious, though her tail was twitching under her chair.

Not suffering was very good indeed. Nico had to chuckle a bit when Catseye offered her hunting skills. "Ah, well, I can check what are we running low for potion making, but honestly Cats, I can buy that stuff. What I would need your help is mostly to have somebody making sure I don't accidentally blow us to the ninth ring of Hell or something by accident. A sparring partner with your abilities might come in handy too I guess..."

"Might come in handy?!" Catseye scoffed, sticking her tongue out at Nico, "might?! I will be a great sparring partner Nico! I have been practicing veryveryhard! And I can definitely make sure you don't blow us up. I promise. You are my friend and friends do not let friends blow each other to the ninth ring of Hell by accident."

"Alright alright! Damn girl, somebody has grown confident. I've been training you know? And I'm also using magic to enhance my strength or something...I'm trying to work that out. Also yeah, the ninth ring is kinda cold and boring so we don't want to end up there."

Catseye giggled uncontrollably for several minutes at Nico's last comment. She finally sobered up when the waitress brought their food, which the catgirl dug into enthusiastically. "It's good you've been training and using magic to make yourself stronger! I think sparring would be a verygood time with you!"

"I can't just rely on it of course; magic casters are always depicted as weaklings on every game, so I have to break the paradigm, just in case I can't cast magic. And what I do is more like, let me see...well I can't explain it with words. So we should train together some time, yeah." And now there was good to be eaten. And Nico shall eat to her heart's content.