xp_logs | Kurt And Meggan, Late Wednesday Afternoon (Reply)

Not wanting to frighten her brother at any point in the future, Meggan remembers to warn him of the powers trick she tried out for the first time in Genosha. Then, they test things using the flame of a candle and a grill, and learn what she is and isn’t capable of doing.

“I should’ve brought a candleabra, too. Or a box,” Meggan realized as she shifted various items in her arms as she reached her destination, having successfully navigated the halls without dropping anything more than three times when she was about fifteen feet from the door. Four candles of increasing size were precariously balanced on top of one another. She was also clutching a mirror, three packs of matches, and an old lighter she’d found under a sofa cushion. All this was her way of avoiding a repeat of The Electric Socket Incident. Because she knew this one might be scarier for her brother to catch her in the middle of testing out.

That, and she knew it wasn’t the wisest course of action to test things with the flames in the fireplace, or any place that wasn’t outdoors—she refused to be the one responsible for accidentally charring a portion of the mansion.

She almost dropped the mirror, before she carefully transferred it to her other hand, knocking on Kurt's door twice with her elbow. “It’s Meggan,” she called. “Can I please come in before I drop things?” Again was left unsaid. She’d thought waiting a week after the horror and drama before springing it on him was a good thing.

"...things?" came the response, somewhere between confused and affectionately suspicious, and he opened the door and eyed her pile of Stuff before reaching out to take some of it from her. "You have brought me candles?"

“No, they’re just for showing you something,” Meggan replied with a grateful smile. She still held two of the smaller candles, and the rest was easier to carry now that Kurt had lightened the load. “Not completely brand new. Because I figured out a new powers trick when we were dealing with Amara, and thought I’d tell you now instead of later. So it wouldn’t scare you…because it’s possibly slightly bigger than walking in on me and the electric socket. I forgot to tell you before, with everything going on.” Between everything that went down on the astral plane, the entire situation, and learning the awful news of little Rachel, that shouldn’t be too surprising that it had slipped her mind.

Kurt raised his eyebrows at her. "Something that involves Amara...and candles. A new synching? I look forward to seeing this."

“Yes. I can make it move once I’m synched with it,” Meggan nodded. “I did it enough so the fire went away from the grenades, and Miss Frost.” She gestured to the mirror. “And that’s…just for finding out what it looks like when I’m into it. Because I know my hair was doing something at the same time as my skin looked like tiny patchwork flames were going on underneath to mimic when I wasn’t really on fire. But I was too focused on making the fire keep away to pay attention.” She really wanted to see what happened. There just hadn’t been time to do anything but act and keep people from blowing up at the time, no looking.

"Sometimes I wonder what you will not be able to do with practice, little sister", he said warmly, and stepped out into the corridor. "Shall we go outside and play with this some more?"

“I wanted to test it out near the grill, so, yes, that was the plan,” Meggan acknowledged with a small grin as they walked. “That way, we can see if I can make it hop on over. Minus the samba.”

"Or even make it do the samba, if you feel like trying something more advanced", he suggested teasingly.

“Before I got the flames to move away, I tried to make one do a samba to be sure I had a good grip of it,” Meggan confessed as they descended the staircase. “Well. I thought I did, but I finally realized it was more like an Elvis type of shimmy in fast forward. Not a real samba.” If fire could be described like that. She had stumbled upon clips of the dance online yesterday, and understood her mistake. It was close, but not quite right. But she'd still made it move.

"Well, even that is quite impressive given that fire does not have much of a defined shape", he pointed out.

“Took a lot of focus for that, yeah,” Meggan agreed with a nod. Most of which being due to the fact she had never tried synching up with anything fiery before, with another chunk being that part. No doing fire shaped like animals for her. While she hadn’t had much time to get things entirely down before helping, she’d been so happy that she had actually done it right.

As they went outside, she noted it wasn’t a particularly windy day outside. A little breezy, so all she had to worry over was a draft blowing out a match before it could light the candle. With three packs of matches, they should be more than taken care of. “Would it be better to sit the candle on the ground instead of the table, like with a firecracker?"

"It might be", he agreed. "Just in case your control slips, the ground is less flammable."

At least this time she wasn’t being rushed by danger, Meggan mused as she set things up. She set the mirror up at an angle where she’d be able to see what she ended up looking like. Extra candles up there, too, in case the first one went poof, or just wild with melting into a waxy puddle…and first set of matches in her hand. A couple strikes of the match were required before it was lit, and then she carefully sat it back on the concrete, and perched on the edge of a lawn chair. It might have been faster with the lighter, but that thing looked like it had seen better days.

She concentrated wholly on the energy patterns of it, just like she had done in Genosha. It went faster this time, now that she knew what to do. It may have also had something to do with it being just the one candle, and not a room of flames to move around. Distantly, she knew without looking that her arms and legs were doing the patchwork faux flaming beneath the surface thing again. There, she had it, the light of the candle was starting to bend. Actually getting it to the grill was next. Her eyes darted to the mirror for an instant; thanks to the glint of the glass, she'd caught that her hair was trying to mimic how the flame looked and moved, constantly shifting, that was why it had felt funny. She returned her attention to the candle--another nudge, and she saw it twist and...there! It was trailing over, before diving straight into the grill.

“I did it,” Meggan beamed to her brother. “No food to cook there yet, but…we have achieved flaming grill!” There’d been some old charcoal remaining in it, meaning the flame wouldn’t just go out then and there. There had been no explosions, no burning of anything to the ground. She should have brought steak or chicken.

Kurt smiled at her proudly, looking between her firey self and the grill. "You did! So now you are a pyrokinetic as well."

Meggan hurried over to get a closer look at her reflection, watching as the drifting of her hair fell back into its original state. Her hair wasn’t even a little bit warm to the touch, despite how it had looked when it was imitating it. “So if I’m not focusing entirely on the energy web of the fire then it’s back to regular looking hair right away. It’s just like the gills, but hotter and more moving around.” At his last comment, though, she laughed. “I’d need to drag along a fire extinguisher to actually get it to go out, though.” She paused, considering, before continuing, “Or hope I could nudge it along into a pool.”

He tilted his head at that. "Are you so sure that you could not? Have you tried?"

Meggan shook her head. “It’s like…I could sense that I couldn’t when I was nudging it along?” It was hard to put into words. It was more a general feeling like instinct than actually knowing beyond a reasonable doubt, but Kurt was right. “But I’ll see if I can put out the grill.” If she could, they were down one opportunity to cook something, but hey—there were plenty of candles, plenty of matches, some other time.

This time, she sat closer to the grill, and focused on the same aspects as before. While it did gradually grow smaller, decreasing to the size it would be on the end of the candle’s wick from which it originated, it just wouldn’t go out. After several minutes ticked by and she saw there was no progress aside from that, she shook her head as she glanced over at Kurt, still half-focused on her task. It was easier to make it move, than it was to extinguish—it was good to know for certain, though. “That’s as small as it’s getting.”

Kurt studied the little flame and nodded. "And so now we know. Still, though, this is a very impressive new skill."

"Yeah," she smiled. The moment Meggan ceased her work at it, it returned to its original state, just crackling away. Now they knew, and it was impressive to her that she'd done that much, too. "I promise I won’t play with it alone,” she suddenly added. She didn't want to worry him. Never ever indoors, she'd already promised herself that. Her concentration might waver at the worst possible instant, resulting in burning beds, burning rooms or third degree burns.

"Good", was the firm response, eyeing it. "And perhaps I should specify only with a true pyrokinetic or else someone who can manipulate water or ice. Or a teleporter", he finished with a grin.

“Oh, that one’s even better, things could be fixed so much faster,” Meggan concurred, completely behind that plan. Quicker than trying to make fire follow her like a mother duck into a pool, without the risk of something else going up along the way. She also wondered if they should cook something on the grill now, so the fire wouldn't go to waste.

"Definitely." He grinned, then looked back at the grill, clearly having the same thought. "Perhaps I should fetch some meat, yes? The weather is lovely, we can have a barbecue."

“Yes, please.” Meggan could eventually make a sandwich out of whatever sort of meat he found. Maybe chicken? Whatever remained uneaten by the two of them, maybe they could stick the leftovers in the kitchen…or give them to someone else that was in the right mood for it.

"I will see what is in the kitchen", he said cheerfully, turning to step in that direction. "I know the Professor stocked it fully, so there should be plenty."

Meggan had heard the same, and knew about the brand new piles of food in the pantry. “And I’ll keep an eye on that while you check,” she offered. She knew better than to leave the grill unsupervised.

"Quite right." He smiled. "I will be back in no time."

While Meggan waited, she moved the now unlit candle back to the table—so Kurt wouldn’t somehow trip over it upon his return. She didn’t think he would, but it still didn’t need to remain in its place on the ground, now that their little experiment was concluded.

Less than ten minutes later, he returned bearing several kinds of packaged meat. "I did not know what you might feel like today", he greeted her, "so I brought all the usual kinds. We do not have to cook it all, or if we do, as you said, some of it can be put back for leftovers."

“Just that one for now, then,” Meggan requested. The second package he’d held up. That one looked like it might turn out to be delicious.

"This one it is." He grinned and stacked the remaining packages in a shadow to one side, handing her the one she'd picked. "Perhaps next time Catseye goes hunting, you can help her cook the fresh venison."

Well, she’d already helped Lorna cook a couple smaller things Catseye brought back for everyone when they were all on the run, even if she’d been slightly distracted. As long as Meggan didn’t have to be the one to do the skinning of venison before it was ready to cook, she didn’t think she could do that. “Maybe,” Meggan granted with a small grin as she took the package.