Nico & Layla | Tuesday afternoon

[x-mandelbrot.livejournal.com]

Aimless in the city, Layla turns up at Nico's door to finally get something off her chest.

The brownstone hadn't really been the plan when Layla had set out. First she'd wanted to hit up the old skate parks she had haunted. Then she had started to wander. Her mind both ran back to Genosha and ran away from it in a dizzying repetition. She found herself getting distracted enough to nearly get hit by a car three different times and she had collided with a parked van once which hadn't exactly been the most pleasant sensation ever. Eventually, though, she had come here. It had even taken her a second to figure out why the hell the door looked so familiar.

While she stood there staring someone had come out and let her into the building. What was she doing there? Without any other real answers she went to Nico's apartment and knocked.

Nico's voice came from inside of the room. "It's open."

There was a simple reason as to why Nico lived alone, other than the fact she liked her privacy; upon entering, Layla would notice that everything in the room was at the very edges of the room, with Nico sitting in the middle, eyes closed, legs crossed and a feet over the floor. A black top and black running pants were all she had on her, hair falling wildly on her back. And around her...magic. It was a string of something that could be called words, but not quite. The words rotated on a long semi-circular string around her, like the orbit of a planet. Several orbits around Nico, as if she were the Sun. Opening her eyes -all black, but no cracks this time-, Nico smiled as she slowly lowered herself, the spells she had been cooking contracting themselves on a ball of energy, which seemed to stick to Nico's arm before vanishing.

Still sitting on the floor, Nico looked up to Layla. "Hey there."

That was quite a sight to walk in on. Layla had expecting reading old books or watching movies or playing games on a computer but not...not hovering three feet in the air like some sort of Indian mystic in a movie. By time her mentor-slash-friend-slash-person was on the ground Layla was, well, still staring and totally not getting her easy sense of cool about her. Assuming she ever actually had an easy sense of cool. More like an easy sense of spazz. So she blinked a few times, a bit wide-eyed in general and just went, "Uh...hey. You do that all the time?"

There was a lot of book reading, by the way. This was just cooler to do. "Recently I have taken to doing it more often, yeah. I call it cooking." Now where did she get that name? Nico snickered a bit. "My family is good when it comes to creation, so I'm doing that. I'm cooking spells for later usage. Kinda neat, huh? It takes some time for me to cook something good though, so I need experience." Standing up, Nico looked around. She wasn't even wearing socks. "Clothes...they can get in the way sometimes. Let us sit on the bed, unless you prefer the floor?"

"Meh, I don't really care." Layla left her skateboard by the door on its side so there couldn't be any cartoony possibilities of someone stepping on it by accident and going flying. "So, you're kinda like a witch chef? You make the spells of amazing deliciousness that smite your enemies and make butterflies bloom like flowers?" If it was someone else Layla might have worried the sarcasm was a little thick there, but Nico was practically sarcasm immune. Or maybe she like fed off sarcasm. Sarcasm nourishing the soul, who would've guessed? The blond kicked off her shoes and stole a corner of bed, legs folded under her.

"If it's righteous asskicking via delicious magic you want, I'm your girl." What was sarcasm but another way of talking anyway? And a way to insult someone without them realizing, but both Nico and Layla were so skilled that wasn't an issue. Sitting next to her, Nico allowed the blonde a moment of quietness. "If you wanted to see my magic, I could have gone over there. Make it rain marshmallows of something."

Snorting a small laugh, Layla shook her head. "Marshmallows are only really useful in s'mores or cocoa. I didn't come for your mad magic skills, though." She was being quiet, thinking as she spoke. It was fairly unusual, really. Layla was generally someone who spoke as soon as a thought occurred to her. It was why she tended to speak so quickly and sometimes forget that breathing was essential to the business of continued rambling. Now, though, her words came more slowly and thoughtfully. "I was already in the city. I came to skate. I think. I just sort of wound up here so I figured I'd come say hi."

It was all noticed and noted down, of course, but Nico didn't want to 'startle the Layla'; it would only end badly, she could tell. "You think huh? Your brain took another direction halfway through it? Well, it happens to everyone. It's like why people like to go and open the fridge, close it, and open it again a minute later. Although that could also be hunger, I guess." But Layla had come all the way here, which was interesting, not only because of the unexpectedness of it, but also due to the fact Layla wouldn't even dream of being away from Sarah for too long. "At any rate, you're here now. Hi. What can I do for you?"

"I...dunno." She frowned, totally not sure why she was here. Maybe she wasn't totally unsure. "Magic's all about balance, isn't it? Not fucking up the balance of nature because there's like consequences? Like tsunamis and shit? Wait, no, maybe that's just the like conspiracy theorist people. Anyway, I guess that's not the point. The point...do I have a point? I'm pretty sure I do. Somewhere. If I can figure out where I put it." She sighed, frustrated. "You know how I told you I brought a kid back to life in like February?" Damn, that felt like an entirely different life now.

"Some people say that magic is a tool to restore balance, others that it's a tool to disrupt it. Some others would be offended if they hear you calling magic a tool at all. I guess that just like with most things, they are whatever you allow them to be." It was a good thing Amanda hadn't heard her talking like this, because Nico had no idea when she had wisened up, and it surely made her sound older. "But yeah, for everything you ask, you should give in return. That's a basic rule not only when it comes to magic, you know? Sometimes it's really sketchy and hard to notice, sometimes it's damn straightforward." Nico remembered about the kid, and Layla bringing that up actually surprised her. "Yeah, I remember. Did something happen? And, if something happened, I think that either one of your teachers should probably take care of it, not me." A beat. "You did tell more people right?"

Layla shook her head. "No, I didn't tell anyone. It's still just Mister Haller that knows. That's not the point. Not entirely the point. The point is I brought that kid back to life. He was dead and I brought him back. And usually I just like bring dead animals back to life, right? But like they are almost always all fucked up and it's awful so I kill them after. Like, decapitate them and shit. I know, it's fucked up, but I think you, like, get it." Layla inhaled slowly, held the breath, and exhaled. "Point is, I think the cosmic whatever wanted me to like, balance that shit." She was looking down at her hands now and biting her lip. Layla could visualize the gun perfectly. She could remember the weight of it in her hands. The feel of the grip when she had aimed. "I killed someone in Genosha."

Nico didn't know whether to be honored or worried that Layla hadn't told anyone. Maybe a bit of both. Nico didn't change expressions too much when Layla confessed having killed someone, but it did take her a minute to actually process it all, and understand her angle. "Layla," she started, and now the bets were off and Nico was risking pushing the girl away by passing her arm behind Layla's shoulders, wrapping her in a loose embrace. "If there is something I have learned, is that we don't choose many of the things that happen to us, but we are completely capable of choosing how to react. You lack control with your mutant ability. I'm not saying you shouldn't, or that there was no reason...but a life giving and a life taken don't really balance each other just because. There's meaning behind it, and it's not my place to tell you whether you should see a connection or not." It was a delicate thing to say, she knew this, but Layla deserved to hear it all.

She let it sink for a moment, but Nico was decided to say her part. "I know you, Layla Miller. I know you wouldn't have killed someone unless there was no way around it, so I'm going to tell you this now; it sucks, it fucking sucks and it's going to weigh on you for a long time, and trust me, time won't make it easier; time alone is going to be a bitch to you. Friends will make it easier, family, too, because they remind you there's more than a single thing that defines you. And I don't care about last names, if I have learned something is that sometimes you pick your own family. We are family, alright?" She shook the girl a little. "This whole thing, this shitty deal we got served, we couldn't avoid it, but we can choose to get back on our feet. We must get back on our feet, even if it hurts. 'Specially if it hurts."

Everyone knew Layla liked her personal bubble. She liked to reinforce that motherfucker with steel, okay? Steel and iron and bricks. Nico's embrace had rendered the blonde motionless as stone and about as comfortable. Sarah got to hang out in Layla's bubble. And maybe Nico got to like intrude a little, but not usually this much. It left Layla feeling a little bit like she wanted to squirm out of her skin and a lot of bit like she was the most awkward being on earth. But she tried really hard to listen to what Nico was saying despite all that. She tried doubly hard to get the grimace off her face.

"I dunno," she finally said when she got her cringing expression to something more neutral. "Herr North said he was the enemy. That I'd done the right thing because I'd kept us alive. I just...I dunno. I wasn't thinking. I just did it. Doctor Grey thinks I have some sort of ability and he thinks so too. Herr North told me he thinks i've got this sort of instinct where I react when I need to or whatever but I don't react to the thing happening, I react before I even like realize it's happening. And I think if he's right that's what happened. Because I just...I just picked up a gun and I shot someone. And he was coming for us, you know? He was probably gonna kill Ms Frost because she was reloading guns and couldn't see him and if he killed her then he could've killed me easy but...but I still killed him." Her voice was sort of hollow, distant. She felt the same shock now that she had felt right after she'd shot the man back in Genosha. Layla had even begun trembling softly. "I bring things back to life," she said with conviction, as if she needed to persuade someone into believing her. "That's what I do, right? It's usually all sorts of fucked up and wrong but I, like, undo death. I'm not...I'm not supposed to cause it."

Some of that Nico was expecting. Some...not so much. A power? Acting before whatever she was acting against happened? Nico knew little of that. She would have to research it, but now wasn't the time. "Did you know? You make it sound like a reflex, but deep within you, were you certain that was the way it would play out?" That didn't sound like precognition, but Nico didn't know a lot about it either. Yet. She was about to let Layla go when she felt the trembling. If she moved her arm, she wasn't going to be able to put it back there, Nico was aware. "Killing is wrong, Layla, no matter what. I won't lie to you and tell you that you should do it again, but it is done already. And you are not defined by your powers; doing one thing never means not doing the contrary." It wasn't entirely clear to her, because she brought death alone, but Nico could see what Layla feared. In a way, she couldn't let the girl become more like her in that way.

"You don't need to do it today, but you have to deal with it. With this all. Deal with it Layla. Please." And then she slowly moved her arm away; Nico was suddenly feeling she couldn't possibly be the worst person Layla had decided to confide with; anyone in the mansion would be certainly less indifferent towards death, and some of them actually knew how to deal with young people struggles; Nico had swallowed all her darkness and turned it into fuel for her purposes, but she didn't want that for anybody else. "I would offer a hug, but I don't know if you're that kind of person."

"I'm really not." In fact, when Nico's arm shifted away Layla had moved as well, putting a bit more space between her and her friend so that her personal bubble could breathe. Maybe it was weird how completely unreceptive Layla was to physical attempts of comfort, but she had been that way for a while. Since her parents died, really. It just felt worse, somehow, not better. Like pity, maybe. Or just not...not as sincere as it was supposed to seem or maybe even as sincere as it actually was.

"And I didn't know how it would play out. I knew what I had to do. We had to keep ourselves alive. We had to keep the others alive. We had to take down threats. And I just knew I had to pick up the gun and point it where I did and shoot it." She paused for a moment. "I didn't know I'd kill someone. I didn't know I'd hit someone at all. I wasn't thinking about that. I was just thinking 'pick up gun, hit this button so it can fire, aim here, pull trigger.' It was like...like nothing else existed other than me and the gun. In my thinking, I mean. It was like I was thinking it but I wasn't like registering the other stuff." Layla frowned, pretty sure that made next to no sense to Nico.

"Well, the offer is still there." Nico stood from her bed, taking a few steps around. Far for not making sense, she found Layla's explanation...perhaps lacking due to being explained by her own perceptions; Nico knew that people tended to experiment things differently and that explaining them to others objectively was a hard task, but some things were clear; Layla shot someone by aiming at a place the guy had not yet occupied, and Nico was also certain that Layla's fears about getting shot played a part too. "Timeline correction? Alteration? Fate manipulation? The arts involved on spells like those go well over Amanda and I..." She had started to murmur, hand on chin and gaze lost on the floor for a moment. But could it be mystical? She hadn't tested Layla for magic ability, but being born with an innate magic trait was not unheard of, although there were bigger chances to be a mutant than that. Really bigger chances. Then again, a secondary mutation made more sense. "I have, um." She spoke up again, turning towards Layla. "I've been doing some private research about the future related arts; you know, precognition, prophesies, divination. I have very reliable sources that let me know of a future that seems to be set in stone to happen."

Nico went silent again. It might not be a good idea to explain the whole picture with Arcana and the First to Layla, at least not yet. "Long story short, I've been trying to find ways to either neutralize or deviate chain effects. Ever seen The Butterfly Effect? Change something, change everything?" Unless, of course, you were destined to change things set in stone, or at least try; the Book of Minoru had been cruel enough to let her know she was going to struggle before falling, although it was vague as usual. "You could be doing something like that. Messing with the cause-and-effect theory. Or I might be looking too deep into it." Suddenly Nico felt like she was looking too deep into it, actually; dragging Layla into her own mess. "Do you know if it has happened before? And I mean, something you are completely sure that wasn't just a hunch or good luck? Maybe you have ridiculous good luck."

"I...dunno." The teen scrunched up her face, clearly not happy about coming to that conclusion. Though the shift in topic to focus on her supposed possible ability thing was definitely welcome. "I mean, the only thing I can like definitely point to is the shit on the astral plane in dude's head because there were other Laylas running around and shit. Like I could see them. Herr North thinks I was using it when he was sparring with me because I don't actually know enough to hold my own with him like I was. 'Cause, dude, I don't really know much fighting." Layla scratched her head. "I mean, I'm good at figuring shit out, you know? Like figuring out which way of doing something is better for me. But, like, maybe that's not really just me, after all. Maybe it's this ability thing I might have. Maybe my instincts suck but this thing makes it seem like they're awesome? I don't like feel different. It's like, you know if you turn right you hit that dick who always hangs out on his stoop, right? So you don't go right. You go straight and hit the next right turn so you avoid him. It's like that. I just, like, know stuff."

Layla flopped over on Nico's bed and groaned. "How'm I supposed to figure this shit out? Is someone gonna like scan my brain and tell me what's up with it or something? 'Cause, dude, really? Maybe it's like precognition but not precognition. Or maybe it's that butterfly effect kinda thing. Or like maybe I have mini-prophecies and I like legit figure out the rest on my own. But how'm I supposed to figure it out?" She might have been whining. Maybe just a little.

"You're Layla Miller. You know stuff." Nico laughed a bit. "I like how that sounds." Leaning against the wall, she crossed her arms, brain already analyzing the whole thing. It was a bit perplexing, how hanging around people that lived to deduce and neutralize things had rubbed on her, but the young witch was perhaps an innate for the deductive work. "So, you have taken choices or actions with seemingly no information regarding them, and apparently prevented things from happening, but these things were directly related to your safety. Even your example of turning right or not turning right is a self preservation tactic, although if you see it the way you are seeing it, you are kicking causality in the nuts and creating a divergent path. What if, made reality. Um, let me know if I'm going too fast." Maybe it was because Nico was Nico, but something like that didn't sound too impossible.

"You're protecting yourself, most mutant powers activate as a way to either cope with tension or defend the mutant from said tension, danger, whatever. I think...you are too green to properly understand it." A pause, and Nico got more serious. "You should probably be glad; the power to mess with the future with such precision would probably drive you mad if you see it all at once before your mind can understand." Which either meant Layla's mind was still growing and becoming better at using it, so that she could use it willingly later, or that the girl was stuck with another power she couldn't affect directly. "For now I'm willing to bet you should be pretty hard to get hurt, although North's mutation makes him a pretty damn good sparring partner, or maybe another short term precog, but I don't think we have one of those. Of course, I would like to trade some punches with you personally, try some magic and..." And Nico went back the bed, although she didn't sit.

"Well, test you for magic."

Layla was mostly following along, or at least she thought she was, right up until Nico got to testing her for magic. The blonde popped up onto her elbows and gave the witch a look which quite clearly asked, are you on drugs? "You want to...test me? For....magic? What?"

"Magic Layla, magic!" Why was it so hard to understand? "I don't know if you have magic talent or not, but I want to be sure your powers aren't mystical, at least in part. If they are, then you would probably join a really small and endangered group of people, which I would prefer you didn't." Both magic and genes might sound cool, but Nico had learned it was more troublesome than anything; you only get weird enough before the wrong people noticed you. "The whole ritual needs some preparation, so it would have to wait, and I need Amanda's approval. It's not dangerous at all, mind you, and if you have no magic gift nothing at all would happen anyway. It's up to you though."

"That sounds totally like, ominous and shit." Pointing out the obvious, just another service offered by Layla Miller. Because, apparently, she knew stuff. That was obvious. "But, yeah, okay. I mean, if nothing's going to happen if I don't have magic then like it can't hurt right? Or does it hurt if I do have magic? Is it going to like burn some magic symbol on my ass like a magical branding iron so everyone who manages to like pants me can know my deep, dark Sabrina the Teenage Witch secret? Because that's fucked up, yo."

"Yeah, is perfectly safe and I have to worry about one less thing." Nico thought for a moment. "Nah, it actually should feel pretty good. Like a mini-high, but without weird shit going on." Suddenly awakening to the inner magic inside of one was probably a pretty good sensation when done right. "So...we have talked, we have been awkward, we have even decided to have you tested for magic cooties. Can I do something else for you?"

"Uh-huh. Put on shoes. I want Chinese food like badly right now." Layla tilted her head and looked at Nico. "Not because you're all Asian or whatever. I just really want noodles and the places out in Salem pretty much blow compared to the ones in the city. And you need to eat because you're doing weird magic shit and, uh, I say so?" Layla grinned. She figured they had talked and been awkward and confessed and there was nothing else to do about it so she may as well just move on to food. Because food was important.

"You do know I was born an raised in the States right? Although I have the Japanese nationality because you need to be like, seven generations not born over there to be considered properly not Asian, if I remember correctly." Nico looked down at herself for a moment before heading for her closet. "Yeah, just shoes is not gonna cut it, I need, um, underwear and all that jazz. Plus these clothes are old. Then we can have Chinese." She would have usually spent at least fifteen minutes preparing her clothes, but Nico didn't feel like dressing up too much at the moment. "So, stand awkwardly for a minute over there?"

"I am like totally awesome at standing awkwardly." Layla grabbed her board, stood in a corner with it and turned her eyes up toward the ceiling. She even added some fidgeting. "And, dude, I didn't say you were all like born in Asia and shit. I just meant, it's not like your Asian-ness like made me crave noodles. Because, you know, some people might think that and get all offended and shit. Not that I like ever offend you. But the important thing here is chow mein, okay?"

"We would need to have another serious talk if you started craving food related to the nationality of your interlocutors." It would be a pretty damn confusing talk, that one. Patting her lightly on the shoulder, Nico opened her door. "We are beyond offending each other, at least not without trying. And I'm not half as mean as it would take for me to want to actually upset you." Nico made a face as she exited. "Too much drama afterwards."

Layla headed for the hallway with her eyes on her friend and her eyebrows steadily furrowing more and more. "What the fuck's an interlocutor?"