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xp_logs2023-08-17 07:02 pm
xp_catseye) wrote in xp_logs2023-08-17 07:02 pm
Entry tags:
Nica, Sharon: Fun with Lasers
Monica, during the course of some light powers practice, discovers some things entice cats of all sizes.
True it was summer vacation, but unlike some, Nica didn't count honing her powers as actual work. So she was sprawled on the floor in the sun room, lying on her front as she focussed on the wall opposite. From her forefinger came one beam of yellow light, narrowed down to a pin-point that she was using to draw invisible shapes on the wall. Sometimes she'd slip and the point became a full beam, but for the most part she was getting it. Possibly not very useful for visible light, she mused, but if she could do the same with infra-red...
Something huge, purple, and fast zoomed past her shoulder, dashed into the wall, and started scrabbling at the pinpoint.
"Bwha?!" Nica squawked and instinctively shot straight up to the ceiling, hovering there while she collected herself. Below her was a large, purple cat-person-thing. "Um, hi?"
Nica's surprise had the unfortunate side-effect of extinguishing the point of light. Disappointed, the creature turned away from the wall and looked towards the other girl's last known location. Empty. It looked around -- and then up.
"You are on the ceiling now," the cat observed.
"Uh, yeah. It's something that happens when I'm startled." Nica hesitated a little longer, taking in the newcomer and working out whether it was safe to come down. It seemed to be, so she let herself drift down until she was standing in front of the cat-person. "I'm Nica?" she said, not sure of how to deal with this situation.
"I am Sharon." The cat gazed wistfully at the wall. "I wanted to chase the light you made."
"The light... oh, I got you. I was practising." Nica took a seat this time, and pointed at the wall. After a moment, the light point reappeared. "So... you're new here, Sharon?"
"Yes." Sharon wasn't looking at Nica. Instead she was wholly focused on the point of light flashing its way across the wall. She stiffened, then crouched -- and leapt. Unnervingly human hands began to swat at the wall.
"I have permission from Alani and Sooraya," Sharon continued, as if she wasn't holding a conversation while playing whack-a-mole with a biologically generated light source. "I came last week."
"Last week... OH! Okay! There was an email..." Nica looked a little abashed. "I might be a bit behind on online stuff. I've been trying to actually take some time off before I start interning for my degree." As she watched Sharon, a small grin crossed her face, despite the Uncanny Valley effect of the hands and slight changes to the face to incorporate speech. "Well, nice to meet you, Sharon. How are you finding things so far?"
Sharon's hands wandered across the wall, slowing and accelerating in time with Nica's direction. "Very interesting. Met others with obvious physical mutations for the first time. Discovered human cloning is far more widespread than previously thought. Experienced boba tea, though I found it overrated." The light streaked high up the wall and Sharon launched herself into the air with a truly terrifying vertical leap.
"I was not allowed to touch the wormhole. It is my white whale."
Nica's eyes widened at the leap, and the desire to test her more resulted in the light creeping up towards the top of the wall. "Yeah, probably for the best you don't touch it. You might end up in the world without shrimp or something."
This time Sharon didn't attempt a sheer leap. Instead she jumped, dug her claws into the wall, and climbed for the light.
"Perhaps worth the sacrifice," Sharon said as she pawed at the dot. "Never trust a creature that wears its skeleton on the outside. Are you an X-Man?" Her claws were still firmly dug into the wallpaper.
Nica winced a little for the damage to the wallpaper, but gave it up as the price of scientific exploration. "I am, yes," she replied. "Code name Spectrum, since I can absorb and manipulate parts of the EM spectrum. Are you interested in joining the team?"
"Just interested. Kyle mentioned this is headquarters. Not what I expected when I presented myself in the community center." She added, without looking around, "Also, Kurt said I am allowed to climb."
The dot shifted diagonally across the wall to somewhere closer to the floor. "So you've met Kyle and Kurt and Alani and Sooraya," Nica said with a smile. "Anyone else?"
"Many," Sharon said proudly. She swiveled her body to track the light, briefly clinging to the wall at a horizontal angle, and jumped back to the ground to attack it on a more personal level. "Have observed more to whom I have not yet revealed my presence. Biding my time. You know the saying that, in the city, you are never more than six feet from a rat? Assume here that you are never more than six feet from me." The cat lowered herself into a crouch, sighted on the dot, and leapt. "Until I pounce."
"I'll have to remember that and make sure I don't go through the ceiling next time."
Sharon glanced away from the dot, one ear twitching. "Go through it? Not just levitate?"
Nica nodded, letting the dot disappear for the moment. "I can turn myself into light," she said, going with the simplest explanation. "And other EM wavelengths. And when I channel x-rays, I can go through things. Like the ceiling. Or the floor." To demonstrate, she pushed her hand into the floor.
Sharon padded over, curious. "And through me?" she asked, lifting a questioning hand.
Nica obliged by taking her hand out of the door and poking her finger through the offered hand briefly. "I don't go through people much, or for long," she explained. "X-rays aren't good for people."
Sharon seemed charmed by the brief contact with intangibility. While she nodded at Nica's warning, she lowered her hand only with reluctance. "Feels like nothing," she said. "But suppose most radiation does. Other applications? You can make lasers. Can you see range of electromagnetic spectrum as well as become it? Infrared for instance?"
"Infrared through to ultraviolet." Nica was pleased at the reaction. "I work with hard X-rays to far infrared, projecting as well as absorbing and syncing with. I can fly at lightspeed too... except I'm not very good at stopping where I need to when it's longer distances." She looked a little embarrassed. "Last time I tried to fly to Germany, I wound up in Kazakhstan."
The cat made a chorting noise that sounded suspiciously like a laugh. "Cannot imagine overshooting enough to require a tourist visa," she said. She sprawled onto the ground in front of Nica and rolled languidly. "So many different powers here. Jealous. But intrigued also. I shall allow it."
"Very generous of you," Nica replied solemnly, desperately trying not to pet the expanse of soft-looking purple fur. It would be impolite, and personal experience told her that cats did NOT like having their bellies touched without permission. That probably also went with cat-human mutants.
Sharon came to rest on her side. Eyes half-slitted, tail twitching in contentment, she thrummed.
"Keep feeding me, and I shall allow almost anything."
True it was summer vacation, but unlike some, Nica didn't count honing her powers as actual work. So she was sprawled on the floor in the sun room, lying on her front as she focussed on the wall opposite. From her forefinger came one beam of yellow light, narrowed down to a pin-point that she was using to draw invisible shapes on the wall. Sometimes she'd slip and the point became a full beam, but for the most part she was getting it. Possibly not very useful for visible light, she mused, but if she could do the same with infra-red...
Something huge, purple, and fast zoomed past her shoulder, dashed into the wall, and started scrabbling at the pinpoint.
"Bwha?!" Nica squawked and instinctively shot straight up to the ceiling, hovering there while she collected herself. Below her was a large, purple cat-person-thing. "Um, hi?"
Nica's surprise had the unfortunate side-effect of extinguishing the point of light. Disappointed, the creature turned away from the wall and looked towards the other girl's last known location. Empty. It looked around -- and then up.
"You are on the ceiling now," the cat observed.
"Uh, yeah. It's something that happens when I'm startled." Nica hesitated a little longer, taking in the newcomer and working out whether it was safe to come down. It seemed to be, so she let herself drift down until she was standing in front of the cat-person. "I'm Nica?" she said, not sure of how to deal with this situation.
"I am Sharon." The cat gazed wistfully at the wall. "I wanted to chase the light you made."
"The light... oh, I got you. I was practising." Nica took a seat this time, and pointed at the wall. After a moment, the light point reappeared. "So... you're new here, Sharon?"
"Yes." Sharon wasn't looking at Nica. Instead she was wholly focused on the point of light flashing its way across the wall. She stiffened, then crouched -- and leapt. Unnervingly human hands began to swat at the wall.
"I have permission from Alani and Sooraya," Sharon continued, as if she wasn't holding a conversation while playing whack-a-mole with a biologically generated light source. "I came last week."
"Last week... OH! Okay! There was an email..." Nica looked a little abashed. "I might be a bit behind on online stuff. I've been trying to actually take some time off before I start interning for my degree." As she watched Sharon, a small grin crossed her face, despite the Uncanny Valley effect of the hands and slight changes to the face to incorporate speech. "Well, nice to meet you, Sharon. How are you finding things so far?"
Sharon's hands wandered across the wall, slowing and accelerating in time with Nica's direction. "Very interesting. Met others with obvious physical mutations for the first time. Discovered human cloning is far more widespread than previously thought. Experienced boba tea, though I found it overrated." The light streaked high up the wall and Sharon launched herself into the air with a truly terrifying vertical leap.
"I was not allowed to touch the wormhole. It is my white whale."
Nica's eyes widened at the leap, and the desire to test her more resulted in the light creeping up towards the top of the wall. "Yeah, probably for the best you don't touch it. You might end up in the world without shrimp or something."
This time Sharon didn't attempt a sheer leap. Instead she jumped, dug her claws into the wall, and climbed for the light.
"Perhaps worth the sacrifice," Sharon said as she pawed at the dot. "Never trust a creature that wears its skeleton on the outside. Are you an X-Man?" Her claws were still firmly dug into the wallpaper.
Nica winced a little for the damage to the wallpaper, but gave it up as the price of scientific exploration. "I am, yes," she replied. "Code name Spectrum, since I can absorb and manipulate parts of the EM spectrum. Are you interested in joining the team?"
"Just interested. Kyle mentioned this is headquarters. Not what I expected when I presented myself in the community center." She added, without looking around, "Also, Kurt said I am allowed to climb."
The dot shifted diagonally across the wall to somewhere closer to the floor. "So you've met Kyle and Kurt and Alani and Sooraya," Nica said with a smile. "Anyone else?"
"Many," Sharon said proudly. She swiveled her body to track the light, briefly clinging to the wall at a horizontal angle, and jumped back to the ground to attack it on a more personal level. "Have observed more to whom I have not yet revealed my presence. Biding my time. You know the saying that, in the city, you are never more than six feet from a rat? Assume here that you are never more than six feet from me." The cat lowered herself into a crouch, sighted on the dot, and leapt. "Until I pounce."
"I'll have to remember that and make sure I don't go through the ceiling next time."
Sharon glanced away from the dot, one ear twitching. "Go through it? Not just levitate?"
Nica nodded, letting the dot disappear for the moment. "I can turn myself into light," she said, going with the simplest explanation. "And other EM wavelengths. And when I channel x-rays, I can go through things. Like the ceiling. Or the floor." To demonstrate, she pushed her hand into the floor.
Sharon padded over, curious. "And through me?" she asked, lifting a questioning hand.
Nica obliged by taking her hand out of the door and poking her finger through the offered hand briefly. "I don't go through people much, or for long," she explained. "X-rays aren't good for people."
Sharon seemed charmed by the brief contact with intangibility. While she nodded at Nica's warning, she lowered her hand only with reluctance. "Feels like nothing," she said. "But suppose most radiation does. Other applications? You can make lasers. Can you see range of electromagnetic spectrum as well as become it? Infrared for instance?"
"Infrared through to ultraviolet." Nica was pleased at the reaction. "I work with hard X-rays to far infrared, projecting as well as absorbing and syncing with. I can fly at lightspeed too... except I'm not very good at stopping where I need to when it's longer distances." She looked a little embarrassed. "Last time I tried to fly to Germany, I wound up in Kazakhstan."
The cat made a chorting noise that sounded suspiciously like a laugh. "Cannot imagine overshooting enough to require a tourist visa," she said. She sprawled onto the ground in front of Nica and rolled languidly. "So many different powers here. Jealous. But intrigued also. I shall allow it."
"Very generous of you," Nica replied solemnly, desperately trying not to pet the expanse of soft-looking purple fur. It would be impolite, and personal experience told her that cats did NOT like having their bellies touched without permission. That probably also went with cat-human mutants.
Sharon came to rest on her side. Eyes half-slitted, tail twitching in contentment, she thrummed.
"Keep feeding me, and I shall allow almost anything."