psl for Druitt

[electro_kinetic]

It wasn't unusual for the students at the school, of which population Noriko was a member, to screw around between classes with their powers. After all, half the point of the school was to learn to use what they had, and with that came, naturally, experimentation. The problem came in when the aforementioned powers didn't...get along, as it were. Noriko had just been fooling around making Julian's hair stand on end, an act which made him pissy and amused her. And it would have stopped there had he not decided to contain her electricity in a small bubble around her, with the unexpected result that it kept building.

Nori had only ever not electrocuted something when she meant to once, and it had been just as unexpected then as it was now when she felt a jolt and stumbled on the carpet, catching herself on a display table before falling. She still had her bookbag slung over a shoulder, beacon-bright hair more or less covered by a slouchy cap against the early winter chill from New York. Her shirtsleeves were already pushed up, leaving her no trouble with the channeling of current.

Looking up the disappearance of her classmates got Noriko's attention pretty quickly, and though the hallways looked similar enough, there were notable differences: no students, no teachers, no...people, it seemed.

Which left her with the small problem of figuring out what happened. And where she was.

Comments

[borneinblood]

The what isn't something Druitt can answer. Largely because he isn't really aware of the finer details of Noriko's arrival. Nor is he aware of the fact that there even are other people who can manage something even remotely like teleportation. All he knows is that he most certainly doesn't recognize the young woman who happens to be standing in the middle of the residential halls. And with the Cabal's plague looming over their heads - and due to be unleashed on the world besides - an unfamiliar face isn't as welcome in the Sanctuary as it might be.

(Helen, of course, might think otherwise. But she's not here and he is.)

"Looking for something?"

It's a simple question, taken at face value. But there's a twist of something darker under his words. Something that makes it halfway a threat, and he's making not even the slightest effort to not loom, besides.

[electro_kinetic]

Noriko is not a large girl by any definition: she tops out at five-foot-four, and though her personality is certainly bigger it doesn't lend her much physical presence in an unfamiliar place. So when John looms over her, her first instinct is to puff up, standing straight and as tall as she can manage in her short boots. When in doubt, she reminds herself, what she is is her shield.

And what she is--short of mutant--is smart, strong, and sarcastic.

"Yeah, where the hell my classmates went would be great," she says, tilting her chin up to look at him. She's used to being threatened by strange men, it's just usually a sex thing. At least this guy has that going for him, he didn't ask her if anything was screwed in sideways. "Who're you, other than tall, bald, and creepy?"

She has no weapon besides herself, but by herself she's plenty of one, already beginning to glow brightly.

[borneinblood]

Noriko's response isn't an unfamiliar one. Nor an unexpected one, either. But for all that he suspects that Helen would take a somewhat dim view of him nominating himself as temporary protector of the Sanctuary's well-being, the fact of the matter is that she's not present at the moment. He is, and he's hardly about to let the Cabal get the upper hand simply because he let an unfamiliar face pass by unawares. Plus, the more he can get out of her now, the less Helen has to do later. Assuming of course that Helen's willing to take him at his word, but that's a consideration for later.

Still, he doesn't so much as bat an eye at the fact that she's started to glow. He might certainly not approve of the Cabal's methods, but they do interact with Abnormals, and it's not hard to imagine that they might have one or two on hand for things like this.

"I could ask you something similar. This isn't somewhere just anyone can walk into."

For more reasons then one, and while he's still keeping his distance he's not backing down either... and not mentioning anything about her classmates either, though if she presses he might get back around to that point also.

[electro_kinetic]

"Dude, five minutes ago I was in my school, in New York City. I think if I walked in, I'd remember it."

She remembers getting to Denver, sure, but that was a while back. And she was running, though faster than most would define the term. "So since you're clearly familiar with here, mind being useful instead of just badly threatening and telling me where we are?" Noriko asks. She doesn't bother asking how she got here: she can guess that much, and she doesn't assume this guy is going to be overly forthcoming.

[borneinblood]

The comment about having been somewhere else barely five minutes ago earns her a raised eyebrow but nothing more. And even then it's mostly because he hasn't heard about there being any one else who's capable of anything even remotely similar to his own teleportation. True, he can't entirely rule out the possibility of not being the only one with his... abilities, but he would have imagined that he would have heard something before just now, if it were anything that were commonplace.

And if the Cabal have managed to get their hands on teleporters of their own, he can't say that it's likely to bode well by any stretch of the imagination.

"There are other ways to get somewhere."

Eventually he might get around to being helpful. But just at the moment he's not feeling particularly inclined to trust her. Even if she is telling the truth about having been in New York City only a handful of moments previously.

[electro_kinetic]

Noriko really wishes that for once she wouldn't have to get the random-choice creeper, but since that doesn't appear to be an option, she just levels a look at John that asks, without words, if he really is being that obtuse.

"Thank you for that stunning news, I don't think I'd have figured that out on my own," she says, voice practically dripping with sarcasm. "While we're on a roll of helpful answers, maybe you could tell me where the fuck we are, and I can go from there?"

She isn't a teleporter--not like anyone else she's ever known of or personally--and while she's displaced objects before she's never done it intentionally, much less to herself.

[borneinblood]

To an extent, yes. But perhaps less so than she might think, although the fact that she doesn't seem to have picked up on his allusion to teleportation is intriguing. Not enough for him to let up on the intimidation, but enough to suggest that there's something else going on at the moment.

"I could," he answers after a moment, with a faint curl of amusement hovering at the corners of his mouth. "But perhaps you'd like to answer a few questions first."

The tone of his voice on that latter makes it fairly clear that he's going to be asking whether or not she wants to. But for all that he is perfectly willing to act as Helen's attack dog (even if she hasn't asked it of him) he's not unwilling to let the illusion of choice exist all the same.

[electro_kinetic]

"If this is your attempt at intimidating me into something I will drop you like a sack of potatoes," she says, backing up a step--less to put reassuring distance between them and more to prevent electrical burns on his skin when she electrocutes him.

Throwing one's heart out of sinus rhythm, fun party trick. Also lethal after long enough. The glow she'd begun to exhibit a few minutes ago is now steadily brightening, getting very nearly difficult to look directly at. "I asked first. Where am I?"

apologies for taking *absolutely forever* to get back to these

[borneinblood]

There's a knife's-edge of a smile at her threat, sharp and vicious and utterly devoid of anything like comfort. Threats he knows what to do with, and while he's absolutely not intending to force her into something, he has no compunctions whatsoever about wielding his own nature as a blunt force instrument.

"So you did."

The comment is... surprisingly reasonable, for all that he's letting some of the menacing aura he's so good at slip out to (metaphorically) hover around his shoulders. But he's not giving in just yet, for all that he's conceded that one point.

"But you are still the one committing an act of trespass."

it's okay! <3

[electro_kinetic]

It takes a significant amount of control and knowledge of electricity to influence the amperage and voltage of a wirelessly-transmitted burst: Noriko, thankfully, has that control and that knowledge.

And she's out of patience with the closemouthed act. What she feels when she discharges the rather shocking--ha ha--amount of voltage is negligible: what Druitt will feel is largely dependent on how close he is to her, but something akin to a full-body cramp, all muscles tensing before going limp again. It's thankfully not directed at him, merely an ambient burst to relieve some of her tension, but it'll still be noticeable. "Seriously, point me at which direction out is and I'll happily head that way before I'm late for lit."