Sarah and Noriko - Backdated to 4/21/16

[om_marrow]

Noriko swings by to check on Sarah, who is slowly adapting to live at Xavier's.

Noriko had seen the girl around, but they weren't in the same classes and she hadn't had much of a chance to talk to Marrow, ever since their first meeting. And yeah, she felt responsible for the kid. She'd talked her into coming here, after all.

So after classes, and before she had to head over to Evo, she walked her up to her room and knocked on her door, metal on wood. "It's Surge," she called out, hoping that she was in.

"It's open, c'mon in," Sarah called from inside. She was sitting in the middle of her room, still making sense of things as they were. Her dresser was open and in disarray, pouring forth garments both provided by Xavier's and bought on her own dollar. Her bed was stripped, and she'd made herself a pile of sheets and a blanket in the middle of her floor, near the foot of her bed. The other side of the room was only moderately touched by the dresser's overflow of laundry.

"Good to see you, Sergie-o," Sarah said, looking around from her seated position as if surveying her realm.

"So you're making yourself at home," Noriko remarked, grabbing a desk chair and sitting on it. There was absolutely no judgment or mockery in her voice.

"Something like it," Sarah said, leaning forward and putting her hands on her ankles, hunching over. She frowned. "I miss the people. Kids and I used to sleep in a big kinda pile. Had a couple mattresses we chopped up and brought down to the tunnels. Or stuffed into the back alleys, before we went down there." She sighed. "I still can't sleep on a real bed," she said, looking at it. "Not alone, at least."

"It takes a while getting used to," Noriko agreed. "I didn't sleep very much at all, my first few days here." Then exhaustion had caught up with her.

"On the floor or a couch, I'm fine," Sarah clarified. "Just gonna make it weird when I get a roommate."

"Yeah, I recommend getting used to the bed before that happens," Noriko wryly stated.

"Hopefully my roomie's a cuddler," Sarah grumbled. "And. Hey. I guess I never really apologized for just kinda... ambushing you and dragging you into that. But I couldn't have done it without you. I mean, seeing you... do your thing. It was kind of amazing."

"That's one word for it," Noriko stated with a wry twist of her lips. But then she grew serious, and leaned her elbows on her thighs, holding Sarah's gaze. "It isn't, really. Not when I use it to hurt people. It's a means to an end, but that's it. What you did, protecting the kids from that rubble - that was amazing, through and through."

"But if you hadn't done what you did, the kids might have gotten hurt. You... y'know. Took hits for them." She couldn't help but keep Noriko's eyes with her own. "It was awesome. The sparks everywhere and everything... It was like I could almost feel it dancing through the air, and it was... probably the hottest thing I've seen in my life," she said, giving Noriko a goofy grin.

Noriko didn't try and hide how skeptical she felt about that last bit. She leaned back in her chair with a shrug. "We did what we did, and we got the kids out." She was glad it had turned out the way it did. The entire time, her stomach had been in knots over the possibility that things would go the way they had when she had last met Callisto. Not everyone could come back from death. "You don't have to apologize for anything," she added.

"I probably freaked you out a bit. I mean, it's not like you couldn't take me, but you were kinda thinkin' I was, y'know, one of Callisto's messengers or something." Sarah cringed a bit. "She... does know where you work, now. Just so you know. I mean, she probably does. I didn't tell her. But some of the kids knew where I was sniffing around. They might have told her."

"I'm not hiding," Noriko replied with a shrug. She'd be surprised if Callisto hadn't known where she worked for a while now. She went to work running, after all; that wasn't exactly discreet. "She probably knew already. Don't sweat it." If Callisto wanted to come after Surge, she was welcome to try.

"I know you can take her," Sarah said, sincerely. "I dunno if I could. But you could. I'm just... y'know. Worried about who might get caught in the crossfire." She sighed. "I just want you to know. I got your back. You brought me here. Took me in when I had nowhere to go. I owe you big time for that."

"The Prof and Lehnsherr took you in," Noriko told her honestly. "You don't owe me anything." She smiled slightly. "But I wouldn't mind you having my back, if the opportunity ever rises."

She chuckled in reply. "I have your back whether you like it or not," she said, lightly, leaning back. "We should go clubbing, sometime," she said. "Get out and dance. Live a little, y'know?"

"I don't do clubbing, mostly," Surge told her with a brief purse of her lips. "I do squat parties." They tended to have much better music, by her standards.

"Those sound good," Sarah said, blinking. "I just wanna go have fun and dance. And maybe make out."

"I'll stick to the fun and dancing," Noriko replied, a little wryly. That shit with Anders snuck up on her at the oddest times, even after all this time.

"Fair enough." She sighed. "Anything else fun to do around here? I heard about some Danger Room place but I haven't had the chance to go." Sarah had been curious as hell, though. She'd heard it was a place where they could cut loose, and Sarah liked cutting loose.

Noriko mentally shook those thoughts away to focus on Sarah's question. "Yeah, it's pretty sweet. You have to be paired up to use it, though. I'll go with you, if you like. Show you the ropes."

"Like... right now?" Sarah asked, raising an eyebrow. "I't sounds awesome to me, and I've got nothin' better to do except, y'know." She gestured around the room. "Sit around here."

"We can always check if it's free," Noriko agreed, getting to her feet.

"Sweet," she replied, rising to stand as well. "You mean like, that's always how it is? Just pop down there and see if it's open and you can go on in?"

"Or you can book it, make sure it's yours when you want it," Noriko added as she headed out of the room.

"So it's kinda like a swanky restaurant," Sarah said, nodding. "But I hear you get to punch things there. Without getting in trouble for it."

"It's a great place to let loose," Noriko confirmed. "Or experiment with your powers." She wouldn't be where she was at if she hadn't had the Danger Room.

"So I can try making bigger bone... things," she said, not really knowing what else she would say. "Y'know I've never done anything bigger than a club?" she confessed. "Heck, even that shield I came up with in the tunnels was new. I just... kinda did it 'cause I had to."

Because there had been kids at stake. Noriko appreciated that, and she nodded. "Yeah, it's got some good scenarios to push yourself. You'll see." It was easier to experiment the Danger Room than to explain it - when you weren't Kitty, anyway.

"Oooh." 'Scenarios' sounded fancy. "I like pushing myself. Kinda glad things turned out this way, now. Scrapping with gangsters doesn't sound nearly as fun as fighting bigger and badder things," Sarah opined.

"There's more to it than fun," Noriko pointed out with raised eyebrows.

"Like what?" Sarah asked, earnestly. "I mean, getting better is good, so I guess there's that."

"I mean it's also dangerous, and a responsibility," Noriko replied, cutting a glance at the girl walking by her side.

"I mean, maybe to some people," Sarah replied. "I don't stay hurt. Can't say I've broken a bone, either." As for responsibility? "I've never really been the responsible type, either," she added, grinning.

"So you wouldn't mind getting other people hurt," Noriko challenged. Reckless was a danger in and of itself.

"Not if they were my friends," Sarah said defensively. "Or somebody not involved. Y'know? It's not like I wanna go around hurting people all crazy. I just wanna be able to look out for my friends."

"So it's dangerous," Noriko concluded, "and you've gotta be responsible."

"But when you say it like that it sounds really, really lame," Sarah complained. "Responsibility is like, doing your homework or your laundry or taking out the garbage. Looking out for those who need your help and keeping the little guys safe, that's just being a badass."

Noriko stopped herself from answering straight away. Sarah was just very young, still, she reminded herself. "If it's just the word you object to, and not the concept, we're gonna be good."

Sarah shrugged. "Then we're good," she said, grinning. "As long as you don't expect me to like, be all about doing my homework and crap."

"You'll have to study if you want to stay here," Noriko pointed out. "But that's between you and the headmasters." They were pretty insistent on them getting an education, though.

"Yeah. I just have so much to catch up on, y'know?" Sarah grumbled.

"Yeah, I know," Noriko confirmed. She'd had her own to make up for.

"Ah well, isn't all bad. I'm just glad for the whole free food thing. I'd forgotten how much of an appetite I used to have, before the street life." She sighed. "When did you start living on the streets, anyway?" she asked.

"After I manifested," Noriko replied, as they reached the Danger Room. She checked availability on the panel beside the door. "I was 14. And we're in luck. It should be free in twenty. Want me to sign us up?"

"Yeah, sounds great to me." Sarah said. Fourteen? She'd been fourteen not long ago. "Guess you're lucky," Sarah said, her voice becoming a little less confident. "I manifested when I was like, two," she murmured. "I ran away from the foster system when I was eleven," she confessed. Xavier probably already knew; he was a mind-reader, after all, and he was probably interested in that kind of thing. "I fell in with Callisto after that."

Noriko quickly booked the room, listening to Sarah's story as she did so. "She didn't use to be this way," Noriko stated with a frown, quietly, before looking at Sarah. "Things are gonna be better now." For her, anyway. Not so much for the kids with Callisto.

"It was never really that bad to begin with," Sarah explained. "She just... got weird. Paranoid. Didn't wanna tell anybody much of anything. Just go here, take stuff from this place, move here, stuff like that." She shrugged. "Can someone's powers make them... go crazy?" Sarah asked, nervously. She winced when she felt her skin ripple and tear, tiny little spines growing all over her forearms.

"It might be what happened to her," Noriko stated, watching the spines and looking back up at Sarah. "Or she might have gone crazy like baseline humans do. But if there's some place they can help mutants not go crazy, it's here." She was proof enough. Drug-free, and handling it.

"I... some kids told me you'd used pills, to keep control," Sarah said, her voice barely a whisper. "I... I tried, too. But... they didn't work. No matter how much I took. No matter how much I could get my hands on..." She rubbed her upper arm, but was stopped when her upper arms erupted in rows of longer spines. She winced briefly, but managed a weak smile to Noriko.

"They hurt every time they come out," she explained. "But I'm kinda used to it."

"You don't need pills," Noriko told her after a short silence. "You need practice. Training. They'll teach you all that, here." She had been a different case, with a maladaptive mutation. And neither the better pills MacTaggart had once supplied her with, nor the gauntlets, had taken away the need for her to learn control. They were two separate issues.

"Yeah... I'm glad you're clean, now, by the way," she said, the spines starting to recede. It probably didn't mean much. "Think you can be my coach?" Sarah asked, giving a small grin.

"I have no idea what your mutation's like," Noriko pointed out, clearly skeptical. "MacTaggart's gonna be your mentor, right? I'm sure she can suggest kids with similar mutations to help you out." Hers was clearly very different.

"I meant for like, practices," Sarah said. "And, maybe, y'know. Adapting. To how it's like out here," she said, looking to the side and the floor. "We can keep each other sharp, y'know? Keep each other straight."

"We can do Danger Room sessions whenever you like," Noriko let her know. "But I don't know where I'll be after I've graduated." Better let the kid know now, since graduation was coming up. "I'll still be around," she added, since she had no intention of cutting ties with the school. She simply had no idea how things would pan out.

"Yeah, no, I get it." Sarah just wished she were a few years older, herself. "Shame we couldn't be roommates, y'know? Dye each other's hair, paint our toenails, have pillow fights." She grinned. "But hey. I'll take whatever company I can get."

"I'll give you one out of three," Noriko remarked with a hint of a wry smile. Keeping her hair this blue all the time was a bitch.

"Do I get to pick?" Sarah asked in reply, giving her a tiny grin.

"You can pick your next hair color," Noriko shot back.

"I think I'll stick with pink. Wouldn't want to cramp your style by copying you. Though we should like, play with your hair, sometime. Maybe like, shave one side of it down. The asymmetrical thing is super popular right now," Sarah pointed out.

"I think I'm fine, thanks," Noriko wryly answered. Super popular had never been her thing, and she was just fine the way she was.

"Fair enough," Sarah chuckled. "C'mon, let's find something to kill some time until Danger Room stuff."

"It's only fifteen minutes to go," Noriko replied, "but if you want to quickly raid the kitchen before, I'm always game."

"One thing you'll learn about me? I'm pretty much always hungry," Sarah warned.

Noriko, energy projector and speedster that she was, only smirked at her. "You've got no idea who you're talking to."