om_main | Abigail and Noriko

Noriko comes to Abby with a request, and things very quickly go FUBAR from there.

Noriko looked up from her history textbook when Abby walked back into their room, and decided that the end of that chapter could wait. She was sitting on her bed with her back to the headboard, and she closed her book on her notes.

"Hey." Not really a greeting; more like a hey-I-wanna-have-a-conversation.

"Hey," Abigail echoed, both eyebrows lifting curiously. She still moved to her desk to set her things down before turning to face her roommate fully. "Need something?"

"Want something," Noriko replied, setting her book aside and meeting Abby's curious look. "Philip said I could learn from you." And obviously, she trusted him, but she didn't think she had to spell out that much.

"That's nicely unspecific," Abigail said, and wandered over to drop heavily onto the edge of her bed. "Learn what, exactly?"

Philip did have a habit of being nicely unspecific, but Noriko had managed to get one thing out of him. "At least combat techniques better suited to my body type."

"In other words, 'not male'?" Abigail snorted. "So nice of him to notice that I am, in fact, a girl. You," she paused to give Norkio a quick smirk, "presumably he knows that pretty well about."

Noriko raised her eyebrows, then pointed out, "Not all guys have his body type." She exhaled, and looked vaguely amused as she echoed, "Presumably?"

"I'm not gonna speculate on what you two get up to," Abigail said with a sharp shake of her head, though she was still looking more than a little amused. "I can only assume it involves spreadsheets and debriefing sessions."

"I probably shouldn't make a quip about getting bruises out of it," Noriko wryly remarked. Oops. Too late. She wasn't all that surprised that Abigail would have heard; enough people had noticed, by now, or Philip might even have told her. Noriko just hoped it wasn't a big thing in the school's rumor mill, for new kids to chat about. She liked her privacy. "So, what do you say? I could use more training." You could always use more training, the way she saw it, but she was still a relative newcomer to this.

Abigail shrugged slightly and put her arms back on the bed to brace herself against them. "Depends. What do you want it for?"

"Help people?" Noriko answered. If her voice went up on the end of that answer, it was mostly because of how clichéd it sounded. "I'm joining Scott's team, when I turn 18."

"And that," Abigail said, just barely managing to restrain herself from rolling her eyes, "is so unspecific it's meaningless. Try again."

Noriko's gaze hardened, and she was quiet for a couple seconds. "You want a specific answer, ask me a specific question," she finally retorted, rather than the simple 'no' that had been on the tip of her tongue.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure I did that when I said 'what do you want it for'?"

"If you're looking for a five-year plan, think again," Noriko pointed out, trying hard not to let Abigail's general attitude get to her. "None of us can pretend to know where we'll be in a year's time."

Abigail did roll her eyes that time, the gesture expansive. "Wow, it's like a masterclass on missing the the point," she said, staring up at the ceiling like she was looking for patience. "I'm not asking for your schedule. You want me to teach you something very specific, and I want to know why. 'Helping people' is a pat phrase, it means nothing. You can do that eighteen thousand ways, none of which involve punching them."

"What about 'I'll be joining Scott's team' isn't specific enough, exactly?" Noriko asked, hackles raised all the way now. "Forget it." Why she'd thought she could learn anything from someone who always looked down on everyone and everything, she had no freaking idea. Well, actually, she did, and his name was Philip Coulson. She grabbed her book again, determined to get back to her homework.

"Uh, maybe the fact that I have no idea what Scott's team is or why I should care?" Abigail shot her a look as Noriko turned away. Impressive how sulky someone could get when they were asking for a favor.

Noriko was tempted to actually facegauntlet at that. Instead, she turned a very unimpressed look on Abby. "And you couldn't lead with that." No, trying to make someone feel like dumb shit was way easier than admitting you didn't know something, apparently.

"Why would you assume I'd know? Or that it would be something I should know?"

"Because it's a freakin' high school," Noriko replied, with raised eyebrows. "You can't keep a rumor down around here to save your life, and kids have been talking about the teams. His - and JVX." She had to have mentioned JVX to her roommate before now, although she wouldn't be surprised if she'd never paused to check that she knew what it was. She'd been here long enough to know.

"Also assuming I give a shit about rumors," Abigail said with an unconcerned shrug. So she probably could have been paying slightly more attention, but whatever. Something to keep in mind. "So assume I know nothing about whatever these teams are for the sake of argument. Try explaining."

Noriko took in a slow breath, resisted the urge to sigh, and started explaining. "Last year, Scott decided to put together a team of mutants, a lot like Alpha Flight, but without the governmental supervision. Intervention, search and rescue, whatever's needed. He's keeping it for kids over eighteen for legal reasons. They've been training for a few months now. We put together JVX so kids under eighteen could step up their training in ways the squads don't allow." She couldn't believe Philip hadn't said anything to her about the teams either.

"Okay..." Abigail said slowly, rolling the idea around in her head. So, a bunch of kids desperate to play superhero. Terrific. "And why do you want to join? Don't give me the Miss America speech, I want the actual reason."

"Well, tough luck," Noriko replied evenly. Because she wasn't getting it, in so far as 'it' even existed.

"Hey, it's your favor," Abigail said with a snort. "And you'll excuse me for not feeling a need to put out the effort if you're just going to be dicking around so you can look super cool at the lunch table."

"Like I said before - forget it," Noriko repeated herself. She'd dropped that idea pretty damn early in the conversation, and just answered Abby's questions because she really ought to know about the teams.

"Fine by me. But let's get something straight." Abigail straightened herself up to look at her, suddenly sharp. "I don't owe you shit. Phil sending you to me means he sees something I'm sure as hell not getting, maybe it's just that you have enough brains to realize when you're in over your head, I don't know. But I don't owe him shit either. And you acting like a spoiled child because I don't immediately drop everything to do something you want doesn't speak well to your ability to do what someone else tells you. Which would be what training is.

"So good luck with your teams," she said with heavy, unimpressed emphasis on the last word, and got right back to her feet. "Lets hope at least one of you knows what the hell they're doing."

Noriko listened to her with just about the same unimpressed look she'd been sporting before that little speech. She'd never been called entitled before, and it almost amused her. "Yeah. Totally what just happened," she very wryly confirmed - even by her standards.

Whatever Abby's thing actually was, Noriko really hoped she was never put in charge of anyone - or she'd feel really sorry for them.