Participants:
| Scene Title | With A Map |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | The day after finding out her sister's secret, Colette is making plans of an unrelated kind. |
| Date | October 14, 2009 |
Solstice Condominiums, Nicole's Condo
Rainy days are for staying in, for lounging around in bed, and for never waking up and doing what should be done. It's unusual, at that consideration, for Colette Nichols to be the first one up and around on a particularly gray and wet day. Seated in the living room of her sister's apartment, the young girl has bare legs crossed, an oversized button-down dress shirt hanging loosely off of her small frame, the cuffs of unbuttoned sleeves folded back to her forearms and collar flipped up. Dark hair is a mess, as usual, but in the pale gray light coming in through the ground floor windows, it would be easy to mistake the teen for her older sister. She's growing up fast.
In front of Colette, a New York City atlas has been laid out, one not updated for the calamity of the bomb, still showing streets and buildings that no longer exist in Manhattan. In one small hand, a steaming cup of coffee is carefully balanced as she makes a hatch mark on the map with a red colored pencil, a box of them scattered out like a little wooden rainbow on the table beside the atlas.
One soft sigh comes, blowing the steam from the top of her cup as she takes a sip, then leans forward and makes another hatch mark on the map, all of them around an area where she has stuck a push-pin into the paper.
The older woman of the residence pads into the living area in bare feet - and mostly bare just in general. She squints blearily at the windows, streaming in light. She gives her back to the window and heads to the kitchen. "Morning," she murmurs. She just doesn't function until after that first cup of coffee. She pours herself a cup from the pot her sister's brewed and just holds it in her hands, breathing in the scent for one long moment.
Nicole leans against the kitchen island, watching her sister mark up the old atlas for a time. "What are you up to there?" She asks casually.
A fleeting glimpse, then a double-take and a raised brow, and Colette is eyeing her sister's progress into the kitchen. "Oh a— um…" dark browsa crease together and she looks down to the map, folding it closed and shaking her head with a wrinkle of her nose. "It's nothing, I was ah— trying to…" she sucks at the whole lying thing still, "this guy I know like, says there's some good shortcuts thorugh Midtown to the financial district, an' I still do intern work at Bit by Bit, uh, s— so…" she offers a hesitant smile, taking a long slurp from her coffee cup before setting feet down onto the floor and coming up from the couch, walking quietly across the hardwoof floor on her toes towards the kitchen.
"S'kinda' cold in here…" The young girl admits with a quirk of her head to the side, "I mean— better now that there's electricity— but…" a side-long look is afforded to the windows in the kitchen, then green eyes lift up towards Nicole and Colette raises one brow. "What would the neighbor's think?" She deflects attention away from herself and to her sister, climbing up onto the stool at the island.
Nicole rolls her eyes. "I'm roasting," she tells her sister. "You think it's cold in here?" She takes a sip of her coffee and then reaches out to touch her sister's hand to gauge whether or not it is actually cold in here. The shock that she gives when their hands touch causes Nicole to recoil quickly with a frightened and apologetic look. "Oh, my God. I'm so sorry." The shock was no worse than when one has rubbed his or her feet over the carpet, but it's enough to worry the newly manifested electrokinetic. "I— Uhm…" She shakes her head quickly. "I'll go get dressed." She flees the room, rather than continue to apologize for the small shock.
Letting out a squeak from the zap, Colette jerks her hand back and startles up in her seat. The coffee in hand sloshes a little, splashing dark brown across the front of her shirt. A click of her tongue and a hiss of breath comes after, the Colette closes her eyes, heel of her palm thumped ot her forehead as she looks with one eye squinted shut at her sister. "It— it's fine." She says with a crooked smile, waggling her zapped finger in the air. The coffee is set down after one lash sip on the island, and Colette's skinny legs slide off of the stool, feet thumping across the tile floor to circle around behind her sister and follow her towards the bedroom.
"You don't have to keep hiding what you can do, you know…" Comes the lazy comment as Colette steps into the bedroom door, shoulder brushed up against the door casing, green eyes scanning the room for her older sibling. "S'cool that you stay all toasty when you're charged up." There's a wrinkle of her nose and a rise of her brows, "you're kinda' like an electric blanket!" Cheeks color a warm shade of red, and Colette begins to wander in to the bedroom slowly.
Nicole looks over her shoulder to her sister as she pulls on an olive green silk robe adorned with a dragon made of electric blue embroidery. "I'm not hiding it," she says quickly. "Not from you." What would be the point anyway? She brushes her fingers through her hair and ties the sash at her waist before turning around to face Colette fully. "It's not a good thing, though. What if I hurt somebody?" Though what she's really asking is, 'what if I hurt you?'
It's a good point, probably why Colette is so quick to try and dismiss it. "Then don't." Her nose wrinkles as she comes across the floor of the bedroom, moving up in that slinking progression of toe-steps to Nicole's side. "I used to be super afraid of what I'd do with mine too… I hid myself in my room for days, I— I used to get scared and I'd burn little holes in the wall, so I started putting my pillow in my window to make it darker in my room." Colette's teeth play with her lower lip anxiously. "I had to get help." Dark brows rise, and she's moving small hands around her sister's waist, wrapping around her back to draw her into a hug.
The squeeze is tight, and Colette gently leans back, arms still loosely hooped around Nicole's waist. "I had friends help me figure it out, teach me, show me everything I needed to know." There's a gentle smile, and Colette rises up onto her toes again, looking her sister narrowly in the eyes with a feigned stern expression. "I'll introduce you to my friend Gabriel." She thunks back down onto her heels gently.
"He's a super genius, like— Albert Einstein of abilities. He's so smart, that he learns abilities just by figuring out how you do 'em. I taught him how to do what I do…" she sways from side to side, smiling up to her sister before drawing her into a hug again. "I bet'cha he'll know exactly what to do to help you."
Nicole goes rigid in Colette's arms when she's hugged, momentarily petrified with fear of her own self. She only stares at first, listening to her sister talk. "I don't need his help," she insists. "I have Daniel." Nicole slips out of the hug and sits on the end of her bed, toying with the ever-present diamond bracelet around her wrist.
A faint grunt of anxiety comes from Colette as she watches her sister slink out of her arms. Teeth nibble worriedly at her lower lip, and Colette's green eyes settle on the older woman with a worried stare, unmoving from where she stands. "Sis…" it's a weary tone of pleading, "Daniel's really nice and all, but… have you even told him about this yet? Won't…" she looks down to her feet, words being carefully chosen before she looks back up, "won't he make you Register?"
The one word any person who's awakened to their ability comes to feel uneasy about. Colette finally moves, brows furrowed, eyes leveled on Nicole as she sits down on the bed next to her, hands folded in her lap, coffee still staining her shoulder and down one sleeve. "Sis, I— it's not safe to register. I just— with everything going on, I… " she leans in, just enough to look up through the ragged fringe of her bangs to Nicole. "I wanna' make sure you're safe."
"Daniel won't make me register if it isn't in his best interests," Nicole retorts honestly. "And I would think it's in his best interests for my ability to stay a secret." She frowns faintly. "Registration isn't a bad thing. I'll do it if it's what he thinks is best." Of course she's uneasy about it, and it does show, but she doesn't admit it verbally. "I have to tell him, 'Letty." She shakes her head, "I don't expect you to understand it. Maybe someday, it'll make sense."
A huffed breath comes at that and Colette's brows furrow together, fingers curling in the bunched up front of her shirt in her lap. "Hey— " green eyes stare accusingly up at her sister. "M'not twelve, okay? I'm— I'm gonna be eighteen at the end of the month, m'not a kid. I— I understand, I just…" she looks down at her hands, fingers folded together as she chews contemplatively on her lower lip gently. "I— I just worry about you, y'know?" Those green eyes look up again, one hand anxiously reaching out to rest on Nicole's shoulder— hesitantly at first, for fear of another little zap— one that doesn't come.
"I love you." The hand squeezes her shoulder, "I— I lost you and, I just— I don't want somethin' bad to happen, okay?" She turns, bringing one pale leg up onto the bed and folding it beneath herself. "You know all I ever want is for you t'be happy. An' you look all upset and stuff so— so— " her eyes wander down to her lap, "I just wanted to help."
"I know," Nicole says gently, wrapping one arm around Colette's shoulder and then resting her head against the younger girl's. "You're very sweet to worry about me, but I'm going to be fine. I just need a little bit to get used to all of this…"
Colette's eyes shut, her head resting against her sister's for a time in silence. But then, stirring, her focus reluctantly changes from the floor as eyes open, to Nicole. "I've gotta head back to Staten Island today…" her words are hushed, offered only with the reluctance of someone who doesn't want to be away from her sister's side. "But I'll be back," she adds with one hand raising to brush against Nicole's cheek. "I've just got something important I've gotta' do first."
Find someone with a map.