2014.12.21 - Plopp!

Down in Chelsea in NY, in a park close to the waterfront, sits Nicky. On her lap she has her flute, in front of her she has opened the box of it. A moment she used a fat lipstick upon her lips to keep them from ripping open, then she lifted it to test it's tuning. A slight bit she pulled it apart, then she closed her eyes to start an easy play, a German song called Morgen kommt der Weihnachtsmann. A Christmas carol.

Kitty Pryde is walking down the street, bundled up in coat and scarf against the New York winter. She pauses when she hears the flutist on the street corner, trying to place the music.

The Flute is not too loud, but it is not too hard to spot that it comes from the small park, not much more than a tiny spot of green with a pathway and three benches along it, cutting through the house block as a shortcut. Nicky doesn't need the sheets for this one song, but it is nothing fancy. Starters play it on recorder, and she had played it like the last 7 Christmas parties with family. When she had had family still, because they dropped her. For being not what they called a pure human. A Gene-freak. At least she had been able to gather some things and was allowed to leave if she would never return... And now she was sitting in this park, playing a kids Christmas song to warm the flute so she could play something more elaborate...

Kitty Pryde wanders closer, seeking out the player, curious about the melody.

Kitty Pryde might wander a bit closer than most would to a malnourished downcast transient...

Nicky doesn't seem to notice Kitty really as she lowers the flute, makes sure her lower lip is well covered in fat before she gets out a music sheet to play the next song, one which was actually harder to play. It was Don't they know it's Christmas, the BandAid song.

Kitty Pryde glances around, curious if the girl is putting out a hat or just playing for the sound.

Nicky had put out the box of the flute, her fingers dancing over the vents of the flute. The cold distorted the sound a bad and so did the slight wind, but she managed to pull through. It was not bad at least.

Kitty Pryde checks her wallet, but finds that she spent all her cash-- she only has about fifty cents. Nicky sees the two coins flash as they fall into her flute case-- well. Hardly the lucrative start she might hope for, but.. and then she feels a scarf settling around her shoulders. "Hey-- if you want it." the brown haired young woman smiles at her. "..Kind of cold this time of year to be playing without one."

Nicky nodded a tad to the girl as the small change ended in her box. Her very first self earned money in all her life. But then she had to stop playing, as Kitty put the scarf upon her, pressing down her hands with the flute in the way. Looking a bit startled she lowered it entirely. "uh... thanks, I mean... yes, it is cold but I have played out at 0 degrees... and we are still far above that." It was a bit of a nervous smile as she slowly stood up, a list dropping from her pocket. One written with pen and decorated with stickers. Stars, small, cute animals and such. Some of the items also had hero-stickers next to them. Like the lines 16 and 17 featuring the kryptonian cousins, Supergirl in the upper of the two. Others had cute animal faces, like the second line with a fox and the fifth a raccoon. And that were just a few of them...

Kitty Pryde grins, "Couldn't hurt though. I figured--oh," she exclaims, seeing the list. She goes to catch it before the breeze can blow it away. "Is this yours?" she wonders-- she doesn't mean to pry, but the colorful stickers do catch her eye.

Nicky smiled some as she slowly slung the scarf around her neck, then she blushed as Kitty picked up the list. Just names of Heroes, none of them more than 20, maybe 25 in two cases. And the top was Axiom, then Fox... However it had an evident lack of mutants on the list except for Jubilee on 11 and Prodigy on 21. "Uhm... yes... Some kind of fan list."

Kitty Pryde blinks, but then grins. "You've got some good taste." she says, tapping one or two of the entries." she offers back the list.

Nicky took back the list with a slight red on her cheeks. "Just those I want to meet... I mean.. in the order I want to meet them. I did meet number 14 though..." Scarlet Spider.

Kitty Pryde wonders a bit teasingly, "No Iceman..? I hear he's a pretty fun guy."

Nicky smirks a tad "Iceman... On the news he looks like a jerk and he is a ge..." She had almost said gene freak. great. At least she had cut herself short "I mean, he is not like those others. Take Rocket, he is CUTE. And Peej and Supergirl, they are so sisters... and the top 4..." Stopping she chuckles, remembering some fan fiction she had read about them. "They are soooo cute."

Kitty Pryde glances at those top four again, lips quirking in interest-- Axiom and Fox and... though wait, what had she been about to say? Not that bigotry is new to Kitty, but.. Kitty Pryde opts for saying instead, "I've met him before-- he likes to talk big, but he's actually a sweetie."

"One time meeting I guess? They never come back they say... I mean that is the rumor mill... That they never take a look back at what they leave behind." Nicky answered before realizing that neither of them said their name at all... "Uhm, Nicky by the way."

The other girl looks a little puzzled at the comment, but sticks out her hand readily, smiling at the introduction, "People call me Kitty." she shakes Nicky's hand firmly, and wonders, "You mean costumed folk..? Having their fights and moving right along, sort of thing?"

"Yea. Trashing the cars and then leaving without telling which insurance company covers them. They say NY pays most of its income onto those repairs..." Nicky took the hand, smiling a tad. "Or was it state? Well, Why should I add Iceman anyway? He is waaay to old. But did you notice there were several Robins in the last years? They got shorter as it seems. Or that Batgirl has changed her costume so drastically that it must be an other girl under it? The first was a redhead, then there was a totally black one and now it's black and yellow again..."

Kitty Pryde chuckles. "The bat family changes like a kaleidoscope.. I can't keep track." she adds with a bit of challenge, "And whaddaya mean too old? Iceman's only in his twenties." she pauses, but then adds, "Kinda seemed like maybe you had something else against him?"

"The oldest on that list is Nightwing, and he might just be adult or something. What should I hold against him anyway?" Nicky wasn't going to tell that she was just a mutie public. You know, Muties are hate targets... at least she didn't had green skin or something... "At least he has not a silly power like.... talking to fish."

"Ha, well, maybe that could be useful in the right circumstances.. but Iceman -is- pretty handy. Goes to show how mutants can do a lot of good given the chance." she says this offhandedly, but she's been around enough uncomfortable kids over the years to wonder about the way Nicky's behaving..maybe she can give her an encouraging word to go with the scarf.

"You mean in contrast to Magneto? Yea, a jerk with attitude who can make it snow..." Ok, was Nicky better? A Fangirl which can turn a plushie... "Well, at least he he has a spot in the 20+ list if I ever make one. I sooo have to think about striking that Batgirl in black from the list. She doesn't behave all heroic at all lately."

Kitty Pryde pffs. "Aw, now that's just harsh. And there's lots of active mutants besides Magneto, y'know." she wonders, "Soooo just teen idles on your list?" she winks a bit. She can understand the impulse to fangirl, certainly.. it kind of got derailed when she actually ended up living with the X-men, but for the heros she didn't see every day and fight over mundane stuff with, she still had some of that.

"Yep. Top is Axiom. Obvious, don't you think? Every day a new costume! Does he have a whole design squad?! Such a fashion guy!" A moment Nicky smiled, then looked at Kitty longer "Or you have another number one Teen hero? Don't temm me it's Fox! He is cuuuuute too, but damned, Axiom tops him by half a notch... Handsome, gentle face, fashion sense..."

Kitty Pryde smiles ruefully, remembering her own early days when she was always modifying her costume.. ah, nostalgia. "He's a pretty good choice-- and doesn't what he wear get affected by who he uses his powers on? He could probably get infinite costume variations just with that."

"I have actually no idea what his powerset is beside him having all those powers he needs at any given moment. Such a swiss army tool!" Nicky chuckles a bit "It seems to be like he has some power of the day and a matching costume! Isn't that awesome!?"

Actually that is a tough question as it seemed, as Nicky pondered "How about... uhm... Some shapeshift thing. Like Vixen or Beast Boy." Well, the first was not a teen anymore and the other had a spot on the list, but the comment 'seriously green?' behind him. "And you?"

Kitty Pryde laughs, "I dunno. Thing is, I'm a mutant," she says, not loud, but not ashamed either. "I feel like it'd be greedy to start asking for more."

Kitty Pryde hmms, "That's not it, exactly. It's more I like what I've got already, I guess."

Half a moment Nicky did nothing. No breath, no blink, no movement. Then a tan smoke cloud appeared out of nowhere around Nicky, accompanied by a PLOPP sound and as it vanished as quickly as it had appeared, a stuffed animal in the shape of a fennec fox dropped to the floor, being about a foot long and maybe two lbs in weight. Once it rebounded from the icy ground, then ended in a sitting and frozen position.

Kitty Pryde ..was not ruling out such a reveal, with how nervous and vaguely ashamed the girl had been acting-- but whatever she might have beem expecting, it wasn't -that-. She has her turn to stare blankly a moment, then drops to her knees in front of the doll, reaching out a hand uncertainly. "H-hey! Are you alright? Nicky??" she asks. She looks around too-- perhaps she frightened the girl and she somehow transposed herself with a doll that was somewhere near by so she could run, and Kitty would feel awful if the girl fled and left her flute behind.

Actually the flute was nowhere to be seen, neither the scarf that had been put around her neck, but the flute case with the few coins in it was still there. And that anatomically correct plushie with the huge ears looking at Kitty in an almost frightened way. People around seemed luckily not to have stopped to look before - or stopped when the two had gone into a discussion.

Kitty Pryde keeps looking around, though even if Nicky did run, Kitty's glad she still has her things. But geez.. "Smooth, Pryde. Was to freak out some poor kid." she mutters under her breath, and idly reaches out to pet the scared looking doll. "Even -you- look scared of me." she jokes to it.

As the hand touches the doll it is still warm to the touch, but it cools in the exposure of the weather. And then the plushie moves! First the eyes blink - even as they are solid plastic - and the face slowly returns to some more plush-like smile.

Kitty Pryde is still scritching the plush when it blinks. Wait, was her initial thought the right one after all..? "..Nicky?" she wonders quietly.

No sound came from the Plushie - it was a stuffed animal through and through after all. But the head tilted a tad.

Kitty's brain caught up with events, realizing whatever is going on, if this is Nicky they probably shouldn't risk her transforming again in the middle of the park if Nicky isn't ready for that sort of thing. "..Hey, can I pick you up? Get somewhere out of the way for you to change back?" she wonders, for now going with her theory that this blinking doll -is- in fact the energetic fan girl.

The head of the plushie turns to the box very very slowly, blinking once. To the people in the park Kitty sure might look mad, talking to a stuffed animal.

Kitty Pryde nods. "I can get that.. come on, let's get off the green and we can talk more, huh?" she closes up the flute box and picks it up, then carefully scoops up the plush with her other hand. Any bystanders wondering what she was doing before now only see a young woman with a doll and a flute case walking out of the park. Kitty looks around for somewhere likely.. there's an apartment complex nearby with one of those communal lounges. Kitty doesn't have a pass card, but after a quick glance around to make sure no one is looking she just walks right through the closed glass doors, plushie and all. There's a side room with sofas and a TV that's out of the way, so she heads in there. The case goes on the coffee table, and deposits the doll on one chair, plopping down in another with a look of concern. "Okay, so first question, can you change back..? You're not stuck like that, right?"

Instead of an answer there is another almost unnoticeable PLOPP sound and tan cloud as Kitty is moving towards the chair she chose. Just this time it is in reverse, the Plushie instantly got replaced by the girl. Just she is freezing, as the plushie had been pretty cold the moment, the flute still in her hand. Over the clappering teeth she peers at Kitty, as if the question was self explaining. "I hate when that happens..."

A breath of relief wooshes out of Kitty, and she reaches over to rub Nicky's arms, seeing her shiver. "Hey, there you are! When that happens..? Like..when you get startled or upset, sort of thing?" Kitty remembers that.. she had episodes like that too until she got used to her powers.

The eyebrows stay narrowed upon Kitty as Nicky pulls back the arm a tad. "It happens when... I'm shocked or surprised or such. It's not... pleasant..." she answered, before she leaned back a bit, pushing away the hand petting her arm. "Can you stop petting me like a plushie? I'm not one... at the moment."

Kitty Pryde backs off, though she chuckles. "I know, I was trying to rub some heat back into your arms, wasn't sure how much heat you lost to that. So..you too, huh..?" it could be magic or who knows what-- but it happening when she's surprised or startled, and Nicky looking like a runaway teen...well. It raises some mutant flags, to say the least.

"Too what?" Nicky asked, knowing well that Mutant flags were raised, but she had never met a mutant before. At least not knowingly one. Her eyes were warily, and even if it was 21st December, she was not really in Christmas mood.

Wary though Nicky is, Kitty simply replies, "A mutant, like me." and after she whisked them in here, there's little reason to suppose she isn't telling the truth.

"Surem, you say you are a mutant. But why you think I am?" Nicky carefully inquired, her fingers slowly taking the flute apart, letting the tubes rest in her lap.

This gets a little chuckle from Kitty.. "Because I've been there. You're about the right age.. out on your own like it's new to you, having powers that you don't know what to do with, that trigger when you're emotional.." and she adds with a smile, "Plus, you haven't exactly told me you're anything else, yet."

"I couldn't prove yu otherwise... but..." A long sigh comes from Nicky as she pauses "Look, It is somewhat embaressing... I become a stuffed animal and all..."

Kitty Pryde shrugs, still smiling. "Hey, when I used to have my powers flare up, I used to fall through the floor or float through the ceiling..we've all been there."

"A Stuffed Animal! Of all things it's..." Nicky answered, clearly embaressed what her mutation is. "I can't become a hero with that, not even a Villain, unless I become m a pretty creepy one!"

Kitty Pryde ..ums. "You don't..-have- to do either, you know. What do you -want- to do, Nicky?" she asks, perched crosslegged on her chair.

Another sigh comes from Nicky. "I have no idea... " she answers.

Kitty grins. "..Well..for starters, wanna meet some superheros?"

"Some of the list?" Nicky asks, a bit going back to her fangirl attitude. "You don't happen to be one of them, are you? Wait, don't tell. That would be dangerous."

Kitty Pryde laughs, "Because I gave you my name, you mean? And I'd have to check your list again to be sure..I'm afraid I never met Axiom or Fox in person, though."

"What a pitty... How about... Hulkling and Wiccan? Or the cuute fuzzy furry Rocket Raccoon? Or Speed? Or Superman's cousins? Or any of the Robins or Batgirls? Or the girl Speedy?

Kitty Pryde hmmMMms, crossing her arms where she sits. "I've met Wiccan.. but I haven't seen him around in awhile.

Again Nicky sighs as she gets out the list again, handing it to Kitty "Any others of the list?"

Kitty Pryde scans the list again, thoughtful. "Hmm..truth is, I've been out of town for awhile, so a lot of the younger crew I haven't got to meet up with, much." she shrugs though, unconcerned. "But hey, all the more reason to catch up on that!"