2015.02.05 - Re-Emerging

The last few days Westchester has been blasted with snow and cold temperatures. Today, while it's still /quite/ snowy, the temperatures are slowly beginning to rise out of the single digits, and into the double digits. While it may still be holding steady at freezing point, it at least no longer feels like an arctic blast is surrounding the area. Because of this 'warm' spell, people are beginning to appear outside again, with Dani being one of them.

While her presence around the school hasn't been a visible one (due to other projects that have taken her attention) lately, she's begun to be seen more and more around Xavier's school. Today is no different, as movement can be seen around the stables in the rear of Xavier's grounds. She's currently shoveling snow from around the entrance of the stable, obviously clearing a path. She's wearing her fringed brown leather coat, a knitted hat, heavy gloves and boots, over her normal every day clothes. Small clouds of steam can be seen rising around her, as she puffs from the heavy work. "All right, Brightwind. I've cleared most of a path around the barn, if you want to come out and stretch your wings." And as she speaks, she'll pause in her shoveling, waiting for the winged white stallion to come outside. A couple of hoofbeats later and the winged pegasus appears, shaking his head as the colder air hits him. As to her words, he does just as she says.

He spreads his wings as far as they can go and then gives himself a good overall shake. It wouldn't surprise Dani if he next dropped to the ground and started rolling in the snow. Chuckling she simply shakes her head, before saying, "Silly horse."

The slightly warmer weather is enough to draw out another young lady. This one is wearing a warm winter coat which is purple in color. She is also wearing a pair of mittens featuring a pastel pink pony with a poofy mane and blue eyes. Idly she wonders around the area. The last time she was out behind the school she was having a snowball battle. This time she just seems to be trying to slow things down. Even her steps are really slow. She is taking in all the sights she can. When she comes up on the stables, she climbs up on a fence and watches as the winged horse comes out of the stable. This of course causes her to double take but hey, the past few weeks have been anything but normal, So Sahira is content to let that slide, "Wow, I've never seen a real pegasus before." She states as she continues to watch.

While others might be surprised when Sahira speaks up, Dani isn't. Mostly thanks to Brightwind, as the winged horse alerts Dani to someone approaching their position. By the time Sahira has climbed upon the fence and spoken, Dani is already in the process of turning around to see who's there. A friendly enough wave will be offered to the other girl, as Dani says, "I hadn't either, until I chanced upon Brightwind." An affectionate slap will be given to the horses neck, before Dani begins to shovel a path towards Sahira.

Brightwind trots towards the girl as well, though after a moment he then jumps ahead and trots in front of Dani, to help break through the layers of snow that sits upon the ground. Once close enough to Sahira, Dani will lean the shovel against an open space upon the fence post, before she leans backward to stretch out her back. "I can definitely say tomorrow I will feel the burn from all of this shoveling." Brightwind makes an amused little chuff of a sound and then with a dip of his head, he's off kicking and galloping through the snow. He's been cooped up far too long thanks to those bitter cold days and nights, now he runs off that excess of built-up energy.

Smiling, Dani shakes her head again at Brightwind's antics, "I'm Dani, by the way. You are?" She asks curiously, as she looks towards Sahira now.

"Brightwind? He is gorgeous. I never got to do the whole horseback riding thing. I've always been the girl with the car though!" She laughs a little. "Sahira Dash, From Columbus, Ohio. I was brought here after I used Ms. Munroe's powers to stop some jerk from beating on his girlfriend." She blushes just a little.

Sahira hops down off the railing so she is on the ground with Dani. "A pleasure to meet you Dani. I just needed to take a walk and slow down a little. A lot has been happening lately but gods it helps just to let everything slow down ya know?" With the crazy speed issues she's been having, slowing down is quite possibly the best thing she could do. She gives a warm smile. "Do you need more of this shoveled? I can help..." She pulls a small pillow case from her pocket and unzips her coat which shows her typical attire that shows off her midriff.

And while Brightwind isn't your typical 'horse', as it were, he sure seems to act like it as he stirs up snow devils. Eventually though he'll just drop and roll around in the snow, as well, much like how horses roll in the dust. Once he's through with his little snow roll, he immediately jumps to his feet and vigorously shakes himself with a self-satisfied snort. Now he begins to walk around more casually occasionally nosing the snow around out of curiosity.

"Nice to meet you, Sahira." Dani begins, though she pauses when Sahira speaks of using Storm's powers. "You used her powers?" She asks, head tilting slightly with her own curiosity, "What's your power set? Something of a copycat of other people's powersets?" As for the offer of help with the shoveling, Dani shrugs, "Sure, I'd appreciate the help. Two people shoveling will make it go by much quicker." Straightening from her own slight slouch against the fence, Dani will reach for that shovel of hers, only pausing when Sahira unzips her coat. "I'm going to hazard a guess and say you don't feel the cold as extremely as us mere mortals?" The last bit is said as a joke, as her mouth quirks upward with humor.

"Something like that." Sahira gives a little smile and pulls the pillow case close and hugs it tight. *FLASH!* White light goes off and than fades rather quickly. The normal looking Sahira is suddenly looking not so normal. In fact, she looks very much like liquid metal much like Cessily Kincade. "I am a power mimic. I have to come in contact with a person's DNA and embrace it. The result is me taking on their powers for a while. Cessily gave me permission to copy her anytime I want and even gave me her pillow case which has her DNA on it." She giggles. "Sometimes I wish I didn't feel cold though!"

With that, Sahira begins focusing on her form. She removes her mittens and her silvery hands stretch and reform into what looks almost like a snow plow. "So what all needs cleared here? Want me to start at one end and meet you half way?" She asks curiously. "Oh yeah, using this powerset I actually don't feel the cold!" Sahira laughs a little.

The flash of light causes Dani to cover her eyes briefly. When her vision clears she'll give Sahira a once over, before she nods, "I think if we clear the majority of the snow away from the barn, we'll be fine. I just want to make sure Brightwind has enough room to get in and out, whether coming in from the air, or ground."

As for her powerset, Dani makes a mental note of it and nods, "So, if you didn't want to 'embrace' someone's powers, you wouldn't?" She asks curiously, as she starts to hoof it towards the barn, intending to start there and meeting Sahira near the halfway point. "Meaning, it's not an involuntary thing you can't control?"

As for the winged horse in question, he's still slowly walking around the enclosure, having fun here and there with the snow piles that he can kick, or barrel into.

Sahira gets started using herself as a plow, clearing snow as best she can. "Pretty much. I have to be careful to consciously make the decision not to copy someone's powers when embracing them. If I am not paying attention I will copy someone's powers and this has lead me to a rather messed up situation, very recently in fact." She would be blushing but at the moment that is impossible.

She continues pushing the snow. Her speed picks up a bit but not a whole lot. "Okay good." She states quietly to herself before continuing the conversation. "I can copy powers unwillingly if I don't know it's coming. For instance, I had a bit to drink a week or so ago. I was just a bit buzzed and was chatting with the Professor. Cessily noticed how I was acting and... well she put me in time out." She laughs a little. "She came up behind me and hugged me. The result was me copying her powers. She can't get drunk. So by forcing me to copy her, it cleared me up. Unfortunately I wound up in a puddle and had a wardrobe malfunction."

Unlike Sahira, Dani's snow plowing is going much slower. She's putting in a lot of elbow grease to go as quick as Sahira, but it's clear she won't be as quick with clearing the snow as the now metallic young woman is. At Sahira's story, Dani will take a break from the shoveling, as she listens to the other woman speak. At the end of the story, Dani will frown thoughtfully for a moment. "Well, I'm going to have to side with Cessily on this one. With your power set you have to be careful of alcohol. If you can't hold your liquor well, you probably shouldn't be drinking. Like you said, it'd be too easy to accidentally absorb someone's power unintentionally."

Dani's voice has taken on that what lessons have we learned tone that teacher's often get with wayward students, or students that have made a mistake that they feel they need to learn from. "Just imagine if you had absorbed someone's powers that you couldn't immediately control. That's dangerous. And not just for you, but everyone." There's also a note of something in her voice when Dani says that last bit. Perhaps understanding? She has accidentally let loose with her own powers when she hadn't intended to, mostly from lack of contol in the beginning.

As for Dani's tone, Brightwind pauses in his prancing and turns his head towards the young woman, obviously listening to the conversation.

Sahira stops dead in her tracks. "I've learned that lesson the hard way. It's partially why I was drinking in the first place." She starts plowing again. just moving the snow as quickly as possible now which is much faster than should be possible.

"Don't bother trying to keep up. Something really messed up happened. A mishap. I copied someone's powers by accident and it's having some residual effects. I have never had aftermath when I copied powers." She shakes her head. "I copied Nate Grey once. That was... Well I can't think about it without my head hurting." She gives Dani a smile and than begins plowing the snow some more.

Dani will size the other woman up again, before she nods. "I think you'll find quite a few of us here have had similar experiences." Obviously meaning learning their lessons the hard way. "So, you're in good company." She says with a trace of humor, even as she once again pauses in her shoveling. Yes, she's watching how fast the other young woman is going.

Idly, Dani will flip a braid over her shoulder as she considers the last bit that Sahira said. "Hm. Have you told anyone here that you're having a residual side effect from this previous powerset? Was there anything different with that powerset you absorbed, versus the others?"

When it's clear, at least to Brightwind, that the heavy talk has passed, he's once more meandering through the snow. He is, however, careful not to kick any snow on the cleared areas. Dani has impressed upon him that she would rather /not/ re-shovel the area.

Sahira nods as she quickly begins finishing up. Looking at Dani she gives a little smile. "I went to a nurse on duty the other day and they did a few scans. According to that I am completely normal. Nothing wrong at all. So I've been putting my own knowledge to use and have been talking with others. A few people know I have been having some issues. Among them are talking at hyper speed, I am able to move faster, oh and I've been eating a lot more. When confering with the person I copied, I discovered a few things that could explain the reasoning. Thankfully I don't think I am going to be moving as fast as that guy can without copying his powers again!" She laughs.

Than back to work She quickly begins pushing the snow back as fast as she can which is about twice as fast a normal human can move. "Sorry, racing the clock!" About time things are cleared up, the copy fades and Sahira returns to her normal appearance.

When Sahira finishes all of the plowing, Dani chuckles, "Thanks for the help. It'd have taken me way longer if I had to finish shoveling all by myself." She'll turn an amused look towards Brightwind, "Even with Brightwind over there kicking all the snow about."

Brightwind offers a snort of humor, even as he trots back towards Dani. His give her arm an affectionate nuzzle, even as he swings his head towards Sahira. Clearly, he's much more intelligent than any other horse out there.

When Sahira reverts to her normal looking self, Dani can't help but ask, "Racing the clock? I take it you have a time limit on how long you hold the powers?" As she speaks, Dani will heft the shovel up, intending to put it away back in the barn most likely. "And it's good you had someone do a scan or two, to see what's going on. If you like, I can take a look at them, as well? I'm not a medical doctor or anything, but I've been around powers most of my life - maybe I can see something they haven't?" Offers Dani, even as she gives Brightwind's chin an affectionate scratch.

Sahira smiles a little, zips her coat up and puts her mittens back on. "Yes. I can hold a powerset for about thirty minutes. I can hold it a bit longer if I push but that really hurts and causes other issues for a bit." She giggles a little bit. It is clear though she is keeping her distance from Brightwind. She doesn't exactly know how to act around horses. "Anyhoo, would you like some hot cocoa? I have to take in a lot more calories these days. Plus I am sorta skipping a class at the moment!" She giggles a little.

"Cocoa sounds good." Dani says with a smile and with a grin towards Brightwind, she adds, "In you go, boy. I'll come back in a bit and refresh your hay and water soon, okay?" Brightwind offers a sigh that sounds very human and one that almost gives the impression of him saying 'oh-kay if I have to'. Lipping Dani's arm playfully, he'll dutifully trot back into the barn. Dani herself will walk in with Brightwind, likely to hang the shovel back up, before she reappears.

"Well, if you need /that/ many calories then let me make it. I'm a pro at getting every single marshmallow in the cup that I can." A grin quirks Dani's lips upward, before she says in a mock threatening way, "And you /really/ shouldn't tell me you're skipping class. I am /faculty/ after all. I could send you to the principal's office." It's quite obvious that she's joking, as Dani carefully makes her way up the path she had previously cleared from Mansion to stables, intending to make that cocoa so some feeling comes back to her fingertips.

Sahira gives a little laugh, "You'd have to catch me!" She giggles. "I'm kidding. I just needed a little break from self defense classes with Logan. While being put onto a mat several times over is fun, I just needed to slow my mind down a bit. its another side effect of the whole speed issue. My mind goes a lot faster especially when I am excited which leads to me talking really fast. I didn't want to rattle off and have no one understand what I was saying." She idly walks to the cafeteria for some cocoa!

There's a faint groan from Dani at the mention of Logan's self defense classes. Unconsciously she'll idly rub her arm, as if remembering an old pain, "I wish I could say I miss those, but I still subject myself to his self defense class. He keeps you sharp, that's for certain."

It's not a terribly long trek back to the kitchen and once in the smaller kitchen, Dani will go about finding the cocoa mix, marshmellows and cups for the two of them. "And I know he seems like a fearless taskmaster, but I can tell you some of his lessons have saved my butt in the past. It may seem like some of his lessons are overkill, but it's worth it in the long run."

As the two continue to chit-chat, Dani will go about making her hot cocoa mashmellow explosion, serving each of them a cup, once the cocoa has been made.

Finished