afraid_of_marshmallows | Midnight Manor Boarding House All-Purpose Room, Tuesday Afternoon

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Midnight Manor Boarding House All-Purpose Room, Tuesday Afternoon

At the Halloween party, Arden had asked Remy if he would be willing to help her learn a bit more about her powers. And had then spent the next week or so ducking and hiding from him about it because she'd gotten cold feet (Frigid feet. Zero degrees Kelvin feet.) about it the same kind she'd gotten when she and Cal had worked on meditating up on the roof before. Only, sorry Remy, she didn't think she'd be able to press her hand against your chest to have help calming down.

But, eventually, she'd managed to shove the fear down enough (or, okay, shame herself into it enough, same basic difference) to reach out to Remy and set a definitive date for when they were going to practice. And here she was, complete with the promised barbeque that was was holding in a white-knuckled grip. But it was okay. She was gonna be cool. Chilly. Totally unfazed.

Confident.

...Eventually?

[For the gentleman so named, but available to anyone else in Midnight if they want to check out what's happening! That Remy and Arden are practicing is fine, but details about powers, etc is NFB, please!]

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"Bonjour, petite," Remy said as he sauntered in. "Ooo, that smells like heaven. More workouts should come with snacks."

"Bonjour monsieur," Arden said, holding the bag out for him. "I also added some pastries. We were in Paris today for class, and I might have bankrupted myself buying food to bring home."

Save her from herself, Remy, and eat some of the pastries.

Remy laughed. "Don't worry, petite. We'll work up plenty of appetite today. And since they weren't part of the deal, I'm happy to pay you back for the pastries!"

"They're offered freely, as a gift with no strings nor intentions for recompense," Arden said firmly.

She didn't require an even trade for things, simply things to be stated clearly and loudly that there were no expectations of payment hanging over them.

"So, um...what are we doing today, anyway?"

“Well, back at Xavier’s we had a room a lot like this. We’d program in what we like and be able to practice with our powers safely.” Or as safe as hyped up super types ever got. “I was thinking we could feed Midnight a scenario, and then see just what it is you can do.”

"Okay..." Arden said, looking both resolute and slightly ill-at-ease; the kid who swears she wants to go on the roller coaster even though she's pretty sure she's going to die going into that big drop. "I, ah, get really sleepy when I use my powers a lot, just so you know. And sometimes I just fall over. So I guess, uh, don't be surprised if that happens? It just...happens."

Remy pursed his lips and nodded. “Happens to the best of us.”

He’d passed out fighting New Sun, for instance.

“Midnight’ll catch you if you fall. And maybe it’ll happen less if you practice more. If not — we’ll learn where your line is, so you don’t have to fall over.”

Oh right. Practicing meant doing this more than just once. Her look of nervousness grew. "Um. Okay. Cool."

Excellent job staying chilly, Arden. Doing just great there, baby girl.

"So, what's the scenario...?"

“I figured we’d work that out together,” Remy said. “I could just throw some sentinels at you with a setting of ‘easy’, but it’d be more fun if you’d rather beat up, say, aliens or zombies or . . . frustrating public figures maybe.”

~~Nuance would like that very much~~

"Oh, my powers aren't really good for beating people up," Arden said with an awkward laugh. "I just make wind. I mean, I can harden air into, like, a slap or to trip people, or push them off of ledges or something if they're standing to close, but I can't actually, like...hurt someone with them. Unless there's a race of, like...sugar-glider aliens or maybe aliens that look like kites..." She glanced up at him. "Sorry if I misled you...? But my powers aren't really that cool..."

Baby, you were talking to one of the guys whose heads you tried to rip off in your fury last month.

“The most powerful person I know ‘makes wind’. Ain’t anything ‘just’ about it. I’m guessing with practice you could fly.”

Most of her higher functions had been asleep for that! It had all been id and survival instinct!

Though the possibility of flight certainly caught her interest. "Wait, you think I can? Really? I'd love to be able to fly." She looked a little wistful. "Might almost be worth some of the bullshit of having these powers altogether to be able to do that."

“Mmm, nope, none of that, now. We don’t trash talk our powers here. You want ‘em to work for you, you gotta be nice to them.”

Arden gave Remy her best you crazy?? look. "All my powers have ever done is kept me from getting adopted and turned me into a target," she said, which again, two things no X-Men could ever possibly understand. "Why should I be nice to them?"

“Hating them won’t make ‘em go away,” Remy said. “But it will make them that much harder to work with. ‘Sides, you got better to do with your life, non?”

Well, that - especially that last sentence - was pretty true. She didn't.

"Guess not," she admitted, with a very teenager 'that's true but I don't have to like it' expression. "So, uh. Zombies? I guess? And I can show you what I can do?"

"Zombies sound good," Remy said easily. He looked up at the empty air. "Midnight?"

The room shifted at his prompting, transforming into a stereotypical New Orleans jazz club, complete with band and patrons. The night visible outside the front door and windows was dark, and the lighting in the club was warm and dim.

And there was a groaning coming from the street outside. The NPC patrons hadn't noticed it just yet.

"You wanna adjust anything, just think it at Midnight. It's very accommodating."

Arden nodded and looked around, thinking. "Um. So, what I'd probably do is put a big block of hardened air in front of that door so that it can't be pushed open from the outside," she said. "Just to give more time for us to think. From inside, I can't tell how many there are from how the air flows around them, and it's harder to hear how many different groans there are. I guess...maybe I can try to dampen the sound in here? But I don't know how to do that." She bit her lower lip. "Maybe, uh, see if there's somewhere we can get a better idea of what's out there? Go up? Like roof access or something...?"

Remy nodded. "Roof access and a blocked door sound like a plan. What you going to do when someone wants to leave, though?"

A drunken patron was heading towards the door to do just that, in fact.

Arden winced. "Lie," she admitted. "I don't really know how my powers would work on him anyway? So unless I had somebody I knew on staff who would believe me about zombies and the need to keep everyone inside, I'd probably just lie to folks. If we were hidden, I could do a thing, but I'm not a ventriloquist, I'm just good at mimicry..."

Scampering over to the drunk trying to leave, she said, "Sir? We're trying to keep it quiet to not start a panic, but the police are currently searching the area for an escaped felon and are asking folks to stay off the street. You look like the kind of fella that can keep his cool - can I trust you to keep folks from leaving for the next, oh, fifteen or twenty minutes?"

The patron looked pissed at first -- them rolled his shoulders back, full of bluster at the 'you look like the kind of fella' comment.

"I gotcha li'l lady." He turned to the rest of the crowd. "ERRYBODY RELAX! Errythin's unner control!"

Remy bobbed his head in a little nod. "Let's check the roof."

Callista owned a bar; Arden knew very well that you appealed to the ego of drunks, rather than trying to tell them what they could or couldn't do.

"Let's go," Arden said. They headed up to the rooftop, and she went to look over the edges of the nightclub to see what they were dealing with. And as she did, she sent a breeze around the building to get a sense of what was present that she couldn't see.

Remy followed, his coat billowing a little as he went. He noted the bits of detritus around the building blowing gently and nodded to himself.

She could sense the shapes of things with her wind. That was a very useful trick!

"So. What've you found?"

"The main force of zombies is approaching the front door," Arden said, her eyes closed and brow furrowed. The worst part about this - it required a lot of concentration to interpret the data the air currents were offering her. "Looks like...ten or twelve maybe? Hard to tell when they're all clustered in a group like that. But there are three in the back and one that's either...a drunk guy, a body, or a zombie that hasn't gotten up yet lying towards the side, I can't really tell."

Remy nodded. That fit well with the scenario he'd given Midnight.

"Alright. Looks like your friend downstairs is doing pretty well keeping folks contained. What do you want to tackle first?"

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