2013-02-25 Jocelyn Gets a Mentor

So, they'd just gotten out of the medical bay and grabbed a bit of food. Jocelyn had made a little bit of small talk with Carol along the way, but nothing of real substance. The tall redhead has gotten a tray of food consisting of some sort of fish, a variety of veggies, and a glass of milk. It was a reasonably healthy meal for the teen to take, call things considered. She settles in on a seat and looks over at Carol. "So, you said you had some things you wanted to talk with me about?" Jocelyn asks Carol easily as she takes a bite of her fish.
"Yes." offers Carol as she takes a sip of her juice. She has a plate of snacks herself. A coldcut sandwich, a pickle spear, even a small salad on the side. Italian dressing of course. Duh. She grins a bit and says, "First off, I'm a soldier, I speak plainly. So please don't take anything I say badly but.. you seem new to your energy powers. A little inexperienced. Am I right?"
"Yeah. A couple weeks of experience is about it," Jocelyn replies as she takes a drink of her milk. "And I don't mind plain speak. It's kind of a nice change from what I tend to here," the teenager says. "I think I'm doing alright for the time I've worked on them, but honestly, that's only been a week's worth or so of practice". She shrugs a little bit at that. "Took me years to actually learn how to fight decently back home, so I figure learning how to control these powers is going to take time, too. That's why I'm here".
"I see." says Carol before she takes a bite. She pauses to chew and swallow before adding, "I was a soldier and a spy and all that before I ever got these powers and I've ... well, let's just say that I had a crash course about three times over on how to use'em. But the end result is, I never really had anyone watching out for me. I'd very much like to make sure you don't have the same experience..."
Jocelyn tilts her head slightly, curious. "Are you saying you'd like to mentor me, Carol?" Jocelyn asks. "If it wouldn't be too much trouble, and the Professor is alright with it, sure. I ultimately want to use these abilities for something, well, not to sound too cheesy, but good. I'm still figuring out the best way how to do that though, be it ultimately here or somewhere else when I'm experienced enough to make those decisions". She understands her limits perfectly well.
"Well, we all have a duty." says Carol between bites. "I know how dangerous my abilities can get if they're out of control and overloaded. I would very much hate for you to have to learn something similar the same way." She grins a bit and adds, "Besides, I'd -really- like to help you out. Your abilities remind me a lot of mine when I was younger, and to paraphrase a fun movie... I've been missing myself so, I thought Imight spend some time with me."
Jocelyn nods. "That's how my abilities manifested, as an overload. Blew down the building I was in, caused some people to die". Jocelyn frowns at that, but quickly moves past it. There wasn't any use dwelling on that fact. "Well, I don't know exactly what your abilities are, though I have a guess from what I saw. I can't fly, but I can actually see energy types around us. That's how I was able to locate Shift after we all came to. I can augment my physical abilities and I can shoot out any type of energy I absorb. Or at least that's how I've found it to work so far," she explains. The girl pauses a little. "Would it be only power training? I wouldn't mind other types of training. You're known for your talents, of course. Anything you could do to help me would be appreciated," the teenager says.
"Well, I am curious about your fighting skills. You said you learned some stuff back home right?" asks Carol. "Also, one thing that you likely -should- learn about... in fact, something I should work on, for myself.. is a general grounding in physics and energy states. You even more than me. I absorb all kinds, but that just fuels me like a capacitor. I don't generate different stuff based on what I absorb."
"Well, I was in training to be a professional fighter," Jocelyn responds to Carol. "Trained for hours in the mornings and evenings before and after school. Before that I was a street rat in Detroit for years before that and had to deal with the riffraff there to get enough food to survive, and the bigger kids always tried to bully their way to get stuff. I learned to fight back". The girl shrugs at that. "The orphanages didn't have that much in the way of food, you know?"
Jocelyn takes another bite of her fish. "Yeah. I'm oddly enough not that gifted in science, but I didn't have reason to now. I'm trying to work on it, but I find myself missing a lot of different bits of base knowledge". She eats some of the veggies before continuing. "I mostly just absorb and respond with it. I can identify several now. Thermal, kinetic, whatever your type of energy is, magnetic, Cyclops' energy beam, telekinetic, magical, and psychic are the ones I can think of that I've seen so far. Absorbed most of them at some point".
"You've got a far more broad ability to absorb power than I do. I've... well I've handled magic before but only if I was holding some artifact that channeled it for me. Also, that was when I was calling myself Binary." Carol smirks and takes another bite, "Took me a while to remember to eat when I got hungry after losing that level of power. I was all cosmicy and such, didn't even need food or air or... yeah anyway, now I'm just me." She smiles a bit, "I kept a remnant of it though... or else I'd have no powers at all."
"I haven't tried magical yet," Jocelyn says as she chats with Carol. The two are sitting at a table, having a conversation apparently around their similar powers. "Or psychic. But I can see them being used, so it stands to reason I can absorb them". She just hasn't had a chance to try. She didn't think Illyana would have appreciated her yanking some of her magical energy at some point during that chaos. "You certainly have more experience than I do though," the teenager points out. "And you've got the ability to fly. That's something I don't think I'll ever have the capacity to do".
Different. The best way to describe Kurt Wagner, in terms of what he was before. There's something.. perhaps it's the tail that isn't swung with as jaunty an air, or perhaps it's the fact that he's walking everywhere and doesn't look the least bit happy about it. That is, when he allows those moments to wallow in self-pity. It's those moments when he's alone, in fact, away from friends, away from the church that he does just that.
For one of the first times, the blue fuzzy elf doesn't seem quite as approachable as he'd been.
Kurt wanders into the cafeteria, pausing at the door before he starts in, his path taking him towards the kitchen. Time to eat something, and a grilled cheese and cup of soup is perfect. He's got his coat on, but unbuttoned, a hat, his gloves stuffed into pockets along with his scarf, and once he's got his food, looks for a small, out of the way place to settle in for a quick meal.
It's an officer's duty to notice when the troops are out of sorts. Sure, she's not a shrink, but Carol -has- been a leader in many places and times. Her blue eyes flicker over towards Kurt as he moves through the room and she gestures his way, "Why not join us?!" she calls out before looking back to Jocelyn. "See, not everything for me is all about the energy. I'm not exactly... consistant in my origins. My original powers came from some sort of reality altering device, and then experiements by the Brood and... it's complicated."
"Afraid I don't know who the Brood are," Jocelyn says. She's about to say more, but spots Kurt and waves at the fuzzy blue one. "Come on by if you'd like. There's space," Jocelyn tells the teleporter. Jocelyn can tell the man is off, too. She hates to see everybody in such a bad mood. They got out alive! This was a good thing, in her book!
Kurt holds up a hand in a wave, or rather, his cup of soup as he shifts his destination. He approaches, but doesn't take a seat. "I'm going up to the City this evening. Auditions are beginning for Shakespeare in the Park, und I think I might have a chance at Oberon." King Faery. Might as well aim high, right? He takes a sip of the hot soup before he offers a smile to Carol, then Jocelyn. "If you will excuse me.. I have to round up a couple of my students before I drive in."
Now, usually Kurt takes the opportunity to teleport out, leaving behind only a *bamf* and the smell of brimstone.
Not today.
Kurt turns around, and takes a bite of his sandwich and, in turn, a swallow of his soup before he leaves the cafeteria once again on the way to the Institute's garage to get a car..
"That's... disconcerting." offers Carol as she watches Kurt walk... walk away. She shakes her head and almost gets up but... she doesn't. She knows how it feels to suddenly be bereft of something that felt like it was a core of her being. But she also knows that there are times when one needs to be alone for a while first.
So she turns her attention back to Jocelyn and shrugs, "The Brood..." she says, mentally rewinding before she goes on, "They're aliens. Much like the Kree who are the reason I have these powers. Genetically, I'm like half Kree alien now myself."
Jocelyn listens to Kurt's explanation, then watches him walk away. "That is a bit worrysome," Jocelyn agrees. She hadn't seen Kurt do something like that before. Huh. "Give him some space and see how he feels. I think it affected him more than some of us," Jocelyn admits.
She looks over at Carol and listens. Oddly, she doesn't seem to disbelieve it. "So, your genes have been altered, and you're part Kree. I can see how you've led a bit of a complicated life," Jocelyn remarks. She can't complain about her simple, yet difficult life in Detroit really. It doesn't compare to that!
"Anyhow..." remarks Carol as she sips her juice once more. "Complicated is just the start. That was how things got started but.. we're not here for a life story I suppose. What say we start focusing on what we might do to help you out eh?"
"Alright," Jocelyn says as she works on her meal, sensing she might need the energy. "There's plenty of time for that, I'm sure, while we're training. Where do you want to start?" Jocelyn asks. She's expecting some sort of training assessment, given Carol's soldier background. Soldiers always wanted to do various tests, right?
Surely to not disappoint, Carol shrugs and suggests, "Well, first, I thought we'd get an idea of your limitations and how much you can handle safely. Fortunately, that's easy to test." She shrugs and leans back in her seat. "After that, I thought we'd get a look at your combat technique."
Jocelyn nods to that. "Alright. Outside?" Jocelyn suggests to the woman as she finishes her meal off. "Oh, and as a warning, I do shock people if I physically touch them. I wear these gloves and it's fine, and I suspect it wouldn't actually be an issue with your powers, but I thought I should let you know," she adds.
"Thanks for the warning but yeah, should be a non-issue for me. Long as it's not like... a shock with the intensity of a nuke." She grins and then gets up slowly. "Outside works." she offers.
Jocelyn stands and nods, making her way outside with Carol. "Yeah, you'll be fine then. More like a sharp electric shock. Most people have trouble even touching me, but, well...it happens". Jocelyn shrugs at that. Once they're outside, Jocelyn moves to stand about ten feet from Carol. "So, how do we doo this?" she asks. She does empty any excess energy she has before beginning, however. This was a maximum capacity test, after all.
"I was thinking we could do something like hook up a generator with an output meter to test your capacity by measuring how much electricity you absorb." suggests Carol. That said, she shrugs and says, "I could just start low and give you some juice until you hit capacity. Wanna try it that way then?"
"That works," Jocelyn offers to Carol. "I don't have one of those output meters on me, I'm afraid". She stands there and gets ready to absorb. Really, she's just going to stand there and get energy-blasted by one of the more powerful superheroes on the planet. No sweat, right? Jocelyn waits for the woman to start letting loose with the energy.
Well, it's a good thing that Carol doesn't intend to go all out here. She just points a hand at you and grins, "Ready?" she asks, and before you can open your mouth, she fires off a small pulse of low yield photonic energy. It's not a stream so much as just a single pulse. She pauses to check by raising her brows... asking wordlessly how you're doing.
Jocelyn has a pretty good safety valve if she wants to use it, which she ultimately will. Carol will find that Jocelyn seems pretty comfortable taking the energy in, watching her own energy sort of rise. That pulse just gets absorbed into Jocelyn, disappearing from view when Carol releases it. "That's fine. I can take some more," Jocelyn tells Carol. One pulse won't fill her up, and it doesn't appear to have harmed her in any way.
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