A new Protege perhaps? (Nori)

Hearing the lightly nervous tone over the phone, Mia had to bite at the inside of her cheek just to resist the tiniest bit of a giggle. She didn’t want to be rude at all, hence preventing herself, and she knew it must have taken the girl some courage to call up to begin with given how nervous she’d seemed the day they first met. She listened to her asking to talk, briefly wondering if something was actually wrong but feeling they’d have a bit more courage to speak if they were, adjusting her position on the couch to get comfy as a little chuckle came through her at the idea of being easy to spot. “Yeah and I’m sure you’ll see me too. I’m like a Sim with this red thing poking up off my head.” Sim’s usually had green diamonds but that was neither here nor there.

Point was “Yeah I can easily hunt ya down there. I got no open cases so it was gonna be a pretty quiet day. No one in the area is even gonna DARE try and go on a crimespree this week anyway. All the big heroes from across the country are in town for the big sports festival, so they’d have quite a struggle on their hands if that was the case.” She chuckled a little at the mental image of some 2 bit crook getting chased down by a whole gang of pissed off heroes who were enjoying their day scouting the new kids at school.

“Either way, I’ll be there…Kinda tempted to change into some casuals but hero attire feels best if it’s the sports festival.” She crossed her arm across her chest as the other held her phone, heading for the automatic window that would close behind her when she leapt out. “So where abouts should I be lookin’ for ya kid? The booths? The main event space? Where’m I lookin? Heck I’ll meet ya in the cafeteria or something if you want somewhere more private. I know my way around easily enough by now.”

Mia was a little curious as to what had the girl so nervous. A girl of her size? Felt kinda hard to associate them with such a personality, but all the same she’d take heed of her words and confirm the cafeteria. “Yeah sure, I can grab a snack on my way through if you’re not there by the time I am…I mean you got a head start but ya never know.” Her cheeky smirk was almost evident in her tone, but ultimate got a “Sure, sure. Don’t worry kid. Dunno what’s got you so rattled but-“ Oh. The dial tone. Kid had hung up on her. She glanced to her phone, shrugged, and got up off the couch. It wasn’t the day of a big event at the festival so while she could represent herself in her hero costume, she changed into some casual attire instead before heading out, holding her shoes in her hand as she used her strength to bound across the rooftops to hasten her journey.

Arriving at the school, getting in the front gates wasn’t too hard. Apparently they hadn’t beefed their security yet and even then she was a hero and they were open for the event so striding on in wasn’t too hard. Knowing her way about, at least roughly, she bee lined for the cafeteria, waving at a few of the students she recognized on their way to training or something while focusing her stride forward to meet the kid she’d come here to see, managing to spot them pretty easily given their complexion, and sitting across the cafeteria table, greeting them with a warm smile.

“Hey kid. So, what’s so secretive ya needed to meet somewhere private eh?” She still held a warm smile, completely open to whatever the mutant hero wanted to present them with. Her hands clasped together, wearing a plaid long sleeve shirt, open and revealing a white T beneath it, and some torn up jeans. She also used the opportunity to sit to idly work her feet back into her boots under the table since they were no longer at risk of being torn apart by her more…vigorous mode of transport.

All the same, she was patient and waited for the girl to speak, looking as open to her as she was any other kid she had high hopes for here. If anything a little more open because of their similar quirks.

“Some stuff eh? If it’s the birds and the bees I’m afraid I’m gonna leave that one to your teachers.~” She smirked with her playful, possibly inappropriate tease to the young student before offering her her full attention. As the actual question came she noted she seemed a bit nervous to even come out with it let alone as she was going through it finally, but as she heard the question her brow rose with some surprise. She knew the girl had seemed a bit…closed off when they first met at the lesson, but the idea of her actually being so nervous and a little worried in regards to her own mutation hit Mia in a way she didn’t expect. She valued quirker pride, and while she was mostly human in appearance, she loved each and every last mutation she tended to encounter…so seeing one so worried about their own appearance…

She tensed a little at the idea, and a part of her wanted to scoff about the question to how she was so confident, but she kept a calm face, and took it seriously, and to a lesser extent, professionally. “You mind if I go off on a little tangeant to answer that kid?” She asked, waiting for a response and then continued.

“I grew up in texas. An American state, real Christian even these days…growing up as a girl, who grew above all the other kids, AND had a budding little red horn? I’ll admit, as confident and strong as I am now, that wasn’t easy. A little girl with a devil horn that all the boys felt intimidated by cause she had abs before the rest of them even knew what puberty was? Yeah, wasn’t fucking easy. ‘Scuse ma’ language.” She raised a hand in apology before continuing. “Now…I get it. I was scary to them. You probably feel like you’re scary too by the sound of things? Well..I embraced that. That’s how I dealt with it. I was the biggest kid in the yard, so I took that on my shoulders, and I picked my friends well. I used the fact I was this big monster to help those that were good to me and keep away those that weren’t…but.”

She raised a finger on each hand.

“That’s my experience…and that started REAL young. If you’re lookin’ on advice, I wanna hear your experience. What has you worried you’re scary? What was growing up with your mutations like for you kid?” Felt a little weird calling ‘em kid when they were taller than her but.

(given the deadline's tonight we can continue this in another thread if we need to~)

As Mia gave the floor to the kid before her, she offered her ears and remained silent for the most part. From the get go she knew the girl would have had a worse experience than her as a child. Even with the red horn in a texas scene, Noriko was had purple skin, a maw, reptillian skin, a tail...all of this Mia loved about her visually, it made her unique, strong, a real beast and she meant that in the greatest way, but as a kid...that was a lot of fuel for the people who wanted to kick her and keep her down.

When she mentioned how her growth spurts were a lot more extreme than the other kids she offered a small chime in, nodding along and gesturing idly with her hands. "Oh tell me about it. I mean, personally I was never one for skirts anyway, so it was a nice excuse to change things up, buuuut it definitely cost my family a bit...and added a bit more fuel to the fire when other kids wanted to tease me. Even with all my muscles I was still a girl to a lot of them, so dressing up like a boy didn't get me many compliments." She ran a hand back through her hair, ruffling the spikey blonde lockes around her horn before relaxing again. "Take it from your words though...maybe not so big a fan of the tomboy look?"

Hearing the part about the general issues their mutation caused, Mia's eyes glanced up to her horn. Long before it had earned it's deep cut scar Mia had managed to bump that thing into so many doorframes. Once she'd even been so eager to get somewhere her horn had rammed into the wood of the doorframe. With her strength it wasn't impossible to get herself out, but the mere fact it took a few tries said something. "Yeah I definitely know what yer talkin' bout there...my pa actually ad to expand the doorframes in the house for me. Said he always felt a twinge of...don't think guilt's the right word, but it weren't pleasant for him watching me need to dip my head under doorframes, so I totally get the issue there."

With the issue with the teeth, Mia let out just a brief scoff. Just a single chuckle at her smile. She could see what the girl was getting at but something about that wide, sharp toothed grin just looked great to her. "Hey that's a great smile! I mean, shame you can't turn it off but...hey when I'm tense I look like I'm gonna eat babies. So I always gotta take a deep breath before I turn to the cameras. Watch." She was hoping to lighten the other kid's mood a little by relating to her on a lighter note like this, she closed her eyes, clenched her fist, and focused solwly on her body, her muscles slowly bulking, her horn growing out about an inch or so, and importantly, her bottom canines grew into tusks passing over her top lip. Then, she grinned wide, her wild red eyes and the Oni tusks combining to give her...well, as she said, the 'baby eater' grin. It was hard to easily find just a normal smile in her face, and as she let out a breath her body went down to it's normal state much faster, like a deflating balloon. "Sorry ya can't turn it off like I can kid but...ya know it's a damn good smile. When you get outta this school and start to make it as a hero? That's gonna be an iconic look let me tell ya. Your fans are gonna know what it means, and they're gonna love it.~"

Still, back to the key root of the conversation. Noriko felt like she didn't belong anywhere, and Mia looked like she belonged everywhere...Heh. Yeah. "There's no trick to it kid...I think what's important is..." She tipped her head back, trying to find the right words, never the most eloquent, but seeing some similar issues from her past in this kid, she wanted to help as much as she could.

"Look...where you are now, you're never gonna see the jerks from your home again. Not unless you want to, so for starters, ya don't need to worry about all these other quirkers looking at you like you're some sort of nightmare, yeah?" She nodded along to her own words before continuing. "But like...with that worry out of the way...you need to be comfortable in yourself. THAT is what's important. I look like I belong everywhere? It's because I don't focus on what's around me, I focus on me, and myself. Maybe seflish, maybe egotistical...but I don't feel scary, like a monster...at least not in a bad way. In my skin...I am big, I am strong, I am the center of a room and I own it. All eyes are gonna be on you anyway, why not...take it as a positive?"

She clenched her first for a moment, and lowered her head with a sigh, and chuckled soon after at herself.

"Ah...sorry kid I just...I'm never the best with words. But I hope it's getting across." She lifted her head and tried to get the last of it out. "Point is...I stopped caring what other people think o' me a long time ago. Sure I maybe have a thing for a bit of glory and a bit of an audience, but...so long as I'm happy with who I am, It's never gonna get under my skin what other people think. If I'm honest I think the same should be true for you." She nodded again at her words. "You're big, you're strong, You are a fucking monster and when I say that it's a god damn compliment..." She shrugged and gestured with open arms. "Who cares what everyone else says? What matters is what you end up telling yourself."

"Yeah...I getcha. I can't perfectly relate but-" Stepping back to the dresses for a moment, she rubbed the back of her neck debating her words on the matter. Not being able to wear dresses was a relief for her cause she never liked them and now her mom could never easily get her into one again, but still she had some very minor relation she could pull on. "It's an odd gut punch all the same. Having an option removed from you. Heh..." She chuckled a little and leaned over the table. "Even if the option isn't one you want, there's an odd...absence you can feel. Dresses aren't really my thing but I can get it. Sometimes I'll see a badass little jacket I can't get, or a twinge of annoyance when most of the shirts in my size have dude-bro gym logos on them." She chuckled a little more as she relaxed with the conversation. "Yeah...ignoring dresses, there's still somehting there to be missed, and to be annoyed by but..."

A thought lingered on her lips, but she'd save it for later. They had something to discuss in this moment, and as much as Mia felt her news might be good for the young woman, she saved it to be a cherry on top of their meeting.

"Listen in regards to the clothes I might have some good news for ya, but for now, let's keep goin."

And so the conversation continued to flow, complimenting the woman's smile but watching it fade off her lips as she seemed to be dissapointed for a moment, but as she complimented her more thoroughly, and related with her own smile, it seemed it was more good news than bad, nodding firmly as she asked if she was serious. "OH hell yeah! You're right, it's a little cocky, and there's no way you could take that as a polite smile for some school photo...but you need to look at yourself sometime, and smile, and just picture that face after a heroic feet. Those proud white fangs bared strongly as you tower over a conquered Villain. Your smile looks cocky kid, heck, to some, I'm gonna be honest, it might be a little scary...but when I think of you baring such a smile after doin' your damn job well? I think of one word. It's sincere." She smiled warmly, feeling her words for the topic may have been ill chosen, but she spoke from her heart. Even if right now Nori's smile may have been difficult to make fully sincere, to Mia it was beautiful all the same. In fact-

"Hey, real quick. Smile for me again kid." She hoped this would help rise her confidence in her smile, pulling out the phone she used for her contacts with the UA students and teachers, she flicked to the photo app and held up her phone. "Give us a big smile eh? I need those pearly whites to show up when you call me again in the future.~"

Assuming she'd be allowed the picture, she'd quickly save it and move on, if Nori was nervous she'd push and prod just a little, but give up if she was clearly uncomfortable with having her photo taken.

In the end, it seemed the young woman had taken in her words and Mia held a strong smile on her lips in the face of it, resting a little more in her seat with a slow, calming breath as her own tension eased up a bit. As much as she loved helping here, she always worried about choosing the wrong words when dealing with someone in a sensitive situation. It was why she hated interviewing victims so much if they were in a frail state emotionally. Still...seemed speaking from the heart did the trick this time and she took a slow breath to ease up. "Good...good...really though, it may not work for everyone. I'm gonna be honest with ya, no therapists bullshit or some shitty empathy...I can't relate to what you feel, but that don't mean it ain't real, and it ain't valid. Everyone deals with something differently, and if my way ain't for you, that's fine! The important thing is you have a comfortable life. Whether you embrace and empower yourself with the hate like me, or you ignore it and let it bounce off of you, the whole rubber and glue tactic. Bottom line is...you live a comfortable life. By your standards...without hurting anyone else doing it, of course.~ Don't want you being the next big villain."

She gave a sly, calm wink to show she was joking, resting on her elbow and toying with her hair again. "Still...I'm glad I could help, whatever comes of this. I got my eye on you kid and I hardly wanna see you being beaten by yourself before the world has a chance to give ya a REAL challenge.~"

She felt a little bad when the girl clearly seemed a little nervous about giving her smile, but it seemed a nice opportunity all the same to get a picture for the girl's phone profile. She took it while she good, a quirked smile pulling at the corner of her lips as she'd put it onto the profile and store the phone away, crossing her arms on the table between them. "Thanks...sorry, I can tell cameras aren't so much your thing...but even if you don't think so you do got a good smile. Even if it ain't like...what you'd expect? Its your smile, and it's a good one."

As they went on and Noriko just continued to take in her words, she reached over the table, taking the back of one of the girl's hands in hers and offering it a gentle squeeze with a confident expression on her face, not in herself, but in what she saw in Noriko. Things like this were never an instant fix but- "I'm sure you'll do fine. You just...gotta follow your own path, and I'm sure the confidence to walk it will find ya. Don't worry about doin me or this school proud. Do yourself proud, and you're on the right track kid." She offered an emphasis on her own smile and squeezed her hand more firmly before pulling back. "Heh...good to know I got a dedicated fan though. I've already got myself sorted, so from here on out I'll make sure I do you proud too!~ I'm sure I can handle that weight on my shoulders. Heck if I can't, who can?~" She chuckled for a moment before relaxing, finding her conversation with Noriko going far better than she could have hoped.

"...Oh! Right the clothes! Er..." She picked out her phone again and found a number in her contacts. When she put the phone on the table, if Noriko could read it upside down, it was labeled as 'Do not answer - Clothes". She seemed to have a few other 'do not answer's in there too, but with other taglines to go with them. She scribbled the number down on a nearby napkin and twirled it across to the girl before her. "These guys contacted me to advertise for them once. They specialize in custom outfits for mutations that don't allow for normal clothes. Extra arms, too big, tails, stuff like that. They're only just finding their feet but...I dunno. I'm sure having some kid who needs a dress here or there interested in 'em is as good a start for 'em as any.~"