thecapitol | Better Luck Next Time

Who| Kousuke Nitou and you!
What| Nitou got killed early in the Cornucopia. Now, he's got to deal with it.
Where| A random sports bar, later a random park.
When| A few days after Nitou's back from the dead.
Warnings| Drinking, overeating, possible accidental bicycle violence.

[A - Sports Bar]
Last time Nitou had died in an Arena, it had been different. He'd been doing well for himself, at least up until that point he'd eaten some dried meat and an alien thing had burst out of his chest. This time, the defeat had been a little more humbling; he'd picked a fight he couldn't win, and he'd paid the price. He hadn't gone quickly, either. Plus, this arena looked like a scenario he actually knew how to survive in. But no, he hadn't even had much of a chance.

Last time, Nitou's coping methods had involved hoarding obscene amounts of mayonnaise. This time, he vowed to do things a little differently. Go out, have a bit of fun, and act like he's not bothered at all. It's a good plan. A great plan...only his best friends are still in the Arena, so what's he supposed to do? He has no idea until his wandering through the city finds a sports bar.

It's not long at all before he's in that sports bar tossing back a few beers, eating a few mayo-covered wings, and hooting and hollering each time Haruto or Gary is on the screen. They're his important rivals, so of course he's going to cheer them on! If he can't win, maybe one of them could. Of course, Haruto and Gary are both Tributes from District 11, and Nitou's in District 5. This just might be a problem for some...or it might be more understandable, if they've seen some of the tabloids romantically linking Nitou and Haruto. (Even if Nitou will vehemently deny it.)

Nitou's not really worried about any of that now. He's just going to relax and cheer his friends on. That's it. Of course, if his cheering gets a little too animated..."Oops, sorry about that!" Yeah. He's just spilled a beer on someone.

[B - Some Park Somewhere]
Blowing off some steam in the guise of training is a good idea, at least in Nitou's mind. No one can yell at you for training. And the exercise bikes in the gym at the Training Center gave him an idea. There's nothing to see here, nothing to see, just a Tribute out on a bike ride enjoying a little fresh air...

...only when he thinks no one is looking, he's doing crazy bicycle tricks. He's doing jumps, flips, and wheelies, and he's generally riding recklessly through the park. Hopefully he won't accidentally come close to crashing into anyone.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Megan wasn't sure that she believed his excuses, but it didn't exactly matter now. That was all in the past, and she was nothing if not a forgiving person. After all, she'd forgiven Illyana Rasputina for corrupting her soul, stealing her innocence, and filling the void with black magic. If Megan could forgive that she could forgive anyone.

"I'm Megan," she said, watching with amusement as he pedaled around. "Megan Gwynn, codenamed Pixie of the X-Men. You and Haruto are both Kamen Riders? What's that whole thing about anyway?"

"Well, that means we transform into sweet suits of armor to fight monsters, and we're pretty awesome wizards!" Nitou laughs. "But I'm more awesome. Awesome-er. He's my rival, so I gotta be more awesome than he is!"

And, of course, there's the matter of what she's told him. "Pixie, huh? So that's a code name? You're not actually a pixie?" Oh, he'd made an even worse potential dining choice than he thought, probably...

Well, now. That sure explained a whole lot of nothing. Megan was even more confused about him than she had been before. He was like a magical Iron Man, only more obnoxious and into bicycle tricks.

"Of course I'm not a pixie." She huffed a little, though it was only for show. "I'm a fairy. Half-fairy, actually. The other half is a mutant. It's all very technical, you see."

"Oh, hey, that's pretty cool!" Nitou doesn't seem at all fazed by this. Fairy-mutant is far from the strangest thing he's come across, and it is his way to just steamroller all over weirdness without worrying, anyway. "So you do magic and stuff?" Because Chimera had sensed it on her, and now he's just assuming.

"Not on the reg," Megan said, tossing her pink hair over her shoulders. "I mean, I can do magic. But mostly I use my mutant abilities to do stuff. The magic is just a complicated medical side effect of my awesomeness. It's all very complex, you see."

"But why not use the magic too?" Nitou just didn't get that. Magic was adventure, and adventure was great! "You know, double up on doing stuff awesomely?"

"Magic isn't as awesome as it sounds." She was very steadfast in this pronouncement. She was an authority. She totally knows. "You have to know spells, and I haven't learned all that many of them, partly because my magic is black magic, and everyone knows black magic is corruptive. Duh."

Really, having to depend upon a leech of a chimera for all his magic should give Nitou a similar opinion of magic, but no. "You don't have to know spells--magic rings work just as good!" He was an expert on that. Really. He swore he was. "And what, there are different kinds of magic?" It was all magic to him. All edible.

Megan rolled her eyes. Clearly this guy had no idea what he was talking about. "Excuse you. Which one of us is the fairy here? I'm pretty sure that if there was a way for me to do magic without spells, I'd be in the know. Right?"

But she softened a little when he asked about the different kinds of magic. It wasn't something she'd considered much until her soul had been sucked from her body. Before that, all magic seemed good. She'd had no reason to think otherwise. "Well, there's white magic, which is pure and good, and there's black magic, which corrodes anything pure and gobbles it up." Like Chimera, maybe? Hm... "My soul used to be made of white magic. It was the purest soul ever to enter the realm of Limbo. Illyana said so. But she drained it out in order to form the bloodstones to make the Soul Dagger. And then she filled the empty places inside of me with black magic. So inside, I'm actually evil, but as long as I don't use the black magic, it's not a big deal. Surprise."

"Hey, I'm just saying there are things like magic rings and stuff that let people do magic without spells," Nitou protested. That's how it worked for him and every other wizard from his world, after all.

Gobbling things up sounded very Chimera-like, and Nitou kind of glanced down at his stomach at the mention of that. "..she never gave you a choice in that whole draining thing, did she?" Chimera hadn't really given him a choice the first time, but then he'd gone and sought the monster out a second time after freeing himself. No one had ever really claimed him to be particularly rational in his quest for constant adventure.

She shook her head, wings dropping a little. "No. Well, I mean, I guess maybe on a technicality? Illyana threatened to kill all of my friends if I didn't surrender to her. So that's dubious concept, at best. If I had to do it all again, I'd try to fight back, I'd work harder to find a way around it. But not even magic can fix all that. I am what I am now, just you average everyday mutant-pixie with a mostly missing soul."

Oh. It was like that..."Well, y'know...if we get our powers back or anything...maybe Haruto or I could try to go into your Underworld, y'know, see if we could do anything." He shrugged, a little embarrassed. "Like we'll go in and take care of people's Phantoms before the magic there kills them. So maybe our magic could take care of what your world's magic can't!"

Megan looked surprised, stunned by the offer really. She hadn't considered that Nitou would want make an offer like that. He hardly knew her and all.

"That's very nice of you," she said, a bit of hope returning to her voice. "Maybe I'll take you up on that sometime. But until then, let's maybe resolve to at least be better friends."

Offering to help someone in a situation like that just seemed natural at this point. Help a Gate, stop a Phantom from being born...even if this was more than a little different...which could make for an adventure in the process, really.

Nitou grinned and gave her a big thumbs up. "We can do that! And I won't try to eat you again, even if Chimera wakes up again!"

"Is that a promise?" She asked, cocking her head to the right. "Because getting eaten is quite near the bottom of my to-do list of life. I happen to like what's left of my soul, you know. I'm rather attached to it."

"Super-solemn wizard promise, yeah." Nitou crosses his heart and tries to look super-solemn to accompany this. "You're off the menu, don't worry!"

Better Luck Next Time

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whoops that was supposed to say consent ;;

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