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[color=ec008c]"Wellllll..."[/color] Nicole giggled a little and let go of Penny's braid. Her fingers laced and she wrung her hands for a second, like she had a secret identity she was on the verge of finding the courage to divulge. [color=ec008c]"There is [i]one[/i] more thing, but I kinda try not to brag about it. As superpowers go it's a little esoteric. I usually can't go out into the city for a night without getting something for free. Doughnuts, slices of pizza, drinks at clubs, every now and then people just drift up and hand me stuff. I dunno why, I guess something about me just clicks with people."[/color]

She favored them all with another one of Hasta's apparent trademarks, her happy-go-lucky wink.

[color=ec008c]"It's a little hard to believe until you see it in action, though. Guess you'll all just have to start going out with me more. We'll be drowning in stuff."[/color]

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Nicole had been wrong, though. Her dream of the five of them, a tight-knit quintet of Ars Magi tackling Palmyra and finding their own fun, had quickly been derailed - as many things seemed to be - by Penny's ferocious little hammerfists. She and another girl had worked themselves up over some kind of ancestral little quibble that quickly turned into a full-on melee, and the team's resident foul-mouthed powerhouse had quickly found herself on campus arrest. The handful of little trips to find a good arcade or café that she'd made with Dana had ended in Dana, normally so irrepressibly happy, bummed out that Penny hadn't been able to accompany them. Dana had made them promise that they would wait to go out and do anything major until they were all a group again, and Nicole, a bit reluctantly, had agreed. But...

But...

[center][url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zx06XNfDvk0]Damn it, she just couldn't help herself.[/url][/center]

What Palmyra lacked in the ebullient lights of her home, it at least made up in noise and sprawl. Every time she craned her head up to behold the brutalist skyscape, she felt oddly comfortable, like she was swathed in a weighted blanket. The concrete, advertisements, and language creole that barked every level of every building or street was more comfortable than any bed she'd ever crashed on, and every new spot on her to-do list recalled one of Nicole's beloved childhood or adolescent memories, even if they were poor reflections. She found a thrill out of finding every slice of pizza, deli, or noodle bar that even came close to the tastes of Hasta. She was delighted at the chance to practice her karaoke on setlists that only bore the slightest resemblances to those she'd memorized and nailed at home, thrilling at both the occasional universal pop standard and at the songs she'd never even heard before. There were movie theaters that would cycle some of her favorite bad movie classics, or the macho action bangers her father had raised her on, where she and other shlock, crap, and [i]giallo[/i] aficionados would hurl classic movie lines at the screen so loudly they almost dubbed over the actresses. She lost herself for hours in shops, she battled gloriously to set old high scores on new arcade machines, and she sought out the coolest clubs that only the locals knew - an endeavor that was helped along considerably once all of the said cool locals realized they were dealing with a newly minted Ars Magi.

Maybe Palmyra would never [i]quite[/i] feel like her home, but God damn it if Nicole Cognoscenti would allow it to become her prison.

Eventually, she managed to coax Astrelle out of the dorm for a night or two at a time - and later, even Vanna, as the two aristocrats and the middle-class glue that kept them together would go to some of the shops Nicole had spotted out or the occasional quiet bistro. She often found herself the one keeping those conversations going, but even so, she found it nice to just indulge in her wanderlust alongside some of the other girls - and especially learned to enjoy the rare moments she felt like she was actually bonding with one of her more aloof classmates. After a couple weeks, the day finally came where Penny and Dana would get to come along for Nicole's wild ride, and as another day of classes ended, she found it hard not to partake in the enthusiasm of the dynamic duo.

[color=Gold]"And if I know Nicole, she’s already got a list of all the best places to visit!”[/color]

An elbow dug into Nicole's ribs, coaxing a rare bashful grin out of the girl normally so confident in her own skin.

[color=ec008c]"Mmmmaybe I cheated a little,"[/color] she replied, as another trainee drifted into their friend circle, violet-haired and scarlet-eyed with a twinkle of mischief in her gaze and grin. [color=ec008c]"We should check out--oh!"[/color]

[color=7e5e7f]"For you, [i]prekrasnaya[/i],"[/color] the lilac mischief said, pressing a cup into her hand. The other, fresh from stowing the Sharpie used upon the cup behind her ear, extended both pinkie and thumb by her ear and waggled. She drifted off as soon as she'd arrived, leaving Nicole to sip on the proffered cup - a white mocha - and peeked at the digits written upon her free drink. She giggled and took a longer, happier sip.

[color=ec008c]"Told you, right? This is an omen. Good food, great outfits, and plenty of bonding on the horizon, babes. The vibes are strong tonight."[/color]