4778/The Path to Normal

The Path to Normal
Date of Scene:	18 January 2021
Location:	Gramercy Park Hotel
Synopsis:	Following the horrible mishap at the Four Corners event, Jennifer Walters pays Katsumi a visit and offers a badly needed uplifting word.
Cast of Characters:	Katsumi Oshiro, Jennifer Walters

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Katsumi Oshiro has posed:
It was a restless night for Katsumi. She knew she should be tired, exhausted, even beaten up after wrestling two matches. But she felt fresh as can be. Energetic, even. The only fatigue she felt was from the emotional draining at her world collapsing. All it took was one kick to divert what she was so sure was her destiny. What she intended to be the rest of her life. Now everything is in jeopardy. She didn't fall asleep until the light of dawn crept over the horizon.

Only recently waking up in the late afternoon, Katsumi hasn't bothered to make herself presentable. Wearing a spaghetti strap tanktop and boyshorts, the Punk Princess wallows just enough in bed to paw for her phone to check messages. She has /several/ from her general manager, most of which angry that she hasn't yet responded. Those woefully inhuman eyes blink, unfocused, and she absently taps her touchscreen to respond. She sends a lie about her phone not going off. It doesn't matter. He hates her now anyway. Once she hits send, she slides her hands beneath her pillow and presses her face firmly into it. Slow inhale. Muted scream, feet thrashing against the mattress and tossing the bedsheet wildly.

She is not having a good time.

Jennifer Walters has posed:
Jennifer was there, backstage getting ready for the main event. She watched Katsumi's first match, marveling at how the wrestler worked up the crowd and seemed to love the jeers and boos thrown her way. She was impressed by the techniques used by both wrestlers, a more acrobatic style than the kick and punch she used with Ben during their match.

Then came the second event so shortly after the first. Again, she marveled at the match. But then there was the ending, with Katsumi nearly breaking her opponent in half, sending her flying through the ropes. She watched in shock at Katsumi's look of horror at what she had done. There's no doubt about it. Katsumi has powers, and she just discovered them now.

It took her a day or so to find out which room the wrestler is staying in. She'd been there before, lost and confused when she first turned into the Savage She-Hulk. She wished that there was somebody there who could have told her that everything would turn out all right and to help guide her on her path instead of just figuring it out herself.

Jennifer stands outside the door, dressed casually. Jeans and a cream colored blouse, with her fuzzy warm jacked that had once been used to keep Katsumi warm, in what seems like ages ago. In one hand she has a box, with the smell of freshly baked donuts wafting from it. With an exhalation of breath, she knocks on the door.

Katsumi Oshiro has posed:
"NO COMMENT!"

It's Katsumi's voice, aggressive and frustrated. She's been dealing with intermittent phonecalls and knocks at the door from nosey press personnel and journalists.

Katsumi smushes her face back into the pillow, hoping her sharp response is enough to dissuade the would-be interrogation.

Jennifer Walters has posed:
"Katsumi, it's me, Jen. Are you all right?" Her voice is filled with concern for the wrestler. "We should probably talk about it," she suggests. "Also, I brought fresh donuts. I figured it'd be a good break from room service."

Katsumi Oshiro has posed:
The voice is unfamiliar at first. So is the name.

Katsumi braces herself on her elbows and lifts her face from the pillow again. A curious look is shot to the door. And soon enough, bare feet are padding their way across the hardwood floor. When the door is opened, Jen is met by a very rumpled Katsumi Oshiro, her hair a disheveled mess of blueblack. All at once, recognition hits her and she steps back.

"Um, sure. Come in," she invites. "Are you here to.. um.. arrest me?"

Unlike her normally confident tone, this question is posed with meek worry. And should Jen look to her again, she'll find the Japanese starlet fretting her front teeth over her bottom lip.

Jennifer Walters has posed:
"I'm a defense lawyer, not a cop," Jennifer explains gently. "If you were to be arrested I'd be the one to defend you." She makes her way into the room, and sits down at the little table by the window. "Hopefully you still have my number so if they /do/ press charges, you can give me a call.

She sets the box down on the table and opens the lid, exposing a wide variety of donuts. She leans back in the chair and crosses her legs at the knees, "These are from a little bakery that's next to the office. I didn't know what kind you like so I got a little bit of everything."

Her head tilts as she sizes up the disheveled, concern in her eyes. "How are you holding up?"

Katsumi Oshiro has posed:
Katsumi Oshiro stands near the door, watching Jen as she takes her seat. She closes the door finally, if slowly. Her hand lingers on the doorhandle as Jen asks her question, and her gaze lowers sullenly. "Sindie's alive. So I'm... okay, I guess." That's a lie. A dirty, dirty lie. Katsumi is anything but fine, and Sindie's injuries are only a part of the problem.

She makes her way over to the bed, turning to sit on the trunk at its foot. Self-consciously, she begins running her fingers through her mane in an attempt to fix it just a little. A glance is cast to the donuts, and they both look and smell good. But it feels just too awkward yet. Too vulnerable. "I still have it," she admits. "I don't know why you'd wanna attach your name to a sinking ship like me, though. If they go after me, I don't have a leg to stand on..."

Jennifer Walters has posed:
Jennifer's eyes track Katsumi's path to the foot of the bed, a scowl of concern as she passes the donuts without taking one. "Defending sinking ships is what I do," she says with a shrug. "You'd be surprised at how much of a leg 'I didn't know I had superpowers' actually is. There's a lot of precedent for it. Granted, it mostly comes from mutants discovering what they can do as a teenager."

She leans over to rest an elbow on the table. "It's good that Sindie is alive. It looked like she took quite the blow." Her lips press into a moue of thoughtfulness. "Don't... don't beat yourself up over it. It was an accident." She knows from past experience that that's easier said than done, but it still needs to be said.

Katsumi Oshiro has posed:
Katsumi Oshiro winces softly. "I trained so hard to be effective but not really hurt someone. I was really good at it. I injured just one person before. Back when I was just starting back. And it was only a minor little thing. Just popped a girl's shoulder. Medic took care of it in a snap. This one..." She shakesh her head sadly. "...no one's ever gonna let me in a ring again..."

Suddenly, her eyes lift to Jennifer again. "I'm not a mutie. I got tested for that when my eyes started changing. It was like the first thing that crossed my mind. This is..." She pauses, remembering what Nessa said. "...different."

Jennifer Walters has posed:
Jennifer scowls. "Mutie is... a derogatory term." Her chastisement is rather gentle. She figures that Katsumi probably didn't know since she's foreign. "And I didn't mean to suggest you were one. Just that you aren't the only one who's found themselves in this position... that you're not alone."

Katsumi Oshiro has posed:
That always confused her. 'Mutie' is offensive, but 'mutant' isn't. Katsumi doesn't have the willpower to chase that rabbit trail, though. She just exhales a little sigh. "Yeah, well.. I don't wanna wind up like'em. Where everything I'm supposed to be gets ruined because of something I can't help."

She leans forward, her elbows setting over her knees and her face planting into her palms.

"I need to get fixed. I wanna be me."

Jennifer Walters has posed:
The corners of Jennifer's mouth pull down in a frown when Katsumi confesses her desire to be 'fixed.' She opens her mouth at first to deny that she needs to be fixed at all, but thinks better of it. Instead she asks, "Do you know what's going on?"

Katsumi Oshiro has posed:
Katsumi Oshiro hesitates, then shakes her head. "Not.. really. Someone I know- someone I trust... said she thinks it's magic. Just a couple months ago, I wouldn't have believed that. But f*** me, she went and did spells in front of me. Actual magic." She scoots the sole of her shoe across the rug before lifting her head to look back to Jen. "So maybe it's that. She couldn't tell me what it was, either."

Jennifer Walters has posed:
Jennifer nods and takes a chocolate frosted cake donut out of the box, and scootches it suggestively towards Katsumi. They /do/ smell awfully delicious. "That's going to be the first step, then, understanding what kind of magic you've got." She drums her fingers on the table thoughtfully. "I know a few people who might be able to help," she muses. "If you want it." She's certainly not going to push the woman into anything she doesn't want at this point in time. Except, maybe, for the donuts.

Katsumi Oshiro has posed:
Katsumi Oshiro eyes the donut like a cat eyeing a mouse. Every little nudge gets a slight adjustment of her head - a tilt here, a tilt there. After it's left sitting for a moment, she gets up to retrieve it, then retreats back to the chest to sit and chews on it while Jennifer talks. "I can't imagine what it'd be. I'm no witch," Katsumi replies with a sigh. "I'm just.. normal. I /was/ normal. Then all this happened..."

Jennifer Walters has posed:
Jennifer lets a grin escape her lips. "Would it help if I were to say that there's no such thing as normal? I mean you are the Punk Princess, and one of the best damn wrestlers I've seen. Most people wouldn't consider that 'normal.'" She shakes her head rethinking what she just said, "That probably doesn't help any, though."

She sighs, and leans back in her chair. "I'm no expert in magic, but from what I understand something like this just doesn't happen to people out of the blue. It may be a curse thing, or an ancestor thing or..." she shrugs, "Hell, you could have purchased some jewelry from a mysterious shop."

Katsumi Oshiro has posed:
And just that quickly, Katsumi is looking at her lap as she considers everything she's bought since landing in America. Any jewelry? Not really. Nothing she's worn a lot of. Anything she's eaten that's weird? Well, a lot. She's in America. But she can't come up with anything out of the ordinary.

"A lot of people curse at me," she submits after a beat. "But I don't think I made any leprechauns mad or anything."

Suddenly, she gasps and looks up at Jen. "I- I- I don't mean y-, um, I don't- I mean I didn't-!," she stammers, somehow in her dazed brain associating the green gal across from her with a leprechaun.

Jennifer Walters has posed:
Jennifer looks confused, at first, at Katsumi's stammering. It takes a bit to connect leprechauns to herself and she chuckles, shaking her head. "No, no, no. I'm not a leprechaun, or anything magical. It's all weird science for me."

Katsumi Oshiro has posed:
"Oh.." Katsumi relaxes again, then seems to realize how stupid that panic was. She winces and knits her brow. "I'm losing it, I think. Gotta be. I wonder if that's a side-effect of this. Turns my eyes f***ing pink or whatever, makes me hit extra hard, and really dumb. I can't afford to get dumber, Jen..." She pops the last bite of donut into her mouth.

Jennifer Walters has posed:
Jennifer scootches her chair over to where Katsumi is sitting and reaches out to take a hand in her own. She squeezes it reassuringly, "You're not dumb," she says. "You're just scared, and when people are scared they tend to not always think straight."

Her green eyes look up to meet Katsumi's pink. "I was scared when I first changed, too. When it happened I was...." she pauses looking for the correct words. "Savage. Like my cousin. A destructive creature fueled by fear and anger and, believe me, I can can do a /lot/ of destruction." She leans back, releasing Katsumi's hand. "It took me a while to learn control, but eventually I was able to be... well... me in the end."

Katsumi Oshiro has posed:
Katsumi Oshiro flinches when her hand is taken, but doesn't fight it. She looks at the green hand in a detached sort of amazement. It's a hand, and it's green. This isn't normal to her life. It isn't normal for most people's lives, she suspects. Still. It's a green hand.

She lifts those magenta pools back up to Jen. "..Relatable," she submits, her narrow shoulders sagging. "You think I can still be me..?," she asks. "You think I'll be able to keep wrestling? If I just... get a handle on it?"

There's a hint of desperation to her voice, as if reaching for a life saver.

Jennifer Walters has posed:
"Probably," answers Jen. "I mean, no matter what you'll always be you, magic powers or not. It doesn't change who you fundamentally are." She thinks. It doesn't seem like something like that has changed her, but again, she's no expert. "Look at me. I can bench press tanks and still be gentle enough not to harm a kitten. I went to college to become a lawyer, and I'm still one, despite being nearly seven feet tall and green."

"If you can't get rid of it... or if you decide not to, it's just a matter of understanding what you're working with and control." She gestures with a hand, "You know all about control being a wrestler. You know how to throw a punch, or take a fall, or suplex somebody without really hurting them. It's the same thing, but on a different scale."

Katsumi Oshiro has posed:
Katsumi Oshiro is silent for a few seconds, processing what Jen is saying. She glances down at She-Hulk's green hands again, as if picturing her being gentle. "Show me." She suddenly looks up again. "I've never seen you do something super strong before. Show me. Do, um, something. Anything. Just, show me."

It's an odd request, but there's a reason for it. Katsumi needs to take this information in a specific way.

Jennifer Walters has posed:
Jennifer looks surprised at the request, not expecting it. "Well... um...." She looks around the hotel room trying to think of something that'd show off her physical prowess that /isn't/ something that would cause the hotel to eject them.

"I guess...." she stands up and walks over to the bed, gets her hands underneath it and just lifts it up to the ceiling like it weighed nothing. "Just... don't look underneath it. God knows what's growing down there. If you need anything more we'd have to go outside. Then I can juggle cars or something."

Katsumi Oshiro has posed:
Katsumi Oshiro has no snappy remark to make here. She's completely and fully tuned in on the display being made. Naturally, she looks beneath the bed when it's raised. Fortunately, this is a very nice, well-to-do hotel. Nothing creepy is lurking beneath the bed. Without a word, Katsumi refocuses on Jennifer and waits eagerly for her to put the bed back down.

Jennifer Walters has posed:
Jennifer carefully sets the bed back down, as close to the original spot as she can imagine. She turns and sits on the edge of the bed, facing Katsumi. "This is something you could probably do, too. Beds aren't that heavy."

Katsumi Oshiro has posed:
By the time Jen has seated herself again, she'll find a radiant smile on Katsumi's face. Those jewel-like magentas are practically shining.

"I can do that. I can- I can compensate. I can be normal. I don't have to stop fighting. I can be good enough to not-" She cuts off that thought. To not 'kill' people is a little heavy for her rising mood. "I can. Right? You said so, didn't you?"

Jennifer Walters has posed:
Jennifer nods, and rests a hand on Katsumi's shoulder, squeezing it lightly, reassuringly. "I believe so, yes. There's a lot of people out there with super strength, and super speed, who've learned to control it and go about their normal daily lives. Well," she concedes, "as normal as anybody ever gets."

Katsumi Oshiro has posed:
Katsumi Oshiro's gaze snaps hard to the hand on her shoulder. All at once, the light touch registers. Without realizing it, a relieved giggle escapes her. "That's what I'll do. I'll get better! I'll learn where the new limits are, I'll- I'll do whatever I have to to be safe. To not hurt people."

She gets up in a rush, moving to the opposite side of the bed, only to pause upon realizing something. "F*** me, I never thought I'd ever say something like /that/." Katsumi, promising herself to not hurt people. Weird. In a flash, her focus turns to the bed. Leaning down, she sets her hands to the edge. She pulls!

"Hnngh..!"

Her feet slide out from under her, managing only to heft a half of the bed at a mild incline. The bed is massive, hardwood. Katsumi's strong, an athlete, but deadlifting it like that? That's the most success she sees.

The bed is dropped flat again, leaving a perplexed Katsumi staring down at it. "Okay, what the f***!"

Jennifer Walters has posed:
Jennifer laughs as she's nearly tilted off the edge of the bed. "Slow down there, champ. We don't know what we're dealing with so your power may come and go seemingly at random." She shakes her head, getting up to move back to the donuts, pulling out a cruller.

"'Sides," she say, around a mouthful of donut. "You don't really want to test your strength in the middle of a hotel room. You might accidentally break something." She chews thoughtfully, "So gameplan: I know a guy who can help identify what's going on. He's a little shady but he knows his stuff. I'll give him a call tomorrow to set something up with you. I also know a couple of safe places where you can experiment if it comes to that."

Katsumi Oshiro has posed:
Katsumi Oshiro has stopped processing what Jennifer is saying, stuck in the feedback loop of 'I hit that girl so hard, and now I'm back to normal strength'. She stares at the bed, then her hands, then the bedframe. And then Jen, who had moments ago lifted it so effortlessly. Then back to her hands, which weren't even able to do more than tilt the bed. "I lost it? Wait."

Without missing a beat, she dashes into the bathroom area to stand in front of the sink basin. Leaning forward, she inspects her eyes in the mirror. They still have those bright, inhuman magenta irises. "THE F***!?," demands an outraged Katsumi.

"Nonono, I can figure this out. It- it must have been triggered or something. Right? Let me think."

The diva paces into the main room, bare feet padding along the rug. Suddenly she diverts to the desk and snatches the comment card and pen. "Is it the crowd cheering? No... would've hurt Naiad..," she murmurs to herself. "The bell? No, same deal. Booing? It's maybe that. Feeling like it's a real fight? A hard fight? Maybe." The pen bobs along the surface of the card as she jots down the possibilities. "Blonde opponent? Maybe. Blue eyes. Ugh, pretty. Hate her. Hope she's okay." Writewrite. "The running start? Might've been it. Being angry? Mason can screw himself..." Writewrite. "Was it all the hits? Maybe. Being carried? That'd be /so/ stupid." And yet, she writes that as well. "It better not be because they were chanting for /her/ finisher..." 'Swan Song' gets added to the list.

She suddenly looks back to Jennifer.

"What were you saying?"

Jennifer Walters has posed:
"I was /saying/ slow down, there." Jennifer nudges the box of donuts Katsumiwards again. Eating donuts will help her calm down. "We need to go about this rationally. Find out what you're dealing with first will give you and idea of how it works. It's better than," she waves a hand at the notepad, "wild speculation."

Katsumi Oshiro has posed:
"B-but what if I hurt someone without realizing I triggered it!?," balks Katsumi. "I have to-"

She pauses, eyeing a pink-frosted cake donut. An unintentional whimper escapes her before she snatches it up and occupies her mouth with the strawberry goodness. But she gives Jennifer an accusatory /squint/ while she does so. Upon swallowing, she says, "I can't promise anything. But I'm gonna be careful." And she bites again.

Jennifer Walters has posed:
Jennifer nods, "That's all anybody can ask for, really." She starts to make her way to the door. "I'll give John a call in the morning and try to schedule something with you. Everything's going to be okay."

Katsumi Oshiro has posed:
Katsumi Oshiro nods at Jen, only semi-vacantly. She's trying to catch up with what's happening, but she's pretty sure she missed something somewhere. "John. Sure. Absolutely," she agrees. "I'm not supposed to leave the hotel, so you know where I'll be."

She is totally already planning on sneaking out. She has a new sort of vitality thanks to this conversation.

Jennifer Walters has posed:
Jennifer eyes Katsumi suspiciously, sensing her plotting. "Just.... be careful, okay?" she asks, as she reaches for the door. "I'll call you tomorrow." And with that, she leaves.

Katsumi Oshiro has posed:
Katsumi Oshiro nods quickly. "Sure! Totally! You got it!"

The door shuts. Katsumi eyeshifts. "Who the Hell is John?"