"If you can't dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bullshit." -- Advice to her sister, Corinne
Nicoletta Lacombe is a music teacher at the Xavier's Institute who always seems to be running a fever and is warm to the touch. She is an outgoing individual when you get to know her and likes to live life on the edge and is always willing to do anything for the adrenaline rush. While she may look like a tough chick, but deep down she's actually really nice and caring. You can still talk to her, she's not gonna bite.
Nicoletta Marie Lacombe was born on December 17th in Kansas City, Kansas to Marybeth and Pierre Lacombe. She is the oldest of two children with her younger sister, Corinne, three years younger than she is. Their mother was a stay-at-home mom who kept up the house and took care of her and her sister as they grew up. Her father, who immigrated from France two years before he met Nicoletta's mother, was a professor of French History at the University of Kansas. Her parents were bother very loving and cared for both their children and tried to give their children the best life that they could offer. Growing up, her parents taught their children to treat people the way that they would want to be treated by others.
Nicoletta's mother wanted to instill some culture into her children and gave her children piano lessons. While her sister grew bored of it after a few lessons, Nicoletta took to it and immediately fell in love with the music. She was trained in classical music and kept up with her lessons every day. As they grew up, Nicoletta and her sister became more and more different. Corinne focused more on her appearance and popularity while Nicoletta focused more on her school work and music. She did pretty well in school and was an average student, getting mostly B's and C's in her classwork. Unknown to her parents, she had also started smoking after she entered high school. She had a small group of friends that she hung out with, even a few boyfriends, and was perhaps a bad influence to her. Four years later, Nicoletta finally graduated from High School though she was in the middle of her class.
Unsure of what she wanted to do with her life after graduation, Nicoletta decided to hold off on going to college. She tried several jobs and career paths to no avail, finding nothing that excited her or kept her interest. After she turned nineteen, she got a job at a local bar as a bartender. She loved her new job and enjoyed meeting new people. She continued to work at the bar for several months before she decided that she wanted to pursue a career in music and decided to leave Kansas City, moving to Los Angeles to try to become a famous musician. The news of her decision came as a surprise from to her family and friends, but they supported her decision. She continued to work at the bar for another year in order to save up enough money to move to L.A. and be able to support herself when she got down there. As a going away present, her parents bought her a Mustang GT convertable, which Nicoletta fell in love with and considers it her baby.
Nicoletta at the park
When she was twenty years old, Nicoletta finally moved out of Kansas City and arrived in Los Angeles. She ended up moving in with a woman she met through an ad for a roommate and became good friends with her. She found another job as a bartender while she tries to get discovered as a musician. She tries to get some gigs at a few bars and cafe where piano music would fit in, which isn't very easy to find. With some of her extra money, she added a few modifications to her car and decided to get herself a tattoo of a blue heart on her right bicep to celebrate her new life. She even managed to save up and get an apartment of her own, no longer having to have a roommate. Soon after, she discovered the rush of skydiving after she and her friends went one weekend and she was hooked. She started taking jumps once a month and soon as doing it every weekend. She learned how to pack her own parachute and doing solo jumps. A few months later, she started taking up BASE jumping. Her life was going well and she was happy with the way things were going, but her life soon changed forever…
A few months before her twenty-first birthday, Nicoletta was watching television in bed as she was recovering from the flu when her body started to feel really warm and when she took her temperature, she was amazed to find that she had a temperature of 117.3°F. As she was getting a wet washcloth in the bathroom, her right hand suddenly ignited in flames. Horrified, she screamed as she staggered out of the bathroom and into her bedroom. Surprisingly, she didn't feel any pain from the fire though her horror increased as her bed ignited in flames. She rushed to the sink, putting the fire in her hand out before she called 911. The fire department deemed the fire was caused by a lit cigarette that set the bedding on fire when Nicoletta fell asleep. They said she was lucky to be alive and unharmed after the sleeve on her shirt was burnt. She moved into a hotel while the apartment complex repaired the damages caused by the fire.
Nico using her power
A few weeks later, and after a great deal of research, she learned that she could create the fire herself and found an abandoned warehouse in downtown Los Angeles that she decided to use to learn to control her powers without setting her apartment on fire again. She has used this warehouse for the next four years, not telling anyone about her abilities for fear that she would have to register herself as a mutants. Through a ton of trial and error (and hundreds of dollars worth of ruined clothes), she learned to control her powers, creating the fire at will as well as igniting her own body as well as being able to create simple shapes with the flames. In December, she learned to create small spheres of fire the size of baseballs, which is her favorite thing to do now that she's learned she can shape these as well.
In June of last year, she decided to give up on Los Angeles after she failed to make it in her musical career and moved to the other side of the country to New York City to move in with her sister who had moved there from Kansas City. She arrived in New York City, moved in with her sister as well as scored a job as a bartender at a bar called Dalton's Bar. While her dreams of a music career hasn't been fully extinguished, she has put it on the back burner, instead she enjoys living her life the best she can and has even thought about trying to get into college and get herself a degree of some kind.
Her life now revolves around learning more about her powers and trying to live a normal life despite her abilities. With the world around her changing and more and more mutants becoming known, she knows that it's only a matter of time before she is exposed and is discovered for what she really is. She has even lost contact with her friends to keep her powers a secret, doing her best to avoid contact with people who might notice her unusual body temperature which has never returned to normal since the night her powers manifested. With the start of the Mutant Registration campaign, Nicoletta has become more and more anti-registration the closer it gets to being passed. With it being in limbo right now, she hope to try to keep it that way however she can.
Personality
Nicoletta gives off the impression that she is a strong, independent woman who likes to live life on the edge. She can be sarcastic and has a tendency to tease those individuals she likes, but it is never done with malice and when she gets close to someone, she will still tease them. Her family had taught her to treat everyone how she would like to be treated, no matter how they treat her though she has modified that belief slightly. She will be very nice and caring to other people until they give her a reason not to be, then her hot headed temper will start to come out. She will protect her friends if the need should arise for it. Her main driving force is to take down Hydra and everyone who used her. She is also an adrenaline junkie who loves to live life on the edge. She will be the first one to jump off a cliff into a lake or to jump out of a perfectly good airplane with a parachute strapped to her back. If it will give her a rush of adrenaline, however short, then she will be willing to do it at least once.
Trivia
Whiskers
Nicoletta's favorite piece to play on the piano is Moonlight Sonata and uses it as a warm-up piece.
Nicoletta has many scars over her body, mostly on her back.
Nicoletta's drink of choice is a Jack and Coke on the rocks.
Nicoletta smokes Camel Filters cigarettes.
Nicoletta owns a black Schoenhut 44-Key Upright String piano.
Nicoletta has two tattoos of a small blue heart on her right bicep and five tally marks on her forearm.
Nicoletta drives a silver 2000 Mustang GT convertable.
Nicoletta has a stuffed Skelanimal kitten named Whiskers.
Nicoletta has a collection of twenty-nine hoodies.
Nicoletta has a fear of doctors and hospitals, due to her body temperature.
Nicoletta tries to avoid physical contact in fear that they'll notice her unusually high natural body temperature.
Quotes
"See this?" Motions to her face. "This is me not caring…"
"I'm sorry, but you've mistaken me for someone who cares."
"I'm an only child… except for my sister."
"If you play with fire, you're going to get burned."
Playlist
Song suggestions for Nicoletta's playlist are welcome.
2012-06-29 - Beach Bum Birthday - Finally, Alex turns 21! There is a big bash at Xavier's Institute to celebrate with the usual amount of mushiness, pranking, and violence.
2012-11-29 - Prime Anti-Mutant: Blind Angel - The X-Men go to Senator Kelly as Avenging Angels, trying to show him the depths of darkness of which he has allied himself with to pluck him from them. If he cannot be made to see reason, then they must ask themselves if they will have the darkness take them underfoot; they find that they are not the only machinations at work in the depths of the twisted sea.
