A Strange Afterlife

[ginger_firebird]

 It had to be impossible. He could feel his skin. A pulse beat under his neck. He stood in front of a store window and regarded his reflection in the glass. Same black leather outfit. Same brown trench-coat. The fabric weight down on him and he rubbed his arms as he tried to figure out what was going on. A wandering spirit had doors to enter and exit when it came to the world of the living, but he'd never achieved something like this. It was alien and wrong and he had no idea where anyone was.

Mantis sighed, marveling quietly at the way his chest rose and fell with his breathing. It didn't matter. He'd keep moving and hope for the best. If this was some punishment for a misstep, he knew exactly who to take it up with.

"Sorrow!" Even his voice carried an echo. Mantis pointed himself into a new direction and began to walk. "What did I do this time, old man?"

Comments

[ginger_firebird]

"You typically hear about people getting one in fictional works, but I think they cluster together in some form. Something built into the genes that causes the powers to manifest in the first place."

Now this is something he hasn't heard in a while! "If you're comfortable with someone rooting around in your head, I'll take you up on that. You can picture anything you want."

[harness_the_harness]

"Curiosity trumps comfort in this case."

Sigma exhales and focuses his eyes on a distant point. He imagines something simple: an apple, red and waxy. In his mind's eye, it slowly rotates. For a bit of embellishment, he imagines its peel unraveling in one long strip. He raises an index finger. "There."

While the placid image of the apple spins at the fore of his consciousness, his subconscious is a glittering nebula of memories, concepts, beliefs, sense of self and his real name: Siebren de Kuiper. Straightforward. However, if Mantis hazards a glance at the very back of Sigma's mind, a black, spherical void pulses and distorts the mental space around it.

... Eh, probably nothing, right?

[ginger_firebird]

Mantis takes a deep breath and lets it out very slowly. An intentionally open mind read differently from one that was unwitting or actively resistant. He saw the offered image and heard the scattering of thoughts right behind it, but that thing...in the back... His hands move out slowly away from his sides. He doesn't need the Hymn here, not unless he really wanted to reach back to find out what that void truly was.

"You're German? No, Dutch. Siebren de Kuiper. Kuiper Belt." He laughs quietly at the name. Mantis's gaze is unfocused as he speaks. It's a lot of concentration to get a clear string of information. "You pictured a shiny apple with the peel coming off of it in one go. And that...thing. You internalized some aspect of gravity? Like a black hole, but inside you. A lab accident. It happens to the best of people, but you control it now."

The mental chatter is too much, though, to bear for long. When Mantis draws back, it's slow and he breathes heavily for a few seconds after.

[harness_the_harness]

His jaw sets at the description. Certainly not this man's fault for obliging the request and reading all that was plain to see. Still chilling to hear his unusual state described by someone he just met.

"Correct on all counts, Mr. Mantis. Well done." He nods his head appreciatively, but still looks a bit shaken. "Pardon my earlier skepticism. It comes with the scientific territory."

[ginger_firebird]

Mantis shakes his head, clearing away the clutter and echo of the thoughts he had just been in. What a terribly interesting man he's met. A proper scientist. Possibly even a mad one, but not in a melodramatic and evil kind of way.

"It's been a while since I found a mind laid so readily bare. You're like an open book." Mantis rubs the back of his neck and slightly up to the back of his skull. "Shows how long it's been since I did that, too. Parlor trick psychics make it easier for the genuine ones like myself. We get paid better and more often."