nexus_crossings

Solntse

He doesn't sing. Not well, or particularly often, at least. It takes a lot of concentrated effort for Mantis to get around the scars from smoke inhalation to bring out the natural depth and husk his voice has picked up over the years. At least his appearance is slightly easier to alter to match how he feels on the inside. The headscarves that had been a one off thing have now become commonplace, and he has a black one covered in bright floral patterns on today. He's walking along a fountain's edge and dips his feet along either side as he does small turns. Headphones further secure the scarf into place and lead by the cable into some device or another in his pocket.

While it might not be obvious at first, one might catch that he pivots his hips just a little and sways his arms just so. It's a subtle kind of dancing that can easily slip into regular movement with the right motivation. What might surprise some who know him is that he even slips up so far as to hum a little to whatever tune is playing straight into his ears.

The humming gives way to words, but only for a single line. His voice is quiet and slow, but the tone of the song couldn't be more obvious.

"Oh what will the signal be for your eyes to see me?"

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For someone who is musically inclined, Mick was always curious to know what other people's music tastes were throughout the Neuxus. Now, coming up to the fountain he spotted the man wearing the head scarf with headphones secured over it. He was listening to music which always interested the guitarist. So, he decided to sit close by with his guitar resting in his lap as he spoke to the dancing man.

"Signal? I suppose it could be the way you're dancing and the fact you're wearing headphones. You're a bloke who likes music then? I'm a guitarist by trade and am always interested in other people's music tastes."

He offered the man a smile and strummed a few strings on his guitar softly.

Mantis gasped loudly and pulls his headphones off. Between panic and momentum, he almost goes en pointe while turning to face the newcomer. Sure, he had been dancing a little and getting lost in the melody, but it's another thing entirely to be caught having that measure of fun. He nods and brushes a hand over one ear, hoping he's not blushing in response to having been caught.

"Music is important to my work. It kept me sane and became a tool I used to work better."

The guitar playing catches his eye immediately and he looks the man up and down. "A musician. You don't have the right look for country. Probably rock."

"Keeps you sane? I know all about that, mate. Music keeps me grounded too and also helps when I'm feeling down."

Lately it had helped when Mick had suffered nightmares and unwanted thoughts about his past and the pressures back on his own world. Just getting lost in a tune whilst playing his guitar was the best thing since it calmed the blond down. He also loved experimenting with new sounds on the pedal board and amp back at Ziggy's townhouse in the recording studio.

"You got it right there, mate. Rock. Glam rock to be more specific. I'm Mick Ronno, lead guitarist for Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. There's me, Ziggy, Weird, who's bassist and Gilly, the drummer."

The mutual feeling on music endears this man to Mantis. He's delighted to learn he's speaking to one of the members of Ziggy's band and his tone lightens up immediately as he has a proper seat.

"I was there at the concert you had here! I met his father and got perhaps a little too drunk. He's been helping me gain fashion sense, but I don't think I can carry what he does."

Looking at the wardrobe of one like Ziggy Stardust is to look into a kaleidoscope. Nothing stands still for long.

"It's nice to meet you, Mick. I'm called Psycho Mantis, but no one uses the first half anymore."

"Oh, you were? That's great, mate. Did you enjoy it? Ziggy's always good at putting on shows and things even inside this Nexus place."

This pleased the guitarist who was smiling now, knowing Mantis enjoyed Ziggy and the Spiders. As for meeting Tom and getting drunk? That was the story of most who met Ziggy and his family. The getting drunk part was pretty much what all the bands did anyway so no skin off anyone's back.

"Tom's a decent bloke. I look up to him almost as if he's a second father to me. Aletayria---she's been like a second mother to me too."

Many a time had Ziggy's mother helped Mick when he was struggling with emotional issues and things about Anthean biology. So much alien stuff and it just blew his mind. He was glad she went slow with him.

"Psycho? Is that like a band name sort of thing? A stage name? Mine's Ronno but you can call me Mick. Most do."

"I even wore a bit of special clothes for the occasion. It's not easy finding black sequin jackets, even here. You have to dress up to see someone like Ziggy on stage."

Mantis had a lot of issues and life experiences that excluded him from the general populace of people, but one does not simply grow up in the Soviet Union and not come out of it with an admiration for Western music. He has more than a few bands represented on his music player.

"They're loving and welcoming people. If my own father had been half of what Tom is, I would have had a happier childhood."

He laughs at the question and shrugs. "A code name from my military days. I've never had much need to go by anything else."

They were coming to introduce their daughter, Viridian walking along beside them on all fours, which is still most comfortable for her, but Soundwave knows this song, and he plays it, but without the vocal track.

It's Ravage who sings:

"...watching offside as I wait, just in case you need me.
So I still will set the stage, send my thoughts to you:
I'm receiving every wave, this will send love through--"

Viridian sits down in a loaf and stares at her parents, suddenly aware that she's seeing something that predates her existence--would have caused her existence, perhaps, if things had gone in a more natural direction...

Mantis is far less perturbed to be found by Ravage and Soundwave. He even laughs a little seeing them approach and takes his headphones down to rest around his neck. His hands come up to conduct the last of the verse: one more still and the other darting up and down to catch every note with relative accuracy.

"Blondie. She was an icon of her own kind, even in Russia." Mantis sits down on the rim of the fountain and waves to the newcomers. "Sometimes one needs to listen to music, no matter what it is."

Soundwave grins. "This song is special for us, too. We had some rough times on our Earth in the 1980s. I didn't know that we had the same songs."

He slips one arm around Ravage and gestures to Viridian with his free hand. "There's someone we want you to meet."

The small green cybercat unloafs herself and approaches Mantis cautiously. Her frame is exactly like Ravage's used to be, except that she's green, with red and black accents, but she has wide yellow eyes; like Soundwave's.

"This is Viridian," said Ravage. "She's our daughter; we just recovered her."

"This is our friend, Mantis," says Soundwave in a gentle voice. "She doesn't talk," he tells Mantis, "but she can send you messages through PINpoint. Or I can translate."

Edited 2021-05-17 05:38 (UTC)

"A surprising number of things seem to remain consistent. I'm glad for that. Makes it easier to understand new people."

He tilts his head curiously as Viridian and waves. A daughter. She certainly looked the part. He fished his PINpoint from a pocket on his person and showed it to the cat-bot.

"I can handle the PINpoint just fine. It's a pleasure to meet you, Viridian. I hadn't known your parents even had a little one like you. You look a lot like your mother, but I can see hints of Soundwave in you."

If you're a telepath you can talk to me that way, too. I'm not very good at sending yet but I can receive just fine.

They didn't know for sure that I existed until they found me. Because of the war, and ... other things.

Viridian isn't about to tell him that her evil uncle Shockwave made her in a laboratory using her parents' CNA, and possibly some of his own as well; that's their story to tell, since finding it out was much more traumatising to them than it was to her. She was just glad to have parents.

At first they weren't sure how much of the non-feline CNA in her came from which of the brothers, but when she and Soundwave began to converse naturally using telepathy, it became very obvious, especially in her love of puzzles and games and complex things and juxtapositions of conflicting concepts.

She doesn't have Soundwave's gifts to the same degree that her father has them, but honestly, she and her father both think that is probably a good thing; she's able to walk through a crowded room without picking up stray thoughts from complete strangers whether she likes it or not, and she's more than willing to have a potential range that's measured in miles rather than astronomical units in order to have some privacy.

Hello?

If you are comfortable with telepathy, I find that easier too most of the time.

He does shift in his seat a little and sits up straighter. His hands start moving as he signs some of the words as they come to mind. They're imperfect from use, but accurate enough to what he's saying to her. He even projects far enought that Soundwave can hear. There's something special about Viridian's existence that he isn't sure he's going to be told yet, but it will probably come out in the end.

My name is Mantis. I'm a friend of your mother and father. I have powers like your father does, but he and I use them differently. When I was little, I learned to talk with my hands, too.

I can't afford to depend on having my hands free in order to communicate, Viridian explains. I'm not as comfortable standing only on my hindlegs as Mama.

But I have comms, and PINpoint!

Soundwave for his own part is gently amused. You don't actually have to project for me to hear you. I would tell more people that, but they all get upset, because they don't realise that I'm making more of an effort to tune them out than I am to hear them. Even my spouse and my daughter should have privacy when they desire it, but I can't help being the way that I am.

I wouldn't know what to do if I thought I had secrets from you, Ravage thinks, warmly; she's got no native telepathic reception, but wrapped in Soundwave's field, she can share his communications with others.

Mantis laughs quietly at her description of Ravage. My only option is standing on my two legs, and that still makes me feel tired after a while. Sometimes I just fly everywhere so I can avoid having to stand.

"I have a similar issue when I take my mask off." He sighs thinking about the headache that comes with it. "I don't know how much is a placebo effect and how much of it is real, but it's easier to control my telepathy when I can cover my face."

"That song. Is it from your home country?"

Ben perks up when he hears the music. Mantis has a nice voice, he thinks - Ben himself isn't a musician by any stretch, but he thinks he can sing and he wants to try it out sometime. He likes the headscarf, though Ben himself doesn't do flowers. It's a rate day when he wears something that isn't black or some shade of black.

"We have music where I come from, but you'd probably consider it alien."

"Debbie Harry. She's the lead singer for a group called Blondie. She sang this one for a movie ages ago where people use the power of rock music to save the day."

He's actually blushing this time, but not terribly so. The scarf does a good job covering the tops of his ears and he shifts his weight as he stands. No, he is not a good singer, but he can sing. A little. When he feels like it. When he thinks no one can hear him. It's not like he's that musically inclined.

"I doubt it would sound too alien. I've heard a little of everything over the years."

"Never music from another planet, I'm guessing. That movie sounds, ah...like the kind of thing I can see Ziggy and his family watching."

Ben smiles a little. As far as he's concerned, Debbie Harry and Blondie are alien to him, but he doesn't comment on that.

"I'm not a good liar. Never have been - so I'm telling the truth."

"It is one thousand percent the kind of thing Ziggy would make music for. He can't help being dramatic like that. It's something inherent to how he lives."

He sits on the edge of the fountain, one leg crossed over the other.

"Maybe there's music where you come from in the library. I've found all kinds of strange books there."

"You're right. There might be - I've never actually looked. Music isn't something I think about too much."

Ben looks a little awkward. He's a bit too practical-minded for that.

"I learned a little about your planet, though. So I won't stick out too much if I ever visit."

"We can make a trade. I'll pick out Earth music for you to listen to and you can pick some from your end of the multiverse. Eventually, we'll find things we agree sound good."

He pulls his head phones off his neck and offers them to Ben.

"I can restart the one I was listening to. We can start your education early."

"We've got a deal." Ben accepts the offered headphones, pausing before he slips them on.

"What else do you have? I might look around and see what I like if the library has any music there."

Mantis pulls his music player out of his pocket: a small rectangle with a screen and a few buttons on the touch screen for navigation. He sets the song back to the beginning and motions for Ben to put the headphones on.

"A lot of rock. Western music. Some of it's classical, and I have a little...specialty music in here."

Ben obeys, putting the headphones on his head and listening carefully. "You know...these aren't the kind of tunes I'm used to, but they aren't bad."

He smiles a little. "Specialty music. That should be interesting."

"I know I talk a very good game, but even I can admire a soft love song."

He smirks, turns down the volume, and switches to one of the more out-there songs: an example of Mongolian throat singing. Then he sits back and waits for Ben to react.

Ben listens, then laughs a little. "That isn't a soft love song, even I know that. What is it?"

Earth music is strange, he thinks.

"Throat singing. I don't know how you're supposed to do it, but it's unique to this one part of Earth. It doesn't even sound like something humans should be able to do."

Mantis switches the song again, favoring something in the realm of classical music. It's a plucked strings kind of song, no matter which instrument you're tuning in on.

"I have been too much around the world to have any real preference in music anymore."

"There are a lot of things humans shouldn't be able to do that we do anyway," says Ben. "Coming from a people with paranormal powers especially."

He noticeably relaxes as he listens, his muscles becoming less tense.

"Different planets have different styles. My father had interesting tastes."

"We're exceptions rather than genuine acts of pushing natural limits. At least, I'm an exception. There seems to be a lot of people like you."

At least, if he's remembering the lore of Star Wars correctly, which he certainly isn't.

"Han Solo... What was he like as a parent? He always seemed to be confident, even when he wasn't sure about what it was he should do."

"I wouldn't say there are a lot. There are probably a number of untrained Force-sensitives, though, and Rey will be able to help them. I might be able to - if some good can come out of my experiences, I can help stop people from making my mistakes."

Ben scratches the back of his neck.

"He meant well, but he was busy and he wasn't prepared to have a very Force-sensitive son. My parents had to work, so I was left on my own a lot. I think my powers frightened him."

"Don't force yourself to be a mentor unless you're ready for it. Teaching people and being a model of how not to conduct yourself are entirely different mindsets. I am no mentor. I will absolutely stand as a model of how not to live a life."

Mantis sighs. Even Ben has a slightly better father than he had.

"At least he tried figuring out what to do with you. Mine hadn't figured out what was happening until it was too late to change anything."

"Rey will need help, we think. But we'll talk about it first."

Ben shakes his head. It sounds as if Mantis's powers were even more alien where he came from.

"We knew where it came from, too. My grandfather was an extremely powerful Force-sensitive, possibly one of the most powerful who ever lived, and my mother inherited that from him. They saw him in me - and that scared them, too, for good reason."

"It's good to support her, but always keep your health in mind. You can't support her when you're stressed out to the point of non-functionality."

Spoken as someone who never took such advice to heart a day of his life, mind.

"You're a lucky one, but also unlucky. It sounds like you got the tail end of an unfortunate family history. They were right to be worried, but there's healthier ways to handle it." He lets out a huff of laughter. "I had to die to learn the truth. I could read the minds of the living, but I couldn't properly hear the dead. It was my my mother."

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Solntse

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