nexus_crossings | Let's Get Phys-- I mean, Philosophical.

Tony was just cruising above the Plaza as he often did as Iron-Man now and again when he noticed the man with a pink glow around his body. Huh, well that was a bit odd. Zooming upwards into the sky he had his speaker system blaring out through his newly enhanced sound system built into the suit. The speakers are playing Shoot to Thrill by AC-DC. He then shot downwards towards the ground at speed, slowing down and putting out a hand and knee to stall himself.

"Selfish? No. As for going later? Why not? I never was any good at time keeping myself."

The engineer now retracting his visor so that the guy could see his face. Less intimidating that way anyway. What was with the pink glow though? Maybe this guy had powers or something.

Danny startles -- more for the sound of AC/DC than for the sight of a man in high-tech flying armor -- and for a moment, that pink glow pushes out further in all directions, which lifts Danny out of his seat and into the air, where he hovers now in an upright position. (Powers? An excellent deduction, Iron-Man.)

Danny relaxes slightly when he hears Tony's response to his question, and even manages a small smile when he can see the man's face. "Maybe it's just a side effect of being dedicated to a life of service before I could choose for myself. I always feel a little guilty when I'm not making myself useful."

Aal tilts her head a little curious, as she listens mid-stroller /cart push having just run some errands. "Mmh, well time does sometimes run different tween realms..But you shouldn't run yerself ragged either." Work-life balance was important.

She glances down fondly toward the stroller in her case now more than ever.

Danny shrugs. "Seems like there's always some kind of crisis happening back home. Maybe we are running ourselves ragged, but I don't really know of any alternatives."

And that glance toward the stroller is going to draw his eye, so he'll look himself. And he might be floating a little bit off the beanbag chair for a better vantage point.

She hums half sympathetic half knowingly. "Been there done that laddie." She murmurs in a companionable way. She nods as she thinks/ponders.

She smiles warmly at him and then slightly blinks before checking on her wee ones. "Our eldest is with his Da today." She murmurs in a cooing sort of way. As she checks on her girls, one's almost her mini me in coloring. Her little wolfie ears perking up as she sleepily blinks up at them both.

"This is Mary.." She murmurs warmly as she strokes a tender hand over her youngest head and back and fixes the blanket. Before nodding at the little blondie that had her father's hair. And was nuzzling Mary's plush sheep in her sleep. "And Elizabeth. " She murmurs warmly.

He gives a little wave to Mary, taking the wolf ears in stride. It's no stranger than when Gar would fully shift into animals in the middle of conversation. He won't do a thing to bother Elizabeth, since the other girl is napping.

Even Danny knows not to wake a small child from a nap.

"They're very cute." He smiles. "Are you getting in some 'girl time'? That's what my mom would call it when she went out and let Dad have one-on-one 'guy time' with me, when I was little."

Edited 2022-06-29 05:05 (UTC)

Aal makes a soft pleased/bemused sound and a happy canine squint at that. As Mary peeks up at the new face cutely, curious, and a little shy from behind the rim of the stroller though she does try to copy the wave.

Aal chuckles softly and warm, "Aye..ahem thank ya kindly. get that from their papa." She murmurs with a playful sort of chuckle. She hums and nods in the affirmative. "Mmmhmm took the words right out of my mouth." She murmurs sincerely and a bemused chuckle. Petting the girls' heads softly. "Sounds lovely." Before offering her own hand to shake.

"I'm Aalish SinClair by the way but most folks call me, Ash." Trying to figure out a non awkward way to do introductions. While trying not to self-consiously wince.Twas a skill and or segway she still sometimes needed to practice/work on.

Danny honestly doesn't notice her awkwardness when she introduces herself. He takes her offered hand and shakes it firmly. "Daniel Chase," he replies, "but I usually go by Danny. Nice to meet you, Ash."

He thinks over what she said at the start of the conversation. "When you said 'been there, done that', was it about running yourself ragged? Or always having a crisis happening back home?"

Any sort of advice on the handling of crises and avoiding burnout would be welcome, though he doesn't expect all the answers from Ash, of course.

She smiles warmly and sincerely. "Pleasure to meet ya." she states back automatically but honestly. She tries her head a little with a happy squint. "That's a lovely name." She murmurs complementary.

She blinks, listens, and then nods a little as she begins to clarify. "Ah, well it's more a bit o'f both." She pauses for a moment to search for the right words as she moves a finger like a gas gauze going from right 'full' to left arcing empty' ." Tis more the latter causes the former in most cases..Unless..certain citzens are just being more than their usual brand of frustrating on a very long etc sort of day." She murmurs wryly, part fond..But well still.

Trying to help those who just kept doing the same things over..and over and over again without much change..Or avoiding things altogether if..they'd just listen to her for two lousy seconds..Ahem. Well, one can imagine maybe one or two of the reasons she came back after finding a said spot. Though originally she'd been on the hunt for an old friend of her's that had a knack for being a magnet for trouble. Albeit usually well-intentioned. Or least curiosity..Usually of the scientific variety.

He'd hardly be called an angel (by most though an avenging sort he sometimes might be ) but he was on the side of such so to speak.

Danny nods. Constantly fighting, constantly being in danger... it contributes to feeling worn down and stressed. He smiles, though it's more sardonic than truly amused, at the mention of some people having their own 'brand of frustrating'... he's had similar descriptions applied to him, for one thing.

"You seem to have it handled," Danny comments. He gestures toward Mary and Elizabeth in their stroller, and elaborates, "At least, enough to settle down a bit and start a family. A lot of my old friends... they were so busy trying to save the world that they never really had a life outside of that responsibility. And I guess I'm the same way... my work is my life."

She tilts her head slightly in a diplomatic way and makes a wry sound. "Mmh, some days." She murmurs sincerely. Her smile turns softer at that reminder as she eyes two of her most precious 'gifts' "Wella ahem aye..we'd been planning such for a while..Unforeseen circumstances got in the way." She murmurs, trying to give a short summary..Unless he requested a longer tale..It was quite a one after all.

She hums and nods in understanding though. "Balance can be hard..but if things are worth the time and effort." She tilts her head again. "Though everyone has their own pace of course." She knew stress and pressures of various sorts never helped with such either.

Her eyes soften, like they might round one of the critters who didn't like being mothered etc. She had to reel back the urge for the moment. No no grooming.

Paul looks up at the stranger, head tilted to the right a little. Aside from the formal dress, there’s a sharp intelligence to him that might seem unusual for somebody his age. He’s in such a posture that he might have been hard to spot if he hadn’t cleared his throat to indicate his presence.

“If you’re selfish, so am I. I need this time to myself, too - if it wasn’t for the breather this place provides, I’d go mad.” He nods his head, a jerking movement. “I’m Paul Atreides. It’s a pleasure.”

Danny wouldn't know what's usual for most people. In fact he might enjoy some intelligent conversation.

When Paul clears his throat, there's a moment where that pink glow around Danny flows toward his own hands and intensifies, but in the next breath it's gone. Danny meets Paul's eyes after following the sound.

"That's a good point, I suppose." Danny acknowledges Paul's presence with a nod of his own. "Dealing with the mad is always a hassle, and I'd hate to put anyone else in the position."

This young man seems interesting, so Paul emerges fully from the place where he was resting, fully engaged.

Paul notices the pink glow, but doesn't comment just yet. People's powers are a personal business - he hardly advertises his own here, if partly because it's more in his interests if people don't know exactly what he's capable of.

"Besides," Paul says with a quirk of the lip, "I do appreciate the breather. I haven't seen you around before, so I'm assuming you're a newcomer - though I haven't been in the Nexus so long myself. I'm a visitor, not a resident."

Despite his first instinct to hold his telekinesis at the ready for an attack, Danny forces himself to release the energy. The residents of the Nexus were quite clear that violence was looked down upon here. So the pink glow around him fades away.

He nods at Paul's next comment, "Yes, I'm a visitor, too. Though that does sound a bit more intentional than what happened to get me here. I should have known better, really -- you never know what you will find in the abandoned lair of a mad scientist."

And... finally, his manners catch up with the rest of his brain. Danny blushes a little when he realizes that he let Paul's introduction go unacknowledged so far, and sticks out his hand for a handshake. "Pleased to meet you, Paul. I'm Danny Chase."

"I found my portal, though I keep the location secret and travel using a PINpoint. I suggest getting your hands on one if you haven't already. They're invaluable here, especially if you don't know how stable the portal you came through is and want to make return visits."

As for Paul, while he doesn't go looking for fights Danny might notice a sheathed knife at his side - not obvious, but within easy reach if it's ever needed in a hurry. It's more like a dagger, though not of any familiar kind that's found on Earth, and there's something almost organic.

Paul accepts the handshake, formal but friendly. "Hello, Danny. If that's how you prefer to be called." He has a few names by this point himself, but he's Paul here and he prefers to keep things simple until he knows people better. "That glow around you. You don't have to tell me unless you want to, but you aren't the only one here with special powers."

"A PINpoint?" Danny repeats. He thinks for a moment -- Paul likened it to a portal, but it's distinct, so -- he guesses, "Is that a device to enable transport to this place?"

Perhaps it's a good thing that he didn't go running back to the Central Bureau of Intelligence at first chance. They might approach it like some undiscovered territory to be stripped of resources, but if the people here have sophisticated transport technology, that sort of incursion could lead to the CBI sparking an interdimensional incident. (First off, not good. Secondly, imagine the paperwork!)

Danny makes note of Paul's unusual knife, but he won't begrudge another person their self defense measures. He smiles slightly when Paul shakes his hand and says, "Danny is easier to go with. No explanation needed."

If Paul was expecting his mention of Danny's powers to evoke a negative reaction, that's not the case. Danny shrugs casually and says, in a tone that might easily be read as arrogant, "I'm not the only one with special powers at home, either. I was born with an active metagene -- which expresses itself primarily with telekinesis."

(He doesn't mean to brag, really. But his bluntness can rub people the wrong way.)

[[OOC: Player, I know what he's like and I'm sorry. XD Feel free to take offense if that would fit your character. I'm cool with it.]]

Edited 2022-06-28 22:40 (UTC)

Paul nods. "Yes. I suggest guarding it closely in your home world. As for me, I hacked into mine, locking it so that nobody can use it besides me. I would like to prevent cross-pollination to the best of my ability. If you don't have one, they're sold in machines. Don't worry about the price, it's ridiculously cheap for how valuable these things are. It should take any currency, and if you don't have any you can take a few coins on me."

His reasons are similar to Danny's, superficially - Paul wishes to keep the political situation in his universe contained there, which he's decided would be best for everyone involved. That means keeping knowledge of the Nexus strictly to himself.

"Mmmm." Paul doesn't seem bothered by the tone in the least, instead mulling over the . "I was born with some of mine, I think, but there are also triggers that activate them or make them stronger. Some came about through special training - though I imagine that's the case with most powers, even if you're born with them. Practice helps most skills reach their full potential."

He's curious. It sounds as if Danny's powers have a biological origin, though from the way Danny explained them metagenes can express themselves in different ways.

"That's good advice," Danny responds, about the PINpoint. "There are plenty of people in my world that I wouldn't want running around a nexus of the multiverse." He listens to the rest of Paul's explanation for acquiring his own, then comments, "I've got some currency on hand. I should be all right, but thank you for the offer."

When Paul mentions 'special training', Danny's mouth twists into a wry, darkly amused smile. "Oh, yes. One must be molded into something useful, when one is a finite resource." He looks away, and down, and flexes one hand into a fist a few times. Then his hand relaxes and he looks up again.

Since Paul didn't tell him to stop talking, Danny continues to explain, "I have two cousins, but only one of them has powers. The grandfather that we share is the one whose genetic makeup was changed initially. We -- well, scientists in my world -- still don't know a lot about which genes cause which powers. Most of the people I trained with... their abilities were a surprise to their families."

"I'd imagine that's the case with all universes. The Nexus isn't able to keep out everyone who comes with the intention of starting trouble, but it's been quiet for at least as long as I've been here." If there was a situation, Paul thinks, he'd have to decide whether to step in and help - and there would be several factors going into whichever choice he makes. "I'm going to have a baby sister. She might have abilities similar to mine. These things do sometimes run in families."

Paul nods glumly, with an expression that suggests that he has a better understanding of what Danny is talking about than he's currently letting on. He certainly knows what being molded to fit a specific purpose feels like.

"I don't live here, but I do have a base of operations, so to speak - since I have friends and interests here to protect. Good to know you're able to get a PINpoint without any trouble. I'd suggest seeing Captain Rogers' PSA and grabbing some of the pamphlets. The Nexus doesn't have many rules, but there are some things to keep in mind."

"Quiet is good," Danny muses. Quiet is rare, on his world and in his line of work. And if there was a situation... Danny would probably be among the first to jump in and help.

Danny thinks that maybe Paul looks worried about his baby sister, and asks (rather bluntly), "If your sister has powers like yours, will she have to be trained like you were?"

Danny looks a little embarrassed at the reminder that he hasn't exactly been thorough in his information gathering just yet. "Ah, yeah... the guy who kinda looks like Commander Steel..? I saw that video playing, but I should probably slow down and grab some reading material. Most of the information I picked up so far was from... eavesdropping. And I think it was mostly the residents."

Paul doesn't disagree that quiet is good, though he's more cynical about whether things will stay that way. Some people will always want to start trouble or have interests at odds with peace in the Nexus.

There's another nod. "We have to learn fast, where I come from. Luckily I'm good at adapting to new situations, but I like to hang back until I've properly assessed things. I hope she will be, too."

He notices Danny's embarrassment. "I don't know who Commander Steel is, but I didn't really know what America was either. I'm...well, I wasn't born on Earth." Paul's found that humans are common, but non-Earthborn humans are rarer, and he's one of the few. "There isn't anything too serious. You have to be more careful in the Underbelly and the Wilds, because some of the residents aren't so friendly and the anti-violence field won't always protect you. If there's anything else you want to know, feel free to ask."

"She'll have you to learn from, right?" Danny asks, because while he has no firsthand knowledge of how siblings are supposed to work, that's what he hears about big brothers. "So she'll have an advantage."

"Oh!" Danny smiles when Paul says he wasn't born of Earth, and says confidently, "Don't even worry about that, Paul. I don't expect you to understand my references just because of the different universes thing, and it's not like I haven't met -- or worked with -- aliens before. When I was a kid, I teamed up with a half demon girl for a while. Before she tried to kill me."

Danny has a very strange history, but sometimes he forgets about how strange it can sound to other people.

"Oh, come on," says the tall man dressed all in black. He was lounging in one of the more overstuffed chairs littering the area and swings his legs around so he's actually in a proper sitting position on it. "I think most of us are here playing hooky from our frankly terrible worlds. It's a good use of the space. And if you've got 'higher-ups' you have to report to, you have even more reason to take your time."

He rolls his shoulders and smiles at Danny. His eyes are dark but sharp as he takes in the (slightly glowing) guy. "So relax, kid. You're not in trouble. Go get a muffin or something and enjoy your afternoon."

There's a slight flare in the intensity of the pink glow at the movement the tall man makes, but it subsides a moment later when Danny realizes that there's no immediate threat (or at least, no attack coming). When the man smiles at him, Danny mirrors the expression, and asks, "Treat it like a rest stop on a road trip?"

He shrugs at the mention of his higher ups. "We're probably all a little too used to 'fate of the world' problems. The on-staff psychiatrists stay really busy keeping the rest of the Bureau in line."

Sylar's eyes narrow slightly at the flare-up, but otherwise he doesn't shift his 'relaxed' position. "Bureau, huh? Well, I'm not part of anything like that, but 'fate of the world' problems are pretty common where I'm from, too. No psychiatrists to keep us steady, sadly." He thinks of what the hypothetical psychiatrists would have to deal with and chuckles to himself.

Addressing Danny again, he adds, "It might take awhile to sink in, I know, but- this place? It's honestly pretty safe. I mean, there's even a 'field' or something to prevent violence here. So yeah- rest stop on a road trip, exactly."

And that's about as far as he can get without asking The Question. "So- you're kinda glowing. What is that? A shield of some sort?"

"The psychiatrists are a new addition. I've been part of a few teams that prioritized fancy clothes and gadgets over proper support staff, and it never ends well."

Danny nods, "I've heard some folks talking about an Anti-Violence Field. Which... is a strange concept for me, but... the lack of conflict so far speaks for itself." When the man asks the question, Danny's face flushes slightly with embarrassment. "Ah, sorry. I'm in the habit of keeping my telekinesis up... and I fell into the nexus while in the middle of a cleanup. Someone has to come in and catalogue all the mad science after the superheroes have finished punching the bad guys, you know? But you never can tell what kind of experiment might jump out at you..."

Edited 2022-06-29 17:15 (UTC)

"Oh, telekinesis," Sylar says brightly, sitting up a little. His smile comes both from: a) Not needing to worry about wanting this power, and b) well, it's telekinesis. C'mon. "That's fantastic. One of my favorites. And you can put it out like a little bubble to intercept things, is that what you're doing? The color- does that cause a problem, that people can see where you're using it?"

He realizes he's being a little too enthusiastic (of course most people call it 'creepy'), and leans back. He clears his throat. "Sorry. I don't see telekinetics all that often. Especially one with an ability that works differently to mine." He reaches into his pocket and pulls out some coins, which then float up out of his hand and lazily spin in place about two feet up. "Name's Sylar, by the way. Good to meet you."

The enthusiasm is well received, actually. Danny grins back at Sylar and explains, "It can be a little difficult to lay a trap like that, especially because the energy is visible when I manipulate it. Usually, I'm visualizing a net being thrown over the target in these cases, and I have to be quick." He snaps his fingers, just a gesture to indicate how quick he has to be. "Besides, the current Director really doesn't want us to... er, destroy what we find. At least, not before R&D has a chance to poke at it."

Danny observes the way that Sylar makes the coins float. He's impressed by the lack of a visual tell.

"I'm Danny." His own enthusiasm should be obvious, the way that he drops any pretense of manners to exclaim, "It's really cool that you don't project any kind of visible field of influence, Sylar! I've met dozens of parapsychics, and almost every one would produce a visible distortion from the energy manipulation."

'Parapsychics.' He'll rate that above 'Evos' and below 'quirks' for the moment. Of course, it does depend how it gets used, but it's so interesting how many different names there are across these worlds.

"Yeah. Maybe that's because I tend to manipulate single points far more than a field?" he says, happy to ruminate on this. Danny's excitement has only made it clear he can stop holding his on back. "I also have gestures as a standard- they help me visualize." He holds his 'coin' hand up and makes a flicking motion, and one of the coins shoots upward at a really astonishing speed. He'll keep an eye on it and catch it once it comes back down. "That means it's a pain when my hands aren't available."

The coin finally drops back, and he makes a show of slowing its fall until he can 'catch' them all out of the air. He sticks them back in his pocket. "So your Bureau handles fallout between...parapsychics, then? Or were you being literal with the superheroes/bad guys stuff?"

"What do you mean by a 'single point'?" Danny asks. "In the first group that I trained with, our skills were all a little different. Strength could push or pull with a lot more power, but she needed a larger area to grip things. Fool needed tactile contact, but she could send the energy through just a fingertip if she had to. How small can you go before you lose your grip?"

Sylar's display with the coins makes Danny stop asking questions for a while, and his gaze moves from the coins to Sylar's hands and then to Sylar's face and back to the coins. As if he were trying to catalogue what gestures led to which movements, and how much concentration Sylar had to exert for the display...

"Yeah," he says, "first instinct is to use your hands. It's natural to visualize it as an extension of your body, and the energy patterns itself after the mental picture, so... someone throws a ball, you visualize catching it in your hand, the energy approximates a hand where the ball ends up. Specialized shapes take more practice, more focus."

Perhaps he's distracted, because he blinks at the questions about the Bureau, and gives his head a little shake. "No, very literal. There are several superhero teams on my world. I used to be part of one, when I was a teenager."

Which, to be fair, wasn't that long ago since he's only in his early twenties now. But Danny tends to think of his life in very distinct sections.

Sylar really should ask more about the Bureau, and yet another actual superhero universe. He'll get there, but the ability questions are so much more intriguing. It's almost like an entirely different approach to telekinesis. "How small? I haven't tried an atom yet, I guess."

He rubs his chin, but he's looking extremely pleased with himself. He loves showing off. "I did break up a brain clot in someone's head once. That's probably the most complicated thing I've done with telekinesis. Now that I'm thinking about it, though- my 'points' are usually...about as wide as the tip of your finger? A centimeter diameter or so. Usually, I'd use a couple points on either side of an object to manipulate it."

Enough about him, though- well, no, never enough about him. But he is trying to understand Danny's ability. "So you don't have to gesture or touch the object, it seems. Was that practice, or have you always done it that way?"

Danny looks impressed at that mention of breaking up a blood clot. "It's really difficult to reach inside a person, and it doesn't do much good for saving someone unless you know about the physiology of the body part you're manipulating. I don't know many who would try."

Sylar seems to be angling for a demonstration, and Danny is willing to oblige. Danny looks around close to them, making note of a few unoccupied chairs in the vicinity. "Well, as you've no doubt guessed, I can't exactly be subtle..." He opens both hands, and they both become wreathed in that glowing pink energy. There's a slight pause, and then a pink disc roughly six inches across appears under each of the empty chairs he picked out.

"As long as I can see an object, I can affect it... the closer to me, the better..." Danny lifts his hands, and the four various chairs under his influence rise in the air. They arrange themselves into a rough circle. He flicks both wrists inward, and the chairs float about to switch places. "And while I do have to make some gestures, I try to keep them as small as possible."

Danny lets out a breath once the chairs settle back to the ground, and the pink glow vanishes again. "It took a lot of practice to get small motions to have big effects. Better than having a hostile figure out what I'm trying to do, though."

Was that showing off? Maybe a little. Better than any of the violent demonstrations that the old Director might have demanded, though.

Sylar grins when Danny is impressed. Thank goodness Hiro forced him into saving that girl- it's really one of the most impressive stories he has now. "Yeah, it's a good thing the blood clot was in her brain. Might've been more dicey for me, otherwise."

Oh, is Sylar going to actually get to see the telekinesis? He stands up to watch, eyes fixed on the pink energy as it morphs and moves to the chairs. He can't pretend to be casual when he sees something like this.

Sylar's smile becomes a wide grin as Danny moves the chairs up and mixes them up and sets them back down. And yes, he has to remind his mind that no, he doesn't need a pink glowing energy field. He does not need to relearn telekinesis, thank you very much.

"Well done. You're clearly skilled," he says with bright eyes. "I've practiced to pull my movements down, too. I can manage a few things without gestures, but it turns into raw pushing force then. Not elegant, but good for emergencies." He might practice more, after this.

He rubs his chin. "Do you end up having to deal with 'hostile figures' a lot? Or was that more the teenager team, fighting the bad guys?"

Danny can't help looking gratified at Sylar's compliment. His experiences with the Teen Titans taught him not to brag (because people are sensitive about being talked down to), but he loves acknowledgement and praise.

"Well," he says, perhaps a bit too casual or a bit too familiar, "if you can actually hook inside someone, elegance becomes less of a concern. It's very easy to damage internal organs."

"When I was with the Teen Titans," Danny shoots Sylar a look, as if to acknowledge that the name is odd, "it felt a little more personal. Men in costumes holding grudges over the last time we ruined their grand plans, that sort of thing. Now that I'm back with the CBI, if I get attacked it's because I'm a CBI agent, not specifically because I'm Danny Chase."

Let's Get Phys-- I mean, Philosophical.

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