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

[telekinesis_kills]

Danny is sitting cross-legged, rather solidly settled into one of the beanbag chairs scattered around the Plaza. He's watching people go about their business, just observing the ebb and flow of the foot traffic around him. At a certain angle, one might be able to see a faint pink glow around his body, which occasionally seems to sink a little deeper into his skin, and then back out again.

"I know what I ought to do," he says aloud. "Find a way back home, report on this new discovery, kick the actual decision-making upstairs to the higher ups, and wait for new orders."

Danny sighs, and it's almost like his body is pressed into his seat a bit more, as though by some large unseen hand. "Nobody knows that I'm here. And if it's true that we can come and go as we please... is anything stopping me from just... going a little later?"

He's probably going to do what he ought to do, all his training and experience tells him so, and yet...

He looks up, with a thoughtful frown on his face. "Is it selfish to want some time for myself?"

Comments

[telekinesis_kills]

"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..."

[termineur]

"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."

[telekinesis_kills]

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."

[termineur]

'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?"

[telekinesis_kills]

"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.

[termineur]

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?"

[telekinesis_kills]

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.

[termineur]

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?"

[telekinesis_kills]

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."