7814/Up On -- and Over -- the Roof.

Up On -- and Over -- the Roof.
Date of Scene:	10 June 2019
Location:	Titans Tower
Synopsis:	A little meeting of minds on the Titans Tower roof.
Cast of Characters:	Kian t'Kaeh, Negasonic Teenage Warhead, Stardust

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Kian t'Kaeh has posed:
    Indoors, it's pretty obvious to anyone that's seen him that Kían is always a little out of sorts.  He tends to hold his wings close.  He stays near windows.  There are some rooms he won't go in, and the one time he just saw inside the elevator, he looked like he might turn and bolt.  Even though from the way he's talked about his home, he's from a technologically mature society, their relationship to enclosed spaces is completely different from the typical Terrestrial one.
    Outside… well, that's another story.
    Kían might call it exercise, but if there's anyone watching, it looks halfway between play and dance, in three dimensions.  His moves in the air are fluid and graceful, not cautious and careful.  He comes rocketing out from one of the arms of the 'T' of the tower and pulls into a high speed climb.  At the peak he pivots into a dive, straight for the pool… and pulls out just before hitting the water, nearly skimming the water's surface with his wingtips, dipping a toe in to kick up a small wake and slow himself.  He weaves in and out of the diving board platforms, finally perching lightly on the edge of the topmost board.  And then he's in flight again, using the board to propel himself into the air.
    An observer might think he's showing off.  Or, to judge by the happy look on his face, he's just having fun.

Negasonic Teenage Warhead has posed:
    Ellie steps out onto the roof for the first time from the elevator.
    There are absolutely parts of the Tower she hasn't had time to check out fully yet and this is one of them.
    "Huh… woah… okay why didn't Raven show me the roof during her tour… this is amazing…"
    The teenager starts to walk over towards one of the edges of the building right about when Kían comes rocketing out from one of the sides of the tower and then loops up and then down.
    There is a yelp from Ellie as she ends up on her ass, startled.  It's been a long weekend.
    She continues to watch him… show off… no… have fun there soaring and stretching his wings.  "Wow… he is really good," she mutters.

Kian t'Kaeh has posed:
    It takes a moment for the startled yelp to be processed; Kían turns and hovers and spots Ellie.  And then he descends in a slow spiral, dropping lightly to his feet about two meters in front of her.  He looks looser, calmer, more relaxed than usual, and bows slightly.  "Kié, Nega.  Did you fall?  Are you hurt?"

Negasonic Teenage Warhead has posed:
    Ellie looks bemused "I did but it is fine Kían… didn't hurt myself just my pride."  She looks up at him thoughtfully still sitting there.  "Thankfully I didn't have any doughnuts to throw at you… damn I am jumpy this weekend."
    Which is honestly a bit dangerous, she needs to get her life straight.
    "You're looking good."

Kian t'Kaeh has posed:
    "I am?" Kían asks, quite genuinely.  "Was I looking unwell before?  I've felt all right, but this world does weird things to your head.  I might not have noticed…."

Negasonic Teenage Warhead has posed:
    Okay that has Ellie amused as she smiles up to him, actual smile.  Mostly like one smiles at a puppy though.
    "You are adorable but don't quote me on that or I will deny it.  You just seem more… mmm… relaxed and happy.  Must be the flying out and about… you should do it more."

Kian t'Kaeh has posed:
    The little birdman looks up into the sky, and absently spreads and folds his wings.  "It's the only time I feel normal anymore.  Even though the gravity's wrong and the smell is wrong and around buildings the wind currents are like nothing from home."  He waves in the general directions of New York City to the south, and Metropolis to the north.  "We don't impose ourselves on our worlds like this.  But, we also can't live as close together as humans can."
    He stretches and folds his wings again, seemingly unaware he's done it.  "But in the air, none of that matters, really.  Sometimes," he continues, lowering his voice a little as if admitting to a sort of transgression, "I like to fly out over the mainland to where there's trees and no buildings."

Negasonic Teenage Warhead has posed:
    "I do like flying… my landings are always horrible though."  Pause.  "Okay not always horrible but I can't turn very easily and landing is… yeah I do not have enough practice not crash landing."  She shrugs, rolling her shoulders.
    "You though Kían looked like you were dancing… the gravity may not be the same but you are agile up there in the air."

Kian t'Kaeh has posed:
    Kían looks like he wants to blush.  "Oh, that wasn't… nnh.  Your language hasn't got a word for it that I know of.  I suppose you could call it sky-dancing.  That's much more complicated.  Most of that were some exercises for… nnh!  You don't have a word for that either, and I can't think of one.  It's a sport, called qihar.  I don't know if I can explain it in English."  After a moment, he adds, "I was always pretty good at it.  Not professional good, but a good amateur."
    Something just sank in, and he looks sharply at Ellie.  "Wait, you can fly?"  His gase shifts to just past her shoulder, as if looking for wings.

Negasonic Teenage Warhead has posed:
    "Well you looked like a pro to me."
    Then there is a chuckle from Ellie as she notices him looking at her back.  "Okay… lets see."  She slinks up to her feet and walks over to one of the tables by the chairs and empties her wallet, phone, tablet from her jacket.  Everything that could be damaged by ending up in the pool or the river really goes out onto the table.
    "Okay lets see if I can do a bit of a hop without crashing.  If a giant robot comes to shoot at me though I expect someone to say I wasn't doing anything criminal."  Okay, that is a bit ominous.
    Still Ellie steps away from the furniture to an open patch of roof.  The air around her crackles and shimmers with kinetic potential and she… sort of rockets off the roof straight up.
    She times it so she doesn't damage the roof.
    Still it is a lot of concentration to release the energy leaving aa streak of flames behind her as she shoots up into the sky, it is… not a small amount of thrust either, but she does seem to be able to muscle the turn.
    She is right she does not turn on a dime at all and it is clear to another flyer why she may crash land a lot.

Stardust has posed:
    "Anyone can fly if you throw them hard enough."  The voice comes from above, moving in the opposite direction to Negasonic.  This must be flying day.  Stardust slips lightly down past her as she accelerates skywards, and drops onto the roof, decelerating to a stop smoothly as she reaches the roof so that she lands lightly on tip-toes.  It's a real contrast to either Kían's or Negasonic's method of flight—his is all a symphony of aerodynamics, hers is brute thrust, whereas Stardust's is just… really, how do metahumans fly? It seems almost like the laws of physics are being broken.  In her case, this is true.  She may not have Kían's sheer aerial poetry, but she studiously ignores gravity, air resistence, lift, and such similar inconveniences.
    Stardust is also holding a very sizeable sack.  It's almost as large as she is.  She drops it with a metallic clattering.  "Did someone say something about giant robots? Been there, done that, brought a souvenir.  Uh.  Have we had any unusual visitors to the tower today? Because… because today has been strange.  Hi Kían."  She'll wait for Negasonic's descent before greeting her properly.  While she waits she opens her backpack and pulls out a bottle of water to swig.

Kian t'Kaeh has posed:
    "c'Rhys'yw!" Kían squawks at Ellie's liftoff.  That was… not what he expected.  Although he can see why she might find landings problematic.
    He grabs a towel, runs it under cold water, and towels off his face, shoulders and chest while watching Ellie.  There's a little tension in his wings that indicates a readiness to take off again—probably if one of her less than perfect landings looks imminent.
    Colette's voice catches him off guard.  "Kié, Colette.  I don't know that I would recognize 'unusual'.  Everyone's unusual to me.  But I haven't seen anyone I don't recognize."  He glances at the sack, then inquisitively at Colette—and then back to the sky, looking for Ellie.

Negasonic Teenage Warhead has posed:
    Okay Ellie would laugh at Colette's joke, maybe, if she wasn't very familiar with fastball specials.
    She is right now trying to figure out how to land on the roof.  Damnit.
    She archs as carefully as she can back around back to the roof but at a pretty shallow angle and eases off the explosive flight.
    So yeah her landing is less graceful ignoring gravity and more a skipping she does across the roof, missing the furniture thankfully, towards the pool.
    Going slower like this it is clear there is some sort of 'blast shield' around her that cuts out when she is slow enough to stop all thrust… not to say she doesn't roll and end up on her back staring at the sky a couple of feet from taking a bath.  "wooo" is all she manages.  "God I hate landing."

Stardust has posed:
    Stardust nods a response to Kían as she tracks Negasonic's descent.  "Okay.  Just something someone said.  I think someone's targeting us, possibly in a rather inept fashion.  If you notice something that strikes you as more unusual than usual, let me know."
    Negasonic's not-quite-crash-landing rates another nod.  "We should have those score cards like people hold up in gymnastics competitions, Kían.  However I think we should avoid rating her on style."  She hops over briskly to Negasonic and offers her a hand up.  "How much control do you have on the thrust? Can you slow yourself down by adding a little boom in the direction you're heading? Flying… however you do it… is really about balancing forces.  Like one of those vertical landing jets.  Get the thrust upwards equal to the force of gravity downwards, and you balance on it.  You might need to learn how to make lots and lots of really rapid but small booms rather than fewer big booms, if you get what I mean.  Flying's fun either way though."

Kian t'Kaeh has posed:
    Yeah, that's not a landing style Kían cares to interfere with, and the look on his face says one word that transcends both species and culture: 'Ouch.'  Aloud, he says diplomatically, "I think I can understand why you don't like landings."
    He stands back and lets Colette help Ellie up—contact telepath, they both know.  "Yes, that makes sense.  Small pulses that are more easily controlled.  I suppose.  This isn't a means of flying I'm familiar with, either myself or our ships."

Negasonic Teenage Warhead has posed:
    "I just think I don't have enough practice."  optimistically rueful.
    She accepts the hand up from Colette "I can't stop the stream of energy or the blast shield cuts out and I'm basically in free fall… so it has to be constant levels of energy in… well it is true any direction.  I didn't really think of trying to throw energy out anywhere but behind me."
    "I… should try practicing that… try to diffuse the whole thing out and provide more stability to steer not just blast…."
    "Really though I am hacking my power… my main thing is just… well I blow stuff up real small or… really big booms."
    "Who is targeting us?"

Stardust has posed:
    "Thrust can be balanced by thrusting in two directions at the same time," Stardust observes.  "It's less efficient, but it works.  Thrust in two opposite directions at the same time, and you can control your speed really precisely."  She rises a couple of feet of the ground and then starts rotating on the spot until she's hanging upside-down in the air.  "Practice really is the key though, yeah.  My… mentor I guess… has had me training in precision flight more than literally anything else.  At first I thought he was crazy, honestly.  I mean, flying.  Once you can do it, it's just like… wheee! Off I go.  But no, when you know precisely how to fly, it opens up a whole world of possibilities that don't occur to you when you're tied to gravity.  He started me off with training to fly inside three foot diameter hoop, circling as wide as I can without touching the sides.  Seemed really stupid.  Then he got me to fly up while upside down to counteract gravity and walk on the ceiling, which was really cool.  And then… uh.  Well, it goes on.  Drink?"  She holds her backpack out towards Negasonic, top open and a small selection of cans of soda and bottles of water visible inside.
    "Who's targeting us.  Good question."  She takes a swig from her own bottle.  "I'm not quite sure that anyone is, I mean any more than usual.  But I'm beginning to wonder.  Several of the less uh… competent… supervillains that we have faced in the past seem to have managed to break out of jail at more or less the same time, and that seems like more than coincidence.  I think someone's setting them up.  But why pick the less competent ones? The Rebus… man that guy is annoying.  Doctor Constructo.  Stupid name, builder of even more stupid killbots.  Lepidoptera, who's a mutant with butterfly wings.  Really, not built for combat, but it doesn't stop him.  Idiots, the lot of them."
    Stardust gives a shrug and turns to Kían.  "How about we give her a bit of flight training?" she suggests.  "I'm not sure which one of us is going to be… you know, more useful to Nega in terms of how she flies, but between the two of us, we should be able to figure out some ways to help her with those landings, at least."

Kian t'Kaeh has posed:
    "We can try, at least," Kían agrees.  Being targeted by bad guys is just nothing he can understand, so he mentally sets it aside.  Flying, that's right up his alley.  Jet stream.  Whatever."
    He folds his arms behind his back, thinking, looking Ellie appraisingly up and down.  "The only things I know of that fly anything like you are the overseer robots, the ones that manage the rest of the robotic work force.  They have to have vertical takeoff and landing capability to get from work site to work site easily.  Especially since they may be overseeing work at many different elevations.  They make powered vertical landings on their thrusters, so I know it is possible, and I've never seen one fall over."

Negasonic Teenage Warhead has posed:
    "Compared to robots… I imagine they have internal gyroscopes."  A bemused tone from Ellie on that suggestion.
    "I definitely don't mind some flight lessons.  I think I need to practice that whole thrust from multiple directions at once thing… low levels though and somewhere I won't damage the building.  I can definitely blow things up in a radius around me so it… is probably a matter of focus and building muscle memory…"
    "You know like fighting moves…"
    "So… those villains do have very stupid names but I… it does seem a stretch they all broke out of jail or prison at the same time.  We should probably track them down and put them back in jail and see if someone is behind all of it."
    Okay Ellie is thrilled at the idea of hunting down super villains, even B-listers.

Stardust has posed:
    "We've put those three back in jail already," Stardust says.  "But I'm wondering now how many more are out.  Maybe someone should go through the records and figure out which our most useless enemies are, and see if this is a pattern that holds."
    Stardust finally remembers she is floating upside down, and gently rights herself, dropping back down to the ground.  "Best spot for a bit of control training is the danger room.  The force fields can offer fairly high order shielding.  Spend some time trying to learn to hover, if you can get that down, the rest will come easily."
    "Your robots don't have wings, Kían?" Stardust asks curiously.  "So, if you use that kinda tech, do you guys build yourself like rocket jet boots for faster flight? Or is that considered gauche?"
    Stardust snap points at Negasonic.  "Bee-tee-double-you, Nega.  'Targeting us', 'We should probably'.  I noticed that.  On the one hand, you're the social media intern, and the job description there doesn't normally include tracking down badguys.  On the other hand, I completely and utterly approve of your attitude.  Let's track 'em down and punch 'em until they confess."

Kian t'Kaeh has posed:
    "Robots aren't us," Kían says obviously.  "Some have wings, retractable or otherwise, but for a general purpose robot, that's unnecessary engineering.  They're not born to the air, only built for it."  He shrugs.  "It doesn't matter how a robot flies as long as it's appropriate to the robot's purpose."
    To Ellie, he nods once.  "Hovering is a good skill to have.  And once you master it, it's a remarkably useful position.  You can break out of a hover into almost any direction; it's very useful for aerial misdirection.  And it will hone your sense of balance in the air."
    He glances once at Colette over her last statement, and comments very quietly, "And what if they genuinely have nothing to confess?"

Negasonic Teenage Warhead has posed:
    "Hovering.  Right.  I will need to practice in the danger room."  Okay, for some reason that just seems to amuse the goth teenager to no end.
    "Also well good… I mean I figured the social media 'intern' thing was kind of a humorous effect.  I mean yeah I plan to do the social media interning but I wasn't kidding about blowing up bad guys."  She considers.  "Also the paperwork said Social media and associate Titan so I figured it was more on the later not the former but great!… " pause "I am glad we are on the same page about tracking down bad guys and punchin them until they confess… or well I guess Kían has a good point… give up and be arrested?"
    Ellie smirks "Also one of you all contacted my best friend for some reason for a reference check… I still need to find out from Shadowcat who and why and how but I mean she does know Doctor Strange… the Avengers… Batpeople… so options are pretty broad there I suppose…"
    After trailing off thoughtfully "Which reminds me, Captain America said he would be cool if the Titans end up helping at any point with the Sentinels… I'm not really sure how you all are about working with Avengers but I figured I would ask you?"

Stardust has posed:
     Stardust tilts her head towards Kían, staring at him silently for a few moments.  She gives a quick shake of her head.  "I keep forgetting.  Think of it as… uh… a metaphor.  I don't actually condone torture.  There are times when threats are the best way to get crazy people to behave like sane people in the short term.  Long term, doesn't work.  But when you're dealing with crazies who are trying to do harm to the innocent, sometimes short term results are essential to stop them and any associates they have from doing more harm.  Actually punching them is generally to be avoided, but sometimes making them think you are as crazy as they are and are willing to punch them repeatedly until they reveal all can work.  Make more sense, birdy buddy?"
    "Okay, two… several things, Nega."  Stardust counts them off on her fingers.  "One, you got blasty zappy powers and that's cool, but we don't know a lot about what you can do and what you can't.  For a team, that's pretty vital.  It's all about the sum of the parts, and all that.  You do know what you can do, but you don't know what we can do.  So, miscommunications can happen.  So the best thing is to keep you background at first until we all understand each other better.  Make sure the wrong person doesn't get blown up, or that nobody makes any dangerous assumptions about who can survive what, you know? So let us take lead, listen to what you get told when you're with a few of us.  At first.  When we're all more used to each other, step up as much as you like.  The more, the better.  You cool with that?"
    Another finger goes up.  "Two, yeah, one of the Robins asked around and the word is you're cool.  I already decided I liked you when we first met, but Robins are all about the research and the double checking stuff.  Useful sometimes."
    Another finger.  "Three, we've worked with the Avengers before, all good.  That mushroom business, it was mostly us and them in the big end battle.  All good.  Cap's a nice guy, actually we've got this thing going that I need to… uh.  Well yeah, we know them.  "
    A fourth finger, which seems to satisfy Stardust.  "Fourth and last, I never said this, but if you happen to call him Captain Jasmine some time, don't blame me if he starts tearing his hair out.  Just say it was a slip of the tongue or something."  She folds her fingers away and finishes her water.

Kian t'Kaeh has posed:
    It might say something about how much of an alien Kían actually is that the names 'Captain America' and 'The Avengers' and 'Doctor Strange' and all just float past him without so much as a nod.
    One word does land, though, and probably an unexpected one for him to know.  "Sen-tin-el?  I have heard of them.  I met someone on the mainland who warned me about them.  She said something about them being after all mutants.  I don't know if that includes me or not.  She thought it might."
    He sighs at Colette, resignedly.  "Your ways and my ways are different," is all he says.

Negasonic Teenage Warhead has posed:
    "I imagine our ways are all very different, but I look forward to getting to know your ways Kían."  A nod to the birdy buddy as Stardust puts it.
    "Blasty zappy powers check, and yeah I figured that would be how it would roll.  Have to do training, simulations, missions, hang out.  Get to know the people on the team so we don't accidently put anyones lives at risk."  She seems pretty okay with all this.  "Been here, done that, I get it and think it is the right thing to do for everyone.  I'm cool."
    "Robins, well that figures.  The Batpeople do seem very … diligent."
    "Captain america … mmmmm I like girls and I still can appreciate that man's ass.  He was wearing jeans earlier today when I saw him."  She pauses.  "Captain Jasmine… I can probably do that."

Stardust has posed:
    "Remember!" Stardust says.  "Slip of the tongue.  Nobody told you anything about Captain Jasmine.  There's no such thing."  She seems highly amused by the whole thing, whatever it means."
    "The Sentinels are robots that are supposedly meant to keep people safe," Stardust tells Kían.  "Problem is, they're robots.  They do what they are programmed to do.  And whoever programmed them is not a nice person, apparently.  They have not exactly been treating mutants fairly.  Whether that includes you… well, no.  Not directly.  Yet.  But be careful, 'cos if they're going after mutants now, it'll be aliens next.  I assume you wouldn't have a moral problem with trashing robots, right? I mean you're good with electricity, right? That could be useful."
    Stardust turns back to Nega, head tilted curiously.  "You know, I never checked his ass.  Last time I met him things were… well, we met the king of all cats.  No joke.  Situation like that, checking people's asses is a bad idea.  You need to be concentrating.  I'll have to take a look next time."

Kian t'Kaeh has posed:
    "If a robot attacked me, I would have no problem deactivating it," Kían says indifferently.  "It's just a robot, it's not alive or sentient.  I don't know if it were legitimately artificially intelligent.  That might be a different matter, but I don't suppose they are."
    He thinks about that a moment.  "Of course, the robots back home all have telepathically aware switches.  I suppose these don't.  You may," he admits, "have found something I might be willing to use my rhy'thar against.  Maybe."

Negasonic Teenage Warhead has posed:
    "They aren't sentient AIs they are adaptive though to the situation.  They were created to hunt down and imprision or destroy mutants and I wouldn't be surprised if they don't move on to metahumans and aliens after that."  yeah Ellie has an opinion about Sentinels.
    "The Avengers… Doctor Strange… and a lot of others are working on trying to get the whole Sentinel program shut down before innocent people die… well more innocent people than have already."
    As an afterthought "It is truly America's ass."

Stardust has posed:
    "Apparently I'm not meant to call him 'mister America'," Stardust says with a smirk.  "It's not his actual name.  But people can get away with calling his ass 'America's ass'.  I think this is double standards.  Also, I know a few people who would argue that while it's certainly Captain America's ass, Nightwing is a serious rival…."  She breaks away and looks thoughtful a moment, then muses a little.  "Hmm.  I wonder.  I mean I'm actually French.  Not too many French supers.  Maybe I should hit the gym a little more and aim at having France's ass."
    There's a quick shake of the head before Stardust returns to the matter in hand.  "No sentience as far as anyone can tell, Kían.  You could consult with Danger about that if you like, I can't think of anyone more qualified to say.  But basically they're just tool.s.  Massive, massive tools."

Kian t'Kaeh has posed:
    Kían chuckles softly.  "Well, as the sole representative of my people on this world, I guess that means I have Akiár's ass," he says, though he doesn't take the opportunity to show it off.
    "Tools.  That's good to know," he says.  "I don't like my rhy'thar, but if I have to use it, at least I know I can.  I will talk to Danger about it first, of course."

Negasonic Teenage Warhead has posed:
    "Seems wise," to Kían about talking to others and contemplating.  She hasn't forgotten the whole religious angle and how upset he seemed to be about violence or hurting people.
    I mean not her jam but she respects it evidently.  Choice and consent are big for Negasonic.
    She leans to look at Colette's ass and then nods "I support your aims and goals.  Really I feel the need to support all my teammates goals like this."  Amusement.

Stardust has posed:
    "Why do you think you have your rhy'thar, Kían?"  Stardust's pronunciation is not good, but it's not completely awful.  At least she's trying.  "I mean, wouldn't you say it was given to by the goddess? And if so, it must be intended to be used?"  She gives the Akiár a calculating look.  Although she has an excellent source of information on most of the major space-faring cultures easily to hand, the Akiár are not one of the Galaxy's better known species, and she doesn't know much about them that Kían hasn't told her.  "So is it like a… religious duty? Maybe even some kind of a test? Like here's this thing you could use for good or ill, let's see what you do with it? Or does it serve some completley different purpose and you'd consider using it even in self defense to be an abuse of the power?"
    Stardust tracks Negasonic's lean with momentary puzzlement, the whole France's Ass thing having slipped her mind the moment it came out of her mouth.  When Negasonic has finished her study, Stardust raises an amused brow in her direction.  "Your support is appreciated, Nega.  I have to be honest and say it's not high on my priority list, though."

Kian t'Kaeh has posed:
    "I have come to the conclusion," Kían says carefully, "that calling it a 'Gods'-gift' is one of the most deliberate euphemisms in our language.  I am not obliged to use it.  If I were at home, I would only rarely need to, if at all.  It simply is.  Personally, I think its purpose is to see if the average Akiár can resist trying to be a god themself.  I don't want that responsibility."  His voice tightens as he continues.  "My rhy'thar took everything that was good away from me.  It separated me from my friends and it separated me from my family and the only good it ever did was on the very first time I used it, and that was an accident."
    He takes a deep breath and forcibly calms himself.  "I know what you're trying to do, and it's not going to work.  Please stop looking for excuses to make me use my power as a weapon."

Negasonic Teenage Warhead has posed:
    Ellie lifts up one of the cans of soda that was offered from the bag earlier and pops it open.
    "I still think the whole evac, medic, first responder, and maybe blasting robots is pretty sharp.  Not everyone is going to be in the role of DPS or Tank."

Stardust has posed:
    "Actually you're wrong about that, Birdy Buddy," Stardust tells Kían with an odd half-frown.  "See, I've seen you using it.  And I've also seen you not wanting to use it.  What I don't understand is how you see it.  'Gift' is an interesting word, isn't it? Because it implies it's something nice, and powers aren't necessarily something nice.  They make life a lot more complicated.  I'm kinda concious that someone used that whole god's gift line on me before once.  I don't know if I've mentioned it, but my powers aren't… well I'm not a mutant or whatever.  I got given my stuff too.  Without being asked if I actually wanted it.  So…"
    Stardust gives a wide-armed shrugs and paces a couple of steps.  "So yeah.  You got it.  Lips zipped.  I'm not going to ask again, you have my word."  She jerks her head towards Negasonic.  "Like she said.  Evac, first responder, there's a lot you can offer without ever zapping anyone.  Or anything, if you don't want to.  All good."

Kian t'Kaeh has posed:
    "You don't need to understand how I see it," Kían says.  "I don't know if I can explain how I see it, not without you having been raised the same way I was.  Just understand that I'm not human—even if I look like a human, just with wings—and that I must see things differently."
    And then… and then he genuinely laughs, softly.  "The alternative is that I explain several thousand years' worth of Akiár philosophy and theology to you in excruciating detail, and I'm willing to bet neither of us want me to do that."

Negasonic Teenage Warhead has posed:
    "I for one don't want that.  I do want you Kían to tell me about your preferred pronouns, what you like to do for fun, and anything else though."  A grin as she sips her soda.
    "Same for you Stardust and anything else you think I should know about you… also fairs fair ask me whatever you want to know about me."

Stardust has posed:
    "I don't need to understand, but understanding is kinda good, don't you think?"  Stardust stops pacing and walks over to the huge sack she arrived with, crouches down and opens it up.  "Believe me, I have a better idea of how… alien… aliens are, than you could imagine.  I'm not telepathic like you are, but I have…" she turns back from the sack to look at Negasonic.  "Want to know something about me, Nega? Here it is.  I have almost a thousand people camped out in my head in some weird alien technology sorta way.  Almost all of them are not human.  Some of them are so alien that they couldn't explain several thousand years of their philosophy if they tried, because there's just too much lack of common ground.  I mean, Kían here has learned English.  Some of the guys in my head couldn't learn English because they don't communicate with sounds."
    Stardust turns back to the sack, and starts pulling out bits of broken robot.  It doesn't look like it was a well-made robot in the first place.  She sorts through parts, shoving them into two piles.  In one goes mostly larger parts—a couple of limbs, some crude mechanical bits and pieces, in the other smaller pile goes what looks to her rather non-technical eye like they may involve control circuitry and so on.  "So yeah.  I don't need to understand.  But I would like to at least get an idea of it.  How 'bout you, Nega? How'd you discover your powers?"

Kian t'Kaeh has posed:
    "To be fair, Colette," Kían begins, "you haven't given me a lot of indication up to this point that you cared about understanding my perspective.  You've just kept trying to convince me to use my powers in a way that I simply can't.  But I will try to explain, if I can.
    "I come from a world of telepaths.  Violence is not known because violence on another immediately becomes violence on one's self.  Only those with gross physical damage to the brain can do it, and we can sense it before it happens and stop it.  You genuinely must be insane, temporarily or biologically, to hurt someone else.  And the fact that you here on Earth are not telepaths doesn't change that.  That's why I need to talk to Danger before I will feel safe if I need to unleash myself on a Sentinel.  I can't know directly, but I have to know before I can act."  He's getting wound up, and takes a moment to calm himself before continuing.  "And I mean, I have to know.  Imposing myself on someone would be a huge sin, a violation of not just my rhy'thar but my ki'thar as well.  Just because you don't have the Mind's Gift isn't your fault, and isn't an excuse for me to treat you without regard."
    He takes another deep breath.  "So I will not be a weapon, and I will not be made to be one.  You cannot have a thousand alien voices in your head and none of them are peaceable.  You must understand me."

Negasonic Teenage Warhead has posed:
    "That has to be intensely confusing a lot of the time… do they all try to communicate with you or is there some sort of parliament of minds…" because damn that would be as overwhelming as having uncontrolled telepathy if there wasn't some sort of order or organization to it all.  Ellie looks a bit daunted thinking about how strange that must be for a girl from earth to just get that many minds into her head like that.
    Negasonic will step over to peer at the robot parts with genuine curiosity, she likes mechanical and electrical engineering even if she is still learning in school and no real deep bench of knowledge yet.  "That actually makes a lot of sense Kían."
    Then Colette really does it and Ellie breaths in slowly and then breaths out also very slowly.  Like she is finding her balance there and grounding herself before she answers.  She even takes a step away before turning to look at both of them.  "All right I said ask questions and build trust… whatever you wanted."  She sounds unhappy though.  "So I was thirteen when my parents and I took a vacation to the states… we were on a road trip across America.  I got… " she considers "I think I might have been mad about something… it doesn't even matter what… but my powers manifested for the first time.  I exploded and my parents died and I was left in the wreckage of the rental car."  A frown.  "No one knew what happened so they put me in a foster home and… .  the problem was I was still powered and I bottled it up scared… I'd killed my family.  Eventually just bottling up the power and not figuring out how it worked… I lost control again and my foster family were all killed.  At that point someone figured it out and took me out of the system and made sure I got help."  Yeah, no wonder she sounded unhappy and dark

Stardust has posed:
    "I know that Kían," Stardust says with equanimity, talking back over her shoulder as she sorts robot parts.  "We've had the 'everyone's crazy here' discussion before.  But here's the thing.  It's all perspectives.  Your perspective is as alien to me as mine is to you.  It's not that I don't want to understand your perspective, it's that I find it very difficult to make sense of it.  It doesn't seem rational to me.  So, I wanted to see if there was… you know, some way of putting it, some way of expressing the way I see things that would make sense to you.  Because things are different here.  And in fact on almost every planet in the galaxy.  So the rules that you live by on Akiár don't necessarily make any sense off Akiár.  But…" she shrugs with one shoulder.  "I told you, you've persuaded me it's not a debate worth having any more.  That's fine."
    Stardust turns her head to look over her shoulder at Kían.  "Point though.  I suggested you speak to Danger, remember? And that's exactly why I did suggest it.  So maybe I'm not quite as incapable of learning from what you tell me as you think."  She gives him a wink, then turns back to sorting as she listens to Negasonic's sotry.
    "Ah.  I'm sorry, Nega.  Didn't mean to dredge up unhappy memories.  You know… we really need to get this sorted out.  I mean we as a culture.  Or a planet, whatever.  Mutant genes are a thing.  More and more people are being born with them.  We have asshats talking about screening and camps and all that Nazi shit, but screening probably is a good idea, so long as the people doing it can be trusted.  Because what you went through ought to be avoidable.  That whole 'trusted' thing is the problem though, isn't it? Maybe we need to put the asshats in the camps first."
    Stardust frowns, a look crossing her face as if she'd tasted something unpleasant, then she shakes her head and looks up from her collection of robot parts.  "Yeah, there's kind of a parliament.  It's complicated.  But generally they speak to me through a spokes… idiot.  The others are sort of distant.  Sometimes I'm kind of aware that there's a conversation going on, you know? But I don't really… well I've visited… the parliament, as you put it.  And it's confusing as hell.  I can't actually talk the same language as a lot of them.  But there's kind of an intergalactic trade language called Interlac that a lot of them do speak, and I've been learning that."

Kian t'Kaeh has posed:
    Kían stares at Ellie, and breathes something in his language that sounds like a prayer.  At least the first accidental use of his own powers had been to protect his family, not… that.  He bows his head towards Ellie, still speaking softly in his language, then looks up.  "I am sorry," he says to her.  "I have offered a blessing.  It isn't any real help, and your Gods are not the same as mine I think, but it's all I have."
    He listens to Colette, and nods once.  "I don't expect you to understand my perspective.  You're not Akiár, so you probably can't, even if you wanted to.  All I want is that you understand that mine is necessarily different from yours and to leave it that way, and I think that's where we are at, and I thank you."

Negasonic Teenage Warhead has posed:
    "I've had a four years and some decent therapy" psychic therapy really.  "I'll never be totally okay but I can talk about it now a days and the nightmares are not as frequent."  The guilt and blame and anger, oh yeah, that hasn't gone away, not really.
    She finishes her soda and walks it over to a trashcan and then looks to the two of you.  "I am going to head down and practice hovering if that is all right.  I am glad we talked and I ran into you both though."  And she means it.

Stardust has posed:
    Stardust nods her head, not to anyone in particular this time.  Her attention appears to be on the robot parts.  "Go to the Danger room, Nega," she says.  "Say out loud 'Program Colette seven, explicit, run simulation.' Got that? It'll create a bunch of forcefield shapes to practice flying between.  Very useful."  Her mind isn't really on what she's saying though. 
    It has certainly been an illuminating conversation, all round.  Everyone appears to have achieved a degree of understanding and appreciation about each other that they did not have before.  Maybe it's the kind of thing that deserves a celebratory order of pizzas, but for once Stardust feels that somehow pizza isn't appropriate today, so she doesn't suggest it.  Perhaps she's growing up.
    Or perhaps she's just bored of pizza.