ArchivedLogs:Friendship is Magic!

Friendship is Magic!
Sometimes mutants aren't so scary, after all.
Dramatis Personae Dan, Micah, Nox	18 February 2013 Dan /runs into/ some New Friends in the park! <3
Location <NYC> Central Park South
Central Park South is home not just to the park itself, but also to the Belvedere Castle, the Alice in Wonderland statues, and the Central Park Zoo. These areas tend to draw tourists like a magnet - it is, perhaps, for that very reason that places like Bethesda Terrace tend to attract more New Yorkers than not, if just to escape the press of tourism that infiltrates the whole city. The early evening is a quiet time at this end of the park, with the zoo closed for the day and the chill of the night starting to wend its way into the empty spaces. With the pale half-circle that is the moon just peeping over the trees, the fast-encroaching gloom seems more like night than just dinnertime. It's a good time for the jogger avoiding crowds (and fish mutants) to be out and around. Dan jogs along the gravel path, his sneakers crunching with each step in counter to the short exhalations that puff through his nose. In military-issue gray sweats, he isn't quite as colorful or trendy as the working moms who occasionally pass him. Not that he's noticing, seemingly concentrating on his running and the earbuds pumping music into his ears. As he nears a water fountain, he pulls into a slow trot, eventually coming to a stop. Walking around the stone pedestal of the fountain, he does a few lunges before he moves to get himself a drink, letting the water run a few moments before lowering his head to brush the stream with his lips. It's the perfect time, in fact, for the night creatures to begin their appearance into the open air. Creatures very much like Nox. Gone are the red galoshes, the trendy trench; these items are probably being worn by other street people, perhaps some occupying this very park. This evening she must settle for what the Morlocks' closet provides and so she too is in a sweat suit, drab as Dan's own, with a zipped and hooded sweater pulled up to provide /some/ obfuscation of her...abnormalities. In the gloom, she is just a small, feminine figure walking the path with her hands hidden inside of her pockets. Whenever she passes beneath a light on her approach of the fountain, it's apparent that she's no human being--though Jackie O glasses hide her eyes, her skin is the color of charcoal and tendrils of "hair" escape her hood to wave, frond-like, around her face. The hand that extends towards Dan, removed from its pocket, is similarly dark. "Do you have change, sir?" Nox asks of him, her whispered voice rather more cultured than the typical panhandler's. Micah is hanging around off the beaten path, a slim kid clad in his typical cold-weather gear of olive green puffy coat and orange knit Jayne hat. Today he has added some funny red and black nitrile and nylon climbing gloves to the ensemble, however. He is carefully placing a half-empty water bottle on a rock, then stepping away from it. One eye is closed as he eyes the bottle, judging a distance. “Extend wrist. Flex fingers,” the kid is muttering to himself as he completes these motions. “Complete circuit, and…” ZIP! A white substance shoots from the wrist and hits the bottle. “We have contact! Woo!” A jerk of the wrist, and the bottle comes back toward Micah. It does not meet his hand, rather plopping unceremoniously at his feet. “Close enough!” Micah is bouncing a little on his feet with excitement, not deterred by having to stoop and fetch the bottle. Dan freezes as someone approaches him at the fountain, rolling his eyes upward to catch the petite young woman in his gaze. Water splashes against his chin as he absorbs the girl's appearance, and when she extends a hand and speaks to him, he flinches, and steps back with a jerk. "No, I don't have any change," he growls, thunderclouds gathering in his expression. "Does this outfit look like it's got fucking /pockets/?" His voice climbs a bit, and his hands ball into fists. "Go on and find a shelter or something. Stop bothering regular folk." He doesn't spin to walk away from the girl; rather, he backs up in first slow retreat, then a hastier one. As such, he doesn't see the kid in the orange hat with the attached water bottle in his path, which might be unfortunate. "I apologize, I didn't mean to..." Nox never finishes that statement--not that it was likely to be heard, in any case. Whispers and raised voices do not mesh well together, and Dan outspeaks her handily. She might have withdrawn then, given his evident distaste, but when he goes backpedaling towards someone else, she steps forward. Unfortunate? Probably. The hand that had been extended towards him shoots forward, her wrist actually /extending/ while her fingers try to clamp around his forearm to pull him towards her before he trips. "Look out!" she warns, much, much too quietly. Micah is just returning to the full upright and locked position, victoriously holding the water bottle aloft like Link collecting an item. And, /oh no/, there is a larger man hurtling toward him. This never ends well. The kid activates evasive manoeuvres, skitter-hopping backward enough to avoid colliding full-on with Dan. He does accidentally drop the bottle at the other man’s feet. “Oh, sorry! Sorry, bottle fail.” Micah yanks back on the white rope-like material still attached to the bottle, which /actually ends up in his hand/ this time. No one looks more surprised than he does, leaving him staring at the bottle like it was an alien artefact for a moment before his face lights up with nerd-glee. “Success! For /Science!/” "Don't /TOUCH/ me!" Dan's voice is almost a roar as he jerks his arm back, his eyes flying wide, and his step backwards becoming a speedy backpedal. This only caroms him faster towards Micah, and the discarded water bottle. Fortunately, Micah avoids collision. /Un/fortunately, Dan's foot comes down on the water bottle just as it's jerked away, and with a very cartoon-like slip, Dan lands flat on his back with a hard WHUMPFing noise. He groans, and closes his eyes in a pained wince. "God /damn/ it." Nox's hand snaps back to a proper wrist but she's fretting now, those lens-hidden eyes turning from Micah to Dan to Micah... "Oh, I know you," she murmurs before nurturing instincts take over. She steps past the triumphant geek to bend over Dan, perhaps not putting two and two together, between his bellowing, her appearance, and his fall. "I am so very sorry, sir. Are you all right? A misunderstanding, an accident...here, let me help you, that looked like such a hard fall. Did you bump your head?" She sinks to a crouch beside him and those hands, those damned dark hands, hover near his arm--the warning about touch having been heard, if not entirely understood. “Oops.” Micah cringes as Dan crashes to the ground. He shakes the now quite-crumpled bottle free of his arm. It takes some doing to get the white ropey substance loose, but this gives him a chance to inspect the pair in front of him. “Hey, Nox? Is that you?” How many shadow-haired ladies can there possibly /be/? “I’ve been lookin’ around for you…sort of…to see if you were okay. I think I might have accidentally kicked you the other night, which is a fine ‘thank you for savin’ my bacon’…” Oh, right! There is also this potentially injured man here. “Is that guy all right? I know first aid.” Micah the Eternally Helpful pops back over to the others. To help. Dan keeps his eyes closed for a long moment, twisting one arm to massage at his side near his lower back. "Oh, /fuck/, that hurt," he groans, and his eyes flutter open at the sound of voices. They take in the dusky-skinned girl, first, widening significantly. There's an attempt to move away quickly that brings a pained look to the man's face, and he slows to a mere inching along. He glances up at the other man, and grimaces when it appears the two know each other. "There's twenty bucks in my shoe," he grates out reluctantly, still attempting to shift /away/ from the kneeling girl. "Just take it." "It's all right, Micah. Really." Nox sounds justifiably distracted, most of her attention taken up by Dan. When his eyes open, she smiles with relief--only for that expression to be replaced with a look of surprise when he begins to inch away. "Please...you should stay still, that was a very bad fall...I...I'm sorry, I don't...Micah?" At a loss, she looks over at the young man. He knows fist aid! Maybe he also knows how to decipher the injured man's behavior. "I think he believes I'm a mugger?" she murmurs, with some concern. "Could it be a concussion?" “He’s probably just rattled, but it’s worth checkin’.” Micah takes a knee at Dan’s side, opposite Nox. “Mister, did you hit your head when you fell? Do you feel nauseous?” He stares into the other man’s eyes for a moment, checking for abnormal pupillary reactions. “Nox isn’t a mugger.” Micah grins widely at that thought. Please, superheroes aren’t muggers! “You’re safe.” Dan does seem confused by the attention, specifically the attention from Nox. He struggles to sit up, shaking his head as he does. "I didn't hit my head. Knocked the shit out of my back, though." He grimaces, and his brow knits as Micah looks into his eyes. "I'm fine," he insists, clamping his eyes shut. Not before Micah can see his pupils are normal-seeming, despite his expression being somewhere at the crossroad of Pain, Annoyance, and Confusion. "Not a mugger," he repeats, giving Nox a sidelong glance. "You're not some weird mutant vampire or something instead, are you?" It's an accusation that comes with the conviction of one who may or may not have seen such a thing. "'Cause if you are, you can move right along with that shit." It is a reassuring thing to have someone there who knows what they're doing. Nox is content to let Micah take the lead in assessing their victi--patient. She observes in comfortable silence, the hair that frames her face drifting in mild agitation. When Dan confirms that he is fine, she exhales in obvious relief and sits back on her heels. Her hands curl over her knees and once more a smile appears--only to die a slow and painful death. Again. "A...vampire? Ah. No, sir, I have never in my life ingested blood nor do I have intentions to do so. I, ah..." She holds up one of those hands. It darkens, charcoal to onyx to a near invisible black that does an excellent job of obliterating the light around it. Someone might want to remind her about the banning of use of powers in public, but she's making an earnest show of it. Wanting to /reassure/ him as to the non-fatal nature of her mutation. Micah nods as Dan reports the injury to his back. “Do you think you need medical attention? I can get you to a hospital if you’re havin’ numbness or tingling in your legs. Or if you just wrenched it, might be we can find an ice pack at a pharmacy. D’you need help gettin’ home?” The string of helpful inquiries is silenced by the ‘vampire’ commentary. Micah’s brow furrows. “There’s no need for anyone to start gettin’ snippy now, we’re just tryin’ to help.” Dan waves off the offer of help. "I'm fine," he repeats. "I just live a couple of blocks over, so I can get it iced there." He falls silent as Nox speaks, actually leaning /towards/ the girl when her whispery voice starts. When she demonstrates her power, though, he's leaning back, and his expression is disapproving, but lacking heat. Micah gets a withering look for his intervention. "Kid, you haven't /seen/ me snippy, yet." The smile he offers is more a tight line than a cheery expression. "Trust me." Then he turns back to Nox, jutting out his lower jaw thoughtfully. "Your skin always been that color?" he asks. "From birth and all?" Snippiness is not something she'd considered. When Micah brings it up, Nox frowns softly and looks between the two. Slowly, she eases back and rises from her crouch. The hands in question hide inside of her pockets again. "Please do not speak to him that way," she says, quiet but firm on this point. For a moment it seems as if the question she's been asked will go unanswered but after a pregnant pause, she adds, "No. Not from birth. I was somewhat older. If you don't require assistance, sir..." Micah is suddenly entirely unconcerned with Dan’s tone, now that he doesn’t seem to be directing ire toward Nox. Calmer is better. He remains silent for the ensuing discussion that seems to contain more curiosity than hostility…he’s staying put, however. Dan looks confused at the girl's apparent shift in demeanor, and he frowns. "Don't." It's nearly as soft as Nox's speaking voice, and he actually lifts a hand. "Stay for a minute." He sits there, struggling with something as he gingerly stretches his back. Clouds roll across his expression, oddly highlighted by the shade of the clouds slipping across the moon. Micah gets a studious look, the older man chewing the inside of his cheek as he wrestles with whatever question is hanging on his lips. Then he lifts that gaze back to Nox, grinding the question out from somewhere in his chest. "Has it been hard for you?" Nox looks at Micah when she's asked that but with the glasses on, there is no deciphering her expression. She could be bemused, taken aback, searching for some sort of guidance. But he's silent and she's expected to be otherwise, so the woman sighs and folds her arms across her stomach. She has /excellent/ posture for a hobo. "When is life not difficult? It is hard on all of us." From her tone, it's clear she isn't speaking just of mutants. "Micah? Perhaps we should...help him stand?" “Oh, right!” Nox’s recommendation snaps him to attention. “Most people don’t spend their day on the floor and/or ground so much. I’m just used to it…lots of dealing with kids and feet in the O&P business…” Had there been an uncomfortable silence? Micah can fill that with /all the rambling nonsense/. He pushes to his feet, prepares to offer a hand, then realises he still has on the climbing-gloves-cum-liquid-rope-propulsion-systems. “Oops! Probably oughtta get out of these first!” He peels off the gloves and holds them in his left hand while extending the right to Dan. Dan grunts a laugh at Nox's response, although there's not much merriment on his face. "I guess that's true. I was just curious." He regards the girl solemnly, and digs in his shoe with a finger. Coming up with a folded-over $20 bill, he extends it held between two fingers to the girl. "Here. Take it," he says, and if she does, he'll take Micah's hand then, and use the smaller man's frame to lever himself to his feet. This causes him to groan, and he stretches his back with a wince. Only then does he notice the gloves, and he frowns. "What're those for?" Though Nox does take the bill when told to do so, she is not told to /keep/ it. So it's held, fully visible, tucked between two fingers at her side. She takes a step backwards as the two of them maneuver the larger man to his feet, carefully watching to be certain that Dan's claims of no injury are true. "Tripping hapless joggers from the look of it," she murmurs, without intent to insult. The smile is back again, after all, flashed at Micah when she glances at him. Micah offers Nox a sheepish grin in return. “That would be a side effect of prototype testing, I’m afraid. But, climbing is the plan. Well, the reachin’ and grabbin’ and havin’ a rope ready parts of climbing.” It’s a half-truth, but easier than the full explanation. “An extremely enthusiastic young athlete commissioned the mounting and propellant systems to work with his sticky rope stuff. I was just testin’ to see if they did the job.” "Well, it's good at that," Dan chuffs, rubbing his back. "But it seems a little inefficient for climbing. Unless you were a free-climber, and sure of your finger holds." He wrinkles his nose, "But it's interesting, anyway. You build a lot of sport equipment like this?" he asks Micah, his expression less hostile/uncertain and more impressed with this shift in the topic. "Sticky rope stuff," Nox murmurs, bemused. Without seeming to think about it, she reaches up to slip off the sunglasses in order to have a better look at the equipment. Micah chuckles at Dan’s commentary. “Yeah, well, this kid’s kinda into the extreme sports stuff. Teenagers, y’know?” He holds one of the gloves out for Nox to inspect once the glasses come off. It looks like a simple, slim fitting climbing glove with a knit nylon liner and a thin nitrile coating offering protection to the palms and fingertips. The glove has been modified with a small metal compartment at the wrist. There is also a circle of different material at the base of the third and fourth fingertips, as well as the centre of the palm. “This is actually a little outside my realm. I usually do medical assistive tech. But a lot of the principles are the same and the kid was /very/…insistent.” Dan shakes his head, exhaling heavily through his nose at Micah's explanation. "Teenagers," he says in a world-weary voice. "They think they're invincible, whether they're fre--" he bites off the word, casting Nox a sidelong glance. "Er, mutants or not." He doesn't seem terribly fazed by the revelation of Nox's eyes beyond a small tightening of his features. In for a penny, in for a pound. He even leans in a bit to examine the glove alongside the girl. "Medical assistive tech?" he asks, glancing up from the odd contraption with a furrowed brow. "I know that term. That's fancy doctor talk for prothetics, right? Fake arms and legs and shit?" Nox cups her hand under Micah's to better study the glove without having to take it from him. Her eyebrows, dark smudges against a darker face, slowly draw together. "And he intends to use this to climb? I admit, I don't understand the...what is it that they're called? The sports. The ones that aren't really sports but seem more like adrenaline-fueled suicide," she comments quietly. How someone can be /so/ judgmental without /sounding/ judgmental must be an extra talent of hers, handed out along with the odd appearance. "But these seem well made," she finishes, politely overlooking Dan's interrupted comment. Oh, now Dan’s done it. Micah launches into the job explanation. “Well, prosthetics are part of it. I also do orthoses--braces of all sorts, walking aids, therapeutic equipment, wheelchairs, communication devices, home accessibility equipment…pretty much any sort of device that makes a person more functional in their activities of daily living.” He pauses, considering what Nox said. “Yeah, I was really hesitant with this kid. But if I didn’t help, he was gonna try to do this thing on his own. His first…uh, effort…was more of a squirt gun. Not a good plan. If you’re gonna be stupid, at least be stupid with working tech.” Dan nods at Micah's explanation, absorbing the information with a nod. "That's what I thought," he says. "You hear a lot of that kind of talk around the VA. Couple of guys I know had to have stuff made for them." He grunts, something akin to amusement creeping into his features. "Hey, on the bright side, if that kid /does/ do something stupid and gets himself hurt, he'll know who to come to for the new limbs." He spreads a hand, eyes crinkling slightly. "So, good on you for looking out for future customers." Nox seems just as interested as Dan but she doesn't speak afterwards. Not immediately. The woman is more thoughtful, briefly touching her fingertips to her lips and looking off to the side. "Do you have a card, Micah?" Poor manners, perhaps, to interject a question when a joke has been made, but... “Mmhmm,” Micah replies. “I do a lot of work with vets…and kids, primarily. Some general adult ortho. and rehab. stuff, too, but those would be my specialties, I guess.” A wry laugh answers Dan’s ‘future customer’ comment. “Yeah, I’ve heard some therapists joke about spilling water out in the hallways when things get slow. Rehab. equivalent of gallows humour… I sure hope he doesn’t get hurt, though.” “Cards, sure!” he chirps in reply to Nox’s request. Micah fishes around in a pocket, coming up with two cards. He holds them out, so people can decide whether or not to take them. Dan rumbles a chuckle along with Micah, looking over at the quiet girl with another thoughtful look as kids are mentioned. "You got folks, kid?" he asks her, suddenly. "Somewhere warm to stay? You're not sleeping in the park, are you?" He keeps watching for her response as he plucks the card from Micah's hand. "Thanks...Micah," he says, squinting to read the man's name in the gloom as if Nox hasn't said it often enough. "I know a guy who's been looking for someone since he got back. Wants something other than just plastic and straps." he offers, holding out a hand with a lift of one side of his mouth. "Dan Rourke." Such a change from the man who had roared 'Don't touch me!'. Nox plucks one of the two cards from Micah's hand with a murmur of thanks before she tilts her head to study Dan curiously. "...folks? Oh! Oh. I..." Incapable of laughter, she hums instead. It's a low sound, more a thrumming of air than a proper vocal expression. "Thank you, Mister Rourke, but I have a place to stay and people to care for. The cold doesn't bother me so much as it does others. And you, Micah." She lifts the card--and the twenty--before both are slipped into the pocket of her sweater. "If you gentlemen will excuse me? I should be returning." Micah offers Dan an honest smile. “Nice to meet ya, Dan. I really have to stop meetin’ folks by virtue of someone trippin’, fallin’, or otherwise crashin’. Gettin’ to be a terrible pattern.” “Oh, don’t let us keep you,” he insists to Nox as she begs off. “Though, do you have a way I might contact you again? I definitely owe you a debt of…dinner, or somethin’. For the rescue the other night.” Micah is /infinitely/ grateful for the darkening night as some part of those last statements causes his face to bloom red, across the cheeks and all the way up the tips of his ears. "Stay safe, kid," Dan grunts, lifting a hand as Nox begins her retreat, and he grits his teeth a bit as he rumbles out the next bit. "Sorry if I gave you a scare. I'm a bastard, sometimes." Which is clearly a big admission for him, as his jaw sets, and he looks pointedly away from the girl. "Just...stay out of trouble." Micah's comment gets a snort of amusement. "Yeah, people will think you /are/ trying to drum up new business. Terrible first impression to make." "Do you know the Evolve coffeehouse? You can leave word for me there, with the staff. I'm afraid I don't carry phones." Nox smiles as she says this, spreading hands which go briefly indistinct. "But I would rather you not think you owe me anything. That was...unfortunately entirely our fault. Poorly handled. You shouldn't have become involved and I feel badly for that." Given Dan's discomfort, she simply nods to him in lieu of parting words before withdrawing from the little group. The sunglasses reappear as she steps back onto the path and walks beneath the nearest lamp, strolling off deeper into the park. Micah moves to fuss at his hair, but is blocked by hat. The hand returns awkwardly to his side. “Well…I should really go make a call to that kid about his…rope-things. And not keep standin' around in the dark. Have a good night!” With a wave, he wanders back to his former test-site to gather his bag and head home. "Yeah, I should get home and ice my back," Dan says, tucking Micah's card into the waistband of his sweatpants. "It was good meeting you." Pleasantries dispensed with, he lifts a hand before limping wearily towards the edge of the park. That he keeps to the pools of light on the path is probably just a weird coincidence. Probably.