Fox

"Who knows?" Gaian Knight chuckled, shrugging. "It's been a long, long time since I took my last biology class, but I'm pretty sure they'd have a tough time classifying something - or someone - without any real biology. Custos is animated rock - they'd have to make a whole new classification system just for him, and beings like him, for it to make any sense. Heh - Lithicus gargoyle or Lithicus grotesque, or something, depending on whether or not you channel water away from buildings when you're not out flying around. ....though I'm pretty sure that's not real Latin."

Mara made an extremely undignified laughing snorting noise at Gina's joke, covering her mouth with one hand and coughing to try to hide it. can see where they get their senses of humor "Mmh. It's one of the reasons I'm being careful," she assured Ellie, nodding. "Have a...vested interest in keeping me in working order now, too." She glanced at Ellie and then down at herself and back again, raising an eyebrow. "Well. Was a vested interest - now just an interest wearing my shirt. Still important, though."

Mara blushed a little, but still managed a grimace. "Am probably...cautiously liked. Not threatening, but have a reputation for being reclusive, have snapped an intern or two - need to not touch my things without asking - and am known to experiment in bending space." She paused, blinked, and realized how that probably sounded. "Safely!" she reassured, glancing wide-eyed toward Erik and Gina. "Always safely." usually safely "Don't take unnecessary risks. But...fringe science. The interesting kind. Makes some people nervous."

"Good job," Dragonfly distractedly - but honestly - observed, floating ghost-like in the air and working on....something. To Leroj and Miss Americana it probably looked like just a small and unrefined mass of code for some semi-autonomous process; to Sharl it probably looked like nothing at all, bits of motion and tiny disturbances in the air feeding into something invisible as Dragonfly frowned over two-dimensional windows she'd literally pulled out of nowhere. "Very good first impression to make, though good to stay anonymous for now. Monsters and threats don't save buses. Less likely to hunt you down as a threat now."

Mara snorted, partly to hide a smile that was threatening to sneak onto her face. "Am treated well there. Have to be: I'm a founder. Part owner of the whole thing, helped design and build the building...accept no money from them for non-Lab projects, but still have decent authority." She shrugged, pulling hair back behind an ear. "Just meant that it isn't usually...social. Meet with people at work for work things; have many respected colleagues, but few friends. But that's okay. Not a...phrase...'social butterfly'; do better with a select few good friends than many."

Gaian Knight patted at his coat for a moment before coming up with a small pad of paper and a pencil; he jotted down a phone number, tore the page out, and held it out for Changeling. "Sure! If you're ever in a tight spot and it seems like I could lend a hand, don't hesitate to call. Or leave a message, I guess - I'm not always able to answer right away, heh." Note to self: find out how Fleur handles phone lines to other dimensions. "As for 'human'...yeah, who knows, these days. I'm pretty sure I'm human, but heck, even I've come away from getting shot with only a really bad bruise or two. The mutants and magicians and whatnot who can carry trucks and shrug off shotguns probably exist just to confuse the crap out of taxonomists."

Gaian Knight gave the teenagers a blank look, scratching the back of his head. Head on each....what? "No, no no no. A will o' the wisp - 'will' 'o' 'the' 'wisp' - is a creature of myth. It's a ghostly light that legends say you could meet in swamps or forests. Depending on the story, it'd either lead you back to safety or get you completely lost, and then maybe eat you. Or eat your fear, or eat your soul, or...legends are kind of weird like that." He pulled his hand out of his hood before he scratched himself a bald spot, and shrugged. "Not that I think you actually have any out here - they are just myths, after all." But then, so are magic swords. "I just meant that strange lights don't always mean good things."

"Ah, life's not all that grim," Gaian Knight replied, and shrugged. "At least, I don't think so. Recent times have been pretty bad if you're a corpse, sure, but that might be the exception to the rule, rather than the start of something awful. The calm could just be the way things usually are, instead of a build-up to some big disaster." He shrugged again, a little helplessly. "At least, that's how I see things. Maybe I just haven't seen enough undead uprisings. But not worrying about it probably saves me an ulcer; I figure spending all your waking hours worrying about awful things that might or might not happen takes too harsh a toll on you."

Dragonfly made an approving noise, relaxing a bit as the airbus started its controlled fall toward level ground. "Impressive," she complimented, "him - and you. Modifications held up under pressure. Probably going to draw a lot of attention, though." The engineer glanced at the code around her, taking a mental step back to see things in their more abstract, program-filled nature; her eyes darted around as she took stock of observing entities and cameras. "More than it already has, anyway. Very dramatic. Likely a very good first impression."

Tarrant laughed. "There's always more good to do. Honestly, I like this place - I wanna see you guys do well here. If that means spending part of my days helping you dig around for useful stuff, so be it. The island, though - lights?" He raised an eyebrow. "I don't think I've heard about that one. I could certainly help you guys poke around - heck, I could probably make you a bridge with enough time - but I'm a little cautious about mysterious island lights. Paranoia, maybe, I dunno...I'd just feel pretty bad if I made you a nice bridge and you used it to go get eaten by will o' the wisps or whatever."

"I'll have to keep some gargoyles in mind," Gaian Knight agreed, thinking on his new home and where he could put some. "There's not a lot to protect from out there, but you never know. As for mausoleums...I dunno. On the one hand, they're kind of creepy. On the other, they can have some beautiful old stonework, and some of the design that goes into them can get pretty interesting. I usually avoid cemeteries, though, to be honest," he admitted, rubbing the back of his neck. "I can sorta feel the earth around me, and cemeteries...well, they're full of earth that's full of people-shaped voids, and that's really freaking creepy."

Dragonfly raised an eyebrow as the black dot hurled toward the hoverbus, stopping in the middle of a gesture that was fairly reminiscent of her teleporting back in Freedom City. "Mmh. Forgot he was here for a moment. Still." She finished the gesture, feeding a little code into the physics of the simulation, and a large ghostly platform formed under their feet. The trio stopped being here and started being over there, platform and all, suspended in the air not too far from the action. "Much easier without having to worry about power drain and spatial stability," Dragonfly noted with no small pride, turning ghost-like again. "Fixing earlier errors was good insight into the physics engine. Mmh - are...probably impossible to see while on the platform, but would recommend more personal invisibility if you can. Much harder to mask three people and keep the sky from distorting."

Tarrant nodded, frowning at the rock-covered building. "That's one of the reasons I didn't want to just crush the thing to put it out - once the fire's completely gone and I bring the walls down, we ought to be able to get back any supplies the fire didn't ruin." "Y'know," he said, rubbing his chin, "I bet I could help you guys with your salvaging now and again. There's gotta be some useful stuff out there that's either buried underground or trapped in a room that's buried underground; with a little time I could probably sniff out both. I can't promise anything, 'cos I don't know what's down there until I actually try to dig it out, but there ought to be some stuff worth having somewhere."

Mara blinked as the topic was turned back on her, looking for a moment like a deer caught in the headlights. "Me? Mmh. Not...not much," she admitted, ducking her head a bit. "Some - do interact with people, but usually just business. Work. Projects that need to get done, or questions that are asked. Friends with Ironclad, talk to Gossamer and Protectron sometimes, but...." She shrugged a little, helplessly. "Not...very outgoing? And don't think a lot of the employees think I'm very...approachable. They're probably right," she admitted, grimacing. "Tend to get involved and distracted with what I'm working on. Or...grumpy."

"Crashed ship might delay colonization," Dragonfly noted. She wasn't typically the one to point out social factors, but she'd seen a lot of curious or unsettling behavior today. "But...not without compensation. Mmh. Would be a very easy way to introduce new tools or technology that might solve other problems; local authorities would want to investigate thoroughly before allowing too many citizens, but it would at least support military, officials, scientists, possibly their families in the meantime." Her brain, being her brain, was already sketching out a crashed alien 'city'; she was pretty sure she'd seen some television show along those lines. But she frowned and shook her head, trying to ignore it until others had weighed in.

Chuckling at the teens, Tarrant shook the offered hand. "Gaian Knight, or so they call me. And no, it's not good," he called toward the teens, though he didn't really expect them to be listening to him anymore. "It's in fact very bad, but I didn't think you--ahh." He shook his head, turning back to Bart. "I didn't think you were actually making any. I am sort of curious about what you were using as pots, though. When something metal explodes like that it usually means it was full of something explosive, or had some bad structural flaw. I'd hate to see this happen again if there was a problem with any other salvage."

Tarrant raised an eyebrow as they all - Nearly all, it seems. Hmm. - left to follow Stesha, and he good-naturedly nodded his head toward the man who'd come and alerted them to the problem in the first place. "They're really very fond of her here, aren't they? Not that I can blame them, heh: she's done a lot for you folks." The eyebrow went a little higher as he turned back to look at the rock 'building'. "I guess I could fill this thing with dirt, but I don't want to end up just burying embers that water can't get to later. ....you guys really weren't cooking meth, right? That'd be an awful thing to loose a building over."

Gaian Knight looked over to Fleur as she appeared, and gestured toward the vaguely building-shaped rock construct, shaking his head. "In there, where it can't set anything else on fire. It sounds like a couple people got hurt, but no deaths, thank goodness." Sticking his hands in his pockets, he made a mental note to take a first aid class or something. I can do a lot of things, but healing isn't one of them - though I wish I could. Heck, maybe I'll be able to, one day. I can make portals between dimensions, so why not? Here's to wishful thinking.... "Apparently, a pot...ah, exploded. Which isn't something pots are known to do, but accidents certainly happen."

Frowning more than a little at what seemed like a pretty impassive reaction to people getting burns and passing out, Gaian Knight turned toward the building - or what was left of it - and planted his feet. "Yeah," he slowly replied, pebbles swirling in a slow circle around his feet. "That, at least, I can do something about." He made a motion like pulling something out of the ground, and the ground pulled up - way up, the dirt and stone in a small radius around the building flowing up into the air around the burning building to make a deformed dome, seamless and airtight save for a few small holes in the middle of a shallow depression up top. Gaian Knight dusted off his hands as the dust settled, still frowning. "Didn't want to just crush the thing, and figured it'd take forever to starve. But that'll keep it contained, and when it rains it'll flood and put out anything still smoldering. I'll make sure to take it down and clear the area for rebuilding once it's well and truly safe." Raising an eyebrow, he turned his head to look at the woman who'd spoken before. "What kind of pot things burn down a building?"

Mara raised a skeptical eyebrow, having no small familiarity with that argument - after all, she'd used it herself often enough. "Did say that I shouldn't be giving social advice. Probably got out less than you did, before meeting Ellie. Still - know it's important to stay...sane. Too easy to lose yourself in work. Important to at least meet people who don't want to kill you. For dating or not." She gestured vaguely with one hand, snorting. "Can always justify it as work. Important to have contacts. Social network seems oddly and frequently useful for research or decompression."

Dragonfly snorted, rolling her eyes. "Then, maybe. Phrase...'science marches on'. Besides. We're...a little more advanced than most." She paused, and gestured at Miss Americana, correcting herself: "Mostly her. Not that I'm not very good, but have to admit that she's better and this project was largely her. Likely can't fix your problems overnight, but plan is to try to keep Tronik from...collapse, or catastrophe. And improve from there as we're able." Her head tilted back the other way, yet again, and she looked thoughtful. "Experienced administrator would certainly be helpful, if you're able. Likely know the system better than either of us."

"And ultimate savior," Dragonfly pointed out, tilting her head. "Sort of. Made a...phrase...'deal with the devil' but didn't have many alternatives. Was risky, maybe foolish depending on information you had at the time. Had very low odds of working out in your favor - but still did work out in your favor." She frowned, gesturing at their surroundings. "Technically saved the lives - or minds - of millions of people. Luck-based success is still luck." She tilted her head back the other way, looking grimly amused as a thought occurred to her. "Didn't make the good choice - but seem to have made the right one?"

Mara tilted her head, regarding Erik like she'd size up a machine. "....I'd believe it," she said, raising an eyebrow. "Obnoxious, I mean. Know how some humor can...grate on people, besides. Still. Should probably be the last person to try to encourage social activity, but city isn't short on heroines. Or normal women. Only meeting supervillains sounds more like...why I only know other heroes. Too much time spent working." She snorted, mostly at herself for somehow trying to dispense dating advice. "Good for dedication, effectiveness. Probably bad for social life. Would know - I would, I mean."

Gaian Knight brought himself and the man in to the edge of the crowd, letting the rock he'd been riding settle to the ground to let his passenger off. Okay, Tarrant - hero mode time. "Fleur de Joie isn't here," he announced, raising his voice to make sure he was heard as well as could be expected when there was a smoldering building nearby to distract people. "Hopefully she'll be back soon, but for now, I'm all you've got. So who wants to get me caught up on what happened?" He glanced at said smoldering building, wincing. "Quickly would be best. I really hope no one's still in or under there?"

"The trick to getting around," Gaian Knight sagely noted, "is to find a big rock and tell it that it can fly. The hard part is getting it to believe you. And as for hypothetical visitors...not for now, I think. Hypothetically. No offense intended, of course - for now, there are no hypothetical visits whatsoever, at least not until I've done some hypothetical finishing touches and some hypothetical security of some kind or another." He chuckled, and shook his head. "And if you, sir, are a figment of her imagination...I'm not sure I want to think about what that says about me, that I can see you."