ic Late Arrival

[Avenger Assembled]

"...wait, that was real?" said Judy, sounding confused. "Ah thought that was just a prank thing, like that poster about Not Trying To Date Your Double." 

 

Ashley made a small, indistinct noise at the back of her throat. "That was real. Not just birds," she offered, trying to change the subject from the rumors that had floated around the kids from Young Freedom - she _really_ didn't want to have the conversation about Mark Lucas with her ward when she'd already had it with the Pentagon _and_ the State Department. 

 

"Well that sounds like fun!" offered Judy, "Ah hardly ever get to go out of doors anymore, and going to other dimensions sounds fun. Ah should see if Ah can sign up for that. What do you think, Mia, do you want to do something outside that isn't just super-stuff?" Ashley looked a little peeved at this idea but that wasn't an uncommon look for her in Danica's experience. 

[Shofet]

Mia shrugged her shoulders. “Sure, I figure looking at some birds would be cool,” she said as she gently strummed her guitar. It slowly turned into a riff familiar to those who happened to like older country. Otherwise, it was just a pleasant little tune. She parked herself on the bed, and briefly flashed the fresh tattoo of the Bosnian flag on her arm absently.

 

“There’s a few other things I’ve been looking at. Tech Club’s one. I like to work with computers, learned it from my dad. Could even help people with their computers if they manage to frag them somehow. Might try and start a band, honestly. Uh… Definitely plan to go to a few parties this year, you know? The ones back at public school usually sucked since most people just used it as an excuse to suck face which is super lame but ones with kids with superpowers should be fun.”

 

“I dunno, if you guys have any plans or find anything cool, just lemme know and I’ll probably be down.”

[Dr Archeville]

"Tech club?" a bright voice called out from the hall.  A face appeared in the doorway -- long nose, sharp cheekbones, strong jawline, with green eyes and black hair -- soon followed by the rest of its body, with broad shoulders and toned limbs.  "I had heard there was one, but have yet to find information on it.  Oh, ah, forgive me," he bowed slightly, "I am new here.  Heroditus Stylianos, of Atlantis."  He smiled at Mia, Danica, Ashley, and Judy, and offered his hand to any who would shake it, though he remained in the doorway and did not enter the room.  He gave Danica a quick double-take, but tried to recover quickly.  "I hope I am not intruding, ladies.  I was up on the roof, trying to get a good view of the campus, and on my way back to my room overheard your discussion.  One of my primary areas of study is Surface World technology, so I would be most interested in a tech club.  If there's a magic club, I would be equally interested in that.  Also," here a look of confusion crossed his face, "did I hear someone mention an extradimensional birdwatching club?"

[Electra]

"We haven't had a lot of good parties yet," Danica admitted, "but it's harder for underclassmen. The older students sometimes have parties that people say are totally off the hook, but they don't invite us." She rolled her eyes good-naturedly, then turned at the new voice from the corridor. A visible shudder ran down her frame, sinking her neck down into the safety of her shell. "Who's that?" she murmured to Judy,  just in time for the new person to arrive and introduce himself. She took a few subtle, shuffling steps backwards, putting a little more space and some bodies between her and the source of her entirely nebulous discomfort. Normally she'd be the first one to introduce herself, but something about this entirely normal-looking person was speaking to her brain of danger, of the threat of the unknown. It was very weird. 

[Avenger Assembled]

Judy tensed slightly, which made Ashley tense slightly too. It wasn't that she was afraid of Heroditus all of a sudden, but in her experience Danica was a pretty good judge of character. And if the tortoise girl didn't like the cut of Heroditus's jib, maybe she had good reason to. "He seems like a nice boy," she murmured softly to Danica, taking a step back so she could talk to her smaller friend in a hushed voice. 

Ashley, for her part, was between Heroditus, Judy, and Danica, a subtle move that nonethless had indeed taken place. "Yeah, there's a club where people go to other dimensions and watch birds. Just an excuse to get crapped on a billion times if you ask me," she said with an eye-roll and a snort. "So you're from Atlantis, huh? You tight with the prince?" 

[Shofet]

Mia felt slightly annoyed. She had just shown off her new tattoo, which really, how many teenagers had one of those, and now her thunder was being stolen by the sudden arrival of this guy from Atlantis. Still, she recovered quickly, going over and shaking the guy's hand.

 

"Yo," she said as she freed herself from the handshake. "I'm Mia Mustafic-Markov. Good t'meetcha, Heroditus. Seems like you'll fit in, what with 'hero' being in your name and all."

 

Wow Mia, that was absolutely lame, you dork, she thought bitterly to herself. At least he's taller than me. Do they all come like that in Atlantis? 

 

"But yeah, tech club. Gonna check it out. I sometimes help my dad repair computers at his shop so I'm pretty good with tech. I basically rebuilt my entire laptop with some parts I scavenged over a while," she said, sounding fairly proud of herself. "You ever have problems with your surface PC and you can come to me."

 

[Dr Archeville]

Heroditus was taken aback by Danica's reaction (did I not put on an adequate amount of deodorant?), but tried not to show it.  He was focused on Ashley's question.  "Oh, no, no, no," he waved his hands in front of him, "the Stylianos family has long served Atlantis, and worked with the nobles -- as I hope to someday -- but I have barely interacted with Prince Telemachus."  There was a decided note of reverence in his voice when he spoke the Prince's name.  "But, this birdwatching club -- how do they travel to other realms?  And do you know which ones do they visit?"

 

I know dimensional travel is possible, but the energy requirements should be enormous, and the calculations dizzyingly complex.  Do they have someone here who handles that?  Or is it via some artifact?

 

Mia found his handshake firm, and with more strength than she would have expected.  Her comment on his name got a chuckle from him, "well, I feel my middle name -- Fabricus -- is more predictive of my future, but I would not be upset if my first name proved equally prescient."  His eyes widened a bit when she talked about computers, "oh, that is very kind of you!"  He actually bowed to her (about 45 degrees, and stepping back a few inches so his head still remained outside Danica & Mia's room), and focused wholly on her when he straightened back up, "I know frustratingly little about Surface Worlder technology, as it is so very different from what we use in Atlantis.  I would greatly appreciate any help you could give me."

Edited October 6, 2019 by Dr Archeville

[Darksider42]

Where the hell is it? A blue haired girl thought, glancing at the various doors in the hallway. A large grey duffel bag was slung over her shoulder while her Headphones were on, blaring music from her ears. She found herself turning through the hall, distracted in her attempts to find her room.

 

"Think it was on this floor..." Max muttered to herself quietly as she started walking backwards. Usually her memory was better than this, but thoughts of what had happened over the week kept intruding and distracting her. Much like right then when she backed right into Heroditus. In an instant her entire body had taken on a ghostly blue shade, clothes and all with the exception of her duffel bag which fell right through her and landed on the hallway floor with a dull thud. The blue girl started to grow more and more transparent before fading away like the after image of a camera flash. 

Max had instantly appeared behind the Atlantian, pressed against the opposite door. "Oh $#!%" She said as her shoulders started to sag and a breath she was holding slowly let out. She hit a button on her headphones and slipped them off, music going silent. "Sorry man, did not see you... There." It was then she noticed everyone else in the room just behind him. There was a slight frown from her for a split second before her face went blank the moment she realised how it might look. Her hand was raised and waved slightly. "Uh... Hi?" 

[Shofet]

Mia smiled at Heroditus. "Oh, man, you bet. I don't really know much beyond computers and a bit about phones, besides some simple chip and circuit stuff, but I can get you through what I know. Maybe they'll have a practice PC they won't mind us taking apart in the Tech Club," she said.

 

Then arrived the strange phasing girl. Mia leaned around Heroditus to get a look at her, blinking. Oh, that's neat, Mia thought to herself. 'Nother teleporter, and... Matter phasing, I guess? Huh, kind of sounds like that girl mom mentioned a while back.

 

"Hey there," Mia said warmly. "I'm Mia, welcome to my and Danica's" gesturing at Danica. "Just dropping in or...?"

[Electra]

Danica eased back another couple of steps so that she was safely in her room, relaxing when the new guy did not follow. He definitely felt weird, but maybe it was one of his powers. Some people had powers that were more hindrance than help a lot of times, for example, a large shell that made one twice as slow as all one's classmates, and you couldn't hold that against them. All the same, she wasn't totally eager to engage. The new girl provided a distraction, at least. "Hi!" Danica said, with a wave that could also have encompassed Heroditus. "Nice to meet you! Uh, are you okay?" 

[Darksider42]

"Just call me Max." The girl said, visibly starting to calm down. No death threats, good sign.

It was now she was able to get a good look at everyone present. A puzzled expression did cross her face when eyes settled on Danica and the sizable turtle shell before she returned to Mia. "Just kinda lost here. Only got here today and I have no idea where the hell my room is." Max reached down and snatched the duffel bag from its spot on the floor. 

[Avenger Assembled]

Without thinking about it, Ashley asked the new girl where her room was, then pointed in that direction with an expressionless shrug. 

 

"Howdy!" said Judy with a little wave, coming out from behind Ashley to greet the new girl. "Ah'm Judy Smith, and it's a pleasure to meet ya." She gave her a quick handshake, fever-hot with warmth, (figuring she shouldn't try and scare someone with incontinence issues) and said, "Are y'all okay? They've got good stuff here to help you if you're having powers trouble." 

[Dr Archeville]

"The basics are where I need to start," he replied to Mia with a self-effacing chuckle.  "There is so much I want to know, that I need to know.  And if there is anything I can do to help you -- any of you," he gestured towards Ashley, Judy, and Danica -- "I would be quite pleased to do so.  I am staying in room 214, just one level down and at the other end of the building."

 

And then Maxine ran into -- or, rather, through -- him.

 

"Oh, no, no, no need to apologize," he said with a slight bow to Maxine, "I should have been more aware of my surroundings.  That was an impressive feat, though -- how do you manage that?"  He saw no obvious devices on her, he'd not heard any incantations, her aura looked entirely non-magical.  He then remembered a bit of etiquette that had been drilled into him, and he bowed again to her, "oh, I am sorry, that was rather forward of me.  Ah, Max, was it?  I am Heroditus Stylianos," he offered his hand, "from Atlantis."

[Darksider42]

Max shrugged at Ashley's question and told her the room number. She nodded when she got an answer. "Just that way? Cool. Thanks for that." It was rare people gave her a straight forward answer.

And then more pwople appeared to say hello and shake her hand. "Pleasure"  She added with a sly smile, then frowned slightly just as the handshake ended. Max rubbed the lingering heat between her fingers, surprised by just how much heat she felt. "Oh, I should be just fine. I'm not going to teleport and fuse myself with a sidewalk in downtown Chicago anytime soon." Max was not sure exactly where that was, truth be told, but she figured the reassurance would help.

And then the person she bumped into spoke. "Oh. Huh." She paused as she scrambled to answer on the spot about her powers. "Not sure. Something to do with some mutation I have and manipulating dimensional mechanics. It was not explained to me very well to be honest." A lot of what the instructors of the Shadow Academy told her about her powers went flying over her head and the dumbed down version left a lot of details out. 

She looked around at the assembled students, adjusting the strap attached to her bag. "I'm not interrupting anything am I?" 

Edited October 14, 2019 by Darksider42

[Shofet]

Mia's eyebrows flew up. "You're a long range teleporter too? Sweet! I uh... I can do that too. Like, all over. The first time I ever did it, my mom and I were in a fight, and I teleported to Dubai. Aaa... She freaked out. Anyway, sounds like our powers come from similar places. I just sort of... plug into the cosmic... ish, and then I'm where I need to be," she said happily.

 

"And nah, you're not interrupting anything. I'm just moving in and it caused a thing. Oh! Hey, I made stuff for the rest, lemme make..."

 

She paused, and then focused on making some things. First, she produced an enameled screwdiver, and handed it over to Heroditus, since she knew what he was into. However, seeing as she didn't really know Max yet, she went with another teddy bear, this time purple, with the name "Max" written on the belly. She hoped she wasn't being stereotypical here, but she probably was.

 

"And there you go."

[Dr Archeville]

Heroditus' gaze was going back and froth between Max and Mia so fast that his head threatened to spin off.  "You can... and you, too... you can both teleport?  Amazing!  I knew that some Surfacers had exceptional abilities, but teleportation!"  He slapped his forehead, "and two of them, here!  Is that a common ability?"  He became more animated as he spoke, "Atlantean techno-wizards have been working on that ability for some time -- the best we've been able to reliably manage is transporting up and down ley lines.  And most of our sorcerers can manage it, without that limitation, though there are so few of them.  But if I could-"  He stopped abruptly, "no, no, sorry, I do not wish to presume upon any of you."  He bowed slightly to both Max and Mia, "in fact, I really should-"

 

And then Mia presented him with her gift.  He held it reverently, "oh, this is... this is remarkable."  The item itself was fairly simple, but it was the offer, the thought, that meant so much to him.  Also, the display of matter manipulation.  He bowed again to Mia, slightly deeper, "thank you very much."

 

Do I give her something back?  I should.  But what?