Aberrant: 200X - Patching the Fence

[Eingar]

From 500 feet up, one can see a lot.

Even so, it takes him a minute to spot the blonde nova cruising steadily away from the gathering down below. Knockout wasn't moving very fast, relatively speaking. That's a good thing, since it's hard to make an apology and have a conversation with someone when you're both barrelling along at 400 miles per hour.

Even as he angles himself towards her, Einherjar wonders why he's doing this. It's not like he knows her or owes her a damn thing. And the question he raised was valid, wasn't it? But he hadn't been expecting her reaction, felt guilty for it. She's low on confidence, that's for certain. And when that Flicker girl sat next to her, Blondie nearly sprayed hot dog everywhere. History there, methinks. He didn't know anything much about Knockout, he realised. She had mentioned taking part in Superfight, which he'd heard of as some XWF knock-off show. Spending 10 years as the walking brain-dead hadn't been great preparation for meeting other novas, practically all of whom had at least some OpNet presence. But Danielle's apparent belief that it was city defense or porn as her only two career choices struck a chord in him. Ein didn't think it was overblown self-pity, more a lack of confidence so bad as to blinker the younger nova. In many ways, she reminded him of Sean, though the kid had been more grief-numbed and desperate than lacking in confidence.

Face it, you're a sucker for hard luck cases, you big bad Elite you. he grumbled to himself as he started to overhaul Knockout, her shapely rear noticeable even through her bulky clothing. Yeah, try not to think about that either. Time to announce myself before she notices and think's I'm stalking her.

"Hey, Danielle!" He called from 20 feet away as he pulled up to fly level with Danielle. He waved as she looked over, then swooped a little closer. "Can we talk? I'm pretty sure I owe you an apology." He looked her in the eye, his blue gaze sincere.

[Magnum Opus]

Danielle's thoughts were a red streak of rage, at everyone and everything in the world. So it took her a moment to realize that someone was talking to her. She spared a quick glance over her shoulder and started to accelerate - just leave me alone, every damn one of you - but she fought the urge, her ingrained Canadian politeness causing her to slow.

Danielle slowly cruised to a stop, turning around slowly, the wind tussling her hair. She sighs, looking down. "No, it's okay. You - you had a point. I shouldn't do it if I'm not into it. And I am. It's good work. But I just have the WORST luck..."

[Eingar]

"I may have had a point, but that doesn't mean I should've stabbed you with it." Ein shrugged as he drifted closer, his own blond mane tossing and curling in the wind. "I'm a prickly, pompous bastard at heart, and spending ten years not talking only pent all that up." He smiled self-deprecatingly as he came to rest standing on air beside her. "I'm sorry." He let the words hang there for a moment, glancing down at the streets below and at the buildings around them.

"Y'know, I'll bet most people think that being a nova is like winning some sort of super-lottery. Even most novas. And to a point, I think they're right." He glanced sideways at Danielle. "It's not all it's cracked up to be, though, is it? You just change the scale of your problems. Anything we mess up is bound to be louder, more serious, and noticed by more people than anything a regular cop or soldier does. Like that poor kid over in Seattle who accidentally smashed a vitrium bridge just by screaming at some terrorist."

"I don't know about you, or your bad luck, though I can imagine after some of the conversation that went over my head back there that it has something to do with not having a fireproof suit. Imagination fills in some blanks." He winked mischievously at her, his smile friendly. "Listen, I only had a couple of hotdogs, and feel like something more substantial. Want to grab something to eat? I'll be straight: I have ulterior motives." He said this last deadpan, a faint glint of humor in his pale blue eyes.

[Magnum Opus]

Oh God, he wants to sleep with me.

Danielle had to admit, Einherjar was the kind of guy that, were she into guys even a little, she's beeline straight for. But she wasn't and didn't want to be. She heard of novas so socially overpowering that they could ride roughshod over sexual preferences anyways, and felt a twinge of fear at it happening to her.

"Well, I'm not that hungry - " She pauses as her stomach growled. She looked down at it balefully. Well, fuck you too, stomach. "Okay, yeah, I am. Sure, food sounds good, but, uhm."

I should let him down gently. Be smooth.

"I used to be a guy and I like girls."

That was the polar opposite of smooth.

[Eingar]

The big Elite's face was such a picture for a long moment that Danielle found herself wishing for a Polaroid. First of all was the nod of acceptance and Yeah, I figured as he absorbed the second part of what she said first, coupled with a glint of irritation in his glacial eyes.

First Sean, now her. Is everyone I try to be friendly with going to think my dick is my conscience!?

"I know I said 'ulterior motives', but I was jo-"

Wait. What?

"Used... to be a guy?" Both blond eyebrows climbed the handsome forehead in amazement, then furrowed as his head tilted and he studied the girl in front of him. "Well..." he said at length, at a loss for something more intelligent to say. He laughed and rubbed the back of his neck with one tanned hand.

"You had me totally fooled, kid." He seemed more curious than weirded out, after the initial shock had died off. "I have to say, you look totally female to me. But then, I guess there's a lot people can do with surgery these days." He shrugged, still smiling.

[Magnum Opus]

"Yeah, it's not surgery. Not really. You see, when I erupted - "

Knockout's stomach growled again. She thought for a moment. "Tell you what, let's food up somewhere and then I can throw the whole sorry story at you. Where do you wanna eat?"

[Eingar]

It turned out to be Starlords. Einherjar had selected the place on three counts. First, novas ate free. Second, they had nova sized portions. And third, he didn't know New York well enough to pick anywhere else.

The service was certainly worth the hype. As soon as he and Knockout had swooped in to land in front of the place, doors had been held open and the two novas had been ushered in with almost creepy solicitousness, menus and wine lists offered to them as two waiters stood by with bright, helpful expressions on their faces. Ein found himself thinking of a gingerbread cottage, with he and Danielle playing Hansel and Gretel. He sighed and ordered swiftly so as to give the service staff something better to do than hover at his elbow. He noticed his companion was likewise uneasy, and winked sympathetically as she, too, ordered with a fair amount of haste.

"So." The drinks had arrived first, and the large Elite took a large pull on his beer as he waited for the waiters to head off again before he broached the conversation. He broke off half a breadstick and idly crunched it between his white teeth as he spoke. "You were saying...?" He figured they had a short time before the food arrived to talk.

[Magnum Opus]

"Right, right. Well, one day I just sort of erupted. Uh, I was in university at the time and there was stress over the usual school stuff and my girlfriend broke up with me because she came out of the closet. What did she say... 'sorry, Danny, but the only way we'll get back together is if you grow boobs and a vagina.'"

Danielle took a swig of her drink - some iced tea. "Guh. So that was that. And to relax I fly around in a VirGog online game where you pretend you're a nova. Looks really real. And my character was female, blonde, blue-eyed, strong enough to stop a tank and with a body that could stop a... thing that gets stopped. Sorry, my metaphor ran away. I feel asleep and when I woke up, fwoomp." She mimes dramatically growing breasts with her hands. "Kind of surprising. And it's just been one thing after another since then."

[Eingar]

Ein listened with no small amazement. He'd heard of some weird and/or traumatic eruptions since getting out of jail and 'waking up', but nothing like this. He smiled slightly, shaking his shaggy head.

"Okay. That's some damn bad luck." His deep voice was sympathetic, but not pitying as he looked at her. "It could've been worse, I suppose. You might have erupted as a lesbian-hating serial killer, or have been playing Mario. Or even worse: a lesbian-hating serial killer who looks like Mario." Ein's grin was full of wicked good humor.

"Do you and that Nova girl know each other, then?" He asked Danielle with polite directness. "I was catching some kind of a vibe from where I was sitting, and you damn near went orbital when she sat next to you."

[Magnum Opus]

"Nova? Yeah, we..."

We kinda made out on Mars and I thought she liked me and then I drop a hot dog and panic and suddenly she treats me like something she scraped off her shoe.

"We kinda made out on Mars and I thought she liked me and then I drop a hot dog and panic and suddenly she treats me like something she scraped off her shoe." Danielle finds it surprisingly easy to open up to Einherjar. "Like I said. I have the worst luck on Earth."

[Eingar]

"Heh, women!" The tone is vintage male exasperation, but the wink and sly grin Einherjar directs at Danielle give the ironic twist to his words.

They fall silent as the food arrives, plates are set down, and waiters' autograph books are signed on the off-chance that one day the two novas will be famous. Nova-watching and collecting signatures are the two main perks to working in Starlords. As they bustle away, satisfied, the blond man leans back in to the conversation, cutting away at his steak.

"Well, it's pretty clear her disdain was due to the flying hot dog party trick." Ein shrugged and smiled, speaking easily around a mouthful of steak. "If a girl lets you get to first base, on Mars no less, it's a fair deal that she likes you. Nova deliberately sat down next to you, so she must have looked forward to seeing you, but then you do something daft and she acts mortified." Ein washed down his mouthful with some beer and shrugged again. "Eh, she's young, I'm guessing, for all her self-possession."

"So." He sawed off another piece of steak. "Why'd you panic? Surprise I can understand, but you freaked out, Dani."

[Magnum Opus]

"I just get... nervous, I guess." She fiddles with her fork absently. "Like, stuff like that happens a lot. I do the wrong thing at the worst possible moment and it builds on itself and builds on itself and then before I know it I'm holding a handful of ashes."

She takes a slow swallow of her drink. "I really shouldn't, but..."

[Eingar]

Despite the fact that sex is out of the question (or maybe because of that), Ein finds something within himself warming to Danielle's plight.

"It's your nervousness that's the problem, then. But lemme ask you this, and think it over." Ein cuts off another piece of steak and holds it up, pausing in the act of eating as he looks Danielle right in the eye. "What are you really afraid of? What's the core of the fear that makes you so nervous?" He smiled thinly. "You don't have to tell me, but it's the big step for you. If you know what lies at your centre, you can deal with it. Like backtracing a disease to the cause." He shrugged and inhaled the forkful of meat. Chewing and swallowing in a scant span of seconds, he fired off another question, head tilted.

"And while you're thinking on that, tell me what frightens you the worst right now, without thinking about it. First thing that pops into your head."

[Magnum Opus]

"Screwing up."

Danielle thinks for a moment, then nods. "Yeah. That's about it."

[Eingar]

"Hell, everyone's afraid of that unless they're insanely egotistical or hopelessly cynical." Ein chuckled around a mouthful of food. "Now you've got to figure out how to stop that fear making you clench and do the very thing you're afraid of: screwing up." He shrugged. "There's tons of self-help crap out there about fear management. I lean towards the Frank Herbert 'Fear' mantra myself. But nothing gives confidence like training." He took a sip of his drink.

"I take it they are training you, right?"

[Magnum Opus]

"Oh yeah, stack of books yeh high - " She holds her hand at eyebrow level. "Police procedures, ride-alongs, the works. That's just the conventional cop stuff. The nova stuff, well, they let me go out on weekends to the Rashoud out in Vancouver and train in their big Danger Room - except they get grumpy when I call it that, but come on, who hasn't watched an X-Men cartoon by now?"

Cool guys?

"But, well... they trained me on Most Excellent super Fight too. Screwed that up nicely... so..."

[Eingar]

"Used to read those comics. Never thought I'd get to be a 'mutie' one day. I used to joke with my wife about seeing a bald guy in a wheelchair on the weekends." Ein smiled as he nodded in agreement with Danielle. "Used to be a huge comics geek. Not so much now, of course. They replaced all the great characters with unbelievable two-dimensional cut-outs like Caestus Pax." he deadpanned.