A meet-up and an open!

[alkhimia2i]

Who: Ana Amari + Clark Kent, or possibly anyone!
What: Ana's first venture into the City of Tomorrow, and meeting up with a young would-be hero.
When: Mid-November? Nowish.
Where: City of Tomorrow--a diner near the McAran building, or out among the city.
Notes & Warnings: None so far


[A: For Clark Kent]

It takes a while to find the courage to press that button. The letters TRANSPORT stare back at Ana in the dim light of her room. She's decked out from head to foot in a large brown coat with blue accents, though the weapons and the armor are left behind for another day. She shouldn't need something like that for this trip. The only precaution that she does indulge in is the black bird-like visor that covers her face. If there's any possibility of running into her old friends... She's not prepared for that just yet.

But meeting a young man--a stranger? That feels like an easier step, to face someone without any burden of guilt or shame attached. To do something as normal as meeting in a diner, when she's barely spoken more than ten words to any given person in the last two years. She takes a breath in, breathes out again slowly, and presses the button.

Suddenly she's in a city that she's never seen before, though there's a familiar air about it. It feels a bit like Numbani--the futuristic hub of her own world--with it's advanced technology and modern architecture. There are people out on the street, but they don't seem to pay her too much mind. Maybe it's not so strange for someone to materialize out of thin air. It's not exactly unheard of, but she's never used that particular technology herself before.

Ana finds the diner without too much trouble, close to the place that the young man had said it would be. Rather than enter the diner, she lingers outside, keeping her one good eye on the lookout for the young man who might be looking for her as well.



[B: For anyone]

Once their meeting concludes, Ana finds herself wandering the City of Tomorrow. The option to leave is always at hand, but having made the trip to this strange new place, she might as well make the most of it. The visor is back on, obscuring her face from any curious passerbys as she investigates the City. Despite her anonymity, she takes care to remain a courteous pedestrian, though any reaction to someone approaching on her right side is bound to be delayed. It wouldn't be entirely her fault if she happened to bump into someone on a busy street.

Comments

[american_alien]

He's waiting outside of the diner that he'd mentioned, dressed in a U of Kansas Veterinary School hoodie and a pair of tattered farmer's jeans. He's got a little paper sign with the name 'Clark' written on it for ease of identification.

[alkhimia2i]

Ana spots him without too much trouble, all things considered. He's close to what she was expecting. A young man sporting college clothing, and the sign does help--even just for the sake of knowing that he's looking for someone.

She stops a few feet from him, crossing her arms and tilting her head. The mask she wears at the moment obscures her smile, but there's good humor in her voice. "I take it your name is Clark, then? That might have been useful information before we arranged to meet."

[american_alien]

He blinks for a moment, just a moment, before looking down at the sign and finally, over at her. And his cheeks are just a little red as he ducks down and nods.

"Yeah, I... didn't even realize."

He takes the sign, crumples it up, and tosses it in the garbage nearest to them.

"But, I guess it worked?"

Then he's stepping forward to offer his hand.

"Clark Kent. Sorry I... didn't mention that earlier."

[alkhimia2i]

The chuckle that follows is muffled, but not unkind. She takes his hand, shaking it with a firm grip. "No apologies necessary. I could have asked as well." The fault is just as much hers as his.

"You can call me Shrike for now." She's never been one to use code names; but it's as good a name as any, when there's others about who might be familiar with her real one. She hopes he doesn't mind the secrecy.

As if to suggest that they move along, she motions to the diner's entrance. "Shall we go inside? I'd like to know more about what I'm working with here."

[american_alien]

"Shrike," he repeats, at first thoughtful and then smiling. He's got a pretty bright smile, very earnest. When she motions to the diner's entrance, he nods and hops to, opening the door for her.

"The nice thing about this place is that I can talk about stuff without anyone being super weird about it. I mean, it's not home, but Tomorrow is one of the few places where I can be myself. Like... all of myself."

Beat.

"And the matzo ball soup is really tasty. I'd never had it before but it's really good."

[alkhimia2i]

He's cute, is what he is. That smile of his is infectious. If she wasn't already so amused by him, it would be more than enough to get her smiling back. He holds the door open for her, and she takes advantage of his generosity by heading inside.

His appraisal of the diner gets a hum of contemplation from her as she finds a booth away from any windows. "Is it? I'll have to try it." That, and perhaps some tea. That sounds like a pleasant meal to go with the pleasant chat they're about to have.

There's no one else in the diner that she's familiar with, so after a moment of hesitation, she pulls off the visor and sets it on the table next to her. Her right eye--or lack thereof--is still obscured by an eyepatch, but the left is trained on the young man.

"So, Clark," she begins, "You make it sound like your skills aren't appreciated at home."

[american_alien]

He blushes, ducking his head a little, and sways back and forth in the seat. How do you tell people something like what he is? What he can do? It's... ridiculous, really. Insane.

"It's... less that they're not appreciated so much as I don't know what to do with them." He breathes in and out and runs a hand through his hair, ruffling it even worse.

"I'm a kid from a farm in Kansas who can send a man flying sixty feet with a flick of my finger. Who can fly with a thought. Who can---" he shakes his head with a sigh, "who can take a shotgun to the face and still be talking to you. And I was going to be a veterinarian because I guess I thought..." he breathes in and out, "like I said, I guess I thought it was safe. Good I could do without... cheating and using all these things that make me different from other people. But..."

He shrugs.

"It seems like running away from it too. And running away from who and what you are seems like a bad life choice, you know?"

[alkhimia2i]

To her credit, Ana takes the explanation in stride. It's... somewhat out of her realm of experience, but at the same time not. When you fight alongside time travelers, super soldiers, and sentient space gorillas; there's not a whole lot that shakes your worldview. Not even a flying young man with super strength. As for getting shot in the face... He seems to have fared better than she did, she notes with dry humor.

The last bit hits a little closer to home, if only because she recognizes how close it is to what she's doing. Running away from who and what you are... But she's an old woman. She's already made her life choices, and this is about him. Not her.

"When you put it like that, how could I disagree?" She laughs a little, mostly to herself, before turning a little more serious. "You should never be ashamed of who or what you are. It's not cheating to be different. Truthfully, it's our differences that might prove to be the most useful, when we're called to help and protect others."

[american_alien]

He nods along with the last thing she'd said before glancing down at the menu to consider what he does actually want to get.

"I'm not... ashamed," he says after a moment as he decides on the waffles. He breathes in and looks her in the eye. "I'm not ashamed of what I am and what I can do. I'm not ashamed of anything other than the mistakes that I've made. But I've... I've wanted to be fair."

He quirks his lips to one side thoughtfully.

"And it was only recently that I realized that well, being fair isn't always how the world gets to be more fair. And that most of the people who have... power aren't interested in making it more fair for those who don't."

His head tilts as he glances at her.

"Does that make sense?"

[alkhimia2i]

"Yes, unfortunately."

Ana smiles ruefully at him and the conclusion that he's reached. That song and dance is rather familiar. She used to fight against people like that--powerful tyrants, terrorists, evil men with enough power in their hands to make a grab for more. People who would rather resort to fear than diplomacy to get what they wanted.

"There are some people in the world who will only listen to force. They won't care about playing fair, so long as they get what they want. And so, it falls to us to fight them with whatever means we have. If that means not playing fair, well... That's fine, so long as you don't sink to their level."

[american_alien]

He shakes his head firmly.

"No, I don't-" he breathes out slowly as he tries to figure out how to say what he means. "I think what I need to figure out is what's fair for me, you know?"

His lips quirk to either side.

"I know it doesn't make sense to try and make myself something I'm not. But there's lines people decide they won't cross. And... I think it's pretty important to figure those out too."

He glances at the menu and considers whether he wants to call the waitress over before frowning and looking back.

"Sorry if I'm kind of talking out loud. I've just never had anyone to talk to about this. Not this frankly, anyway."

[boundinblood]

It honestly doesn't help matters that Katherine is walking around practicing a little bit of magic as she walks, frost forming above her hand in brief little sprinkles of snowflakes. Magic is difficult in a city that runs on as many real-world rules as it can. Her inability to sustain a spell is what prevented her from helping the invasion of the Satellite, and she's determined to practice.

Which is why she doesn't notice the hooded, masked figure who otherwise stands out fairly well, until she's brushed against her and...spilled a handful of fresh snow on her coat. There are worse spills to deal with, surely.

"Oh, I'm sorry!" Katherine looks up, does a double-take at the visor, and then, in an attempt to cover up the brief awkward stare, adds, "I wasn't paying attention."

As if a handful of snow, when it isn't snowing, is a perfectly normal thing to be carrying.

[alkhimia2i]

A little snow on her coat isn't going to bother Ana much, though she's surprised at there being snow around here at all. Completely disregarding the fact that snow isn't something she normally sees in Giza, there isn't exactly anywhere around here for the young woman to have picked it up.

Still, she brushes the snow off her coat without much complaint. "It's alright. No harm done." Her voice is muffled by the visor, but still comes through without any hostility or offense.

"Though, I didn't realize that snow was so fascinating to stare at." Maybe one of the shops was selling it? It wouldn't be the first strange thing she's heard of in this place.

[boundinblood]

"It is when you created it - and magic is difficult to work here."

To demonstrate, she creates another burst of frost over an upturned palm.

"With the same amount of effort at home, I can surround myself with a frigid blast, to protect myself. That's why I need to practice. If I'm ever needed again-..."

Without her concentration, the spell fails, and the swirling snowflakes at her fingertips vanish. "...then that's all I'll be able to manage, unless I adjust to it somehow."

[alkhimia2i]

It's a shame that no one sees the look of skepticism that Ana gives the word 'magic', but there's no missing the way that she startles at the burst of frost over the young woman's palm.

"That... certainly is a gift," she remarks slowly. Is there a trick to it? She refrains from peering any closer at the woman's hand, certain as she is that it must be some kind of contraption producing the snowflakes.

"Is there something fundamentally different about this place?" If there was, she hadn't noticed anything. Then again, she couldn't do whatever it was that this person did...

[boundinblood]

"To a mage like me, very much so. It's-..."

How much should she try to explain? Does her world even have a Fade and Veil to compare it to? Would she be aware of them?

"...Magic bends the rules of the world to the caster's desire, as long as he or she knows how to manipulate it. This place, um. It doesn't bend, or not as easily."