| Eight Legs or Four Arms? | ||
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| Summary: Ash and Theo, recent arrivals, visit the Welcome Center. There, they meet Jeremy, one of the more... physically unusual employees there.    |
For Ash this wasn't entirely new. He wandered the welcome center in tan knee length shorts, sandals.... and a shirt loud enough to not even match itself. he adjusted the alolah'n cap as he looked the place over, frowning. He looked at the paper in his hands, frowning at it then looking back to the starfish at the counter before giving a resigned sigh. "So, this is for new arrivals to this... place?" He sounded like an exasperated teenager. Yet... "Look, I'm sorry if I'm the nth person to bug you about this but the pamplets have the right of it and there being no way back?" He sounded less desperate and more annoyed. Jeremy sits upright as soon as the door opens, hiding the magazine on his lap as he scoots slightly forward. Not in an 'I'm caught' manner so much as a 'back to work!' manner. "Hello and Welcome to Mabase!" He says cheerfully, but then there's that usual question. It sounds almost scripted, but still genuine when he says, "Yes, I'm sorry. There are some stable portals, but unfortunately unless you arrived through one of those portals, it is very unlikely that any of them are connected to the realm you arrived from." Spiders. There are suddenly spiders. A handful of tiny metal spiders skitter into the welcome center. They climb up the wall and look from the ceiling. This is, of course, Theo surveying the scene from elsewhere. It becomes clearer when a blond teenage boy walks into the room, wearing a green t-shirt, denim vest, faded jeans, and battered sneakers. And a pair of pins, one on each lapel. This blond fellow very much looks new and confused, casting a wide-eyed glance around the room. He happens to catch the end of Ash's question, and blinks. He looks from Ash to the... okay. Yeah. Seeing the starfish in pants and a shirt gives him pause for a long moment. Clearly at least he's surprised at what he sees. The guy who enters behind Theo is being polite. He's using the door. Of course, to unfamiliar eyes he might look a bit, shall we say, "bum-like," with his off-the-rack suit, white t-shirt instead of a button down and distinct lack of footwear. "Yo, Jeremy," he greets the starfish before looking around. Spiders. Ash Tenou frowned, his shoulders slumping before muttering, "Ordis's gonna think I abandoned him again...." His voice soft. there was an edge to it. then. a deep breath. His eyes closed. breath in. Breath out. that is when he noticed the spiders.. All of them centering on the blonde. An eyebrow raised as he turned more fully, "..>Stand user..." He hated the fact he was apparently stuck in this Mbasa city, or wherever here was even more now. "OK.... Kid," His voice a very deliberate calm, "Any chance at making the spiders go away? You're safe here. It's OK." His posture would perhaps look casual to the untrained observer, but his hands had left his pockets and his weight shifted to his back foot. He would give the 'bum' in the suit a casual wave, showing something on his right wrist, a bracelet of interlocked metal segments and a single disc-like bulge even as his eyes remained on Theo. Jeremy doesn't react to the spiders. At all. Instead, he cheerfully greets Theodore as he enters, alerted only by the sound of the door opening. "Hello! Welcome to Mabase! I'll be with you in a few moments!" It's difficult to help more than one person at a time. As neither seems to be in a panic, Jeremy will of course focus his efforts on Ash. First come, first served, after all! But he does still greet the last to enter. "Mr. Hawksmoor! A pleasure as always, but I'm afraid I don't have much time to chat." His voice does not sound like it would be coming from a starfish, but sounds perfectly normal human. It's masculine, but very soft... like an overly caring school counselor. Finally, he looks back to Ash again. "Sorry about that. But... yes, I'm afraid we don't have a way of sending messages across to those left behind, either." He looks around the room in confusion. "Spiders?" He knows he's not the one addressed with the request. He's just confused. What spiders? Theo notes one Jack Hawksmoor when he greets Jeremy, and turns to look, recognizing the voice. He offers a wave in Jack's direction, too. "Hi there," he greets. But then, the blond kid turns to look at Ash with the mention of the spiders. He looks up at them. "Oh, er... you can see them too?" he inquires. "That's three people so far who can see them. I'm sorry. They're harmless though -- not venomous, they don't really even have teeth or fangs, and they're too small to really be dangerous." That said, though, he beckons to the spiders on the ceiling and they sort of 'Mission Impossible' down to him, on golden threads that disappear when they're no longer needed. Theo raises his hand to cover his mouth loosely... and the spiders crawl under it, disappearing. When he draws his hand away, they're gone. "Sorry abot that. I tend to send them to scout when I don't know an area." Jeremy's reaction gets a sheepish look from Theo. "Uh... yeah. They're mine. Don't worry about it. I have weird psychic powers that manifest in ways some people can't see." He has little problem with telling Jeremy, because... well. He's a giant starfish. On Theo's scale anyway, that's a little weirder than 'I have psychic spiders'. "And they're harmless," Jack says, shooting Ash a look. "From what I've seen, anyway." The spiders might well be disconcerting, though...to those who can see them and, yes, to those who can't. Jeremy laughs nervously while looking around the room. "Yes, well, um, glad to hear they're harmless..." Where are the spiders, where are the spiders? Wait, invisible? Even freakier! Luckily, Jeremy has enough self-control to not let his squeamishness show beyond that brief nervous laughter. Ash Tenou looked to the starfish and shrugged before calmly stating, "Is what it is. Miwa's gonna be annoyed." More along the lines of 'heartbroken.' Alolah was special to him, but to her? It was home. Instead he points to one of the little metal spiders, "You don't see those?" He looked to the starfish, gesturing. "I could be worng, but the blonde there is generating them as a sort of quirk from his home. I'm going off memory from a speedwagon pamplet but stands are basically a user's fighting spirit given form and given a very narrow set of 'things they can do.'" He... wasn't sure how right that was and had a feeling that had a lot of holes and astrisks in it. "It looked near enough like how I pilot my warframe to do a little digging," He offered as way of explanation. He sees Theo's 'disposal' of the spiders and raises an eyebrow. "Even if all they can do is provide reconnaissance they're a major advantage in a fight." He gestured to himself, "I'm Ash.. uh," He paused frowning. "I guess Tenou is as good a last name as any and you need a way to keep me separate from all the other Ashes this place is bound to have." Only then did he look to jack, a very deliberate careful look. "Harmless is relative. I don't think our friend here has any harmful intent, but even if a thing has no poison fangs, or sharpness of claw does not mean it can't become a weapon. You just have to get creative." Theo nods to Jack's mention of the spiders. "Yes, that's right. They're far too small to hurt anyone in the typical ways a spider can." And there was only a handful there, just enough for recon work, so even less reason for anyone to worry. He sends a reassuring look to Jeremy. "It's all right. You've no need to worry. I've put them away now, they're no longer skittering about." He doesn't have any sort of accent, but he has a rather formal way of speaking, enunciating his words clearly, and choosing 'yes' over 'yeah'. But then Ash mentions 'Speedwagon'... and Theo blinks, looking with wide amber eyes at him. "Speedwagon... do you mean the Speedwagon Foundation?" he inquires. "They're a medical and ecological research firm in my world... are you from there?" Pause, and he considers Ash's words. "...S-Stand?" Clearly he hasn't heard that word before... maybe a relatively newly-fledged Stand-user? Not like the young fella with the pompadour that Ash might remember. He also looks a little embarrassed at the mention of being a weapon. "Well, yes... they do have lots of ways to fight, but... I'm rather trying to put Mr. Jeremy at ease. But..." He bows politely. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Ash. My name is Theodore Rabanne. 'Theo', if you like." Jack rolls his eyes (currently not even a bit red, thankfully), "He's a medic. Which doesn't mean he's not dangerous, but..." And then he looks between the two. "Well, huh. Maybe you guys can help each other out then." Because they'd already know the differences. Jeremy is the picture of calm! ...Nevermind the slight twitching of the small tentacles at the ends of his arms. Really, they're functionally just fingers. That twitching isn't a sign of nervousness at all, no. />\ Oh, but the two may be from the same world? This is wonderful, usually this helps people acclimate better, having some sense of familiarity to grasp on to. "I don't, no," he says in response to Ash's question. For the moment, however, he glances between the occupants of the room, not wanting to interrupt their conversation. He's a patient starfish. Ash Tenou focused his attention on Theo and slow nodded, "Speedwagon Foundation does a lot of research into paranormal and at least what i'd seen showed they were familiar enough with Stands to know they were native rather than imports from other worlds." A pause as his eyes unfocus, trying to recall details. "I'm not from your world. I'd simply landed in Morioh and was actually kind of enjoying the place when a few odd things happened." Nothing major just a stand-like projection that resembled his warframe. He then looked to the starfish, "Yea, they're gone. Plus the kid doesn't seem the type to start fights unless provoked." He looked the starfish over, more curious than disturbed. "I have questions I'm not sure I want the answers to. there was a chuckle. And when Jack spoke Ash's chuckle turned into light laughter, "I'm dating a girl that's a pop singer from a world that's got at worst leg breakers and bored kids raising hell. Yet I've seen her stare down literal demonic armies. You'd be surprised at how much backbone the quiet ones have." Finally he turned back to Jeremy, "Hey," his voice was soft. "It's alright man." He looked at the finger-like tentacles. "Rough day we're not helping with or new doing desk work?" Theo nods eagerly to Jack's explanation. "That's right. I'm basically... Well, I suppose 'psychic healer' might be an appropriate term, too." He looks to Jack. "Is that about right? I'm not sure if there's actually a difference. But yes." Looking to Jeremy, he assures, "I have less interest in figuring out how to make them dangerous and more in trying to see how I can help injured people not-be-injured anymore. And yes, I put them away." He chuckles. Theo doesn't notice the twitching of those small 'fingers'. He can't see that well without his spiders, and he's put them away so he can put Jeremy more at ease. Ash's words of the Speedwagon Foundation gets a blink. "Wow... really? They know about all this? And it's a native thing?" That means one thing to Theo -- he's not the only one. He never was. "...I never realized. But then again, it really doesn't surprise me. If anyone would know about paranormal phenomena, it would be them. They have their fingers in a lot of pies..." "Oh, I didn't say he didn't have backbone," Jack says. "Given some of the paramedics I've met. Crazy, some of them." Jeremy retracts the tentacles, realizing he may be exuding an air of nervousness through them. "Oh, it's been a slow enough day that I've gotten all my paperwork caught up, easily." From his tone of voice, it doesn't sound like that was too much of a challenge, nor very unusual. He's listening in on the conversation, yes, but unless there are questions about how to get situated, he won't interrupt into it. There is a sort-of-nod to Theo as he mentions his intentions with the spiders - one could argue it's a slight and repeated bow, though, considering Jeremy doesn't have a proper head. How is he talking? His mouth isn't even visible. He also doesn't appear to have a backbone. "Nope!" Ash's voice was cheerful, "Kid I ran into had this stand that was like a giant cyborg man that could fix things by punching them." He had hoped to go to Morioh again, the place was nice from what he'd seen. bit of a weirdness magnet but given his own strangeness maybe that's what drew him there. Ash looked to Jeremy, smiling. "So, what sort of paperwork needs to be filled out for a couple new arrivals?" There was a beat as he considered Theo and shook his head, "Me and the primarina lady that came with me. She's doing the more peopley bits of figuring things out. I figure save her the hassle of getting her paperwork while i'm over here." A helpless shrug and seemingly no care that Jeremy wasn't even vaguely humanoid. "I don't mean to pry but.... where's your mouth? Or are you a telepath?" Theo grins at Jack's words. "Ah, no, he's right. I don't really have anything resembling a backbone," he assures. "I mean... literally of course, yes, I do. I'm a vertebrate, I rather need one of those to function. But no, I generally run from danger. I run from not-danger, too. Come to think of it, I run from a lot of things." He chuckles. Ash mentions the paperwork then, and he nods. "Oh, that's right. I suppose there's a procedure that a newcomer needs to go through. Particularly if, as you mention, most of us will be stuck here. I'll need to do that as well." And then he considers the account of someone with a cyborg Stand that fixed things by punching them. "That... is really strange," he admits. "But I hope he made it work. And I hope he helped people with it. It's a pity I didn't get to meet him. Had I known that these... 'Stands' were more common, I wouldn't have run away to begin with..." Jack Hawksmoor laughs. "Nothing wrong with running, though. Sometimes it's the best course of action." He doesn't involve himself in the conversation about Stands, except to note the term. Might come in handy. "Oh, not much, really! Just some basic information, really... Nothing beyond what would be on a driver's licence, if they have those in your home dimension. I can take your picture and give you a proper ID if you like. But what I'm more here for is to give you information rather than the other way around." Jeremy looks between Theo and Ash, then raises an arm. "I'm the one that's not a vertebrate. And my mouths are where you would call your armpits." Indeed, when he raised his arm, his voice became a slight bit louder. Also, the motion was a bit too fluid for him to have any arm bones. "And I assure you, having what you may consider to be a strange power is no reason to run from society here. Why, Mr. Hawksmoor here has one of the strangest powers I've ever seen! Far stranger than... controlling invisible spiders." Yes, apparently Jeremy has a slight spider phobia. Ash Tenou shrugged at Theo's admission of cowardice, "Running when you're pretty sure you're gonna get pasted isn't lack of backbone, it's having more sense than I've got." Says the 'teenager who's left hand trails to his left hip, fingers curling as if around something absent. Instead of commenting over Theo having run from home he turned back to Jeremy. As heartless seeming as it might have been, if here was Permanent, there was no way for that kid to take it back. Just like there was no way for him to tell Ordis where he was.. .barring Ordis somehow finding the same anomaly. A maybe, but he had to presume Ordis, his ship, and everything else was gone. Which brought to mind something else, "I'm gonna need to find work. Only have a little of the money from Miwa's home and I'm not sure what the exchange rates are.... plus that's not gonna last long." Then Jeremy raised an arm, revealing armpit-mouth. causing him to quirk an eyebrow. "So no pitchforks and torches. No white lab coat amoral science types wanting to poke and prod?" He gave a friendly smile at this information before looking to Hawksmoor. "Color me interested. about all I've got is a mainline tap into a whole universe of self contradicting power." No mention of the madness and all that came with the experience. As if demonstrating he extended his left arm, palm up, and caused what looked like a small flame to form that switched from green to purple, to yellow, to white.... and then before extinguishing seemingly turning into a sort of 'black' that drank in the surrounding light before he closed his hand around the little flame. "But I'm not here to compare oddities. I'm just glad nobody cares." Theo does something in response to Jack's words of running away sometimes being the best course of action. This gesture is commonly known as a 'sagenod'. Theo sagenods at this. "There is very definitely wisdom in that," he agrees. "It's not a lot of use to anyone if you throw yourself at a situation you can't handle. Least of all yourself, because then you would be dead." Now, Theo can't help but snicker a little at the mention of mouths being in armpits. But he is trying to be polite, so he purses his lips to muffle the sound, and ducks his head to hide the whole thing. "We all have much to learn. But... well, as far as I knew, no one in my home world could do that. That said, I also panicked. I'm sure I would have eventually gone back home once I'd calmed down, if I'd given it some thought." Oh, an ID! "That might be useful, so the police here know that I'm... well, 'registered', I suppose you'd call it," he agrees. Ash's words of running get a nod as well. "I suppose, at least, you could run to people who can handle the situation," he notes. He doesn't interrupt Ash's conversation to Jeremy. But that flame? That gets a blink. "Oh, wow," he breathes. He raises a hand as if he wants to touch the flame, but pulls his hand back before he gets it close. Wait, wasn't this kid just talking about how much fo a coward he was? And was going to touch void flames?! Jack Hawksmoor nods. "Definitely no shame with that." Jack leans against the wall. "I should get going, though. You guys will be okay, right?" | |
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