psl with Druitt

[electro_kinetic]

Noriko has grown...well, almost accustomed to there being someone non-mutant in the school; given that she'd been the one to come across him first. That didn't mean she was particularly fond of the guy, though, and hadn't gone to seek him out while he'd been at the school, though she'd run across him a few times.

Today she was occupied in the library in a pair of jeans and a cutoff shirt, hunched over a spread of engineering books and a tablet. She's deep in studying, but contrary to the quiet most people expect of an empty library she has headphones on thudding out French rap.

Comments

[borneinblood]

There are very few people who have been inclined to be particularly fond of Druitt over the years. Which is perfectly understandable given who and what he is - he might not have spoken much of his past during his stay at the school thus far, but that doesn't erase the blood on his hands - but he figures it's best if he at least tries to be on his best behavior here. It doesn't always work, of course, given that his temper runs wide and deep at the best of times, but he makes something of an effort all the same.

(Eventually he suspects that the old undeniable call to blood will drive him forward again, will spur him into violence, but he doesn't mean to address that with anyone here, and with the absence of an EM shield it'll be trivial to find himself a hunting ground suitably removed from the school grounds.)

Still, it's a good enough day thus far and while he's long since figured out at least the most immediately relevant differences between this reality and the one he's most accustomed to. Finding a way back is something that he hasn't figured out just yet, but he's not in any real hurry. Besides, there's a sort of comfort to the library, more so than there'd be anywhere else (which mostly has a tendency to feel too much like an actual school to feel like somewhere he can actually be at home in).

Nor is it initially his intention to speak to Noriko. But eventually he does get curious - about the music and about the books she's hunched over - and that's enough to have him wandering over, although he glances over the pile of books before he says anything.

"Now there's a topic I haven't considered in a while."

To be perfectly honest, he's not entirely certain she'll be able to hear him over the music from her headphones. But that's not entirely enough to keep him from speaking all the same and he probably won't mind repeating himself if he has to.

[electro_kinetic]

"Women's rights, or electrical engineering?" Noriko replies in question, not yet looking up from what she's writing; she can feel the pacemaker cells in his heart, and thus kinda knows when she's being spoken to. It's been a handy trick over the years, really, and not just for convincing her teachers she's paying attention when she isn't.

She doesn't bring up that quip about women's right because it's him, either: the song, which she fully understands, has a question about that as the chorus, repeated many times each round. "Because either one could be said for most people at this school, certainly for most men."

[borneinblood]

Rusty though his French is, he can just about make out the chorus. Enough so that her question isn't particularly out of the ordinary, for all that he hadn't exactly meant to be talking about it. Still, he doesn't seem to be particularly inclined to ask her to stop playing her music either and that's probably better than most other people might.

"The latter."

True, it's not ever been a topic that he's spent a lot of time exploring, but he's been mostly-friends with Tesla long enough that it's come up more than a few times over the course of their respective lives. And while he might not have had time to really keep up with science of late, that is where the five of them had had their beginnings, once upon a time.

[electro_kinetic]

"It's what comes naturally to me," she says with a shrug; she's an electrokine, and she's used to it, and good at math. And hell, clean and renewable energy is a building field, and she still needs to have a job at some point beyond 'dying young'. Which is depressing.

"Electricity will always act predictably. It may not conform to what humans want it to do, but it will do what it has always done: take the path of least resistance. If you want to control it, you have to make sure you have that path. Fortunately for me, fucking things up in practice as well as theory isn't fatal, so I can afford to experiment." She's not saying wireless transmission is her big project, but if John can see bits and pieces of her papers around the table, he ought to be able to put together that it's a Stirling engine and an AC generator she's forcing together.

In theory it works. In practice, she'll see how efficient it is.

[borneinblood]

Though his definition of 'dying young' is likely to be significantly skewed, he can certainly understand the general idea of the thing. Not that he's in the least bit aware of what she should happen to be thinking, but the concept wouldn't be unfamiliar if it should happen to come up at some point. Instead, there's simply a sort of half-nod at the explanation, and the beginning of a wry smile besides. One that he doesn't seem immediately inclined to explain, true. But it's there all the same.

"I remember Tesla saying something to that effect, yes."

And more than besides, for all that he doesn't mention it just at the moment. Nor can he say much about what she's working on. Oh, he recognizes the parts, certainly. But he's long since fallen out of the habit of really keeping up with the scientific background he once had.

[electro_kinetic]

"He published something to that effect," she replied easily. "I'm surprised you don't know more about it yourself, you've got a strange signature. Even among mutants, you've got something funny about your electrical feel."

She couldn't narrow it down, but for someone who could feel as much nuance as she could, Noriko was definitely aware that John was different.

[borneinblood]

"A strange signature?"

There's a raised eyebrow to go with the question. While he can guess what she means - and more so after her comment about electrical fields - he's not really familiar with the idea of people being able to pick up on that sort of thing. Nor, for that matter, being able to pick out that his, specifically, is different to anyone else's.

But he is curious all the same. He's aware of the elemental's presence, sure, but he's never once considered the possibility that other people might be able to pick up on even a whisper of its existence.

"How so?"

[electro_kinetic]

Nori echoes that raised eyebrow right back. She's not dumb, she knows, this close, she isn't mistaken about what she's feeling, just maybe what it is that's causing it.

"You know what an EKG line looks like?" She asks, drawing it out with her hand in the air. "Q, R, S, T, that whole set? Yours feels like you have an extra S. It feels...like an engine that's got a misfiring cylinder, one skipping a beat in an otherwise pretty normal rhythm. Normally, someone's heartbeat and the electrical signature match up, because normally the only electro-biological thing they've got in them is their pacemaker cells, or an artificial pacemaker. You, on the other hand, have something extra. So your heartbeat and your everything else don't match. It's strange."

[borneinblood]

"They were after my time," he answers, without so much as missing a bit, with only the barest flicker of a smile to suggest that he isn't being entirely serious. And while it is the truth, he does still know what they look like. Even if it is the less technical description that makes the most sense to him.

Actually describing the elemental, on the other hand, is something that takes a moment of thought. Not necessarily because he's ashamed of it, but because it quite simply hadn't occurred to him that he might need to.

"It's... something I picked up. A passenger, you might say."

[electro_kinetic]

Noriko looks over at him at that, moderately both concerned and confused. "A passenger," she repeats.

"What kind of passenger? Are we talking another consciousness, something that communicates with you, or what?" Because that thought is not...not ideal for Noriko. It sounds like something that would drive one to insanity, and an insane teleporter is the last thing anyone needs.

[borneinblood]

Noriko is at least partially correct in her assumption. The elemental he hosts is... not the easiest of parasites to bear, and while he's certainly not insane, he's not as stable as he might sometimes seem either.

"Not quite."

There's a pause there, as he assembles his thoughts.

"It's more like... a parasite. An energy elemental; while it is a being in its own right, it's not something that's capable of communication."

Or at least, isn't capable of communicating with him. There's not really been a lot of research done on energy elementals, and given that trying to do so on the one he's host to would need to find a way of drawing it out it's not something that has been particularly practical.

[electro_kinetic]

"A parasite," she says. "That's so much better. Do you feel it's...moods, for lack of a better word?" Noriko asks. "I mean, I don't know where to start with that, where to get a handle on what that entails."

Sure, she'd like to help. She'd also like to figure out if that's even feasible.

[borneinblood]

"In a sense. It's... an anger. A rage. A desire for violence, remorseless and restless."

One that he's grown used to, yes. And one that he can even manage to keep somewhat in check. But it's certainly not the easiest of passengers to bear either, and given what he's just said it's all too easy to see how he might have been called to the darker extremes his path has turned to. That it will no doubt turn to again, if only briefly.

[electro_kinetic]

"Yeah, that sounds fun," Noriko replies dryly, eyebrow cocked up. "Ever looked into getting rid of it? Like a trap to keep it in?"