milliways_bar | (no subject)

"Also the name for a god in the ancient Vodoun religion," he counters impishly. "Though I suppose I more closely resemble the one you had in mind if the character is like the one I'm thinking of."

He cocks his bald head to the side and winks. Yes, Marvel comics have been perserved through the destruction of Old Earth, and Watcher is pretty close to Observer.

"Well, you are both bald."

The Ranger gives him a mock scowl.

"Perhaps I should call you Captain Obvious," he retorts. By this time, the tea bud has opened fully, exposing the orange lily inside and turning the water a warm, amber color. The Ranger pours cups for both of them.

"Danny, then. The affectionate form of Dan, meaning 'judge', or Daniel, meaning 'God is my judge'."

He hands Danny a cup. "Which are you?"

An innocent question, but one with two edges.

The question almost made him drop the cup, and he looked away.

Finally, he looked back up, lifted his chin and said:

"I guess...both."

A smile like that of a teacher whose student has grasped a difficult lesson on the first go.

"That is a wise answer," he says, sitting back with his own cup. "For you must be both - at times the one who judges and at times the one who submits to being judged."

There is steel in this boy. Plain to anyone with eyes to see. But how did it develop? Hell, how was a child with such power born on 21st century Earth in the first place?

"I guess." He swallowed. "I'm in more of a position to--I guess to judge--than most people."

A pause.

"Lately, I've been starting to wish I wasn't."

"It is not always the most comfortable of positions," he acknowledges. "At least, it isn't if one has any amount of decency and compassion."

The Ranger has met many who have not. Oh, being in a position to judge is fun for those who lack those things.

But definately not fun for the people they judge.

But why was he telling this guy all this anyway? He had his fair share of strange beings that he trusted, like Clockwork, and Princess Dora, and here in the bar, Foxtrot (who was a paragon of weird, as far as Danny was concerned).

That didn't mean he didn't have a healthy sense of paranoia.

"Look, you seem trustworthy enough, but I'm not exactly going to spout out my life story or talk about...judgment, unless I know more.

Who are you? More importantly, what are you? How did you talk in my head--was that some form of telepathy or somthing?"

He hadn't taken a sip yet from his cup of tea.

Oh, it looked tasty enough, and smelled good, but he'd learned a lesson from Harth Fray--you didn't drink things strangers offered you.

A very health sense of paranoia. The Ranger bows his head slightly in acknowledgement.

"Fair enough. As for what I am...I am a human. However, I appear to be the only one from my universe and time who has found their way here."

He paused for a sip. " And, yes, that was telepathy I used when I first noticed you. Again, I am sorry for frightening you, but I did think you were one of my people at first."

"So...uh, is it a normal thing for humans to have telepathy when and where you're from?" he asked.

A quiet nod.

"Yes, it is. Among other things. If you would like to see..."

"See how...?"

His expression was wary.

But it was also curious; wondering.

Divesting himself of his solid body...well, given how he blinded several patrons when he accidentally entered Milliways in that form, it is perhaps not the best of ideas.

Instead, he cups his hand and white light seems to pool inside it, growing steadily brighter.

"Let us just say that we are not just 'this too solid flesh' as Hamlet once depressingly put it."

"No," Danny said, and he looked somewhat amused. "We aren't always all that solid, are we."

Hesitantly, he held out his own hand, cupped, and a little ember of green light flickered there and filled it, just as the white light had pooled in the man's hand.

Then he closed his hand around it and snuffed the light out, before phasing a hand right through the teapot.

The Ranger grins as he watches the boy's demonstration. There is an unlit oil lamp on their table. Suddenly, the wick bursts into flame.

"I suppose it's clear now why I mistook you for one of our children."

"It was an accident that caused it," Danny admitted. "In my parent's lab. They built a portal to view the Ghost Zone--the spirit world, and I accidentally turned it on when I went inside it, and I've been this way ever since."

So that's how it happened - a form of high-energy, spectral catalyzation? Spirits existed in the Ranger's world but...he firmly steered his mind away from that track. For the moment, how it happened was unimportant.

"Where for us, it was the long, painful pressures of the universe," he says. "And it placed you in your 'position to judge' as well, I take it."

At first glance, Danny's holding up under it well, but it makes the Ranger's heart ache. Children of any race do not need to be so burdened...but sometimes there is no choice.

"There are some nasty things in my world, and nasty things that try to break into my world and cause chaos--things that try to scare and hurt people.

Some aren't so bad, but others..."

His eyes were fixed on his cup of tea.

"Somebody needs to fight for everybody else. I may be a spazz, but anything that wants to get at Amity Park--get at my world--has to go through me first."

So there it is. The Ranger's look is compassionate, but there is something else in it as well.

Kinship.

For this boy, regardless of time and training, is Anla'shok for his world. The only one?

Valen help him, don't let him be alone in this.

He would like to touch his mind directly once again, but he cannot. Danny is not accustomed to that level of casual-intimacy. Instead, he sips his tea and says, "It seems we have more in common than I first realized."

("Dude, you can't blame yourself for this. It's not your fault." "Maybe not. But it is my responsibility.")

Danny finally sipped the tea--it was good.

"What, are you a superhero, too?"

"Perhaps not in the way you're thinking," he says. "I am Anla'shok - a Ranger. We do many things for my home, but our primary responsibility for generation upon generation has been to protect those who cannot do so themselves and to work for peace.

"And I believe I understand what you said earlier about wishing you were not in a 'position to judge'. There have been times when I've wondered if I made a terrible mistake by taking this path."

"Where were you?! You could have stopped this? Where in Shavk's name were you?!"

"Are you, like...like an alien?" Danny asked curiously, the inner Space Camp Cadet surfacing and poking up its nerdy head.

Anla'shok sounded like an alien name, after all, didn't it?

"I know some look nothing like humans, even if some look nothing like humans..."

A chuckle.

"No, still quite human. Though I admit to a great deal of space travel and not living on Earth. And I deal with those you would call aliens quite often."

Though no one's living on Earth anymore in his time, but perhaps it's not the best time to bring that up.

"Anla'shok is my title...my job. They were founded thousands of years ago by the Minbari. After a time, humans and other races were permitted to join as well."

"So...you're like space superheroes then. Instead of protecting just one city and one world, I bet you fly around in spaceship and protect a lot of worlds," he said, quickly grasping it.

Then he paused.

"What do you have to protect them from?"

"Sometimes from the fickle whims of nature - though that is more often rescue and relief. It is hard to predict such things well enough to have time to act before they hit."

He stares into his tea for a moment. "Most often from each other."

Sorrow contaminates his smile. "I'm sure you know how it is. Some group wants something the other has and doesn't want to obtain it through civilized means like trade, negotiation or perhaps wager a good game of Fireflight. Or sometimes they simply hate the other group for reasons that defy logic. When they act on this, it is our job to protect the innocents they will harm."

A sigh. "We do a great deal of negotiation and mediation...but sometimes..."