(no subject)

[mr_gaeta]

[Not-quite-OOM, just prior: Physical therapy.]


"One more" turns into three more exercises by the time Gaeta departs the infirmary. Awful as he felt, it didn't feel right to leave off after so few; at least this way, he isn't wasting his or Dr. Tam's time with such a brief session.

Whether he'll be able to move from the couch he just collapsed on is another story. After requesting a glass of water from a waitrat, he gulps down three painkillers (the usual dose is two, but frak it, he hurts so much right now) before stretching along the couch's full length. Some minutes later, the same waitrat returns with a silver tray.

Gaeta eyes the tray's contents. "Um."

The rat chitters.

"Sorry for the language, but...what the frak is that?"

Squeak.

In lieu of pointing out that he doesn't speak rat, Gaeta just sighs, scoops up the small -- very colorful -- magazine, and opens it to take a look.

Apparently there's a tie-in comic book series for that famous squopera, Tentacles of Our Waves. Who knew.



[ooc: in and out for a bit, but back for good at 10 PM eastern!]

Comments

[electro_kinetic]

She hesitates.

"Your job--or your bosses--seriously need a refresher course in how shitty it is to be injured."

[mr_gaeta]

Another tiny, rueful twitch of his lips, this one completely lacking in humor.

"They know," he says. "We're just spread too thin to let anybody leave their post for too long."

[electro_kinetic]

"What do you do?"

[mr_gaeta]

"I work on a battlestar. Galactica," he elaborates. "Still technically on tactical and the senior officer of the watch, but all they've got me watching lately are DRADIS screens."

Belatedly, he realizes he probably should have translated more of that to not-from-my-world-speak.

[electro_kinetic]

It's...not too far off that Noriko immediately goes to Death Star images, is it? Because that's what happened.

"I get most of that," she says slowly, not wanting to appear slow--because she's not, she's just a little lost on context. "But what exactly is a battlestar and what's a DRADIS screen?"

[mr_gaeta]

"Oh, um -- " Gaeta scrubs a hand over his face. "Sorry. A battlestar's a military-type spacecraft. DRADIS is like...I think I heard somebody call it radar once here?"

Or something like that.

God I hope I'm not forgetting if they've met before.

[electro_kinetic]

"It's cool. I forget not everyone knows some things from my world too."

She can understand radar and military spacecraft, though. At least in the abstract. "I think we've had this whole conversation and I don't even know your name."

If they have, I've forgotten it, too. *sheepish* I think we're okay!

[mr_gaeta]

"Sorry," he apologizes again. Lifting a hand in something approximating a wave, "It's Lieutenant Felix Gaeta. What's yours?"

Awesome!

[electro_kinetic]

"You don't have to apologize," she says, holding her hand out to shake his--though she'd get not wanting to, metal covers being offputting and all to some people. "Noriko Ashida. Most people call me Nori."

Or Surge, but that's usually just for her teammates when they use callsigns. Half the time they forget, or just don't.

Re: Awesome!

[mr_gaeta]

"Nori," he repeats, in an effort to make her name stick better in his not-so-great memory. The covers get a brief look, but no real hesitation; he clasps her hand in as firm and professional a handshake as he can manage. "Pleasure to meet you."

[electro_kinetic]

She can feel the pressure, but not a hell of a lot through the metal, it being fairly thick steel. "You too," she returns, with a tiny smile that makes her actually look her age--all of nineteen.

"Should I call you Lieutenant, or...?" Most military types she knows in her world, it should be said, are not on friendly terms with mutants at all. Upon noticing his look at her gauntlets, however, she has to ask. "They must look kind of weird, don't they?"

[mr_gaeta]

"Whatever's easiest for you," says Gaeta with a tiny shrug. At the moment, he's not in much of a position to care about formalities. "And, ah -- "

That has a faint layer of chagrin.

"No, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to stare."

(Gods know how much he's already begun to loathe people staring at his missing leg.)

[electro_kinetic]

"Felix seems memorable. I don't actually know anyone else named that." It's unique, and while in her world that status isn't difficult to achieve, it isn't usually by name alone.

She shrugs, with a little attempt at a smile; no need for apologies about staring, it says. She can't blame anyone for it, because she does actually look weird. "It's okay, actually. Sometimes I stare at them too."

[mr_gaeta]

"May I ask what happened?"

He's fully expecting her to say no.

[electro_kinetic]

"I'm a mutant," she prefaces. "My abilities manifested. I absorb and store and can channel electric current like a capacitor, but I can't control how much I get and I absorb it from everything. Even the air," Nori explains, hoping this guy is post-Edison in years, because that would make this so much easier.

"And when it builds up enough, these let me stay safe to be around, without electrocuting anyone that touches me."

[mr_gaeta]

"Oh," he breathes. "Gods."

His staring is far less subtle this time.

I'm sorry -- no. That's a stupid thing to say; it won't help.

[electro_kinetic]

"It's not that bad," she says, holding her arms out. "I still have arms under these, I don't want you to get the wrong idea. But yeah, you can take a look at them if you want to."

She's been around every perspective on this, and she's come back to not minding.

[mr_gaeta]

"So do they let you...discharge it whenever you want?"

Carefully, he levers himself up a little higher on the couch so he can get a better look.

[electro_kinetic]

"Yeah," she affirms, and while she lets him look, she moves one hand away to cup her palm, and a miniature lightning storm grows to life in the cradle of her fingers. "I have to do it pretty regularly, or else I get pretty hyper, because I really do have too much energy in me."

[mr_gaeta]

"One of the stranger side effects I've heard when it comes to, uh, things like that."

He watches the lightning flicker and twist for a trifle too long before coming back to himself.

"Is that common, where you're from?"

[electro_kinetic]

"Nope," she says, shaking her head. "I'm the only one like this from my world."

[mr_gaeta]

"Gods," he repeats, even softer.

It's too easy to shift that by a few degrees; to think of it as something closer to I'm the only human left in my world. Gaeta blinks, trying to clear the spots from his eyes, and rubs fitfully at his right thigh.

[electro_kinetic]

"You keep saying that," she says, leaning back and away. She only glances down for the briefest of moments when the movement of his arm rubbing at his thigh catches her attention in peripheral vision, before she's back looking at his face.

"If it hurts you should take some better pain meds. Stay here a couple days if they make you too loopy to work," Noriko says, not quite having mastered the tone of voice that says she's trying to gently suggest something.

[mr_gaeta]

Another blink. "Keep saying what?"

And then he glances down at his thigh, deliberately curling his fingers back to stop himself. Gaeta sighs. "I already took more than I should have," he says. "I'll stay a couple hours, see if it kicks in soon."

If not, maybe he'll go back to Simon and see if there's any chance for something stronger.

[electro_kinetic]

"Gods." She leaves it there; she's not really sure they exist, or that they're paying any attention to her world if they do.

"I don't know. You look like you still hurt, and where I come from, that's usually not a good sign after taking your meds."