synergetic | ghost lunch

ghost lunch

The tray preceded her. She wasn't familiar with the food -- Robin had rattled off a recitation but was clearly distracted -- but it inched forward. M'gann had familiarized herself with the lock mechanisms enough that she could use telekinesis to disable them, and push the door open hands free.

It creaked ominously.

That and the tray preceding her, that was her way of coming in with her hands up, so to speak. No weapons. Just lunch! She stayed outside the room, outside the doorway, carefully out of sight behind the wall, where she couldn't looking threatening.

I mean, if you can't see her at all...

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

By the time the door sounded again, Omi was subdued and less prone to overreaction. That didn't make it less of a shock to see a tray of food floating in with no hands attached to it. He nearly stumbled out of his chair with a spectacular crash to the floor, but managed to catch himself in time, and instead simply watched the tray with wide eyes.

Okay. So there was food. Omi wondered if he was supposed to stand up and go take it.

"Hello...?" He called.

Well, it sounded like a greeting. She slid herself into the doorway, with a little wave.

Projecting friendliness, she smiled wide, letting the tray continue to approach him, and tapped her temple.

"Um."

She'd mostly focused on learning English... most of the television she'd seen originated from the U.S.

"Can I, uh," she tapped her temple again. "Mind link?"

Was that... understandable?

Well this was new. No overly famous males in masks with, on the whole, less-than-friendly manners. This time, it was a girl. A green girl. After a few moments, Omi's posture relaxed and he accepted-- as well as one could accept without prior bracing-- the not-quite-human and her floating tray that he still didn't know what to do with. Probably just leave it alone.

She seemed friendly? Omi was hesitant to trust that too much, but he had to admit it was a more welcome presence than Robin's. He wondered why she was there. Was this another test of Batman's?

Then came the words and... oh. Crap. English. Omi got the first part, Can I, and he knew the word for head, but mind link was lost on him. He took a moment to try to remember syntax and vocabulary from his classes.

"What is... mind link?" He asked in heavily accented English.

"Well, I can," she forced herself to speak slowly, "connect. Um. Translate? Directly," she tapped her temple again, "between our brains."

She bit her lip, not really sure of what English words might have traveled, and decided to just go for it.

Her eyes glowed green, and wave of awareness prodded at the back of Omi's mind.

Suddenly, her speech was understandable.

"It's really hard to explain through a language barrier," she said apologetically, "so a... demonstration? Might be more effective."

Her smile was nervous. Afraid of pushing boundaries.

"I can use my psychic powers to act as a translator. It's entirely subconscious, I can't actually hear your thoughts... I mean, I could, if I tried, but I'm not trying right now. I just link our brains psychically and whenever someone speaks to you, it filters from their brain to yours through mine, and you'll hear it as though they're speaking your native language."

She jerked, suddenly, realizing the tray was still hovering, and the lunch was getting cold. Oops. She slid it to rest on the bedside table.

"It's, um, pretty cool, right?"

Omi thought he was translating that okay, but it still didn't make a lot of sense. Connect their brains? That sounded kind of... unpleasant.

Then he understood, because there it was. He started and looked at her, but kept still while she explained further. He didn't miss that she seemed nervous, either.

That uncertain smile actually did far more to reassure him than anything she said. Nonverbal signals were powerful means of communication for how subconsciously they were both sent and received. The fact she wasn't a towering hulk of confidence and power made her approachable, and easier to trust. Omi realized now that what she'd been trying to do was ask permission to do this. That was a lot different from Schuldig... it signaled respect, and the fact she seemed nervous about trying it without the explicit consent was a testament to its authenticity.

Omi smiled awkwardly back. Half of him was still nervous about this capacity to read his thoughts; the other half was just endeared to her.

"It does make communicating much easier," he granted. "Um... was there something you wanted to talk about?" Because this seemed really unnecessary for just delivering a tray of food. Why establish a communication line unless, well. You wanted to communicate?

Conspicuously absent: an order for her to stop using the link.

Not necessarily. She spared a wary thought for Robin. She allowed his intentions were -- usually -- good, but he did have a tendency to get caught up in his own swagger. It was cute, if... frustrating, sometimes.

"Well, I wanted to give you an option to talk, for one thing," she said, absently floating a glass of milk in his direction. "I mean, this way you can listen to what people are saying, I don't have to be in the room for this to work, as long as you're within my psychic range. I mean, otherwise, the only people you can talk to are, um, Batman and Robin."

She smiles sympathetically, indicating she knows that can be a. Trial.

Options were nice-- usually. Here, Omi had to be a little wary. He had not forgotten what it was that they all ultimately wanted. There was also the fact that he was isolated from everyone else, which made it rather difficult to listen in even passively.

Still, Batman's move to leave a grappling hook and an open window had its desired impact. Omi was cautious but at least receptive. And the girl was sending out much more personable signals that worked to subconsciously disarm him further. He sat up attentively and looked at her with honest curiosity.

"Who would you recommend talking to instead?"

Was she volunteering?

"And... about what?"

M'gann laughed a little.

"We-ell, whoever you... um." He probably didn't want to talk to anyone, did he?

She rushed to cover her sudden trailing off. "I-just-mean-another-human-voice-- well, I'm not human, of course, but you... do look a little lonely."

She was nervous. Really nervous... bless her heart. Omi listened to her fumbling over her words and she was just trying so hard. How did you not like someone who did that? He smiled at her, somber but touched.

"Thank you. You're very kind to think of me." And his smile warmed. "And you're human as far as I'm concerned. There's only one meaning of that word that really matters."

And his job had well shown him, species was not it.

She couldn't help the slight nose wrinkle, but she understood he meant 'human as far as I'm concerned' as a compliment. He clarified as much.

"You can eat, you know!" she said quickly. "If you don't want to listen to me."

It surprised her, how he was just a little bit older than her friends. It probably shouldn't... little comments here and there made her Robin had been doing the hero since a young age, and there was Billy, of course. But Batman watched out for both of them, and Billy had an awful lot of super powers-- not to mention one of his powers was explicitly wisdom... when he bothered to use it, anyway. Obviously, Billy was very lucky to have that granted to him. Others couldn't have been so lucky.

"If you want more, we can probably get it."

For a moment, Omi was confused about her quick change of subject, and admittedly a bit uncomfortable with it as well. Why was she encouraging him to eat? --And that just forced him to wonder.

Because he couldn't block out that friendly as she was, they were all captors after a singular objective, and what she was doing might be some kind of trick, too. Maybe there was something in the food. Was she nervous out of insecurity, or out of fear of being caught?

Omi smiled sheepishly. "Thank you. I'm not hungry right now," he lied. "I'd enjoy listening to you more. You've got to have to have some exciting stories working on this team."

She knelt... in the air. Just pulled up a little bit of nothing and hovered there.

"Well, a lot of it's classified," she said delicately, but with a warm smile. And hopeful he'd eat anyway if he wasn't thinking so hard.

"What do you know already? I know my uncle, the Martian Manhunter, has had some missions in Asia. Us not so much, I think the closest I've been before is India!"

It was a bit strange seeing her just sit down on nothing, but Omi was familiar enough with Schwarz to understand there were some with powers that did not belong to the average person. He also thought it was a little ironic that she was taping off a considerable bit of information as classified considering their purpose with him, but said nothing of it.

"Admittedly not much. Most of the news I follow is concentrated on more local levels. What was India like? Did you get a chance to learn about the culture there?"

Mm, yes, they didn't appear on the news much. The existence of the team itself was all-but classified-- it was obvious to anyone who went against them, but they were distinctly covert.

"No, we spent it in the jungle, being chased by wild animals."

An oversimplification, but interesting enough, M'gann figured.

"I think it was very warm and humid, but I'm not the best judge... Mars is pretty cold."

Oh. That... didn't sound fun. But he bet she was right about the humidity and the heat.

"It is much further from the sun... Do you find Earth uncomfortably warm everywhere? Summers in Japan are pretty bad even for people used to them. I can't imagine what an adjustment it must have been coming from such a different climate."

"Not everywhere," she said mildly. "Underground is usually okay, and winter time--"

She paused. For a second, her eyes glowed green, then she screamed "Batman! Uncle J'onn!" and flew out of the room.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

ghost lunch

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject