Logs:Recursive Loop

Recursive Loop
Dramatis Personae Joshua, Lily
In Absentia	2022-03-30 "You give 'how to be a metamutant' lessons?"
Location <NYC> Chimaera Arts - Dumbo
This is just one of the many abandoned warehouses in DUMBO, and like many of them it has recently changed hands. Unlike most of those, however, it does not have some corporate developer's sign out front promising a transformation into luxury condominiums or a boutique shopping center or the latest concept restaurant. Instead it's marked by a piece of weathered but wildly colorful plywood propped up on a stack of broken pallets, which reads "Chimaera Art Space!" above "chimaera.org" in smaller letters. The warehouse is moderately large and decorated with graffiti art in various styles--some of it recognizable as the work of renowned local street artists. A pair of monstrous scrap metal sculptures, perhaps still works in progress, flank the entrance. The building itself has undergone significant renovation recently, complete with wiring, plumbing, and a modular partitioning system. The grounds, too, have been cleaned up, ramshackle fences torn down and rusting detritus removed in favor of reclaimed (and brilliantly repainted) outdoor furniture ringing an impressively engineered firepit. It's never quiet around this warehouse, exactly, but today it's at least calm. Several of the partitioned stalls are occupied, from the woodworking space there's the sound of classical music playing over the buzz of a scroll saw, several people in the courtyard are sharing a vape while discussing an upcoming eviction defense action. Joshua has been in none of these places; he's very abruptly just there, appearing near them entrance with a very large plastic tote that he drops heavily to the ground almost as soon as he's arrived. He's looking fairly beat, bags under his eyes and his clothes -- olive cargo pants, a NYCAM sweatshirt -- dirty and rumpled, his kippah (red with an embroidered black flag) askew before he reaches up to fix it. "Oh, hi. Thanks." Lily sounds fairly nonplussed by the sudden arrival, though there is a chance Joshua noticed how she jolted upright when he arrived. She's seated at a table along the warehouse wall, where she has been occupied sorting supplies into two large plastic bins at her side and occasionally adding some numbers to a spreadsheet. She's in black jeans and scuffed boots, a NYCAM teeshirt under green and black flannel. Lily gets up, pulls the tote closer to her workstation. Peers at Joshua with furrowed brows. "You look like you should sit for a minute." "Hngh." Joshua's quiet grunt doesn't sound like he disagrees. He's dropping down right then and there to fold himself cross-legged onto the floor, scooting back against the wall for a place to lean. "Thanks. You up for going out later? Pigs are evicting the folks by McCarren Park soon. Someone's gonna need us." Lily reaches down under the table, pulling two water bottles from her bag -- one huge Nalgene covered in rock climbing stickers, the other a more standard disposable number. Sets the second one on the ground next to Joshua before returning to her folding chair. "Mm. Probably. Define later, and whether I can get a teleport to Queens to feed a cat first." She's already pulled her phone out, though, thumbing through contacts until she hits 'ASTORIA MARCH + APRIL NEIGHBORS' and taps out a text. "Do I get to pet the cat?" Joshua takes the water bottle with a grateful bob of his head. "Later like after I put some food in me. Learned passing out is not at all helpful." He squints over at Lily curiously. "You can't --" He makes a yoinking motion with one hand. "S'pretty safe, as teleportation goes. Long as you don't try it on anyone else." "If you want. You like sphinx cats?" Lily hits send on her inquiry and looks back out at Joshua. "Passing out is not helpful at all. Planning to eat a meal about it or just snack though it?" Lily's eyebrows arc, confused, at the pulling motion. "Uh. No? Unless you're telling me Spencer is hiding somewhere." She twists to look out at the rest of the space. "Was hoping to --" she mimics Joshua's yoink motion, "-- Eloise later, anyway. Maybe." "Huh. You can't..." Joshua trails off, taking another gulp of water instead. "What's not to like about cats that are also gremlins." His brows furrow as his head drops back against the wall. "Honestly, we're probably gonna have to do a lot more supply distro than hands on..." He waves a hand vaguely. "People lose all their shit, they're gonna need food, new meds, some clean socks, menstrual products..." He lifts a shoulder neutrally. "Shit we can't just magic better. Less you got a power somewhere that can heal capitalism." "I'll let you know when I find that one." Lily looks back to Joshua, head tilting down from her perch on the chair. "I dunno. I feel better when I got a spell loaded up, even if it's irrelevant." She blinks a couple times at Joshua, leaning down and propping her elbows up on her knees. "Can you? Off of me?" "Hive could probably end capitalism, but --" Joshua's frown deepens. "Haven't tried you," he answers, almost immediately following this up with, "-- but yeah. Shit's weird, huh? Decade and a half, three labs, and I'm still learning how this all works." "--not touching that one again." Is Lily continuing Joshua's sentence or countering a question he hadn't asked? It's not clear, but there is a small shudder in her shoulders at the mention. She shakes her head, considering Joshua again. "Huh. Really. Because all I get off of you is a headache." Lily reaches for her water bottle, fidgets with the plastic strap holding the lid to the bottle. "Shit's weird. That's -- a long time to be learning. Guess I gotta catch up." Joshua sits up straighter, his eyes gone a little wider. "Hive let you copy his brain?" The incredulity in his voice is clear. The plastic water bottle crinkles as his fingers dig slightly into its sides. "Sorry about the headache. Most powers I've found are kind of a headache. Usually only when I have them, though." His mouth twitches as he subsides back against the wall. "Wouldn't advise my route. Learn a lot, but the accommodations are for shit." Lily grimaces. "Let is, um, a strong word. Not a mistake I plan on making again, but when I'm stressed out sometimes it just. Happens. Is kind of always happening." Her gaze drops to her water bottle, fingernail picking at the edge of a peeling sticker. "Like an actual headache, though. Like --" Her face scrunches up for a moment. "-- I can feel that there's something I'm picking up off you, if I focus, but there's a piece that's missing and it makes my temples throb." Lily sighs, lets the tension out of her face and rubs at her temples lightly. "You give 'how to be a metamutant' lessons? I've been told I need them." Joshua's eyes are still wide; he levels a long and searching look at Lily before squeezing the water bottle tighter. His eyes lower to it, one finger pressing harder at the dimpled plastic. "Haven't met anyone like me before. Don't really have a curriculum. Don't touch Hive would be intro class." After a moment of thought he adds, "-- don't touch anyone without their permission would be the prereq." Lily picks a touch more aggressively at the edge of the sticker. "Sorry. Trying to break the habit." She sounds embarrassed, and there's a little flush in her cheeks when she looks back at Joshua. "Does yours -- not? Just grab anything that's around?" "Used to. Sounds like a good way to get me and half of New York dead, though. Had to --" Joshua hesitates, biting down at a flake of chapped skin on his lip. "Can't afford to lose control. Not around here." Maybe Lily's restless picking us contagious because now he's starting to pluck up the edges of the water bottle's label. "Huge boundary violation even when it's not dangerous -- and s'hard to know when it'll be dangerous. What people let you see can be way less than what they can do." His eyes are fixed steadily on the water bottle, his shoulders tense and voice softer. "Don't want to learn that by blowing anyone up." "Ah." Lily rips a small piece of sticker off the 'M' in 'Mountainfilm', stares at where it clings to her nail for a moment before suddenly vacating her chair to sit beside Joshua on the floor. "More reason to break the habit faster." She balances her water bottle on her knees where they're pulled up against her chest. "Work on control, work on boundaries. Any other sage advice for me?" Joshua's gaze has gone a little distant in front of him but he looks up swiftly when Lily moves to sit beside him. "S'a weird balance. A lot of people will be happy to explain what they do, teach you something, if you ask, but --" His shrug is small. "Some people will get stressed as hell if you even notice they're a mutant. Some don't want anyone knowing what they can do. Some people don't even know they're mutants and they will not love you if you are the first to let them know. I try to make sure I'm real clear on knowing where someone's at before I approach someone about all this. I mean -- just because we can do magic doesn't mean we're entitled to take anyone's who happens by, you know?" One side of his mouth pulls up in a crooked smile. "Feels like cheating if you can't grab mine but -- you mind if I --" His water bottle waggles in her direction. Lily bites at her lower lip, nodding along with each point on Joshua's list. "Some aren't impressed when you tell them they aren't a mutant, either," she adds in between clauses, where Joshua pauses to breathe. "That's -- definitely something to work on." At the question her eyes widen, bright and curious. "Oh, sure, yes --" It's not like she has to be in position for the power-yoink to occur, but she straightens up anyway, extends her legs out in front of her to sit more properly. "You can tell?" Joshua's brows lift, impressed. "Mine's erratic as hell. Pings on like -- Steve and not Tag." Where Lily straightens, Joshua eases back against the wall, taking another gulp of his water and setting it down. What has previously been a passive ability reaches out, quiet and painless, to coil into Lily. The transition is quick as his power feels out the boundaries of hers, mapping it and copying it over. Brief though it is, it doesn't look painless on Joshua's end; when it is through he's slumped more heavily, a slight pallor to his brown skin. "When you do it it looks so easy." He sounds a little wry. "It's not a -- ping, exactly? But. Hasn't worked on Steve ever. Or Skye. I -- I've experimented with it. Pretty sure I've figured out part of the mechanism. It's weirdly gene-linked." Lily sits still, not quite sensing the touch of Joshua's power as much as she can feel something click into place. "It -- it is. Easy. If you want to try it out. Can I try yours again? I think -- what you just did. Was what I was missing." "I've long since lost any sense of what's weird and not. Met someone once who could change genes entirely, that's unsettling." Joshua picks his water bottle back up, fidgeting with its half-peeled wrapper. His eyes have fallen mostly closed, but one cracks open wider, peeking over at Lily. "You can feel it now? Yeah, go for it." A small frown pulls at his brows. "S'not easy for me. Fair warning." "That's fascinating. Introduce me sometime." As if preparing, Lily finally takes a sip from the bottle she's been fidgeting with so incessantly. "Thanks for the heads up." The touch of her power on Joshua is light, barely there, just quickly copying over his X-gene before withdrawing in less than half a second. The second stretch of power is longer, more careful, as Joshua's power interacts with itself in a recursive metamutation loop. Lily breathes out, slow. "You said -- Spencer's is pretty safe, right?" Her borrowed power dips deeper, maps out the teleportation and copies it over again. "Holy shit." "Probably won't. Don't think they plan to out themselves any time soon." Joshua's eyes close again, but a small smile plays on his face at Lily's careful exploration. "Safe for you. Might get lost, but there's none of that jumping into walls shit. Don't advise playing around yet with teleporting other people, you might leave pieces behind. Or. In something." He takes another gulp of water. Cracks open his eyes slowly, his smile curling a little wider. "Where in Queens d'you need to be? Can show you how to get there." Lily makes a small disappointed noise before curling her borrowed powers back into herself, looking noticeably more tired than before but somehow more awake, also. "Got it, got it. Holy shit. Dual-wielding. You don't know how envious I've been of that." She takes another drink too, smiling into the mouth of the bottle with sheer excitement. "Astoria. 36th and 31st. They got food in Queens -- shit you were not kidding that is exhausting." "It is pretty great," Joshua allows. "I've been jealous of how effortlessly you can switch." He takes a slow breath and pushes himself up against the wall, getting ponderously to his feet. Lily's excitement is reflected in the uptick of energy in his voice when he says, "Aright. Just do what I do." This time when he vanishes, it comes with a glut of information, how he made the jump and how it was aimed. Lily smiles wider at the admission, taking another swig of water before tucking it back into her pack. “Just do what—?” The question gets cut off as Lily stares into the space Joshua just vacated, brows furrowing with the unfamiliar stream of knowledge. She waves over another medic to take over the table, throws her pack over her shoulder, and then — — she’s standing next to Joshua on the corner of 36th and 31st, eyes wide and smile huge. “That’s — I see why you always have this one loaded. That’s incredible.” "Yeah, it's pretty cool." Joshua's smile is pleased when Lily appears beside him, and though it fades soon enough back to his resting somber droop his tone is still distinctly upbeat. "C'mon. Promised me a gremlin to pet."