Russoboo

Darren sat on the roof of the class building, feet swinging over the edge as he played with his phone. From the roof, he got pretty much the best reception possible on the Claremont campus, which he needed as he did his post-school pre-dinner internet updates. There were tweets to favorite and reply to, photos to filter and upload, so many, many followers to wrap further around his finger with mundane details and his not insubstantial wit. He leaned his back flat against the roof for a moment as he relayed a few texts to a room service contact to make sure he had a meal waiting for him whenever he got back home to the hotel. When he sat back up, Darren's eyes scanned the ground below and, briefly, landed on a familiar brick of a man. Struck with a flash of curiosity, he stood up and stepped off the roof onto a thin disc of crystal that winked into existence beneath his feet before he could fall through open air. He floated down to Earth on his own little glass elevator, then hopped off of it and crossed the still mostly dead March lawn towards Marcus Irons. As he got close to the boy's back, Darren opened his mouth, which had become increasingly problematic for him. "You supposed to be doing, like, whatever you're trying to do out here? Though this school had practice rooms for that."

"Just a shout? That doesn't sound so bad, it's not like you were waving a psychic can opener around or anything." Darren pantomimed as he spoke, stabbed the air and worked an unseen blade in a circle. He managed to resist the urge to materialize some crystals for better visuals as he decided to not panic any of the other skaters. As for the store, Darren said nothing, though it was obvious that Elias was holding back. Instead, he nodded and followed Elias to the stand with one hand fumbling into his pocket. "Make sure mine has marshmallows, please." He pulled his wallet out and opened it, then paused. Darren looked up at the list of prices, then back down at his wallet, and over at Elias' shoulder. He took out enough money to cover his own drink and, satisfied that it felt like the proper not-date, normal friends thing to do, set it on the counter. Darren took his cocoa and held it with it both hands as he gently blew across the top of the cup. "This is a good idea, like, it reminds me of going skiing when I was little. Awful sport, really, my brother broke his leg one year, but it's a good excuse to, like, sit by a fireplace and drink cocoa."

"And you tried to make it sound like we don't have anything in common. The socially inept thing, that's, like, something I've trained my whole life to overcome, so I have a bit of a leg up there, but emotionally scarred might be a bit, well..." Darren tapped his index finger on the tip of his nose once, twice, then stuff his hand into a coat pocket and out of the cold. He scuffed the ice with one skate. "Since you said use, I'm going to assume you, like, tried to hack their brains or whatever. Which, yeah, is an invasion of privacy and everything, but, come one, if your telehaptics don't turn off, you're basically feeling up everyone around you all the time, at least a little bit." Darren frowned down at the ice. "I guess that should weird me out more, but whatever. I mean, bad Elias, using the Force like that, but you were trying to do something right, which I thought was the whole point of the school." "I didn't know you had a job." He stressed the word and ended it with a little laugh. "What do you do? And I just meant if you wanted to do more mundane stuff like tonight, let me know, you should try things out, like, experience things for their own sake. Carpe diem or whatever. Diversity is the spice of life."

Darren looked at Elias, brow drawn together in an effort not to smile. Deadpan didn't quite capture the flatness of Elias' humor, and even if the joke was weak, the attempt was enough to make Darren snicker despite his best intentions. He placed the side of his finger between his teeth and held it there until his laughter subsided and he regained his composure. Darren cleared his throat with a little cough. "Expected and understood?" The line of his mouth wriggled in thought. "That sucks, I'm sorry. I mean, you're obviously not happy about it, and I'm pretty sure you didn't do anything deserving whatever you're getting. Not like you tried to kill anyone or go full villain mode or something, right?" Darren nodded to himself, agreeing before Elias had a chance to respond. "Their loss, just means I get to keep you all to myself. Anything you want to do, just tell me and, like, I'll totally make it happen. Well, anything short of a trip to the moon, that might be out of the budget unless I bribe Kat."

"Oh, yes, and arguing with you about definitions is, like, the least fun thing I can think of right now. Maybe prying off my fingernails would be worse, maybe." Darren put his hands behind his back and skated towards Elias. He turned to the right and leaned, then tilted the other way until he was carving a neat figure eight across the glossy ice. Once he got into a steady rhythm, he started to gesture at nothing with his hands. "Figures you wouldn't appreciate a good hashtag, you're lucky I don't, like, tell the internet how disapproving and mean you are." Darren hummed a few bars. "Well, I wanted to know if you were okay and, like, considering that you're being what I think is your normal self, I guess that's a yes. Sort of a roundabout way to get there, but at least it happened." He stopped in the middle of his figure eight and spun in place. After two rotations, he stopped spinning and posed with his arms out and one leg back - momentum carried him a couple feet backwards. "And rather than try to continue to cross-analyze you, which is like squeezing water from a stone, how about something mundane? How's school going? Grades good? No drama with your other friends, I hope?"

Darren kept his mouth shut. He swallowed hard and tried to concentrate on keeping his thoughts together. Talking to Elias was a challenge, but not because he had nothing to say. Darren didn't feel pensive enough for it most of the time, as though he lacked the introspection to speak on the same level. He turned in a slow circle on the ice and fidgeted with the buttons on his coat rather than say something that wasn't quite perfect. After an impressive minute of nary a sound out of him, he came to a stop. "It's the same thing. Being aloof is being restrained. It's keeping a necessary distance. I totally get that, I guess you could even say I empathize." He shrugged, palms to the dark sky. "And maybe that's a little scary or uncomfortable or whatever, but, like, right now I think it's worth it. Even when you're being all verbose and philosophical and trying to poke my ego full of holes, I don't know, it's alright. It doesn't feel mean or anything, it's just who you are, what you do." A little smirk. "That's special to me. Maybe it doesn't matter to anyone else, but like you said, I'm self-centered and self-involved, my definition is clearly the most important."

"Of course it's self-sabotaging. But isn't that kind of the point? Like, if I want someone to know me the way a friend is supposed to, shouldn't I be honest? I mean, I'm not gonna, like, open up and bury you with all my worst everythings, but hiding it all won't get anything. Not anything real, anyway." Darren exhaled and deflated a moment. He slid to a stop near Elias, but not too close, skates churning up a weak spray of shaved ice. "I used to be like that, and it was, like, really good until it was really bad, and since then I've just been a pretender. I think most people buy it because they want to, but I know you never would. You're, like, a dissector. On top of being a human lie detector." "I wouldn't say empathy is uncomfortable, it's just more like...unnecessary? I can understand other people without, like, feeling the way they do, so I just do that. Doesn't sound too different from high-functioning sociopathy to me, really." Darren's faced turned pink again and he put his hands to his neck. "Well, I mean, yes, I do find you attractive. Like, you have some physical aesthetics going on. I can say that, I just won't say that I'm only talking to you because I'm having some schoolgirl fantasy because that's not true, even if that's what my sister wants to think is happening." He looked over to Elias and smiled. "You know, The Odd Couple is about platonic opposites attract, so, like, there's still a chance. I mean, I'm happy enough just talking to you, I figure if I can do the same for you, that's a basis right there."

"Rehearsed and like New Age bull. Like something I just made up so I could sell it to you on a silver screen." Darren gave Elias a brief wave of jazz hands. As the telepath explained his hypothetical, Darren let an eyebrow twitch up and set his hands on his hips. By the time Elias finished, a quiet giggle had grown into shaking laughs. Darren clutched his stomach, consumed in hysterics. After a minute, he groaned and straightened up. "Why get defensive over that? At least that's true. Well, I mean, it's mostly true. Hold on, let me get my breath." Darren took a few gulps of winter air and exhaled little clouds of fog. "Like, I wouldn't get bored of you just cause you decided to get less aloof or whatever, or I don't think I would. It's hard to imagine, but anyway, you're right about drifting after that though. I get bored, I move on, I don't even really try to do the remaining friends thing. I mean, hello, I don't do friends much in the first place." He followed Elias through the crowd with a bit less alacrity but almost as much grace. "I'm sure if people knew that they wouldn't be too, like, accepting. Oh, he's a super hero, but he isn't super nice? He doesn't want to be super friends with me? They'd probably trend #Adamasisajerk or something."

"Good might be a bit of an exaggeration. Like, experienced would be better." Darren relinquished his grip on the wall as Elias skated away. After a moment to see that he wouldn't come charging back, Darren slid after him at an even pace. "I've been on lots of dates and some of them were even romantic. Not many in Freedom and none with anyone at Claremont, but, like, it's not like it's hard to get out to LA or New York for a Friday night thing, right?" He clicked his teeth together and considered that he was being too roundabout, particularly after Elias had already called him on it once. Darren shook his head. "This is going to, like, sound embarrassingly Hollywood, but I try not to be interested in gender when it's more about the individual person. People? Persons?" A smile. "Whatever, you know. I can appreciate both, or none, or some other category, as long as I like whoever it is. So don't think you can go, like, bend some girders or grow out a beard to impress me with your manliness, it so won't work, you have no idea. And it'd break character anyway, I don't know what I'd do with an Elias without the aloofishness."

That's a solid idea to me. Some kind of external conflict at least.

"Nothing to apologize for." Darren managed to get the words out before Elias knocked him into the wall. He stumbled and crumpled onto the wall for support as he struggled to maintain his footing on the ice. When he looked up at Elias, he furrowed his brow and huffed at him, then slid his skates back together to get upright. "Really?" He kept one hand gripped on the wall in case Elias tried to bowl him over a second time. "Anyway, we're not. Boyfriends, that is. We're friends who happen to be boys." Darren tilted his head and closed his eyes. "If I seem like I'm obsessing over it, I'm sorry. I think it's just been a long time since I've, like, liked someone in even a normal friends way. It's just...ugh, one of those little personal problems that I pretend not to have, but that trying to hide from you is totally pointless." He smirked. "And the whole social misfit thing is part of what I like about you, don't worry about it." Darren blinked and gave Elias a sly look. "Couldn't you tell the world you're a shapeshifter, then, like, turn into someone else? It's a secret you can put back in its box if you want. Kind of brilliant that way, I think."

Darren pursed his lips, but didn't say anything. He didn't want to give Elias any more ammunition, even if the idea of keeping secrets from a telepath was completely absurd. Of course he was self-conscious and defensive. He couldn't deny that - or, he could, but trying to get a lie past Elias seemed nothing short of impossible. So, instead, Darren folded his arms and tapped his fingers against his elbows, then gave Elias a stony face. "My ego is not bruised. Not over wrath, since I did a pretty damn good job protecting Claremont under, like, the circumstances, and not over this, since I'm just a little flustered. Talking with you is just different from how I talk to everyone else and I'm still getting used to it." Darren sighed through his nose. "And, okay, yeah, she totally thinks we're boyfriends and that this is a date when it clearly isn't, so, yes, you're right. But you're not a shapeshifter." He lifted a hand to point at himself and a smile broke across his face. "The last one I met, like, tried to pretend to be me, which was so totally flattering even though I was pretty upset about it at the time. I hope that's not too conceited."

"Touch, no. Snark...yes." Darren touched the back of his neck and looked down at his feet. He turned a little pinker, though he told himself it was the cold and not his own embarrassment. His fingers traced under his scarf and around the collar of his jacket. "I can tone it down if you want me to. I mean, like, I will. Of course I can. If you'd like." Darren closed his eyes and his face did a sort of scrunching almost as if he was in pain. He tapped his molars together behind closed lips and looked back at Elias. "And I only want to talk about if, like, there's something to talk about. I am trying to be a friend right now and you may have noticed that doing so is difficult for me, so don't get all...all...obfuscation-ary on me. Are you alright or not?"

"Really? You can't turn it off or tune it out?" Darren smacked his lips and grinned. "Sounds like it would get annoying, just feeling stuff like. This. All. Day." He punctuated each word with a stomp to the ice. On the last, he slipped and staggered into the wall. With a huff and a thin blush, Darren regained his balance and brushed his hands down his coat. "And I don't know why you would, that's, like, why I'm asking. I mean, it's pretty obvious you got hurt physically, I'm just checking to see if that's all. I didn't want to assume that you're as relatively okay with everything that happened as I am since, like, I don't think that's very normal."

Darren quirked an eyebrow as he continued to skate backwards in front of Elias, sluggish enough to stay close. "How would that, like, work, exactly? Telepathy or telehaptics." He smiled at the memory of making up the word for Elias' benefit, then waved the thought away. Darren tapped the front of one blade against the ice. "I guess if you were a bad guy, you'd, like, rip into someone's head and steal it, like a brain Xerox, huh? Just reading someone's nerves and copying them. Or are you more feeling how everyone else is moving and trying to translate it to muscle memory? At least it isn't totally invasive even if it's kinda weird. But resisting the easy way out, how admirable, really." Darren slid away and spun twice with a drop into a low sweep at the end. He pushed himself back up to standing with a grunt and squeezed his legs between his fingers. "Little stiff and cold." When he looked back at Elias, he frowned. "How're you doing? I mean, after the whole, like, wrath thing? I know there's some people at school having a hard time, so what about you?"

"Well, like, of course I'm happy to win." Darren smiled thinly and carefully didn't say the rest of his thought: that he could only be so happy when winning was the only thing he knew how to do. Instead, he crossed his arms, touched a finger to his lip, and concentrated on pulling his body back to a normal state. His skin darkened and softened back into flesh and blood, his hair frayed back into a wave rather than a sheet of crystal. He pulled his cape a little closer around him to block some of the cold air. "Yeah, I think I'll be able to manage. Good job, hero." Darren grinned and tipped his head down to give Subito a peck on the cheek. Once he'd pulled back, he gave Grace a polite "Excuse me" and retrieved his bag from the woman's living room. When he returned to the street, he had the satchel slung over one shoulder and was wrapped in his jacket and scarf. "I always forget how cold this outfit is when I'm not all diamondized. Can we please not take the bus back?"

Darren held his fist to his lips and tried to muffle his laugh. Almost instantly, Elias fell back to the ice, and though he was quick to recover, Darren knew his offer was going to be impossible to keep. He slide forward and came to a rest at the wall next to Elias. With one hand on the wall itself, he directed Elias with the other. "Alright, that's good. I guess maybe, like, I should have started you with step one, standing. Just hold on to the wall and focus on your legs. And, like, keep your feet like mine." Darren tipped his head down towards his toes - his skates were almost parallel with just a hint of a V. He started to skate backwards slowly. "Keep your balance up high, knees bent, and just, like, try taking steps. Don't worry about skating, just get used to the whole bladed-shoe-on-ice thing. You're a smart guy, I'm sure you'll get it."

Darren nodded, both to Elias and to himself, then shut and locked up the car. He pulled a scarf out of his coat pocket and wrapped it perfectly around his neck as he walked around the car with a click click. Darren crossed his arms. "The balance isn't too bad on normal ground, right? Like, it can kinda wear out your legs since you're just on those edges, but you're standing just fine. The ice, though, that's the real mess." He giggled as he clopped over to an entrance onto the rink, which was attended by a young woman tightly bundled up. Darren put down a fifty and waved away the change, then signaled for Elias to follow. He put one hand on the short wall that encircled the rink as he slid the covers off the blades of his skates, lip between his teeth in concentration. The covers disappeared into a coat pocket and he stood there at the edge of the rink - completely still. Darren looked up at the other skaters, mostly couples of varying ages and kids, and drew in a breath. He released his iron grip on the rail, pushed himself back a few feet, and then smiled. "This is already going better than I expected. Something to be said for muscle memory." Darren put his feet into a V and made his way over to Elias to offer him a hand. "I'm not really a good teacher, but, like, I promise I won't laugh too much when you fall down."

"Pffft." Darren sputtered. "It's not necessary, like, anywhere. Well, maybe some parts of Siberia, there's some big ice lakes out there. But everywhere else, it's just something you do for fun, just like any other sport." He pulled the car into another parking lot, a small one that was already mostly full. The lot jutted up against a seasonal ice rink along the outskirts of Freedom. Darren put the Mercy in park and cut the engine, then twisted around to the backseat and grabbed two pairs of new ice skates hiding in the dark. He handed one set to Elias. He opened the driver side door to hang his feet out into the brisk evening air, then started exchanging his boots for the white leather skates. As he tightened the laces, he kept talking. "I hope these actually fit, but I'm pretty sure you can rent some if they don't. Leave the blades capped until you get on the ice or, like, you can mess them up."

As Elias made his way around the car, Darren rolled up his window and drummed his fingers over the steering wheel. Cold air rushed in when the door opened; Darren rubbed his hands together and bumped the heat a little higher while Elias got seated. Darren shrugged at his passenger before shifting the Mercy into drive and pulling away from the curb. “Don't worry about it, I was just, like, surprised. Not upset.†He drove away from the Claremont campus and turned the car north towards Freedom City proper. Traffic was light so early in the evening and Darren drove fast. “So, have you ever done this before? The ice skating, I mean. I used to go all the time back in New York, but, like, I haven't been in a few years.†Darren glanced at Elias when he came to a stop light. “It might be hard in a sling, we can go a different day.â€

Knock knock. Darren jumped in his seat as something tapped the glass behind him. The seatbelt pulled snug and he struggled to turn enough to see Elias standing there outside his window on the wrong side of the car. He pulled the belt away from his neck so he wasn't quite so crushed into his seat and rolled the window down. Darren gave Elias a mild glare. “Thank you for that heart attack. And yes, it's a problem. But, like, not one to get into now.†Darren softened, but still let out an overdrawn sigh. He tipped his head to the right, towards the passenger side. “Get in. Or do you need help, what with the sling there?â€

February 8th, 2013 6:58 pm Claremont Academy Darren adjusted his rear view mirror, tilted it down so he could look at himself. He stared at his blue eyes a moment, ran one finger around the lower lid to smooth the lashes, and then bent the mirror back into place. The Mercy's engine hummed quietly as he idled at the edge of the Claremont visitor parking lot. Darren faced the steering wheel and twisted his nerves back into shape. He tapped the radio on and turned the volume down so he could focus on looking out the passenger window towards the dorms. Darren checked the clock: six fifty-eight. Elias was supposed to meet him at seven, and the whole thing was rapidly starting to resemble a date more than he'd intended. His sister had teased him relentlessly over it and, to his unending embarrassment, accused him of not knowing how to do actual 'friend stuff'. He tried not to think about it too hard, not totally convinced that Elias wouldn't hear him worrying, and instead occupied his thoughts with curses about Anna's incredible ability to push his buttons. “It's gotta be part of the powers.†Darren touched his forehead to the steering wheel and sighed. “How does he not have a phone? Come on, Elias, 2013.â€

"Of course it was awesome. Like, hello, you know who I am, right?" Darren shrugged and shook his head, but smiled all the same. He eyed Subito's arm as it went around him, then ignored it as they floated back to Earth. With a little hop, he stepped off the crystal disc he'd been standing on and the whole thing vanished in a flash of light. “A blast of spirit power? Isn't that just, like, quarter circle forward punch?†He put his wrists together and thrust his arms forward; a few crystals shimmered in the air before crumbling away. Darren laughed to himself and followed Subito over to Grace. Rather than bow, he tilted his head a few degrees to the left. “Well, we don't really know that. Just that, like, for now, he's safe. Vigilance and all that.â€

Adamas (4) (17) (4) (1) (4)

“Ugh!†Darren's face scrunched together, at least as much as it could as multi-faceted crystal, and he seemed truly lost for words. He opened and closed his mouth a few times in rapid succession, each time with an aborted move to point at the Grue, but the reprimand couldn't quite make it out. Once Edge and the alien had both vanished, teleported off to Europe, Darren hopped off his flying disc with a stomp and a grumble. “Smug shapeshifting jerk!†He stamped his feet and grit his translucent teeth. After a couple seconds of rage, he straightened out, exhaled, and relaxed. Darren went to brush a hand through his hair, but rebounded off the solid crystal with a tiny clink. “I'm over it. Whatever. Everything turned out, like, totally fine.†He turned to Mr. Archer and shrugged. “If by saved you mean, like, only partially destroyed, then sure. And we still don't know where Summers is.†Darren worried his lip and looked between Morgan and Giang. “But we should probably deal with this emergency before, like, jumping after that one, right?â€