Strange Visitors (IC)

[Avenger Assembled]

"Hello, Eve," said Sharl readily, giving her a firm handshake as his body's slight translucency seemed to even out. "Like Cobalt Templar said, I'm Citizen. If you watch the news or anything, you may know me from being Miss Americana's sidekick." He studied the little white-haired flier. "That was really pretty what you were doing up there in the sky," he commented, pointing up. "I've seen a lot of people flying around in Freedom City," certainly more than he saw at home, anyway, "but nobody who can do cool effects in the air like that. Do you really use the wings to fly?"

[April]

--Oh, it's fine Corbin. It's not much of a secret these days, anyway.-- the telepath favored Cobalt Templar with a brief smile. Part of her regretted not changing into costume before leaving the estate and she hoped that this wouldn't cause an issue for Corbin or cause the Headmaster's ire to be directed at her.

Eve shook her head at Citizen, but when she went to answer his question she couldn't find any purchase within his mind. She knew it was there, though it had an elusive quality to it, like she had to concentrate to notice it. So she did what she normally does when confronted with an irritating situation. She frowned.

--I'm having trouble accessing his mind, Corbin. I hate to be a burden but I may need you to translate for me.--

[KnightDisciple]

'Well, if you're not unhappy, let's hope that means the Headmaster isn't unhappy. Not like I had time to prep for the tour, really.'

He sat back, ready to let Sage and Citizen talk for a bit...when he saw the confusion on Eve's face. It didn't take him long to figure out what might be going on, even as she mind-spoke to him again.

'No problem, Eve. It's not a big deal to me.'

He turns and faces Citizen, a rueful grin on his face.

"Eve apologizes, but she'll have to have me act as translator. She said she's having trouble telepathic messages. So, yeah. This will bit a bit mroe clunky, but I'm sure we'll be fine."

[Avenger Assembled]

"Oh, you're a telepath?" asked Citizen curiously. "Wow, uh, I've never met a telepath." He wondered why that meant she couldn't talk: he'd seen telepaths like Scarab and Psyche on the news, and they could talk! It's probably rude to ask, he decided. "If it's tough for you to read my mind," he said thoughtfully, "it's probably because I don't have a brain like yours. I'm a computer program," he lied smoothly. "Miss Americana downloaded me off the Internet." He was a little nervous about sharing that with near-strangers, but Miss A had assured him that part of his story was something he could tell people without much danger to himself.

[April]

Eve nodded at Sharl, --That's right,-- she said bringing her hands up to sign her thoughts. The telepath suppressed a chuckle, she wasn't used to having to rely on sign language on campus; it was something normally reserved for when she was out in public. Still, she mused to herself, there is a chance he might understand me.

--Hmm, Miss Americana.-- the white-haired teen tilted her head slightly, pensive expression on her face. --Oh, yes. She hosted one of our fundraisers, managed to bring in a fair amount of donations. So, you are some sort of AI, then?--

[KnightDisciple]

"Claremont's got a lot of metahumans. You'll probably end up meeting a lot of..."power sets", for lack of a better term...for the first time. Just part of the experience, really."

He shrugged. Personally, he was fine with telepaths. He blushed a bit as he thought about how nice having a telepath girlfriend could be. Hopefully Eve didn't catch much of that.

'Uh, sorry if you caught any of that. Ahem. Teenaged male.'

He blinked as Citizen revealed the fact that he was a computer program.

"That...well. That does explain a few things, yes. Huh. Crazy what you can find on the Internet these days. Like I said earlier, never met Miss Americana. Sounds like a nice lady though."

He glanced at Eve as she spoke, nodding a couple of times.

"Eve says that, yes, she's a telepath. And...nifty. Apparently Miss Americana hosted a fundraiser a while back, and helped bring in some decent cash. She's wondering if you're what would be classified as an Artificial Intelligence, then."

[Avenger Assembled]

"Well..." Sharl prevaricated briefly, the slight breeze that was blowing not ruffling his hand in the slightest. "I am intelligent, I guess, and I am made of coherent magnetic fields with a shaped-light overlay." He'd learned that jargon from Miss A, particularly since it was important in case anything ever interrupted his projection. "So I guess that's pretty artificial? I dunno." He smiled. "And Miss A is really great. I wouldn't be here today if not for her. And she's really great to work for." He studied Eve as she gestured, unfamiliar with sign language, but too polite to comment on someone's evident disability.

[April]

--Telepathic and telekinetic, actually,-- Eve clarified, brushing a hand through her hair, tucking some errant strands behind her ear while shooting Corbin an amused look. --The 'wings' you saw are merely a mental construct, a manifestation of my subconscious interpretation of flight, no more real than a hologram. Albeit a hologram with some measure of solidity.-- The young Martel smiled at Citizen, --But it is a pleasure to meet you, Citizen. What brings you to Claremont?--

[KnightDisciple]

Cobalt Templar shrugs at Sharl.

"It's a broad category. Really, you're you, that's the important part."

He looks at Eve, as if listening to regular speech for a moment, before nodding and turning back towards Citizen.

"She's telepathic and telekinetic. That's how she flies: with telekinesis. The wings are just for show, plus how her brain decides things ought to look. I'm not a psychologist or anything, though. She says it's like a hologram, though."

He smiles and stage-whispers to Citizen.

"Personally, I wonder if it's her brain's way of helping make sure a strong gust of wind doesn't blow her away, "hologram wings" or no."

He resumes speaking normally, though he's still fighting a wider grin.

"She's glad to meet you, one way or another. She's wondering what interested you out here."

[Avenger Assembled]

"Miss Americana gave me the day off," said Citizen with a little shrug. "So I thought I'd come out and see more of the city. I've gone walking around some, and flying, but I always seem to be doing something." He put his hands in his pockets, looking around. "I was telling Cobalt Templar that I don't have a lot of experience with schools like this one, and so he offered to take me on a tour. It's very impressive! I can't believe how much space you have," he marveled. "Wings do make a good stabilizer, especially beautiful ones. As for her size, personally, I think if I put the two of you together and divided by two, you'd add up to one normal-sized person." he added teasingly.

[April]

Eve rolled her eyes in exaggerated display of exasperation at the height joke, though the grin she still had told the lie. --Truth of the matter is I don't have much experience with schools of this nature either-- the telepath said, shrugging slightly. --For me class has always been that time between training in the gym so a traditional school like this was impractical. I've only been in country for, and a 'standard' school setting for a year now.--

She shrugged again. --It's different, but worth it for the social aspect. After my, mmm, after certain events my social circle collapsed in on itself a few years ago. So, Miss Americana is nice, euh?--

[KnightDisciple]

"I think I'm the only one of us three who's gone to more "normal"-"

Quotation marks made of blue flame appear for a moment around Cobalt Templar.

"-schools. Eve here did gymnastics a few years back, so that kind of shifted her learning schedule. This is actually her first year in not only this school, or "normal" school, but the country itself, even. Her loss, I suppose."

He gives her a cheeky grin.

"And she's right; different that it might be, having friends around helps, especially if things happened to hamper that in the past. So, you say Miss Americana is "nice". She's a superhero, and a good-looking one at that, but what else is "nice" about her?"

'Don't think Quo-Dis would care if I objectively admire a fine specimen of the female gender, do you?'

[Avenger Assembled]

"When I was lost, Miss Americana found me," said Citizen, only needing to prevaricate a little. "She took me in, talked to me, and saved me, when it would have been so easy to just delete me, or rewrite me, or do any of the other things she could have done since under your laws I'm not even a person. When I was in the crucible, she pulled me out of the fire." He nodded at that sentiment, something he'd pulled out of one of the books he'd found online. "She built a house to live in in her computer and everything. She's really awesome. And yeah, she is...she's that pretty in person, too. Wow."

[April]

Eve laughed, shooting Corbin a grin. --Probably not. I do it all the time, though I daresay it isn't quite.. objective. Quo-Dis is gorgeous, by the way.--

The telepath's face turned serious for a moment as she regarded Citizen. --This is a case of the laws not catching up to reality. I can feel your mind, even if I can't touch it directly. As far as I am concerned you're alive, and very much a person.--

[KnightDisciple]

Corbin chuckled.

'Gorgeous? Try incredibly beautiful, rivaling the majesty of the unmarred night sky. Filled with poise and...I'll stop now.'

"I agree with Eve; you're a person, laws or no. I think it's just that laws haven't quite caught up yet; progress moves so fast these day,s you know? Anyways, it sounds like Miss Americana is a very generous person, on top of already being a great hero. I hope that one day, her efforts can be fully recognized. Maybe she'll be one of the ones to lead the charge in AI rights?"

'Is it just me, or does this guy take "hero worship" to somewhat discomforting new heights?'

[Avenger Assembled]

"I guess that's true," said Citizen, a little discomfitted yet at the thought of being subject to artificial lifeform laws at all. "Do you guys have any synthetic students at the school? Like robots, or something? I know there aren't a lot of sentient programs out there, and most of them...most of them aren't very nice. I work with Protectron at the Lab," he said, "I dunno if you guys know him, he's a gold robot from space or something. We don't really know! But he's nice. He bakes a lot of cookies and makes sandwiches for the people who work there."