Players:
Summary: Troy meets the new medical person.
Date: February 21, 2010
Barnes Medical
Rating: PG
NYC - Ellis Island
For generations this was the gateway to America, with literally millions of immigrants pouring through the doors to find new lives and new hope. These days it's a museum dedicated to that heritage. Wide corridors and high ceilings cause every sound to magnify and echo and distort. That, combined with the weight of history, tend to breed a sense of reverence and quiet not unlike a library or church.
It's late-morning, Sunday, and Ange diLucci has performed his mandatory weekly visit to his Mom over Montauk-wards. He took advantage of the early morning to fly over, but he'd be seen, now, as the turistas are pretty thick, so having finished his morning run around Battery park, he's now returning to the new job. He's got some sort of on-site duty requirement, for Sunday afternoons.
He does the random-walk touristy thing - man, this place feels like a crypt sometimes, what, do they have subsonic emitters set to "Reverent Awe" here? Anyway, the secret passage entrance is here somewhere. SO glad it's not a Maxwell Smart phone booth.
It's actually within one of the small maintenance buildings. But standing outside of said building is Troy. He's been in residence at the Academy longer than any other student and most of the staffers. He's leaning against said building with a cigarette in hand, breathing deeply. He has a look of annoyance on his face, but that could be from anything. He's only just woken up after being out… quite late… last night with his roommate. He appears to be dressed in a standard issue SHIELD uniform right now.
Angelo considers a salute at the sight of the uniform, but really, as an employee not an agent, it would probably be taken as mockery rather than shared humor. He notices the cigarette, and anyone trained in reading micro-expressions would see a smirk flash by on his face - yeah, that's definitely the modern SHIELD image. So this is where the smokers have to go, huh? Strictest no-smoking-base policy evar.
"Mornin'," he says as he ambles up to the maintenance building, looking over the water at the Lady with the Lamp. Too many tourists nearby at the moment, will wait before going in.
Troy's eyes go over Angelo as he speaks. "Must be new." He says with a bit of a shrug. He taps the cigarette, letting ash fall into the nearby receptacle. He sees the white hair, but that's not a totally uncommon thing for superhuman abilities. He's seen a few people with it. He takes his drag deeply and puts the cigarette entirely into the receptacle before breathing out. "We're starting to get a few actual people now." He says conversationally. Or something of that nature. He's just stating a fact.
Angelo says, "A few," Angelo answers, grinning. "I'm workin' in medical, but the interview, the guy said they might want me to audit a few classes for myself, teach first aid, that kinda thing."
He stretches, twisting a bit to loosen up a tight back muscle. "I kinda like that perk, ya know? Free fitness center, continuing education, room an' board. Hopin' I don't have to do all that much though. But I guess I'm gonna have to see all the staff this week for physicals. Get the records goin'.""
"Won't have to see me. SHIELD's already established my medical status." Troy says with a shrug. "Student-Teacher. Training for powers." He says, not bothering to elucidate. "They have to provide it all if they're keeping you away from everyone and everything you've loved for long periods of time." Just like his last place. But the difference is, this time… it's voluntary.
Angelo nods. "Cool, but I can't play favorites, should see you anyway. Stop by and shoot the shit, or we can head up so you can feed the monkey."
That last bit is said looking at the cigarette pointedly. "An' I don't have to do a exam if you rather not. Supervising doc said that some of you guys are strictly need-to-know, but if I need to know I will, so that ain't a problem."
He looks a bit concerned about the "keeping away from" … that wasn't part of his letter of invitation. "So wait, you guys don't get to visit your fambly and frens? Or just that they can't come here?"
"Feed the monkey?" Troy asks, raising an eyebrow. "I'm on SHIELD record. I'm a special case. I have biological problems that are taken care of by the suit I wear." He states simply, not wanting anyone he doesn't know examining anything. "I can't see them. Anyone else can. Just not me. I'm a… as you said… need to know case. But then, I really don't have any family or friends anymore." He shrugs. "Unless you count my suitemate Danny."
Angelo nods. "Mom useda call it that when she'd have a nicotine fit."
He shakes his head at the rest. "No family and friends? That sucks man. Look, about that biological thing, I can help some stuff but it's really kinda iffy, an' you're a special case so they'll tell me if they want me ta look into it. But friends, I ain't got many a'them left either. Spent too many years livin' my job."
He starts to say more but decides against it. Instead he offers a hand, "Angelo diLucci, Ange if I'm off duty."
Troy does accept the hand. "Troy Bay. But they call me Slide, half the time." He says with a nod. "Trust me. You can't fix mine. It's something that got ripped out and replaced wrong. It's done. It's over. SHIELD's working on me. As for feeding the monkey… different terminology than I'm used to. The only thing I've ever heard with a monkey was spanking it." He can't help a small grin at that. After the loosening up Danny's been applying, he's getting better about it. Despite Troy's slight frame, there is some strength in it.
Angelo laughs. "Yeah … that's what I used't tell Mom, she pretended she was shocked."
His handshake isn't crushing, just returning exactly the amount of push that's put in. At close range, the lines of yellow-white ink are faintly visible on the inside of his wrist where the ankh shows from under his shirt sleeve. (He's wearing a long-sleeved red skin-tight underarmor-style shirt and loose, top-of-thigh-length black nylon running shorts and some really weird grey shoes with toes. From a distance they look normal but close up? NOT.)
"Good t'meetcha, Troy. What'd you prefer I call you though? I assume 'Slide' is for on-the-job stuff?"
"Slide is based around the suit." Troy shrugs. "And Troy is what Danny calls me, so I guess that's alright." He does note the tattoos, but says nothing about it. He's not commenting on clothing. After all, he had to ask his roommate for fashion advice last night before going out. He's not up to date in fashion lately. "Anyone else with the suit would probably also be Slide."
"Got it," Angelo answers. "I ain't got a code name, for what that's worth. Nobody but my Mom knows I got any powers. Well, and the guys who hired me here. "
And the two who were there when it happened, which Ange has successfully forgotten about for the moment. "The clinic, they called me Doc diLucci, which ain't really right cause I got no doctorate. Just my Masters. All you need to be a PA. But PA diLucci sounds stupid. I'm not gonna be asking nobody to call me 'Master diLucci' neither."
"Yeah, I don't think that would go over too well around here." Troy says with a nod. "I don't have any powers on my own. But the suit gives them. I just have a mutated body underneath it. One of those kind of things." He says with a bit of a shrug. "Well, they need doctors. Especially if we get a lot of kids. Kids get into too much trouble without someone there."
Angelo ponders tht for a moment, "Yeah. I kinda look forward to that, ya know? When I was growin' up I lived most summers at the Ren Faires. Mom made her money doin' costumes and fortune-teller crap an' that kinda thing. Always had a bunch of kids about half my age around, kinda miss that. Not many kids comin' into a clinic in Chelsea, where the clients were mostly gay muscleheads."
He shrugs. Change of subject.
"So what kinda powers do you train?"
"Could be worse. You could have been at a boarding school where nearly everyone was your age, gay, and downright slutty, trying to get into everyone's pants." Troy says with an eyeroll. "Depends. I have a history with unique powersets, even though I'm blank. I just… see how they can be used and help with them."
Ange adopts a fake puzzled expression, "Huh. That's not normal for boarding schools? I musta been reading the wrong porn, uh I mean, literature."
He laughs, to take the curse off the act, and continues,"Anyway I'm kinda lucky, I know what my powers are and how they work, just need ta practice more. It's the quarterstaff I need help with. I was damn lucky I didn't get mulched a couple times durin' that whole stupid demonfestation."
"So… what are they?" Since Angelo seems to be pushing to answer but not answer. "I'm still training with this suit, but I took to it pretty quickly. Just controlling the stick and slick fields." he says with a bit of a shrug. "Flying's easy."
Ange grins. "Slick fields, huh? Too bad it's all the suit, man."
He decides this guy's trustworthy. He hasn't really talked about this much, though it's likely the SHIELD people know what it does. "Mine? It's all from the tattoos. Magic. Real friggin' magic. I fly, I throw shields, I heal things like crazy, I can see diseases, injuries, that kinda shit, and I speak languages I don't know, sometimes. And I light up like a friggin' beacon, when I go all out."
"It can be done some without all of the suit. Just gotta have the gloves and headpiece for some of it." Troy says with a shrug. He's not catching the other side of the equation. "Yeah. Magic is real…" He says, not following the excitement. "That infestation a few weeks ago had a lot to do with it." Of course, that's one of those things that he hates to even bring up. "Light up. Light manipulation?" He asks, voice hesitant. "Or is the healing linked to the light?" There's almost a snarl under his voice. "If it is, then don't. Ever. Use it on me. We'll just say, I've had Darkforce in me and leave it at that."
Angelo blinks. "Darkforce? What the hell… Nhg. NO. not right now."
He flickers faintly when the mention of that other energy wakes up the Eye; there's a briefest of instants when his eyes and hair don't just reflect the light but give off their own. He grabs his head, fighting back the energy.
His cultivated musclehead accent is gone for a moment. "Sorry. It does that sometimes, tries to take over. Got the ink last year, just after my birthday. I don't know what Darkforce means, but I'll take your word for it. Yeah, the spells tap the light for power. Healing it uses almost directly."
Troy raises an eyebrow and sneers. "Lovely." He says and leaves it at that. He's not talking anymore about it. He's annoyed as all get-out, and that's obvious. He lights another cigarette and begins to smoke it rather deeply. He doesn't cough, though. "Sorry. There's a problem with those two types of abilities and my body. It doesn't work."
Angelo looks like he's going to retort for a moment but then he exhales. "OK. Sorry, man."
He feels unaccountably outraged, but not at Troy, just at … something else. Something unjust has happened here and it's tweaking him, which shows on his face a little, a faintly grim, intense look. He looks away to stare over the water at the statue again.
"Not your fault." Troy says simply. "Just that stuff is danger. It can really screw with you. Either one. One's too depressing, the other's too happy. There is no true middle ground when you've got one of those." And that's… simply the way it is. "They took a lot away from me. Darkforce and Living Light. Always in battle. Always locked together. Only Cloak and Dagger have managed to deal with them long enough to make it work. Anyone else…" He shrugs. "Though the light is harder to see than the dark.
Angelo answers, without turning back to look at Troy, "I can read that in the spells. The conduit … that would be me … has to be protected from the light. There are boundaries. Wards, in a sense. That's why I can push it back. It doesn't make me happy, or hyper, or black out from pure bliss. I can do that to other people with it, but it would be a violation of my Hippocratic oath to use it to harm. Makes a damn good anaesthetic."
He turns around finally, "So if I can't help you … damn. I almost asked who I could kill to make up to you for it. I don't know why either. What the fuck is up with that?"
Troy shakes his head softly. "Nobody. What happened with me, and what I know, is for me to deal with. SHIELD is helping. I just have more knowledge than someone my age should. I know too much about a lot of abilities. And… I really couldn't tell you. Sometimes, they counterbalance each other without knowing. But…" He shrugs. The protective words in there are… familiar. But they're not enough to truly recall. "Why would you offer that for someone you don't even know?"
Angelo seems almost shocked. "… I don't KNOW. It just … I'll know when I go inside and light up. I think. The Eye, it's the tattoo on my chest, it has a connection to some kinda magical beings."
There's a moment or two where he seems to be on the verge of explaining more, but then he just shakes his head.
"I think, they gave me this because they thought there was too much darkness, they wanted to balance it."
"That's the way it seems to be. There's a lot more people out there that can use the Darkforce, but not the Living Light. It's extremely rare." Troy explains. "I don't know anyone of either type though."
Angelo scratches his head, "Whatcha mean you don't know anyone of either type?"
He wonders (without asking) how Troy handles smoking like that. It would grind his own lungs into powder. For a while anyway.
"Don't know anyone that wields either or I'd let you meet them." Troy doesn't, either. "I think it's just easiest to learn it when your foil is there." He shrugs a bit. The smoking doesn't seem to really affect him. He's not coughing or anything.
Angelo nods, then. "Ah. Yeah. Thing is, most of what I have to learn is just… well, flying is a skill. Healing, just practice. Making shields, that's pretty much fixed, and the Eye sometimes won't let me see anything special, and I know that's because whoever answered the spell thinks I know everything I need to know."
"So, you don't mind the tars and nicotine and gunk from the smoke? Even the most hardened smoker makes an expression of deep pain when they inhale. You're not."
"Doesn't bother me. Like I said before. I have a messed up body." Troy says with a shrug. "Doesn't bug me at all. Don't know why. Don't ask." He says, running a hand smoothly over his head. The hair reacts, but doesn't seem to react the way it should. After all, it is an illusion.
Angelo says, "Sorry to pry. Medical curiosity, I guess." Not to mention, distraction from the giant glowing white elephant. When in doubt, when in stress, deny, ignore avoid, repress. Good advice for social situations too.
"So do you know anyone who uses a quarterstaff? I use mine for defense. About half the techniques I know aren't good for doing stuff without hurting people, and I haven't had anyone to practice with, to get better at using the ones that don't hurt.""
"I don't know. My roommate Danny knows Tae Kwon Do. I don't know if he has staff training or not, but you could ask him if you see him around. He used to be part of that government group, Freedom Force." Troy says. The defunct group… either came here or left altogether. "I'm hard to hurt, though. I'm sure I could spar in my own way. But then, I'm hard to hit." He says with a shrug.
Ange laughs. "It's mostly deflecting attacks that I need to learn. I don't hit. Hitting is for other people. What kinda physician goes around making work for himself, y'know? But I''ll check with Danny."
"I'd recommend it. I'm not totally sure about his power, but he says it's got something to do with Sandstone, so I'm sure you'd be fine to spar with him." Troy offers. "And he'd like it. He likes getting a good workout."
Ange nods, slowly, "I'll ask him. Hey, I'm gettin' cold and I don't want to light up out here. And we're between turista swarms. You goin' inside? If not, I'll see ya later."
He's still not sure why he has this URGE to avenge something, but that'll probably pass. It's not his job. He's the healer angel dammit, not the warrior. That's someone else.
Troy shrugs lightly and moves towards the door of the building, stepping inside. It's not like he hasn't been out here for a while. His suit regulates his temperature, so he's not that cold. As he goes inside, he turns off the inducer, to be back in his actual suit.
