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Summary: Aiden and Kalindi talk about what it was like growing up with powers.
Date: April 28, 2011
Log Title: Just Try It
Rating: PG
NYC - Battery Park
Located at the Southern tip of Manhattan, Battery Park faces New York Harbor. There are various statues along the paved paths of Battery Park. During the day various vendors can be found peddling their wears to the tourists of New York City. At night the park is usually empty, looking across the Harbor to the Hudson River, a beautiful view of The Statue of Liberty can be scene.
It's overcast, and there is clearly a threat of rain looming outside, but it's still not wet out this morning. Kalindi doesn't seem to be paying much heed to the threatening weather, as she idly walks through the park with her hands wrapped around the straps of her back. She wears a black skirt and a orange sweater today, since, while it's warm out, it's still not what Kali would consider nice. In her hands is a short baton with a gold colour that she spins between her fingers; it's most likely not genuine gold since that would require enormous finger strength.
Sometimes it's just nice to be a tourist and Aiden is finally coming down to Battery Park to check out the Statue of Liberty after doing a small show down here with one of his mates from the Coney Island Freakshow. He's been staring at the gift from the French for quite some time before he decides to just wander around the park. With a yawn he makes sure he doesn't hit anyone as he stretches out his wings behind him. They fold back up against his back as he slings a duffle bag over his shoulder and starts walking down a path in Kalindi's direction.
Kalindi glances towards Aiden for a moment as his wings unfold and then back forward. After a few seconds, it's time for the double take. She spins around on her heel and starts walking backwards, still idly spinning the baton, staring at the man's wings. It seems that she doesn't actually focus on Aiden himself, just the two extra limbs coming out of his back.
It's not until Aiden stops as a hot dog cart that he notices that someone seems to be staring at him and he looks over his shoulder. The visible markings on his arms, neck and hands seem to be a light green colour. The gothy man raises a drawn on eye brow at Kalindi and smiles. "Something I can help you with?" He's pretty sure it's in regards to his wings as they seem to get a lot of positive and negitive attention.
Kalindi tilts her head slightly at the question and approaches in a manner reminiscent of a curious child. "Are those real, or are they glued on? Can I touch them?" She wrings her hands together and says, in a conspiratorial tone, "They are very blue."
"Gluded on?" Aiden asks sounding a bit confused and thrown off by the question to the point where his markings gain a faint orange colour among the green for a bit. "They're real, I'm a mutant. And yes, they are very blue, I didn't choose the colour but I like it." He smiles and turns. "Sure you can touch them, just becareful it can get uncomfortable if the feathers get ruffled."
Kalindi nods at Aiden and reaches to feel the wings, sure not to ruffle any feathers and move with the direction of the feathers. She nods as she steps back, deciding, "Yes, I think they are real. You are a mutant? That is good, it is a gift, though I understand that it can be hard for some." She folds her hands together.
Aiden ruffles his wings a bit after Kalindi touches them out of habbit. "It can be but I think that's because not everyone is taught to accept who they are. If we're taught that looking like this is bad, then we think it. And I'm very happy to be able to fly, I don't know how I'd feel if I couldn't anymore." He says offering a hand. "I'm Aiden, nice to meet you."
"I am Kalindi. You may call me Kali if you want, it has less syllables," says Kali, reaching her hand to take Aiden's. "I do not think it is bad to look any way or another, and it is good that you have your blue wings if they let you fly, flying is good." She nods with that last statement, confirming her belief in it. "I do not have wings but still I am able to fly, sometimes."
"Nice to meet you Kali." Aiden says. "It's fun isn't it?" He says grining as she reveals that she can also fly. "So are you a mutant as well or did something else give you the ability to fly?" He asks curiously as his tattoos seem to turn a darker green. "You don't have to answer if it's too personal."
Kalindi shrugs at Aiden, "Well, I do not think I am a mutant, but if I were a mutant, I do not think that my mutant power is to fly. It would probably be something stupid that has never come up, like being able to digest metal." She rolls her eyes at the thought, "But I can control gold using my mind." She tosses her baton onto the ground, where it seems to splatter into a disc, that she steps on and elevates slightly off the ground. "And so I stand on it."
"That is really nifty." Aiden says watching in facination as orange flickers back into the markings for a few seconds. "I've never seen anyone manipulate anything like that, it seems as if New York really is the home to all things super powered." He muses. "I'm also an empath so I can feel peoples emotions with my mind too."
Kalindi gives Aiden a suspicious look as her disc raises her the several inches required for her to be at his eye level, "You can feel people's emotions? Do you do that all the time? Are you feeling the things I am feeling right now?" Kalindi's emotional state is mostly curiosity, but with a tinge of envy. "But yes, I have noticed there are many people with powers here. It is something like a crossroads I guess?"
Aiden shakes his head. "No, I have to make an effort to. I could if I wanted to but I don't really see a need to." He admits. "I didn't always have the control that I do but you could probably agree that you didn't always have the control you do now over gold. I mean like with any skill it takes practice and time."
"Oh, no, when I first was trying to control it, it would only wiggle and it gave me a headache and I would fall asleep," says Kalindi, nodding at that, "I have expanded my control lots, and I know what brain muscles to flex. Not that I think there are brain muscles. It is, eh, a metaphor." She smiles and says, "It is good to know that you do not always look at emotions. Sometimes, people will put on a happy face even though they want to have a sad face, and they do not want you to know."
Aiden would have believed there were brain muscles if someone told him with his lack of education. "When I was first learning to fly I had a lot of scrapped knees and hands and elbows and other sore spots. Kande used to laugh at me and always compare me to a baby bird." He says fondly as his tattoos take on a slightly blueish tone. "Well I want to feel comfortable with someone or find that there's a need to tell what they're feeling before I just do it."
"Yes, yes, that is good! And maybe someone is feeling something that is bad that you do not want to feel? Good to avoid," says Kalindi, nodding. "Though I have never felt someone's emotions, so I am making only guesses." She looks up and then towards Aiden and the up again, "I hope that you flew low."
"The worst is feeling anger cause it's very hard to reason with someone when it's pure rage." Aiden says. "It's actually scary feeling that. Feeling someone's emotions is a lot like feeling your own but you know they're not yours." Aiden tries to explain. "It's like when you feel happy you feel it here." He says putting a hand on his chest. "But instead of feeling it here, you feel it over there." He says pointing in a random direction. "And yes, I did fly low. You always have to start with baby steps, rushing in can cause sloppy work, mistakes and injuries. I imagine you started low too or is it easier with the gold?"
"Oh, well, I did not think to use it for flying for a very long time. I just thought it might have used my body like an anchor point, but it does not. The energy to lift the gold will lift me as well," explains Kalindi, "So I had very good control by the time I started to fly. The only reason I flew low was because too high was too scary! It made my heart beat very fast."
"Heights don't really bother me much." Aiden says. "I think it's because I'm so used to flying being in the air is as natural as walking. Though it's harder to fly the more weight I carry, I'm not good with flying with added weight." He confesses. "So how do you go about discovering you can control gold with your mind? I mean for me it was easy to tell I had powers, one day I grew wings."
"Well, someone said something like, 'hey you know you can control gold with your mind now, right?' and that was surprising! But it wasn't much control, like I said," decides Kalindi, omitting plenty of info from that sentence, "But yes, I can understand how it would be hard to know that kind of thing. It is like digesting metal. Maybe I can, maybe I cannot, but I do not think I will try. It was good I was told!"
Aiden blinks at Kalindi in confusion. "Someone just told you you could and you could?" That just sounds strange to him but the he doesn't know much about how people get super powers outside of being a mutant. "I don't think I'd recommend you try either. You might find that you can't and it would poision you and that wouldn't be fun."
"Yes, exactly! That is the problem. Well, if you try to control gold, you would not be poisoned, you would only maybe look stupid. Here, try to control it," she says, hopping off the disc, and in the process kicking it back into the baton before it solidly clunks against the ground."But yes, I was told, and I was able, but I was not able to because I was told, you see?"
Aiden nods as it makes sense but seems odd, but then oddities are part of Aiden's life. "I'm pretty sure I can't control gold." He says but he reaches out a hand an tries with little success. "Not part of my act I'm afraid." He says with a laugh. "Should I ask you to try to feel my emotions in return?"
"Well, I can try…" says Kalindi, putting her hands next to her face and opening her eyes wide. She stands that way for a few moments and then resumes a relaxed position, "Well, if you are feeling a little bit embarrassed that you even tried, I think that is a success, but I believe that was my own feeling."
"I'm more amused that I gave it a try, not to much embarasses me." Aiden says with a laugh. He's a winged mutant who dresses in a way that stands out and is a man who wears eyeliner, there's not much he's embarassed about. "Don't feel embarassed if you are, it was all in good fun right? Now if you got hurt maybe there would be something to be embarassed by."
"Well, no, if I got hurt I would not be embarrassed, but maybe more frustrated," says Kalindi, nodding at that. She smiles and says, "It is a joke though, but a true joke, I was a little embarrassed. I was not embarrassed when I tried to control the gold. I was six. I did not get embarrassed for being a silly girl. Also, it worked and I was pretty alone, this helped!"
"Wow since you were five?" Aiden says sounding quite amazed. "I didn't get my powers till I was tweleve and that seemed young to me. Though I'm sorry to hear that you were alone, it's not easy when you don't have anyone." He says. "Though I imagine things worked out okay in the end?" He says seeming a bit worried about a 5 year-old girl being on her own.
"Eh, well, it was okay. I am okay now, yes? When I was five, I was not okay, I was scared and more alone, so I cried! I do not cry much anymore, there is no point to it, but," she pauses for a moment and seems self-conscious, "There are sometimes that I do, but not much, and it is just sometimes emotions are so overwhelming!" She shakes her head and sighs, "It is not a controllable thing."
"Believe me, I know." Aiden says giving her a look of concern, as his markings start to turn a blusish colour from green again. "When I was tweleve I was scared and alone too and cried a lot but I found a new family. But then I lost them so I still cry sometimes too. Even for someone like me whose big thing is emotions, I can't control my own." He doesn't mention that he can control others emotions though.
"Well, it is okay if you cry, this is a human thing, yes? It does not look good to cry in front of others, and I do not, but I have feelings," says Kalindi, nodding at that. "It is good that you had found a good family. I bonded with my adoptive father after awhile, but at first, I admit that I did not like him much, and I wanted my mother again."
"It's more crying in front of strangers that's awkward. Or even worse, customers who come to a show. Lucky I haven't done that." Aiden says as he knows that would be really unnerving. "I wanted my Mother too when I was alone, she died when I was little. I thought maybe if she was around my Father wouldn't have hated me for being a mutant but those were more thinkings of a child. I found people who cared about me and they are more important then them."
Kalindi nods, "My father had sold me as a slave, without the consent of my mother, so I do not think he liked me much, but I think it is more he traded me for something he wanted better. So even now, I sometimes think of her, and wonder if she is okay, but it is not a thing for me to know anymore…" She frowns for a moment and looks aside, "It is good that you have found others to care about. That is good for your feelings."
The markings on Aiden quickly go from a green and blue colour to a mix of orange and red. "That's horrible." He says with a look of shock. "I didn't know parents still sold there children as slaves, that's worse then what my father did." His wings tense up and ruffle a bit at the idea. "I can understand that though, it's not a thing for you to know anymore? I feel the same way about my older brother."
"I didn't know that it was a thing that was done either, until it was done," says Kalindi, a confused expression momentarily on her face. "But see, it is okay now, because now I am the person who I am, and I am okay with this. He sold me maybe something more like a sacrifice, but a slave would do, too, and it is by the mercy of my adopted father, my True Father, that I am doing so well now."
The color in the markings fade slightly but the red still lingers more then the orange. "That's good, I can understand that. I'm who I am today cause Howard took me in and him and the others took me in as family. We were a traveling freakshow, all of us were obviously mutants." He explains. "And that's good that your True Father treats you well so you are doing good, he must care about you."
"Yes, he cares, and I care about him, but it is hard to tell that he is feeling anything. He is, ehh, very strange," says Kalindi, raising her brow. "Is it good to be in a travelling freakshow? I sometimes go flying, and then people they say, 'freak!' but I do not think their tone makes it sound like a very nice thing to be."
"I loved it." Aiden said. "I miss it a lot." He says as the blue starts to come back into his tattoo like markings. "I think I'm very strange at times too but then I don't mind. I know I stick out like a sore thumb." He says with a nod. "Eh don't worry about people calling you a 'freak', it happens to me all the time I just shrug it off or go damn straight I am."
"Well, I do not really care. It is nothing but a word coming from a mouth, but it is not a word I would call myself," says Kalindi, shrugging. "And yes, I think it is okay to be very strange, or even a little strange. So long as someone does not cause me harm in some important way, I do not usually worry about these things of strangeness or appearance."
"I'd call myself one mainly cause that's what I do for a living, I work at Coney Island Freakshow. I breath fire, fire dance, swallow swords and do some small escape artist tricks. So being a Freak is kind of my M.O." Aiden says. "I'm the same way, unless they mean to do me harm I just ignore it. If they do I try to avoid the fight in the best way possible."
"Well, if someone tries to do me harm, I do not much like that, and I will reply. I do not like to be pushed around much," says Kali, furrowing her eyebrows at the thought, "It is best if others know that I will reply to their harm, then more will know that I am not one to be harmed." She glances over her shoulder and says, "But I should be going. I do not want to be late to a meeting."
Aiden nods to Kalindi. "It was a pleasure talking to you Kali." He says giving an almost grandious bow in showman fashion. "If you ever wish to come to Coney Island you can see me preform in the Freakshow there. Have a good day and good luck with your meeting."
Kalindi nods at Aiden, and stomps her baton (which still sits on the ground) back into a disc shape, and sits down on it, gripping the edges, "I think I will come give it a look, it sounds like an interesting thing to see." With that, she flies directly up and off.
