4948/Titans Touch Base

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Titans Touch Base
Date of Scene: 31 January 2021
Location: Courtyard: Themysciran Embassy
Synopsis: Kian and wally get to know each other. Plans to get him home maybe?
Cast of Characters: Kian, Wally West




Kian has posed:
    It is, at least, a gentle enough confinement that Kían doesn't even think of it as such.  He does spend most of his time in the courtyard despite the season: it's nice to be able to generate your own infrared cocoon.  He's been assured that the rooms assigned them are the height of luxury, but to him they're almost intolerably small.  The courtyard isn't large, but it doesn't have a roof, and that makes all the difference.
    It reminds him a little of the observation deck at his own home, Gods-only-know how many lightyears away.
    It's really his first chance to just sit and catch his breath in a while, and he's taking advantage of it, lying on his back on a bench and watching the unfamiliar star patterns overhead, while Terry and Gar just sleep peacefully.  Gods know they need it.  He only took one intro to astronomy course among his electives—it's enough information that he knows for his home star to be visible, especially in a light-polluted Earth city, it would have to be very close, close enough the star patterns would look familiar.  They don't, so he's not close.
    But it's a pretty-if sparse—sky nonetheless.

Wally West has posed:
    The wait for the doppelvorp tracking device to give them a ping is interminable.  Wally has been keeping relatively busy with his job, but it still weighs on him.  Well, the Titans are still here—even if they are scattered.  He remembers that there were a few hiding out in the Themysciran embassy.  It'd be nice to catch up.
    The air is crisp when Wally arrives.  He sees Kian out in the courtyard.  "How are you holding up?  I know how you struggle with the absolutely barren environs here at the embassy."  He gestures at the open courtyard and beautiful marblework of the building.  "Ah well it sucks to be moved out of your usual place—even to a place as nice as this."

Kian has posed:
    "Oh!"  Kían sits up, shaking the clouds out of his head.  He hadn't been sleeping, but he was definitely elsewhere, mentally.  "Kíé, Wal-lee.  I am… good."  There's a definite hesitation, and he adds, "Or at leas' good enough.  Thin's haf been very strange lately, an' I already thought this was a strange planet."
    He glances back toward the room where his teammates are sleeping.  "Iss there any wor' on anyone's double?  Or has mine shown up?"  He smiles a little sourly.  "I hope not.  I woul' like to think another me woul' be tired of gettin' use to new Eart's an' stay behin'."

Wally West has posed:
    Wally supresses a grin.  "Our planet?  Strange?  Hah, perhaps your planet is the strange one for not having time travellers and alternate dimension doppelgangers.  Did you think of that?"  He almost keeps a straight face afterwords, but he eventually breaks.  "I kid, but no new word on people's doppels.  We have device that is tracking doppelvorp, but otherwise we got nothing."
    He takes a seat on a nearby bench.  "So watcha lookin' at?  See any cool stars?"  Wally personally has little interest in the stars (with the exception of the ones for navigation) given that he is unlikely to visit any of them.  The moon on the other hand, he looks at.

Kian has posed:
    "I'm sure they are all interestin'… I just do not know if I am lookin' at any I haf seen from my worl'."  Kían glances over, then back up at the stars.  "The odd thin' iss, I think I do not really care anymore.  I haf got use to thinkin' this iss home now."
    He sighs.  "I was hopin' that we might haf some word on Terry's double.  He iss fadin' wit'out his Che-shire side.  I worry about him.  The longer he iss wit'out his Che-shire side, the worse I fear it might get.  An' we still haf to deal wit' Gar's double, an' hope no other doubles haf shown up."
    Another sigh, this one heavier.  "I do not know how you do this wit'out losing your min's."

Wally West has posed:
    "You know, I suppose it is lucky I have this power.  I got my powers taken away and I started being early to things."  He sighs.  "I suppose that is no consolation to Terry.  I suppose I cant really know what is like to lose access to Vorpal."
    Wally has wound up comforting Terry a lot lately, and he has to conserve that particular well of compassion for Terry himself.  "Well I guess that answers what you are up to now, but I imagine you weren't watching over Terry before his doppel showed up.  I don't think we got to properly know eachother.  What were you doing then?"  Wally has seen Kian around—even knows a little about him, but he can't say he really knows him.  That really ought to change.

Kian has posed:
    "Learnin' English," Kían says, although he still pronounces it closer to 'in-gliss'.  "An' tryin' to learn the Eart' terms for the science I already know.  An' how to count again."  He holds up a hand: three fingers and a thumb.  "Your 'ten' is two more than my 'ten'.  An' really, avoidin' usin' my rhy'thar, my special powers.  I haf always hated them; maybe I envy Terry a little that he coul' haf his taken away, an' I am stuck wit' mine an' I do not want them.  I woul' haf given mine to anyone who coul' be trust wit' them."
    Well, there's an odd admission.

Wally West has posed:
    Wally hears some of this and it kicks his problem solving into high gear.  "Eight digits is exactly enough to do two hexadecimal numbers.  Perfect for interacting with computers.  It covers characters, colors and IP addresses."  Kian may have wanted someone to commisserate with, but Wally has had enough of listening to problems he can't help with.  He wants to fix things.
    The bit about Kian wanting to be rid of his powers catches Wally off guard.  "You hate them?  Why?  If you want some place to practice with them—or just to get it out of your system, I know a mesa in Nevada that nobody is using."  It's not that he doesn't understand that someone might not want to be a hero—most people aren't up to it.  It's that he doesn't understand why someone would want to not be able to do something.

Kian has posed:
    "Yis, I haf foun' that computer code makes a little sense already, but mos' calculations are still done in your tens, not my tens.  But, I haf learn Englis, I will learn Eart' numbers," he says, shrugging.  "At leas' then I can maybe carry on my studies.  But… nnh."
    It takes Kían a moment to gather his thoughts.  "I woul' not be on this worl' if not for my powers.  I woul' be at home wit' my frien's an' family.  An' even if my people fin' me here, I can not go home wit' them because my powers do not like our stardrive.  I woul' probably be thrown to another random planet… or just into deep space, or the core of a star, or somethin'.  Because of my powers, I am here… an' I am trap here.  I woul' gif them to Terry if I coul', but I think he needs his own back."

Wally West has posed:
    Wally pauses to take in what Kian says.  Being stranded away from home sucks.  Wally got stuck in the speedforce once.  He cursed his powers too for a bit.  He later learned a deeper mastery and escaped.
    "Ahh, well that is different.  Being stranded because of your powers would make anyone upset.  That said, if we ever encounter your people, I am sure we would be able to find a vehicle with a different drive in it to take you home.  If nothing else, we have Green Lanterns.  Speaking of which.  Have you spoken to any of them?  There are a couple around here, and maybe one of them could find your home.  They have access to a larger star map, and some one in the corps might recognize your species.  I figure it might be nice to at least send a message home."
    Again—he doesn't know what Kian actually wanted, but Wally has practical advice.  If you stop too long in the world of worry and sadness, you get stuck in the mire of despair, and you will need the raft of self reliance… this metaphor got away from him a little at the end, but the point still stands.

Kian has posed:
    The little birdman smiles a little.  "I think I woul' jus' like to let everyone know I am alive an' safe."  He laughs softly.  "For a very strange definin' of 'safe'.  I can not imagine how they mus'… well, I can a bit, I feel that kin' of loss when our frien's were stuck in the other universe for a while.  An' that we got them back tells me may be there iss hope for me too.  But I do not belief in miracles."
    He stands up, all five-foot-nothing of him, and stretches his wings.  "An' you know the really weir' thin' is that I think I haf been more help to people on this worl' than I coul' haf been to people on my own.  We do not haf criminals.  We do not get invaded.  An' I sometimes wonder if I did go back home if I might go mad from the quiet."  He looks up into the sky again, and laughs again.  "May be that iss what I need.  I go home when Eart' iss too much to handle, and I come here when Kyshán iss too quiet."

Wally West has posed:
    "Yeah, thats a pretty good plan.  I do something similar.  My speed allows me to commute from halfway across the country.  The sheer distance means that things from out here on the coast rarely bleed over into my home life."  He chuckles at the comparison.  "Kansas isn't quite as peaceful as your home sounds, but it certainly is quieter than here."  Kansas does seem like another planet sometimes.  Out there if someone claims someone is a witch or that they were abducted by aliens, you can be reasonably sure that they are wrong.
    "So—you've been in a couple big cities now, so you have had access to most of the kinds of food earth has to offer.  Whats your favorite?  What about music and media?"  These kinds of questions seem like a good place to go to.  Something lighter after all of that heavy stuff.  Besides this is the stuff that you do here.  It will be good to know.

Kian has posed:
    "Oh, that iss not easy to say," Kían replies after some consideration; clearly he welcomes the change of subject.  It does no good to dwell on one's problems when there is no immediate solution at hand.  "Your music iss… incomplete.  The scale iss missin' notes.  I haf try to listen, but it soun's like it iss not all there."
    He laughs again, glancing towards the room where his friends sleep.  "An' Terry iss always say that there are these mo-vies I haf to see, like Flass Gor-don an', an', an' I forget the name of the other one but it was about, nnh, wax on, wax off?  I do not know.  I am amuse that he think it will make sense to me.  I woul' not expect an Akiár trimensional to make sense to you.  Besides that you woul' not sense the mind-track, you woul' still need to be Akiár to under-stan', yis?"

Wally West has posed:
    "Maybe you should check out music from other places on Earth.  They have other things going on.  Microtonal stuff and things that aren't based on melody at all.  Movies might also be weird for you, but it would still be worth a try.  Movies try to tell a story with sight and sound.  I dunno if that leaves it woefully incomplete for you, but that is what it is."  Wally would hate to think that he let a visitor to Earth leave without finding things that they liked because they had only seen stuff from a small part of the world.
    "What about food?  That seems like something you would have opinions about.  How does our food compare?  Do we use too many flavours, too few?"  All this talk about food has left Wally hungry, so he appears with a tray of hot dogs with everything in the cart on them.  "I suppose I should ask if you want something… what would you like to eat?"

Kian has posed:
    "I may… but there are so many other thin's I need to know firs'.  I mus' get more fluen' in Englis.  I mus' learn to easy convert your numbers to ours.  An' I mus' learn how far your physics is compare to ours.  Every-thin' else mus' be a lower priority."  Kían shrugs.  "If I haf time later, I shoul' learn more about Eart' music.  But it iss not importan' right now."
    He brightens a little.  Food, he can talk about.  "I do not haf to eat because of my rhy'thar, but I may choose to.  The purple Kool-Ade, I like that a lot.  An the pop-corn.  Terry has gif me co-fee, but it put me to sleep an' he had to take me to bed.  An'… c'Rhys'yw, the cho-co-late."  His eyes glaze over a little.  "It iss very intense, like min'-flight.  I haf to be care-ful wit' it."  He glances at Wally's tray of hot dogs… alas, no chocolate there.

Wally West has posed:
    Wally looks up from a bite of hotdog. "Mmmph" he finishes it "Yeah chocolate is great.  Why are you looking at me like that.  Did you want some?  I could get you some chocolate."  He reappears with a something Belgian in a foil wrapper.  "You said it was intense so I only got you one."  The rest of the hotdogs vanish.
"Anyway.  I gotta jet.  I'll check up on you again some time soon.  Hopefully this whole thing with the doppels will be over by then, and we can do this in the tower.  He offers a hug and listens to any last comments Kian has before going.

Kian has posed:
    Kían handles the chocolate like it was a bottle of very rare scotch.  "I than' you, I will use this before I make myself sleep," he says gratefully, tucking it into the little pouch on his belt.
    He does not return the hug—instead, he takes a step back.  "I am a contac' telepath wit' Eart' people; I know mos' humans do not like hafin' their min's touched, but I thank you.  Please let me know if the other Terry iss foun'.  He iss the priority, for our Terry's healt'.  I am glad to know you better, Wal-lee tavár'h.  I think I haf spen' too much time on my own.  I am a Titan now, I mus' ac' like one."
    He bows, spreading his wings.