6041/Checking In on Mania

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Checking In on Mania
Date of Scene: 25 April 2021
Location: New York City Roof top
Synopsis: Mania's are checked up on. Talia talks about her past. A friendship in the making. Maybe.
Cast of Characters: Andi Benton, Talia Wagner




Andi Benton has posed:
Evening, and New York City is bustling as usual. Above it all is Mania, watching people and vehicles scurrying about below like ants. The flow of traffic speeds up, slows down, stops, starts, repeats. Foot traffic is a little different, with a number of people simply ignoring signals bidding them to wait. No patience with some people.

//We are bored, Andi. Watching people is not interesting us right now. We want to do something fun.//
<<Like what? And don't even think about..>>
//We know, Andi. Do not eat people. We are not like the Venom entity. We are more civilized.//
<<But still impulsive.>>
//We are curious about everything. We want to experience everything.//
<<You don't really want to do EVERYTHING.>>
//How will we know whether we like it or not?//

Andi has no answer for that, but a phone meant for Mania-related things is produced in one hand, a clawed thumb scrolling through the list of contacts they've built up. It is more than it once was, still not quite extensive. She selects someone after a moment's consideration.

Talia will receive a text: <<In NYC. What's up? Wanna chat?>>

Talia Wagner has posed:
The weekend has been very quiet.

I mean the school is after all primarily a school for 'gifted' kids. Everyone from gradeschool through High School, with some of the kids staying on to take distance courses and fight as part of what frankly is a bit of a paramilitary organization. So it is entirely understandable how quiet it can be at the school.

TJ though isn't from this version of the school, though she lives here now. She has spent years getting really used to going from one crisis to another every few days and the relative peacefulness makes her antsy still. A bit like a soldier come back from war, it is probably too quiet, too peaceful, and it bugs her some days.

She has compensated by going on any mission that has come up and logging a lot of hours in the Danger room.

Which is why when the text comes in she leans to get her phone, expecting a mission notice from one of the other X-men. Which it is not. Mania, the symbiote in NYC that she has run into a couple times and even helped out on Kurt's mission into the sewers.

She texts back <<Near NYC. Bored out of my mind. Can chat sure. Anything wrong?>>

Andi Benton has posed:
<<We are bored too.>> is the core of the response sent back over.

Then a photo is sent, along with another few words. <<Can you find us?>>

A little test, then. The picture is of the area below, catching a landmark or two, including the name of a hotel nearby. While waiting, Mania sits upon the edge of the rooftop she's on, swinging legs back and forth slowly. There is no school for her now, for them. Nobody to routinely train with, not counting Spider-Man, for example. There is not the same network of support.

Talia Wagner has posed:
TJ stares at the phone at the response that 'They' are bored too. Symbiotes are interesting. Her encounters have been decidedly mixed with Weapon-X and that one world where it got a little out of control too.

Then the next text comes in with the photo of the street below and and a bit of a challenge.

Okay it seems it isn't an emergency but some sort of challenge or dare. Test. Hard to say. Still it is a bit more interesting than laying in her bed in the Mansion waiting for something to happen that needs her.

She texts back <<Guess we will see>>.

A few minutes pass and another text <<ETA: Roughly 45 minutes>>

TJ is already on her way to catch the Metro North down into the city, not like the X-men have teleporters or this is a good reason to swipe the Black Bird.

It is a quiet trip down, image induced as a very typical if a bit cute girl next door blond on the train and walk from Grand Central.

There is some loitering in the spot below making sure the landmark and hotel actually line up before heading down an alley and hopping up to wall crawl up the building.

Which means about 50 minutes after her last text a pretty blonde girl is pulling herself up onto the roof and glancing around.

Andi Benton has posed:
Mania eyes the screen, those white shapes narrowing at the estimate of time needed to get there. So much for being close. <<We might have a nap, then.>>

It's not so difficult to do, especially with the symbiote being capable of simply inducing it by focusing on the part of the brain that triggers sleep, and they in fact do that after relocating to a safer spot on the roof.

Mania itself doesn't sleep in this case, but Andi does. While TJ works on getting over there, the black and white figure curls up slightly in a darker place, partially obscured by deeper shadows. It's this way that the blonde might come across her, or rather them, and the symbiote whispers in Andi's head.

//There is someone here, Andi. We are moving so she does not scream.//
<<Mweh..?>>

It's not much of a response just yet, but a blackened hand lifts to rub over the 'face' there.

Talia Wagner has posed:
The blond woman crouches on the edge of the roof, sort of a hunch crouch not disimilar from how spiderman and everyone other superhero or vigilante crouches. The thing is though instead of looking down at the street below she is looking around the roof.

Few things worth noting.

One is that there was definitely no fire escape anywhere near that section she pulled herself up and over.
Two she has eyes that see basically as clear as day in the dim ambient ligth of the city and stars. Which includes the shadowy spot where a hand is rubbing a pretty much black on black face.

A hand is raised and waved in your direction "Hey. Guess you weren't kidding about taking a nap huh." amusement in her tone.

It sounds like TJ, though definitely not blue and fuzzy.

Andi Benton has posed:
Mania rises abruptly, the eyes narrowing at the sight of the woman. There is a lingering sense of hesitancy in being seen like that, until a familiar voice follows. "You do not look like the blue elf," 'they' say, in that mix of dual voices blended together. By now she's more visible because it's not like she can hide now after having already been spotted, and hiding isn't much in her nature.

So, she steps out and closer. "Is this some kind of trick?" is asked, the question raised with some level of skepticism, hands resting at hips.

Talia Wagner has posed:
The blond girl cocks her head a little to the side there as she watches Mania. "A trick?" then she blinks and looks down at herself. "Oh hey no." she straightens balanced on the edge of the roof with ease then drops down from the small wall that prevents people from just falling to their doom. "One second."

She fiddles with her wrist a bit.

The blondes appearance changes, blurring away until TJ is there wearing her leathers and definitely all blue velvety fur and pointy ears. "Also it is TJ, not Blue Elf." still amused. "That is just an image inducer.. holographic tech so I can ride the train and do stuff without people freaking out abuot me being a mutant or a demon or something..."

Andi Benton has posed:
Mania perks with some visible interest at this display, and Andi finds herself not immediately sure if she's seen someone else do anything like that before or not. "That is neat..TJ," comes the answer, as the black figure advances for a closer inspection of these visual differences before adding, "We can do something similar, except it is not exactly like that. But sometimes we need to look more..normal."

One might wonder what that qualifies as in their case, given the appearance of Mania herself. It could definitely stir a frightened reaction out of the average person, but she is not giving off threatening signs.

Talia Wagner has posed:
TJ plants her leather clad rear on the short safety wall she just hopped down from and watches Mania closely now. "Well I mean, I am under the assumption there is a human or mutant girl merged with a symbiote. I haven't had a lot of exposure but .... that is what I believed. The symbiotes can merge with just about any living organism but it doesn't always work out?"

She has seen a lot of random wierd combinations with symbiotes in her travels but isn't a xenobiologist. Not Hank McCoy or Reed Richards. Just her two yellow eyes and a lot of really strange stuff.

"It makes sense you'd go more normal human looking to not freak people out.. same reason I do. Humans don't tend to accept the strange and unusual." pause "Unless it is an Avenger or Justice League member for some reason..."

Andi Benton has posed:
"Yes. Funny how that works," Mania replies with a detectable level of sarcasm present. "And most of the time, we don't even show them our pretty smile." Indeed, there is no mouth visible, as is often the case. No rows of sharp fangs right now.

Then, there is a rippling over the body as 'Mania' begins to retract and pull back within Andi somewhere, somehow, leaving the purple-haired young woman standing by afterward, clad in a mix of punk/goth, blacks and purples. "Of course, I still get stares sometimes," she points out, hands still at her hips. A few piercings are evident as well. "I assume I don't have to ask you to keep this between us. Not even my dad knows about Mania."

Talia Wagner has posed:
There is a chuckle at the smile comment. "I mean... my teeth are pretty sharp but nowhere near like yours and they still flip out a bit. So yeah..... mood and I can imagine their reaction."

Her head tilts the other way as Mania turns back into the Andi appearance. I mean sure it is still Mania as much as the other form is still Andi. Them after all. Symbiosis is in the name.

"Well some people are really boring and close minded. I'm always amazed about how judgemental people can be... I mean I've seen so much judgement growing up like this but it still amazes me." she blinks.

The dad bit.

"I have no idea who you are really yet, but yes I won't tell anyone about your secret identity. I'll just ask the same if you end up learning any secrets about me really... I don't want to put anyone in danger."

Andi Benton has posed:
Andi Benton nods slowly, shifting a stud in her tongue around briefly. Yes, she even has one of those. A glance at her and one might think she /wants/ to be noticed. "Well, some people are just dicks," she puts, ever so eloquently, with a shake of the head as she leans against a big metal box that serves as an HVAC unit.

"Yeah, though. We're careful with the whole identity thing. I mean, I haven't even told anybody that Spider-Man is..." She waits just to see if TJ reacts like a major secret is about to be shared, a mischievous look in her eyes. "Gotcha?"

Talia Wagner has posed:
A grin at the comment that some people are just dicks. "Maybe I am jaded." she is totally jaded which is maybe surprising since she looks maybe seventeen or eighteen. Then again maybe not if she grew up as a blue fuzzy demon elf looking girl.

"But I've found that way more than 'some' people are just dicks. I would say that a few people are relatively decent and mostly only those who don't fit in with the flock are the ones who accept those who are also different. Takes one to relate to one almost.. but not always.. almost all the time."

There is a shrug there.

There is a bit of widening yellow eyes then a snort. "Okay that was really good...." she sticks her tongue out at Andi and thne grins. "I like your look. Very punky... which explains all the extra spikes in you two's other form."

Andi Benton has posed:
Andi Benton finger-points at TJ, giving her a closer look from this perspective. Mania is still in there somewhere, observing, perhaps chatting with Andi, but it's the young woman speaking more right now.

"Okay, so maybe I was being generous. A lot of people are assholes, always judging people before they get to know them and shit, but that's their loss if they're gonna be stuck in a stupid bubble." Might be having a symbiote for a friend and bond has opened her eyes to other things that go beyond traditional norms."

She adds, "Anyway, cool look. I like the leathers. I don't have too much of that stuff, but I've been thinking about an addition or two one of these days. That stuff in the sewers was crazy, wasn't it?"

Talia Wagner has posed:
TJ looks down at herself. "It was functional and looked pretty good...." it does look like it is actually armor and probably could take a punch of a stab. Bullets way more questionable. Probably not.

"Honestly I should probably update my look now that I am stuck here on this earth and have more options..." a smile back up to you "I mean.. have access to real pants and everything ... though I'll probably keep the leather. I like how it feels on my fur."

She gestures "I think leather would probably blend right in with your punk vibe. The Symbiote already sort of has a leather look to it too."

She glances over her shoulder at the street below. "It was dangerous, I wish I could say I am surprised an ancient greek monster made it's home under New York and was eating homeless people... but things are amazingly strange when you start peeling back the layers on the world around us. Are you pretty new to this?" which doesn't sound like an accusation, just curious.

Also what the hell did she mean by This earth?

Andi Benton has posed:
Andi Benton perhaps boldly comes over to rap a couple knuckles against the side of TJ's attire, testing its build. "It does feel pretty solid," she observes, hand returning to her side once done. "Ohhh shit, /real/ pants!" she mock-exclaims, a playful grin coming then going.

"You think so? We look like that? It's a little more glossy, but..you kind of have a point," Andi notes, and she certainly appears willing to hang out a while, go check some things out. Then the thing they fought is made mention of as part of the memory. "You put it that way and it sounds even more fucked up than it was. We've only been doing this around a year. What was that about 'this Earth,' though?"

Talia Wagner has posed:
There is a laugh from TJ at the real pants. "Hey .... I've had so many outfits destroyed that sturdy and durable was a real feature and I didn't really have luggage or a closet to have a selection of options. Real pants would be a nice change I think..."

She has to let go of the whole maybe being teleported away and dumped somewhere hostile at any time though. Hard to relax her guard.

"Glossy sure but leather pants can be glossy with a sheen .. it all depends on the kind of leather. I bet you could mimick a wicked set of pants with the symbiote and no one would be able to tell."

Gesturing down to Andi's legs.

"I mean it is pretty nuts, ancient greek monster alive for centuries or millenia eating people in the sewers of New York." a pause then some amusement as she intones "I mean.. I've seen a lot stranger but..." trails off.

Then the real question "Oh.. uh.." considers "I'm... not really from this dimension... timeline..... same thing really. Dimensions are mostly just timelines unless you are talking real other dimensions like limbo or stuff..."

Andi Benton has posed:
"Mimic..?" Andi starts to ask, then Mania cuts in, doing so in the form of a slightly disembodied head on a tendril that forms over the back of a shoulder.

"We can look any way we want, Andi," Mania speaks.

A hand darts up as if to push Mania's little head back down, or at least hide it from TJ's sight, but it's a bit late for that. "..and you didn't tell me this until now?"

Mania states simply, almost a preening look to its expression, complete with a sort of caricature of a toothy grin, "You never asked us."

"Fucking.." Andi grumbles, a hint of frustration creeping in. "Are you done embarrassing me?" she asks it.

"Maybe, maybe not," Mania adds before sinking back out of sight, leaving Andi to react with a huff.

"So..yeah. That just happened. And that was pretty weird down there, yeah. Maybe not as weird as being from another..timeline? Is that how you ended up here that night we saw you?" Just pretend that whole conversation never just happened. What was that about leather?

Talia Wagner has posed:
TJ just watches curious "So do you like being called Andi or Mania... I mean you say we and all a lot so I'd like to know what you two prefer to be called." which well she doesn't seem all that freaked out.

Between the whole mutant thing or maybe whatever this timeline thing is, she has obviously seen some shit.

"Yeah I got dumped here from a timeline.... we were fighting Vampire Avengers.. killed em... but the Vampire King cursed us with some sort of spell and messed up our leap out of that timeline. I ended up here without any of the others or the device that let the Timebroker talk to us. I have no idea where my team is or if they are even okay...."

Andi Benton has posed:
"When I'm like this, it's Andi. The other way..Mania. It's sort of a codename, I guess. It's not exactly a secret identity thing, but..close enough?" Andi supposes, with a shrug. In this appearance, there are a couple spiked bracelets today, as well. Definitely someone who likes that image.

As her arms cross, she squints at TJ. "Vampire..Avengers. And curses. Well, that's different. I don't know what a Timebroker is supposed to be, but damn. You had a group and everything?" A frown follows.

Talia Wagner has posed:
"Yeah... we called ourselves the eXiles. We were kind of all far from home." a sigh "The Timebrooker was this entity, always looked like a short british guy. He sold us all this line that if we helped fix a bunch of broken timelines it would stabilize the time continium and save our own timelines from being destroyed. We had no way of knowing if it was true or not.. but the timelines were definitely broken so we just.. fixed them. Stuff like the Avengers ending up vampires."

How does one fix that.

"It mostly involved ending up on a world where stuff was going pretty wrong, fixing it, and then going to the next timeline. Every few days." that, sounds really hard probably. At least hard on someone.

Andi Benton has posed:
Andi Benton's brows scrunch together as she hears all of this. Timebroker, British guy, eXiles, fixing timelines...

She declares, "That's a pretty fucked up way to be stuck living, if you ask me. Like, nobody should be just thrown into all of that. I'm guessing you had some friends there, but with you here..well, you're still here, and if you were going from one thing to another every few days, how the hell are you supposed to even have a chance to settle down at all? Shit."

Talia Wagner has posed:
"We didn't have a chance to really.. or a choice in it. The Timebroker collected us when we were unhinged and formewd the team... after that it was either keep doing the job and going or risk the multiverse having a cascading failure and everyone we cared about dying." seriously she looks like she is seventeen. How long was she stuck doing this.

There is a shrug though. "I'm hoping they are all fine and still doing it. Regardless no one knows how to get me home or how to `find my team so ... I am .." she pauses then sighs. "I'm trying to settle down a bit and focus on just living here." where technically she doesn't probably actually know anyone. Not technically.

Andi Benton has posed:
"If you ask me, you need to just do that and assume this is where you're gonna be now," Andi suggests, without having any true way of knowing anything about this beyond what TJ's told her so far. "All I know is I'm glad I wasn't a part of that. No offense. There are things about this I'm still learning about, even after a year."

She pushes away from the HVAC unit, walking closer to the roof's ledge and the distance below. "If you need a distraction or anything, we could go check some places out. Kill some time. Hang out."

Talia Wagner has posed:
TJ was kind of falling into a bit of a deep thoughtful funk there, talking about the team and the whole multiverse of madness out there sort of does it with her.

She blinks and looks up "Oh.. uh..." she glances at the streets below and finally takes a deep breath. "Yeah actually that sounds fun. I haven't real;ly just.. hung out or explored much. Do you guys have Starkbucks coffee in this timeline?"

Andi Benton has posed:
"Uh, yeah. Of course we do," Andi says, gesturing below and off a few blocks. "You can barely go anywhere in this city without running into one. Starkbucks everywhere like a mother.." She doesn't finish, but odds are it was going to be colorful.

She grins. "Or we could go wander the clothing stores and look for some new stuff. What're you feeling?"

Talia Wagner has posed:
"As the kid on the internet meme says, why not both." she stands up with a slow stretch then hops back up onto the wall. "Let's grab some coffee, my treat, and then we can hit some clothing stores."

She gestures to Andi "You look like you may know where there are some good ones in the city that aren't full of designer gear... which is definitely not my thing." she leaps across to the other building and sticks, just like a wall crawler and starts to head down quickly.