Lucas nods his head and waves at the crowd before leaving. Murmuring softly, "I will see you there." Raising his voice so others can hear, "I hope you enjoyed the jog. Just a small gift for your enjoyment this holiday season."  Shaking his head he moved. When he said that out loud it just sounded stupid. Unlike the last time he was moving nearly full speed - over forty miles per hour. He figured he could come from the South Garden and make sure little of his skin showed when he did so.

Steph was last to arrive. The destination wasn't far but it took some doing to disentangle from the crowd and find a spot where no one was watching, CTV or otherwise, where she could wander into some bushes and dissolve herself into a swarm of bees and then get moving and another entirely to reform herself elsewhere at a place that wasn't strictly inconvenient and wander on over to the boys.

The dream of keeping her identity secret was proving difficult enough without even flexing her own mojo. Just being super-boy adjacent was it's own proverbial minefield and she was not navigating it all that well, she realized. But he was handsome and kind and she liked him. And really she'd been sitting pretty lazy on her own potential. It was interesting to see what the other powered people were up to with their own abilities.

Karl tugged his coat back into place as he walked up to the lion. He hadn't been going that fast but even modest speeds in flight tended to dislocate outfits. There was some logic to those tight superhero costumes from the comics. The flight also helped mentally cool him off a little, deciding to shelve the annoyances of earlier.

The guy was wrapped up, but he could recognize the coat and he was the only one standing around looking like he was waiting on someone. "Hey. Do you tear up your shoes when you zip around, or are they protected somehow?" Practical concerns of a super-powered wardrobe.

Stephanie arrived, and Karl offered an arm for her to shelter under and get close to some extra warmth if desired. The cold didn't bother him but Steph was another matter. Besides, it was a good excuse. "'Metro' huh? I was thinking of getting some kind of name like that myself, even though people know who I am. 'Atlas' maybe. So, just wanted to meet another with these crazy powers, or have something more specific wanted to talk about?"

With a little wave of her fingers at Lucas as she approached the pair Steph slid easily under the offered arm, slipping her own arms around Karl's waist and synching in to his blessed warmth. The later the hour grew the colder it got and she was exactly as she looked, a tiny Filipina. Despite her stylish and adorable outfit, she wasn't at home in the cold.

"I copped to the bee powers when it didn't seem like you were coming." She admitted, sounding reluctant as if she'd had hoped for it to have gone differently. At this point it made no sense not to bring Karl up to speed. Otherwise, she remained quiet and cozy.

Standing near the Lion, Lucas glanced down at his shoes before glancing back up. "They undergo about the same wear and tear as shoes would if I were to run that distance normally. Maybe a little more. It hasn't been a major problem yet." Glancing at Stephanie for a moment he makes a throwing away gesture with his left arm, "I still have some hope to keep my actual identity private. My powers help a little in that regard. I mean I am not naturally made of silvery metal and my transformation smooths out my features. As for names.....the connotations of Atlas are of strength, but also defeat, being weighed down by a crushing punishment. Perhaps Magni?" Lucas waves away the thought, "I do have plans yes. I do not know where these powers come from or why some people have them and others don't. Yet, I suspect we will have those who wish to simply live their lives and ignore them as much as possible. Those who seek to wring as much profit and pleasure as they can without regard to the cost of others. Then the third, those who would seek to change the world with their new abilities. Those are the most dangerous of the three. So, I was wondering which of the three you might think you are?"

"Whoa, you can turn into metal? And you..." he looked down at Steph, not saying 'turn into bees' out loud. Karl threw up his free hand. "Man, I don't turn into anything! Well, I guess a one-time deal." he admitted with a shrug. Still.

As Lucas continued to talk Karl looked at him more skeptically, his body language becoming more closed off. Who did this guy think he was? Earlier annoyances resurfaced. So, not just a misunderstanding, rather how this guy was. "OK let me see if I have this straight. You want to know if we are either, to use your categories, hiding - which we can't be because we decided to take you up on your invitation - selfish bastards, or dangerous? And you say you have plans of your own and sought me out instead of hiding, so you must be one of the last two. Where the hell do you get off?"

Karl gently slipped out of Steph's embrace. "Have you seen the world? I'm not sure exactly how to do it, but now that you mention it yeah it could use some changing I think. I didn't have the option to hide, at least without running, and even that probably wouldn't work long term. But even if I had the option I would like to think I wouldn't. Again, not entirely sure just how yet, I've only had this for a couple days now, but I think it should be used. We can find ways to help people, we can do things others can't. And she" he pointed over to Stephanie "is going to change the world, and would have even without this happening. So I guess maybe we're dangerous. But so's anyone who tries to do anything worthwhile. If you somehow get blessed with abilities, advantages like these and don't try..." Karl trailed off, shaking his head.

"Other than a total hunk." Steph had grinned up at him at the topic of turning into things, patting his chest with the hand she'd laid there although she glanced Luke's way at the comment on the name Atlas. What was wrong with Atlas? He was the big strong guy who bore the weight of the world on his shoulders because he was the only one strong enough, wasn't he? Truth be told, she wasn't well-read in Greek Mythology and so the finer points of Atlas' burden were lost on her. And she didn't know who Magni was but it sounded like a girl's name.

Steph listened and she watched. She thought those were kind of reductive ways to categorize people but they weren't wholly unfair. Karl clearly didn't like it though and Steph could appreciate some of why, she thought. But maybe not enough to get onboard with displeasure. She didn't like it when he slid from her arms but she didn't do anything to stop him. On the plus side it meant she could keep watching in every direction. Which felt important given the way the conversation was escalating.

Stuffing her mittened fists back into the pockets of her puffy vest she watched them both, eyes swinging from Karl to Luke and back, following the conversation politely. They were an oblong triangle, obtuse they called it, with their jilted angles and disjointed arrangement. A handsome man and a stylish girl and a stranger all wrapped up against the cold. It felt so nice to hear Karl thought she would change the world and really that was the plan. The real question was which way would she do that? Too many axis and not enough time: even for a girl who never slept.

For the moment she said nothing. There wasn't really anything for her to say. No way to interrupt without cutting him off at the knees unless it was to echo his sentiment and that felt too much like ganging up on someone in a fight that didn't have to be a fight. But she was with Karl; her body-language said as much. Silent and supportive, even if she didn't share his frustration to the same degree. The whole encounter had been overcomplicated but she was a waitress by trade, she was used to miscommunication and moving goal-posts. It made this... less offensive, somehow.
This message was last edited by the player at 16:46, Fri 03 Dec 2021.

Cocking his head at the at least from his view overly aggressive response he makes an odd metallic grinding noise, " clarity. If that offends you for some reason, I don't apologize. Those categories are of course broad strokes. Many will fall into more then one category or other categories that I have not even thought of yet. I didn't think it would be helpful to list all the varieties of responses I have imagined to people suddenly gaining powers and mentioned only the broadest ones. You though can't hide because you went on national television and announced your name and identity to the world. Stephanie can still hide if she wishes too. He nods at Stephanie, "I have no intention of sharing any information I gain with the world. This last was directed at her as he shifts his focus slightly, "If you have these abilities and don't try you are human. Some simply wish to live their lives and should they choice to do so that is fine with me. I make no judgments on those who might simply live with their powers without trying to make much use of them. I don't even make judgment on those who use their powers for their own advancment at least so long as they aren't hurting others by using them. That though is why I was seeking others out. To ask them what their intentions are. To form a group to discuss what we might do with our abilities, what we shouldn't do with them. A forum of people to explore what we are and if we share similar goals to hammer out what we want to do."

Karl was silent a moment after Metro's response, weighing his better nature against annoyance and frustration. The scales tipped when he realized the longer he spent talking to this guy right now the more his annoyance and frustration would be fed.

"'Which of the three types are you? Oh there's more than three types of course.' That seems to sum up the whole evening. I'm out. No more revisions, changing things around, jerking my chain. Hope you had fun." What should have been simple and could have been productive instead became...this.

"If you do manage to get a few others together without running them off, I'd be happy to talk to them. But I'm done tonight."

He turned to Stephanie. "You want a lift or are you good?" After her response he would fly away, with or without her.

Before she could even step in to offer her thoughts Karl was expressing his, and they were not the thoughts of a contented man. Which she could appreciate. Lucas had a way of talking a lot and emoting little. Paired with the crossed-wires from earlier, his fully concealed face and strange eyes, and his reasonably clinical approach, there wasn't a lot to grab onto with fondness. And it had been a long week for Karl, and it was Christmas, which was it's own sort of stress. She didn't even know what his family situation looked like. Huh.

With a gentle smile and a gentler hand on his arm she kind of shrugged. As if to say she wasn't really sure but she wasn't quite done yet. She understood his frustration, there was no judgement in her eyes for it. But she was also culturally accustomed to watching women act as the bridges over the trouble waters of men's tempers. This just felt like her moment to help.

"I might stick around for a little bit. See what he has to say. But can we connect later? I could come over to yours after to unwind. Have some cocoa and cuddles? Text me, okay?" she suggested, sounding hopeful. Either way, she took the opportunity to lean up on her toes to plant a soft little kiss on his lips. Just a sweet little peck. She still feeling fond for the nice things he'd said about her changing the world.

And then Steph back as Karl flew away.

"I guess you're stuck with the consolation prize." She laughed with a touch of self-deprecation but it was all friendly and for show. "I'm not... planning to hide forever." She hazarded. "I just... need to finish school first. Get out of my parents house. I don't want this all to sweep them up. They're just quiet little immigrants trying to live a slice of the American Dream. Good, good fearin' type of folks. I don't... think... they'd understand."

Steph gave a wan little smile, rueful and bemused at the same time.

"We should exchange numbers though. I think Karl's just stressed, you know? And all this is really new. He just got his powers when that plane went down. I hope you can cut him a little slack. How long have you had yours? I've been buzzing around for about a year."

Lucas watches him fly away silently before he sighs and shakes his head reaching into his pocket he pulls out an index card and a pen and writes a number down on it, "I have no wish to expose you or our powers. Live your life, make your own decisions. I have had my for months now. You can call me anytime you want to talk about your powers or anything to do with anything." Holding out the paper he shrugs, "Yeah, I am not going to be answering the phone if your boyfriend calls any time soon. He is late to the meeting, runs away from the meeting, and then is pissy about the meeting, and then makes a few pronouncements, says if I succeed in making a council he would like in and then leaves the meeting. I am aware that I don't make the best first impression, but........"  Lucas shrugs again and pulls down his scarf revealing more of his face - metallic and smooth like an idealized scultping of a face more then a face.
This message was last edited by the player at 19:18, Sat 04 Dec 2021.

Padding closer Steph reached out to take the card. She thought it was cute that he carried pen and paper around. She took it from him and remained within arm's reach. Not in his space necessarily, but the sort of proximity that two people having a conversation might share. Without glancing down at the paper card in her left she pulled out her right and began keying the number into her phone, keeping her eyes on him the whole time. In fact, if one couldn't see her hands one might never even suspect she was copying data from one space to another in the first place. When she was done she pocketed both in the front pockets of her poofy vest, one with each hand.

"Yeaa... I think wires must've gotten crossed somewhere. He clearly thinks you were standing him up. I'm not here to say who did what, to be honest with you. I'm prepared to chalk it up to a misunderstanding but I can get behind you feeling a little sore for it. I probably would too, maybe?" She shrugged, all understanding and no judgement. It was tough to say. You never knew what others had been through.

"Obviously your secret is safe with me, not that I know enough about you or what you look like to tell anyone anything. Hey, is this a landline or a celllphone? I don't want to text you with it if it's not going to go through." She grinned. Steph had a bright smile full of pretty white teeth. She was a pretty girl if Asians or Filipinas were your tastes. Or women. Her outfit was cute and well-curated but functional. No purse but then she'd shown up for a meta-human encounter so that probably made sense. It did to her, anyways. "Things with Karl are honestly pretty new too. But good. I think he has a good heart. Just stressed. You guys probably have more in common than it seems right now. Which isn't me preaching. I just have a sneaky feeling it'll play out that way, you know? So you're made of metal now permanently? Or you just turn into metal?? I don't smell any of the normal human smells off you. I can show you my bee trick if you want." She added, sounding like she didn't really want to turn into bees at the moment but she was willing to if that felt fair. Show me yours and I'll show you mine, sort of thing. Quid ro pro she was pretty sure it was called.

"I have a normal human form. Flesh and blood just like everyone else. It is a cellphone, a burner I bought just for this. So text or call me and unless I am actually in a meeting I will answer." Lucas smiles - his face moving smoothly as though it were suddenly made of mercury, revealing the hint of white teeth that glinted white metal. "Certainly, if you wish to show me a trick I will show you another one before we head out."

A burner phone. That was so smart! And Lucas could see it on her face when he said it, the momentary confusion followed by the wonderment. It hadn't occurred to Steph despite all her stealthy intentions, to use a second phone.

"That makes so much sense." She said, impressed. "Sure, okay. Here..." and she held out her hand, palm up and the center of her hand began to simply dissolve into bees, spiraling upwards but being careful not to veer past the natural barrier her body provided to shield her from prying eyes. Not that anyone but the stealthiest could have been watching unnoticed. The space missing from her hand (and her midden) was oddly uniform, as if the flesh and material just stopped where the portions were missing, smooth and natural. Not unlike someone who was born with a stunted limb that just took a different shape where perhaps bones or ligaments might be.. Which begged a thousand questions as to how that was humanly possible. But no more than his own flexible metal body would.

"I can do all of me or just some of me." She clarified. "And I can make wax and honey!" She said as she bees swirled back into place in her hand, mitten and flesh seamlessly restored. Instead she produced a heart-shaped piece of bee's wax. It was exactly as it looked, dull whiteish yellow in colour, flakey and warm as if just freshly solidified. She held it out to him, a gift. "That's about as craft as I can get. Simple shapes. I can make hives and honey. I guess that was two tricks." She winked.
This message was last edited by the player at 00:35, Sun 05 Dec 2021.

Lucas carefully picks up the small wax heart and held it up to his face to study it and took a slight sniff of it. "That is quite impressive. Making honey and wax I mean. I have yet to discover a way to make anything. I hope one day too. And you have another form! That is amazing! Can you fly as a swarm? Or disperse yourself so you cover a large area and aren't really noticeable as a bee swarm?" His odd reticence and distance faded as his own curiosity overrode his caution as he spoke the questions.

"Gosh... thanks! Yea. I can fly as a swarm. Kind of only as a swarm?" she clarified. "I can rearrange myself but I haven't figured out how to separate more than an inch or two. It's more or less all swarm, either in a line or a pretty tight cloud. I can't split into, say, two piles. I reached across my bedroom once with just my arm and I was exhausted by the end of it." Steph shrugged.

"You can keep the heart!" She added warmly. "I made it just for you, after all. I can also smell really well, bees can track pollen over long distances. And I can see in three hundred and sixty degrees. That's how I do the texting without looking. Which honestly, was a lot to get used to. And sometimes it's not as great as it sounds, people do all sorts of gross stuff when they think no one's looking. You'd be mortified if you could see it every time someone looked at your butt." She said, rolling her eyes. "I can turn it off though. It's like closing eyes you didn't know you had? Which is what I did at first. I've gotten used to it now. I don't know if I could go back." She admitted.

"See, most bees have 6900 facets in each of their compound eyes. It's incredible. Drones can have up to 8600! Bees have the fastest colour vision in the entire animal kingdom. If you're speeding down a highway you can't really make out the individual flowers in a field. But bees can. And they can see in the ultraviolet range, which is amazing. And..." Left uninterrupted Steph could, and would, go on and on about bees at length. Their importance to the ecosystem, their role as pollinators, the reality that 90% of agricultural crops depended on them for just that reason, their intricate hive and role structures, the fact that there were way more kinds of bees than just the honey producing ones, so on and so forth.

Lucas listens to all of this with a slightly tilted head and a slight smile though near the end a crease appears on his metallic face and he looks slightly puzzled. "Did you know all or most of that before you gained your powers or did you study up on bees after?"

Steph shook her head with a grin, looking embarrassed. "Naw, I was just a little Filipina waitress workin at her family restaurant and sneaking out to go dancing and clubbing with friends. My parents are pretty traditional. Good quiet Catholic folks. And I was stumbling home a little drunk one night and I got hit by a car. But instead of... you know, dying, I just broke into a swarm of bees. That poor driver! I bet they're still in therapy..." she trailed off, half-thoughtful, half dead-pan humour, and then she shrugged with another bubbly smile.

"At that point, I freaked out. And flew home. And let myself in through the crack in my window, and reformed, and had a big long cry," she grinned. It was funny looking back on it but terrifying at the time. "And then I don't know... I just... grew into bees. Not just because I saw them differently. I... identify with them. On a real internal, structural, core level. It's hard to describe. I feel more confident. More assertive. More in command." She said. "I have instincts that I didn't have before. Compulsions. I was a really shy girl. Like... wallflower shy. Just the cute little background friend caught up in other people's gravity. Now I double major in ASL and Environmental Studies, I do a lot of work with environmental groups. As a volunteer right now. But I've got... plans." she admitted.

"And Jesus, I've told you my whole life story almost." She grinned again, rubbing her arms with her mitted hands. It was a lot colder out here without hunky Karl to cling to. "I think it might be your turn." She teased.

Stephanie's phone indicates that she has received a text message.

Lucas was about to respond when her phone pings. Closing his mouth he glances around and gestures her towards the street and walks over to it. He pauses to wait for her with an slight smile.

"Oh, sure!" she smiled, pulling out the phone after it vibrated in her pocket. Without glancing at it she began typing back, padding after Luke to the street. By the time she'd caught up with him she had typed her reply and already dropped the phone back in her pocket.

"Sorry about that. That was polite of you, but you didn't have to . I don't need to look to type. Makes the multitasking a lot easier." She explained with a wave of a mittened hand.

"Your turn." She added with a grin.

Standing on the edge of the sidewalk Lucas tugs his scarf down and his hat up to fully reveal his metallic face. "I have always felt a connection to the city. I have always loved the city, the buildings, the planning, all of the little and big things that make up this city. Any city really. One night I was riding the L, it was late and I had had a long day and the rhythm of the city simply came to me. Like a song that had been sung in the background my whole life had it's volume turned up and I could hear it fully and freely for the first time. I walked off the train looking like this." He gestured to his face. "After that the song faded somewhat, but I could still hear it. Then I heard it again. Walking the sidewalks and watching the streets of the city. The song burst into full volume again." Lucas smiled fully for perhaps the first time in since they had met. "So, while the meeting has not gone as planned I think it still worked out for the best. Call me if you would like or need to talk again." Lucas stretches his shoulders and raises his arms dramatically, "Now for my next trick." Clapping his hands together he gestured to his face and it changed....the silvery metal flowed over and turned the black-brown of asphalt. His eyes stayed roughly the same, though the color changed to a bright green. "I will see you later, it has been a pleasure." Lucas took a step back so he stood on the street rather then the sidewalk and swept a slight bow before he simply disappeared.

Stephanie nodded along as he told his story as if to say she understood the feeling of a world and a language she'd never really noticed opening up to her. Her life was alive with sensory input, vision and smell, that she'd never even appreciated before.

"Oh, you're going... umm, sure!" she said, sounding disappointed. "It was nice to meet you!" She called after as he suddenly bowed and vanished. A bit dramatic, she thought. But clever. Couldn't follow a guy who just disappeared.

Steph stepped into the space he'd previously occupied, sniffing the air to make sure he was actually gone and not just somehow invisible. Which felt weird to think but smell was almost as good as sight for her and it felt weird not to check.

Lucas finished his movement by moving his foot off the street and onto the sidewalk - across the street from Stephanie and where he had been standing and about twenty feet down the street.. He waited until she glances his way before waving at her.

OOC: A fading smell of tar lingers.

It turned out Stephanie wasn't confused at all, only surprised. When Lucas reappeared she clocked him immediately. She couldn't help herself. All her eyes were open. Even the ones people didn't know about.

Which made her feel silly for saying goodbye when he wasn't really gone at all, but weirder things had happened to her this week than that. It was no creepy-gnome-man-under-a-coffee-shop-table-surprise, that was for sure. And it was a neat trick.

His body language looked expectant and she figured he must be waiting for her to look his way, to find him, and so she did, waving back with a raised hand that she waggled a little too and fro with a smile. It was a little strained but not insincere. The scent of hot tar tickled her her nose in a way that she didn't love.

With goodbye out of the way she turned and headed into the nearest alleyway. Whatever was out of sight enough to slip into something a little more numerous and buzz away.