Scene #8588: Accelerators of the Patriots

Owner	Pose
Kale Hearthward	"Hi there - sorry, heard you mention Quicknest?" The mouse from earlier's made her way over to Aidan and Persephone. "Good to see someone else from Quicknest! You said you're an elite? Are you any less... disaster-prone than the rest of them?" --- Another mouse from Quicknest. But working with Kale? Then again, you'd appreciate stability over fighting, wouldn't you. "That's me. Aidan Proudpick, Quicknest's first Elite. As a disaster prone..." Aidan slooooowly sweeps his gaze out over the gathered peoples and realizes he can say at least one nice thing about himself. "Yea? Yea. I think I am." He cracks a smile. --- The mouse looks Aidan up and down. She's not entirely beach dressed herself, but she's in casual clothing at least. "It's been kind of crazy ever since I left, honestly." "Good, good. Hey, let's grab lunch sometime. It'd be great to catch up about home." Hazelthistle's card is produced from a pocket and pushed into Aidan's hand. "I know a great vegan place near warpgate corridor 35 Delta Bravo. They actually do the vegan pancakes kinda like Fangarian style, not the weird 'trying to make them taste like egg pancakes' other places do. See you there sometime, maybe?" --- Aidan gives a bright smile as he takes the card. "Everyone thinks they have to taste like their food, they just don't get the simplicity of a nice pancake!" It is nice to see someone out in the real world he can talk to. "It'll be great to see you there." --- WARPGATE CORRIDOR 35DB ... turns out to be an actual corridor. Sort of. Instead of a 'plaza' type configuration, the warpgates here are arranged roughly in two parallel lines, like a public airport terminal, stretching out for about a mile with a warpgate every few hundred feet. And nestled amongst the warpgates, with plenty of foot traffic from those traveling from world to world, are plenty of shops and restaurants. It's here that Hazelthistle's invitation leads. She's dressed casually - fall-appropriate knit sweater and dress, with no Paladins insignia to be found. The mouse has managed to secure a table appropriate to her and Aidan's heights and physiologies - the next table over seems to be designed for someone with six feet, and the one beyond that is literally underwater, but this one is juuuusssst right for bipedal air-breathing three-dimensional life forms between three and eight feet tall. If Kale's here too, there's no sign of him.
Aidan Proudpick	Aidan is dressed more casually. He seems to have taken something to fashion, but without the money to spend on it, it is fashion with a Quicknest twist. Sturdy wool blend green tunic, but with more laces to mimic the style of buttons. Wool trousers tailored to be tighter and more form fitting. And a more traditional fleece, but open to allow it to be open. If Aidan fears any sort of trap, it is not on his face. Instead, there's just a warm excitement to get to talk to someone who really understands the elite world and being from Quicknest. He waves with a little jump as he peers in the cafe, before making his way towards the table. "Miss Hazelthistle! Hello." He sets down a bag which does make a heavy clunk. Big enough for a buckler, but not big enough for a GUN. "This is a nice place, you never find a place that remembers that some people have tails." The huge brush of which requires a sweep to the side, a sit, and then it sits back up out the back of the seat.
Kale Hearthward	"Mister Proudpick. Hello." "It's nice to have a place like this, yeah. Even some of the meeting rooms in the Paladins are just so... human-centric, with solid-backed chairs. I've had to get used to making sure it's off to the side or sitting sideways or - well, I'm sure you know." "... So. Mr. Proudpick." She sits up a bit more straight. "I don't think I heard - which part of Quicknest are you from? I grew up in the capital, on one of the workshop streets, but I'd moved out to the countryside after that."
Aidan Proudpick	Squirrel tails simply do not like to lie at one side, and sits up rather straight. "Yea, all that rigidity? I guess the pay's not bad, though." Aidan fishes out his tablet, pointing it at the side menu on the table. It begins processing the menu before Aidan looks over his shoulder. "Oh! The countryside, it's a little sparse near the mines. Not a lot of people like living near the dust. Just a tick..." The tablet reads out the menu, which does take a moment, though the cadence has clearly been sped up. Then Aidan sets it down flat and away from himself. "Sorry, they always have weird names at places like this. What did you do?"
Kale Hearthward	"Yeah, the city's a lot better, but you go where the job takes you." "... Which happens to be out here now. Not like, here here," she says, glancing around the terminal-like warpgate plaza. "I'm off work today. But out into the Multiverse." She waits politely and without comment or surprise as Aidan uses the tablet to read the menu. "What I did... engineering, mostly. Technically 'inventing', but I don't really think of myself like that? Mostly working with Sylphan output permutations and trying to defeat the hash-lock friction problem. You know, the holy grail of mass production, dealing with the breathprint uniqueness attributes and the eight impossibility range positive interferences. Foundational stuff." Aidan wouldn't recognize a lot of that terminology, but can make a guess at the basic gist, since he might have heard of the problem(s) before: the reason why you can't hook up Breath Weapon technology (the Sylphan Drive) to a machine - or why you can't take a single good Breath Weapon and mass-produce it - are because the forces generated by a Sylphan Drive are unique per user, and if everything's not tuned just right then things tend to break apart destructively. There's dampening technology that helps (akin to electric transformers that step down voltage) but it gets diminishing returns. Hence why it's better to just cast spells and turn windmills in most cases. "How about you? Before all this? Running a mine, maybe?"
Aidan Proudpick	Ears flick forward, brows furrow. "Oh, uhh... I think I've heard Cole say something like that. Why it's hard and takes so long to make them." And almost impossible to steal one. Gears turn in Aidan's head, quite visibly, if metaphorically, "It would make lots of energy, wouldn't it? With one breath, I can put a hole in a ship. You could probably run a bunch of machines on just one." It puts a smile on his face, "I hope someone figures that out." Then that smile wavers, waning, "Nothing like that. I managed a lot of the mechanisms in the mine. It's not really any exciting, or as scientific. Mostly just hammering out pins, operating pumps, making sure the coal elevators work." He chuckles, "I wasn't even the main boss of that. Just the one who tried to make sure everything ran well." He waves down a waitstaff, "What made you change to this? I guess it pays more. -Yea, hi, can I get an almond milk macchi...coffee thing and the vegan blueberry scone?"
Kale Hearthward	"Or, possibly, you could run just one big machine, the size of a building. In theory, anyway." She puts in her order. "The blueberry scone sounds good for me too - and the triple shot cold brew, with two pumps of vanilla, thanks." "So... it's a little complicated how I ended up here," she says. "I can't say it really pays more, though. It's just the benefits are better, and the work environment is more..." She looks around. There's people of all shapes and sizes (literally), walking through the terminal. "Interesting? Varied?" "I mean, you're out here too, right? You get it. Out here, all the stuff about home, the Empire, it all just seems... I don't know. I don't want to say 'small' but it really feels like it. Like there's more important things." "I mean, hey, I'm working with one of the Four Winds, of all people. I'm pretty sure my mom would whip my tail if she were still with us." Hazelthistle giggles a bit.
Aidan Proudpick	"Some things are better! I learned that other clothes exist!" He lifts at his shirt, "I like the ones we made because it's durable, but there are clothes and they don't cost nearly as much! Other music, other people. It's exciting." His smile wanes further. "Yea. When there's giant monsters and demons roaming around, bigger wars going on, it just gets lost." A flash of the train car. A life of fighting monsters. Glory. Love. Power. And his people forgotten. It would be so easy. Aidan's tail freezes. His smile strains. Don't ask, don't ask, don't ask. He's a jerk, and you don't need to know, don't ask, don't ask, don't ask. "Yea?" Aidan asks vaguely, trying desperately to be nonchalant, "What's working with him like?"
Kale Hearthward	"What's working with him like... oh, Kale?" If Hazelthistle notices Aidan's distress, she doesn't give any sign of it - and there's a bit of a distraction in either direction as food and drinks arrive. "Well, he gets injured really easily," she says. "He doesn't really know how to pace himself. He's really bad at relationships. He's got a huge wardrobe but he's almost always wearing the same thing." "Working with him, it's fine? I've had worse bosses. I wish he'd be more consistent, if I had to change one thing off the top of my head." She sips at her fancy iced coffee. "How about you? The Watch? I've only met a couple of them."
Aidan Proudpick	Aidan twirls recyclable avocado pit spoon through the coffee idly. Should it feel good to listen to the bad talk... suuuure, it's just a little bit of gossip. People do it all the time. "The same thing?! I'd change clothes twice a day! I didn't even realize you could really look good in clothes until a year ago." He shakes his head, a smile creeping back up. "I guess if you are just doing the day to day stuff, not getting into fights, it's not a big deal." He brings the coffee up to his lips. A shiver of tail, a twitch of whiskers, and a warm sigh. Tail freeze. This time an ear twitch, shifting back and forth. Only being through actual combat keeps Aidan from freezing up completely. A clear search for 'predators'. Or at least spies. "It's... not easy. There's no pay. Some supplies, sure, but you are generally on your own. You don't hear a lot of instructions, you just sort of act like you think you need to. You live wherever you can afford. Used to be, we had a lot of people who wanted to just make things better." He shrugs his shoulders, "Now? There's a lot of people who don't really know what being a hero is. Or care." A twirl of the spoon in the cup, "Not killing people is seen as weak instead of the norm."
Kale Hearthward	Hazelthistle waits patiently as Aidan does his check. She doesn't seem nearly as bothered. Wait, was- was that Kale, out of the corner of Aidan's eye? No, no it wasn't "I'm pretty sure I wouldn't do well there... There's making do with what you have in the budget, and stretching that out, but at least there is a budget. And... knowing where you're going to lay down your head." "I'd still do it like that, if I had to, but it's... a lot easier to have the safety net, I guess. Good on you that you're sticking with it even without it." Sip. "So. You going to show them?"
Aidan Proudpick	"I would never blame anyone for wanting to just have a place to eat." Aidan snorts, "You said it best. We are small. I'm small. I can't read, the entire multiverse seems to think I'm the biggest idiot." He leans forward until both elbows are on the table, a lot of the cheerful energy draining back out, leaving him to that moment at the train. "I'm going to..." Aidan's fingers work back and forth on the mug, looking into it. "I'm going to keep trying. And maybe find a way to keep Quicknest safe." He shrugs his shoulders, "And I'm going to keep helping people." He looks down at the bag briefly, "That's what I said I'd do. And I still want to do it." That brings a little smile back to his face.
Kale Hearthward	"Mmm." Hazelthistle bites into her scone. "We're out here in a world that doesn't really... go with us. A world full of hard backed chairs we can't sit in, and food we can't eat, and loud noises that hurt our ears, and machines that pump poisons into the very air we breathe, and humans that think we're the strange looking ones instead of the other way around." "It's easier to hurt than to help. You don't even need special training for one of those, you just need a big rock. For the other one, you might need to dedicate your whole life to doing it right, and one slip up can mean it might as well all be for naught." "We're not superpowered titans, either. You or I can't just..." she waves her non-scone-holding-hand. "Wave our hands and just wish really hard if things don't turn out how we like, or if we don't get our way. We aren't going to be able to freeze time till everything's perfect, or laugh off a gaping chest wound, or hack literally anything, or pick up an entire building as if it was a child's toy, or whatever else the next person who comes along can do." "I don't know, then, Mister Proudpick. If we're dealing with all of that, and other people aren't, and we're the ones who are trying to save people and they're out killing since they can't be bothered to put in the effort..." "... I don't know if I'd really call myself small." Sip.
Aidan Proudpick	Aidan stares at his scone. A little snort of laughter, as Aidan is still a simple man, and can't help but think of a moment seeing two humans try to kiss. Weird. With a claw, he picks off a piece of scone to nibble on thoughtfully, unwilling to look directly at Hazelthistle. "I just have to make sure I'm doing it for the right reasons. For everyone back home. For everyone that wants a knight to be looking after them. And not just for..." His mother's love? Validation? Fortune? "Being some big name hero." He lets out a short laugh, "I walked next to someone who I think was a god. She could literally just read every thought and touch every thought. And I thought I might be some big name." The bag again. Staring at it. "Sometimes it feels like a gift, some times it feels like a weight, being an elite." Then, he looks back up from his scone. "Why..." He tries to articulate words, rolling them around in his mouth, "Why did you really ask me to come here? You don't seem that invested in being in the Heroic Elite."
Kale Hearthward	YEAH THEY GOTTA TILT THEIR HEADS OR THEIR NOSES BUMP INTO EACH OTHER IT'S SUPER AWKWARD Er, ahem, sorry for the outburst there. "Oh, Persephone Kore? She's nice once you get to know her." That, or more likely Hazelthistle approves of anyone who can get her boss to finally chill out stop self-sabotaging so badly. "You want to know why I invited you here? Honestly? You remind me of home. Like you have Quicknest written all over you, for better or worse, while everyone else is just so... different, and the closest others are Kale and Skye who are from the same place but both still Galean, you know?" "And after talking to you, also honestly? I don't think I was wrong. And I also think I wouldn't mind seeing more of you." Sip.
Aidan Proudpick	"You...just know her name and aren't terrified? You ARE good at this." Aidan is quite in awe. "Yea." There's a warm smile building back up. "Yea. I bet they are still kind of stiff. Sorry, I have to be careful. It's not like I know many Watch secrets anyways, I'm pretty low on the ladder." Aidan waves a hand, trying to dismiss the brief paranoia. Kale wouldn't devote resources to him. Would his mother? Surely not. She's always focused on Galean matters. His ears twitch, his pupils suddenly come back into focus, and he chokes on his coffee. "Oh. Oh! Sorry. I uhh... haven't had a woman say that to me in a while, yes, that would be wonderful." That honest smile creeps back onto his face, "Something that really makes me feel part of the multiverse."
Kale Hearthward	"I'm sure you'll get up there. Just show them what being a hero is really about. And if you don't? Well, then maybe you're better cut out for somewhere else." Hazelthistle blinks at him. "Oh? It's been that long since you heard that? And here I thought more people would like cute squirrels out here..." She finshes her coffee and drops a couple credits on the table. "I'll be in touch... Aidan," she says, and then she's gone before he can say anything more to her.
Aidan Proudpick	"Well, no, I-" She goes off. Aidan chews thoughtfully on his scone. Being MOSTLY gay, is still only mostly. Damn, though. Damn. Aidan carefully puts his hand on his bag, taking his time to enjoy his scone, as rare as sugar is back home. Slowly rotating his fingers around the edge of the shield. It can't be him, right? It's going to have to be someone else who shows everyone. It just... it just couldn't be him. He wants it too bad. He shouldn't want it so bad! But if other people want it as well. Is it wrong?