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Now, this was just terrific. Kurt had just been awakened in a strange place, had barely gotten dressed, and was still trying to pick odd bits of dried gunk off any bit of visible skin. Luckily, the suit he'd been fashioned with was customized, and it was actually absurdly comfortable, if one could ignore that weird, living pulse.

He was going to try very, very much to forget about it. There were other things to occupy his mind.

First of all, his things, whatever Stacy had deemed appropriate to take with him. Hopefully, his 'watch' was in there. not that he needed to know what time it was, but because it would hide his more startling features. The idea of strangers getting a glimpse of him like this was enough to make his mouth dry. Reactions from people he didn't know were usually pretty unfavorable.

Cautiously, he had stepped out of the lift, looking for the locker room. Everything looked somewhat the same, the halls all having that strange, living texture. Despite his nerves, he didn't dare try to teleport in here yet, lest he get stuck in some other hell-dimension. He was keeping himself as low to the ground as possible, not a problem given his unusual build, and trying to just not draw anybody's attention. Yet.

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"I see. Sometimes I am not up to date with slang." Of course, this would probably get added to his vocabulary, and be butchered accordingly. A three-fingered hand had found its way up, to rub the back of his neck. Was it his imagination, or was he still sticky?

This was just an uncomfortable situation all around.

"No, not yet. I have not had much of a chance to look. It looks I have a lot of searching to do."

"You get any more out of Stacy than any of the rest of us did? If not, I can tell you what's going on, least as far as we've figured out."

"Her favorite word is 'no', and she likes the movie Blade Runner." Kurt's expression turned sour. "Outside of that, she was not terribly enlightening."

Someone who knew what was happening? He relaxed, at least a little bit. She was open with information, and that was better than nothing. "I am all ears." Which she might find to be amusing, considering.

All pointy ears. Heh.

"...Didn't know the Blade Runner thing," Leela said, but then she explained. "She's a spaceship--we're talkin' a big one too. Huge. Levels and levels and there's a whole city inside. But Stacy's the actual ship. An AI. We've all been grabbed--from multiple worlds in multiple dimensions. Abducted for...something. The big theories that it's for some kinda army. Got a lot of people with superpowers or are soldiers or are useful in other ways. But we don't really have many answers either, and that's just a guess. We all started the same way--popping out of those nasty pods. We don't know who took us. If it was Stacy herself or something that told her too. There's more we don't know than we do know. Good news is most of the people here are pretty friendly."

"Well, she seems to be discreet when it comes to her interests.."

Spaceships. AIs. A superhuman army. The idea was frightening, really; they were terrible enough on their own planet, when there were opposing forces to stop them. Still, weird. Why go after 'friendly people', when there were plenty who had strength and the mindset to use it violently? What was going on? Not like she knew, either, and for a moment yellow eyes were very focused on her, and he was chewing the inside of his cheek, thinking.

Eventually, though, he just gave up. His fingers went to his face for a moment, and he rubbed his brow, his cheek. It wasn't like he was the smart one. "Maybe she thinks there's something worth protecting. Or somebody thinks so. That is all I can hope for." Instead of fighting for the wrong cause.. he didn't like the idea of that at all. "Or it is for a game of interstellar dodgeball. " Ho hum. Someone's humor meter was a little broken today. Waking up in a puddle of sludge did that.

"Oh man, dodgeball? If I got pulled out of what I was doing to suffer through gym class in space, somebody's getting kicked in the face--just like in real gym class," she said, chuckling.

She held out her hand.

"I'm Leela, by the way. Leela Bricker."

"At least it would be a game that you know you can win." Yes, so he was a little huffy about this change in his routine, too. "I'm going to miss my test on Friday for certain. I've used so many excuses this year." A drawn-out sigh. Well, school was tough when you were doing all this superhero business off on the side.

"It is nice to meet you, Leela. I am Kurt Wagner." It came out 'vaugner'; hearing a fair few try to pronounce it with that hard Amercan 'W' amused him. She offered a hand, and a genuine smile flashed across his face. She seemed quite at ease with him. She'd receive a rather velvety handshake. At least he seemed to be relaxed.

She'd already done her little panic thing over Zelgadis. She wasn't going to do it again.

Especially not since... hrm.

"So, what's your stuff? So I can help you look for it. I almost think Stacy moves it sort of near the front when you first pop up. All our stuff was and every time I come in here, it looks moved around," she said. Then she added, "Oh, um, then there's 'nother weird thing you might want to have a little warning about..."

"I doubt my whole room made it." Oddly enough, he was a tidy sort, and his room was generally free from clutter. Still, he had his own radio.. that wasn't important. Kurt had come a long way with nothing more than a travel bag. he knew how to pack light.

"Some pictures I had, I suppose." Sentimental value and all that. That, and he was trying to not sound too anxious. "Oh, and my watch." Ho ho, like it was an after thought. "Big, round, yellow. Sort of ugly, really." It looked like a cheap, plastic kid's watch. He was grinning, then, playfully. It was the hidden utilities that he was after.

"It's usually more the kinda stuff you had on your person other than clothes. Trinkets, jewelry, weapons..."

She bit her lip as she helped him look.

"And uh, see, the thing you should know is, some people might recognize you. For one, there's different versions of different 'verses, so they might know a version of you. For another, see, Stacy explained it as somehow, stuff that's real on one world is fiction on another. I don't know if you have stuff like... Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but Xander's here. Doctor Who. People I never thought were real, but are."

She swallowed.

"Not to freak you out or anything, Blue, but... on my world, there was also a very popular comic that came out in the sixties. About people...born different. A whole team of them. Turned into this whole franchise. There's movies, the comics are still being published to this day. There were, uh, several cartoons based on it. Obviously, that don't make you fictional, just means, somehow, you and your friends' story got to my world, but... uh, thing is, I know you're called Nightcrawler without you having to tell me."

A pause.

"You're one of the more popular characters, actually..."

"Oh. Well, the watch, then." Yes, he was being a little preoccupied over the time, wasn't he? At least she was helping, trying to narrow down the search. It was frustrating. Who decided what got to come along? Oh, yes. Stacy. Well, she'd better have brought that along, or he was going to feel very uncooperative.

The other thing. Oh. That. Recognizing him. "I suppose I have a very unique look." Dryly spoken, even as he was rifling through junk. "Like, say, Blade Runner?" Blue. That was cute. It wasn't the first time a girl had called him that, either. He glanced over his shoulder, then. A comic? A single eyebrow went up, and he might not have really believed it if she hadn't pulled out the codenames. "Somehow, I doubt you are a big fan of the German circus circuit."

The tail lashed again, twitchy as a vexed cat's, and now he just scowled into the dark room, trying to mull that one over. It was too much for him to really absorb in one go. A figment made real somewhere else. "So this isn't just space, it is some alternate dimension space?" Seriously, what?

The comment about popularity made him suddenly grin at her, a very white flash of teeth in his otherwise dark features. "With the female fans, I hope." Alright, it was time to shrug it off, go with the flow, and pretend he knew what he was doing.

"It's...not normal space, no. We don't think so, anyway, And no I'm not huge fan of the German Circus." She went on with a grin, and a brief, fake accent, "but ze Incredibuhl Nightcrawler! is well known to just about any comic or cartoon geek worth their salt in my world. Makes me wonder if there's any nerds out there who know me from some comic or cartoon show--that'd be a laugh."

A pause. "And yeah, actually. Chicks dig you." Another pause, and she coughed. "That's not to say. Uh. I mean."

Damn damn damn. Her face went hot. "I ain't the fangirl type, personally."

She occupied herself helping him look for his stuff, and commented idly, "Not that you aren't cute, 'cause ya' are."

Wait. Shit!

"It's, see, I'm just not exactly shy, in case you haven't noticed, and you know--casual observation... kinda...thing..."

She just stopped and outright laughed. "Sorry. I'm gonna stop right there, before I get too used to the taste of my own foot."

Leela parroting the accent did make him laugh; it wasn't too shabby, actually. He'd heard more atrocious attempts before. "I suppose it is possible. It sounds as if anything is. I am sure you have your fan base." Somewhere out there.

Then it got awkward really, really fast. "Really? Hm. Well, wit and good looks combined, you know? Irresistible. Chicks dig the fuzzy dude." Alright, so he was actually flattered that she would say so. Comparing him to some of the pretty boys he worked with was probably not going to come out well. "I didn't suggest you, uh, were." Oh, dear. She'd gotten weirdly defensive really quickly.

Kurt? Cute? Now he was interested in the floor, actually, and his cheeks burned. He felt very, very small at the moment.

"Thanks, I think." Yeah, it was all fun and games until a girl actually seemed slightly interested in him. Then he had no idea what to do next. Could they move onto another topic?

"So, are you into some kind of super-heroics, too?"

She wasn't interested! He was still technically a stranger. This was just apparently one of the perils of looking at comic books and whatnot with the mindset of 'Admire the man-candy' when it came to male superheroes. Usually the 'man-candy' didn't turn out to be real, so you'd get all embarrassed for going in thinking 'admire the man-candy.'

"Uh, think high fantasy. Except I'm from Florida. Me and my best friend Irene worked at this technologies company as fileclerks, and sherlocked our way into realizing this one secret project was a little too secret. Turned out to be this device to tunnel into other dimensions. We got busted snooping and the bitch-crazy scientist in charge of the project tossed us through as human test subjects to see if it would shred us into ground chuck. It didn't, but she was gonna come through and shoot us, in that case. I think the portal overheated or something, because it shut down before she came through after us and we booked it. Got all caught up in this fantasy world and all this stuff in it, got separated, and I been looking for her ever since."

A deep breath as she rummaged lightly through some more stuff.

"So this is my second alternate dimension thinger."

Well, she was glad to change the subject, too, and that was just fine, thank you very much. He might have to preen a bit if she actually brought up the subject of man-candy.

"Disney World?" Well, magic in Florida. Oh, no. She got nosy, of course. "That is very.. advanced." Too bad she wasn't a scientist herself, or they might already have a plan to get out of this mess. "Some people take their work far too seriously." A fantasy world, swords and sorcery, and there was that wan smile again. "Now that sounds like a comic I would read." Well, dumping him someplace more medieval was a bad idea. He wasn't much for the notion of being burned at the stake.

"Maybe she'll end up here, or at least you will find some hints." Being alone was rough. Kurt wasn't fancying the idea, either. "I wish you luck." He meant it, too.

"Well, I suppose you are a little less panicked than the rest of us." Maybe, maybe not. Pretending someone had some confidence was better than nothing.

"Nope, just better at hiding it."

"You are not helping." At least he was laughing again, rather than chiding her. "Someone has to pretend they know what they are doing, so the rest of us can follow suit." Perhaps she wasn't the leader type. Oh, well. He wouldn't hold it against her.

A glimpse of yellow finally caught his eye, then, and he was suddenly rooting through another pile of other people's doodads until he came up with it. Yep. A large, brightly-colored sports watch. An expression of relief crossed his features even as he held it up for inspection; it was most certainly his.

"Please still work." A mutter, even as he fought the thing onto his wrist and depressed one of the buttons.

"Oh, there's already other people pretendin' they know what's goin' on, so I'm off the hook," she said with a smirk.

And when he found the watch--and turned it on--it worked.

She tilted her head. "I dunno, Blue. You looked fine t'me the other way."

"Well, that is good, I suppose." Hopefully nobody that would go and get them all killed. Some people wanted to be a leader and just couldn't handle it. Others found themselves forced into it. "At least, if it is not total chaos up there."

The inducer watch still functioned, at least, and he held out his hands for a moment. The drawback was that it was programmed to look like his normal clothes, and he didn't know how to program it to show the plant suit.

Then he was turning his head to peer at his back, making sure his tail didn't peek through the illusion. "You know me, and you weren't surprised to see me." Which was nice, he wasn't going to argue the point. "Someone else might not be so accepting. I had better be careful."

"And what happens if your thingy goes all glitchy and someone spots a fuzzy, blue guy they've never seen before? Or they touch your hand and it isn't what it looks like?" she asked, cocking an eyebrow.

"Besides, we've got plenty of different-looking folks here. There's this huge cyborg guy who don't even have a face no more, and a talking dinosaur, and a guy who sprouts blue bug armor, and this blue guy that freaked me out when I saw him because he looked Gobliney, but it turns out he was made of living stone or somethin' and he's alright. Hell, even the normal people aren't so normal."

She pulled down the collar of her suit with her hands, revealing the gold necklace there, visibly melded with her skin.

"See?"

Kurt's shoulders fell, but he peered at her with a resigned expression. Yes, they were all reoccurring problems with the inducer. "I can always teleport to save my hide, if things do get bad. It is true that I am missing my gloves, though." It wasn't a solution, not at all, but it made him anxious. It made him feel vulnerable. Still, he didn't want to use the stupid thing as a crutch, did he?

It wasn't like he could hide all the time.

"I plan to introduce myself to people. Also,, I am sure word will get around. For now, though, I don't want to startle anyone." Still, she went on about the variety of folks onboard. "A what?" Blankly. So his brain had hung up on the word 'dinosaur'. It sounded like real madness. "Huh." Maybe it had to be seen to be believed.

Then she'd shown off the jewelry, and Kurt had winced in sympathy, letting out a faint hiss of air. "That looks painful." perhaps it wasn't now, but it brought to mind horror stories of people with bad burns or the like.

Whether it was painful or not, she didn't say. It HAD been, when it first latched on, but now, it was the head aches that were bad, and she didn't want to get into that whole thing.

"I'm just sayin', this crowd ain't so trusting. You earn their trust like that, then suddenly change, that's what'll freak 'em out. They're on the lookout for aliens, for someone being somethin' they're not. Besides, I could introduce you to people, anyway."

She huffed out.

"It's your choice and all, and I'll keep tight-lipped about it, but it just don't seem right. There ain't nothing wrong with you--you don't have to hide."

Kurt had merely pursed his lips. She didn't get into it, but, yes, he could assume that whatever she had been through there had hurt. Still, he wasn't sure it was his business. If Leela wanted to talk about it, she would.

It was obvious that he was uncertain about it. He did want to believe her, at the very least. For a moment he watched her, actually chewing on the inside of his cheek. She was probably right.

"I have to admit, it has been good for me. I am used to needing it." Kurt wasn't at home. He had to remind himself of that. The rules were probably different out here.

"See, now, if I look normal, I would not blend in. This is a very mixed group, as you've said." He smiled thinly, trying to justify it to himself. It was obvious that he was uneasy. "You will really help introduce me?"

"Look, most you might get is a double take or two, like the dinosaur guy or the guy with the blobby alien on his shoulder, but everyone got used to them pretty damn fast. I'll be right there, and anyone isn't welcoming, I'll kick their butt."

Aliens, too. Why not? Kurt shook his head, then, feeling overwhelmed in general. These people.. some of them were going to have to be teammates, at least for now. He had to trust somebody.

He'd pressed another button, then, removing the illusion once again, but he didn't take it off.

"Alright." A murmur, then. "I am keeping it just in case."

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