trans_9 | The thing you should know is that everyone is in really big trouble. Yeah. Even you.

"I am. Penelope Maddox, therapist."

The Mask covers all senses - Penelope smells human, and a rather tired one at that.

"At the meeting I was somewhat preoccupied." Which is code for 'freaking out'. "If you gave it, I didn't catch your name."

It's after a moment that she remembers to organize her face into a suitably expectant expression. Social cues are so much easier when she actually gets sleep.

"Pat Mulligan," And since they're apparently including jobs... "NYPD. Uh, former." He glances to Toxin as the symbiote retreats to his shoulder, flopping over it loosely. "And he's Toxin."

The symbiote extends a tendril, wiggling it in a wave at Penelope.

"Hello," beat, "to both of you. I assume it was Toxin you were communicating with earlier?"

Sure, Penelope wouldn't mind if he were crazy (ooo, a challenge!), but this isn't exactly situation normal.

Pat nods, glancing to the symbiote again. "He can talk out loud if he's doing the suit thing. Other than that..." He smiled wryly. "...he just makes me look like I'm going nuts."

Toxin prodded him with a tendril.

"Stop that."

"I beg your pardon, but what did you mean by 'suit thing'?"

"He's bigger than he looks; he's actually making the clothes right now-" Pat gestures at Toxin with one hand, and immediately black goop suddenly pops out, forming claws. The clothing, meanwhile, seems to go a bit runny, blurring together and shading towards red and black.

Pat sighs, frowning. "What'd I tell you about the claws?"

With another sigh, Pat puts a (still alarmingly pointy) hand over his eyes and leans against the table.

Mai looks up from her glop and actually looks surprised. Yeah, she knows there are people here with weird powers, but she's never seen something quite like that. She forces down a mouthful then leans over slightly.

"Well, that's... interesting."

Penelope looks over at Mai, who stole the comment she was about to make, and nods in agreement, then stands even further aside so Mai can feel included in the conversation.

"Are there many people like you in your version of New York City?" she asks Pat. Or Toxin. Whoever wants to respond.

Toxin's still kept his head stuck out of the rest of the suit, and so he chirrups at Mai's commenting, looking as pleased with himself as his limited features will allow.

"One of these days, you're going to get us both in trouble with that, and I'm going to say I told you so." Pat's attention returns to Penelope. "With super powers? Yeah, plenty of them. With symbiotes? Only two, and I hope like hell I never see either of them again."

Mai actually stands and shifts her tray over to the table. Because, really, this is the most interesting thing to happen to her all day, "Super powers? Would that be anything like bending?"

She pauses again, "What's a symbiote?"

Meanwhile, there is a 13-year-old girl nearby looking more than a little appalled. Sorry.

Sorry Will, the guy with the symbiote means Penelope doesn't really notice you. Symbiote! Sticking out its head!

"While I am unfamiliar with the term bending," Penelope says, "Super powers are abilities outside the realm of the human norm."

"I don't know what bending is-but she explained super powers pretty well," Pat says, nodding to Penelope. "A symbiote is what Tox is-they're aliens."

Toxin, meanwhile, has found himself distracted by Will's appalled staring. He slithers out further to sniff at her.

"Bending...? Like earthbending. Firebending. Waterbending. You control whichever element it is you're attuned to," She blinks and shrugs, "I guess bending isn't a super power then."

She listens quietly, then nods, "...so. Symbiotes are aliens?"

Chris is staring too!

He's not thirteen, but he does look pretty wimpy.

(His sludge, unlike most of the other "normal" humans', has a noticeably red-pink tinge to it.)

To Will's credit, she does not actually shy away. The symbiote's kinda gross, but . . . well, it's not the grossest (or the only gross thing) she has ever seen.

"Hhhhhi. How are you?"

~~Hey Chris! Characters with no 10-again to their Social rolls, unite!~~

Penelope files Mai's explanation away for future reference. Not like she doesn't know a thing or two about controlling an element.

"Super powers are generally a broad category; to my mind, control of a certain element would certainly fall under it." She doesn't mean it to sound like a lecture, really.

Problem is, it does.

"Yeah, there's definitely people who can control fire, water, that kind of thing-but I've never heard them be called benders. Just superheroes or supervillains." He nods to Mai. "Yeah. Tox was born on Earth, though."

The said symbiote squeaks at Will as he's spoken to, rearing up like a snake and widening his eyepatches. Look, he's not going to incite screaming or running! Really!

But Toxin quickly finds himself distracted as he picks up the scent of Chris' goop, sniffing madly and twisting around.

"What?"

"...Oh, crap. Kid, get back over here!"

"Well, the whole elemental control thing is common where I'm from. It's not unusual." She shrugs again, still rather impassive, "And... he's an 'alien'. From Earth? Where is that, exactly?"

Mai is ignoring everybody else. They're boring. Pat's outburts barely phases her and she turns to watch with a rather apathetic expression.

The Master Chief has been paying quiet attention this whole time, learning. Originally it was Toxin that caught his attention, symbiotes not being particularly normal on his side of the fence, and so he's been listening in on snatches of this conversation. It's a good distraction from the goo. While it doesn't quite trigger his gag reflex, it's much easier to down when you're not thinking about it.

"It's a planet," he puts in. "Birthplace of the human race. Sol system, third rock from the sun." It doesn't seem to be classified information here, particularly due to the lack of Covenant, and it's not his universe. Especially if there are people that don't know about Earth.

Tobias was struggling as he usually did with how to eat what Marco would call "the goo of the day" with a beak. It was never easy. He also wans't sure whether to be tense about the yeerks being around and not knowing who to trust, or happy to be able to kick some yeerk butt. At least he was fairly sure Ax was okay. Like most Andalites, he'd die by his own blade before he'd be infested.

< So what species is he? I've seen symbiotes but not like hiim before > Tobias asked. At least this one wasn't as annoying as the last symbionts he'd met, the Iskoort.

"Wh-what?" Chris says fumblingly, taken aback at Pat's sudden outburst in his direction. It's distracting enough he doesn't quite pick up on the presence of the psychic bird just yet...

Pat hears someone else add to the conversation, but he's a little busy attempting to wrangle his bodyguest to focus on it much. He sniffs the air himself, picking up on the scent of blood as well-the joys of having a symbiote-enhanced sense of smell. Looks like Toxin's right.

"There's blood somewhere," he says to Chris, frowning at Toxin as the symbiote keeps snuffling around. He sniffs again, then adds, "Not that old, either."

< I smell it too. > His hawk instincts were rising up, and he was curious about where it was coming from. < And sorry, I forgot I'd probably catch you off guard when I talked. I guess a talking bird is wierd even here. > He wanted to offer to change forms but a controller would know what he was in an instant. It was too risky. < I was just curious about your friend. > He nodded at Toxin

Connor and Murphy are...more or less drifting around the cafeteria, and so they've only just clued into the other group. Needless to say, they have nothing useful to contribute yet. At all.

"...Is that a fucking hawk?"

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