A Helping Hand (Simon/Edge)

[beastly]

Simon listened to Edge, and nodded. An overview would be nice, he imagined. He thought for a moment, trying to figure out how best to phrase things. He grabbed his pencil and twirled it absently.

"I can lay out the basics for ya, and if you have any questions about specifics, lemme know," Simon gestured at the ceiling with his pencil, "So, as far as most humans know, supers, non-humans, they don't exist. They don't know about magic too much either. Humans, generally speaking, think that's all myth, legend, and hoax. We like to keep it that way. It gets... Complicated when humans learn that kinda thing," He holds up his hands, "That ain't to say humans are all hostile to supers or anything, but we keep it rather hush hush if at all possible. There are groups out there that are much less than friendly."

Simon hoped that was a good way to explain it. Usually, supers already knew the whole 'hidden world' deal. He didn't wanna down play the importance of keeping things hidden from the public at large, but he also didn't wanna make Edge jump every time a human passed his direction.

"Here at the WDSA, we help supers navigate all this. WDSA stands for 'Wathias Department of Supernatural Affairs'. Also for 'Wathias Department of Splicer Affairs'. The splicer thing is mostly public cover for most of our actual work, but they can slap some cat ears on ya," He waves a hand, " Anywho... Some supers choose to go live places entirely without humans, and that's good for them, but it's also gettin a bit harder to do as populations rise and human cities and towns expand. So, overlap happens. Some supers also just wanna live in the city with humans, and that's fine too. WDSA helps folks in the Greater Wathais area. We help supers find housing, jobs, help with education and generally try and help get em set with what they need to coexist with humans. We work with supers of all kinds. We're also in charge of law enforcement. If human hunters do mess with someone, we handle that. ... If you're robbing stores in the form of a blue horse we handle that too."

He hoped this was somewhat helpful.

[NightshadeVII]

Edge was surprised to hear that all non-humans lived in hiding from humans, as it was so different from what he was used to. However, it also filled his heart with a kind of dread. Not that he was scared of the humans, but he was worried for himself. The system here was stricter than it was back home, so who knew what being a Darai in this world would mean, even if he was the only one? He and his kind had been hunted, shunned, and hurt far too much back home, and just the thought that there was a chance he’d experience the same here made him almost nauseous.
It didn’t take long for him to decide to not reveal what he was, at least not fully. After all, revealing that he was from a species older than mankind itself, was shocking to most. He had heard enough stories of ruined relationships because of this, and he didn’t want his story to become like that as well. As kind as Simon seemed, Edge had been burned once, and didn’t wish to put himself or people he might get attached to in danger. Not again. He just had to decide what to call himself.

However, to the outside observer, Edge listened carefully, nodding at the right times, to prove that he understood. While the system here wasn’t the same as what he was used to, there were certain points of similarity that helped him understand it better. For better or worse.
Without even thinking, he reached up, toying absentmindedly with his necklace. He knew the shape of it so well now, and the mental was warm between his fingers from having laid flush against his skin for so long.

“That makes sense”, Edge finally said, just a little more quietly now, “just gotta pretend to be human, yeah?”
He paused for a moment, looking at Simon for conformation. He knew how to pretend to be human luckily, but for a moment, he wondered if his eyes were too obvious of a tell in this world. Until now, he hadn’t seen other eye colours like it.
“So, Uh... what information do you need about me for this?”, the Darai proceeded to ask, “I don’t exactly have any money or identification that works here...”

[beastly]

Simon smiled reassuringly at Edge. He didn't suspect Edge's fears about his species, he was thinking the guy was just worried about hiding from humans and blending in. He was new, after all.

"Right. Just pretend to be human on the streets and you'll do just fine, buddy."

He tapped his pencil on the paper he was working on.

" I need to know a little about what you are and what your needs are. Once we're done there, you'll be registered and we can get you some ID and all the papers you need to have to convincingly play human."
He winks, then thinks for a moment.

"We're gonna help get you set up, dont worry about money yet. Once you know how everything works here, we can get you employment and all that. We won't push you out of the nest before you know how to catch bugs, yknow?"

He wasn't sure the metaphor landed.

[NightshadeVII]

The Darai listened intently, his mind processing as fast as it possibly could, trying to both understand what was being said, and to figure out a way to answer the questions in the safest possible way.
Simon himself seemed trust-worthy enough, helpful and relaxed really, and Edge doubted any judgement would come from him, but he was worried about where the information would go. It was the system he didn’t trust, having been burnt by it a few too many times. However, he was beginning to get an idea of how best to answer the questions without revealing too much, which helped him calm down somewhat.
His thoughts skidded to a halt when he heard Simon’s last sentence.

“Know how to catch bugs?”, Edge echoed, brows furrowed slightly in confusion. Apparently a whole new world also meant new metaphors to learn. And he had thought human language was hard to learn the first time around...
The raven haired man shrugged, the metaphor itself wasn’t important and he had an idea of what it could mean, so that had to be good enough for now. He chuckled a bit at Simon’s expressions, enjoying how animated the other was, it made him seem very warm.

Thinking how to start answering the questions, he tapped a finger to his gloved knuckles, absentmindedly spinning one of the rings in his lower lip

“Well, I’m a spatial manipulator, to put it simply”, he began, trying to relax, “it’s... exactly what it sounds like. Though, where I’m from, people with my abilities aren’t just humans with fancy powers. My kind does have inhuman features.” He gesture at his eyes “different eyecolours for example. We can hide the rest of these inhuman features though, like horns and such.”
He paused for a moment, thinking if there was anything more to add. A part of him just wanted it to be over, but at the same time he knew he had to try and relax and lay low. That was really all he wanted, to just lay low until he could go home again.
“I wouldn’t say my kind has any specific needs really...” he mused, “though, we do tend to react badly to strong chemicals, like as strong painkillers and such.”

[beastly]

Simon wrote something down, nodding at Edge. Spatial manipulation. Non-human traits. He'd need a little more detail.

"Right. Gotcha. How strong is this ability, if you don't mind me asking? Can you give me an example of what you can do? I don't need a demonstration," he waved a hand, banishing the idea that Edge needed to get up and preform," I'm just trying to understand the scope of your ability."

He wrote down the thing about painkillers and chemicals, he'd make sure medical knew about it, if they already hadn't figured it out from treating Edge earlier. He assumed they had, but redundancy would be the best defense against an accident.

[NightshadeVII]

Simon was taking it all surprisingly well, though, if it was his job, it would probably make sense. Still, Edge knew he still had to be careful about what he said about himself. Luckily, he could keep the explanation of his spatial manipulation fairly neutral, without mentioning too much about Darai.
However, the question was; how could he best explain the scope of his abilities in a way that made sense? After all, it was something that was just as natural to him as moving his hands, an extension of his body and mind more than it was something that could be explained. Even how just sitting with his feet on the ground, he could feel the structure of the floor in a way he couldn’t quite put to words; how it connected to the walls on either side and through that the ceiling. It was like running his hands over a piece of fabric and being able to tell apart each individual thread no matter how tight they were all woven together.

“How strong?” He mused, realizing he had never thought of it this way. Others had made him aware he was skilled, but he had never really measured it in terms of strength.
“I, uh, I’m not sure... never thought of it like that... people I know back home said I had talent for it, that I was a natural, I guess?”
He offered a sheepish smile, trying to be helpful, but hating the feeling of putting himself on a pedestal.

Without thinking, he dug a little plate of metal out of his pocket, slightly larger than a decently sized coin, and placed it on the table between himself and Simon. The kind man had said no demonstrations, but putting it all into words would probably be more difficult.
“Imagine this is the floor, for example”, Edge gestured at the metal plate between them, before putting a finger down on it. At first, the metal seemed normal, undisturbed, but as the Darai lifted his finger, the metal followed, twisting and blooming in strage, geometric, mesmerizing patterns that never once stood still or settled. The material acted as if it was as soft as fabric, Edge easily folding it and nuding it in the directions he wanted it to go. To begin with, he did some simple manipulations, folding it and changing its shape, the metal dancing between his fingertips, until finally, what had been a small flat disc, was a rectangular cube between them. As if to prove that it actually was metal, Edge flicked the cube, and it fell heavily into another side, with a recognizably hollow, metallic thud.
With a relieved chuckle, Edge picked up the small cube, a part of him genuinely surprised to see he had retained the ability in this strange new world. From there, in the palm of his hand, the metal twisted again, rising up, moving as smoothly as a living creature in some ways, splitting apart and twisting around itself until it formed a small metallic tree, resting comfortably in his palm.

“Of course I- I can’t do this to living creatures, just to clarify”, the Darai added hastily, worried that he might be seen as an unwanted threat, “and the larger the object or surface I work with, like say a wall or larger structure, the more exhausting it is, but this is the gist of it…”
The momentary distraction was over, and now, he was almost more worried than before as to what might become of him.

[beastly]

Simon blinked at Edge as he demonstrated his ability. Edge was being humble, but the smaller man was clearly impressed, watching the metal twist and bend to Edge's will. It was beautiful and strange, his mind had a little trouble wrapping itself around it. It was as if the man's finger was magnetic, and the cube a pile of metal dust, but no, it was solid. This was just a small scale, but Edge was capable of larger things as well. Simon raised a hand, pointed finger poised to poke at the little tree, but he let his hand drop. He had a job to do, and he began scribbling down a better description of Edge's power.

He talked as he wrote.
"That's... That's really cool. Beautiful, really."
Glancing up from his notes, listening to the man's voice, Simon could tell he was a little nervous, although he couldn't quite guess at why. He let his writing stall as he tried to comfort the guy. He leaned over his desk a bit, gentle concern on his face.

"Hey, you did good, that was really helpful. That's a real neat power, thank you for showing me. We're gonna be done soon, I promise, bud."

Simon picked up his writing implement and finished his description of Edge's power, then smiled brightly.

"Now we're gonna make you some ID. We'll take some pictures, you'll sign some stuff, and I'll be outta your hair for the time being. I'll be in touch to help get you into some classes, but this is kinda a lot for one day."
The poor guy wasn't 100%, and Simon didn't want to push him.

[NightshadeVII]

A sliver of relief touched Edge’s features at Simon’s reaction to the spatial manipulation. He had expected worse, much worse, but still wasn’t prepared to fully let his guard down. Until he knew more of the world, and how it worked, the Darai would prefer to have at least a little bit of anonymity to him.
Of course, he hoped, maybe naively, that things would be different here, that he might eventually be able to open up. But he was alone, entirely so, so if things went south here, he was done for, and just the thought of that was enough to make his throat close up.
And besides, it wasn’t as if laying low and hiding what he was was entirely new to him, he had spent most of his life doing that. So until proven otherwise, he would continue to do so. It shouldn’t be too hard. He just hoped he might find a way to return home eventually.

Again, Simon snapped him out of thought, and Edge blinked, properly orienting himself in where he was and what he was doing. The young man was complimenting his abilities, obviously impressed. The Darai managed to muster a smile in response, despite all the uncertainty and confusion of his situation, there was no reason to be unkind. At the moment, that mindset was one of the only things he could hold on to.

“Thank you”, he replied softly, “it’s a neat little party trick, that’s for sure.”

While Simon wrote, Edge took a moment to take a few breaths. Whatever had transported him here, be it Eda or something else entirely, had made him feel like he’d been run over by a truck or like he had a bleeding wound, a sort of bone deep exhaustion that no amount of sleep could cure. Even the small feat he had managed there left his hands tingling with exhaustion. Luckily, over the few days he had been here, he had managed to gather himself more and more, but this feeling, it was strange, at once both entirely alien and vaguely familiar.

Then Simon spoke again, explaining that they needed to get some identification made.
“Right, pictures, got it”, Edge nodded in understanding and then, with a touch of curiousity in his voice he added, “and classes? For what?”

[beastly]

Simon gathered his papers, stacking them then tapping them against his desk to make them neat. He was no master of organization, but he wanted to at least pretend. Putting the papers in a folder and shifting that into a bag, Simon smiled at Edge's question.

"Well," He stood and swung the bag over his shoulder, "You're not from here, and while you said things are pretty similar to where ya came from, there's some things you'll need to know. A 'human 101' class, if you will. It'll go over culture, dos and don'ts. There's a few others, but we can talk about that later and decide if you need 'em. We're gonna want to set you up for success, y'know? Don't know how long you're gonna be here, but we want to prepare you to live here if it comes to that."

Simon gestured down the hall.

"Ready?"

[NightshadeVII]

As Simon explained, Edge nodded along, understanding the reasoning behind what the other said. If every other species masqueraded as human, he couldn’t exactly go around flouting wings and powers. Not that he intended to do that, even among other non-humans, but still.
On the bright side, it would be somewhat interesting to see how this world differed from his own, to see if his experience of somewhat familiarity would hold up in the long run. However, that curiousity quickly died down as Simon finished his sentence, mentioning the one possibility Edge had naively avoided considering.

Edge would be lying if he said that the thought of living in this world permanently did not make his heart sink in his chest. 
Sure, this world wasn’t that different in the more superficial terms, the technology, the buildings, and some of the species here. It looked quite similar. But on some deep, wordless level, it felt so different. There was a persisting emptiness where something used to resonate with him, and while it wouldn’t pose a threat to his physical health, there was still a deep sorrow connected to this quiet knowledge.

“As ready as I’ll ever be” Edge said with a deep exhale, rising from the chair, “lead the way”