#ehstyl

Stryfe listened to him. Keeping his distance as his question regarding siblings made him sneer a bit. In technicality he was Scott's but he wasn't. He was a confusing case as he shut his eyes as he took a step towards him.

"I have no siblings. There's only me." Not entirely a lie but not entirely the truth either as he tilts his head. He remained calm despite the question. If he was too hasty he'd no doubt attack. And he could feel his power from there. He plaved a hand on his chest." I'm Stryfe." He knew he couldn't read his mind as soon as he spotted him. He learned that lesson as he introduced himself.

He removes his helmet to reveal brown hair with an eye that holds three scars upon it. His blue eyes pinned on him as he drops it to the ground. Leaving himself purposefully vulnerable to the other before him. "I don't want to hurt you if thats what you're thinking. I'm not with thoes fools." He looked away with a sense of shame.

(if thad pays close enough attention, he'll realize he's drawn some of his energy, absorbed it. it's a minimum amount, something meaningless in the bigger scheme of things but still... a little inappropriate.)

"... you taste like i imagined you would," he hums, letting him go as he nods to himself. "live-wire. bottled lightning."

@ehstyl

Lost amidst his own hypotheticals and rambling Thad doesn't notice the moment that Gabriel reaches out towards him until he feels his hand wrap around his wrist and the sudden yank of his body forward, leading him to let out a surprised yelp.

In the span of that brief second as the other watches him, time slows for Thad as he's unsure whether this was a moment of threat or simply curiosity, though his question was soon answered as he felt a different sort of energy touching him and his own energy. Briefly, he realized as his perception of time reverted back to the norm. Only briefly, but...it had drawn some of his Speed Force energy, his speed, from him as well.

And that was when Thad yanked his wrist back from the other as fast as he possibly could.

In the larger scheme of things it had been a minuscule amount, negligible to anyone other than Thad as his heart raced in that moment, fraught with an old fear, an old memory, and a terrible past experience of having his speed, this innate part of him he had been born created with stolen from him.

He didn't like remembering that old experience in the least, but what perturbed him just a touch more than that in this moment was:

"'Taste?!' Did you just say 'taste?!'" He yells out the question as he held his hand that Gabriel yanked close to his chest. The speedster so clearly flustered by the wording and so very protective of even the tiniest bit of Speed Force energy siphoned from him.

He couldn't believe the other had imagined what his energy had tasted like.

And with that thought surprise compounded on surprise as he stopped himself short of his initial line of inquiry and let out another confounded shout.

"You've thought about it before???" Thad sounded indignant, though a small part him also felt flattered by the fact time had been spent on pondering him and the taste of his energy as well, and it showed as he stopped again this time a bit calmer as the words 'live-wire' and 'bottled lightning' bounced around in his head. "I...I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that you have that much free time to ponder such...unique questions."

Even when not in his usual red attire and out doing miscreant deeds, some of the strangest things seemed to happen to the duplicator. This time he was simply on a grocery run, picking up a few things to throw something together for dinner, when everyone around him dropped to the floor like boxes being thrown from a truck. All that remained was him and the culprit responsible; a stoic man, golden-eyed and completely unfazed with his own actions.

His words were, oh, mildly terrifying, just a bit, as he walks past Billy to grab a cereal box; well, that's amusing. Though brows furrow at the mention of calling him a mutant, then correcting himself to calling him a meta instead. What an interesting situation all around.

"Huh. Guess that's one way ta find out if someone got powers. Yeah, ya got me." He was certainly glad to not be passed out like the rest of the folks around him, but maybe being conscious and interacting with the stranger wasn't actually the best thing.

>. "---Love the sense of no urgency. Really."

If there was something Binary wielded like a cleaver besides the ability to hack her way into pretty much anything, it was the good ol' sarcasm.

It dripped off her tongue like venomous honey -- a little sweet and clearly very fatal when used right. But she had no intention to let death rain upon this glowing creature in front of her, no -- in fact, she was here to celebrate him for doing such a good job.

"You got a great thing going here, bud...---"

Being a masked vigilante, she surely didn't really come off as reliable at first glance. But right now, the vigilante didn't have time to stand there and explain herself -- that was better suited for when they were on the run with the GrandTech guards chasing them down.

Or perhaps even for much later, if he had patience enough for it.

"...But as much as I like the little illuminated stage show, we got bad company coming by any second now. So I would recommend you get off your ass and come with me, hm --?"

Binary's gloved hand reached out -- still a little hesitant to pull him out from his hiding place in case he'd go feral from her presence. She had only seen him on the cameras before stepping in here -- cameras she always had running on her phone for, uh --- ""research purposes"". So she was surprised to see a strange face there -- and even more surprised to see him still lurking about.

"----We can exchange names later. But for right now, we really gotta go."

Come on. She didn't have all night.<

"what are you?"

a question they were usually the one to ask, not the other way around. a glance down at themself--as if to make sure that they had somehow forgotten to put on their gloves, or wear as many layers as usual. as if they wanted to check if the crystals down beneath the fabric had torn through; some indication. yet there was nothing, no way for anyone to just know.

" what kinda question's that? " play dumb, with a slight rudeness to their voice. tone a guise to the white noise that played on repeat from a glitched voice.

" what are you?? "

From the jump, he anticipated that something like this was bound to happen, a victim of curiosity rather than the fault of negligence or clumsiness. For that reason alone, in spite of his cutting observation, he sees no value in scolding his guest or holding him to account.

Certainly not for a dime-a-dozen beaker, the split contents of which wouldn't take Miguel more than a few minutes to recreate.

"No, that won't be necessary." Reaching for a dustpan as he spoken, garnet hues automatically skim the floor around them. Tracking to a spot just past one of his work benches, where a cleaner bot would automatically emerge from if he didn't sweep up the broken remnants in time.

@ehstyl asked: "simply put, beloved, you are my better half. and i have no issues saying so to others."

Tell me how your muse describes my muse to other people