Ophira -- no, Foreshadow -- is looking curiously at the man who just addressed her as 'ma'am', and the teenager, probably a teleporter, who arrived with him. That's new. (How old does she look? It's hard to tell in the mirror, she knows how old she is, after all.)
She nods in response to the question about checking compatibility. "That's why I'm here," she says (trying to sound serious and mature). "You have... strength powers?"
(It has not occurred to her to reach out a hand.)
"Yes'm." Tim does that to everyone, he was raised to be Very Respectful, it's what happens when you want to be racially ambiguous in rural Vermont. REACH OUT FOR A FISTBUMP YOU IDIOT. "Stronger and more durable, with a little bit of regeneration. And I can share the powers as well. If you twisted your ankle recently, it'll smooth the edges out of that." Fistbump?
Sure she'll reach out and poke his first with her fingertips.
...and draw back her hand pretty quickly. Hm. Don't like that.
Tim scratches the back of his neck, looking a little sheepish. "No luck here. Not bad, but definitely not good." Do not apologize, neither of you did anything wrong, it's just bad luck, most espers are bad or neutral, just like he said earlier. It's fine.
Jamie trails behind for now, since he hasn't met this one either.
"Oof," he offers his fist next, "Jamie, teleporter. Let's see if we're better?"
Poke?
Hm. A little but not much; the girl who helped her work out her power was better, and she's looking for More Than That. Still, at least it's not bad.
"Not much," she says, but doesn't pull her hand back quickly the way she did with the other. "...you've both been using your powers, I thought we were here looking for people so we could do that?"
"Yes'm. I got a promise of guiding from - " what was her name don't just leave the awkward silence hanging "- Lyra. Before I go. I like to use my power as much as possible on people, someone is going to have a little accident I can take care of. No reason not to, you know? And it probably helps on long-term stuff, a little. It won't hurt, anyway." I think Coach has been moving better since I awakened, but I really need to buckle down and do an actual study. Should talk to Bill about it at some point.
About the same result for him, guiding-wise; he tucks that hand in his pocket, the other still holding his drink. "I have my primary and secondary here with me, so it's not dangerous. I'm more here to expand my network. Never know when you'll need a friend in Chicago when you're bopping all over the place like I do."
"Oh, you know her too? I hadn't realized that y - " Wait. Teleporter. Jay. "Oh, you're Jay, aren't you!" Tim laughs, maybe the for the first since he's gotten here. "Of course you are, how many teleporters can there BE out there?" The esper world is a small one, be careful of the toes you tread on today, lest they be connected to the ass you have to kiss tomorrow.
"Oh. I suppose it makes sense to look for more people you can work with."
It feels weird, because surely you want to be close to someone for that, but -- no, if some of her friends had been espers, she could imagine it.
...wait. Right. Meeting people things. "I'm Foreshadow. Precog."
"Yeah!" He snickers, "That's great, we've just been talking with crossed wires this whole time. Me and Lyra are a pretty decent match, not like me and Ly or her and Zei, but pretty good! I guess you met him, too, then? Zei? They were the nice couple you mentioned?" Which is a hilarious way to the describe them, frankly.
"-sorry, right," he looks back to Foreshadow, "Oh precog! That's really cool!"
This is the fifth time you've forgotten to introduce yourself. Get your shit together. "Ah. I'm Tim. Or Aumento. I have cards." Tim will smoothly produce his card and offer it by the fingertips. "My agent's Bill, it's William on the card, but he prefers Bill." Something nice and true don't break your streak - "That seems like a really neat power. And your codename is cool, I'm surprised it wasn't taken. It took me a while to figure one out."
She doesn't seem at all bothered by their conversation.
"I don't get a lot of detail," she says, with a slight shrug. "But I can sort of tell, when something bad is about to happen, if I'm looking, so -- hopefully I can help keep people alive." If she can find a partner, which is why she's here, even though with how far they are from Chicago the train journey was... a lot.
...she takes the card uncertainly. "I had to try a lot of ideas. Aumento -- that's Spanish?" It sounds like it, at least.
"Yes'm, it's what I do. It means 'I augment'. I'm stronger, of course - " or can be anyway "- but like I said, I can share. Would you like to take a turn playing with this?" Tim fishes out Gordian knot of copper that's been passed around all evening. "You could bend this if you had pliers, or if you didn't mind bruising the dickens out of your fingers. But if I give you just a little bit of juice, it's like clay. Wet clay. Obviously." Quit while you're ahead, a fool can look like a sage if he just keeps his mouth shut.
Jamie will fish out a card as well, though he holds onto it for now.
"It's not quite 'world of cardboard', but it's pretty cool!"
Smirk. "Wait till you get the whole thing. This is just a taste."
She tilts her head to one side, slightly. "You're sure the person you found will help, later?"
"If she doesn't feel up to it, I will," he promises Tim and assures Foreshadow at the same time. "We're not a great match but it's better than nothing."
Thank you Jamie, more people should be able to experience this. "See? And there were a few other people who were okay matches, the redhead was matched well with me." If only I were better-matched to her. "And worst comes to worst, I could always call my agent and find a professional guide somewhere here, or nap on my way home to one of my usual professional guides."
Ophira nods, slowly. "That power could help dungeon teams a lot, I think," she says, quietly. "I looked at the stats, and it's... much better than it used to be, but." And the rumors are. Worrying. "So. I hope it works out."
And, sure, she'll hold out her hand a bit. "I wasn't really hoping for super-strength, as a power, and I'm mostly healed. But if you want people to try it."
"Yes ma'am, I'd be thrilled to let you try it." Handoff of the copper, careful not to actually touch Foreshadow's skin. "A lot of people are carrying around little injuries, like a knee that got twisted or a cracked fingerbone that they don't think about. This should help your arm, especially if it was recent."
The fact that almost all of his social circle is big on the great outdoors, jiujitsu and his former job as an EMT may have caused him to have a warped view of the average rate of injury in the world. Unfortunately, Tim has not yet internalized a statistics-based view of the world and has not realized that his social circle may be composed almost entirely of outliers.
"Okay. You're going to be stronger and tougher, so you won't be hurt by anything, but your clothes won't be any tougher than they were this morning. So just focus on the copper. No stretching, no sudden movements, don't answer your phone. It won't feel like anything at first, so just focus on everything below the wrists." Assuming Foreshadow agrees to all this, she'll feel like nothing has changed, but Tim will signal her. And stare at her FACE because why is everyone hot or cute here. Why must his deeply-ingrained sense of safety-consciousness force him to stare at cute girls he can't make a move on. He'll dangle his hand near Jamie, it worked earlier to get some guiding.
Jamie is happy to take his hand and give him a little guiding! Tim will also notice Jamie's backlash from the teleport, which the skin contact is chipping away at as well.
(She's pretty flat-chested for an esper, so he's less at risk of staring at her chest than with some people, at least. On the other hand, she looks 18 at most, so.)
She listens to the safety instructions carefully, and nods. And holds very still. (This is not very hard. It's just like sitting still and watching something, or keeping someone company. The weird bit is --)
...cautious poke at the copper?
The copper is inanimate. But with the level of augmentation Foreshadow is under, her finger doesn't stop unless she wants it to. If she's willing, she'll put a smooshed negative of her finger into the copper. She can feel the pressure, but there's no pain. If she poked it with a fingernail, the copper is scored pretty trivially.
...huh. Okay, she can see why he was excited about showing this off. It is pretty cool.
"Have you ever tried making jewelery or something," he asks, idly, while they're watching her fiddle.
"You can do whatever you want to it, copper is pretty unlikely to shatter. If I did it with steel, there'd be a risk that it wouldn't bend properly and snap instead. I'd be fine for a person, I can take care of injuries, but I can't fix a cell phone." Way to imply it's better for someone to be hurt than have their cell phone break. "Well. You know what I mean, it's suck to have someone hurt because I didn't do my homework." Stop rambling.
To Jamie: "I thought about it for a little bit, I might do it as an arts-and-crafts project? You know, for fun. But I'm not that much better at manipulating small things than an actual jeweler's toolkit would be."
Foreshadow is not sure if it's a good idea to talk right now but that's fine, the copper is very interesting.
Yessss she's having a good time, he's getting a good grade in Esper Relations and maybe the regen will take the edge off something for her. Tim will cheerfully wait a few minutes while she has her fun tangling and/or untangling the copper knot(s).
"I bet you could get that way, though," he comments after some time. "With the jewelery. Plus, you might be able to do some things a toolkit would struggle with."
"You're probably right. I bet I could do some neat stuff with metal, I know my resilience works against heat. I sort of burned myself on the stovetop, or I would have. I tested it afterwards, and I can turn it on faster than I can measure with a stopwatch, less than a tenth of a second for sure. Speed of thought, really." You need to meet people, you can't just let someone enjoy super-strength for ages. "Is it okay if I take the power back? I don't mind you playing with it, but I want to meet some other people and I don't want to leave you augmented before you're used to it. It um, accidents can happen." oh my god you are literally never getting rid of saying 'um' why are you like this, Tim. If only I could leave her like this you KNOW that's a bad idea Tim.
Fiddle fiddle fiddle -- oh he's waiting for her -- is he ongoingly using his power? -- oh no -- nodnod, offer of copper back.
Tim will gracefully retrieve the copper and pocket it. "I hope you enjoyed the power. I'm going to go grab a bite to eat, I just realized I haven't eaten all afternoon. I'll see you around! If you need healing, you have my card. It's not fast but it's pretty easy to do if I have guiding." Your regeneration is glacial if it didn't happen recently, and without a local guide you're not going to be able to actually use it very well. If Sinkhole were still no. That's your low blood sugar talking. Go eat a canape or something. Or salami. Tim unaccountably flushes and makes for whichever snack is furthest away from the fancy meats.
Jamie waves after Tim, and offers Foresight his card.
"Feel free to call if you need cargo moved, or an emergency guiding, or anything else," he says, tucking his hand back in his pocket.
