He estimated himself to be in his early 20's, these days. It really was a strange sort of miracle, sitting here in this station wagon, in the prime of his youth, having just been on his death bed three days ago. If he didn't know any better he might guess himself to be in a sort of state of shock over it all. Was there such thing as joyous shock? Perhaps it was more fitting to say that reality hadn't quite sunk in yet.

Either way, here he was, trying to find out what to do with himself. Today, he'd made the hard decision to leave his old life behind. He was one of the rare victims of this rewind of a sort that recalled his old life with relative clarity. He'd lived a long life, and had nearly died a sad, dejected mess. Here, he had a chance to do it all again in another time. Best to make the best, right?

So, he was out looking for women to court. Why not? He could read minds! His abilities had first manifested in his fifties when he was well past his prime, and 25 years into a marriage. Now, he was single, and prime age to go trollin! He just... had to find someone. Someone... easy to approach. Someone open to new experiences with relative strangers. Jesus, he was really doing this. Was he even open to new experiences with relative strangers? No! No second guessing yourself! You're a young man, with a chance to life life to it's fullest! Go out and conquer, Simon!

He took a deep breath, and nodded to himself, looking at his young face in the sun blocker mirror for a second before stepping out of the car, and slamming the door shut. A quick straightening out of his sweater vest later, he was leaning against his car on a New York City street, just... sort of... chillin. How did one approach women these days?

Why was he doing this? Once again, foul voice of self doubt! To the pit with thee!

The young old man looked up to start scanning the people walking the street... It was mostly a collection of inane thoughts. Nothing interesting. Did she remember to pay her parking meter, did he leave his oven on, was the presentation at work good enough? Mindless fools going about their boring lives... Maybe it was best to give up for now... He'd been standing here a whole 30 seconds with nothing to show for it other than an extreme sense of embarrassment that he was even trying to do this...

Maybe he could give it another 30... 

"Heh heh heheh."

How many eggplant emoji's was too many? She was about to find out. Maybe toss in a few risque memes on top of it, if she could. No, wait, was she able to send those anymore? You know, since he'd started dating satan? Poop. Where was her pile of clean memes??

Juniper had left her apartment momentarily for coffee. It had been a bit since she'd gone out to get one since a random panic-induced had shown up uninvited and caused her to spiral into a very short but very intense depression.

Anyway, she sent along a totally boring vanilla meme and it killed her a little inside. To rectify such an injustice she moved on over into April's dms's and started up a new Meme war with her that was definitely nsfw. A few of the things she sent along actually got her thinking about some things, though. When was the last time she had oiled her leathers? Did she remember to replace that one whip? It'd started to fall apart after the last time.

Man, that one had been fun. Not as fun as the Shock Soldiers costume she had. Where was that? Also, what had she done with that light baton?? She needed to dig that whole setup out again.

She paused at a bench and sat, tucking one leg under her and settling her cold frap between her legs so she could better send snappy replies back. April was a lot smarter than her, quicker on her feet, so if she wanted to win the smut games she really needed to concentrate!

The 19yo giggled like a wee school girl as she sat there, occasionally sipping her coffee straw while plotting new and progressively dirtier things to send to her friend.

He was 15 seconds into the extra 30, and things were looking bleak. Well, this had been an excellent forray into practicing futility, best to cut it off early and save himself some embarassment. Hey! Maybe he could DL one of those newfangled dating apps all the kids talked about? Swipe right on some dames and see where it went.

Yeah, that was probably for the- what was that about eggplants? His eyes traced their way back to a woman sitting on a bench with a coffee between her legs. What a strange thought, why eggplants? Wait. Wait there was more. Other thoughts were present. He flushed a bit. Wow.

Oh- Oh wow. Woah. Was that a- people could bend that way? Her thoughts were... troubling, almost. Surely he couldn't- Fool! Soft old fool! This is exactly who you should be talking to! Don't back away now!

The artifact of a man sighed, and steadied himself, pushing his glasses up. His Id was right. He needed to take action, and initiate, lest he go back to living a life full of regrets. He straightened his sweater vest once more, and took a deep breath, striding over with all of his confidence in tow, and stopping before the young woman as she thought a particularly... forward thought.

Gross.

"Is this seat taken?" He asked, shaking off the image in her head and putting on a soft smile. It seemed she was playing some form of one-upmanship with someone, only the content was raunchy. Still, she seemed to have a fairly open approach to such things, from what he could tell.

"I hope you don't mind if I rest for a bit." There, a simple reason for him to be near her should suffice for now. There weren't a lot of benches around, after all.

Juniper was drawn from her sexy battleship game and blinked, looking up at whoever had asked about the seat. "Oh, uh... no. Nope. All yours."

She even scooted over a bit more so she wasn't hogging the whole bench or anything. The guy looked... eh, pretty unremarkable, really. Just some average guy like herself sitting on a bench. Probably on a lunch break? yeah.

She blinked at him again and forced a small smile in return. "It's a free city, my guy."

Ah, probably best to.. put the naught gifs and memes away now. Just in case he was the type to peek at other people's phones. You know, like 90% of normal people did. Instead, she switched over to playing a simple puzzle game. Huh, really... she probably could have just gotten up and headed home again, right? She'd only stopped to send a slew of texts over. There wasn't really anything keeping her here any-

Ping!

A text came in from a different contact, with a very raunchy meme involving Rob Boss and she let out a little pfft! and struggled to hold in a laugh. Man, she needed to hang out with that guy more often.

Juniper glanced over at the guy she was sitting next too after she got herself under control. "...Sorry, unexpected funny text..."

He was cute in a stuffy, sheltered nerd kinda way. Like, reminded her of the kinda guy who would blush beet red when getting his first hickey. The thought made her smile a little more genuinely.

"So whatcha resting up for?" Ope. Was she on the hunt now? She hadn't intended that today. Juni sipped her coffee innocently and turned on the bench to face him a bit better.

She was, indeed, engaging in a contest to out improper someone else. There were hints of fondness and mischevious internalized giggles about that he couldn't help but be amused by. She accepted him taking a seat, and moved to the side, sort of just glancing his way.

Her thoughts on his appearance were... standard, he supposed. He wasn't exactly a model by any stretch. He took no offense. "Thank you." He sat. He placed his hands on his legs. He looked around a bit.

What now? Seriously, he hadn't attempted to woo a stranger for... 60 plus years. Did he really think he was going to just walk into the city and walk out with a woman on his arm? No, this was all silly. He heard a text chime, and looked over to her.

Goodness gracious. Really? With a wrist watch? He tried not to look unsettled. "Oh, it's no bother, I assure you." She... thought he was cute. It was a strange, random thought. What was that about hickeys? He turned a little red at that, and looked down again. "I was... recently unwell. I have recovered, and thus, am a little winded from walking around." He spoke in an interesting cadence that seemed oddly patient, like he wasn't in a hurry to get any message out.

Almost... world weary, which was odd for a man who couldn't be over 25. He watched her as she came to the conclusion that she might be... on the hunt? Apparenlty, one might be able to walk into the city and walk out with a woman on his arm after all. Newly emboldened, he went on the counter attack.

"What brings you to this particular bench, if I may ask?" Yes, a reply in kind to her inquisition, excellent form.

Yeaaaaap. A total blusher. Adorable!

She tilted her head slightly at the mention of him being sick, thinking he meant the flu or something, and wondering just how long he had been recovered for. She is sure as hell didn't wanna swap spit with someone and end up with a bug. Lord only knew she didn't know how the heck to take care of herself in that regard. Her mind briefly wandered back to the few times she had gotten pretty sick as a kid and just had to suffer through it with stupid oils rubbed on her skin and steaming out into the air from whatever new, smelly concoction her mother had whipped up. UUugh... There was nothing worse than stewing in the midst of a fever, waiting for it to break, while quietly pondering your own mortality at seven years old.

"Is that all that winds you? I know plenty of activities that don't involve walking. You know, for health and junk." Like reverse cowgirl, and lap dances, the socket, the 69 bridge. Plenty of things to do. yup.

She lifted her plastic cup and took another sip of her frap, then wiggled it slightly. "Came out for coffee." It was promptly tucked back between her legs and she leaned against the back of the bench and propped her head upon her hand. "Stopped to send a few messages and found some fun looking company."

The 19yo grinned, and it was just a tad bit predatory. "Though, I can think of better places to have a conversation. Like... my bedroom for example. Nice and private." Was he gonna blush again? She loved making people blush for various reasons. It was the small things in life.

She liked to make him blush. This was... pretty easy, actually. Did all women these days take interest in someone so quickly, or had he just struck gold?

She thought about him saying he was sick, and he waved his hands to dismiss the thought for a second. "I assure you I am completely healthy, now. I wouldn't be out otherwise."

Her thoughts here were... troubling. Natural remedies to fight flu-like symptoms. Were here parents ignoramouses? Really, how foolish could someone get? He was pulled away from such mental ravings when she asked him what else winded him.

"A-activities, you say." Yeah, he could hear her thinking about said activities. He... honestly couldn't say he'd heard of all of those things, but she gave him a pretty strong idea what she had in mind, and he was starting to blush again.

She explained why she was here. He gulped. It was nothing doing, mind you, just his mouth was a tad dry. "And I am... fun looking company."

He didn't need to read her mind to see behind that grin. Wow. "Well... I guess that's settled, then." He stood, his whole face red at this point. "Shall we?"

Oh good, he wasn't still sick. That was a relief. Her face must have vocalized her question without her knowing.

"You look fun enough for me." She replied simply, having settled into the fact that he hadn't run off screaming or turned into a creep yet, so yay! Bonus points!

Oh, wow. He was straight to the point, wasn't he? No stuttering, beating around the bush, or anything. Huh. Cool! She stood as well, momentarily trying to figure out what to do. Well, when she'd held, uh... hands... that last time with Xavier it had felt pretty nice. She'd kinda forgotten over the years how such a simple thing could be pleasurable.

"Sounds good~" She reached on out and took his hand, squashing the niggling insecurities about the action as best she could.

"I'm Juniper, by the way... nice to meet you, ya know."

She only lived a couple of blocks down from where they currently were, so it wasn't much of a walk by any stretch. Though, he had mentioned getting easily winded.

She extended her power onto him to make the walk easier as they got going.

"You're pretty cute when you blush. Are you inexperienced? I can show you quite a few things if you are."

This was technically her second, or... was it third? Eh, whatever. One of a few hookups after that disaster of a date and subsequently scrapping a plan to flee a few states over and start new somewhere.

She leaned in slightly so she could whisper some more, er... detailed things to him, just to see his reaction and get a feel for what he was into.

This girl was... decidedly amusing. Her mind was like a bee hopping from flower to perverted flower. Her thoughts were relatively simple and straightforward for the most part. She thought about a boy, and he obvserved the thoughts with a straight face.

Ah, she had a sort of crush, perhaps, but that wasn't stopping her from pursuing him. His eyes widened almost imperceptibly as she thought about holding hands, and just... chose to do to.

That was when it got a little more real. In his mind he saw Edna, young and beautiful, her wide smile and deep brown eyes searching his soul as he held her hand in his. An old, young heart skipped a beat, but he pressed through the images and started following her. "It is a pleasure to meet you, Juniper, I am Simon."

She only lived a few blocks away. This was happening soon. He noticed the thought toying through her mind before she acted on it... She was to use her powers on him. What power? Oh. Interesting. He would allow it. He looked down his his body experimentally as she phased him to lighten him up. Fascinating. Also, requiring a lot of complex thought, though it seemed she took to it as second nature. Ah. The man who studied boats and how to row would never get across the river as fast as the man who took the journey every day. She knows the stream.

He looked back as she asked him if he was inexperienced. To lie? In truth, he had a lifetime of experience. Though... "I have only ever... Been with one person." That was the truth. Edna was his first, and he'd been so sure he would also have been his last. Fate had a funny way.

She had lost count of how many people she'd slept with recently, and she was flighty, interesting. His eyes widened as she leaned in to whisper what was on her mind. He heard the thoughts as she fomulated what she was about to say. Nope. Nope nope nope. Panic time! Okay, so, in order to stop from having THAT whispered in his ear, he quickly concocted a plan.

-You really need to sneeze.-

It was a simple suggestion, but hopefully it would pull her attention away to break that train of thought. He was turning red enough already, even though he'd tried to keep a relative poker face through all of this.

The sudden and very strong urge to sneeze came over her, so she did what any normal person would do and turned full away so as to not sneeze all over poor Simon. She even let go of his hand so she could duck her head fully into her sweater to control any gross droplets.

"ACHOO!"

Jeez, something must have flown past and really gotten up into her nose to cause that out of blue. "Oof, sorry. Caught me by surprise."

Her hands settled back into the pocket of her sweater and she smiled guiltily. What had she been talking about again? Oh, right.

"Ah, well, that's okay. Let me know if I'm like, coming on too strong, yeah? I've got a lot of experience so I tend to just kinda jump right in. I can adapt thou, so whatever you're comfortable with."

She'd been with people like that before. New to things and just testing the waters, or just out of a relationship and nervous about how to start something new. She'd been there before. It was half the reason she liked catering more to her partner's inclination than her own most of the time. Well, to a degree.

"Sorry if I spooked ya at all."

The sneeze gave reprieve. A moment to gather his thoughts, and to pull his hand away so that they weren't touching anymore.

"It's not a problem. A perfectly natural biological reaction to an irritant. No need to apologize, Juniper." After all, he'd made her do it. Needless to say, it had gone off without a hitch, buying him enough time to center himself.

He reminded himself that this needed to be done. New life, new mindset. It was time to let go.

She was considerate, at least. Was he so obviously having second thoughts? Perhaps. He couldn't read his own mind, after all. Believe it or not, many people didn't really know what they were truly thinking. At times, the hardest person to see could be yourself.

Musings aside, he needed to progress this. "You are quite forward, but I do not mind it. I imagine it saves a lot of time, after all. You only get so much time."

He understood that well enough, though for many it was a hard lesson to learn. So was being considerate, which... she appeared to be. Was it through a need to be liked, or was she just a considerate person? time would tell

She squinted at him a bit for the way he talked. Big words, all strung together like he wrote a lot of essays. A super-nerd then? He talked like a grandpa. It was oddly cute. An interesting mannerism if nothing else.

She did notice that he wasn't reaching for her hand again and wondered if that had been a wrong step on her part. Maybe it wasn't as normal as she thought? Maybe hand-holding wasn't an appropriate thing for hookups. Whatever slight disappointment she might have felt was overshadowed by the urge not to pressure him into anything he didn't wanna do, handholding included. Everybody had their own limits, after all.

"Eh, it's just... why make a whole big another thing out of it if that's what the intention is anyway? I'm not into pretending something is what it isn't. I'd rather just get to the root of it and go from there." She tended not to like the various attempts people made at being with her when it was approached from a 'hey we should date' kind of direction when everyone with a brain could tell what the real purpose was.

She also didn't get why some people went for the super hard to get approach when ultimately they had the same end goal. She wasn't about to try and drag someone along for bragging rights later when she could get what she wanted and be done with it in half the time. "You're cute, you must think I'm cute, and we seemingly have the same end goal. Bam. done."

Goodness. Her facial expression and her thoughts together were rather... direct. He supposed it was fitting to say he sounded like a... grand father. He was old enough to be. She found it cute, though, so... thanks?

She had thoughts about the hand thing. She seemed rather cautious for someone who was trying to hook up with someone. Then again, those were the thoughts of someone who grew up in this more modern age, right? Well, some of them, anyway.

She went on to explain herself further. "That makes sense." He stated plainly. She didn't like fake people, who hid what they truly wanted and tried to play some sort of game in order to get sex. She continued with more explaination. Goodness, she really did know how to say the same thing over and over again.

He weighed her statement for a moment. She was attractive to him. He wouldn't have approached her with this in mind otherwise. Still, she stated it all so simply, as if anyone ever made it that simple.

Well, anyone other than her. "Are we nearly there?" He knew where they were in relation to where she wanted to be. People tended to talk to themselves in their heads about where they were going. Reminders, recognising land marks, estimating times. Those were things people did without much thought. He just listened.

Why did he ask, then? To change her train of thought. He was getting tired of her musings on hooking up with strangers.

"Hm?" Oh, right. "Yup, it's just over there!" She pointed at her building in all of is grungy, rundown glory. It actually wasn't as bad as it had been before Xavier had moved in. He'd really had a positive influence on Saul in making sure things stayed clean and running.... eh, mostly, anyway.

She didn't know what else to talk about because, well... that wasn't the point really. The rest of the walk was spent in relative silence. The elevator was working, thankfully, and before she knew it they were up at her front door. She contemplated spending time to actually unlock all of the locks but abandoned the idea quickly. Too much effort.

"Welcome to my humble abode." She peeled off her hoodie, laying it over the counter in front of her small kitchen, and scooped up one of the cats to put them in the bathroom for now. Both of them had come rushing toward them the moment they heard her voice.

"Want anything to drink?" Maybe that would calm him down a bit? She shrugged internally as she scooped up Berry and deposited him in the bathroom as well.

And then it was just the two of them. She shifted on her feet awkwardly for a moment rubbing at one bear arm. Yup.

This was the most awkward hookup ever. Time to dive in!

She crossed the space to him and moved to lay a calm, but firm kiss on him. Gotta start somewhere, right?

Ah, right. Here they were. It was... a quaint dwelling. Wow, that thought made him feel posh, but. How else could you describe this place? Quaint seemed polite. He kept a straight face as he rode up the herky jerky elevator with her.

"Wow, yeah, it's... nice."

Ghetto? Was that the right word? She dragged him over to the door of he apartment, and... well, it all honestly passed like some sort of strange fever dream. Was it really this easy to just... go sleep with someone? She removed her hoody, put her cats away, and asking him if he wanted a drink.

"Ah, no, no thanks. I don't like to cloud my mind." He nodded awkwardly, and took a look around the apartment itself. It was... honestly, a little barren. His eyes started to focus on a lone valentines day card on the wall when she just walked up and kissed him! Oh.... Oh... Oh dear.

This was a mistake. He froze up from the sudden affection, before awkwardly guiding a shaking hand up to her shoulder to push her away firmly but gently. "oh.... Oh no..." Was... Was he weeping?

He was most definitely weeping.