>"Do you think I know?"

He had seemed pretty confident for a guy that didn't know. Cafas didn't know what to believe, just that now he'd made eye contact his head was having trouble again. He looked away and back to his drink, trying to shake the tilting feeling he was getting. Why on Earth was he so dizzy? If not the drink or drugs... The guy seriously had to know something.

"No really. Look if it's not under your control, that's fine, I'd just really like to know. Is it gonna get worse?" He sounded awfully calm for all that he felt like someone had drugged him. Maybe the guy was a mutant? They didn't always have control over when their powers activated. Quite a lot of melted metal could attest to that.

Is the ground super far away? Weird...

>>"No really. Look if it's not under your control, that's fine, I'd just really like to know. Is it gonna get worse?"

"If you would stop trying to look me in the eye, no," said Kai, pausing briefly to wrinkle his nose as soda burp passed. Fairy Prince's tone was calm enough for a guy who couldn't just seem to figure things out, and not altogether confrontational... yet. So here went, and he might as well say goodbye to all chances of normal human interaction after this.

Fine, so maybe it wasn't much of a loss. Their conversation had always been particularly one sided, one way or the other, and it wasn't like the aim of coming into this bar had been to exchange pleasantries with other people, anyway.

"Don't make eye contact and stop me if I talk for more than a couple seconds at a time, that's all I can say." After this, if Cafas managed not to pass out in the middle of his explanation. How inebriated was he, really? Kai didn't think he'd talked overly much for him to do more than blink all over the place, but it was hard to tell where his own influence ended and the alcohol's began. "I think you're a X, right? But not a telepath?"

Telepaths touched something, an effect like it maybe. The teen wasn't sure, but in any case it was the only part of his power he didn't mind.

>"If you would stop trying to look me in the eye, no. Don't make eye contact and stop me if I talk for more than a couple seconds at a time, that's all I can say."

Good to know.

Cafas felt those sentences, now the guy mentioned it. That sure explained a lot. He went back to his drink with a renewed trust. "Fair enough. I think I'll give the grog a rest anyway." So much of a rest that he drained his glass. Then ordered another. Whatever, who was he trying to impress? No-one, that's who.

>"I think you're a X, right? But not a telepath?"

"I am, and I'm not. I manipulate metal, actually. Why? Mutation particularly bad for telepaths?" Telepathy was creepy. Cafas wouldn't mind a mutation that protected him from it. Maybe some kind of helmet he could wear. That would look dumb though, just walking around in a helmet. May as well make it red and purple to really complete the look.

"What's your name anyway?"

Fairy Prince took this explanation well enough. For his own part, Kai managed not to scoff at his comment and subsequent ordering of another drink- give the grog a rest, indeed.

>>"I am, and I'm not. I manipulate metal, actually. Why? Mutation particularly bad for telepaths?"

"Maybe. I'm not sure," he shrugged. Where he'd grown up mutants weren't quite as thick as in they were in New York, so it hadn't been like he'd had all that many encounters with a telepath. There had been that one circumstance, but even that was iffy...

The teen drained the last inch of his Coke. "The name's Kai" he said, with a smile that practically bled boredom. Some cousin of sugar was running through his veins, and sitting still was not this cousin's idea of a good time.

Not his, either, but it wasn't like he was going to say that to Cafas' face. 

"Maybe. I'm not sure,"

"The name's Kai"

Kai, interesting. Something else for Cafas to forget by the next day. Potentially.

Cafas grabbed his new drink and swiveled on his seat. "So, judging by the arm band, drinking isn't why you're here. That leaves dancing, fighting or picking up. I could use the break from sitting down, so which is it?" Cafas was pretty handy at two of those, and his celebrity went quite some way with the last, not that he'd had an opportunity to make the most of that.

Hopefully it's not fighting. I'd hate to have to throw him out.

A couple of people had noticed him, though no more had decided to try their luck at talking to him. The dance floor was busy enough to lose yourself in. Maybe that was actually an option. He wasn't much of a jazz dancer, not that Cafas knew if jazz had specific dance moves. Nor did half the people on the dance floor from what he could see.

>>"So, judging by the arm band, drinking isn't why you're here. That leaves dancing, fighting or picking up. I could use the break from sitting down, so which is it?"

It wasn't a bad evaluation of the bar experience, all in all. Kai glanced down at the wristband that had betrayed him with a smirk. Dancing, fighting, or picking up? He'd come mostly just to get the experience and maybe to socialize with the one group of people he actually could socialize with, but it he wasn't about to say that, either. Anyway, the current sugar high he was on demanded something more.

"Dancing," he decided after a moment. "Unless you'd rather... something else?"

>"Dancing, Unless you'd rather... something else?"

"Nah, I fight enough, and I really only have one woman on my mind right now." Cafas stood up and sipped his drink down to travelling level. "Come on." He set off towards the dance floor. Edging through the crowd, careful not to spill a drink. There just wasn't a more universal way to start a fight.

Is that a move to intercept?

It turned out yes. Cafas breathed a sigh of relief. Without too much hesitation he started dancing. He went for something reasonably relaxed and club-y. He really didn't feel like attracting the level of attention Maya and he had, plus his drink would spill if he was too energetic.

The crowd was kind of oppressively close compared to the bubble Maya had afforded them. People wearing loud and revealing clothes all around made Cafas just a little uncomfortable too. Moving was nice though, as was the energy the people provided.

It struck him... like a lightning bolt... frying his hair. Kai's smile, all of a sudden, was anything but bored as he trailed Cafas through the crowd. "Maya Csendes, is it?" he enunciated, gloating much as a middle school girl might, upon discovering her best friend's crush. "The one and only woman," whose name he could never mispronounce because it was the name of an unicorn, literally, "on your mind?" 

Not that he was interested, mind you. Except to know whether he should run, because the headlines had seemed to portray Mrs. Csendes as somewhat smitten, and if her taste in men still ran along the same lines... That would be decidedly amusing, although he honestly didn't think Fairy Prince had it in his X-man heart to go down that road.  

Exhibit: A metal mancer with a drinking problem, against the world! 

The teen was smirking. It was his default expression. It may well have been at himself, trying to dance to jazz and completely and utterly failing.

"Maya Csendes, is it? The one and only woman, on your mind?"

That was... Cafas gave the kid a slightly surprised frown. Not that he knew who Cafas had meant, that much was easily discerned from any given celebrity gossip magazine. More that he'd gotten the pronunciation correct. That was a rare thing outside the mansion, or people from eastern Europe.

Not that Kai couldn't be from the Mansion. That smile, gloating at its own deduction, would fit right in. They seemed to attract kids that thought far to highly of themselves.

"It is. That smile suggests you think this is interesting for some reason. You know Maya?" If he did, then Cafas might need to behave himself with the drinking. "He passed out on the bar." were not words he thought would improve his chances with his fellow X-man.

The surprised sort of frown from Fairy Prince was duly received. Score! A reaction was all Kai had been going for, and now he found himself rather pleased despite the bare and sweaty and awkward skin crowding all around them. This was his specialty, to be vague and conceited and make glitchy conversation.

"I do my best," said Kai, "to find everything of interest." He watched what the other did and flapped his arms around him accordingly, and pretended that it was for the sake of the dance that he paused. "I'm sure you know her better than I."

If Fairy Prince cared to deliberate as to why he would be so bothered by that, it might as well have been an invitation to. For his part, the teen totally didn't care about any of it except that it had potential to be embarrassing for the other party.

Now shuffling, now swaying. Two minutes. He was bored again. "Shall we retire from the dance floor, you think?"