Derek Menes

He was totally incognito. Hair all twisted up under a cat-eared baseball cap (because why not), sunglasses (because it was summer, okay? super sunny), and a ridiculously expensive torn tee that hadn't actually been torn when he bought it... but everyone assumed it was intentionally, so that was cool. Even matched his jeans, although more of his tan showed through his shoulders than his thighs.

He was also hanging out on the edge of a flowery, showy fountain, humming along to random mall music over the rippling drone of crowded space, and probably completely blowing his cover by twisting the fountain's sprinkly bits into curlicues and flowers and occasionally clumsily shaped animals. He didn't usually do animals, okay. And moving things were hard.

Hm.  That mini horse didn't look too bad.  He made it 'run' through the fountain spray to the bench beside himself, and lifted it up to eye level on a palm.

...

Hah, now it was a unicorn.  Unicorns were everyone's favourite, weren't they?  Or maybe dragons were.  That many limbs were probably beyond his overall skill level, though, never mind his affinity for this particular batch of water.  All right, little unicorn, go dance away and visit some people!  At least some of the people hanging around were watching the mini-show, so why not make them happy?  Entertain them?  And maybe then he'd finish his shopping.  Or get food.  Maybe both.  Food was almost always a great addition, after all, and there were undoubtedly some super cute summer skirts on sale.


Losing Mercury's mercurial attention, the little water unicorn tumbled into passive liquid, dampening the ledge surrounding the fountain.  The transient show above continued, though, with physics-defying patterns rippling through the airborne water as Mercury's idle fancy dictated.  It was playful water to start, and starting to be quite fond of him.  Or he was fond of it.  Or however he ought to define the whole local affinity deal.

Derek was going to the mall because he deserved to spend some money. His rent was paid for the month, he restocked the fridge of the third floor of the Honeycomb Co-op, he even donated five percent of his paycheck to a nonprofit mutant organization that helped homeless teenage mutants. So, yeah, he deserved to splurge a bit.

Dressed in a green tank top and white shorts, Derek got himself out of the Haven town car and headed toward the inside of the mall. As he was walking, he turned to look at a guy who was...using his hydrokinesis? He was about thirty feet away so he wasn't too sure. The twenty year old made his way over to the man with a small smile on his face and sat down on the edge of the fountain. Because he was usually indirect, all Derek did was study the flowers for a second. They looked like daisies and perhaps pansies? He wasn't too sure. Xavia would know, though.

Clearing his throat, Derek slowly turned to look over at the man. "Beautiful day out, huh?" 

Oh, this was a pretty good song, and even one he knew well enough to sing without music. Being a professional singer made for some killer karaoke too. He wouldn't perform someone else's music at a proper show without formal permission (legal stuff; he had someone else to make those calls, fortunately) but if he wasn't making money off it, it was usually fine. Apparently.

So he hummed along, and scattered flowers like water (or was it water like flowers? water-flowers like flower-water?) around the fountain, sometimes gesturing with his fingertips in a faint echo of orchestral conduction. Eventually the song ended, and Mercury let the water collect into a loose sphere a few feet away. It was easier to hold it than to draw out all the individual bits of water that had grown used to him, and he was just going to check his ph-

"Beautiful day out, huh?" 

Beautiful person, more like! Mercury absently spun the water higher as he turned on the ledge, hooking an ankle on his knee. "It certainly is, and growing even better." He tugged off his sunglasses to see better, abandoning his weak but somewhat active attempt to go unrecognized. "Is there something I can help you with?"

Derek blushed a bit. Did this guy flirting with him? Of course not, right? I mean, Derek thought that he was an average looking person. Granted he has attracted attention from guys that were out of his league. He watched as a couple of bees flew over and started to collect the nectar from the daisies and pansies that circled around the fountain.

"Oh, no. I was just...-- you caught my attention with you usin' your power." He answered with a coy shrug and his light southern accent. Derek slowly turned his hand upwards and watched as those same bees came and landed on his palm. This caused him to smile. "It's amazin'. I know another hydrokinetic." He smiled some and offered his hand.

"I'm Derek, by the way."

Oh? This sweet sleek youngling didn't recognize him, and was drawn over anyway? Not that being recognized was bad, just sometimes counterproductive. Like getting swarmed and not being able to shop. Flirting, though, that he could totes do regardless. And he was going to start by streaming his ball of water - the whole thing really wasn't all that big, but it still spread into a comfortable spray - in a loose loop around his admirer while he slid himself a bit closer. No need to shout and all that.

"I've run into a few myself, over the years, though none around here, and none who work in quite the same way." Bee-friendly, and likely a subtler display of power than Mercury's super open announcement to anyone with a functioning visual sense. Or, less directly, a functioning auditory sense! Because people did talk. "The diversity of talents around is really quite inspiring, don't you think?"

Mercury accepted the offered hand lightly, long-fingered and manicured, but his shake was practiced and confident. "Mercury, Mercury Fall." Though he spoke sweetly and softly, and certainly wasn't stressing out over anything, he did glance across the crowd to see if he had drawn any attention. Hm, perhaps a bit. Not a problem as long as long as no one tried to hug him at the same time as forty other people without warning. They tended to run into each other, see.

>> "The diversity of talents around is really quite inspiring, don't you think?[/font]

"I agree. I love seein' people embrace their mutations. Too many times mutants are told to hide who they are." Derek knew that personally with growing up in south where mutants are less accepted. Thankfully he grew up in a large city with plenty of diversity.

Mercury Fall? That name sounded very familiar, but he wasn't able to put a finger on it. Though, the one thing that did catch his attention was his name. "Mercury, huh? Named after the Roman god of trade and Commerce?" Derek had a thing for mythology ranging from the Greco-Roman gods to the Yoruba Orishas. He gently stroked his hand with his thumb before releasing his hand.

Oh, didn't he know it. "The world over, unfortunately. But even in the most dangerous places there is still hope." At least, in the most dangerous places his manager let him perform. He also wasn't an idiot with a death wish. He just wished people didn't have to die, or survive on the edge of emotional death or anything. "But most places are slowly getting better, and I help where I can."

And he'd managed to catch Derek's attention in another way again! "Probably, but also because my mom's weird. Great lady, totally awesome, but objectively." He shook his head, grinning at the memory as much as the thumb-stroke. Derek better not think he'd go and miss that. "Bet you can't guess my middle name." Not that it totally wasn't on the internet. Along with more videos of him than either he or apparently the internet could count. The old home videos of him doing weird stuff with water at his mother's challenges still picked up new views sometimes.

Once he had his hand back - for the moment - Mercury leaned forward and laced his fingers below his chin. "So, Derek, why don't you tell me a bit about yourself?"

>> "But most places are slowly getting better, and I help where I can."[/i]

Derek nodded his head. That was good that Mercury was working for the tolerance of mutants, "I hear ya there. I'm tryna do the same thin'. I just wish that weren't so much bigotry, y'know?" Derek frowned a bit, but tried not to let it get to him too much.

He laughed a bit, "she sounds like a lovely woman." Derek bit his lip. This guy was really nice! "Mm...Poseidon? Neptune? Trident?" He guessed with a grin. "It has to be somethin' in that ball park."

"About myself? Uh, well, like I said earlier my name's Derek, I'm twenty years old. I'm a mutant and...I'm gay and...yeah." He shrugged his shoulders with a grin, "and you?"

"Nope, nope, and nope! No indication I had any association with water until I was a teenager; the hair is a choice." And wasn't it hiding? He probably shouldn't take off his hat, given how much effort it had been to get all of his hair comfortably underneath it, but he could tug a strand loose and coil it around a fingertip before letting it fall against his cheek. Was it done with flirtatious intent?

Why yes. Yes it was.

"I will admit that it's somewhat similar in origin, since my mother was clearly on a kick at the time." And even if Derek didn't happen across the right other somewhat-airborne figure, well, this conversation was still going delightfully well.

Case in point: mini bio with all the information Derek considered most significant. Both telling and telling, really, and altogether worthy of an easy smile and an absent background show of rippling water stretched into a broad panel. "Well, Derek, it is an absolutely pleasure to meet you. To follow on your theme... well, I am a touch older than you, I confess, but I don't think twenty-five is old, do you?" One of his eyelids dipped in a shadow of a wink, just an incomplete flutter. "I am indeed a mutant myself, of a hydrophilic persuasion, and... well. Shall we just say that I enjoy people, and every body has a source of pleasure?"

Mercury's water might be gesturing to Derek's fit shape, but the singer's eyes stayed, almost teasingly, on Derek's face.

Derek studied Mercury for a bit. He truly wondered what his middle name was. With a click of his tongue, he guessed again, "Charles? Antony? Tiberius?" he offered, "can I at least get the first letter?" The twenty year old. He noticed him play with a strand of his purple hair. That was interesting.

"Nah, twenty-five isn't old. Not in my opinion." Derek smiled and studied him closely. So he was pansexual, then? That was good to know. "Nice," he smiled some and studied Mercury's face, "I'm of an...animalia persuasion." He paused after a while.

"Maybe I can we get dinner sometime? I usually don't do this, but I feel like I'm readin' your signals right." He gestured to the water behind them.

"Oh, you're just getting colder and colder!" He smirked and gave one hand a casual wave. "I suppose a hint won't hurt. The first letter has been in half of the names you've tried, and isn't in my first or last name - or in your name." And just in case that wasn't enough of a hint, he twisted the water into a column where Derek ought to be able to see it.

On the other hand, Derek might be distracted by Mercury's grin, at the whole not-old bit, so he spun the simple letter around a little while longer before letting it puddle.

The water burst into a shower of mini fireworks and Mercury clapped his hands in front of his enormous grin. He had a huge soft spot for shy 'dorbs, but when cute people came out and said what they wanted? Delicious. He leaned forward a bit. "That sounds like an excellent idea," he agreed. "But I insist, even in advance, that you allow me to pay for everything." If Derek did manage to be more financially comfortable than Mercury, well, who paid for what really wasn't an issue. "No strings to that, either; I simply enjoy treating others~"

Now for the next question: now, or later? Or both? Mm. "Here, pass me your phone." His extended fingers twitched in default Mercury excitement. "I'll add myself, and then we can organize things however we like!"

Derek let out a groan as he tried to think of the middle name. "I have no idea, Mercury, you're just gonna have to tell me. Something with a 'T'?" He raised his elbows in question. He glanced at the pillar of water behind him, then back at Mercury. Derek wasn't the greatest guesser, but he hoped that he was able to guess the right letter.

"I'm not sure, I can pay for my part, honestly," he didn't want to put Mercury through that kind of trouble, "come on, Mercury. If you're payin' for dinner, then dessert's in me. O-on me. I meant on me," he bliushed. God, now he wanted to run and hide. Derek fumbled for his phone in his right pocket and pulled it out. He unlocked it before handing it to Mercury.

"There ya go."

T? T?! Where did Derek get T? That was sulk worthy. "I meant I. As in Icarus. Which is completely pointless but it's what's on all my documentation." He had a lot of documentation. For both Australia and the United States, at this point. So much paperwork... But anyway! Paperwork that wasn't even looming in any way had absolutely nothing on flirting with cute people. So back to that!

"I'm sure you can, Derek," Mercury purred with complete honesty and conviction, "but my accounts won't even notice." His manager maybe... but it was his money and he could do what he wanted! Nyeh! 'Sides, it was just one dinner, and it probably wouldn't even be in the top end for how expensive this city could go. Although that one place deserved its stars... but there were so many other places! Hmm, hmm. So many options. And they certainly didn't need to stay in one place. Hmm, mmm.

Hm-wha?

Oh. Heh. Eh eh. Eheheheheheheheh that was. Aheh, oh wow it was hard not to giggle, even covering his face. He couldn't not look at Derek, all that blushing and fumbling, and he'd said - he'd said - and he'd changed it, and it was just as good - "How am I supposed to argue now?" Or wait, but Derek had passed his phone over so it was time to handle that.

Boop boop boop, quick cute selfie and air kiss for a contact picture, and then he shot a quick text to himself to nab the number on his own phone. Derek might later notice that Mercury had sent Hey from a cutie <3, but for now Mercury exited out of the messenger app and set the locked phone back in Derek's hand. With slightly more skin contact than was necessary, but hey, he wanted to. "So, m'dear, were you busy tonight?"

Derek facepalmed. He was such an idiot even when he wasn't trying to be. He hoped that Mercury wasn't turned off by his stupidly. "Your middle name is Icarus? That's so unique!" It was true, someone with the name "Mercury Icarus Fall" didn't come across his path often. Though, there was something very interesting. Like he was special.

Oh? Derek smiled some at fhe purple haired man that was sitting next to him, "I guess that's why your name is Mercury, huh?" He asked with a raised eyebrow his eyebrows,

"...I'm so sorry. Sometimes my mind is..." Derek shook his head and groaned. He was never going to live that down.

The kissy face made Derek laugh a bit. It was cute in a good way. Once he was handed his phone, the mutant shoved it into his pocket. "Tonight? No, I'm not doin' anythin'. We can do somethin' later if you want."

Yes, unique was definitely an accurate word. "At least I don't have a second middle name. That could get awkward quickly."

And having said that - "When I was born, my mother was far more impulsive than prophetic. She never complains about my music being more popular than hers, but she couldn't have expected it, especially that early!" He had some good memories of hanging with her garage bands, though. "If she'd been planning things, then she probably would have gone with... there're a bunch of gods and goddesses of music, aren't there? One of those." And then Derek could feel a little more secure by providing specialized knowledge again! And maybe Mercury would like one of the suggestions and use it as a codename or something. A secret name for when he was trying to be super secret!

Eheheh. Mercury rubbed his hands together with all the drama of a proper-presenting supervillain. "That is excellent. The next question, though, is just how much later?" Only covering a little bit for Mercury's next question for himself: where should they go, and did he have time to sweet-talk a reservation out of someone?