Recent Posts

It was certainly strange, knowing his way around but not the smaller stores. And not knowing anyone, even when he thought he recognized someone and dared to talk to them. If he'd gone through that rip without knowing it, his only logical conclusion would be that something had gone wrong in his head, that maybe something hadn't put itself back where it was supposed to be or hadn't come back from being snow at all.

He did know, though, so it was just disconcerting. It didn't stop him from taking some anti-mutant idiot's wallet the day before. Seriously, how did a human ever think it was a good idea to pick a fight with a mutant? He didn't even need to use his powers on them, but they came on their own. Really, as power sets went he scored low on offence. Great on defence, though; between regeneration and snow it took a special sort of thug to do any lasting damage at all.

Well, he'd just think of the money he'd lifted as compensation for time wasted, and use it to kill time somewhere with air conditioning. Like an ice cream store. Like this ice cream store. Which had lots of windows looking out on a not-so-quiet street, despite the lack of people. Just a few middle-aged nobodies.

It was mostly experience with that sort of expression that encouraged him to finish his drawn-out ice cream, and a dose of gut instinct. He dropped the empty paper dish and napkins in the trash and slipped through the door with enough curve to drawn a cooler breeze around himself, and a scattering of stray flakes. Three adults, two male and one female, and a teenaged girl who looked to have clued into her situation. Not a ton of confidence, though, or muscle tone. Unless she was hiding an especially powerful ability, and a good amount of skill with it, it wasn't looking all that great for her.

So he walked up beside her, thumbs loosely hooked in his jeans' pockets and chin raised enough to make slow, quiet eye contact with each of the three humans. Their vitriol had already made their position clear... and the nature of their intent, if not the details. And hey, if his sharply mismatched eyes didn't clue them into the fact that he was also a mutant, the heavy white streaking on the same side as his silver eye would do the trick. Or the snow hanging around him despite the summer heat.

And if they still didn't care, and if him standing there silently didn't dissuade them, and they didn't care about the defined, lean muscle cording his arms, or his loose, mobile, faintly martial stance... well.

At that point, they had it coming.

After sitting around and ctrl-R-ing for a few minutes, Aiden hauled himself up to make more tea. There ought to have been enough time for the kitchen fridge to have made more ice cubes, at least. Enough for a mug, anyway.

He was in luck, and spent a few minutes steeping tea and fishing out the tea bag and fitting in ice cubes until his mug was just about to overflow. The ice cubes at the bottom melted quickly, though, and he was soon able to creep back to his officially air-conditioned room. Another refresh.

Oh! A reply! He swung into his chair. A couple of links... okay, he'd come across that one at least. Water didn't work as a cooling system that would also be exposed to freezing temperatures, and he was kind of hesitant to use something toxic like antifreeze. His clothes turned to snow too when he shifted, after all, and he had no way of knowing if there was any danger inherent with mixing himself with other... stuff. Not that he was worried enough to avoid mixing with clothing, because going around naked would be infinitely worse than fusing with clothing or something.

Anyway.

<I could probably manage one, but there are some drawbacks. At least in my situation, anyway.

By most people's standards, the temperatures I deal with aren't particularly special, but in the course of my work it can drop below freezing in very little time. So fluid-based cooling systems are... problematic. As for time frame, most of the time a few hours' runtime would be enough, if it could recharge or refill fairly quickly, but there is the potential for extended use. My work can be unpredictable that way.>

Like Alaska. Although that wasn't a heat issue. Or kind of a lack of heat issue, indirectly?

<It also needs to be able to withstand physical impact. Blunt and ideally edged.> Not that he ever planned on getting stabbed, but again, potential. And realistically he was going to get hit sometimes. <Thanks for replying, by the way.>

Olympians? He probably shouldn't voice his hesitation, though, or Iggy would get all flustered and frustrated again. "Mythology really wasn't big when I was in high school, okay. And it's been a few years since I've had anything to do with it."

...

...

"Sam can make frost, but I don't actually push the temperature much below freezing when I work. Just cold enough to snow. This cold is all from the Danger Room." Not that Frost was actually bad as a code name. It just felt... like it wasn't quite the right fit. It implied a different sort of cold association, he supposed. He did snow. But Snow was a really bad code name option. Too short and simple, and too likely to come up in conversation. Potentially distracting.

Hm. He hadn't really put much thought into this in... a long while. When had he settled into not having a formal, fitting code name?

PLEASE CAN SHE MEET MEMO

Both for indigenous socializing and because it ought to be fun to see how their powers interact XD

Aiden sighed and sort of just looked at Iggy. "I'm not an idiot. Zeus is another god. The top god for that.. group of deities." Slightly better than just claiming to know him, but probably not enough to convince Iggy. "And basically every other one around was either his kid or he slept with them." It was that or try to figure out what he remembered about something or someone springing forth from his forehead, okay? Now it was really time to change the subject.

"Too long," he said automatically, "And unprofessional. Besides, you'll have to beat 'Ai' for comm speed and clarity."

Uh. Had the topic change gone into awkward territory or something? Aiden at least had enough experience with crushing awkwardness to potentially recognize maybe symptoms of it in others, but that in no way meant he had any fricking clue what to do about it. Uuummmmm. Er. Well. "Hey, if you have a clear code name, go for it."

He sucked at reassuring other people. So much.

Iggy's aim wasn't bad, but Aiden had been training for all sorts of 'combat' for years, and he'd have to be faster, more predictive, and altogether more subtle. He might also have a better chance of hitting Aiden if they weren't in so much snow... and if Aiden weren't looking to risk splitting himself apart by getting hit by a projectile of uncertain properties. Iggy clearly didn't consider it dangerous, but there was a psychological component to the secondary shift (or, rather, it was mostly psychological).

"I've heard the name. I just don't do a lot of mythology stuff." Especially old European mythology. Honestly, right now the first thing creeping to mind at 'Apollo' was 'Apollonius.' Which... did also reference sun. Sort of. In a weird pollinating butterfly robot angel way. ANYWAY.

Iggy's next shot came a little closer to where Aiden was heading, and he rolled sideways to avoid it, briefly vanishing in a rush of snow fluffed up from the ground. Out of the flurries flew a practiced-blind shot. Aiden's eyes didn't exactly work better in snow than anyone else's; he was just usually up against people with significantly less camouflage that himself. "Sounds impressive, but like I said..."

...

"Frosty grump face?"