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It seemed that Richard had encouraged her in some way, she looked a little more hopeful.

>"A false body would only be a stopgap. I know" They way she said it almost sounded as if she had come to make peace with that fact.

>”My mutation will kill me one day. I’ve seen Dr. Ingram at Mondragon Labs and Dr. Velez of Faust Pharmaceuticals genetic research department. It’s an absolute certainty. There’s also a family president.”



"It may well be none of my business, but have you thought of trying to suppress your X-gene? Either chemically or by adapted or technology? Would that Help? Sorry, just being curious."



>”I don’t really want to waste your time, Mr. Richard. And I can’t really afford to pay you a mechanical engineer’s wages for your time. I’m just… browsing, really.”

Richard had to smile at this. "Maya, firstly please, Please loose the Mr, Just Richard would be fine. although I should really think about getting a moniker." He grinned to himself before continuing."Secondly , who said anything about paying, or accepting pay? Maya I spend all day every day designing things for the masses or weapon systems for military/ security types, I see this as a challenge, as I have not done a lot to do with 3D printing or polymer mixes. Secondly it is also a chance for me to experiment/ train my powers as plastic a whole lot easier to manipulate for me than metal." Richard shivered slightly in recollection of when he had tried to manipulate some of the harder metals. He had almost passed out. "Thirdly this is a chance for me to say at the end of this that I helped make one persons life better, someone who I can see and interact with, not just being able to say that I have made some faceless masses lives somehow better. I would not dream of accepting pay. I have unused vacation time anyway." Richard smiled at Maya. He liked her in a friendly way. Her situation tugged on his heart strings a little.



Suddenly his eyes lit up, he had had a flash of inspiration. "I say, Maya, I have just thought of something. This tech convention goes on for two weeks. I could propose a challenge. To create a lifelike humanoid suite that could be controlled by aeromancers for the purpose of "cinema and theatrics". Well that is how I would sell it. We both know the real reason. But think of it this way, if we succeed we ahve a marketable product and get people to help work on it. I bet I can get quite a few of the stall owners to chip in. Let's see, Joe can contribute his GPU computing technology. Andy and his wife Vivian do Life size 3D scanning, Jason does large scale multi material 3D printing and Justin works on custom polymer mixes. This could actually work. If you don't mind being the tester of course...."

Richard hoped he was not being too intense, he could be at times. The more he considered his idea the more he liked it. For producers it would attractive as they could essentially 3D print any character they wanted and employ a mutant to animate them, which would save a fortune on animation and they could design any "body" they wanted, and if Maya would not mind being the gunie pig... well at least she would get a working prototype out of it. The challenges were no small feat but the reward if they pulled it off, would be big. Richhard also realized that..hmm how to put this, he would ahve to work with a 3D scan of her, if she accepted of course. A skin tight version of her. Richard was no Pervert and was fully capable of looking at things scientifically and switching the other part of his brain off for a project, but other people might not understand. comme to think of it Maya mught not be comfortable with that herself. But how to bring it up, should he bring it up? Would she even agree to something like this?

>"They thought, I was crazy to start a bar in the city with the highest mutant density and mutant related violent crime rates in the country and cater a bar where they could get drunk, possibility out of control with lethal powers. Oh, and that i took their mney to do it"



Richard smiled "I can understand that, though the fact that you took what I am guessing was your college fund to do it must have annoyed them a little bit. But hey you look like your business is doing rather well so, I guess it turned out all right after all."



Richard rose, "Anyhow, I think I might need to go run some errands. I hope this does not sound to strange, but I just got here and don't really know anyone really, would you be interested in... I dunno, hanging out after you get off work or grabbing a meal? Just a thought." Richard wondered how she might respond. He was definitely not asking her out for a date. He had just met her and did not operate that way. He saw it more like an opportunity to get to know a stranger and perhaps make a friend, as well as learn more about...well mutants and New York and life here, and many many many other things.

>"Well, if you want to fix it, by all means. Hacking I can handle. That whole, manipulating metal and stuff? My powers haven't quite taken that left turn yet."
"Awesome, I am sure this place has a back door, what say we get out of here and head to my workshop? Also do you have transportation? I got here by bus." Said Richard beginning to search for a back exit.

>"Sure you didn't hit your head or something? And can't say I know much about anything social. Street rules are a different variety."
"What is it with people? I am a very direct person and I see no benefit in exaggerating my compliments. The world is far too negative as a whole. If I perceive someone as pretty, I will compliment that person. I do not expect the statement to endear them to me nor do I expect anything in return. Is that so strange? Do people here decry compliments and prefer criticism and self deprecation?" Richard spoke over his shoulder. Really, could people not take a compliment these days. It wasn't like he was trying to flatter her or chat her up. For goodness sake he had just met her. Richard just preferred to compliment people on what was worth complimenting. Of course if say someone was fat, Richard would more likely find something else to compliment them about. He was in general a rather cheerful and happy person."Very genuine" was the comment by a few of his friends.

"Ah Ha! here we are. Um.... would you mind...um picking the lock? Thanks."
Richard smiled, he had always through locking picking was a rather cool and useful skill. If he and this mysterious lady became friends he would have to get her to teach him how to do it. Truthfully with his power he could probably figure it out eventually but he would prefer to learn it from someone with experience. It tended to speed up the process.

Although speaking of which the few technomancers could in theory slip past. When Richards power grows to where physical touch is not necessary (power growth incoming alert) He could happily fool the scanners. and might be able to "shield" one or two people from being discovered.

Re: what CS was saying I cannot begin to imagine the chaos if the Xmen stopped working with the police, in the end the government would either have to rollback their application or risk a devolution into an us vs them war between mutants and humans. And as we all know that what happens in the US sometimes trickles into other countries as well......

Richard had jsut exited the restaurant where he had launched and was starting to walk back to the bus stop when...well...something happened. It was hard to describe the sensation as Richard had never experience it before. The only thing he could compare it to was if his body was a mechanized suit and he was usually the operator but had been... hacked? and was now for the first time in his life a passanger in his own body. He could not move his limbs or cry out. he was suddenly transported to...someplace. That someplace felt familiar, although it contained a strange unfililiar presence. Richard suddenly realised that this was his brain, he was looking at a visualization of how his brain worked. With that understanding he yelled at the man "Hold on". Suddenly from the side came a flash of light that was mirrored on the ...ceiling and the whole world seemed to tilt to one side like a boat in a huge storm before righting itself. "So that is how it works!" Said Richard to himself.

He turned to the strange presence. "Hello there, either I am having a hallucination that is terribly accurate or you have somehow intruded? into my mind and taken control. You don't seem too evil. Anyhow I should probably give you a little tour or you might find yourself ummm... rather dead rather quickly."

"No I am not exaggerating, you see my power concerns information. Hmm more precisely I can understand how an object is built and can manipulate it. The point is that my mind can accept, absorb, process and store massive amounts of information in very short periods of time, enough information that would literally fry the minds of people who don't have a similar mutation. Sooo, if you want to stay alive you might want to listen."

****Description of surroundings***
The floor was covered with grooves that interconnected like rails. The ceiling was light blue and appeared to have an endless depth, it was crisscrossed by millions upon millions of strands of what looked like dim lightening frozen in time. every so often a new "line" would appear with a flash and the whole world would rock slightly. To the north was a large Plexiglas window looking out onto what appeared to be some sort of processing...place. cube like objects appeared to be arranged in three dimensional grids exchanged small arcs of electricity in a blindingly fast yet somehow.. orderly fashion.

In the floor was set a view port that started into the bottomless space below, a space in which seemed to be occupied by countless number of many sided objects of varying shapes. the objects were not stationary but were constantly moving, shifting, re-configuring, rotating, as though trying to connect with each other in new configurations. Every so often a configuration would lock into place for an instant and a flash of lightening would fire from there to the ceiling, adding yet another line as well as rocking the floor.

Finally to the side in the wall there was what appeared to be a glowing transparent door. Though it there appeared a room without end. In this room hundreds of cloud like objects floated and drifted. It was a room that was filled with raw power, even walking close to it made one's hair stand straight on end. Every so often without warning an ark of light would start from one cloud and chain from one to another, growing brighter as it went. The path it chose often seemed random but the more clouds it touched the brighter it got and the louder the rumble. When the arc stopped the floor would tilt more violently and yet another line usually thicker would be added to the ceiling.

"Thank you, Mister Richard."
"You are most welcome Madam" Said Richard mollified.
"Uhm. They call me Ghost. Now it's your turn. Would you wait here? Right here. Don't move. Please?"
"Sure, I will wait here." A slightly puzzling request but not too odd. Then a gust of wind and mist? drifted away? It went like... well like a gust of wind. While waiting for Ghost, if that was her real name, Richard had not been a mutant long enough to think or even consider a moniker, Richard helped tidy up after Ghost's explosive blast of wind.

Richard smiled at her as Ghost returned and gratefully accepted the water bottle from her.

"I was unkind and you were only trying to help. I'm sorry. I should not have reacted as I did." "That is fine, don't worry about it, I am sure it is disconcerting to have a power malfunction. To tell you the truth, I worry about it and fear that one day I may lose control of my power." It was true, as the world was becoming more and more reliant on technological devices, if Richard lost control of his power, who knows how much damage he could do, and the really scary thing was that it would not take much. For a pacemaker to fail only a single wire needed to be crossed, for a computer to short circuit again a wire, same for a phone. Hades mentally forced his train of thought to stop there.

"You asked why I came... I thought maybe I could find some answers or a better way to cope with...My name is Maya. Do you know if they can 3D print a new body?"

"A pleasure to meet you Maya. Hmm might I ask what you are trying to cope with, you see I am an engineer and rather addicted to challenges. But to answer your question, if you want to use it for what I think you want it for I fear it will not work. You see most 3D printed objects are made from Resin which would be inflexible, so they could 3D scan you and print you a statue replica, but not something that moves. Although it would be possible to 3D print in rubber like materials (see here, here or here). Would you be thinking of solid rubber or hollow rubber." Siad Richard while already mentally doing some calculations, he grabbed a complimentary pand of paper and pencil and began to run some rudimentary calculations and do a rough sketch.

Firstly, the lady did not just seem to fall over, she...she bounced! Literally flew away from Richard like in some exadurated asian martial arts movie, you know what I am talking about. Then when Richard had recovered from that, he looked more closely at the lady. Was it just the trick of the light or was she partially embedded in the floor. He must be seeing things...but no the bottom of her shirt was currently occupying the space where her torso should be it was like some bizzare magic trick where instead of swing someone in half you...well. It also seemed that he was not the only one speechless.

"I-I- uhm. I'm sorry!" She squeaked, then gasped then blurred and drifted upwards. It was fortunate that not too many people were around. To say Richard was dumbstruck would be an understatement. It would be more appropriate to describe his jaw as being Firmly attached to the floor.

"Could you, uhm... pick that up for me?" The request snapped Richard out of his daze. There was something appealing about a damsel in distress and a rather good looking one at that. What was it with New York and good looking mutants. Not that Richard had ever had too much success with the fairer sex. To be fair he had not yet met one that had affected him as ... well best not to dwell on the past. it was over now.

"Umm. Sure, of course. Is everything alright? Anything I can do to help?". He grabbed the tshirt off the floor then looked round for something vaguely towel like. "Hold on a sec." He said darting away still holding the tshirt. He returned a second or two later with a beach towel that he had been able to scrounge from a nearby stall. Well technically he had just bought it, but that was beside the point. He hoped the towel would help. "Would this work better?" He asked holding the towel open. His voice betraying genuine concern. "I'm Richard by the by, what's your name?" Sometimes distractions helped one focus, it was worth a try at least.

Truth be told power malfunction was one of the things that he secretly feared in himself so he could very much sympathize with what was obliviously an air elemental was going through.