tampered | (no subject)

(no subject)

When; Wednesday, May 27th
Rating; idk PG?
Characters;

phasedcat
Summary; Two people with "K" names go on a date. Worst summary ever.
Log;

Kitty might admit that she spent some amount of time trying to pick out something to wear but she’d never admit just how long. Probably because eventually she’d lost track of time and in the end she just ended up frustrated and picking out something she was comfortable with; a black halter top shirt with a pair of stonewash jeans. She walked through her room’s wall and then through the cabin’s door, doors were for people who--well needed doors, and then made her way towards the Moss Garden.

She wasn’t sure why she was nervous it’s not like she really should be, or should she? It wasn’t Kaidan that made her nervous but rather the fact that he’d asked her out. Which wasn’t a bad thing at all, in fact she thought it was a good thing but she always had the worry of that semi-inevitable part where she’d say something insanely embarrassing. Or that some sort of evil power would decide this exact moment would be the perfect time to execute their new plan to destroy members of the X-Men. At least here that one wasn’t that likely.

Either way she was still really looking forward to seeing him.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Kaidan was nervous for many reasons. He was nervous he wouldn't be able to find the place right away and he'd be late. He hated being late. He was nervous he'd forgotten how to do this. It'd been quite a while. Hell, he was nervous that his jeans and button-down were too casual. What if she'd dressed up?

He shook his head and reminded himself that, to Kitty, it probably didn't matter. He just followed his map and hoped the garden he saw ahead was the right one.

Kitty had just gotten there and was nervously standing while swaying her weight from one side to the other. When she saw Kaidan she smiled and waved.

"Hey there."

Kaidan smiled when he heard her voice. It was soft, happy, cherubic, and mature all at the same time. It...well, it made him feel normal and welcome.

"Hello, Kitty."

"There's this weird iconic character called Hello Kitty, it's a Japanese character thing that's a little white cat with a bow that has a whole line of products devoted to her," Kitty stopped and laughed nervously. "Um anyway, completely ignoring that, hi Kaidan. How are you?"

"It sounds...weird." He smiled again at her nervous laugh. Damn him, but she was cute.

"I'm fine. How are you?"

"It is kind of creepy, it has huge eyes. They're meant to be cute I think but it just freaks me out." Somehow his smile made her feel less nervous, she had to admit it was a really nice smile.

"That's good, no headaches then? I'm okay."

"You know," he said, finding conversation easier than he thought he would. "There are a lot of kids toys that creep me out."

He looked over to her. "No, no headaches of note, anyway."

"Any examples you care to share about creepy kids toys?" she asked.

She put her hands on her hips, "Of note?"

"Well, the Asari have this doll that reads your emotions and is supposed to respond appropriately." He said, looking a little disturbed.

"Yeah. I...I have headaches all the time." He was quiet for a moment. "They just haven't been bad."

Kitty looked extremely disturbed by that, "Okay that's taking toys way too far. Gonna be honest, that's just not right."

She reached for his hand tentavely and touched it in an attempt to be at least somewhat comforting, "I'm sorry. I didn't realize they were all the time." She paused for a minute and smiled, "Come on I want to show you the pond. It's really peaceful, maybe you could even find it calming and it could help with that? That's probably a really silly suggestion but it helps me when I'm stressed or upset and have headaches from that..."

He smirked. "I never said humans approved of toys like that."

He took her hand when she touched his. It seemed natural and he was usually one to go with his instincts. "I'm used to it. I've had a headache since I was fourteen." He tried to make it sound light-hearted, but he was pretty sure it just came across as bitter. "I mean, I have a web of nano-probes sticking in my brain."

"It'd creepy me out. We have baby dolls for kids that talk and wet themselves and they creep me out. Emotion reading dolls is just taking that a notch or two up on the creepy scale."

She blushed a little when he took her hand, "I'm sorry that happened to you. That's really crappy. They didn't start until you were fourteen though?" Her voice was genuinely concerned and she really wanted to be able to say something more comforting or actually help. Sometimes the world just wasn't fair in what it dished out to people.

"Oh, trust me," He said, smirking slightly. "They creep me out. A lot."

He got quiet for a moment. He'd only met this girl recently. Did he really want to tell her about all the crap he'd gone through? Really? "Yeah, fourteen. Our powers didn't really start manifesting until puberty."

"Glad I'm not the only one that is freaked out by little kids toys," she said, laughing a bit.

Kitty bite her lip and blinked a little hesitating for a minute, "That's how it happened to me. I mean that's how it happens to all of us back home. We get the wonders of puberty and the added bonus of freaky powers."

Kaidan chuckled a bit. He knew the feeling. "See, I thought it wasn't that weird." He heaved a sigh, not really knowing how to continue. "There isn't really much we can do without training." He was quiet again for a moment, not really certain how to continue.

At length, he added, "biotics are nearly useless without amps."

"Really? When I fell through my bedroom's floor for the first time I thought it was all kinds of weird." She paused as she thought about her experiences with training. "I think that's how it would be for anyone. If you weren't born with it and trained from birth on then you'd have to practice or train to get to know how to use it. I started out just passing through walls and eventually I learned a lot more."

Kitty frowned at that, "What are amps?"

Kaidan's eyebrows rose at that. "Really? I just...well, things moved sometimes, like, when I had bad dreams."

He moved his free hand to the collar of his shirt, lowering it a bit to reveal a metal device affixed at the base of his neck. "It helps me coordinate all the element zero nodes present in my nervous system. With it, I can produce Mass Effect fields that are actually useful." He paused, looking thoughtful. "I guess...the effects are like telekinesis, but this thing is where the headaches come from."

Kitty laughed, "Actually sometimes it still happens to me, only if the timing is at it's worst though. So when you started moving things during bad dreams did people notice?"

Kitty's smile abruptly went away as he showed her the device, "Was it...necessary? Or is it just something that was done to you?"

"No, I always put them back, but someone knew. They showed up, said I had potential, then took me away to a research facility."

"Necessary?" He shrugged. "Sure, to find out what we're capable of. Now," he said, readjusting his shirt, "it can't be removed or it would cause brain damage." He smiled, though. "I've gotten used to it."

"Why is it always to a 'facility'?" She said making air quotes. "It's never to a nice mansion where you can leave if you want and are given caviar, it's always a mysterious facility."

"I meant if you didn't have it would anything back have happened to you?" She scrunched her face up in annoyance, "It just seems...cruel. Did you have a choice when it was put in?"

"Yeah, no kidding," he said, laughing. "Instead, it was a remote space station near Pluto. We all called it 'Brain Camp.'"

"Nothing bad," he said, looking away thoughtfully. "I didn't have a choice, but my parents did."

"Near Pluto? That adds to the secret specialness," she laughed, "Brain Camp? I think I like the ring of that. It's probably really called something like fill in the blank research center or just something like the facility isn't it?"

When the subject got back to that Kitty stopped laughing again, it just made her angry that people could do that, "I don't get people sometimes. You should have been the one to make any decisions especially something that changing. I'm sorry...it's not my place to be angry or annoyed. It sounds childish to say but it just seems really unfair."

"Jump Zero is what it was and is called." He said. "They don't do research on biotics there anymore, but it's still around for other purposes." His eyes said there was much more to the story.

He shrugged at the thought of the amp. It let him do his job, and biotics got paid more than most other military personnel, so he didn't mind too much. "It's not so bad. It's a part of me now."

"That's actually more creative then I'd have guessed." She said with a mocking voice. "I'm guessing it's not attempting to bring world peace and happiness through non-violent happy means?"

"I'm sorry..." Was really all she could say. She didn't like the idea of people not having their own choice in things or the idea that other people had chosen something for him that ended up bringing him pain sometimes. But she was worried that asking all these questions about the research facility and the amp might be too intrusive.

"It's the outer-most outpost of the Sol system, actually." He said, and his matter-of-fact tone said he wished it just didn't exist anymore. Quite frankly, he hated the place. It was...he shook his head to clear it. No thoughts of all that today. Today was about Kitty.

"So, what do you do for fun, Kitty?"