Feedback (Or Sandpaper Smooth?)

Participants:

claudine_icon.gif matt_icon.gif sean_icon.gif

Scene Title Feedback (Or Sandpaper Smooth?)
Synopsis A collision on the streets in front of Parkman's apartment leads to Telepathic feedback, a stolen wallet, and utter dumbassery.
Date September 15, 2008

Upper West Side


It's a generally nice evening right now and so, the young Filipina is walking home and taking the rather scenic route. Claudine idly runs her fingers through her hair as she chews on her bottom lip just looking around..

The easiest way to identify someone who is utterly lost is the tourists map in their hands. Such is the case with the stubble haired man walking along the street at present. The map is being folded this way and that by Sean as he makes his way
along, brow furrowed and scowl on his features, the obvious frustration at being rather clueless to his location.

A sleek black car pulls up outside of Dorchester Towers, and outside of the driver's side steps a tallish yet stout man in a long black coat, perhaps a bit too heavy for the current weather. The driver runs a hand across his forehead and sighs. There is a brief exchange between the man and the valet at the apartment building's doors before the former tosses the younger the keys to his car. If stress had a name at this point in time, that name would be Matthew Parkman.

One of the difficult things about being a telepath is constantly reading people's mind. She's never been able to shut it off and can only tune the 'volume' of people's thoughts, but when she's tired, such as after a long day such as this, it's a bit moer difficult. Claudine winces a little, stumbling forward and bumping into Sean not too far away from the apartment building. "Oh, geez, sorry.."
An embarrassed tinge of red flushes her cheeks as she tucks some loose strands of hair behind her ears, smiling warmly before taking a deep breath, trying to keep the thoughts out or at least to a bare whisper.

Sean jerks abruptly as he is struck the thoughts screaming through his mind of what is happening. His features stern up and then calm momentarily as his breathing goes up and down and slows. «Just a person… Just a person…» Smiling he looks at the woman who bumped into him and shakes his head. "It's alright, it happens… busy city and all." «Be nice. Be nice.» He takes a half step backwards, not paying attention to where he's going, stepping into a small kink in the sidewalk to stumble backwards and land squarely on his rump abruptly as he falls. A very determined oof emits from his lips as his eyes widen at the shock of impact.

If the bumping into hadn't happened feet from the door, Matt might not have paid any attention to it. As it is, the telepath's stress and exhaustion are making it more difficult for him to keep the volume of the thoughts around him low. So even Sean's quite small and insignificant meditation, due to it being so close, is like an air horn in Matt's head. The man reels, closing his eyes tight as he cringes away and lifts his hand once more to his head. The dignified looking doorman eyes Claudine and the tourist with a cold, fishy eye, wanting nothing more for the rabble to be cleared.

The only thing that Matt might have solace in is that her thoughts are… very faint. Barely above a whisper, even with him not really tuning it much. She's learned to quiet her thoughts over the years, and to mask them by thinking in other languages, and so that might be refreshing… maybe. Claudine looks over to Sean, beaming brightly as she takes a deep breath and sighs softly. "I'm sorry, I haven't had a good day.."

Shaking his rump to make sure there's still feeling, Sean picks himself up and rises to his feet, blushing a bit. "No… I don't think it has been, it hasn't been for a lot of people in a long time." He comments before smiling abruptly, brightly. "Except we always have tomorrow." «Well, most of us at least.»

It's when the doorman clears his throat that Matt tries to clear his head as he steps forward. "It's alright, Walter," he manages to say, though there is a considerable strain in his voice. There is something about that voice, or lack of one, that intrigues and frightens Matt at the same time, especially when it's on his doorstep. Once he's closer to Claudine and Sean, he looks to the former and squints tilting his head slightly as he attempts to dig something out of those softer whispers.

The instant Matt tries to read Claudine, something bad happens. She winces as a high pitched squeal, or something similar can be heard in her head and she cries out in pain, clutching at her temples as she falls down to her knees in front of Sean. "Gah!" she cries out in pain, shutting her eyes tightly as she curls into a little ball, definitely hurting.

Sean blinks abruptly as the woman screams and he instantly goes over, "Hey, hey you alright?" He asks a sense of urgency in his voice as he looks around. "Hello?" Reaching down he places a hand on her shoulder. "Uhm.. .help… you… doorman person, call for help or something." He motions to the doorman. «Oh please, let this be a really bad reality TV show..»

The feedback makes it so that Sean's thoughts slip through the sieve that is Matt's brain, as the Homeland Security agent clutches his head as well. He's had experience with this sort of reaction, and so is quick to pull away whatever ethereal tentacles he'd been trying to wrap around Claudine's grey matter, or, at least, the electronic pulses going in within it. "You," he half-grumbles, reaching out a hand and snapping his fingers. "Identification." His other hand moves from his hand to hold off the doorman again.

Her status as a company agent should be obvious to the older man and she winces, crying in out pain. Her pain threshold isnt that high and it takes a while as she trembles a little while pulling out an identification card from her purse. It has her info on it, along with the fact that she's a Tier 2 registered telepath. Her pain threshold isn't that high and it takes a while as she trembles a
little while pulling out an identification card from her purse. It has her info on it, along with the fact that she's a Tier 2 registered telepath.

The scruffy man looks about abruptly as identification is called for and instincts kick in, "Reagan, Sean Serial Number 422 Alpha Delta 534." His voice snaps out before he blinks and coughs, suddenly realizing it's probably not being directed towards him but probably the woman he's kneeling near.

While Claudine's ID is read and tossed back to her with a frown, Matt is surprised to hear military jargon rattled back at him. He stares at Sean, then at the man's hands. "Show it to me, soldier," he says with a cold sort of smirk before he beckons with one hand and pulls his own from the wallet in his jacket's breast pocket. It's clear enough for Sean to see, at this distance, that Matt is HS. And if he's living /here,/ he must be pretty high on their food chain.

Her breathing slowly returns to normal as she takes the ID once again and blinks blankly for a few moments while putting her ID away. She winces still, rubbing her temples as she knows she'll have to take an advil or something later on, muttering something under her breath. Her surface thoughts are quiet once more and in another language, so who knows what she's thinking.

Seeming uncomfortable now, Claudine just starts walking off. Gah, she really doesn't like other telepaths. Especially those who just go into people's heads on purpose without asking.

"Show what, ID?" Sean asks blinking his eyes looking back and forth. "I'm not entirely sure where it is, just a moment." He begins patting himself down and then gets to his back pocket, frowning when he can't find something. "That's strange, I had my wallet just a few minutes ago." He looks around then, finally at the woman who walked off and he frowns a bit more.

"Watch which corners you hang about, young lady!" Matt calls out after Claudine, his voice suddenly loud and harsh in the way that only kindly beat cops and fathers can really get. Looking again to Sean, he shakes his head and starts to turn back toward the door and the extremely patient doorman. "Chase down Ms. Salonga," Matt adds, jerking his head toward the retreating Claudine. "If she has it, you can come show it to Walter." With that, Matt nods to Sean and lets the doorman open the glass door to allow him into the building.

Claudine hears the chastizing and she turns around, quirking her brows as she peers curiously back towards him. Of course, this will give Sean more than enough time to see if she has his wallet, but she doesnt, considering she didnt take such a thing. She just peers curiously towards them. "IS there anything else you want?"

Sean looks towards the woman, "Uhm.. did you lift my wallet off me?" He calls out through the streets, flatly asking if she stole it. But at least he does it in a polite way with a friendly smile. «Because you look like the kind who would steal my stuff… ripping off a poor teacher.»

She's dressed in a black two piece business suit. Claudine just gives him an incredulous look as she shakes her head and lets out a soft chuckle under her breath. "No, I didn't steal your wallet. Sorry, I don't think like I would steal your stuff, unless you've been dealing with a lot of white collar criminals as of late."

"Nope, just punk teenagers and the occasional screaming woman on the streets who runs off abruptly after collapsing and offering no explanation." Sean cracks another smile then. "I mean, the least you could have done is offer a name…"

Her brows quirk as she wrinkles her nose and peers curiously towards him, chewing on her bottom lip as she lets out a soft chuckle under her breath. "Ahhh..it's Claudine," she says introducing herself.

Walking towards the woman, Sean nods a bit. "Well Claudine, it was a pleasure to… run into you. Literally." Tilting his head the man looks back towards the street where she'd collapsed, "Do you need to go to a hospital or anything? I've seen quite a few people take tumbles but no one randomly collapse and grab there head… well, one time. His name was Joey the Fish, we called him that cause he always got the hiccups and needed water. Anyway, RPGs always sent him to the ground kinda like you just did."

Having returned to a position somewhat close to the ex-Marine, Walter clears his throat rather pointedly, then holds out one gloved hand. But before he can give the second bit of his cough or uncurl his fingers, Sean has moved away. Walter frowns.

"Brain tumor.." she says firmly and resolutely as she idly runs her fingers through her hair as she sighs and shakes her head, sighing a little the entire time. It's a flat out lie, but it's better than explaining a telepathic feedback loop.

"Oh." «Idiot, Sean. Way to try to tease someone with cancer.» "Well I'm sorry to hear that." Blushing a bit and looking utterly awkward he coughs softly and adds, "Sorry. I'll uhm, let you go on your way." «Too damn bad there's no traffic, otherwise I'd jump in front of it.»

"It's all right. don't worry about it.." Claudine replies with another shrug of her shoulders before smiling warmly and taking a deep breath. "You didn't know so you don't need to feel bad about it…" It doesn't take a telepath to realize how he's feeling afterall.

"Bad about it? Oh, I just feel like a jackass, don't worry, it'll pass. It's built into my gender." Sean says forcing a wane smile before he looks up, "Oh hey, look at that. It's nighttime… or you know, that time…" «Smooth as sandpaper.» "Well you take care of yourself there Miss Claudine. Good luck."

"Oh, you have IMS. I see, it's understandable then.." she replies with an amused chuckle under her breath. With that, she gives him a two fingered salute before moseying off.

Picking up his map, Sean begins to look at it before setting off in a direction and moving. «Good work Reagan. Next time, why don't you just find a blind girl in a wheelchair to flirt with.» Then he vanishes, around a corner to a new street.

As she walks off, she suddenly turns around and calls out, giggling impishly. "Ya know, if you wanted to ask me out, you should have just asked me…" Claudine calls out, laughing heartily the entire time.

From around the corner, the man peeks back around towards the voice calling out around the edge of the building. He hesitates a moment then calls back out, "If you wanted to ask /me/ out, you didn't have to trip and play damsel in distress."

Claudine just shakes her head and rolls her eyes. "I wanst playing anything.." she replies before turning around and walking off once more.

"A shame." Sean whispers under his breath, "But probably safer." A sigh leaves his lips and he heads in the opposite direction in the city.


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September 15th: I'll Do What's Necessary
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September 16th: Propaganda, Politics, and Piccoli's Sandwiches
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