driftfleet | (no subject)

There are a lot of things to keep Mantis busy these days, none the least of which involves him spending a better part of the day making gravity not a thing. If he can move a giant robot, he can handle himself.

Mantis doesn't even respond verbally to the question. There is a slight flick of the wrist to get Yuri to join in, but that's just the prankster he always has been. Slowly, he floats closer to Yuri and pulls him away from the wall and into the open waters, so to speak.

When he does speak, it's quite calm for once. "Hanging around. You'd be amazed at the thing that I've made move."

Mantis has nothing to prove in Yuri's eyes. He is a wonder to behold. He doesn't understand his power and thus cannot comprehend a limit to it. Mantis is a miracle worker of sorts. A wizard in his own right.

"I bet I would and wouldn't. You can move anything, I bet. Is there anything you couldn't move?" he laughs more when he's moved into the main current and starts moving just a bit faster... or more out of control since he can't reach a wall or anything to stop himself. It says a great deal about his trust in Mantis by allowing him to have total control over him. He has only let Victor do that before.

There's a certain similarity to what he does and magic, although damned if Mantis can figure out how one could go about telling the difference. Maybe if he got a cape and made scary gestures more often...

"You know, I'm not sure? I think it would have to be something extremely large. Large as the ships we're on, maybe." He's honestly surprised by how calm Yuri seems to be about the whole thing. Usually his ability to directly move people is met with fear or at least some panic. He sits up in mid-air, legs crossed. "You're an odd one."

He should treat himself with more dignity than that. But Yuri can't define magic and what Mantis does. It's all stuff that shouldn't happen and it happens without any trick or secret...

"Odd? How?" he grins as he zips around, this is like a slide or a roller coaster but even better! And Mantis has a special privilege that not many get to see. Yuri in a completely calm state. He trusts Mantis on a similar level as he trust Victor. He has handed himself over to them both, put his fate in their hands so to speak. He put his career and in a way his life in Victor's hands. And he put his physical safety in Mantis' hands on the death planet. He knows full well he would have died on the planet in short order if not for Mantis.

Mantis didn't have to protect him so much... and he knows full well that Mantis is capable of violence but he has seen what he believes to be his true nature. So he is trusting. Like a dog with a kindly owner.

All Mantis knows is that he was born the way he was and that it's been a life's work to keep his powers at a level he can control. Hell, no one on the Fleet even knows the real reason he has a mask.

"You're not afraid. Even when I was at my worst back on the red planet... You were grateful." Mantis slows the flow of the objects, including Yuri. He moves onto his back, one leg still crossed over the other. "I'm not used to meeting much of anyone who can see that and be all right with it. I will personally introduce you to my teammates if they show up here."

Mantis would be the last person to call himself kindly, but it's a distinct compliment in his lonely world. Yuri is full of surprises.

Yuri would be put off by the noselessness... but he doesn't realize it's also a protection for him. He just... takes it at face value. He sees a lot of people wearing a lot of things and he knows Mantis has to have a hell of a story and he is sure it isn't one he wants to hear.

"How could I be ungrateful? I was as good as dead there." he stares into space as he talks about it. He hasn't thought about that since he and Victor sorted that out together and he doesn't care to revisit the memory. "You saved me... you didn't have to, I know I was a burden but you kept me safe and I am very grateful for that... and I know you are a good person under all that violence." in his eyes at least. He... blocked out quite a bit of the planet, he was traumatized enough he couldn't detect Mantis' joy the way he might now.

"Are your teammates... like you?"

Some scars are better off not seen. Mantis will never admit he's as sensitive as he is about his face, but seeing Yuri's tact about it is a comfort. He only ever explained it once to that brunette that dared to stand against him and that was enough.

Mantis shifts slowly as Yuri speaks until he's sort of standing upright in mid-air. It says a lot about how much Yuri actively remembers about the planet that he can take such a positive experience from all that chaos. "No more a burden than any other civilian. I've seen worse from people who had grown up with the military and trained in it. You needed help to survive, but you did better than many would."

He laughs, if in a somewhat evil way. "In our own ways. We've two gunmen who work with a sniper rifle and revolvers, our disguise master, a living tank, and our wonderful leader."

Yuri can appreciate that and he doesn't think he has tact here so much as an ability to defend his own inability to cope. He's an anxious little thing and he knows better than to ask more than he needs to hear. Somehow with Mantis... he just knows.

Yuri doesn't think he remembers very much. He remembers crawling under a bush and curling up so he didn't see anything. But he could hear it all, he could hear Looma and Mantis and the screams... the.... ripping, wet splashes... he just went through skating routines as he hid there and played music in his mind. He went through imaginary fundamentals in his head, he wrote new shows. Anything to not have to look. And other times he did watch and he just... those are the time he knows he was there but it is difficult to remember what happened. If he sat and thought about it he'd be able to say but if left to his own devices those facts all but fall out of his brain.

"Well that's a compliment I guess. I guess it doesn't take much to curl up in a ball. But maybe some people want to help? And they don't realize they are better off not trying to..."

"A... living tank? What do you mean?"

Only the anxiety ridden messes truly understand how much pain can be found in a single story. Mantis doesn't make any kind of habit out of prying when it's not called for.

Mantis has far more bloody memories himself, but it's clouded over in a haze of anger and joy that he hadn't felt in a long while. He learned to a great deal of delight the similarities he and Looma shared in their views on people trying to end them. It was home far away from home and the exact reason he was glad they couldn't stay long. He didn't need to get sucked back into that mindset when he was still a part of the Fleet.

"Everyone wants to try and be helpful in some way. Even the worst of mankind."

Mantis pulls the scarf closer to him and tries to work it into the rough shape of a very tall, very broad man. "Vulcan Raven. He's taller than I am, stronger than Liquid, and neither Wolf nor Ocelot will ever roll around in a tank with a gun like he does. Octopus could never match his stature for any amount of trying."

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