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He startles a bit when Miko starts talking to him, partially because he hadn't seen her coming and partially because he's heard that voice before.

He turns around, slowly. The whirlwind of emotions that passes over his face when he realizes who just approached him is a sight to behold: it's some ungodly mix of relief, fluster and disbelief, and it looks downright comical.

"I'm afraid not!" he hurriedly spurts out, raising the jacket he was holding up in front of his face. He's not trying to hide himself! He's just taking a closer look at the fabric. Yes. "You must have mistaken me for someone else!"

Of course, this is kind of ruined by the fact the only differences between him and the Mysticalman are a mask, messy hair, and slightly more indecent clothes. Heck, his eyes are even the same startling shade of blue (albeit less glowy.)

Okay, yeah, that's definitely him. "Nah, man, I'm... pretty sure I haven't." Her eyebrows draw together a bit, and she leans around the jacket to look at him again.

"It's okay, dude, I'm not gonna expose your secret identity or anything." Her voice drops in volume as she mentions secret identities; see? She's being quiet about it, not even shouting for all the world to hear. So considerate. "So you can stop hiding, okay? I just want to talk."

For that matter she's not sure how 'secret' this guy's identity is, all things considered, but mentioning that doesn't seem conducive to getting him to stop... whatever this is.

He's not hiding, he's giving himself time to assess the situation. That's totally different.

"Oh, you must be referring to my twin brother!" he declares, in that kind of loud, emphasized tone of voice one would use to make sure that if there are any people around they'll think this is a completely boring conversation not worth listening to. He lowers the jacket a bit, but only to give the cut a better look; he was legitimately looking at the quality, thank you very much.

He's much quieter when he resumes speaking, in the same way a boombox at max volume is much quieter than a plane crash. "I hope you'll forgive my outburst, I'm not exactly used to being exposed in public!"

Except when he's the one doing the exposing, like he did with Flourish in that one coffee shop. Or depending on your definition of "expose", when he casually rips off his shirt.

It's sort of unbelievable, but Miko is pretty sure that she could do subtlety better than this guy. Okay, not necessarily, but he is at least as bad as her, and that's saying something.

"Already said I wasn't gonna expose you, man. Unless you count one person recognizing you as 'exposed'." She shrugs. "Besides, it's not my fault you're so obvious."

She switches topics immediately, because that is what you do after making a rude comment about someone's competence at maintaining a secret identity.

"So... how're you doing? Kinda looked like it hurt when... uh..." She sets down her armful of clothing on a shelf for the express purpose of pointedly smacking her hands together with a "psssh-WHAM" noise.

He opens his mouth to argue about the bit about him being obvious, but he's cut off by Miko's sudden change of topic. It's a bit of a new experience. He's usually the one who interrupts people.

When she mentions their previous encounter, though... Well, he just can't stay miffed. He winces when she smacks her hands together, but part of it has to do with the fact she must have been worried, and if there's something he hates it's worrying people.

"Hah! Nothing that could bring the Mysticalman down." The usual bravado. Unfortunately for his ego, he knows she was right there when he violently hit the wall, and so he amends: "Not permanently, at least. Truth be told... It is you I was worrying about. It's a relief to see you appear to be fine!"

He looks a tiny bit awkward. Almost as if he suddenly felt inappropriate as a superhero for failing to rescue her. Almost.

Okay, his attempt at brushing off the wall collision is a little eyeroll-inducing, definitely, but she's sort of thrown off by the next thing he says. Normally when she talks to people about times when she messed up and got herself (and possibly other people) in trouble, their reaction is at least half 'what is wrong with you, why would you do that'. But this guy doesn't seem angry or anything, just... relieved. That's new.

"Yeah, I mean, it was no big deal!" she insists, partly to reassure him and partly because what else is she gonna say, that it really sucked and she was kind of freaking out the whole time? Besides, she was definitely way better off than some of the other victims. "Actually, they didn't really hurt me at all."

She pauses; of course, there is something that's still been bothering her. "I... kinda lost track of the guy who was grabbed with me, though. When I got moved to a different place."

He seems to regain his confidence just as quickly as it faltered a few seconds earlier, both from the reassurance that his actions didn't lead to Miko getting hurt and the fact he can totally fill her in on what happened to the other guy. Eusine changes moods roughly as often as he changes shirts, and most of them - mental states and clothing alike - are garish.

"Hah! You needn't let this trouble you anymore." His grin is confident, a bit cocky even, and it probably counts as some sort of minor miracle that the jacket he's holding hasn't fallen to the floor due to his penchant for dramatic gesturing. "A wind of ill omen was blowing over the city, the day those dreadful towers revealed themselves... And so I gathered a team of like-minded individuals, a heroic rescue team to put an end to this evil once and for all! It wasn't easy, of course... but as it happens, our mutual friend was amidst the first people we rescued that day!"

Truth be told the team only consisted of himself and Starbreaker, and they sort of accidentally came across each other rather than Eusine actively seeking her out... but damn if he's not going to make everything sound even more epic than it was. He is an entertainer first and foremost.

Wow. That may be the fastest she's ever seen someone jump from "guilty and dejected" to "raving like a bad fantasy novel". Not that she knows that many people who talk like bad fantasy novels to begin with, but the point still stands.

As she listens, though, increasingly wondering what he's trying to get at here, her face lights up. "So, he's okay, is what you're saying?" She sounds vaguely exasperated, but also sort of amused and relieved. This is so much better than she had expected, even if it took an unnecessarily wordy speech for her to find out.

Let Eusine fill the bad fantasy novel-shaped hole in your heart, Miko.

"That's correct!" He looks pretty proud of himself. There's something he's curious about, though. "You say you were moved somewhere else... Any idea why? How did you escape, anyway?"

If only she'd been in the same scary jail as Neku. He looked so cool back then.

"Who knows." She pauses, and then, "I did piss-off one of their brainwashed guards into a coma, so that might have done it." Or maybe they just felt like moving her. The psychology of violent, kidnapping-prone AI's is a strange and incomprehensible thing.

She grins. "I got some help from another friend! Having a lot of connections can come in handy." Which makes it sound like she contacted him somehow and he came specifically to rescue her, which is incredibly inaccurate, but sounds cooler than 'he happened to be there anyway'.

His grin widens when Miko mentions pissing off one of her guards into oblivion. He can definitely appreciate a good, unconventional way to get rid of unwanted company.

"I'm not without connections myself." Yes, it definitely sounds cooler than saying you just have a bunch of vague acquaintances. But hey, he does have Vanessa Goldpaw's number, surely that counts as a connection. "Who's your friend? Maybe I know them!"

"Maybe; you know a troll kid named Sollux? 'Cuz the guy's got hella brain powers." Plus he's apparently hanging out with giant robots now. She's gonna have to ask him about that next time she sees him. "I think he used to be with the Trailblazers? Sort of."

"I can't say I have the pleasure of knowing him, no." And despite Earth and Alternia's shaky relationships, it would be a pleasure, provided the troll isn't a violent jerk. If he's one of Miko's connections though... well, he has to be somewhat civil, or he probably wouldn't be able to handle her. Behold: Eusine's flawless deduction skills. "Perhaps you can introduce me to him someday!"

"Yeah, maybe so! 'Course, I dunno whether you'd rather meet him as Mysticalman" (insert some kind of sarcastic hand-wiggly thing here) "or as-" She pauses. "What's your name anyway? I mean, the whole secret identity thing is clearly out the window here, and there's no way I'm calling you Mysticalman" (identical inflection, identical hand-wiggling) "every time I talk to you."

Eusine skill activate: pretending the bit where his interlocutor made fun of him absolutely didn't happen. It's a necessary ability when (for some reason) the entire world seems to think you are a ridiculous human being.

"You may call me... Eusine." His voice is entirely too loud for an indoors conversation, which is absolutely unrelated to the fact he's trying very hard to ignore the dig at his superhero name. Which is super cool, by the way.

(Seriously though, there's no way that's his real real name, is it? Who names their kid "you seen". What the heck. That doesn't even sound French.)

"But this conversation is a bit one-sided, isn't it? You still haven't told me your name!"

Miko raises an eyebrow at the name, but doesn't say anything. She's encountered some weird names since moving to the States, anyway, and she figures it's better than his superhero name.

Speaking of which, she can't quite tell whether he's ignoring the jab or just didn't pick up on it. The volume of his voice doesn't tell her anything, of course, because she's just as loud on a regular basis. Oh well, it's not like she's actively trying to irritate him here. Really. Sort of. She's at least not trying to legitimately upset him.

"Well jeez, it's not like you asked," she snorts, though the smirk lingering on her face makes it pretty clear she's just being contrary because she can. This is how Miko's sense of humor works. "It's Miko, though. Good to meet you." The "somewhere other than a cyborg-infested alleyway" is implied.

No other sarcastic comment about his superhero name? Success. Proof that obnoxiousness will always win!

"It's a pleasure to meet you as well!" He beams, seemingly taking no offence with her (obviously good-natured) snorting. "Under better circumstances, that is."

Implying "somewhere other than a cyborg-infested alleyway" is for losers, clearly.

"So..." he resumes, a slight smirk tugging at his lips. "Do you make it a habit to walk straight into danger, or was that a one-time thing?" He doesn't sound terribly judging. Trying to hit a cyborg with a brick? Yeah, that was stupid. Running straight into the middle of the fray to take pictures? Nothing wrong with that as long as you're careful not to be spotted, right? Totally different.

Knowing would be good though. You know. Just so he can keep an eye out for her.

"Hey, danger means excitement, excitement means a story, right?" She smirks back as she picks up the clothes again. "What about you? Actual prep before stalking monsters just not your style?"

"One can hardly prepare oneself without knowing the nature of the threat now, wouldn't you agree?" His expression is somewhere between slight condescension and damage control. Truth be told, he thought the news were exaggerating how dangerous those cyborgs were, and that if all else failed he could just fly away with his rocket spats; he hadn't expected a powerless civilian to be there, or those things to be so ridiculously fast. "Besides, I am usually un-de-tec-ta-ble!"

He says this like he is absolutely convinced of the fact, possibly because he is. Undetectable, in all his purple, white and sparkly glory.

Seems perfectly reasonable, really.

"Riiiiight." Her response is weighted with all the sarcasm and doubt that she can possibly inject into a single word. Which is a lot. "So do you usually wear a different costume then?" It would be practically impossible to mistake that comment as an honest question, considering the smirk it's accompanied by.

For that matter, she doesn't typically have room to complain about other people's clothing choices, but c'mon. Purple spandex.

"There's nothing wrong with my costume, no matter what those websites say!" He huffs. He may or may not have seen his costume on "worst superhero outfits" blogs more than once. These people have no taste.

"In any case," his face contorts into a slight smirk, confident he is that he can totally change the course of that discussion back to Miko's lack of stealth, "you're one to talk!"

She raises an eyebrow; she hadn't even mentioned websites, and she considers saying so and making a comment about how he seems awfully defensive here, but his subject change successfully prevents such a reply because wow excuse you.

"Hey, I was doing just fine 'til your loud butt showed up!" she snaps, as if she was being any quieter than him once he was there. "I probably could've stayed there all night if I wanted to!"

[CLOSED]

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