Dinner Interruption

The techno music in his ears blared loudly, drowning out the rest of the world in a storm of sound and a cacophony of seething beats, writhing in and among themselves to the almost wailing synthesized voice of a woman in the background. His fingers in the keyboard moved in time to the beat of the song, the older machine's keys making a heavy 'klaklaklak' sound with every depression of his worn fingertips. It was sad enough that the division was a joke of the campus; paranormal sciences didn't exactly attract the people with the money, or the people looking for fame and fortune. Half the time it didn't even attract people who were serious; practical jokers, idiots looking to learn magic, or tell their friends they were studying satanist movements or whatever... Shinji had no time for any of them. He'd actually managed to get a solid education in before he entered the sciences, a masters in theoretical physics backing up his research, and it was only recently that he'd become any sort of fixture at the p.sci labs, and he already was working hard to ignore the stigma associated with it.

He just didn't answer anymore when people asked him what he was doing, just played dumb and let them blabber after flipping up his music.

The fingers on the keyboard shifted beats as the song changed, a heavy rock song randomly selected on the music player as he ran a hand over his face and looked at the keyboard and before looking to the time on the damn machine in front of him, the heavy and clunky software sufficiently archaic to prevent any real work from getting done on it, something that was beginning to piss him off to no end. How could they expect him to work when the equipment he was given was set to detect totally bullshit phenomena? He knew how to track nPartical emissions by now, but the equipment they had here didn't even do that properly. He wondered idly how anyone was supposed to take a division seriously if it didn't even have the equipment to prove itself, but then again, that might have been half the point.

As he pushed back from the computer and saved his work, flicking out the thumbdrive easily and stashing it in a jean pocket, he got to his feet and started towards the door out of the lab, stepping past someone working hard on what for the life of him looked to be a toaster, though he was sure if he asked it would be the possessed remnants of a greater demon or some such thing. While he wasn't in the mood for bullshit, he was very much in the mood to get something to eat and get out of the lab. No matter how much he was looking for the labwork to pull itself together, he needed to start with something before he could go anywhere, and with the samples they had available in the labs...well...

He was better off going and getting some dinner.

Making his way out into the parking lot, it didn't take him long to find the old motorcycle he'd been using and bring it to life, the headphones still blaring as he slid the helmet on over them, making his way down the street quickly with a sharp left turn. It wasn't like he was a punk or anything; aside from the shoulder length bleached hair and the black turtleneck he wore along with the black jeans, he looked pretty normal as he sped along the road, weaving in and out of the gentle late-night traffic. He was about to roll on past what looked to be a dingy sort of diner before he felt something, like a slight tug. He recognized it, surprisingly enough, and as he turned into the nearest right and passed along the street he looked around, the music still blaring in his ears, though he was now substantially more focused, looking towards the dingy diner appraisingly and starting into it to try and figure out quite where the feeling was coming from.

The girl moving the sugar without touching it, he decided, might be as good a place as any to start.

Pulling off his helmet and tucking it under his arm, he waved off the waitress easily and motioned to the woman sitting at her own little table, the woman looking confused but accepting it as he made his way over to her and slid into the chair across from her. He had long ago decided that being socially awkward was for the birds, and he'd rather get to the point than sit around dabbling and being particularly awkward.

"Hi." he said with a slight smile on his face, his eyes focusing on the woman across from him before pointing to the sugar container, a friendly look on his face. "Think you can do that again?"
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Hi, could you do that again?
Huh, oh this? I've been able to do it forever.
Mind coming and helping me with something? I'd like to study it a bit. I'll even pick up your dinner tab!
Sure, I've nothing better to do tonight, total stranger!

It could have been that simple, but no, she decided to get miffed about it. On the one hand he understood, he was certainly interrupting, but on the other hand having her nice and miffed was in absolutely no way helpful to him at all. With a slight sigh at the tone of voice, he looked to her once more, setting the ring on the second flange of his right index spinning, the center of it actually cut out in a groove to allow proper rotation, it would seem, as it moved frictionlessly and swiftly through the groove, his thumb occasionally flicking at it to keep it going. As he looked to her he appraised her idly, if unintentionally; she was pretty enough, he decided, though he wasn't exactly looking for it, but more importantly he could tell that she was different, and at least moderately powerful, probably a 2.5-3 or so, he wagered mentally. With a slight tug he removed the earbuds from his ears, pressing a small button to have them snap back into a container, the cord rolled back in swiftly.

"Alright, apologies. I'll get to the point so as not to keep you from your dinner; you're something special, and that's something I'm looking for. I'm currently attempting to do some research on spirits, and if you still want to play it off like it was nothing, I can't force you, but I could really use your help, and I'm willing to pay you for your time." He hated to just throw himself at her like this, he would much rather have the chance to actually do it properly, but at this point he was almost desperate for a lead, and if it took harassing some random girl he'd just met in a bloody diner than so be it. After a moment he blinked, realizing that if she didn't believe him about the research thing that could end pretty badly. "Also, for the record, I'm not quite as much of a creeper as I come off as." He added for good measure as he leaned back in the booth, cocking his head to the side and waiting for her answer, putting a hand to the table.
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Now that was something he hadn't quite figured on; she seemed to be putting out the 'nice girl trying to act like an all-bussiness woman' pants, and if that was her bag then he wasn't exactly in a place to do anything about it, nor did he really care. He almost stopped to think about the innocent girl being picked up by creepy stranger guy, but he shrugged and decided against worrying about it all that much. He wasn't, and he couldn't control what they did, and most of the girls he knew probably weren't that innocent to begin with, but this was all largely besides the point. Still, she seemed to know what she was talking about and didn't just blow him off, so that was a plus.

And anyone paying attention knows that the offer of food is the way to a college student's heart.

He smiled at her once more, the ring spinning on his finger with a slight click as he reversed the direction of the spinning band. "Right. Food. Probably would be a good idea at this point..." he noted, raising an eyebrow around the place and wondering quite what a place like this would legitimately serve. She was flesh and blood alright, but there was more to her than that, he was sure of it; certainly the waitress wasn't similar to her, nor was he, and he'd seen it enough these days that he could tell a spirit, or someone with a connection to a spirit, easily enough. It had to do with the nParticles, he thought, but he warned himself against using them as a catch all excuse; researching something like this, he couldn't make any assumptions. There wasn't anything for him to base his work off of, and so he had to basically start from scratch.

He looked her over once again; she seemed normal enough, largely, a girl like pretty much any other girl, but he decided to at least offer a conversation instead of just sitting here in silence and waiting for the food to come. "Thanks for the offer; I don't eat all that much, grant money for grad students is pretty thin as it is." he said with a slight shrug, motioning to the waitress to bring a menu on over, as he really didn't know what all this place served. "Mind if I ask your name?"
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Looking to the menu and to her food, it was hard to relate the two, considering that it looked as though if he ordered anything on the sheet his heart might leap out of his chest and stop itself then and there in protest of the possible artery plague war propositioned by the united congress of the republic of stomach. As he thought this he realized that he should probably be getting more sleep than normal about now, but that could come later. He decided on the ramen, figuring that it was pretty hard even for a dive like this to screw that up, and before the waitress left he managed to snag her and place his order, hanging back the menu before looking to the girl with a nod, raising an eyebrow at the meat before shrugging.

"My brain tolerates an awful lot of abuse, I love the poor thing to death. 22, actually, as of last month, but you were close enough. Katsumoto Shinji, a pleasure to meet you." he noted easily with a nod; it didn't take long for the woman to come back with the bowl, the ramen just being kept on the simmer in back, and he found himself nodding to her and actually anticipating the meal as she set it down. His chopsticks were broken swiftly and with a brief clap of his hands he set into it, eating quickly but not ravenously despite the previously empty nature of his stomach before he looked back to her. "So what is it that you do then, Alexis?" He offered for persuit of further conversation, finding to his surprise that he actually did enjoy the meal placed in front of him as the treaty between heart and stomach was settled, though the heart was forced to accept a concession on the grounds of sodium intake to secure peace.
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He gave her time to eat patiently enough, though he himself wolfed down the ramen as fast as could be considered polite, the chopsticks almost in constant motion as he snapped noodles and meat and radishes from the soup and downed them swiftly only to lean the bowl back against his mouth when he'd drained it of food to remove it of anything else that seemed vaguely edible. It wasn't until it started down his throat that he realized how hungry he was after hours of sitting at the keyboard doing little but filling in data or searching for something, pretty much anything even vaguely scientific relating to spirits or the interactions of spirits with the real world. He wondered how much of his life he would spend zoning out to techno while researching away on something pretty much everyone assumed was a science for slackers and mystic assholes.

Likewise, he smiled but internally rolled his eyes at the thought of a normal question; he hadn't received a normal question from someone in quite some bloody time, he knew, but then again most normal questions were filler, really, just paraphrase for something people didn't really want to ask but were hoping to be told anyway. It was the odd questions that had something in them. 'What're you doing tonight', 'why would you look up that', 'could you just move the sodding shaker again', these were the questions that actually had a point behind polite social conventions.

But he wasn't quite enough of a whackjob to just blow off the whole social scene, so he smiled and nodded politely as he listened to her impressive accomplishments, beating down the part of him that pointed out that he could have much the same thing she did right now, if he'd only gotten out a few years back and started a real job. He beat that the hell down, as he knew full well he wouldn't have been doing anything near as meaningful.

"Congratulations, it sounds like you're moving up in the world." he noted easily as he watched her signal the waitress. "If you like I'd be happy to pay for dinner, though I don't really care one way or another. Where would you like to go and talk, then, as you seemed to want a quiet place? Ideally you would either come with me back to my equipment for a few tests, but if you'd prefer I'd be happy to schedule something for a later date."
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He rolled his eyes as she mentioned the nice mad scientist bit, shaking his head but allowing himself that yes, it probably did sound fucking creepy, and yes, it probably did happen because people were nice and messed up like that. He wondered how many people realized that a legitimate scientist wouldn't do experiments on people without the miles and miles of paperwork that had been tested and approved...or, he pointed out realistically to himself, a damn good reason and consent. Looking to her for a moment with a slight smile, making sure the waitress was out of sight, he leaned in a bit to speak to her easily. "Creepy? Probably. But considering you're the one with the magic powers, and I'm the one with an mp3 player and the occasional bad kung-fu movie for reference, I'm pretty sure I'm not going to be doing anything you aren't going to let me, hmm?" He pointed out reasonably, spreading his hands in front of him before shrugging and getting to his feet, motioning for the door and putting a hand both on the helmet under his arm and the headphones at his side.

"How close is close, close enough to walk, or do I need to drive?" he asked, flicking the headphones a bit, his thumb leaning out to spin the ring in his hand easily, the intricate pattern of it whirling beneath the light, his doe-brown eyes still on her. This might have been a hookup, in so many other situations, but for once he actually wasn't going for tail; a man had to have his priorities, after all, and besides, the way she cut the 'Mrs. Business Woman of the Year' swathe across the first half of the conversation had him assuming she was either spoken for or militantly not so, though she seemed to be warming up a bit, making him change his assumption. Either way, the fact of the matter was that she was precisely what he was looking for, and he wasn't about to just let her up and run the hell off, if he could avoid it.
437

He turned easily, rolling his eyes as he did so as to avoid appearing rude. The added confirmation that he wouldn't do anything was irritating to him, though he didn't know why; perhaps it was that she didn't trust him, or perhaps it was because he knew full well that he couldn't, if it came down to it, do anything to prevent it if he really wanted to. He had long ago realized that this might be a problem, but he forced himself to ignore it for the time being; he hadn't thought that working with spirits that could probably kill him without significant effort would be quite so disconcerting, but then again, these things happened. "I'll be taking my bike, thanks, I'll see you there." He wondered if she would actually be waiting for him there, as she could certainly just blow him off, but he decided that if he expected her to trust him, he might as well trust her. It really wasn't far, but he didn't want to just leave his ride where it was; it would be a shame if it were to get beaten up or jacked, as he really didn't think he could afford another one. The headphones were in his ears basically as soon as he was out the door, the helmet following shortly after to swallow his white hair in black.

The short ride was over with quickly, though by the time he arrived in the garage he sniffed, noticing the smell of rain in the air, the damn prelude to a deluge that he really didn't want to have to deal with right about now. Either way he moved off the bike and towards the door easily, the code having worked just fine, which he took to mean that she was actually intending to meet him; the easiest way of ditching him would have been deciding to just give him the wrong number, and that would probably be all it took to get the message through. Stepping into the building, he looked about to find the young woman, headphones still in his ears as he hummed along to the tune easily.
360

He looked up to her, snapping the headphones out of his ears easily, the slight discomfort that always came from pulling them by the cord still as irritating as ever even as they snapped back into the roll of cord and wire that made up the small bundle at his waist, just off to the side. So much of what he did was automated, it seemed like, that he could almost see the gears in his arms. "The thought had crossed my mind." he noted as he looked to her, letting her know he had teeth in a slight smile before he followed her into the apartment and looked to the posh rooms around him, shaking his head slightly; it had been quite a while since he'd actually lived in any form of comfort for himself that he couldn't help but be slightly jealous at the layout of the place.

As he looked out the window he couldn't quite hide the scowl from his lips as he saw the rolling clouds above them. He hated rain and hated wet; he had since his childhood, and as far as he could tell he always would. The rain was an old nemesis of his, waiting to spatter him and everything in the city in it's dank, damp embrace. He didn't mind so much being fully submerged in water, he could deal with it though he didn't like it so long as he still had some form of feet on the ground, but being that halfway soaked or, worse yet, that soaked-to-the-bone chill that only comes with the truly cold, penetrating rain...

Yeah, he could live without that.

As she went and gathered some water, he found himself debating between the two options. While he could do some rudimentary tests here, perhaps, he would rather not have to be stuck--as he watched outside, he would have sworn he saw the first drop of rain start to fall. How long, he wondered, would it last? He couldn't stay here all night, he didn't really know if he could stay more than an hour... Either way he accepted the water with a nod of thanks before shrugging.

"Unless you'd particularly like to keep me here, I'd just as soon arrange to meet you later and be on my way; waiting for the rain to end could leave you sitting with me for quite some time, and I'd like to avoid saying anything stupid at least until the first session." he said with a slightly wry chuckle before he motioned to her. "I'll be blunt; I know you have powers because I can sense when people and spirits do. You're not a spirit proper, that much is obvious, but you've control of some sort or another, and that is interesting. I know that spirits exist, and I know that they have the ability to exert a power, but I need specimens to start anything real, and I need documentation to help get some kind of corporate grant, both of which I'll need your help for. How much would you ask to be compensated for some of your time, essentially whenever you can spare it?" He decided getting to the point was the best idea at the moment, and as he spoke there was a flick of his thumb to set the ring on his finger spinning, the design turning into a blur of shadows as it slid without friction or sound over the smooth surface while he waited for a reply.
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Looking to the sky outside as she mentions it, Shinji's face sank a bit as he watched the rain begin to pour. He could hear it in the roof, and could practically feel it on his skin already as he watched it begin to grow stronger and stronger, the scent of the damp almost permeating the windows of the house but not quite. He knew, full well, that this was some form of PTSD and he knew full well that it was stupid, and that he was just being a pussy and that he really needed to get over it, but God did he hate the rain, hate everything about it from the way it hit the ground to the way it stung the cheek to the way the constant drumming made his skin crawl. He tried his best to look like hew as paying attention to her, and he was, but he couldn't help bringing his arms across his chest, the finger in the ring fumbling slightly now and then as he flicked the spinning wheel, reversed it and swirled it swiftly as though to some internal beat as he looked to her and tried to keep his mind off the rain outside and whatever might be in it. "I think you misunderstand my intent." He pointed out, somewhat shakily before he coughed into his hand and continued more apace, though he spoke a bit quicker. "I'm not trying to study spirits in and of themselves; that would be pointless, as from what I've gathered they come in all forms, all varieties, all strengths and all personalities, with only basic patterns to identify them into a type. What I'm interested in is their interactions with the real world, the way they can assert tangible power and control over the environment around them based solely on whim, or desire, or some sort of activation mechanic. I don't believe in magic, at least not in the conventional sense; magic is only energy, I think, directed energy based on whatever source of power the spirit is able to access from. I suppose you could say that part of what I'm interested in seeing is the mechanics between thought and action as it relates to the spirit located in the physical realm, though that's a long winded way of putting it. In any case, that should do nicely, insofar as I can see; I would largely just ask for demonstrations, perhaps a few attempts at alteration or replication, and perhaps later on some study into the nature of the binding between you and the spirit inside you." He spoke quickly but succinctly, but as he looked to the rain outside he couldn't help but shake his head and remember her last question.

"I really don't want to go out in that right now, if you don't mind, so by all means demonstrate away. If you can convince the others to help me out then it would be greatly appreciated, the more data I have and the more actively I can research it the closer I am." He wasn't quite sure how to thank her for not requiring payment, but he figured that mentioning it might have made him seem a bit more desperate than he already did; it wasn't that he didn't have money for the project, it was more that he didn't have MUCH spare money for it, when he foresaw the costs of the equipment and the modifications he would need to make for existing equipment to function, and frankly he wasn't looking foreword to finding out that he'd run dry.
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He raised an eyebrow as he watched her levitate the glass of water across the table, evenly and gently, though he didn't grasp it, instead following it down with his eyes. As soon as she activated her powers he stopped the spinning of the ring, his thumb pressing against it gently to stop the whirl as he watched the magic happen, literally. He noted that there were no hand-gestures as there often was, no seeming activity and effort, just movement of the glass. A minor phenomenon, but certainly something more than a human could accomplish. There was no visual display, which told him that whatever was going on likely couldn't be seen... his eyes were intent on the glass in front of him, even for a few moments after she set it down, and he said nothing for a bit as he thought. His current hypothesis involved something he termed nParticles, a sort of spiritual energy particle that brought some form of energy to create a reaction within particles in the physical realm at large, though obviously he couldn't test any of this without equipment.

As he finished up, he looked up to her and cocked his head to the side a bit, offering a slight chuckle and leaning back, the ring starting to spin again after a quick motion of his finger. "Interesting... I'll have to study it more in depth further, obviously, but such is the nature of things. I have a hard time believing you think yourself a freak of nature, considering the fact that you've basically been handed an amazing amount of power, but that's besides the point. What else can you do?"
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He blinked as he watched her decide to devastate the poor footstool, wondering why she didn't choose, say, a glass, or perhaps something smaller and less expensive, but he soon stopped caring as he watched the effects of her powers. At least, he thought, they were explainable, or rather to use forces that were similar enough to real world forces as to warrant comparison. The first wouldn't be particularly hard to accomplish, in theory, simply charge the air well enough with current to create the tornado, compress it down into a small form and unleash it, perhaps with the energy still transferring inside it to create the slashing effect along the currents and give it that extra kick. The second one could be done by simply agitating the particles of the material enough to heat them up and cause fire, but it was the lack of impetus that surprised him, the lack of apparently anything outside of mental effort. Psychics, he was tempted to call it, but he doubted strongly if it came from internal power. An internal power source, however...

That made him curious. She did mention some kind of possession, something that indicates that she was drawing power from inside... but he would need to do more research to indicate anything more. He began to realize that with just his eyes there wasn't much he could really do, but at the same token... He breathed out and let the finger spin the ring slightly, the sound of the rain bringing him back to the world as he shook his head a bit, and in his thoughts he almost missed the shift in her appearance. He wondered idly if she was able to make a tangible shift in the way she looked or if it was only an image, and he asked her as such before leaning back and cocking his head to the side with a slightly lean smile on his face.

"Jealousy is a terrible thing." he noted as he watched her showcase her powers, attempting to discern them before realizing the only real way he would be able to would be with rather sensitive diagnostic equipment...probably dimensional work. This sort of thing didn't come cheap, and he would need to find some sort of sponsorship soon, but either way he was at least properly on track, it felt. "An impressive display and variety. I often find myself wondering quite how these things determine themselves, but I suppose I'll end up researching that too. I'll add it to the list." he said with a wave of his hand and a shrug. "Unimportant in the end, I suppose, but curious."
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He was silent for a moment as he thought about it, though her answer didn't really address the question of whether or not it was a physical creation or if it was some sort of illusion. Either way the effect wasn't necessarily unique such as it was difficult to replicate, and either way he certainly knew that he was correct in the thought that she had a decently powerful arsenal of special abilities under her belt. He fought down a slight envy for her talents with mild success, but either way he nodded a bit, mentally filing the information away to be recorded later. He had a rather good memory, and he rarely found himself needing to write things down for any sort of record other than posterity or for an official report of findings.

"Nothing, especially when dealing with this sort of thing, is useless, but perhaps you'd prefer to show me another time." He noted with an easy shrug as he watched her, crossing his arms over his chest, his thumb continuing to spin the ring in his hand before he smiled slightly. "If nothing else, even with this I'm relatively sure that I can find something or another. I'll need more subjects to cross-reference it with, obviously, but your help is appreciated in the matter. What is it that you do to activate the powers? Is there some mental ritual, or is it connected to a state of mind?" He offered, though it appeared he was done with calling out her powers for now.
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Mental command seemed to process decently with his current theory, at least; perhaps there was simply a brain wave that interacted at the same level as a particle and allowed their shape via focus of thought. Or perhaps it was something completely different, who could really say, but when it all came down to it, if nothing else he could find out. He wondered briefly if he could track use of spiritual powers by tracking the brain waves of those who could use them, and he filed that back into his stash of theoretically useable ideas to be accessed when he had all the equipment he would need to actually do so. Which, he figured, would basically require something close to a full medical lab specially modified for the things he actually needed; this wouldn't, he guessed, happen for quite some time, and so he just kept them in his mind as theories and hypotheses, looking for the chance to explore them further. The woman's questions made him wake up from his analytical mind-frame, and as he watched her he could feel the rain start to get to him again, his finger shaking slightly as it spun the circlet on his finger and looked to her, his other arm closed across his waist to support his elbow with a long-fingered hand.

He chuckled slightly as he leaned back, allowing his shoulders to relax enough to shrug, finding them quite tense for whatever reason as the rain struck the ceiling; even through the wood, whether he could actually hear it or not, he swore he could hear the drumming like fingers down his spine. "There's not all that much to say about me, I hate to say it, I'm pretty boring when it comes down to it." Here came the tricky part, really; to lie or not to lie. He lied to pretty much everyone who asked him why he was researching spirits; nobody really wanted to know the answer, and nobody really wanted a sob story to kill the mood of the night, so explaining in full became complicated swiftly and tended to result in a bunch of awkward silence followed by excuses to leave either by him or whoever he was talking to. Still, not only was he feeling unusually candid, but she had disclosed a rather large part of her life that she was obviously anxious about, and whether or not she wanted to hear the whole story he should probably at least tell her something approaching the truth.

"I'm researching spirits largely because people are afraid of the things they don't understand, and I'd like very much to stop being afraid." He said it casually and slightly flippantly, hopefully avoiding further questions before he continued on with some of her other questions, hoping even his slight bit of disclosure would be washed away like so much grit in the damn rain that still wasn't letting up. "So far? Mostly hypotheses work and identifiable data; considering, possibly understandably, just how little funding a paranormal sciences division gets funded, it's not like I've got much to work with. No equipment, some grant money but not a lot..." he laughed slightly, though it seemed a bit calculated. "I might as well be groping around in the dark. Finding someone willing to cooperate has been the first real break I've actually found; the next will be seeing if I can calibrate some of the equipment in the physics of the medical room to detect anything meaningful; the shit in the pscience division isn't even worth mentioning." He added with a snort as he looked to her, motioning along. "Mind if I ask how you came across your powers? Strange thing to just pick up, and from the sounds of it you didn't always have them."
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Listening to what she said, he couldn't help but allow a wry smile that didn't touch his eyes to cross his face. It looked as though he'd run into the perfect example of everything he felt was wrong with the world of spirits and the world of humans; after all, what justice was there in the events that had happened? What repercussions for the spirits that came in and did whatever it was that they did to her? How could she have known, let alone stopped them? There was nothing, partly because no one had looked for a solution to the problem properly, partly because no one was properly informed about the problem, and partly because of the nature of the spirits themselves. Beings with powers far beyond what is capable of a normal person, without a central identity, without nationality, without anything but personal whims to hold them to?

He let out a slight chuckle as he looked to her, the ring on his finger spinning in the light. He certainly knew what it was like to have your life so ruined, though he wasn't sure if his issues went quite as deep as hers. Then again, he thought, he was scared of a bloody shower. That certainly ought to say something in and of itself. "I wonder," he asked idly, rhetorically, "if I can think of a time that spirits have every done good for humanity as a whole? I mean spirits in the broader sense, because half the problem is that you can't look at an individual example because each demon or spirit or whatever is different, from their whims to their appearance to their strengths and powers. But look what they do to us regularly; news cover stories to keep the public from realizing that there are killers, thieves, pranksters, whatever that they haven't a hope of stopping currently? Hell, that most of them can't even see?"

"Long term," he pointed out, perhaps a bit riskily due to the spirit currently inside her, but he felt he at least owed her a bit of the truth given how much she was helping him (he didn't pride himself on being a good guy, but he did at least think that he wasn't quite an amoral sinkhole yet), "that's really what I want to do. I want to have people not only know about spirits, but understand them, be on par with them; if there was a burglar who could walk through walls, you'd develop walls you couldn't walk through, wouldn't you? Same thing." He pointed out with a shrug before laughing a bit. "The rules of disclosure; the less you have invested in someone, the more you'll talk to them, and the more you talk, the more they talk. Psychology at it's finest."
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As he listened to her, he began to get the impression that he had assumed he would run into; he could tell by the way she held herself and the way she was responding that he was coming dangerously close to threatening her. Part of him, perhaps a more bitter, vicious part of him, wanted to say good; let her start to feel the pressure. No matter how much she might believe she used her powers, he had a hard time believing she used them for anything but selfish gains. Or rather, he had a hard time believing she really put them to use at all; squandered, then, because she wanted to maintain the semblance of a normal life when she could be standing at the forefront of a vanguard dedicated to protecting those who might be like her in the world. The more rational part of him knew that of course she felt threatened, and regardless of how she used her powers he wasn't attempting to make her feel the villain. At the same time, she should be well aware of the dangers that came with her powers, and the way they could so easily be misused in hands that weren't quite as passive as hers. If it came down to choosing between the comfort of those with spirits or the safety of those without, he knew well enough which he would choose.

And then came the question as to quite why he was afraid of the rain. He didn't like to admit it; it was weak, and it was foolish, and he fancied himself above such inadequacies and childhood horrors. Still, remembering how he had run through the rain, the way it slid around him, the sound it made as it struck the roof of his house, the ground, the forest... he tried to stifle a shudder and couldn't quite at the thought of it before he forced a laugh at his own inadequacy. The trick became where to lie, or how much to omit; people didn't really want to hear the truth, and certainly his story wasn't unique or even particularly dramatic, all things considered. Certainly it hadn't hounded his entire childhood, and he well knew the stories that were told by the other children in the foster program before his father gathered him. Demons in the night, incidents that couldn't possibly be right explained away by some law enforcement... he was just another statistic, ignored for it's marginality. Still, he owed her some kind of answer, though he decided he would make it at least close enough to the truth to offer something legitimate, she'd earned at least that much for putting up with him this long and for attempting to help him, though he wondered if she still would.

"Isn't it curious, how so many people can have so many pasts afflicted by spirits, and nobody but themselves and the few people they pray will believe them ever hear about it?" He offered with another slight chuckle before he shrugged. "In any case, my mother was a medium that I thought for years was a fraud; apparently she wasn't quite as fraudulent as I thought, or coincidence really is ruled by irony. Either way, she was possessed by something for real this time that apparently enjoyed games a little too much, and rain hasn't quite been the same for me since." he offered with a shrug. "Water in general, really; I don't go in more than my waist if I can help it. I'm not a particularly strong person; it's about all I can stand to wash myself in the shower." He noted almost sardonically, personally quite disgusted with the way he carried on. He should be better than that, but every time he tried he could barely breath. Coward, yes, but he didn't quite know how not to be one as he looked to the window. "Shall I take that as my queue to leave you to the rest of your night?" he offered, reaching foreword to drain the glass in front of him. He wondered if she knew he wasn't telling her the whole story, but he felt slightly vindicated in knowing that she obviously didn't tell the same to him, though it was unlikely he would have just rattled it off to her regardless. He drained the glass and set it back down, and though he wouldn't actually be going anywhere until the rain wasn't more than a drizzle, he at least had the courtesy, he felt, to offer to do it somewhere that wasn't her house.
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"None that can really be answered without a lab." he noted with a shrug as he leaned back, accepting her hospitality for the moment while keeping an eye on the window before he chuckled a bit. "Normally once business is done the drinks come out and what to do tends to solve itself through the course of the evening, but that's besides the point. I suppose I should probably ask who this employer that might be interested in funding me is, but considering that it's not even a sure thing, that's kind of a whenever thing. Do you often have random guys over to your apartment, or just the ones that burst in on dinner and demand a performance of supernatural parlor tricks?" He offered, forcing his thumb onto the ring to prevent it from spinning, the silver band coming to a halt on his finger as he looked to her with a raised eyebrow. "Actually I do have a question; what do you do to relax?" About now would probably be the point where he would start hitting on her, normally, but considering the situation he decided against that and instead moved towards more relatively neutral topics, though he actually was quite curious what she did to unwind; she had the look about her that suggested she was a bit high strung about things, and he had a hard time actually imagining her unwinding.
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"Name a college student that isn't used to the low shelf version of a drink and I'll eat my headphones." he noted dryly before shaking his head, a bit of a grin on his features as he watched the tips of her ears blush. It would seem she had some kind of relations going on, and though he couldn't picture him he had the image of some corporate lackey somewhere slaving away over a paper stack somewhere, though he attempted at least to give her the benefit of better taste. "Don't worry about it; I don't drink alone, but if you're having some as well then vodka's my preference." Anything clear really would do, but he'd gathered a taste for vodka while living with his father, who practically swam in the stuff, having been known to gargle with it before having a shot at breakfast to wake him up. The man was a functioning alcoholic, but as he'd learned, it seemed as though everyone had their vices. He realized, however, that he was probably keeping her from something along the lines of sleep, and as such he got to his feet and made his way after her, tapping her on the shoulder to get her attention.

"How about we put off the drinks until another time? Have your bath, get some rest, and I'll see you around later. The rain's pretty much gone, I'll be fine." He noted. There was an odd quality in his voice, it didn't seem particularly expressive almost no matter what he said, remaining in a sort of dry, almost sardonic tone, and paired with a relatively emotionless face it gave him a tone of aloofness that was perhaps intentional and perhaps not. Either way, he was at least trying to foster something along the lines of good relations, and he figured she probably wouldn't hold it against him.
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