[center][h3]Virdeus[/h3][/center]
[hr]
Julian had swung by his own quarters on his way to the kitchen, dropped off his tools and changed his clothes. Taken off the greasy pants and spotted black T-shirt he had been wearing, instead opting for a white T-shirt, dark purple cardigan on top and a pair of black business-casual slacks. He pulled the black loafers around hs feet as he grabbed the cup of coffee from his own coffee maker in his room, as well as a piece of toast. His toaster made the simple butter and cheese sandwich in such a way that remind him of a motherly figure he had never known. It was simple, rustic. And it felt like home. He pulled up his phone and ran some quick diagnostics. This was the fifth day in a row that power went out at 7, and he wasn't quite sure why yet. Edge sure cut corners when building this place, but something like that sure was crazy. He pulled up the information from his display on the phone into the air, a holographic projector in the roof - same kind that's torturing Vincent, in fact. Produced a 3D image of what he was looking at. The blueprints of the penthouse. The vents had a '96%' Next to them, indicating that Julian's robots were cleaning out vermin and dirt from the webs, getting rid of that stale air. The robots looked like small black pucks, baby-Roombas Cece had called them when she sas them once.

He took a sip of the coffee. Did some more diagnostics with his free hand and when he didn't have to, his hand found it's way to his left, holding the cup. Tracing the ring on his finger. It had been a year since he put it on - not taken it off. He knew that everyone else in the house knew the story of Julian Luthor - Lost son of Lex Luthor. Tense relationship with his estranged dad. 18-year old super genius who's made nr.1 on '20 under 20' list. The kid who was asked to join his dad as an executive for Lexcorp but who decided to spend his year traveling the world instead.

While Julian knows that three years ago, he didn't exist at all, and it wasn't until two years ago that he became 'him' to begin with. Before that he was just a science project. A weapon of mass destruction housed in the body of a teenager. He was a 6'0 sized extinction level event.  He wasn't sure why he kept that fact hidden. But he couldn't shake how using his 'gifts' made his entire body crawl. It filled him with unreasonable dread. He feared what he could do without the little bit of gold and blue on his finger. There were nights when he was haunted by how he hurt Doctor Kirk, punched Superman into the atmosphere and how he could've destroyed all of Star City if the Manhunter hadn't stopped him. He was meant to be Project Outmatch. The greatest weapon. But now, he's a teenager with anxiety over jewelry.

 The ring had been on his finger for half his life. And frankly he thought he hadn't begun living until he put it on. Yet, it felt a lot heavier than the 76 grams it weighed. If he took it off, he could do so much more. His hands fiddled with it. A part of him wanted power. He hated not being in control, yet he's able to freely give it away - he had the choice to install cameras into every bedroom in the penthouse and connect it to his mainframe, but he choose not to.
He wasn't his father. He let go of the ring. 

Waved away the holographics and walked back up to the kitchen. The door automatically opening and closing as he passed with a soft pssh-sound. He fixed his half-rim glasses position on his face as he entered the kitchen, finding it bursting with life, Dandelion and Hana arriving soon after himself. He nodded at Conor and Eilidh. 

"Glad to see everyone's enjoying having the power back." He exclaimed cheerfully, only to hear loud swear words from the fridge as Vincent stepped out of it. Julian smirked. 

"I'm glad to see that Professor Adrian Hopkins hypothesis about red lights and messing with the body's own GPS is proven yet again. Thanks for participating in the experiment, Vinny." The ginger said with a coy smile, taking another sip from his mug. Clearly, he had planned the extra bright emergency lighting outside of Vincent's room after the last blackout. [i]That's for interrupting my beauty sleep.[/i]


Hana arrived, barking about the lights going out. Julian scoffed at the idea of seven minutes in heaven. He had only recently learnt what it was, and never had the chance to experience it himself. He blushed ever so slightly, quickly taking a swig from his mug to hide any sign of it. 

In the next room, in the lounge, he heard the talks of a movie. He needed cultural education same as many others in the penthouse, but if he had to see another Ric Bruceson film with Cece, he might just figure out a way to chemically euthanize a kryptonian.

"I'll pass on the movie." He leader of the group quickly decided.  Dandelion showed up and Julian was still amazed by how the entire floor seemed to sway under the mass the creature carried. "How we feeling tonight, Dandelion?". They asked him if there were anything they could help with around the penthouse, and Julian nodded. "Yeah, I could use your help with fixing the air-conditioning later. It's getting wonky. Gabi keeps getting all of the cold air into her room, mine's like a jungle. Your nimble fingers makes you excellent at handling a screwdriver." It was a little bit of a lie, Julian could fix it himself, but he wanted to teach Dandelion useful skills, explain the world and an excuse to hangout with the unusual kid was always welcome.

Finding Dandy had been the team's first hurrah. Him, Vincent and Conor had expected to fight their way through an alien infestation and all they found was one, very dense kid.
Speaking of dense kids. He shot a stern look at Hayden for eating all of the nuggets. He didn't mind. But he still wanted to instill some manners into the young dino-man.

He noticed that Morrow and Varo weren't here. He quickly grabbed his phone and shot Morrow a text, asking him if he felt like playing Julian in chess. He figured that challenging Vincent to pool would be a non starter today. He had already pissed the physics-bender off enough for the day.

He responded to Kevin's nod with a nod of his own, Varo walked in, perhaps also looking for a cup of tea. He asked about the movie
 "Oh yeah. Ric Brucesson: In the name of love's coming up. It's a good one."  Julian joked, moving away to the activity room where the pool table and chessboard were placed, waiting the eventual arrival of Morrow's progeny.