text | ❝ i left my body lying somewhere in the sands of time ❞

[quickfingers]

So, space. The Final Frontier. Astonishing.

Also unexpected. I take it none of us signed up for this though so I won't bitch. Much.

Anyway, I have a series of questions not ranked by importance:

1. Where are the aliens? The gross tentacley ones from tv.
2. Are WE the aliens here? Gasp. The turn around.
3. Capri Sun? Tang? Tab? Any of these available?

This isn't a Soylent Green kinda place right? Lie to me if you have to. Thx.

Comments

[coercive]

[She nods slowly, like she completely understands.]

I have to eat more too.

[To maintain this child's energy level, she eats like a horse. So she gets it. And he's not talking down to her, which makes her want to help him. She doesn't really have anything good to eat right now, but she can remember some decent food that she's had.]

There were chips I had once. Ones in a can. I wish they were here.

[Laura, those are Pringles. You know what they are without knowing the name.]

[quickfingers]

[Peter's eyes briefly widen and he leans right in, jabbing a finger out in the air in front of him.] With a creepy little face on the tin?

Lil' mustache creepo? [He's air-tweaks an imaginary mustache on his face.]

[coercive]

[She eagerly nods, and copies his imaginary mustache air tweaking. It makes her laugh a little, enough to warm up to him in a way that gets her to forget the trouble she usually has with communicating.]

Lil' mustache creepo.

[Her accent is thicker as she tries copying words that are new to her. He's already teaching her great things.]

He was there, yes. You know him?

[quickfingers]

That my little friend with good taste, is the Pringles Man. I don't know why they put him on there - he's the thing of nightmares - but they're good chips, aren't they?

[He laughs, already pretty much set to adopt this kid as a new little sister. It's astonishing how easily it is to slip back into a brotherly role after being a bit out of practice. He tips his head back:] What flavor did you have?

[coercive]

[What starts out as eager nodding and smiling quickly fades away as she realizes she isn't sure what flavor she had.]

Rojo?

[She pauses, face contorting in frustration as she tries to remember.]

Red. The can was red. It tasted salty.

[quickfingers]

Red? Ah, sounds like the OG - the original flavor. Salty potato. [Peter makes an exaggerated face of approval; man he wishes he had some of those right now.]

If we ever find space chips, we gotta share with each other - deal?

[coercive]

[She has to think that one over. One one hand, she's only just met him. On the other, she really likes him. So she eventually ends up nodding.]

Deal.

[There's a brief pause, as she glances off screen at something.]

Where do you stay? I have something I can bring you now.

[It's something that was given to her that she's been saving, but she can share with him.]

[quickfingers]

I'm shopping around, I started walking to see what's here and got sidetracked before I could settle in. [So much to see and explore, he's caught between trying to look it all over now and savoring it considering he might be here for a long ass while.]

I'm at the library right now, poking through some boring looking books.

[coercive]

[Why would you ever want to do that, Peter.]

I know the library. Wait there.

[She takes off running, pretty quickly for a kid. Her end of the feed cuts off, and a few minutes later she ends up busting into the library and looking for him. He's easy to spot, and she slinks her way over to pop up right in front of him. She's holding a bar of chocolate, which she holds up toward him.]

It was a present. But you can have some.

[quickfingers]

[Peter takes the time while waiting to look through a few more tomes, finding a weird mix of academic seeming texts and alien(ish?) erotica. The latter of which his interest is piqued but he's tossing back on the shelf for the time being.

He sits by a table next to a stack of someone else's books, looking up when Laura comes skittering in. He smiles, giving her a friendly wave before whistling at what she's brought before him.] Wow, what a stash.

You sure you wanna share that with me? [He plays it up, tapping himself on the chest. He looks to the bar of chocolate before tentatively reaching out for it - it's a sweet offer he's not about to exploit.] I gotta introduce myself properly before I go eating all your snacks. I'm Peter.

[coercive]

[He reaches out for it and she playfully pulls it away. Smirking a little, she tosses it over to him since he's so much taller than she is and keep away isn't a game she can play in a library. She thinks that she might get in trouble for scaling furniture and knocking over things just to play around.]

I'm Laura. You can have half. But only half.

[She still wants some of her present. It's not like she has a huge sweet tooth, but there's so much junk food she's never been able to try before. Chocolate is one of the few things that she knows she really loves.]

[quickfingers]

Generous, thank you. [Peter catches it swiftly, but rather than crack it open immediately it sets it down on the table - reaching into his inner jacket pocket for something. He kind of had high hopes to make the few things he stuffed in his jacket last since they are effectively the last of their kind, but then bam he's got a kid offering him chocolate and he'd be a jerk not to offer something back.

So he flips a pack of twinkies at her.] Half for half? Our little secret, 'cause those are the only Twinkies I got on me. Everybody else can be jealous later.

[coercive]

Twinkies.

[From the way she says the name, it's obvious she's never heard of them before. And judging by how she handles the package and picks it up to sniff at it, she's never eaten one before either. The sweetness comes through the loud packaging that hurts her sensitive ears, and makes her nod in agreement to his offer.]

Half for half. Deal.

[She holds out her hand to shake on it, and the second he does, her hand retracts so she can extend her claws on her left hand. They're used to cleanly slice open the package, skewer one of the Twinkies, and then is used as fork for her to gobble the cake off of.]

Our secret.

[She promises, mouth full as she speaks.]

[quickfingers]

[He gives her a friendly handshake and moves to neatly peel the chocolate wrapper back before her whole snikt thing wholly distracts him and he looks up at her claws with a mix of confusion and mild alarm from the unexpected sight.

He stares unabashed, before tilting his head to the side with a frown.] That is so weird. I used to know a guy who could do that?

[Alice Cooper in the background, three figures approaching him for a heist of epic proportions? Those disgusting bone claws? Yeah, he remembers Logan. But this kid looks like a cooler metal version, so he doesn't auto-assume anything. Plus, what are the odds of passing down the same mutation?]

[coercive]

My dad does this too.

[She stares up at him as she chews her mouthful of sugary sweet. Her words are muffled from it, but thankfully she doesn't try to say too much more. She's more interested in his lack of an actual reaction to seeing her claws. It's weird, sure, but he's pretty calm about it.

There's white marshmallow filling left on her claws once she finishes, and she frowns at the sight of it. She'll have to clean them off later.]

Who do you know that could do it?

[quickfingers]

[Peter snaps a piece of chocolate off and wraps the rest into its own foil, slipping it her way on the table. He takes a bite and lets his eyes linger on her claws - which are actually less disgusting than the bone ones he saw. Something about the gnarly bone bumps was just too gross? Then again, thinking about them slipping in and out of arms is kinda - eugh.

He can't help wrinkling his nose, but mutants be mutants? She must be one.] Real gruff dude, all I know him by is Logan. His were different than yours - looked like bone, not metal.

[coercive]

[She arches an eyebrow when she hears the name Logan, and decides that since he clearly knows her dad it's okay to mess with him a little. So she raises her claw toward her mouth and carefully licks that marshmallow fluff right off.]

His are metal now. I know because he is my dad.

[And if he knows her dad and knows about his powers, then...]

What can you do?

[quickfingers]

No way - that's... well, that's cool. [So many questions but wow. Thanks for the heads up Charles.

He breaks off another small piece of his half of the chocolate bar, trying to savor it piece by tiny piece because it might be some of the last he has in a while. How best to demonstrate his abilities? It's sort of one of those abilities that are amazing but hard to admire, at least upfront.

Peter lets out a bit of a thoughtful sigh, at the tail end of which the table is notably covered in various stacks of books from an "instantly" emptied shelf nearby. The books are intricately stacked in the shape reminiscent of a castle and Peter admires his handiwork while popping the rest of his chocolate in his mouth. He explains while chewing:] I'm fast.

[coercive]

[She blinks and lets her claws retract while she leans in to get a look at that stack of books.]

How fast? Because I am fast too.

[And since she's fiercely competitive, her mind goes to one very narrow interest in his power.]

We could race.

[Slowly, she slips her hand out to slide her half of the chocolate toward herself. She might as well take a big bite out of it now.]

[quickfingers]

Faaaaaast. [He says, adjusting a book to be a roof to the structure he built before glancing her way. He wouldn't trade his abilities away for anything, not since he's gotten used to them and knows how to live with them but it's just... kind of disappointing he can't demonstrate his abilities to people the way some other mutants can. Claws can go snikt. Shapeshifters can turn blue. He can... run faster than people can even keep up with.

He draws up one of his feet to the seat of his chair, wrapping his arm around it and resting his chin on his knee.] Racing wouldn't be a fair. But we could race paper airplanes instead? D'you know how to make a real killer plane?

[coercive]

[Well, she's impressed by his power anyway. She just looks up at him in awe, kind of like a normal kid might look at an older sibling when they do something really impressive. He gives her cake and can go really fast? He's amazing.]

I've never made a plane.

[She also wants to point out that they're not made of paper, but maybe he knows something about airplanes that she doesn't. Unfortunately for him, Laura has the tendency to take everything literally. ]

You will show me?

[quickfingers]

Yeah, I'll show you. But only under one condition. [Peter says, holding up a finger and leaning forward toward her - dropping his voice to a whisper as he does so. This is clearly top-secret talk, alright.] No telling what I'm about to do, okay?

[What's that? Oh, it's him taking a book off the stack and flipping to the back and tearing out two of the last pages unceremoniously. Someone down the line will curse him for the time being? Two sheets of paper to make planes with. He holds one out to Laura.]

Copy what I do, 'kay? We gotta fold these.