somethingwithturquoise | Syndulla Scrap, then Parts Beyond; Tuesday Evening [08/18].

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Syndulla Scrap, then Parts Beyond; Tuesday Evening [08/18].

Even though she knew everything was fine, Summer was a little tempted to get to the scrapyard early and fiddle with the ship before things got started for her daaaate, but, on the other hand, she did not turned her bedroom into a warzone of rejected outfits (which were surely now collecting enough cat hair to knit a sweater as Pancakes inevitably assumed all those clothes were strewn about specifically for her to sleep on) until settling on something seemingly effortless just to risk messing it up. She also thought about being 'fashionably late' andm making Barry wait for her at the ship, but, ugh, no, did we really want to be that person? So she got there early enough to just check some of the basic diagnositics (especially with the new power source) and got her started to warm her up, reminding herself of what Rey had said about her overthinking it.

So she figured she might as well just delve into the most mindless thing possible to counterbalance it by scrolling through Instagram for potential shot ideas for this apparent Girls Night Out that was going on tomorrow.

If there wasn't at least some karaoke involved, she was going to be so disappointed in this generation (which was still technically also pretty much her own generation, but shhhh).

[[ for that guy! ]]

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"Well don't judge but I am an actual fucking vegetarian. Not going to lie: the grab and go picnic sounds pretty good," he said carefully watching Summer's reaction to ensure he was making the right choice. "And dumb action films are fucking awesome. Pure guilty pleasure on my part. That's not too stupid right?"

Honestly the dumber the action film, the better. Barry found dumb distractions to be the best way to relax.

Which explained his initial friendship with Jeremy.

"I take it you have something in mind?"

Well, yeah, duh, she knew you were vegetarian, Barry, because you shouted it over everyone when you flew over the pole last week, and Summer paid attention, so that was why she picked it.

She did suppose he could have been being facetious, too, but that was a risk she was willing to take, and she was pleased to see that it had paid off.

"There's this show," she said, "that I really like that's popular enough in a few dimensions that it got a movie franchise, so I figured we'd head over to one of those after dinner and catch a showing. Not one of the best ones," she admitted, because she did not need to deal with 'oh, hey, aren't you that girl that incited a war with the giant spiders that took over our planet?' on a first official date, "but still pretty good. So, grab some.food, catch some sweet space scenery on Venzenulon 9 before night sets in," because then they would kind of freeze to death, "then hit up a movie in a dimension with far better appreciation for the fine action arts than this one."

Would that work? WAS THAT GOOD ENOUGH? Was it WORTHY? Or was she better off faking a problem with the ship and saving herself the humiliation now???

Although even then, she suspected trying to fake a problem with the ship with Barry wouldn't be easy, anyway.

"That sounds... Fucking. Awesome," Barry said looking like he just won the lottery.

And don't fake a problem with the ship, Summer. Barry could probably tell and no doubt think you were adorable for trying.

And then his brain started to bug him. Fucking brain.

"I mean, as long as you're cool with it. Shit, this is perfect for me but only if this is what fucking interests you too. I don't want you to be bored halfway through the opening credits. If it is, Jesus, I'm glad we left the details up to you."

Otherwise Summer might have been stuck watching the Sharknado documentaries.

And the Sharknado documentaries ran the risk of leading to Summer ranting through the whole thing about her room being the only one in the whole dormitory to have a goddamn shark crash through it and have you ever had to shove a dead shark out of your bedroom in the middle of a storm before? That was a sight and sound and smell you didn't forget for a very long time.

But Summer's swell of satisfaction at the supposed perfection of her plan was starting to put her own fucking brain into a nosedive toward a whole 'lady doth protest too much' situation.

"I mean," she reasoned, hoping to put off the feeling creeping in that Barry was just being nice, because that was something about him, he was really nice, probably way too nice for someone like her, but she also couldn't just let a whole 'nother Pastor Carter situation happen over here, not at this point!, "I'm the one with the ship, and there's literally countless of options available, so if I wasn't cool with it, that's on me at that point."

How could anyone get bored over the opening credits of a Ball Fondlers movie? Even the end credits.were over the top adrenaline fueled joyride of carnage and big ass guns.

Okay. Barry felt his anxieties ease up and realized that if he let his brain and anxieties keep going he was going to fuck this first date up.

"Then I'm going with what I originally said. This is fucking awesome," he said earnestly. "I just wanted to make sure this for the both of us because is our fucking date. Not just for me."

He gave her a grin.

"Cool?"

See? Nice. Like, super nice. Nice enough that if she let her brain go that way, she'd start to wonder what the catch was.

You know, the vibrant red flags of particular implications, issues, experiences and hang-ups notwithstanding.

It wasn't like Summer was thinking about any of that right now, because there was someone (okay, okay, not just someone, but a guy that she liked) showing her a modicum of respect and consideration and basic human decency, and that always got her way more than it probably should.

"Very cool," she breathed out, grinning back, until her brain reminded her of a thing called moving.

"So we better get going!" She then said brightly, and was moving quickly for the interior of the ship and the cockpit. "Like I said, we'll want to try to get plenty of time on Venzenulon 9 before nightfall, because once it's night, it drops to, like, negative three hundred degrees, but the sunsets are a-maze-ING."

Better than the ones on Venzenulon 7? Well, they better get going.

Barry put the remaining ion cannon into the storage locker and followed Summer to the cockpit. "I'm looking forward to it," Barry said as he strapped himself into his seat. Looking over the console he did double check the primary power inverters just to make sure there wasn't any issues but even at a glance he could tell they were running fine.

Again, solar explosions are a total buzzkill.

"So where is this place with the great vegetarian food?"

That extreme temperature disparity made a surprisingly big difference!

"Planet ~~Blah blah Handwavey~~," said Summer, settling into the pilot's sear with the small, inevitable satisfied sigh about it that she was never going to get rid off, then tapped a few things on her phone to confirm the time and coordinates for the portal once they got going out of atmo, "in the ~~Because I'm Making This All Up~~ Nebula." Her hands moved with swift knowledge over the dash as she talked. "They were waaaaay far up the Galactic Federation's butt, so they got boned pretty hard when we dismantled it a few years ago. Which means we're supporting a recovering local economy, too!"

Edited 2020-08-18 19:07 (UTC)

"Does it count as shopping local if it's on another planet?" Barry joked as he essentially did what a co-pilot should do and monitor the ship's current status and sensor readings. "Not that Fandom needs help with the shop local thing. For a small island it pretty much has fucking everything."

As he settled back in the chair and let Summer do her thing, he brought one if the 2,000 bits of prepared conversation topics he had been dwelling on for the last 48 hours. "So I don't think I asked you. How did you end up in Fandom? I know you were a student but everyone I've met ended up here by accident or got sent here somehow."

There was a small moment of glowing pride for the comment on Fandom's vast availability of pretty much everything, since she kiiiiinda felt pretty instrumental in that, with the store and all, and then snorted a little at the question, passing a wry smirk over to Barry as the ship got moving.

"Funny you should ask that after I mentioned the Fed," she said. "They're kind of the whole reason I'm here. Right, so, there was this whole thing, where my grampa turned himself in to the Galactic Federation, and ~~spoiler alert~~ they took over Earth, and it was total bullshit, and I couldn't believe we were just letting that happen. So I wanted to figure out how to break him out of there, you know, because it was bullshit, they couldn't just do that, but my conformist, weak-spined parents were all, 'Summer, the Federation has been so good to us now!' Which it, like, wasn't, but whatever. Anyway, so their solution was just to be all, 'let's send Summer away until she gets this out of her system,' so I kid you not, I totally thought this place was a complete Federation brainwash summer camp, or some shit, for the first few weeks. You should have seen me lose my mind when I found out we had real food here instead of pills!"

And a whole obsession with pancakes was this born, although there was plenty of evidence to suggest that the pancakes thing had deeper roots.

"Anyway, my brother and me eventually managed to bust Grampa Rick out of space prison, and we dismantled the Galactic Federation, and I decided to finish up school here because I liked it so much."

Summer shrugged a little, shaking her head slightly as she marveled at how that seemed, like, FOREVER ago, then smiled over at him.

"What about you? What's your Fandom story?"

Barry listened to that story unfold and was giving Summer a look of admiration. "I know I've said this before, but you are a total badass."

He paused for a moment before starting his own story. "Well, I found Fandom on my own actually. I was in my own dimension on my Earth when I came across a stream of interdimensional transmissions which turned out to be the podcasts coming from the radio station. Right after that one of my experiments had gone absolutely fucking wrong. Like... killed my friends dead wrong. I had to go back in time ten times until I got it fixed right. After that I didn't want to endanger them. So I enrolled myself in school the summer before my senior year. I figured it was safer to do my shit in a place in an interdimensional nexus where things were already fucked up and, bonus, my friends wouldn't get hurt. I didn't count on the freedom I had to do what I wanted without the government turning me into a one person braintrust or a science experiment. I also didn't count on making as many friends as I did."

He smiled and chuckled a bit to himself. "I think I told you some of that. That's why I'm back. Because maybe there's a kid who's fucked up like me and I can pay it back."

Summer almost managed to miss the first part of that; she was sort of stuck glowing at the badass comment while also focusing on the atmosphere breech and shifting to space mode, but then her focus was on listening to Barry.

Well, and hitting them portal cords.

"I mean," she said, encouragingly, "that's pretty badass, too. I'm sorry about your friend, though. That...couldn't have been easy."

Barry thought about Jeremy, Roxie and everyone else he had met on the island before and smiled.

"I couldn't have been who I am without them," Barry admitted. "It was worth the risk. And as much as that island drives me nuts I'm looking forward to seeing what else is in store for me here."

As they exited the atmosphere, Barry checked the coordinates and again the sensors (like a good co-pilot should) to make sure everything was working correctly and there weren't any energy dips from the conversion.

"So, in between taking down galactic empires, running a convenience store, tending bar, teaching a class and god knows what else because I think you sleep less than I do.... what do you do for fun? Beside come up with insane jello shots."

Yes. Another set of conversational topics he had worked on in the last 48 hours.

Summer grinned a little, wondering if he'd just really done his research, or if it was pretty much impossible to spend more than a few days on the island anymore without her infamous jello shots coming up.

Either way, she felt it was a win for her.

"I don't know," she said with a laugh, "the normal stuff? Which just sounds boring and lame after all that. I have a cat?" Which meant there was a good chance Barry wasn't leaving this ship without at least a little cat fur getting on him, because for a supposedly short-haired breed, Pancakes shed a lot. "I really like Instagram and discovering new music, shopping, fashion, cute animals, the Bachelor, partying with my friends..."

God, the more she went on, the more vapid it all sounded, especially following all that other stuff. You didn't really have to think about how it sounded when you usually just threw it up on a Tinder profile.

"...exploring the various intricacies of of the endless variety that exists in the infinite interdimensional multiverse?"

That was better.

"What about you?" Summer asked. "It's not all experiments and lab work and being, like, super smart all the time, is it? Well..." She really couldn't help herself with this one, as evident in her smirk, "and also working at our quaint local sex shop..."

Barry’s face turned a bright red at the mention of Dite’s. He coughed a bit just in order not to address that part of his life.

“Honestly I spent the last five years turning a world that was in the Bronze Age through a clean energy industrial revolution. So... yeah. It was mostly science and theories and thinking. I know it sounds ridiculous but I can’t stop thinking. So I don’t have pets. Just personal projects. I do try to read anything I can get my hands on. Non fiction, fiction, sci fi and everything really. Not just science shit. But lately... I guess it’s been me stuck in my warehouse doing science and shit. I do have companies but that’s mainly to funnel my research into the world-“

So yes, Summer, that hundred at T&C wasn’t him flexing.

“-I don’t manage the day to day. I use to do some black hat hacking stuff but I’m only donning the white hat and doing it to help others.”

Barry stopped and facepalmed himself. “Fuck. I sound like a fucking hermit and bragging at the same time. Honestly though, none of that means anything unless you can take some time off and hang out with a bad ass; watch a beautiful sunset and then watch a shitty action movie.”

He motioned around the ship. “Or. You know. Overhaul a ship’s engine. This is... nice. I haven’t had fun like this in a long time.”

He paused feeling awkward. And looking at Summer he realized he didn’t have anything prepared to say at that moment. “What’s your cat’s name?”

Toward the end of all that, the ship accelerated as they hit those sweet portal coords; it wasn't necessary to accelerate, obviously, but there was just something about speeding up through a portal that gave Summer a little thrill enough to the point where it became a habit with her, that slight lurch of the engines followed by the sudden, sometimes subtle shift in the space around them.

"Glad I could help," she said, a little too genuine to be fully cocky about it, but it was kind of hard not to be after all that, as she took a moment to reorient the ship and her sense of navigation. Good, they weren't too far off course at all.

"And it's Pancakes," she offered, her expression going warm and adoring and maybe a little sheepish now. "Because her fur is the exact color of a perfectly cooked pancake."

IT WAS A THING, OKAY?

"You'll have to come meet her sometime," she added, because, you know, then he'd have to come by her apartment...and stuff.

And because Barry is a giant fucking nerd the first thing he thought of when he heard about the perfect color of a pancake was "#f5dc87". Which is weird. So he didn't say that out loud.

And then when he heard the invite he got very interested in looking at the sensors regarding engine power throughput. Mostly so Summer might miss his face turning red because of the 'other stuff' that his thoughts might have led to."I'd... I'd like that," he said meekly.

"That was pretty cool piloting," he said trying to hide his embarrassment. "And looking at the star chart for those coordinates there's a planet right... here that if you did a quick orbit you can use the inertia to fling us there about two minutes faster."

Which might sound like him being nerdy but he also thought the maneuver would be pretty cool.

"Okay, nerd," said Summer, because it really did sound like him being nerdy, and she couldn't exactly help pointing it out with a smirk, even if it, really, it wasn't like there hadn't been pretty nerdy things before then, either.

And, now that he'd pointed it out, she definitely saw it, too. And could hardly just ignore it now that it was there, and so her eyes narrowed a little on the chart, then out the window and considered the planet, made a feeeew quick adjustments, and then gunned it toward the orbit.

Let's see if she could try and make it fewer than two.

Barry had been called many worse things in his life. Mostly by his friends. And to him just being called a nerd was a compliment.

As she gunned the engine and sped the ship around and slingshot them, Barry couldn't help but throw his arms up in the air like he was on roller coaster.

"FUCK YEAH! WOOOO!"

Because an inertia sling shooting spaceship deserved a cheer.

"Where did you learn to fly? Anakin Skywalker's class or somewhere else?"

And that was sooooo much nerdier, woooow, but it was hard to not give Barry a pass for it because it was also, like, super validating.

"Ohmygod," said Summer, "I hope my actual flight instructor felt that even from a galaxy far, far away, because he would die. Also, he'd probably totally disapprove of that just now...at least officially."

And at least focusing on the flying would help her from getting too maudlin about this particular topic, too.

"It was Kanan," she offered, "the friend I was helping with the secret spy base jello shop. I mean, I knew how to fly even before I came here. I had my own ship for a little while," and that was all they needed to say about that, "and, obviously, I'd carjack Grampa Rick's P.O.S. on occasion, but he's the one who actually, you know, taught me how to actually do it, like, legit."

“Sounds like he was a cool guy,” Barry replied. “And clearly you picked up some serious skills. I remember taking Skywalker’s class back in the stone ages. I did all right but my buddy Joker could fly circles around us. You would have liked him. Swears even more than I do.

"He's the best," said Summer, with a firm sort of conviction that was also incredibly soft, her eyes focused entirely on their destination for a moment to force any reminder that it had practically been a whole year now since she'd even last talked to him, let alone seen him...

Then she laughed a little, just a small breath of a sound to go along with a grin. "That's not that hard to believe," she said, quirking an eyebrow at Barry. "You didn't even fucking swear once in that whole response."

“Well shit god damn fucking motherfucking fuuuuuuuuck. I missed my quota. Not sure how I’m going to fucking make up for it,” Barry joked. “So I got to ask... given the snippets you’ve mentioned to me, your life seems almost as fucked up as mine. So. I want to hear it. Top three fucked up moments that have made you laugh once you got past it.”

Yes. Another conversation topic he worked on.

That was a hell of a question, there, Barry.

Because when Summer's mind went to 'most fucked up things,' it wasn't exactly paired with laughing at it once you got past it. Maybe in the moment, sure, but that was just a coping method to push you to just get past it and not mention it ever again. It wasn't like any of it was really that funny, especially in retrospect.

Like, what could she say? She almost murdered her parents because she got super deep into a cult based on a misunderstanding regarding giant heads demanding their version of Galaxy Idol? That she threw herself into an apocalyptic cannibalistic wasteland for, like, a month because she just couldn't deal with her parents' divorce? That she almost participated in the near genocide of an entire alien race because her dad was too much of a fucking coward to just break up with his girlfriend?

Ha, ha, yeah. Hilarious.

So Summer kind of needed a moment.

"You first," she said, finding at least a convenient excuse to stall, "we're practically there and I should probably focus on re-entry, y'know?"

Edited 2020-08-19 00:46 (UTC)

Seeing Summer's reaction Barry frowned for a brief second. Then realized he probably wasn't clear enough by what he meant. Maybe a few examples would help

"Right. Sure. So when I first got here I got the bright idea of trying to make a gremlin vaccine. I had to catch a gremlin, get it's venom. Weeks of fucking study. Then the fucking gremlin escaped and I got the vaccine shot by accident. So, the vaccine worked, right? But unfortunately I couldn't determine any side effects before I got the shot. The side effect? Every time I swore I kept making sound effects with my mouth without being aware of it. By the time I got cured I was sneezing gummi bears and vomited a rainbow."

As they started their descent he checked a couple of readings just to make sure the solar battery and power inverters were still holding up. "Second fucked up thing? I had a date with this girl, I liked, right? Well earlier that day I turned a couple of coked up teachers into dinosaurs just for a laugh. Turns out that pissed off a couple of people who decided to barge in during our date and we were interrupted all fucking night. At the end one of my teachers showed up in the warehouse and told us which tables he and his girlfriend used to get busy on and not to use them because they were rickety."

And then moving on quickly to the next moment as he really didn't want to talk about his dating experience in front of a girl he was going on a first date with.

"And finally there was the parents weekend where my buddy Jeremy visited and thought a gremlin was the fucking alien from ~~meta-for~~ E.T. the Extraterrestrial. We got bit and showed up at the school talent show thinking we were George Michael and Freddie Mercury and sang a duet in front of some very fucking confused parents."

Good. The new panels and power source were doing quite well for their first shakedown trip.

"So there you go. Some of my embarrassing fucked up moments on the table. You are more than welcome to mock me relentlessly. I'm pretty sure Roxie still has footage from the talent show."

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