somethingwithturquoise | The Junkyard, and then Parts BEYOND; Thursday Morning [09/16].

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The Junkyard, and then Parts BEYOND; Thursday Morning [09/16].

So, it came to Summer's attention that her most recent school-assigned friend had never been to space, and, since she apparently couldn't meet a person who had never been to space without offering them a ride in her ship, there was a little jaunt up to the moon or maybe past Mars in order, because unlike all those other times, they actually decided to do it the next day so that Summer didn't get caught up in the million other things she threw herself into and forget and/or forget to make time for it.

(S'up, Moon Date with Tisarwat and Lucille from a million years ago!)

She got there a little early, though, with a thermos full of the promised coffee (because that's what you needed in your stomach, the first time you went into space, coffee) so that it didn't get cold while she got started on the basic checks and overview to make sure everything was in working order before they headed out. Clipboard and checklist and everything, baby! She was totally going to blame T&C for this, but she did love a good checklist-on-a-clipboard montage sequence.

[[ expecting the aforementioned school-assigned friend, but it can definitely be open before him in the timeline! ]]

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Jon had promised to bring the toast. He somehow didn't think beans would go well in a spaceship, though. Or anything that needed a fork, really. So in the end, he'd gone to the Perk and found out they did an avocado toast that sounded decent. He'd even gotten one for himself as well, so as not to seem any weirder than Summer probably thought him already.

At least once he got to the junkyard, there was only one hot-pink spaceship. And it (and several other ships) looked like actual functional vehicles rather than junk.

He made his way a little tentatively up the ramp. "Hello? Summer?"

Trust her, it would take way more than avacodo toast to set off Summer's weird radar.

But she'd just been making some honestly kind of superfluous but made her feel ~official~ notes on her clipboard when she heard Jon's voice and went to go meet him. Not that it was a very big ship or anything, but if you were new to shops or whatever...

"Hey, Jon!" she greeted. "Come on iiiiin, make yourself at hoooooome, I'm just finishing up on my final checks before we take her out, so you've got really good timing!"

Would "I don't really eat food, I eat fear" do it?

"Oh. Good." He held out the small box. "I did bring the toast." ...wait. "I hope you like avocado?" He probably should have asked.

Fortunately, looking around at the ship gave him an escape from just standing there awkwardly. "This is...hm. Actually, I suppose it's almost exactly like I'd have pictured a spaceship. Except for the pink. Not that that's bad! Just not as expected."

That depended on whether or not this dimension's Summer ever did actually punch that hamburger that one time. Some foods should be feared!

"No one expects a pink spaceship," Summer said, following Jon's eyes a little with a little sigh of pride. "And this is actually my second one, my first one was pink, too!"

But, before Jon had a chance to potentially ask about what happened to the first one, she forged forward. "But avocado's great! I just hope you didn't pay too much for it, I hear that shit'll bankrupt you. I brought the coffee, too!" She gestured toward the cockpit where the thermos was sitting in the cupholder. "You want to eat first, or should we just get going? She's pretty much ready, and the stars make for a much better breakfast view than the junkyard."

Although she supposed some people might be into that.

For all Jon knew, spaceships had expiration dates. Or they broke right off of lease.

"Er...not too much, no." He made his way to the cockpit. "We could wait until we're up there, I suppose? It does sound nicer, and i-it's probably best not to have anything in my stomach, just in case?" Wasn't there a lot of turbulence on the way up?

There might be! Atmosphere and what-not, but stratospheric weather report looked pretty good, so there was that!

"That's true," Summer agreed, moving easily after him toward the cockpit and giving an unnecessary yet almost ceremonial gesture toward the passenger seat while she plopped comfortably into the polot's side. "It's been a while since I've had to clean up anyone's puke in here, and I wouldn't mind keeping it that way. If you do start to feel a little nauseus, though, there a bucket under the seat."

But now, as she strapped her seat belt into place and started flipping a few switches, she started to wonder if that was something she should have taken into consideration before making this offer.

"How is your stomach for these things?" she ventured. "Do you get car sick easily?"

Like, he kinda sorta looked like he just existed in a perpetual state of nerves and nausea, if you asked her, but, despite all that, considering what he'd gone through when he got here, he did seem pretty solid overall, soooooooooo....

"Not, um. Not really?" Jon said. He still checked to make sure of where the bucket was. "But I haven't ever been to space before. Best to be prepared, just in case."

Summer nodded. "Antacids in the glovebox, too," she offered, and then went back to all the little futzy things that were apparently involved in getting her ship ready for flight, all the lights on the dashboard blinking eagerly as the hum of the engines starts to build into a soft roar. She checked a few gauges and dials, adjusted a little knob, then looked up as if checking a rear-view mirror. There was something there to check, sure, but it was fair inconsequential and Summer mostly just did it out of habit, even though she'd actually neve really driven a car that much before.

"Music?" she then asked, as it seemed everything was in order. "Or is that just going to distract from the whole ~experience~ of it all?"

Jon huffed in laughter. "You know what? Pilot's choice. Whatever you think works best."

He was getting a bit nervous, but also more excited. He was really going to go into space, wasn't he?

Did you want your first trip to space to have a soundtrack by Dua Lipa, Jon? Because that was how you got your first trip to space to have a soundtrack by Dua Lipa.

But Summer would gladly fight anyone who wanted to argue with her that 'Levitating' wasn't a great take-off song.

So with a grin and another flip of a switch that got the music pumping, Summer took a hold of the wheel with one hand and a throttle with the others. "Alright, then," she said. "Buckle in because this baby can hit strato in no time."

As Jon was about to see for himself as the ship hovered up slowly, enough to give them plenty of clearance over the junkyard and most of the island's buildings, and then she just gunned it, because if there was any other way to launch yourself into space from there, Summer was not even a little interested in it.

Jon barely managed to get his seatbelt on in time. He laughed again when he heard the music; it wouldn't have been his first choice of soundtrack, but it did seem appropriate.

There was less turbulence than he'd been expecting, which he definitely wasn't complaining about. It felt like being in a very fast car, but definitely didn't feel like as fast as they must be going.

A laugh was good! Summer grinned a little at that, because, really, there was a wide variety of reactions this could have pulled out of someone, and so far? Jon's had been nothing but encouraging. So she definitelly pulled a little harder on the throttle and gave it a little more gas (figuratively speaking, since her main energy source was solar now, thank you very much!) as they raced forward and put the Earth further and further behind, easily hidden now by a blanket of clouds below.

"We'll be hitting atmo soon," she offered, to warn him. "There might be a little bit of a jostle, but it shouldn't be too bad. I'm pretty good at making a smooth exit."

"Right." Jon took a deep breath and steeled himself. It was a little disorienting, but no worse than planes, and he had little problem flying.

And, with a few more adjustments and a little extra oomph in the boosters to try to shake off whatever roughness was inevitable with an atmo breech, the little pink ship pushed forward, Summer felt and reveled in that weird sort of shift in perception and the air around them as they shot forth into space and a little bit further so it was easier to shake off the gravitational pull of the planet they'd just left, and she tilted the nose down a little, gave a little turn, so that maybe Earth and the moon could be at optimal viewing points in the framing of the ship's front windshield.

"And there she is," she said with a soft sort of pride, "space."

A moment that might have been a little more cinematic and dramatic if not for the poppy dance beat soundtrack, buuuuut....

That was...right. Vast. Intellectually, Jon had known that, had even read Jan Kilbride's statement about it. Seeing the infinite void himself, though, was...dizzying. He felt the universe swirling around him, and slammed his eyes closed to breathe through it.

After a few seconds, he opened them again, focusing on the bright pink frame of the ship and Summer right there, and...he could do this. Deep breath. Impressive but not overwhelming. And somewhere deep inside, it was actually rather nice to feel insignificant again.

He swallowed, then smiled, looking down at the imperfect but wonderful Earth. "It's lovely."

And while Jon was sort of having his first space moment, Summer had been paying attention mostly to the ship and, having seemingly made a few adjustments to get something just right, flipped a few switched and pressed a button, then promptly whipped out her phone and held it up.

"You're not weird about pictures, are you?" she asked, but, really, if he was cool with someone he barely knew taking him up into space on a whim but then was weird about pictures, she was going to claim his priorities were a little off. "Because this is such a selfie moment."

And, also, she just really wanted to use this icon.

"Erm...no?" Jon blinked at her. "So long as you don't expect me to...to pose or anything."

He didn't take them himself, but so long as he wasn't expected to be cutesy in them, they were fine.

And it was a very good icon.

Edited 2021-09-17 16:10 (UTC)

You'd think there'd be more opportunities to use a planet selfie icon, but noooooo.

"Just maybe smile a little," Summer suggested, although she considered herself enough of an expert at the art of the selfie that she could manage to find a good angle to compliment them both and snap it possibly even before he had a change to, and when she looked at it a second later and said, "Oh, that's a good one," her attention was entirely on herself.

See, Jessica (not Jones, another one)? She didn't need a funeral to look good in a selfie! Just the vast endlessness of space!

Jon did his best to smile. It looked confused and slightly pained, but it was a real smile.

"Do you...hm. I'm interested if there are things to do in space, or if you just enjoy being up here."

"Sometimes," Summer admitted, settling in comfortably and just taking a moment to finally enjoy the view for what it was. "It's nice to come out here and just exist, you know? Or just fly around, sort of forget all the bullshit that some people manage to squeeze into one tiny planet for a while...

"But there's lots to do," she added after a moment of just sort of lingering on that thought. "Maybe not here, in this dimension, but that's why we have portals. Some dimensions' space is way more interesting than others. I have a few favorite spots. Just last week I was doing a little planet hopping for me and the BF's anniversary, actually. Hit up the same spots we did on our first date, you know? And, man, if you thought the universe was infinite, just wait until you start getting into the infinity of multiple infinite universes. This is, like, nothing."

She smiled a little, though, looking out the window.

"But it's nice."

"It is rather nice." Getting over his expected fear of the Vast, it was peaceful out here. "It almost seems like portals would be cheating. Not really our space, you know?"

There was a moment at that, and then Summer looking over at Jon because the words portals would be cheating had just come out of his mouth and she had to actively reminded herself that he was new here.

"Well, I mean," she said, turning back to the scenery again, "not your space, maybe. This already isn't my space. That's not even my Earth. My Earth has almost been blown up about a million times," and would almost be blown up tomorrow! Not that Summer actually knew that, "and was invaded by bugs one time."

Twice tomorrow!

"This spaceship itself is from a different dimension that doesn't even have an Earth," she added, realizing that she could go on, "so technically, we're already cheating pretty hard."

With that, she reached for that thermos in the cupholder.

"Coffee?" she offered, pouring some into one of the mugs she brought and offering out to him.

It was definitely pink with adorable little cat paws on it.

Ah, right. To be fair, Jon's only interdimensional travel had been rather ~~traumatic~~ unorthodox, and he wasn't keen to repeat it.

"Thank you." He took the mug and smiled at it. "Here." He handed her the box of avocado toast.

"Your Earth sounds...hm. Eventful?" Let's go with that.

"It wasn't always," said Summer, as she leaned in to pick out a piece of toast and removed it, careful not to disturb any of that fancy avacado. "Either that, or I just didn't notice it as much, but things didn't really start to get wild until my grampa showed up. Makes sense, though. You can't really have a narcissistic supergenius mad scientist patriarch come crashing into your garage with out it shaking things up a little bit, I guess. And now, five years later, I'm sitting in a spaceship hanging out over Earth, eating acocado toast with some guy who went straight from some apocalypse shit to teaching a literature class at a multidimentional high school, and it's just, like, a Thursday."

That made Jon laugh. "That does put it into perspective, doesn't it? And your grandfather sounds like quite the character."

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The Junkyard, and then Parts BEYOND; Thursday Morning [09/16].

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