strangetrip | [GP] SNOW DAY

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[GP] SNOW DAY

Thor and Loki got an early start, because there was a lot to do. Almost two weeks to the day since their first small-but-successful experiment with snow, Loki was confident that he'd improved enough for a bigger experiment. Still snow, because Thor wanted it and it did seem like a decent way to try something big-ish without causing Loki unnecessary grief with the other residents. (It was an arrival day, so there would perhaps be some grief with any new arrivals, but that was entirely acceptable.)

It was before dawn when they went out into the grounds. Thor called up clouds and loaded them with water so they hung low and heavy, covering the sky so that the sun, when it rose, wouldn't ruin the event. Loki took his frost giant shape and staff (now very familiar to his hand) and concentrated on dropping the temperature. Just around the Inn and grounds, but that was enough to be serious effort.

When the snow first started, the flakes were big and wet, and melted as soon as they hit the ground, which was still on the warm side. As they melted, they cooled the ground. After an hour or so, the flakes were smaller and more powdery - real snow, not glorified slush - and they were starting to stick to the ground.

By mid-morning, the Inn and grounds were covered with a thick layer of snow, and it continued to fall.

***

Meanwhile, indoors and inspired by the snow, Hurley and Xavin decided to try and make cookies. Cooking together was fun, since neither of them exactly knew what they were doing apart from 'follow the recipe', but since the point was 'try to make cookies' they ended up with a lot of cookies. Sugar cookies, gingerbread, all kinds.

There was no way they'd be able to eat all of them.

Instead, they loaded them onto trays and hauled them to the cafe, then brought out various frostings and candies for decorating. This had been completely intentional. Completely.

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His first expression was surprised, but it was quickly followed up by wide-eyes and excitement. "Really?! That is so cool. Have you met Karen yet? That's my friend Peter's AI friend. She's really cool. Mr. Stark has an AI too, but I haven't really gotten to talk to her."

Why were they all 'hers'?

Mia tilted her head at the mention of Mr. Stark. "I haven't met Tony Stark's AI yet, but he helped me with my power supply." She didn't have to plug herself in as much as she did at home.

"I have heard of Karen from Liz Parker." Mia smiled at the memory of their first meeting.

"Liz is Peter's girlfriend." He grinned. "You should totally meet her. I bet she'd like to meet you too! She's nice. She doesn't tell me to stop asking questions." Like sometimes his teachers did... or his friends... or his parents.

"Why would she ask you to stop asking questions?" Mia was confused. To ask questions, meant you were learning deductive reasoning and learning. Both were good qualities to have, in humans or AI. Though it seemed that Ned found this an unusual trait.

"She doesn't, which is why she's great." He smiled. "Sometimes people back home do... I can, uh. get excited about things, I guess."

"But that is a good trait." Mia insisted with a gentle smile. "I promise that I will answer any questions that you might have."

Ned liked Mia a lot.

When they reached the front of the line, Ned almost ordered two, then paused and ordered one. He didn't want to make her uncomfortable. "Do you, uh, you know... like it here?"

Instead of answering right away with a polite answer, Mia considered her time at the inn.

"I do." She answered truthfully. "I miss my family, but I am glad that I have seen that humans and AI can coexist peacefully."

"Yeah..." His expression faltered for a moment. "I miss my family too." Though he attempted a smile. "But I'm lucky my best friend is here, so that helps a lot."

Mia didn't have her best friend, Laura, here but she did have a purpose. Seeing humans interact with her, and that was something important that she could take back with her.

"I'm curious. Did you know your best friend was missing while he was here and you were home?"

Ned was the first person that she'd met that was close to someone that was here first. Would her family miss her, wonder where she was, or was another version of her there while she was here?

"Actually no.. well, sort of? But not the same way." He thought about watching the news while Spider-Man hung onto a spaceship ascending into space. "He's from a time I definitely remember him still being around. He did disappear the day I showed up, but I'm like, from his future? So I think it's like a timeline thing. Like, we're all plucked from different points in our timeline."

Mia digested the information. Perhaps when or if her family arrived, they would be from a different time. She had tried to 'communicate' with them through her network to let them know that she was okay, but it hadn't worked.

"It must be hard to be from a different time as your friend, but also comforting for Peter to know that his family is fine."

He nodded. "Yeah... It's sort of complicated. Where I come from Peter is going up into space on the side of a spaceship. Like, not I even inside, but outside. So it's kind of freaky."

Mia wondered if perhaps Peter's AI kept him from dying on the outside of the ship. Like an astronaut's helmet or a deep sea diving mask.

"That would be -- freaky to see your friend leaving by ship. I can understand why you wouldn't have thought he was on an adventure." Which in a way she guessed he was.

"Yeah, but it's okay. Iron Man is with him and he joins up with like, lots of other cool superheroes." Peter had a charmed life according to Ned.

Mia had a look of confusion for a moment as she filtered through what Ned had said. She knew of superheroes only from the inn, "you aren't afraid for your friend when he is being a superhero?"

"Oh, uh.. I mean, sometimes? But he's really good at what he's doing." He nodded a few times as if to help him belief it. "He's the best."

"I understand the --- worry even when someone is really good at what they do." Mia confided. "Leo, my family, he's not a synth, but he protects us and puts himself in danger for us all. I don't agree with his choices sometimes, but they are his."

And she respected his right to choose them.

"You need protection?" He furrowed his brow a little with a small frown.

"It is very dangerous to be me in my world." Mia nodded. "I had to hide who I was. There are humans that fear what they don't understand." She was quiet for a moment before she added, "I think when I return home, I will stop hiding and let them see there is nothing to fear."

He frowned. "That sucks, I'm sorry. You're really cool, so I don't know why anyone would be scared of you. People kind of suck sometimes." Like Flash. Flash sucked. "Hopefully here everyone will treat you nicely."

"Everyone here has been very nice." Mia agreed. "I do not blame the humans for being scared of what they don't understand." She paused and then asked, "in your world, are those that are different, the ones that have abilities like your friend Peter, do they have to hide?"

"Um... not really? I mean... sort of. Peter hides, but that's more to like... keep people he knows safe? There's a lot of people who have powers who are superheroes and admit to it, you know? But... not everyone thinks it's a good idea. Some think they're freaks and stuff."

Mia did understand, but even with thinking they were freaks, they knew they were human.

"Peter is very lucky to have a friend like you." She was lucky as well with Lara. Someone that saw them as the same even though they were different.

Ned beamed at the compliment - he took being a good friend to Peter seriously and he was proud to be good at it too. "Thanks."

(ooc: Fade here?)

Re: Ned and Mia

st_artfeeling - 2019-02-19 01:53 (UTC) - Expand

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