exsilium; ic inbox

[controlledvariable]

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[werewolfing]

[he gives a little laugh, shaking his head.]

Hardly. I like my balls where they are. Think of it as another version of girl wonder.

[it means heroine, but peter hasn't been telling anyone what their nicknames mean, it would be unfair to start now.]

[controlledvariable]

[She bumps her nose against his jaw, almost playfully.]

I wasn't gonna hurt you for it, s'just funny that people keep calling me that.

[Two people doesn't necessarily make a lot of people, but it does when no one really uses terms of endearment with her.

She can live with a version of girl wonder, though.]

[werewolfing]

[he lets out a little laugh, turning his head so that the corner of his mouth rests against her temple for a moment as he smiles.]

Well, it's pretty accurate.

[controlledvariable]

I had to get the tablet to translate those for me, too. I know like five languages but Yiddish, Persian, and your particular Romani dialect are unfortunately not among them.

[ps suck it peter she's gonna remember what he called her and using the translate function on the tablet.]

[werewolfing]

I'm probably the only person on this whole planet who does, and I'm not fluent. The folks I found are close enough, though. Someone around here speaks Persian? Wow.

[controlledvariable]

[She tries to think of something to say to that first part, but it's just - kind of sad, that Peter might be the only person left who speaks that language. So she just leaves it, instead of trying to fumble with words, and focuses on the other part.]

Sonya does. Or at least she knows how to say 'sweetheart', I dunno how fluent she is.

[werewolfing]

[it's something peter's pretty much come to terms with. but he's certainly not the only one in the position of being the only of their kind amongst the transports, and thus in this world. if anything, he counts himself lucky that it's not obvious for him like it is for the non-humans.]

Huh. Guess that fits with her name. What languages do you know?

[controlledvariable]

The only one I'm properly fluent in is Spanish, but I can make it throught conversations in French, Russian, Chinese, and Italian. Most of 'em I know 'cause of the criminals we deal with back home, but I had to brush up on my Russian and French here. [a beat] Oh, and ASL, I'm actually pretty good at that now, thanks to Atlas.

[Even after she realized he could speak, she kept practicing her sign language because it clearly made Donny uncomfortable to speak while he was being Atlas.]

[werewolfing]

That's pretty cool. Who's Atlas?

[peter has actually seen donny in superhero mode, but they had a conversation and donny never gave him his code name.]

[controlledvariable]

One of the superheroes floating around. [Donny is gone, actually, and it seems like he sort of loosened up on the secret ID, but she'll still be careful.] Got a whole Greek theme going on, tosses fire around, doesn't talk much.

[She should probably stop holding onto Peter now that the urge to burst into tears has passed, but she's too comfortable.]

[werewolfing]

You mean Donny? I never got the superhero name. He was a pretty cool guy, though.

[peter doesn't seem to mind. it's not like she's really asking anything of him, and it's nice to just hold onto somebody.]

[controlledvariable]

[She huffs a laugh.]

I guess that answers my question about whether he gave up the secret ID.

[werewolfing]

[peter shrugs.]

There were kinda zombies at the time.

[controlledvariable]

That does tend to make a difference. I'm glad he could let it go, though.

[The secret ID, she means.

Donny's a good kid, but he needed to loosen up a little.]

[werewolfing]

I met him when he wasn't playing hero first.

[and recognized him, obviously.]

Maybe he would've kept it up if I hadn't. Seemed like a worrier.

[controlledvariable]

[She met Atlas first, she's sure, before she found Donny crying in the rain.

It feels like a lifetime ago.]

I think he's the most anxious person I've ever met.

[But she sounds fond, at least.]

He went home a couple weeks ago.

[werewolfing]

Yeah, I saw that post.

[he gives another little shrug.]

Somebody did a number on him. Or a bunch of somebodies, whatever. People can be dicks.

[there's no particular sympathy in the statement, just understanding. peter doesn't feel sorry for donny, but he does kinda get why he's the way he is.]

[controlledvariable]

[She knows the answer to that, but it's not her place to talk about it, especially not when she always seemed to make things worse whenever she talked to Donny about family.]

I think the whole world kinda did a number on him.

[Which is true, as well.

But she doesn't really want to talk about Donny, and she thinks she might've overstayed her welcome with the hug, so she draws back with a wry smile.]

And I think I promised you tea that never happened.

[She doesn't even remember hearing the kettle boil.]

[werewolfing]

[peter lets her go without comment, steps back and leans against the counter.]

You did, yeah.

[controlledvariable]

[The smile she gives him is soft and warm and thankful, because she's not great with words, but she hopes he'll get how much it means to her, that he's here, that he always seems to know the best way to make her feel better.

He can't actually solve her problems, but she feels a little more capable of coping with it herself.]

Green or black?

[tea]

[werewolfing]

[it is, honestly, a really strange place for peter to be. he's made it seventeen years and some without ever having the experience of anyone being grateful for him in this way, without having made a difference in the lives of anyone not related to him. when he told steph that needing people has been the theme of his past six months, he was being quite literal--before then, people had never needed him and he'd only ever needed his family. now things are so much more complicated. it's fortunate that steph doesn't expect or need much more from him than showing up and maybe actually stating his opinion instead of just keeping his mouth shut.]

Black.

[controlledvariable]

[Focusing on the tea gives her time to put all her thoughts back into order. Mostly she just needs to ignore the urge to tell him that Jesse's dead, because she wants to - talk about, she wants someone to tell her it's okay to feel relieved, that it's okay to miss him at the same time.

But she knows it's best to keep it quiet, it's not right to spread the circumstances of Jesse's death, and Saul would be upset if she told people who aren't involved.

So she just doesn't say anything while she makes the tea (english breakfast for Peter, jasmine for herself), not trusting herself to not do something stupid like blurt it out. By the time she's done, she feels a little more capable of keeping it to herself.]

There's milk in the fridge and sugar - somewhere, if you want.

[Ellie used to fuss about doing her own milk for her tea so Steph's gotten used to letting people do their own.]

[werewolfing]

[peter's mind is quieter, just watching steph go about the business of making tea. there's that charge in the air that means something's not being said, but if it's not being said there's probably a reason and peter tries to keep his nose out of what hasn't been made his business. he's not sure when steph herself became his business. that was an accident. he seems to be having a lot of accidents like that in exsilium. more than he ever did before, at least.

but watching steph make tea is kind of like watching lynda make tea, the same sort of habit-made-ritual in the thing, not quite just plonking teabags into cups and pouring water over them.]

Just sugar. You want milk?

[he levers himself upright from his lean and begins searching the counters and then the cabinets for said sugar.]

[controlledvariable]

Nah, not with jasmine tea.

[Saul is kind of fussy, so the sugar turns out to be in a cabinet with similar foodstuffs despite the fact Steph tends to leave it out for her coffee. One day she'll actually remember where it lives.

At least she knows where the spoons are, so she grabs one for Peter while he searches]

[werewolfing]

[that at least makes it easy to find! peter dumps a heaping spoonful of sugar into his tea and gives it a stir. if she's left him the teabag he'll let it oversteep a bit, so it's strong and sweet.]

Jasmine, like the flowers? It smells nice.