Trooper Station, Friday

[pocketpretzels]

Following Miss Smith's food class, Watts headed to the station. As per usual, there wasn't a lot to be done besides paperwork ("You there. My writing is atrocious. You fill it out, and bring it to me to sign," he instructed... one of the Troopers. Couldn't remember the name.), so there he was, sitting on the corner of his desk, flipping through a Portugese phrasebook.

"Meu postilhão foi atingido por um raio," he murmured to himself. "Well. Some things haven't changed, it seems." He couldn't help but recall the conversation he'd held with Jack, a lifetime ago it felt like now, where he'd suggested they sail to Portugal together. And for the first time in a long time, there was no aching emptiness as he did so.

Some things, on the other hand, certainly had changed.

[ooc: open! though will be SP in the afternoon as I am dragged off to an In Person Work Function. again.]

Comments

[hasaknightjob]

Sometime before lunch, a text appeared on Llewellyn's phone:

Hello

[pocketpretzels]

Said phone, of course, vibrated in his jacket pocket to indicate the arrival of that text, startling Watts enough that he fumbled the Portuguese book.

Fishing the phone out, he smiled when he saw who it was from.

hllo yourseld

Yes, it was true, he had not quite mastered the art of the tiny touchscreen keyboard.

[hasaknightjob]

Of course Steven found that to be charming. Please try to contain your shock at this information.

Would you like lunch? With me? I'll bring it to you.

[pocketpretzels]

i would very icy like lunch with you

... that fourth word had not at all been the one he'd intended to type, for the record. So, he issued a correction:

much

so long as you promise no maggots

He did not truly think Steven would bring maggoty cheese, but thanks to Miss Smith the existence of such a thing was occupying more space in his active thoughts than it really had any right to.

[hasaknightjob]

Steven stared at the last message for a long while, waiting for the correction. When none came he sent:

Wasn't planning on it? Thought I'd introduce you to Mexican. Unless that's what you meant to write?

[pocketpretzels]

unfortunately it is

How did he manage to make an error with much and have no problem with unfortunately? The mysteries of autocorrect.

maggot cheese was the focus of todays workshop with miss smith. I did not care to sample.

[hasaknightjob]

Steven had a moment of thinking Llewellyn had some sort of problem with Mexican food until he saw the rest of it.

Right. Skip the quesadillas then, I think. We'll save cheese heavy dishes for another day.

Give me a few minutes to get over there. Need to get changed before I get the takeaway. Can't have the squirrels thinking you're dating Marc.

[pocketpretzels]

no offense intended for hm
but very much agreed. i shall see you soon.

Watts, if you’d looked more into the whole ‘emoji’ thing, that likely would have been a good place for one!

[hasaknightjob]

About twenty minutes later Steven arrived at the Trooper Station, having changed out of one of Marc's t-shirts and jeans for his own short sleeved shirt and jeans.

It really did look entirely different. Plus there was the principle of the thing.

Steven went right back to Llewellyn's office and knocked on the door frame. He held up the takeaway bag in his hand. "Voila! Lunch has arrived."

Also Steven, who was smiling happily at seeing Llewellyn again.

[pocketpretzels]

For the record, Steven could have shown up empty-handed and Watts would have been just as pleased to see him.

The phrasebook got tossed unceremoniously on the desk.

“My hero,” he declared, grinning.

[hasaknightjob]

"I like the sound of that." Steven closed the door behind him so they could enjoy lunch interrupted. Any privacy this added was a bonus, of course. "And here all I had to do was bring you proper food. You've not had Mexican before, right? Can't recall you mentioning it."

[pocketpretzels]

"I have not." The cuisine was a long way off from becoming popular in Toronto; it wouldn't be until the mid-70s that the first Mexican restaurant appeared. In other words, long after Watts's time. "From your earlier message I take it that they often involve cheese?"

There was still a little bit of leftover queasiness from Miss Smith's class, hopefully it didn't show too plainly on his face.

[hasaknightjob]

"I skipped the ones known for that for today," Steven said. He took out two containers, setting one to the side for himself and offering the slightly larger one to Llewellyn. "There you are. Beef tacos, fried plantains, chips and salsa. Thought you might like the tacos since they're originally street food, like your pretzels."

[flamesburned]

Liz figured that she should probably let the emergency services in Fandom know about her pregnancy, at least so they could have the heads up in case she was to have an episode with her powers again but she was nervous about returning the station since she hadn’t been back since the whole thing with Travis and the time loop.

So sometime after class she headed down to the station, took a deep breath and after a few moments of silent debate finally made her way inside, trying not to look over in the direction of the cells where she had spent the night last year.

“Um … hello?” she said awkwardly, trembling slightly at the memory of why she had been at the station last time since she technically hadn’t been released and she wondered if that still made her a fugitive, even though she was pretty sure she would have already been arrested by now if that was the case.

[pocketpretzels]

He’d read her file, of course, but the mind still occupied by the trouble lightning apparently posed to one’s postillion, he didn’t immediately make the connection.

He did, however, remember seeing her in their shared workshop earlier that day, so she got a nod in greeting as he put the Portuguese book face down on the desk, open to the page he’d been reading.

“Miss Sherman. Can I. uh. Help you?”

[flamesburned]

Liz hesitated biting her lip as she debated on what to say, “um …I’m …er…”

She wasn’t sure how to even begin to explain her situation, “um … I’m …I’m pregnant,” she finally blurted out, even though she had mentioned it in class but she also did add any kind of details or context as to why that was going to potentially be an an issue.

[pocketpretzels]

"Congratulations?" Yes, he recalled as much from class earlier. The problem was without that context he had no idea why this ought to matter to him.

(Any second now, it might click that this Liz was in fact Steven's friend Liz, at which point that announcement of hers would matter to him for a reason entirely separate from that for which she came, of course.)

[flamesburned]

“Um….” Liz quickly looked back over at the direction of those cells and then back at Wstts, “um …thank you,” she said softly.

She took a deep breath, “um, I …um …I don’t if you’ve been told about me already? I’m a -a pyrokinetic,” she decided to start with that first.

[pocketpretzels]

While he could recognise the word’s Greek roots, ‘pyrokinetic’ itself was unfamiliar.

“You are going to have to explain what that is.”

[flamesburned]

Liz hesitated again and then raised her hand, “I …I can create fire,” she explained and bright blue flames tinged with gold appear, “I ….I don’t have the best control over it though,” she admitted and waited to see what his reaction to that would be first before she continued.

[pocketpretzels]

His reaction was, in a word, startled. He stumbled back a half-step, bumping in to the desk.

Watts took a deep breath. "Well. That is a new one for me." Some of the details of the file he'd read certainly made a lot more sense now. Look, reading (and hearing about) powers was all well and good, but actually seeing it was another thing entirely.

[flamesburned]

Liz held her flames for a bit longer and then they disappeared, “I …I had a lot of trouble last year with my powers,” she admitted and again her gaze went back over towards the cells, “um …I got arrested twice, for …I have what we call an episode, I - I lose complete control of my powers,” she took a deep breath, “one happened in Pittsburg and the - the other was in Fandom,”

[pocketpretzels]

Watts visibly relaxed as the flames disappeared.

"These episodes as you say," he demanded. "How voluntary are they?"

If this was starting to sound a little like an interrogation, well... yeah.

NFB from here please!

[flamesburned]

Liz fidgeted a bit, biting her lip as it took all of her resolve to not just run away now that she had admitted this much …she had a feeling that would make it worse, “ I …if I’m extremely scared or stressed, I …just …I …I had my first episode when I was 14, a group of bullies threw rocks at me on my way home from school,” a hand self consciously went to the very faint scar on her forehead that was a constant reminder of what she’d done, “I …I destroyed my city block, I …I killed 32 people that day including my parents and brother,” she said in a voice that was barely above a whisper.

Re: NFB from here please!

[pocketpretzels]

Well, on the bright side the fact that it didn't sound like it was something she'd intended to do was very much in her favour.

"And the time here in Fandom?"