i can't believe it's not hamburgers, because it's some kind of motorcycle

[retrovirion]

Who: girl hawke and peter spider
When: now
Where: around.
What: responsible adult takes impressionable teenager for a totally reasonable ride
Warnings: nah it's cool.


[ he thought he was delivering a pizza. he thought that was all that was happening here.

and then he arrived and the night got so much more complicated. and better. ]

Wait, can this thing like. Fly?

[ I did say "impressionable", yeah? ]

No, wait. That's... Seventeen sencs. For the pizza. This is your pizza, right? You're my last delivery for the night.

Comments

[otiosity]

It...

[Hawke is looking from Peter to the pizza to the bike like she's a deeply confused person who just woke up from a nap. Which she did. Well more like an antihistamine induced coma which means she has no recollection of half the things she did before passing out on the couch. Which probably explains the messy hair and tank top and leggings that are really perfect for sleeping.

When he hands her the pizza, she takes it, sniffles a bit, and then hands him 40 sencs that Nate gave her because Hawke is a layabout who is perfectly okay with spending other people's cash. Then she drops the unceremoniously onto the bench outside the door and turns her slightly dazed attention to the bike.]

No. It just. [She flips one hand palm up and moves the other over it, indicating an easy hover.]

[retrovirion]

[ is.. is that what that meant? He's a ltitle confused. Mostly because of the 52% tip, but then because of the hand gesture. He looks at it for a second, then at her, then at the money she gave him, then back at her. ]

Are you okay?

[otiosity]

I'm not sure. I apparently started ordering pizza in a dark medicine induced haze. Never live with a cat if you're allergic, important adult advice.

[She shrugs, holding back a sneeze, seemingly content that she's doing a really good job being a good role model.]

Do you want to ride it?

[GOOD ROLE MODEL LASTED LIKE 2 SECONDS.]

[retrovirion]

[ oh my god he has so many questions. what did you take? did you take too much? why do you have a cat if you're allergic? can't you take some other kind of medicine that doesn't make you apparently either dissociate or just go sort of out-of-body? what kind of pizza did you even order again and is it going to really be edible? also, still, are you okay?

peter's like half a second away from suggesting that you maybe need a different anti-allergy medication, for like... so many reasons, the least of all being that you're still apparently sneezing or whatever, and then hawke asks him if he wants to go for a ride on a hovercycle, and yeah, sure, he can swing around, but it's a hovercycle

with really, absurdly poorly masked enthusiasm: ] Really? Can I?

[otiosity]

[YOU NEED TO FIND SOME CHILL KIDDO THOSE ARE A LOT OF QUESTIONS.

Hawke sniffs, wipes her nose on her arm, and goes over to the bike, pressing her finger down on a scanner. As soon as contact is made the bike lights up and then raises itself off the ground to float at an appropriate height for a woman of Hawke's stature.

She kicks a leg over the seat and then scoots to the back gesturing for him to sit up front at the handles.]

I think it's supposed to align itself properly with whomever is riding it. So. There you are you are.

[Is he old enough to drive? Does Hawke know about driving laws? Does Hawke care? Not at all.]

[retrovirion]

[ LOOK OKAY he's allowed to have a lot of questions okay

you are an adult and you're providing so many more questions and variables than you're providing anything else. he just came here to give you a pizza and now he's about to drive a hoverbike. and you still seriously overpaid him. like. he's not still sure you're not way too high on your cold meds.



...but it's a hoverbike. and you're letting him drive. and he also happens to know his reflexes are better than yours even if you aren't drunk off cold meds, so he's still okay with this, with all the confidence and enthusiasm of a fifteen year old who might actually be as indestructible as they think they are.

anyway long sentences for basically: he drops the pizza he may or may not still be holding on whatever flat surface is available and decides to climb on before you change your drug-addled mind. and then suffers a crisis of conscience. ]

Are you sure? [ wait. no. ] Do you want to go anywhere?

[otiosity]

[LOOK FIRST OF ALL. She probably is way too high on medication.

But honestly she'd make 100% the exact same choices even if she were sober. Or intoxicated on another substance. BASICALLY HAWKE IS HAWKE, IRRESPONSIBLE IN ALL HER GLORY REGARDLESS OF SOBRIETY.

She shrugs and waves her hand before wrapping an arm around his waist.]

Go where the open road takes you! Or something like that. Something that has a nice "call of adventure" feel to it. You know.

[retrovirion]

[ that's.......

none of these things are the kind of things someone should be happy about. or proud of. these are the kinds of things that make you the subject of youtube videos about the subway. these are what land you 90 seconds of fame here and there, and honestly, that's a lot of fame in nyc

peter's seated but vaguely unsettled. also there's a like. 100% lady holding him around the waist, and that's great but what on earth is he supposed to do with that? he sort of shifts in the seat bc this is new and not bad but still new and he is doing math about other things.

but still gonna drive; what does he look like? an idiot? some adult just gave him full control over a hoverbike and he's got some highly refined reflexes that need some exercise. he's totally going to just sort of. go literally wherever he feels like going. really fast, and really hard. he's not totally sure where he's going, but it's whatever sort of wild ride he can go from whatever district this is to whatever other one is easiest to get to from here. ]

I don't really have a plan. [ he admits, at some point a little while in. ] I deliver to houses and work on the Ingress, mostly. [ zoom, zoom; this is still awesome. not quite as fast a travelling method, but just as fun. ]

[otiosity]

[Hawke's not going to stop him. In fact, she seems completely oblivious to the fact that poor Peter's mind is trying to make sense of hers. Which is impossible. Hawke is an enigma wrapped inside a mystery. Or so she would claim. Or maybe she just wants to help out a kid who's far from home have a good time because no one ever bothered to look after her when she was a kid and just let her have some fun.

She watches the scenery speed by over Peter's shoulder and thankfully able to avoid getting motion sick. That's why she loves you hoverbike, you're the best transport a medieval girl could ask for. Oh, now he's talking to her, okay. Time together her wits and make conversation.]

Plans don't always work out. Sometimes its best just to wing it. Then you aren't disappointed when things go wrong. It's a pleasant surprise instead. [She shrugs against his back.] And? Is that different or the same as home?

[retrovirion]

[ well, it's working. this kid far from home is having fun and not thinking that much about home and how much he's missing it by now. not always, and not quite as aware of it as he was, but all the more acutely for both of those abated variables when it does start to happen. but not right now!

also please don't throw up. maybe if you don't throw up he'll see if you want to go swinging one day, because everybody loves being slung through the air on a thread that looks like it could snap at any second, right? it's the closest thing to flying he's got, okay.

oh look, there's home. that's fun. ] So you like the optimistic pessimist approach to things. [ there's got to be a better way to summarize that, but he's not sure what it would be, since pushing it into blocks any smaller than that makes it start to lose part of the meaning. ] I do more planet-hopping now than I did. And less school. Sort of traded one for the other, I guess.

[otiosity]

[She's not gonna barf, jeez! ]

Something like that. I don't really like labels.

[She sniffs and listens to him. Maybe she's trying to catch to see if there's any hint of sadness or something like it in his voice. Not that she'd ever call him out on it.]

Is that good? At least planets are fun. School always seemed boring to me. Not that I'd really know. People like me don't go to school.

[retrovirion]

The people who say that are usually the ones who most fit them, just so you know.

[ he's not really sure when rebelling against labels itself became clichéd enough to be a label, and he's mostly joking, but it does tend to describe a particular kind of unique individual. ]

I don't know, I kind of... I kinda like school. [ are you cringing? he's sort of cringing. there's nothing wrong with liking school! but it's one of those phrases that also is only said by a particular kind of unique individual. usually ones without any social lives. like... him. ] I mean I'm not really that fond of homework but I like all the science.

[otiosity]

I'm a cliche breaker.

[Hawke replies easily. And then she listens to him talk about school. Which is a bit perplexing to her. She used to see children in the village go to school but she never much thought of it. Carver had wanted to go to school, but mother had told him it was too dangerous. He'd sulked for hours.]

Are you not supposed to like school? Seems like a thing people spend a lot of time at if they don't like it. [She sniffs.] Everyone likes science. Apparently. I don't get what's so exciting about it.

am i wrong about her magic being a thing i'm suddenly questioning this

[retrovirion]

What other cliches have you broken? [ bc, who knows, that sounds like it might have some stories behind it.

anyway, he hard banks a couple more turns, now fully accustomed to the abilities and limitations of the hoverbike and just. enjoying the fun of being allowed to drive it. the conversation is distracting enough to forget that there's an adult here who might object. also that the adult here doesn't really usually act like much of one. and looks pretty young. and is generally more encouraging than not. honestly she's to blame for his as-close-to-tron-esque-driving-as-he-can-manage rn. definitely.

the rest of the conversation does need a little thought though, so maybe it's a good thing he wound up somewhere familiar first, because of course that's where he drove first. it's still fast, but it's fast out of reflex now, so you still don't need to worry. not that you would have, right? ] I don't really get why people don't like it. Aside from the other people, it's not that bad. But legally we have to go until we're sixteen, at least, so maybe just that we have to be there is enough to hate doing it.

[ he shrugs, slightly -

then moves on bc hey ] Science is awesome! [ ......okay, mild composure, bc he's been here a while now. ] Most of us don't have actual magic to rely on. Science is the closest anyone without that can ever get to it. [ and he shakes off his slight sense of wonder long enough to be all: ] When it exists, at least.

[otiosity]

Hmmm. Is surviving when other people have died technically a cliche? Or something else? Also I'm not at all like those clean heroes in a story. People seem to think you do one "heroic" thing and you're someone who does nothing but listen to the law.

[She sniffs and pulls back an arm to wipe her nose on her sleeve before gripping him again.]

Most people where I'm from don't have magic either. And that's why they hate us. If they could just fiddle with things like Tony all day and all night mages in Thedas would be much better off. Also we'd probably have cool outfits that light up.