(no subject)

[fryertuck]

[[Millitimed to shortly after the Brawl - specifically, coincident with the cells thread. However, feel free to stretch Millitime as far as you like, just so long as it doesn't cause excessive confusion or universe-destroying paradoxes.

Not the pup's first entrance, but first entrance by this mun. If you've met Tucker before, do not assume I know anything about it.]]


[OOM: Poor, put-upon Danny.]

Tucker's been to Milliways before, but mostly under... interestingly unpleasant circumstances. This time, while he's technically here due to another crisis, the main body of the crisis is over and his only duty is to help prevent patricide. However, he can't very well be present during the first part of Danny's talk with his parents; that would just raise more questions.

Thus, there is a teen technogeek chillin' at the bar, attacking a very large plate of ribs and taking digital photos of anything particularly interesting he sees. (Mostly hot chicks.) Company welcome. (Especially if you are a hot chick.)

Comments

[azure-mercy.livejournal.com]

Zhaan's at the bar getting some breakfast after attending to her plants in the garden and greenhouse. Even if she doesn't fall under Tucker's definition of a 'hot chick' (though for a number of humanoid males, she does), she is perhaps unusual enough to be worthy of a snapshot. Though how she would react to a strange human teenager taking pictures of her is anyone's guess - it's not a situation that has come up before.

[fryertuck]

Tuck's definition of a 'hot chick' is pretty broad, and between that and the blue, this lady definitely qualifies as a Point of Interest. (Granted, a lot of ghosts have inhuman skin tones, but she doesn't look like a ghost at all. She's got a sense of solidity to her.)

Click-whirr.

[azure-mercy.livejournal.com]

The unfamiliar sound of the camera puts Zhaan on the alert, because in her experience, strange mechanical noises are often the harbinger of something bad. She turns just in time to see Tucker still holding up the camera, and gives him a questioning (and somewhat irritated) look.

[fryertuck]

Tucker holds the camera away from him to look at the display. It's quite a nice shot. "Cool!" He glances up and notices the blue lady looking at him. "You wanna see?"

[azure-mercy.livejournal.com]

"See what?" Zhaan asks, utterly perplexed. They have cameras of a sort, where she comes from, but they're so unlike Tucker's device that Zhaan's not able to make the connection.

[fryertuck]

Tucker turns the camera so she can see the viewscreen. "Not bad, huh?"

[azure-mercy.livejournal.com]

"I see," Zhaan says, peering at the screen. "An imaging device." She looks at Tucker sternly. "I would, however, have appreciated some warning first."

[fryertuck]

Tucker shrugs. "I was going for candid. You can pose too, if you want!"

[azure-mercy.livejournal.com]

"No, thank you," she says. Zhaan thinks they're talking at cross purposes here, or at least differently angled ones. "Why are you collecting images in the first place?"

If Zhaan knew anything about the inclinations of teenage geekboys, she wouldn't be asking that question.

[fryertuck]

Well, that's a reaction Tucker didn't expect. He stares incredulously at Zhaan for a moment, then says, "You don't know human boys very well, do you?"

[azure-mercy.livejournal.com]

"Not at all, actually," Zhaan says. She's only met two others, really, and one of them was a ghost.

[fryertuck]

"Riiight. Okay, do your people... what are you, anyway?"

[azure-mercy.livejournal.com]

"I am a Delvian," Zhaan says. Then she adds, "In the universe where my homeworld exists, it is a very long way from Earth. Most of what I know about humans, I learned here."

[fryertuck]

"Gotcha." Sci-fi fan. No trouble here. "Well, do Delvians have hormones?"

[azure-mercy.livejournal.com]

If he'd asked this question of anyone else, things might have gotten very awkward. But Zhaan's a doctor, and belongs to one of the most laid-back species in any universe. "Yes, we do," she says. "But they are not mammalian hormones, so I do not think we can draw any parallels."

[fryertuck]

Huh. "What are you, then? Amphibian?" he asks, because her skin is faintly reminiscent of a poison dart frog.

"Okay... um, do your hormones go kinda funny around puberty... do you have puberty?" Tucker may have no shame, but it's terribly awkward to try to explain this to the actual person you've just been photographing.

[azure-mercy.livejournal.com]

"We are plants. And yes, we have puberty and adolescence," she answers. "From what I have read, though, puberty is less...difficult for us than for most other species."

Zhaan probably lost Tucker back at 'we are plants.'

[fryertuck]

Yes. Yes, she did.

Part of Tucker is shouting, Vegetables! TEH ENEMY! Another part is bouncing up and down and saying, Dude! This is just like issue 61 of Marsh Monster series 2! And a small bit is asking, So why's she blue?

The consensus finally reached is: "You're a plant?"

[azure-mercy.livejournal.com]

Zhaan's used to getting that reaction. "Yes," she says simply.

[fryertuck]

Tucker considers this. Unfortunately, his only experience with plant-people (so far) is the aforementioned comic book, so his next, slightly worried question is: "You don't grow animals in pots, do you?"

[azure-mercy.livejournal.com]

"No..." Zhaan answers with a 'what the frell are you smoking?' look.

[fryertuck]

"Good. Good. Just checking." Pause. "Um..." His brain's been kinda derailed.

[azure-mercy.livejournal.com]

Zhaan feels sorry for Tucker, in spite of herself - so she tries to pick up the dropped thread of the conversation. "You were saying something about human adolescence?" Which is a really weird way to put it, but it's that kind of conversation.

[fryertuck]

"Right! Um... what happens to plants during puberty?"

[azure-mercy.livejournal.com]

"They go through a period of accelerated growth, take on adult proportions, and develop sexual characteristics and inclinations. Their brain also changes so that they become more capable of abstract thought," Zhaan says. "Some do not bear with the changes in body chemistry as well as others. A few find it so stressful that they must go into a rooted state." Okay, up till there, it sounds mostly like human puberty.