(no subject)

[torch-reporter.livejournal.com]

With Clark still Bound, Chloe's found herself a pretty permanent resident of Milliways lately, not trusting her best friend to stay out of trouble without her. It totally has its perks though: quality time with boyfriend, interviews with waitrats, and getting to watch all the other weirdness that only a bar at the end of the universe can provide.

Tonight, though, Chloe has found herself downstairs at a table, cup of latte beside her as she types away on her laptop. It's not really a surprise, is it?

Comments

[berryberryraz.livejournal.com]

It isn't, no.

It ought to be a surprise to Chloe, however, when she is greeted by a friendly, cheerful...

...translucent...

...pink...

...gooey...

...woman.

"Hi! You're hot. What's up?"

[torch-reporter.livejournal.com]

"No dripping on the laptop!" is Chloe's first reaction as she pushes her precious computer further back in the booth and away from the gooey girl. There's totally valuable material on that thing.

Her next reaction, however, comes a little slowly as the pink girl's words go through her head. Her face crinkles in confusion and Chloe does a double take. "Um, okay. What?"

[berryberryraz.livejournal.com]

There's a noise that might be described as shlrrrrp, and any bits of Raz which were previously dripping, dribbling, oozing, or otherwise not in perfect form can suddenly be seen to retract back into an almost glasslike exactitude.

"You're...hot," she repeats, more slowly this time, as though talking to someone who's not quite all there. "Sup?"

[torch-reporter.livejournal.com]

"I have a boyfriend," Chloe responds automatically as she continues to stare at Raz. It's rude to ask someone what they are, she reminds herself, and holds back best she can. "And even if I didn't, I think my type tends to be a little more... solid."

[berryberryraz.livejournal.com]

"Yeah," she says. "I get that a lot. Why is everbody I hit on these days either taken or not into goo girls?"

She doesn't seem particularly broken up about it, at least.

[torch-reporter.livejournal.com]

"Blame my boyfriend," she says, taking a sip of her latte. "But uh, goo girl?"

[berryberryraz.livejournal.com]

"Goo girl." She waves her hand, dismissive. "Meliae. Jell-O chick. Whatever. Pick one, really. And I've probably never met your boyfriend, so I can't really blame him for anything, can I?" Big grin. Clearly, to Raz, this is the height of wit.

[torch-reporter.livejournal.com]

Chloe waves a hand, indicating her desire for more information. "Okay, I'm pretty sure no one cut you out of sheet of jello, so how does this work? Jell-O chick? From, what, the planet Sugar?"

[berryberryraz.livejournal.com]

"No. There's this stuff called nanomek, and if you add some to anything water-based, you get a goo girl. I'm Raspberry." Expansive shrug. "Name. Flavour. Same diff."

[hero_farmboy]

It's really not.

You know what else isn't a surprise? Clark joining her at her table, slumping in a chair, resting his arms on the table's surface.

"If you still have a door, we're leaving tonight. I've had it."

[torch-reporter.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, of course I have a door," Chloe replies dryly, looking up from her computer screen to flash a grin at Clark. "It's sorta you without one, remember?"

[hero_farmboy]

"Like I could forget," he snorts bitterly. "But I figure your door is as good as mine, right? It'll take me to the same place."

[torch-reporter.livejournal.com]

She frowns, giving Clark a distinct look. "Okay, what happened to the boyscout? Truth, justice, and all of that other stuff? I mean, come on, Clark. Isn't that cheating?"

[hero_farmboy]

"Cheating on what, exactly?" Clark returns the look. "I'm stuck here and I want to go home. You can get me there. Personally, I see it as using resources that are available to me."

Beat.

"Not that you're a resource. I mean, it's the same thing - your door, my door. Besides, you brought me in here to begin with! It's perfectly reasonable that you can take me home once."

[torch-reporter.livejournal.com]

"Use your super speed intellect to catch that one?" Chloe quips, giving him a mild glare in return. "Anyway, I was totally under the impression that people who were stuck here were stuck here with a reason. Which would make it cheating."

[hero_farmboy]

"Chloooooe."

Yes, there is whining and puppy eyes.

"If that's supposed to be one of the rules, then they need to tell people. As far as I'm concerned, your door is fair game."

[torch-reporter.livejournal.com]

Ooooh, a double whammy. He must be desperate.

"I don't know, Clark," Chloe answers slowly, grinning slightly. "I'm pretty sure I saw it posted somewhere."

[precocioustilda.livejournal.com]

Speaking of the weirdness that only a bar at the end of the universe can provide.

It's not often you find a six-year-old girl walking through a bar reading Nietzche with a mug of hot chocolate in her off-hand.

It's regrettably often, however, that six-year-old girls (once they find themselves in that position) bump into tables and accidentally spill their hot chocolate on people.

Perhaps, though, it is somewhat less often that - upon said spilling - the six-year-old in question deftly diverts the falling cocoa onto the floor instead of the person for whom it was headed, and apologises profusely.

In German.

[torch-reporter.livejournal.com]

Her computer almost died, but suddenly that's completely inconsequential when she watches the cocoa falling on the floor. Suddenly, she finds herself wishing that her camera hadn't been left upstairs (all weirdness has to be documented). It's seconds later that she realizes that she has been staring.

"Okay, that was pretty cool. How long have you been able to do that?"

[precocioustilda.livejournal.com]

"--sorry, thank you, since I was five," says Tilda, finally realizing what language she ought to be speaking in. "Sorry about the German, too, I've been learning it so I can study philosophy... er, are you all right? I really didn't mean to almost spill cocoa on you."

She practically radiates adorable six-year-old contrition.

[torch-reporter.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, um, fine," Chloe mutters with a dismissing wave of her hand. Clearly there are more important things going on.

Like a telepathic girl who apparently has the brain the size of a planet.

"Five? Okay, that couldn't have been all that long ago for you, could it? How?"

[precocioustilda.livejournal.com]

"I don't know, really," Matilda admits with a shrug, closing the book she's holding and putting it away in a shapeless grey bag hanging from her shoulder. "It just sort of happened. I made someone's glass of water tip over it by looking at it and concentrating."

[torch-reporter.livejournal.com]

Chloe nods, frowning slightly as she thinks it over. It has been a while, years for her really, since she's asked someone in Milliways if their powers were related kryptonite. But just sort of happened never happens, does it?

Still skeptical, "And you're from where exactly?"

[precocioustilda.livejournal.com]

"England."

Well, that was obvious from the accent.

"A wee little town you've probably never heard of."

It also goes by Notmentionedincanonville.

[torch-reporter.livejournal.com]

Okay, she can't help it:

"Completely meteor rock free?"