ax_main | Tommy and Gar - Backdated to August 1st

Tommy and Gar chat about powers, aliens, scientific theory and bad TV. It's a bonding moment.

Tommy was not a fan of rainy days; thankfully there hadn’t been that many over the past few weeks. This one was sunny and warm, the afternoon light playing gold across the lawn, the sky blue, the grass – and the kid sitting next to him – vibrant green. Tommy sat back, propped up by his elbows, and considered his options. “What if it’s one you’ve never heard of,” he pestered good-naturedly. “Do your powers just know, or do they guess?”

"I have to know," Gar said. "I tried just... kind of, I dunno. Guessing and stuff." He shrugged. "How do you think of something you've never thought of before, I guess, is what I'm trying to say." Which was strangely philosophical. "I mean, there's things I've tried that haven't worked. Like turning into mythical stuff. Like dragons, or a chimera," he explained. "Just... couldn't do it. I figure it's probably because we don't share DNA with it? I mean, we share an alarming amount of 'junk' DNA with animals of various kinds," Gar said. "In fetal development, the human embryo goes through phases where it's basically like, an amphibian and stuff," Gar explained. "At least, I think I read that somewhere, at some point. I dunno, maybe it was in a dream. I have science dreams, sometimes. Comes with having biologist parents."

“Good thing they weren’t coroners,” Tommy cracked. “It would be Night of the Living Dead stuck in that green brain of yours.” But parents weren’t exactly his favourite subject. “The junk DNA thing makes sense; as much as any of this makes sense, anyway. Ever done a velociraptor?”

Gar made a sound like a leaking tire. "Please, have I tried velociraptors. Dinosaurs were one of the first things I tried once I got some of the basics down. Velociraptor, T-Rex, stegosaurus, triceratops, pterodactyl... Been there, done that," he confirmed. "All fun, too. Except the stegosaurus. Kinda slow and clunky."

"But you get the thagomizer on the end, so that's not terrible." If Tommy could have powers that gave him a spiky-ass tail of death, he'd have exploited the hell out of it. "Okay, go the other end of the evolutionary scale. Sea cucumber."

Thagomizers aside, Gar wasn't interested in a stegosaurus. As far as sea cucumbers? "Ew, yuck. Also, just because something's less complex organically doesn't mean that it's less evolved," he pointed out. "Though I have to admit, I'm not sure how much a sea cucumber evolved as time went on," he admitted. "I prefer to shift into things that at least have eyes. I like being able to see."

“Well, if you can’t do it...” Tommy let the challenge trail off, and added a shrug.

"It's not that I can't, it's that I'd rather not," Gar said, shrugging. "It's like shifting into a worm. And besides, there isn't any saltwater nearby. If I turn into a sea cucumber here, I'd die," he said, frankly. "I don't think anyone wants that. Or at least, I know I don't."

"Fair enough." The salt water thing he hadn't actually thought about, but it made sense. "There'd be paperwork, and that would be a mess. So no sea creatures on the lawn - how small can you go?"

"Pretty small," Gar said, shrugging. "I haven't done anything super-duper small because I'm worried about getting squished. But I've been a spider before. Which was weird. Too many eyes. I mean, it just makes me a bit dizzy, sometimes. I just wanted to try my hand at weaving a web, and it turns out that kind of thing takes practice when you don't get the animal instincts along with the animal body," he said. "Not to mention I had to figure out a species in which the male and female both weave webs."

Tommy squinted at Gar, the sun backlighting the kid for a moment. "You're stuck only doing male animals? Seriously? Of all the restrictions, that one seems like the weirdest."

"Why?" It seemed straightforward to Gar. "My DNA has me hard-coded as male. Even if my theory is right and my mutation reorganizes my DNA using junk DNA, it still would have me hard-coded as male," he pointed out. "Or maybe it's a mental thing, because I think of myself as male," he said, shrugging. "Either way, it doesn't seem that strange to me."

"Granted I skipped a whole lot of freshman bio the first time around," Tommy admitted, "but I thought all mammals started out as female." There had been one relatively entertaining locker-room conversation about nipples on guys, anyway. "Doesn't matter; it makes about as much sense as the green thing, anyway. Or how Jeanne-Marie, Jean-Paul and I all have speed powers but they seem to work completely differently." He probably should have paid a lot more attention in bio.

"I mean, embryonically, yeah." Though that wasn't a word, he didn't think. "We all start off as female, at least us humans do, until our genes tell us to start making male... parts," he said. "But I'm not an embryo. And I don't go through an embryonic stage when I shift," he pointed out. "Although, it is a bit strange since, in birds at least, sex genes are reversed. Two same is a male, two different is a female," he mused. "I dunno. Mutant powers are weird. Nobody can really explain to me, adequately, where my clothes go and why they come back. And also, where my mass goes or comes from."

"I'm not saying it's aliens," Tommy replied easily, laughter in his voice, "but maybe it's aliens."

"I mean, can you imagine?" he chuckled. "What if mutants are just because aliens came down and did weird stuff with us. Like, maybe I'm green because I got like, I dunno. A blood transfusion from a martian or something," he suggested, laughing as well.

"Little green men in your little green men? It's more likely than you think." Aliens were easy enough to laugh about, given they probably didn't exist. Experiments on human beings in general? A whole lot scarier. "Bring on the tin foil hats and conspiracy theories."

"It'd be interesting," Gar said, nodding. "I mean, the likelihood of alien life is supposed to be like, a near-guarantee, given how many planets there are. But... for some reason we haven't seen them. Fermi paradox, I think that is. Read about it on the internet. It's neat, you should give it a look if you're interested in that kinda thing."

"I think the Fermi paradox was a plot point on Leverage once." Tommy's reply was flippant, as usual, but he looked up into the sky like he couldn't help himself. "Mind you, anything out there's gotta be better than half of this shithole. There's not much reason for them to come swinging by."

"I dunno, I don't really watch much TV," Gar confessed. "And I don't know. This planet is pretty amazing, if you know where to look," he opined. "That's one of the reasons I don't watch a lot of TV. The news, and stuff like that, makes this place seem so negative sometimes," he said, shaking his head. "There's plenty of beauty and happiness in the world. You just have to look past the bad stuff." He realized how that sounded, though. "Not that the bad stuff is okay, mind. Just. Y'know. Dwelling on it without fixing it just... isn't healthy, I don't think." It was how he'd gotten through his hell of a life.

Then again, it sounded like Tommy had his reasons to be bitter, too. And Gar wasn't about to discount those. "And, I mean, let's face it. There's plenty of reasons aliens might not show up. For all we know, they have ethics similar to NASA about biological contamination."

Dwelling on it without fixing it just... isn't healthy

The conversation moved on -- moved back, really -- but that phrase echoed somewhere deep and uncomfortable. It was neat, tidy, but life wasn't that. Tommy sat on the thought, shoved it away where he wouldn't have to feel the prickling discomfort of rethinking things.

Easier to go back to making jokes about aliens and tinfoil hats.

"Or it's like War of the Worlds, and we're deadly poison," Tommy suggested with a grin. "Or is that too negative again?"

"Wasn't it more like they just sucked at fighting off the common cold? Immune systems and whatnot?" Gar asked, more curious as to whether or not it had been misrepresented to him by his parents. As biologists, War of the Worlds had been kind of an interesting topic to them, especially since they were interested in disease in particular.

Tommy rolled his eyes. “Pedant. I meant us as in Earth, this general biome, whatever. Or the one where they’re destroyed by water. Which is even dumber, as far as I can tell, but I’m no scientist. Obviously.”

"Ah, fair enough," Gar chuckled. "And the one where they were destroyed by water... was that... was that Signs? I haven't seen that one, but, y'know, Internet spoilers. You can't hardly avoid them, nowadays. I never saw it, and I don't know enough about non-carbon-based lifeforms to really pass judgment."

“That and there was some ancient thing I used to watch on reruns when my old man didn’t have a game on.” Gar’s phrasing tickled him, though, and he smiled again. “If I run into any non-carbon-based-lifeforms, I’ll send ‘em your way. You can ask.”

"I think there's probably more qualified people you should refer them to," Gar chuckled. "Like NASA. Or..." He scratched his head. "I dunno. Xenobiology isn't really a thing yet, 'cause... well, y'know." No alien life forms to study, yet. At least, that he knew of. "At least that I know of."

"You know enough to have a solid opinion, smart guy." Tommy actually meant that, even if plenty of people would have assumed he was being sarcastic. Gar talked about the science like he was as into it as his parents were. Tommy could respect that. "That's better than half the teachers I ever had."

He flopped back into the grass and watched a wispy cloud drift across the sky. "Jokes aside - and yeah I know that's a crock coming from me but whatever - what's your take on all of this? The X-gene, mutants, all that."

"My... take?" Gar asked, wondering if he even had one. "I mean, it's... evolution," Gar said, trying to think of what his parents might say about it. "I mean, it's... it's complicated, I guess," he said, which was shorthand for 'I haven't really thought about it and nobody's told me how to feel about it.' He figured that wouldn't be sufficient for Tommy, though. "I've been too busy enjoying what mine's given me to really think about, y'know. The big picture, I guess."

It wasn't exactly the comforting explanation that Tommy'd been half hoping for, but really, what the hell did anyone know? "Fair. Come on," he decided abruptly, jumping to his feet and extending his hand in a friendly offer. "Race you back to the school. I've always wanted to try running against a cheetah."

"'Kay," Gar said, cheerfully, acting like he was going to take Tommy's hand, when suddenly his form lurched forward and a green cheetah began sprinting at full tilt toward the school. After all, he knew Tommy would win; Gar was just being cheeky.

"You little shit!" Tommy laughed aloud, caught off-guard. Yeah, the kid was alright. Tommy chased him, not pushing it sound-barrier style, because where was the fun in that right now? Neck-in-neck was better, racing across the green lawn. He'd pull ahead at the end, but for now, this was good.