InsaneJournal

Who: Peter and Jane
What: Doing a tour of the ship
When: Today, lunch time
Rating: Green



His ship was a piece of garbage. Notwithstanding the fact that someone else had broken it (he still wasn't excusing Drax for that) but he hadn't really noticed the extent of Rocket's tinkering until he realized he had no fucking clue how to fix some of these things. And like hell he was going to ask that fur-butt for help. It was hard enough escaping from the apartment without being tailed. To be honest, he wasn't entirely sure if he was bugged or not, but he'd done his best to clear his clothes and shoes off before leaving the building.

The brisk walk had taken quite a bit longer than expected, and by the time he reached the Stark labs where his ship was housed, he was woefully out of breathe. Maybe Groot was right -- he had let himself go a little bit since coming to Earth, but really, who could blame him? This place had such delicious food, and he was enjoying the nostalgia of eating things from his childhood. It didn't matter where he was in the galaxy, these memories and yearning still existed. It was with those thoughts that he glared angrily at his stupid ship. He really didn't know if it was fixable, considering that stupid smarmy Stark guy was right -- there wasn't the technology here like in space.

Peter had actually checked out a few junkyards, with the hopes that someone might have thrown away a semi-functional interspatial transmitter but alas, no luck. If it hadn't been for Stark's 3D printing stuff, and all that help... well. He'd be up shit creek, that's for sure.

With a firm kick, he promptly hurt his toes on the hard exterior of his ship. Hopping around, he cursed loudly. "You stupid piece of bantha shit! Fracking hell, if I had a sqarm for every nerfing problem you've given me, I could afford a motherfucking hujji by now!"

"Bantha shit? If that's how people swear in space, I'm not going to have trouble fitting in when I get there," Jane said, coming around the corner. The blonde guy jumping around cursing must be Peter and Jane couldn't keep from smiling at how ridiculous he looked. Coming down here was definitely worth it.

And it wasn't like she'd been doing anything fun with her time lately. Since the night of the storm, Jane was either in the lab or she was sleeping. For a change of pace, sometimes she slept in the lab. It wasn't exactly healthy for a woman who struggled with work-life balance at the best of times. But truthfully, Jane didn't have much of a life to speak of. She'd felt a little disconnected since her arrival in New York, unsure of her place. Jane wasn't sure how she fit in in this brand new universe. The only thing she was good at was solving the puzzle of how this is all was happening. So she'd done almost nothing but work.

Jane needed a break. And what better excuse was there to take one than to explore a spaceship? Especially one that looked a lot less evil than the last one she'd been on.

"Hi," she told Peter. "I'm Jane."

Peter gave her a curious look, still kicking his toe in the air. "Didn't we do this before? Okay, I'll bite -- I'm Peter. I have a spaceship. I hate my ship as much as I love my ship." Putting his foot down on the ground, he gave his trademarked, irresistible sideways smirk. "Which is to say I don't hate her at all, because that would be ridiculous. How can I hate something so amazing and wonderful and so broken, damnit ship --" He started pounding on it again. "Just work already." He sighed, and leaned against the hull. " Stop me if I'm going too fast here." There was that grin again. "My brain is going like a million parsecs a second so... that's how it goes."

And then there was a brief moment of silence which never happens when Peter is around, so naturally, he had to fill it. "So Jane who I have met twice but know nothing about -- who are you?"

"I know we met online. I'm never sure how much that counts." Jane gave a half shrug and tucked her hair behind her ears. "I'm an astrophysicist. Since I don't have a spaceship, I work with wormholes." She looked up at the ship, admiring the lines and color. "It's beautiful. Your ship." Jane reached out and ran a hand over the hull. "I was only half conscious but it's a lot nicer than the last one I was on. That had a more distinct...invasion feel."

"This baby could rival any Winnebago," Peter boasted proudly. "It's comfortable, my very dedicated crew of 4 who all report to me, live here happily. In fact, right now, we're in a 2 bedroom apartment and it is mostly spacious." This was all said with an air of importance that obviously wasn't necessary. "And an astrophysicist....cool, cool, very cool, wormholes suuuuuuuuck monkey balls. Holy shit, this one time, near Nebee 10, we got caught in this wicked ion stom, me and the Ravagers, when I was still with them which I was NEVER A PART OF, I want to make that clear, even though I guess I mean, maybe I was, but anyways, we were losing our controls, and going dangerously close to the edge and I swear. To. God. I tasted colours. It was intense. We didn't go through it, which I'm glad for, because purples does not taste like grape. Ew." He paused. " Wait, when you say work with wormholes, does that mean you control them? Because I want to make it clear I'm not making fun of them in case you want to sic one on me."

Jane blinked. Peter's ability to talk was almost dizzying. "What? No, I can't control one." A pause. "At least not yet. I'm trying to build one as a way to travel through space. Like Thor does with the Bifrost." Did he even know about that? Jane wasn't sure who knew whom in this timeline. "What's a Ravager? Like in Firefly? They don't...eat people do they?"

Peter had no idea what Firefly was, and he really didn't want to think about Thor.

Thor.

More man than man.

Blah.

"A ravager? Well, Yondu always said he was going to eat me, and never did, since I was small and good at getting to places." This last part was said with pride. "And I don't know to describe it really... I mean, we weren't bad guys really, just....not always on the right side of the law, but like, that's so black and white and life, life is so grey, don't you think Jane?"


Jane's eyebrows rose. "You grew up with people who wanted to eat you? Is that common in space? I've only been to Asgard." Well, and Svartalfheim, which was unpopulated. "Is there a list of places not to go so you don't get eaten?"

"Well, there are certain sectors that find long pig a delicacy, but for the most part, as long as you shoot first, you're pretty safe.". Another grin, this time followed with a chuckle. "Ahh, I'm messing with you! Sentient life can't be eaten. Humans may be low on the list of "evolved" and "transcended" but we're still there." He gave a short whistle and drew a line through the air. "Right there. On the bottom.".

"Well, that's encouraging," Jane said dryly. "Thor's dad did call me a goat once but I figured that was a royalty thing and not a humanity thing." Her nose wrinkled.
"So can I get a tour of your ship? Like I said, I didn't get to look around last time and it wasn't anything like this one."

Peter brightened up visibly. "Sure, no problem!" A few moments later, he was walking her around the ship, starting with the living quarters, kitchen area, and even their armory. It probably could have been done in 15 minutes, but Peter was full of stories, and was happy to have a captive audience. Everyone else was bored of his tales of adventure.
Saving the best for last, he brought her into the bridge and grinned proudly. "And this here is where the magic happens." He patted his chair affectionately and motioned her to take the other seat. "Over there is the gunner, which I make Rocket do since I am the captain and I get to order people around. Come on, sit down, buckle up. This isn't working right now, but I can turn it on anyways." He was pretty sure that would work.

Jane settled into the chair, wrapping her hands around the controls. For a second she was eight-years-old, in the cockpit of an X-wing. Then in her twenties, at the controls of Starbuck's Viper. Jane knew she was a blue shirt at heart but a girl could dream. "This is fantastic," she told Peter with a grin. "Thank you. And thanks for the schematics, the ones you gave to Thor."

Oh thank GOD she brought it up. Peter had been dying inside, waiting for a moment to say something. "Yah, no problem, anytime. I mean, mi ship es su ship, right?" He gave the best knowing look he could muster. "I'm always happy to help a someone with someones. That's the kinda person I am. Always looking out for the little guy." He put out a fist. "Represent?"

Jane had no idea what that last was supposed to mean. She looked at Peter oddly, wordlessly bumping her fist against his.

Feeling pleased with himself, he leaned back and flicked a switch. The main screen came on, with commands on the front. The voice was still not working, which sucked, but meh. At least it powered on. "Any help would be appreciated. I mean, without those flooping energy pearls, I can't connect to the aI, or the main FTL but Stark did give me the parts to re wire energy. Meaning life support is a go, interstellar travel, not so much."

"I'm good at jury-rigging things. Build my own equipment. Don't have much spaceship experience but if you need help?" Jane offered.

"Yeah, cool, help would be awesome," Peter said a bit distracted. Then he gave her a pointed look, a half grin and all his attention. "So. Come on. Tell me the deets. You can trust me, I'm a space captain. Why'd that God of Thunder guy want this information so bad? What's the history? How do you guys know each other?"

"Me and Thor? We're...friends." Accurate, though incomplete. They used to be something more complicated than that. "He knew I'd appreciate it. My life's work is basically about how to travel through space."

Peter snorted. "Sure. You don't get all worked up over a 'friend'....but hey, whatever. I'm not nosy or anything, just asking, that's all." Okay, that was a big giant lie, but he wasn't smooth enough to try to get more information from someone he didn't have any intention of sleeping with. Damn, being in a relationship was hard. "Spacetravel is cool though. It was my life dream too but that's cause I was like 8 and didn't realize it wasn't a possibility. And then it happened. And here we are."

Jane doubted Thor was anything like worked up but if Peter wanted to let it go, that was fine by her. Jane's love life was just a quick google search away for anyone who went looking. "Well, your ship is amazing. I'll get my portal working one day but it would have been a lot easier if I had something like this."

Portal? He snorted again. "Portals are so science-fiction. What you need are wormholes that fold time. Those are cool. the FTL can be modified to do that, but it makes my stomach hurt so ... I try to avoid using it." He lowered his voice to a loud whisper. "It can also give you trippy hallucinations. I don't like my brain being messed with."
Jane's lips and eyebrows pinched together. "Science fiction is what I do."

Peter cocked his head. "Is that cool now? I dunno, I left Earth when I was like 8 .... soooooo the 80s sometime. I have no real concept of it now. When I left, it was all green aliens, and Barbarella and crap."

"It's a lot of sterile environments and white clothes now," Jane said. "Not that it matters. My work speaks for itself."

Oblivious to the fact that he had obviously annoyed the scientist, he just nodded again. "Awesome. Anyways, you wanna take a look at the engine room? I think you remember how to get there, right? I want to work on this screen a bit more, see if I can get it to do what I want."

Jane was happy to take a closer look at the engine room and with a nod, she headed down the passageway.