Chloe Sullivan (ladyofwatchtowr) wrote in madisonvalley, @ 2017-03-28 12:13:00 |
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Entry tags: | !closed, !completed gdoc, ~2017 march, ~25 points, ~~~bobby drake (morethanice), ~~~chloe sullivan (ladyofwatchtowr) |
Who: Chloe Sullivan and Bobby Drake
What: Facetwin Confusion
When: Tuesday
Where: Out
Warnings: TBD
Status: Closed/completed gdoc
Chloe had been spending a lot of time upgrading the laptop she’d bought by wiping the operating system off the harddrive and writing in her own OS. After that she began to pour through the information Dr. Banner had given her with gusto. And somewhere during all of that she’d gotten a job at the computer repair store. She could do that in her sleep, really, so it was easy money as far as she was concerned. It also served to give her access to computer parts and equipment she would normally have to buy at top dollar. Bonus!
She had just come out of Starbucks with her inventive latte that never failed to make the baristas blink in confusion when she ordered it. Her laptop was in a beat up carry case she’d liberated from the Lost and Found at work, slung from her shoulder, and her mind was running information around when she spotted him. Chloe almost fell over in shock.
“Jimmy?” He was across the street so Chloe went up on tiptoe as she waved an arm. “Jimmy!”
***
Bobby had been around, trying to get to know the place, trying to get used to it, when he spotted the woman, and saw that she was waving at him, and blinked, glanced around, then glanced back. “What? What did you---? Sorry.”
He crossed the street to try to hear her better. When he was closer, he smiled. “I’m sorry, what did you say?”
***
Chloe was a bit confused at first when Jimmy didn’t seem to recognize her, but her brain gave the excuse that maybe he was from before they knew each other. Then, once he got close enough, she noticed just the slightest of differences in his appearance. Geez! He could totally pass for Jimmy, but something about the jawline was different. Since she’d been up close and personal with said jawline back home she noticed it right away.
Her smile was both embarrassed and contrite. “Oh. Sorry. I thought you were someone else.”
***
“It’s okay.” Bobby smiled at her in turn. She was cute, some. He shook his head. “It happens to all of us. Who was this handsome devil you thought I was?” He teased her lightly, eyes dancing, as he nodded to her.
***
Chloe laughed. If she ever needed proof this wasn’t Jimmy that was it right there. He would never have called himself handsome.
“A guy I dated for a little while back home,” she answered with an amused grin on her face. “Jimmy Olsen. Seriously. You look almost exactly like him.”
***
“Huhn, doesn’t sound familiar. I had a cousin named James, but he never would never be caught dead as a Jimmy.” He chuckled.
“Sorry I’m not him, though. This place apparently does the whole doubles thing a lot. He might still show up, though.” It could be fun having a double.
***
Chloe actually was a little relieved Jimmy wasn’t here. They had taken a break while he went away for a reason.
“Just wait. There’s at least two faces that have three or more versions of them wandering around here. I’ve heard there are threats about nametags.”
***
“Scary. But think of the chances for pranks! The sheer potential is mind-boggling.” He grinned at her.
“What did you do back home, where you knew this Jimmy?” Chatting with an odd and cute stranger on the street was the most normal thing Bobby7 had done in a long time.
***
Another chuckle came from Chloe as she shook her head at that. Boys will be boys. Sheesh! “I was a reporter for a newspaper and an investigator.” Along with hacker supreme and butting her nose into information that could and almost did get her killed. “Jimmy worked there as a photographer.” She left off the dating part.
“Oh! I’m Chloe, by the way.” She smiled as she held out the hand not holding the obscene amount of coffee. “Chloe Sullivan.”
***
“Yeah? Cool! Sounds like it could be fun. And sweet! I’m just a mild-mannered accountant, most of the time.” He left out the superheroing thing.
“Bobby Drake. Nice to meet you Chloe.” He shook her hand and nodded, grinning.
“I see you are of the cult of caffeine. Good to know. This place does seem to supply the necessary materials.”
***
“Nice to meet you, too Bobby.” Chloe meant it. He seemed like a nice guy. He was bolder than Jimmy was, more confident. He reminded her a little of Ollie...without the too much money, too little sense and far too much alcohol.
She chuckled as she lifted her coffee. “It’s the only thing that’s between me and the death of all humanity. All though, the baristas at the local Starbucks seem more confused by my orders than sympathetic.”
***
Bobby laughed. “I know the feeling. The coffee here is… weak compared to what I like. When i explained how strong I wanted it, she looked at me like I was crazy.” Which, who knew, maybe he was. But he liked his coffee.
“No killing all humanity, okay? I’m just now getting them where I want them. If you kill them all, we’d have to find a whole new race to train.”
***
Chloe laughed. Yeah, okay maybe that was a little closer to Ollie than was comfortable, but whatever. She skipped over it, holding her cup out. “Here. Try that. If it’s strong enough I’ll write down the order and you too can make the Starbuck’s baristas twitch.”
It contained a triple shot of espresso so it was guaranteed to make anyone’s molecules vibrate.
***
Bobby took a short sip, and grinned. “Now that’s much better! I usually have mine with a shot of chocolate, and some cinnamon too, but that is a lot closer than anything else I’ve tasted so far.” He smiled at her.
“You’ve got good taste.” He handed it back, relishing the taste and the light touch of buzz even a sip gave him. “My metabolism burns through energy really fast, so anything lighter is like water to me.”
***
“Damn right I do,” Chloe chuckled as she took the coffee back. “In this and a great many other things. I’ll indulge in a triple shot mocha now and then, but I like my caramel or vanilla.”
Then she tilted her head. Chloe’s eyes lit up with what Clark would recognize as her sniffing a story. “Fast metabolism huh? How’s that?”
***
Bobby grinned at her wording, and smirked, just a little. “Sounds very good.” He liked her style, and her playfulness, really.
Her curious eyes and tone made him grin. “I’m a mutant, homo sapiens diferens, and I need that higher metabolism to do things like this.” And he flicked a finger, and a snowball was suddenly in his hand, coalesced out of the vapor and air itself, and he tossed it, a wicked grin on his lips.
***
If he thought she looked curious before, her face pretty much lit up like a neon sign now. “Mutant?!” Chloe got the impression using the term meteor freak might not apply here. Then he did the snowball trick and she was openly excited.
“Oh my god!” she exclaimed, her eyes tracking where he threw it. “You just...made that. From nothing.” Her attention went back to Bobby. “Or do you draw ambient moisture from the air? Can you do it in summer, too? What about core temperature? Do you run colder than normal?” There were more questions behind those.
***
“Well, from the--- that second one, yes. But yes. Yes I did.” He chuckled. “I can do it anytime there is moisture and temperature in the air, any air.”
He chuckled and nodded. “I run about ten degrees colder than most people, but my skin is warmer. And that is just the start. I’d rather not startle midtown with the whole show.” he chuckled. Even he could show restraint sometimes.
***
“That’s...cool!” Chloe chuckled since that wasn’t intended to be a double entendre was totally was. Then she blinked. “Wait...you mean there’s more?” And now she suddenly didn’t have anything else to do today than want to see the whole thing.
***
Bobby snickered. “A whole lot more. That was just… the smallest part. This is totally not me hitting on you, but you wanna go some place so I can show you my thing?” He had to fight to not fall over laughing.
***
Chloe laughed for that. “If you were hitting on me, that would probably be the best pick up line ever thrown my way.” Because the best way to Chloe’s heart was probably to poke her curiosity, and this definitely did that. “Bobby, I would love to see your thing.”
***
Bobby offered her his hand and led the way down the street toward his dinky, rather beat up, fifth hand old car. But it ran, and it was a vivid purple, and he liked it. “Hop in!”
Thankfully his place wasn’t far away. “You don’t seem surprised or alarmed.”
***
She didn’t hesitate to take Bobby’s hand. Chloe’s done a lot worse in pursuit of satisfying her curiosity with a lot more sketchy people. She couldn’t exactly stifle the giggle when she saw the purple car, though. “That’s uh...quite the pimp mobile.” Chloe grinned as she slid into the passenger seat.
“What?” Chloe glanced at Bobby. “Ha! No. Back home my best friend is an alien and I’ve known my fair share of superheroes.”
***
Bobby snerked. “I’ll have you know it’s a reliable little car, with low gas mileage, and a log of strength. It’s former owner just made some poor life choices.” Like the 8-track player in the dash. Bobby really had to get that switched out as soon as he found reliable work.
Sending them zooming along, he chuckled. “Yeah? That’s cool. All my best friends are like me, one way or another. The girl who can read minds, and her friend, who can move metals. The boy with the laser eyes, and the genius with the ape body, not to mention the teacher who can always tell when you’re doing the wrong thing at the wrong time. It was a fun childhood, even if it involved fighting bad guys and being hated for being different.”
He had enjoyed it, most of the time.
***
Chloe took note of the 8-track and tried not to burst into giggles. She honestly had never seen one before, but she knew what it was on sight. So her voice was a little strained as she spoke. “Yeah, ok.” She had to turn her head and bite her lip or the laughter really was going to slip out.
His friends really did sound like the meteor freaks back home, right down to the being hated. Granted most of them had earned being hated since they were either insane or one of the bad guys Bobby mentioned.
“Technically, my best friend is here,” she said, finally able to look back at him. “But it’s not the him I know back home. Which kind of sucks because I miss him.”
***
Bobby smiled, chuckling at her strained voice. “Y’okay over there, Sullivan?” He drove quickly, but with careful moves, and was amused.
“Yeah? That has to be an odd feeling. Having someone be here who is not really the person who you know.” Bobby nodded. “I’m sorry. This place can be a little lonely sometimes.” He knew that, already.
***
Chloe had waved off the question about if she was okay. She just needed to not look at the ancient technology.
“It’s okay,” she said with a smile. “Yeah, it’d be nice to have the Clark I know here, but he’d be miserable. All worried about things back home.” She shrugged. “Meanwhile, I have all kinds of stuff to research and poke my nose into so I’m good.”
***
“I understand. Same reason i wouldn’t want half my friends here. I miss them, but they would hate this place.” he grinned as he pulled up near his apartment complex, waving at it. “Here we go.”
He led the way in.
“What do you research, mostly?”
***
One brow lifted when Chloe saw where they were. Part of her wondered if this was some kind of elaborate scheme to get the pretty girl alone. Bobby didn’t seem like the type, but she’d been wrong before. Fortunately, she knew how to give a well placed kick then run for it if this went sour. The possibility of seeing more of what he could do outweighed her suspicion...which was always what got Chloe into trouble.
“Anything out of the ordinary,” she said as she got out of the Grape Mobile, as she was calling it in her head. “Back home there had been a meteor shower. The rocks affected people, gave them crazy powers...or just made them crazy. I’ve been researching that since I was a kid. Lately, I’ve moved up to exposing corporate and government secrets.” Which got her in a whole lot of trouble.
***
“Wow! That's wild!” Bobby led the way to his place, and shut the door once they were in.
“Watch this.” And with that, he changed, his body shimmering into a white skin that looked like ice and concealed his clothing and showed only a pair of well fitted trunks. His face took on new features, and he was slightly taller now.
With a gesture he created a full-sized sculpture of her of ice.
***
Chloe could feel the change in the air as Bobby did his thing. She shivered a little, but her eyes were wide as she stared at the results. “That’s...amazing!” she declared.
She began to pace around the sculpture, taking in the details of it. It wasn’t just the creation and control of the ice, or that he formed it all out of nothing, but you couldn’t make something like this without being talented artistically.
She looked back at Bobby with a bit of a smirk. “My nose doesn’t turn up like that,” she accused in a joking tone.
***
Bobby watched her stalk around it, almost like a golden cat moving with some slow rhythmic dance in its step, and he smirked a little. She really was amazing, in a way. And amusing.
“Hmmm? I think it does. Maybe even a little more. “ He reached out a hand and the statue shimmered and her nose crooked up a little more.
“Maybe like that?”
His eyes were dancing as he teased her.
***
“Hey!” Chloe laughed. “Now I look like a pig.” She laughed again then reached out to touch the sculpture. Just as she thought. Solid ice, and very cold to the touch. Chloe took her hand back to rub it on her jeans to warm it back up.
“Pretty impressive, Drake.”
***
“Thanks. It took me years to perfect it, and even now, I think there’s a long way I could go, but I can do a lot with it now.” Bobby grins as he nodded to her. “Wherever there is moisture, I can feel the air, and control it, to a certain extent.”
He nodded, then chuckled, gesturing. “Which made for some interesting moments when I discovered the power in high school.”
With a gentle effort of will, the statue vanished.
***
She had just been about to ask if he was going to have to forego a security deposit on his apartment as the melting statue ruined the carpet when he made it disappear. An amazed smile spread across her face as she watched it then stepped into the space the statue had been.
“That is so...cool,” she said with a chuckle. “No pun intended.”
***
Bobby laughed. “It’s fun. And yeah, I’ve heard all the puns. I lived and learned about my powers with four others like me, with different powers but all youths learning and growing together. I have heard all the puns and jokes.”
He chuckled and waggled a finger at her.
“So that’s my thing.” He shimmered and took on his normal appearance once more. “You can maybe see why I didn’t want to do it too much out in the open.”
***
“You’re going to be really popular in the middle of summer.” Chloe grinned imagining he’ll be invited to every backyard party in the summer when it was ungodly hot.
“So how did you guys get your powers?” she asked. Curiosity was scrawled all across her face. “There were people back home that got their powers by being exposed to that meteor rock. Was it the same way for you?”
***
Bobby blinked, then shook his head. “We were born with them. We all have a variant genetic difference, one that crops up in the normal human race.” He shook his head. That variant gene manifests differently in each person who has it. MY best friend had strength and dexterity, as well as a genius mind, and others had telepathy, telekinesis, and wings. “
***
“Really!” Now Chloe was really sucked into this. She wanted to know everything. This was evolution in action, something that they didn’t see back home.
“That is amazing! How many people? Are there more born or is this more of a gradual thing? When did it start manifesting in the population?” Was she maybe a little jealous? Maybe. Of course she didn’t yet know of her own power since she arrived here literally right before it manifested.
***
“A lot. About one percent of one percent of the population are born this way. About half of those never manifest any changes or differences. And no one knows when it started, but it seems to be a slowly growing portion of the populace. Most of the time, mutants have mutant children, even if having them with non-mutants.”
Bobby chuckled. “There’s at least one really older mutant, who showed up in the forties, and several who were born in that era, who have powers.”
***
If she only knew there were other mutants...as Bobby called them...here in Madison Valley she’d be chasing after them for answers too.
“Absolutely fascinating,” she said with a pleased grin. “What a chance to see evolution in humans like that! I mean, I see powers all the time back home, but it’s artificially obtained. This is...the scientists have to be having a field day!”
***
Bobby arched an eyebrow, licked his lips and shook his head. “Just a word for the wise, maybe lay low on the whole science talk? I’m sure it’s fascinating, but it’s our lives, not a science project, and most of the scientists we know who were interested in taking us apart.”
He smiled a little. “Not that I’m saying you are, just… careful. A lot of mutants are a little sensitive in this area.”
***
Chloe first looked surprised then chagrined. “Oh! Right!” Her expression finally settled on sheepish as she hunched her shoulders up. “Sorry. I’m really not as inhuman as I come across. Sometimes my brain latches onto something and common sense takes a vacation. It’s gotten me in trouble more than a few times, but…” she shrugged. “I’m still here.”
***
“It’s okay. Even a short time around you has convinced me you’re not an evil scientist, just trying to give out advice, i guess. A lot of people are sensitive about it.” He had seen that already, in his world and in this one.
“I stumble over my tongue enough to not want to see another person do the same.”
He smiled at her.
“I’m glad you are.”
***
Okay, Chloe may be able to see the definite differences between Bobby and Jimmy but that smile was close enough that it hit her a bit unexpectedly. She and Jimmy had broken up amicably, but seeing that smile made her miss him.
“Thanks,” she managed then cleared her throat. And then the awkward silence.
***
Bobby knew all about awkward science, and his eyes danced with humor as he chuckled. “And now I killed the conversation. Does that mean I go up a level?” Now he was showing his geek side, as that was a card in Munchkin, a crazy geely card game.
“Or should I ask what other of my ‘things’ you’d like to see?” And a little flirting, to boot.
***
Chloe chuckled. “I don’t know what that means, but sure.” Then he dropped the last bit and she grinned as she shook a finger at him. “Keep your icicle in your pants, hero.” Then, in order to deflect, she shook her cup. “Besides, I’m out of coffee.”
***
“Sometime, I have got to introduce you to Munchkin.” He chuckled. Then nodded, used to that reaction, and expecting it.
“Sounds like refill time. Want I should put on a pot, or do you need to head out?” He expected the latter, again, but he didn’t mind. That was how life worked, and it was cool with him. She owed him nothing.
***
She wouldn’t fight being exposed to whatever Oompa Loompa thing he was talking about. Bobby seemed nice.
Chloe grinned at the offer. “Do you have vanilla flavoring, an espresso machine and low fat milk?”
***
Bobby chuckled. “No, sadly I do not. But I am definitely adding those to my list.” He would have them next time. Yup.
“It was nice meeting you, anyway.” He stuck out his hand to her, to shake. This had been odd, but not bad. “Maybe we can talk again, when I have the proper coffee making supplies.”
***
Chloe lifted her brows as she shook his hand then grinned. “What, I gotta walk back to town?” It was cute that he wanted to get equipment to make her coffee, but she didn’t think he’d actually do it.
***
“Nah. I’ll give you a ride.” He led the way out, chuckling. He would get that equipment, just you see. He grinned at her.
“Where do you want me to drop you?”
***
“Starbucks would be great for that refill.” Chloe smiled as she walked with Bobby back to the Grape Mobile. “And if you really want to know how a real coffee tastes I can get one of my favorites for you.”