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Tweak says, "Happy Birthday Tony"

look out for the (flashofvenom) wrote in snapthread,
@ 2019-05-21 20:14:00

Entry tags:

flash thompson (616), jean grey (trn240)

Who: Flash Thompson, Jean Grey
What: thinking bout burgers
Where: middle of town square
When: after flash arrived
Warnings: probably very tame

Flash knew stuff about Jean Grey, yeah. The X-Men school was a place he sometimes fantasied about attending, like a kid might wish they could go to Hogwarts if it were real. One time they saved some people downtown from this dude with fire for hands and it seemed like they really cared about each other. Wanted to be a team, a family. As a kid from a household where his dad threw beer bottles at his head, the mutant alternative seemed nicer. Even after hearing all the stories about the team, the place.

He knew weird shit went down there and he knew about Jean Grey. The Phoenix. She had an alien friend riding on her back that sometimes wasn't such a good buddy, right? Flash could relate. Whatever bad shit she had done, what he had read in the papers about the X-Men getting out of control, he always took it was a grain of salt. Venom wasn't the Phoenix, but he could be bad shit.

Flash made sure to not think about any of that when he invited her to come find him. Instead, he loudly thought about burgers. The kind the high school snack shack used to make during games that he'd run out to scarf down after some big play. Greasy spoon diners where the burgers sizzled loudly on big metal grills. That time him and Deadpool found a McDonald's in Pakistan and they both hugged and cried and spent all their walking around money on big mac's. He even thought about Krabby Patty's, which he assumed tasted great if he were a fish or a salt water sponge.

He was sitting on the fountain. His Venom suit was on, but it looked like black pants, a jean jacket and a black shirt. There was no football player from hell vibe today. Flash didn't want to start with Hey, so this is Venom he's my friend from space and he lives on my back. Maybe after burgers, okay?

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theotherjean
2019-05-24 08:01 pm UTC (link)

Jean took the hand and gave it a good shake; it wasn't dainty but she also didn't have anything to prove by putting Flash in a vice grip and tearing his arm off like some men felt the need to do. She brushed her bangs to the side idly.

"I went from Westchester to Manhattan, then up to the Canadian wilderness, and then smack dab in the center of Madripoor. I feel like I've seen it all in two short years. This is definitely the most demure, you're right." She looked over her shoulder at the little town behind her. It was like the beginning of Beauty and the Beast. Little town, it's a quiet village.

She eased down next to him, crossing one ankle behind another.

"There's a lot of pizza, which isn't going to do anyone any favors over the long-term since almost all of us have superhero physiques. But, I get it. It's easy to make. Hopefully we can get the garden started and have something other than bread and melted cheese steadily available. Scavenger missions are going to be a big part of that, which is what I'm hoping to focus on in my role here."

Jean swung her feet out and kicked the stone fountain with her heels as they came back. She looked at the protein bar. It wasn't impressive, sure, but the nutritional content was far and above the typical Starklandia diet. It was nice of him to share. He definitely didn't need to since, like he said, things were scarce.

"I'll just have a little piece. I'm going to try and go scavenging tonight for food." She lifted two fingers up to her temple and focused. Flash had demonstrated pretty vivid thoughts and memories about hamburgers, so using those as the basis of the psychic projection would probably provide the most realistic experience. She launched herself into the river of his mind and let the current of his surface thoughts carry her deeper. His memories were like stones in the riverbed and Jean psychically reached down and turned them over until she found the ones she wanted.

When she opened her eyes again, the two of them didn't see a protein bar. Instead, Flash was holding the best looking cheeseburger she'd ever seen.

"Looks real to me!"

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flashofvenom
2019-05-27 01:32 am UTC (link)

"Imagine if we all get flabby on pizza and get zapped back to our world in six months? Evil would reign supreme." Flash joked, though he had a hard time imagining any of the main Avengers losing anything more than a single ab. "Scavenger shit sound fun. Count me in." He imagined the rest of the world a wasteland, honestly. This place seemed too good to be true and completely empty until people started popping in. That shit couldn't be a coincidence, could it?

"Cool." He ripped open the energy bar wrapper and handed her a little under half. Flash looked up and watched her activate her powers and thought it looked like a birthday party magician trying to guess a card. He smiled, opened his mouth to crack and joke and then looked down at the dripping, greasy burger in his hand.

"Holy shit holy shit." It was wrapped in paper already soaked in grease. The bun was toasted. The cheese was that aged cheddar shit he paid an extra $1 for and it had melted between two sizzling meat patties. Hell yes, hell yes. He was hungry, Venom was starving. Flash knew he had to make this shit count. "Damn, okay. Damn." He took a second to enjoy the smell, the comforting sight of a burger and then took a bite. Flash's eyes rolled back into his head and he made an animal noise. "This almost makes up for the shitshow we are in." Another bite. "No, it does. It does."

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theotherjean
2019-05-27 04:12 pm UTC (link)

It felt good to see him so taken by the projection. Jean smiled broadly and laughed as he took that inaugural bite and felt the distinct warmth of a job well done. It wasn't often she got to exercise psychic projection in a fun, helpful way like this. Usually it was reserved for beguiling villains.

Reaching out, she pinched a bit of it between her fingers and tore it off. Jean knew, in her rational mind, that she was touching the protein bar and probably tearing off a disproportionately smaller piece than what it looked like she was holding. But she could feel the toasted, buttered bun between her fingers, and her mind was rerationalizing the physics of the psychic projection and ignoring actual reality. She wondered if it would trick their stomachs into thinking they were fuller than they actually were, like they'd eaten a full burger instead of a bar.

"So are you a career hero back home?" She asked before popping the piece into her mouth. Yep, it tasted every bit as good as Flash remembered and was quite the new experience for Jean. Jean could scan his mind for the answer, basically read the author's bio on the inside jacket of a book, but it would be every bit as rude as it was efficient.

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flashofvenom
2019-05-28 03:58 pm UTC (link)

Was Flash crying a little bit? No, but he was tearing up. Truth be told, being zapped to this quaint village without a fucking idea of what happened was more upsetting than a lot of people seemed to be letting on. He had a career, right? He helped people. Not much of a personal life yet, but he was doing something. Now, what? He was starting from square one with a lot of people.

The burger, the illusion of a burger, fucking helped.

"Career hero." He said back with a smirk up at her. "Yeah, I guess. I was one of those people who went after it. No freak accident. I made a choice to have power and help people." Flash hadn't said it out loud, honestly no one had asked. He took another bite and shook his head, uncomfortable talking about himself. "What's it like being Jean Grey, huh?"

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theotherjean
2019-05-28 05:39 pm UTC (link)

He's one of the rare ones, Jean thought as she listened to him, the ones who seek out powers and then use them for a greater, selfless good. But she kept it to herself and shifted her eyes down to her feet. She could feel that he wasn't comfortable tooting his own horn. Which was another good sign.

It took a minute for her to answer when he redirected the narrative to her. This was always awkward. What to say? How much to say? Was he asking for an honest answer or some simple words of propriety?

"Uh...it's...complicated?" Jean offered with a breathy chuckle as she ran her hands over the rough stone beneath her.

"Being a mutant is complicated enough, I guess, but being pulled forward in time and trying to live up to expectations people have of you for twenty, thirty years you haven't lived? Or, in my case, living up to some expectations and desperately trying to avoid other expectations. Yeah. It's definitely no picnic."

Not to mention the fiery space doom apocalyptic bird god. Yeah, definitely not to mention that.

"Weirdly enough this is the least amount of pressure I've felt about it in the whole two years of living outside my timeline. I know everyone's desperate to get back where they belong, and maybe it's silver lining thinking, but it's something."

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flashofvenom
2019-05-31 01:59 pm UTC (link)

"So, you got to hear about what the other Jean did and shit?" Flash cocked his head and imagined what it would be like for him. Honestly, he was pretty sure he was going to be dead by 30, so this wasn't anything he ever considered. "They all treated you different? Or like, tried to treat you fairly, but couldn't get over the hump of you being who you are." Flash asked like he had an idea of what that felt like.

He finished the burger and pat his stomach like a big kid. Flash felt satisfied, at least for now. Venom was going to ask for more later, but he could get by eating squirrels if he needed to. "Yeah, there's some people here who seem sad. I was mostly freaked out." Flash shrugged. He looked up at the buildings, scrunched his nose at the trees beyond. This was completely out of his element. He almost would rather be in an Arabian desert.

"But, you're right. Maybe I needed a break from all the super hero shit. I never stopped, you know?" Flash shook his head. He never felt worthy of friends or companions or family, so he just kept going forward. Kept working. It was why he thought he'd burn out so quick, why part of him kind of welcomed it. "We should be on a team. I like being on a team."

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theotherjean
2019-06-03 09:16 pm UTC (link)

"Hear it, see it, feel it, yeah." Jean looked down at her shoes. It wasn't what people thought. It wasn't like Back to the Future. It wasn't fun. It wasn't nice at all. But Jean shrugged it off and pretended to be perfectly nonchalant, "Oh, you know, opinions varied. Really ran the gamut between, like, angry arch-nemesis, tortured lover, total freak...though, honestly, the real treat was being kidnapped by an alien empire and put on trial for her 'warcrimes'. That was the best one."

Jean kicked her feet out and landed on them, stretching her arms up over her head. Looking around, yeah, this was better than all that. She consciously let go of the mental pocket in her brain that had been devoted to keeping up the psychic projection-- a part of the brain that no other person consciously used just by virtue of her mutation.

"I know. I did the same thing. I haven't stopped since joining the X-Men. It's been three years now. Two since I got ripped out of my timeline and into the future and, well, I wasn't going to stop there."

Looking over her shoulder at him, she added, "But speaking of teams. I do want to put together one. Been talking to some folks. Like some kind of strike team that goes through the doors and brings back stuff for the community. Maybe it's dangerous. Maybe it's not. Seems like a big roll of the dice. Does that sound interesting to you?"

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flashofvenom
2019-06-11 02:56 pm UTC (link)

"Man, I'm going to be honest, that all sounds rad." Flash grinned at her like a doofus and shook his head. "But, my life experiences are limited, so what do I know." He imagined her flying around in the Jean Grey costume. The green one with that kick ass sash that made her look like alien royalty. It didn't really fit the chick sitting next to him, but it still looked cool. She probably still liked the green, yeah?

She said some stuff about dangerous, rolling the dice and teams. That was all he needed to hear. "Yeah, fuck yeah. Sign me up." He nodded and then got to his feet, too. Venom needed to find the highest point in the area and Flash agreed. "Hey, I'll see you around, cool?" He gave her a wave and headed off in the other direction.

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