WHERE: Along Atlantis Coast WHEN: Tuesday/Wednesday (ish) WHAT: Pyro and Rogue contemplate lunch in the market after Rogue's underwater adventure. STATUS: Complete VIEW WARNINGS: More awkward flirting, food snobbery
It wasn’t like he was up to anything much when he’d seen Rogue’s message, so it wasn’t as if he was dropping something to go hang out, mostly he was just stopping lazing around like a spare part and going to actually do something. It was probably better for him in the long run. Besides, the images didn’t do whatever souvenirs she’d got justice, it’d be better to see them in person.
Finding her wasn’t difficult, since he knew where in the general area she was and she was expecting him anyway. Food in Atlantis seemed to be a loose affair, and Pyro figured that was part of the whole ‘ancient’ feel that was going on too. Wasn’t like they had air conditioning or shit like that. But the market seemed like a steadily busy place and why not when things were pretty much free.
“I’m regretting not getting a club sandwich or something,” authentic Atlantis food didn’t seem to be his thing.
Rogue looked up at the voice that had started to become pretty familiar, and grinned at his words. Her hair was still a little damp from the ocean, but the sarong she wore covered up most of her swimsuit, and she moved to her feet as he approached. “Not really in the mood for sushi or fish tacos, huh?” That seemed more like the kind of fare Atlantis would have available.
“I really gotta start remembering to carry sunglasses around with me,” she said as she lifted a hand to shade her eyes so she could see John better.
“Well, we are on an exotic cruise,” which it looked was going to last more than two weeks, and they’d need to deal with it. If the stops came with some regularity, where it was easy to get off the ship and get away for a little while, that would make it a little easier to handle. “It would be smart, sunglasses, or a hat.”
He’d even grabbed a pair of aviators from the gift shop on the ship, because the glare was annoying him to hell and back. He’d gone so far as to discard some of his layers, a loose t-shirt, long board shorts, tennis shoes, it was as casual as he’d allow himself though. “Fish is not my thing though, by any stretch.” And he wasn’t a fan of food cooked outside either.
“Wanna see if they’ve got some Atlantis themed glasses for ya?”
“Maybe a big floppy one, huh? That looks pretty stupid?” She shot a grin at him while tucking her device into the bag on her shoulder. “That would save me having to use sunscreen, maybe.” Picking up her sandals with one hand, she nodded for him to lead the way. “We could get some kind of fruit thing maybe like kabobs? Or see if they have anything else that’s good that isn’t seafood.”
The offer of the glasses brought out a quiet chuckle, and Rogue shrugged. “Sure, why not. Maybe it’ll have seahorses and starfish and blue lenses. That sounds pretty Atlantis-themed to me.”
Those big floppy hats were supposed to be beach ready hats, right? At the very least they’d stop too much of a glare. “Hey, no one said you’d look sensible.” Because when did the summer look ever hit ‘sensible’, the Hawaiian shirts were just one example of that. “I could go some fruit, then I know no one’s half-baked it in the sun.” There were only a few things he was overly particular about. His food was one of them.
“Yeah, maybe with real seashells.” It was good to be on land again, so St John was fine with a casual wander while they had the ground under them. “They’d be a cute memento to go with your underwater treasure.”
Rogue stretched and nodded her agreement about the fruit, then smirked again. “Maybe I should just go with both - the hat and the glasses. Ain’t like I’m not used to covering up, right?” At the mention of what she’d picked up under the city, she reached into her bag to pull out a small mesh one, tugged it open on its strings, then handed it over.
“As far as treasure goes, I kinda like them. Like I said, you can have one or both, it doesn’t really matter in the long run. Except for the two I got for me.”
“What’s that like, 60’s fashion? The big hats and big glasses? Like that Hepburn or whatever.” John’s awareness of old screen icons was limited to what they ended up watching on the few nights they were at Xaviers for movie night, and when one of the kids with the obsession with Hepburn or Monroe got to pick the movie. “Proper stylish lady and all that.”
The goodies in the bag were inspected carefully, although John made sure to keep them close the bag for dropping back in. It was natural to keep things close to hidden, just in case someone was watching too closely. “They’re pretty cool.” Running his thumb over the top of the ring, still interested in the little markings on them. “You sure you don’t want them?” He was still weird about accepting gifts it seemed.
“Yeah...and come to think of it, that might be too much like what Gaby wears. Maybe I’ll just stick to the sunglasses,” she mused, giving a small shrug. “Which one was Hepburn?” Rogue glanced around while they moved into the market, automatically avoiding brushing up against others.
“I like the necklace with the coins, and the gold ring. And since you aren’t going to check out any sunken ships yourself, I might as well share my spoils.” Rogue gave John a smile. “Go for it.”
Gaby? John had to think about it for a minute before remembering the guy looking for Gabrielle and wondering if that was what Rogue was really named and how they looked near the same. Weird, but ultimately, not the weirdest thing here. “Yeah, I doubt we need more reasons to mix people up.” Weird enough having someone look exactly like someone else. “Hepburn was um… the one in the black dress, with the big black glasses.” She had breakfast at Tiffany’s, that’s about all John remembered, other than she was pretty foxy looking.
The notion of being underwater, completely submerged, with no access to any fire at all made John’s skin prickle a little. It wasn’t that he disliked water in general, he was fine on the boat, above water. But his power was already limited enough without throwing in water. “Cool, thanks.” Not knowing how long this trip to Tumbleweed and beyond was going to last, and the weird but pretty cool stuff that was unfolding, it was pretty cool to have token mementos from the locations all the same.
“But if I see one pig roasting over a fire here, I’m leaving, okay.” Because no.
“Definitely not.” Rogue was just glad that Gaby wasn’t the same person as her, the way the other Rogue was. That would have been way too much. When he elaborated on who Hepburn was, she had a vague mental image, but wasn’t really sure who he meant. She nodded a bit, though honestly she wasn’t sure if she’d ever actually seen the movie herself.
“Sure,” she replied, and she was of the same mind. Collecting things from each place they went to would be fun, if they went to more places besides simply Atlantis. “What do you have against a good pig roast?”
John didn’t even want to think about how weird it was having another version of yourself around, although he definitely liked both of these versions of Rogue over Marie, who he really hadn’t meshed with terribly well at all at the school, it must’ve been a head trip to exist with them. He knew there was a version of him in the other Rogue’s world, Raven had known him, Rogue and Jean had known him. So it stood to reason that other John was probably a lot like him. Didn’t mean he wanted him to show up.
“I have nothing against a roast pig, if it’s cooked by a professional, in a kitchen, and not in the street where any weirdo could wander along with whatever germs and spread them everywhere.” He wasn’t a neat freak, or a germaphobe, or even terribly bothered with squeaky clean anything. But food was another matter, even for a former street kid. “That’s how disease is spread, Rogue.”
“Learn to live a little, Pyro. Besides - isn’t the cooking process what gets rid of any germs and all that?” He was fun to tease now that she knew about this little hangup of his, and she resolved to make sure she messed with him about it any chance she got. When they reached the market, she lifted a hand to push her damp hair back, then nudged his arm with her partially covered elbow.
“Well, now that I know I’m with such a foodie, finding us something good to eat is up to you.”
“Only if it’s cooked right. Do you know how not fun food poisoning is? And you pay to get it?” He was rather adamant about that, and how not okay with it he was. Ever. Hot dogs on New York’s streets was bad enough, full pig spit roasting in weird Lost Cities? No thank you.
“Finding something to eat that won’t kill us might be a challenge here.” But they had to have some kind of fruit, because markets always did shit like that; ‘try my produce, buy it and shop some’, luring people in and keeping them there with continued food. “Even if we need to try some weird Atlantean fruit thing. So long as it’s not fish.” Smell like that all day otherwise.
She looked over at him from the corner of her eye, grinning as he went on about the food, and when he finally finished, she gave a short laugh. “Easy, sugar. Don’t worry, I won’t touch any roasted pigs unless they’ve been properly vetted by yourself.”
Still grinning, she eyed the market stalls curiously, wondering just what there was food-wise to offer, since she hadn’t been paying attention before. “We could always go back to the ship for lunch, if you don’t think we’ll find something out here.” Lifting her hand to mask a slight yawn, she shook her head and focused on their surroundings.
Getting on a soap box wasn’t hard for Pyro. He might act like he didn’t care about a lot of things, but he generally had a lot of feelings about a lot of things. And liked to share them. Emphatically.
“I mean, we can, we know it’s an option, if there’s nothing here that’s worthwhile.” If there wasn’t something decent to eat, or anything that caught Rogue’s attention shopping wise, they knew the ship had plenty for them and really, it might be better. Diving and having gills or whatever was probably a bit exhausting too. “Wear yourself out down there?”
“A little bit. I haven’t really done a lot of swimming, so it was a pretty new experience. A weird one, of course, but new, too. My body ain’t all that used to it.” Shrugging again, Rogue glanced to one side as a bolt of colorful fabric caught her eye, and she drifted over to the stand to study the materials absently.
“Times like this, I kinda wish I knew how to sew. This stuff’s nice.” Reaching out, she brushed her hand across the fabric, then shifted it to finger an emerald-colored one beneath. “No idea what I’d do with it, though.”
There was probably a lot involved in being able to breath water and then swimming around under the currents there. Treading water for a while was really hard after a while, never mind getting around underneath with the weight of the water on you too. “Anyone that’s used to swimming under the water is either a mermaid or insane.” He couldn’t really connect it to anything that wouldn’t be a drastic change in worlds.
“You’re really talking to the wrong person there,” sewing at all, or what to do with lengths of fancy fabric. “Unless you can figure out how to do those wrap things?”
“Good point. Or that one mutant, Remy.” Who was absolutely nothing like her Remy, and that was something of a relief as a matter of fact. It struck her suddenly that she hadn’t thought about him in some time, and her fingers shifted to a bright red fabric briefly, then away again. There was a chance she’d never see him again, and waiting around wasn’t really doing anyone a lot of good.
Pushing the thoughts aside, she refocused on what John was saying, and gave a slow nod. “I can do that a little - and it’s probably more doable when it comes to being on a ship anyway, right?” Looking over at him, she smiled. “Thanks for the idea. I’ll get this stuff tomorrow when I’m a little less tired and can think better about what I want.”
John hadn’t met him, or any Remy for that fact, he wasn’t beside himself about it, because there was the chance that Remy was just another Bobby at the school and that would just make John grind his teeth more. Best to just avoid things.
“More time when we’re between ports, kill some hours.” Since it was usually really frustrating having fun all the time. Considering there wasn’t a lot available at the market that John would actually trust to eat, “Fancy just heading back to the ship?” At least they knew what they’d be eating, “can get something there before you drop.”
“Yeah, especially since I doubt that ship is going to dump us here so we now have to live on Atlantis.” At least, she hoped it wouldn’t. Rogue took another minute to commit a few more bolts of fabric to mind - she had a bit of a fetish for soft materials, since she couldn’t touch people - before she straightened and turned to John with a second nod.
“Yeah, let’s go there. The closer I am to my bed after eating, the better, probably, at any rate.”
John would definitely take Tumbleweed over Atlantis, if he had to live anywhere in this lame world. He gave a mock shudder at the thought of living one Atlantis, as much as he liked their library and the pretty cool museums, it was not a place he ever wanted to call home.
“Guess that makes it easier to pick where to eat.” Whatever place was closest to Rogue’s room seemed like the best choice.