2013.05.22 - That Looks Disgusting

It is late morning, almost early afternoon on the twenty-second of May and Kent Shakespeare is sitting in the commissary of Legion headquarters in Lower Metropolis. As there are no windows in the room it is not possible to discern what kind of day it is outside and, as normal, the base is maintaining a comfortable temperature internally. Kent has a tray in front of him with a large pile of french fries, a bread and meat patty combination that is obviously the computer's attempt to reproduce a modern hamburger -- not a bad attempt but it obviously didn't grok the meaning of buns and the substation of slices of white bread leaves a bit to be desired by anyone who isn't into a slog of somewhat greasy bread-stuff -- and a fruit salad consisting of apple slices, pineapple chunks, grapes and mandarin orange sections. A glass of brown liquid -- an observer probably instantly hopes it is chocolate milk on looking at it -- stands beside the tray. While he eats, opting for a fork and knife to tackle the meat patty, he is watching GBS on the holographic projection coming up from the middle of the table.
Jazmin wanders in, her hair still damp and she's managed to do a bit more shopping. Clearly the 21st century fad of yoga pants is something /this/ super heroine can get behind, and her attire is utterly casual. She waves in Kent's direction, wandering over to consider his tray and smirks a little. "I swear, this entire Legion are getting addicted to fries." She reaches out in an attempt to steal one of those mentioned 'vegetables'. "How're you?"
Kent grins broadly and nods. "Who'd've thought that by cutting a potato in different ways but otherwise doing fundamentally the same thing you could get such different, and decadent, foods?" he asks. He then waves his hand at a chair next to his and asks, "Care to join me?"
"Well, damn near anything's better when you've deep fried it." Jazmin nods with a grin. "Lemme get my own rather than eating all of yours and I'll join you." She moves over to punch some buttons and get herself a tray of food. Salad, more than fries, and a tall glass of juice. She brings it back to slide into a seat across from Kent. "How's things?"
Kent nods at the holo display and says, "Computer, play the story I asked you to save." The computer beeps and does so, playing a story about a mine collapse yesterday afternoon in Pennsylvania. When it gets to the point where Superman is commenting he tells the computer to stop playback. "Saved a lot of people yesterday. A bit bummed that we lost a couple, but nobody is perfect." As he says this it is clear that, while a bit upset, he isn't letting this ruin his life or anything like that.
Jazmin watches, absently chewing on salad as she does. "Wow.. congratulations and I'm sorry." She offers, looking to him at the end. "It's never easy to lose some, no matter how inevitable it sometimes is. The crew of you make quite the team."
Kent nods sagely and then grins again. "Yeah, it was amazing. Superman deferred to me, I think because I was first on the scene... definitely cause I was holding up a load of stone though that would otherwise have at that point been crashing back down on the miners... but yeah, it was an interesting experience. I'm used to being one of the strongest people around. They are... wow." Yeah, Kent seems to have a bit of a fanboy moment going on here about the Kryptonians.
There's a little laugh from Jazmin as she watches. "Congratulations all the /more/. I'm so proud of you, and I can only imagine how odd it would have been to have people of similar powers helping. I know /I/ would find it odd. Superman seems to be nothing but gracious. I was glad, and a little awed by meeting him."
Odd doesn't cover half of the reality, but neither of the Legionnaires know the truth about the origin of Kent's powers. Instead, he takes another bite of his burger and nods while Jazmin speaks. He then says, "I wish I'd had the forethought of having the computer record him catching the starship I crashed in, but who knew the computer core would survive like it did!" before taking a sip of the chocolate milk and then taking the last bite of his burger.
"Computers.. not my strong suit. I'm used to just talking at them, and them understanding what I mean. The computers of this era aren't quite so sophisticated as that." Jazmin muses as she eats her pointedly healthy lunch. "It /is/ too bad you didn't. That would have been amazing to see." She is thoughtful a few moments longer. "You know, I dont actually know what your powers are. I know you're strong, because you mentioned it. I really need to get those rosters finished."
Kent nods, this is important information for his teammates to be aware of after all. "I'm really strong, tough and fast. I also recover from injury really quickly," he says all this mater-of-factly and then taps the ring, "And I can fly cause of this." He then interjects, "Oh!" and adds, "I've also got medical training." He then begins to eat his fries.
"As someone who is not strong, tough /or/ fast, AND who doesn't heal really quickly.. it's that last afterthought that I appreciate knowing we have around." Jazmin laughs softly, shaking her head. "Hanging out around this Legion is going to make me feel like a slacker. I only manipulate time. Which is not a half bad 'only', all in all."
"Not half bad at all. It would have been real useful to be able to create extra studying time -- and sleeping time! -- during medical school," Kent says in a friendly, jocular tone in response. An observant eye would also catch his arm muscles twitch for a moment as if he was going to slap the table but stopped himself.
"It takes a certain level of attention paying, so you could find yourself really confused on what time it was, really quickly." Jazmin points out with a little laugh. "I can't, for example, make myself immortal, or speed myself up while I'm sleeping."
Kent nods as he absorbs the information and then, after another fry, asks: "So, how fast or slow can you make time go actually? Do you happen to know?" He pauses for a moment and then, quickly so as to start before Jazmin has a chance to start answering the other two questions: "Is yours natural? James had to use a belt and... well..." He realizes he might be treading in dangerous waters there so he leaves off the full comment about Jaz's brother.
"I can slow someone down to almost, but not quite stopped. Functionally stopped." Jazmin can answer that easily enough. "How fast? I don't know how fast, honestly. I rarely am called on to make things go really fast for all that long." She mmms softly, stabbing an errant piece of 'chicken' and a tomato slice. "I don't use any tech, no. I'm a full Legion member. That.. got changed in my Legion's charter. I .. don't know if it is here, to be honest. No tech that can fail in full members."
Kent nods. "It was changed in the charter in my timeline after James' death also. I'm afraid that may end up being a constant -- or near constant -- for all of us," he says. "Yeah, the only tech we used in the field are the flight rings and as I understand it they are pretty much fail proof."
"As it should be." Jazmin nods in agreement. "Tech that fails.. it fails you /and/ your teammates. They're left scrambling to cover for a failure that is entirely too easy. I mean .. sure our powers /can/ get turned off, but it's harder than just breaking a belt." She is quiet a moment or two, considering her salad.
"Exactly," Kent says as he starts to distractedly stir the greasy bread mass with the tines of his fork.
Jazmin is quiet a moment or two longer, watching Kent stir the mess of food and then she twists her lips in a half chuckle. "That." She points with her own fork. "Looks disgusting. You aren't going to eat that, are you?"
Kent looks down at the mess himself and shakes his head. "No," he says, obviously disgusted by it as well. "I think that either I failed in describing a burger or the computer glitched in processing my directions."
"Garth managed to get something burger-like yesterday, so it /is/ possible." Jazmin is still eating salad as she considers the goop. "Although I think his weren't actually meat, soysomethingorother. He brought some by to the monitors when I was on duty. Garth brought burgers, Rokk brought coffee, Rene later brought doughnuts. I should take more monitor shifts."
Kent pushes aside the tray and sips at his milk as Jaz shares the story. "Yeah, it also gives you a chance to catch up on all sorts of stuff. That's how I discovered the news station there," he explains as he points at the hologram.
"Cos always makes it sound like no one wants shifts in there.. but apparently you and I are both informatin nerds." Jazmin smirks a little. "I don't mind them at all. Better than sitting around not doing much, although I suppose there's always training. Or finding out about mine accidents.. somewhere far away?"
"It was in Pennsylvania, about a hundred miles west of here," Kent says. After another sip of his chocolate milk, leaving a brown smear on his upper lip. "I was visiting a place my parents used to take me to for picnics. So I just happened to be there, lucky for them I guess... but Superman, Supergirl and Power Girl would have arrived anyway I'm sure."
"I don't have a particularly good grip on how far I can fly." Jazmin admits thoughtfully. "I suppose I should take a day, pack a picnic and hope I don't get lost and my omni still works in the middle of nowhere." She reaches for her juice and mmms softly. "Or a few of us should, safety in numbers and all that."
"So that if necessary that group can call home for bearings or backup, right?" Kent asks jokingly. After a brief chuckle he says, "Seriously though, that sounds great. My parents were always taking me on picnics."
"Knowing you /can/ call for help is important, even if pride is most certainly /not/ about to let me call home because I'm /lost/." Jazmin snickers softly. "Garth'd never /ever/ let me live it down."
Again Kent chuckles. "That is /quite/ true." He returns his attention to the milk and only now realizes he has the milk-stache and proceeds to lick it off.
Category:Log