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 Posted: Mon Aug 04, 2008 2:36 pm
((This takes place a few weeks after joint training with Jackie and Megan begins. I'm leaving it nondescript because I've never been good with a working time continuum.
Prompt: Life I))
LoQuinn sipped idly at the drink before him. Root beer; in a glass; ground mint on the rim; no ice. His hair was down and for the first time since the previous year he wore no metal anywhere on his body. He'd even gone so far as to dye his hair back to brown with a hair coater, the 24-hour variety generally reserved for Halloween. Cut off shorts with frayed knees and a silver/white shirt that brought out the color of his eyes replaced his standard bondage gear. In all accounts he looked, for lack of a better term, respectable. Respectable and completely plain.
He glanced once more at the menu to solidify his order as the waitress came over. "Hi. I'll have the pancake special, bacon, eggs over medium, toast and hash browns. That'll be all." he said handing the menu back and pacing his words so that she wouldn't have to ask for him to repeat himself. Without another word she headed back to the kitchen. Just the sort of service he liked.
Today after all was a special day, his second decade by the Gregorian calendar. It was why he'd told Raul that he was busy and short of Charles himself coming down to this diner he wasn't going to even think about setting foot in the quarry. The way things went chances were this was one of the last times he'd really be able to just take a day off for his birthday. He didn't see Photon ever really take a day off. It would suck to always be on call always in the gear waiting for that phone to ring or alarm to sound. Nope, he had to savor the moment. The mint reminded him and he drank.
His waiter, Suzy, refilled his drink before bringing out two steaming plates of heaven. Three buttermilk pancakes, three eggs, three strips of bacon, six pieces of toast and what had to be a half pound of potatoes. Truth be told he couldn't help but smile. "Thank you, that'll be all. I'll pay up front." Once more she smiled, nodded and went on her way. Strike that, excellent service.
There was no grace, there was no heeding of napkins. There was nothing but unadulterated breakfast carnage as knife and fork went to rapid methodical movements. Moments later the knife was exchanged for a lever bottle of blueberry syrup and then that too was discarded. LoQuinn played Picasso as he swirled the perfect mixture of ketchup and Tabasco sauce with his fork before slathering it on the hash browns. He hesitated as he finished, gazing with sinister intent upon his birthday breakfast. The moment passed and he descended.
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Posted: Tue Dec 09, 2008 10:30 pm
"You still haven't learned how to eat like a civil beastie after all these years?" The familiar voice precluded a blur of motion that startled the young earth evolved. Rather suddenly and without warning a person he hadn't seen in some time was looming in front of him. The woman was in her late forties, aged fairly well with the slightest signs of time beginning to make their presence known. Her hair was shoulder length, wavy and kissed with a greyed blond that showed a fond regard for the passing of years. Blue eyes gazed back at LoQuinn, if he didn't know better he'd have called the look skeptical of his somewhat surprised expression.
"What you didn't think I'd come?" came the reply to his silent question. He hadn't. Lack of notoriety and distance were key factors in why someone could easily ignore someone like him. Perhaps he'd put up defenses, figuring it would be better to go quite some time without so much as a word from his guest. Regardless he gave a nonchalant grunt and beckoned for her to take a seat. She obliged giving the opposed glut a critical assessment. "Tsk," she sucked her tongue "that's not your real color."
He placed a hand in front of his mouth to shield her from witnessing the massacre inside. "So what, neither is green."
"Green, really?" she touched a strand absently. "Hmm, sounds like you but you'd look so sickly." His complexion was pallid compared to what she'd known before. To her mild amusement she noticed no further piercings, maybe after twenty-some-odd he had finally had enough. Maybe he'd moved on to other more concealed parts but that was his concern now.
"We can't all be sun divas," another forkful was added to the gnashing mess.
"True enough, so how's my baby?"
LoQuinn winced visibly, for all she cared he could be the most powerful Super-being on Earth and she would still think of him as the three year old who ran naked circles around the Christmas tree. He knew such was a mother's right but did she really have to enjoy it so much?
"Fine. Been hitting it off with the NSA..."
Leslie stopped him before he could continue. "You mean the bastards who were trying to take you away from me? Put you in cell somewhere or worse?!" He voice held an edge to it that threatened to go razor sharp at any moment. It was the protection his mother had always shown towards him, reminded him that if he ever needed her she could be just as deadly and determined as one of Charles' squads.
"Turns out they aren't so bad. Least that's the way it seems. They give room, board, all the training and medico I can possibly need. Suppose thye even give me spending cash too." LoQuinn was quite sure that he'd used up all of his personal fundings, yet his minor expenses still hadn't forced his account to be overdrawn. He usually ate the meals provided to him by the 'nutritional experts' at the NSA, he slept in the small room sized quarters they gave him and he hadn't spent a dime on any medical examinations.
Whatever the living situation LoQuinn doubted that his mother would find it in the vein of positive news. Too many years on the run and then all of a sudden he was proving all the struggle had been wasted effort or he was now being exploited, neither sat well. They talked big things and small, what had happened to his 'home town', how she was getting on, what lay in store for him next. Slowly, but surely, LoQuinn watched as the topic drifted towards his powers and how they had grown since he'd left home. It was fair of her to ask, as his very first instructor she wanted to know what he was learning.
"So, you mentioned they've trained you," Leslie said dipping a toe into the proverbial pond. "What is it that they're teaching you?"
"You know, basic control, shaping, limiting destruction."
"How's that last one going?" A grin made it apparent she knew full well even if he could've prevented scuffing up the landscape he probably wouldn't. Her son liked to be a bit showy and coupled with a penchant for some good natured vandalism and a power that didn't exactly lend itself to being surgical she could see how messes could be made.
"I hate it." It was a flat, absolute statement. "Did you know there are about 5 different types of concrete used for completely different purposes on any given city block or structure? They're all different percentages of different things and they all feel like cold fish when I try to do anything. Best I can do right now is pick a direction and blast it apart. Whoever designed cities should be the one paying for the cleanup. Give me a pure slab of granite or marble any day."
Leslie couldn't help but laugh, was he becoming a Super or a civil engineer? "You'll have to correct that problem some day, huh? Put all the ducks back in their rows."
"Someday."
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