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 Posted: Thu Jul 02, 2015 5:40 pm
"You did," Maia said. She grinned, shaking her head. She knew Toby was acting goofy to cheer her up. "I'll hug you first next time," she assured him, giving him another hug. "Well. Since you two tied, you should have a rematch."
She paused, glancing at the computer. "What do I get if I beat you both?"
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Posted: Thu Jul 02, 2015 5:43 pm
"Uhhh..." Toby looked to Dari. The pair shared a glance. What would she win? What could she possibly win? They weren't going to withhold her things if she lost for sure. Another hug? Clearly the same thing was on both of their minds. A kiss? Very inappropriate, and they weren't alone.
Finally Toby spoke. "...ice cream? When we land?"
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Posted: Thu Jul 02, 2015 5:54 pm
Maia considered the offer, grabbing for the computer and taking her seat. SHe started the game, and without removing her eyes from the screen said, "Alright, if I win, we have to all get ice cream." All three of them. Because alien or not, Maia didn't think Dari would prefer to be left out when they we're getting such a treat.
She played better this time, avoiding the tail carefully. She did run into the wall after a while: it'd been a choice between hitting the wall and her tail. "Now you play."
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Posted: Thu Jul 02, 2015 5:57 pm
It was the same sort of conundrum that got any non-professional Snake player. Toby took the computer second and played his own game, followed by one of Dari's. The alien was not particularly fond of eating unnecessarily and treks into public were difficult, but he'd go with them if they wanted a treat. It was amazing that Toby wasn't twelve times his size by this point.
After each round, the score was tallied in a Notepad document, and finally the computer made it back to Maia. Toby had won.
"Haha! Yes!" the werewolf cheered.
"I'm sure we can get you ice cream anyway," Dari reassured her.
Toby nodded. "Yeah, of course."
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Posted: Thu Jul 02, 2015 6:14 pm
"Then I still win," Maia said, "If I get the prize. You two play again," she encouraged them. She wondered if they'd be able to get something else to eat, as well, later in the day. The boys' antics had amused her and lessened her nerves.
"You'll show me around after ice cream?"
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Posted: Thu Jul 02, 2015 6:17 pm
"Well, no. You just get the prize. The pretty lady always gets the prize," Toby said, smirking and looking to Maia out of the corner of his eye. He took the computer back and nodded. "Yeah. I figure we can grab lunch and head back to HQ. I think we'll have time to show you around today?" He looked around as if searching for a clock and found none. He turned back to the laptop. "Yeah, we will. It's early still."
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Posted: Thu Jul 02, 2015 8:34 pm
Pretty? Hm. "Well. As long as we can share the prize." She took Toby's hand. "Show me things that make Arizona a less terrible place." Things like ice cream certainly boosted her opinion of the state. She offered Toby a taffy. "Maybe you can show me where I'll be staying, too. Until I'm relocated."
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Posted: Fri Jul 03, 2015 11:13 am
Toby thought nothing of his offhand compliment and went back to the computer. He accepted the taffy and popped it into his mouth, then moving to pull up a search engine.
"Well, unfortunately I can't show you that. Top secret base and all. We'll make sure you're all set up there, though. You'll have your own one-bedroom apartment for the time being. Have you ever seen a cactus?" He pulled up a few images of cacti, some flowering and some not. He clicked on an image of a cactus with growing red pears. "You can eat those. I mean, you can eat cactus in general, but you can get the fruit at the grocery store."
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Posted: Fri Jul 03, 2015 11:42 am
Maia stared at the images provided. People ate this stuff? Pokey sharp things that reminded her of the inside of a shark's mouth? She gave a shudder. Humans must have had tougher insides than she'd thought. "It wouldn't hurt?" She wondered aloud. Oh, he meant the fruit on it.
"Pears grow on cactus?"
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Posted: Fri Jul 03, 2015 11:49 am
"Oh! No, you pick all of the pokey crap off of them before you eat them. It's pretty good! I was skeptical when I first came out here." He smiled and turned to Maia. "Well, no. The green and brown kids, the real pears, those grow on trees. These are called 'prickly pears' or 'cactus fruit' and they... taste nothing like I pear. Huh. Kind of a weird naming if you think about it..."
He typed something else in and came up with many pictures of a beady-eyed, lemur-looking creature. "That's a ringtail cat. They're the state animal, and they're actually not cats at all, so again with the naming thing."
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Posted: Fri Jul 03, 2015 12:06 pm
Maia didn't seem particularly impressed with Toby's explanation, and said, "I know how silly humans can be. They thought Selkies were mermaids for ages. And then seals." And then something called manatees but She wasn't altogether sure what those were.
She was, however, very interested in the next thing Toby showed her. She stared at the computer for a moment, looked at Toby and said, "I want one."
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Posted: Fri Jul 03, 2015 12:12 pm
"It's alright, we have them convinced that mermaids are actually manatees, somehow." No, no, that wasn't a beautiful young woman who wanted to romance or drown you, it was a dugong. Nope, yep, we're sure. Have a good day, Sir. People were willing to believe the most ridiculous things before the would recognize that the supernatural actually existed.
He laughed when Maia said she wanted one.
"They're not domesticated, they're wild, and they're excessively grumpy in captivity. Plus they're definitely not a starter pet. They're 'exotic' and harder to keep."
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Posted: Fri Jul 03, 2015 12:41 pm
"Yeah, I heard about that," she said. "Not sure what they are, though." Really, mistaking seals for mermaids was bad enough. "You're responsible for that?" She asked, raising an eyebrow. She supposed people would believe anything but the truth.
"I'll find a starter pet then," she considered. "A cat maybe?"
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Posted: Fri Jul 03, 2015 12:46 pm
Toby Googled manatees and chuckled at the goofy-looking creatures. He'd met one once, just a normal manatee. They were sort of dumb, but to hell if they weren't sweet.
"Well, that's our official stance. I don't think we were the ones to come up with it in the first place, maybe we were." He shrugged and nodded. "Sure, cats are a good start. There's rescues everywhere. I've always wanted a pet, but I travel too often."
"I could transform into a slime-dog and keep you company."
"Eurgh. Jiggly."
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Posted: Fri Jul 03, 2015 1:15 pm
Maia stared at the picture. She wrinkled her nose. "They're kind of ugly, aren't they?" she asked, studying the manatee on screen."People think these are mermaids?" she marveled at the sheer stupidity of humanity. These looked nothing like the beautiful women in myth!
"I'll get one. You can help me take care of it, if you like." She knew very little about cats, other than that they were fuzzy and cute.
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