Vroom Vroom

[dee_lorean81]

[There is a DeLorean, heavily modified, doing laps in an empty, paved part of the Nexus. One might wonder what the driver is doing -- practicing for a race? Working on their turning? Just burning rubber because they're bored?

And then one might get a little closer -- and see that there IS no driver.

. . .perhaps it might be fairer to say that the car is bored.]

Comments

[palmerthing]

Yeah, me neither. If there are then they're dangerous to know, which itself makes them unlike me.

[dee_lorean81]

Yeah, exactly. I don't know if anyone else like me would be dangerous. . .guess it depends on the car, and what kind of person they turn into.

[palmerthing]

Yeah, a little girl is a lot safer than the average person. At least most of the time. *She seems like a smart enough girl that she could be dangerous if she wanted, but also like she doesn't want.*

[dee_lorean81]

[she laughs a little] I didn't really have a choice, at least when I came through the portal that brought me to Dad's world. Just -- woke up one night in this human shape. That was -- really confusing.

[palmerthing]

Yeah, I know. Probably catapulted into sapience, too, am I right?

[dee_lorean81]

Preeeetty much, yeah. I ended up wandering off into here trying to just figure out what happened! And then Dad came in here trying to figure out what had happened to his new DeLorean. . . [smiles] Poor guy hit the deck when I proved I was the DeLorean.

[palmerthing]

At least you didn't first wake up to a literal firefight.

[dee_lorean81]

[Dee winces] That's a good point. I lucked out in finding lots of nice people who wanted to help! And once Dad got used to the idea, he was only too happy to keep me around.

[palmerthing]

Somehow I can't imagine my old self's parents being as okay with it.

[dee_lorean81]

Yeaaaah. . .you kinda got the shit end of this, didn't you? I woke up and found out I was suddenly human -- you woke up and found out you suddenly weren't.

[palmerthing]

Yeah. Not human and not really me. It's fuckin' weird--sorry. *No swearing at the kid. Even if she was swearing too.*

[dee_lorean81]

[Dee chuckles at the apology] Hey, trust me, Dad's said a LOT worse when he's frustrated in the lab. But yeah, I bet it is. Just being human was weird for me.

[palmerthing]

Well I probably shouldn't confuse you with a bunch of half-ass philosophy about identity and stuff, so what do you want to talk about?

[dee_lorean81]

Why not whole-ass philosophy? [she giggles] But I dunno. I just came here 'cause I wanted to do SOMETHING, but I also didn't wanna disturb Chester 'cause he's napping and I know that's sort of a rare treat for Victor and Alice these days.

[palmerthing]

Cuz I ain't a philosopher? Just a mechanic, sorry.

Ugh, yeah, I bet. No idea how humans cope with babies.

[dee_lorean81]

Hey, mechanics are important people! And I'm not just sayin' that because I'm a car.

It looks to be hard and messy. Makes me glad I skipped that part of being human.

[palmerthing]

Only partly because you're a car?

Yeah, me too. Or at least kind of skipped it?

[dee_lorean81]

[Dee giggles] Yeah, okay. And partly because of Dad -- he's not a "mechanic," but he does build and fix a lot of stuff, so. . .

[she tilts her head, puzzled] Kind of?

[palmerthing]

Fair.

There was someone who started as a baby and grew into this. They were just, you know, an entirely different species.

[dee_lorean81]

Right. . .only you're kind of them now. Which circles around back to the half-ass philosophy stuff. Hard to get away from it, huh?

[palmerthing]

Yeah, it's kinda foundational to who I am now. Which is fuckin' annoying, trust me. I was--he was never great at this philosophy stuff.

[dee_lorean81]

Yeah, I bet it is -- and I think you can say "I." Because the Thing-part of you wasn't great at it either, right? Or was it? [she doesn't know what Things do in their spare time]

[palmerthing]

The Thing part of me was basically new, and my ancestral memories are mostly a mishmash of wild animals. So no, not really.

[dee_lorean81]

Yeah, fair enough then. And, I mean, that sort of thing is hard even for people who were born just ordinary human. They got less to think about than we do, but -- given there's whole philosophy sections in libraries and bookstores. . .

[palmerthing]

Yeah, true. Still, I really wish I didn't have quite so many.