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

[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.

[dee_lorean81]

Questions, you mean? Honestly, my personal philosophy has kinda become "just run with it, it might turn out awesome."

[palmerthing]

Good way of looking at it, man. I tend to be a bit too paranoid for that, myself, but then I started out in a bad place. I'll try to just run with things if you really think it'll help, but . . . *Too many bad memories.*

Hey, is there anywhere you might wanna show me? This place is big enough that it can be hard to find things.

[dee_lorean81]

Well, I am a mad science car, so that might have something to do with it. . .you gotta do what feels right for you! Er, as long as that doesn't include assimilating everything.

I know, but all sorts of stuff will pop up if you just go in the right direction! Like there's this really nice windy beach over that way, on the edge of the ocean. . .

[palmerthing]

Trying to avoid assimilating, yeah. Assimilating people is bad.

Ooh, that sounds nice. Can you swim?

[dee_lorean81]

[firm nod] Very bad, yeah.

When I'm like this, yeah! Dad taught me. It was a pretty weird experience -- when you're usually a bunch of metal and electronics, you try to avoid sand and salt water.

[palmerthing]

Well then, would you like to go swimming with me? I've found that water which isn't freezing is really nice after Hell if I know how long stuck in ice.

[dee_lorean81]

Sure thing! Come on, it's just this way! [and she'll lead the way over to a windswept beach, with the surf crashing over rock breakers sticking out into the water]

[palmerthing]

*Palmer isn't even slightly offput by the crashing of the waves, but then he's basically immune to most damage. And he does side-eye her a bit, because small girls are a lot easier to hurt than amorphous entities, even girls who are also cars. But when she doesn't show any sign of being battered to pieces against the rock or caught by some hidden undertow he relaxes.

*And starts to change, because humans are really not optimized for swimming. They're okay at floating, but that's about it. Some snakelike, many-finned creature from the other side of the Milky Way is far better at it.*

[dee_lorean81]

[Dee knows to stay away from the rocks -- her human form can be hurt, after all! But she's been to this beach a couple of times now, and she's pretty good at finding the right spot to ride the waves to shore without being swept into a breaker. She tumbles over a couple of times in the surf, laughing --

Then spots Palmer transforming and sits on the sand for a minute, the waves splashing her as she watches] Oooooh. . .that's a lot of fins.

[palmerthing]

*It laughs a strange chittering laugh and nods, flipping all the fins and generally showing off a bit before diving into the waves and winding itself around a rock. A dozen flippers grip the stone, another dozen or two left to trail it the water. It makes sure to keep an eye on the other not-human, feeling more protective than it probably would for the real thing, but mostly it's just enjoying the surf.

*After a bit of time spent sunning itself it figures out a way to speak like this and winds its way a little closer.* I like swimming, it's like flying but less effort. Water's not too cold here, either.

[dee_lorean81]

[Dee continues body-surfing for a bit, then scrambles to the rocks herself to sit for a while -- far enough away from Fin-Snake-Palmer to be safe, of course. Though the new shape is really neat to look at]

[she nods as it strikes up a conversation] Hey, flying's pretty darn rad! Though I guess for me you can't really compare the two -- I can only fly as a DeLorean and swim as a human.

[palmerthing]

You can fly as a car? *Something about its expression implies raising an eyebrow that it doesn't actually have.* Why can you fly as a car?

[dee_lorean81]

Future tech from my home world -- in that version of 2015, flying cars are a thing, and the original version of Doc Brown who built me had all the necessary stuff installed on me. Granted, it was shot to shit after I was struck by lightning and sent back to the Old West, but after I ended up here, Dad managed to repair it enough for me to get back off the ground. Doesn't work as well as it used to, but. . . [she shrugs in a "I'll take what I can get" way]