A Crossroads Between Realities

"Neither have I -- probably goes against the anti-violence field," Marty admits. "And I'm perfectly happy with things staying that way. So where's this ice cream shop then? It got a fixed location, or. . . ?"

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"Well, the last time I was here I think it was over," he starts to point, and then abruptly switches the direction he's pointing in, "that way." And he'll start heading that way to see if he's right.

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Marty snorts at the cartoon-esque sight gag and follows along. He's got nowhere he has to be, and learning where the ice cream is is always a good thing.

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Jokester has the habit of poking at random things they pass, or occasionally doing a little soft-shoe while he looks around to make sure he's going the right way.

It doesn't take long to wander into a place that seems perpetually twilight. Not too dark to find one's way around without stumbling, but dark enough to show off the Glowcones ice cream parlor with its outdoor seating tables with umbrellas and luminescent and tasty product.

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Marty smiles and lets him get on with it -- kind of reminds him of when they take Dee out someplace. She takes full advantage of her little kid human form to go wild with the poking and running around. He doesn't mind, though -- whatever makes her happy. And Jokester happy, come to think of it.

The twilight chunk of the Nexus is interesting in and of itself -- but the shop is definitely a high point. Marty grins, taking it all in. "Oh, that is pretty damn cool."

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"I thought so too!" Jokester says with the sort of big grin only he can really manage. "Now, Eddie... he panicked a bit. Had to make sure it was safe before the kids got into it. I told him it didn't taste radioactive, but he still had the dog check it... So it's all in the clear now."

"... Can't really blame him for being cautious, what with the kids and all," he adds, almost as if it's an afterthought.

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"Yeah, me either," Marty says, trying not to give Jokester a bit of the side-eye for his casual approach to danger. "I mean, I'm pretty sure radioactive ice cream would fall under that whole 'can't hurt anybody here unless you both really really mean it' field the Nexus has got going on, but. . .never heard of a dog checking for radiation though. Unless it had a Geiger counter tied to it."

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Jokester nods. That was about what he'd figured too... it couldn't really be harmful if it was here. "It's actually some kind of shape-shifting nanotech AI space alien weapon thing that looks like a dog more than half of the time and followed his daughter home, but thatś a bit longer to say than 'dog'. And they've also shot down any nicknames I've come up with for Erdammeru, which is a tongue twister on its own."

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Marty blinks a few times. He knows comics are weird, but. . . ". . .Sounds like they've adopted a T-1000 to me. And Erdammeru?? Really?" Okay, Nigma, he knows showing off how smart you are is kind of your shtick, but come on.

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"If it were silver instead of mostly black, I'd wonder about that myself," Jokester says, as he tries to decide which flavors to get. He knows he wants sherbet, though - because, let's face it, the colors are just better. "It came with that name. Some kind of Qwardian weapon... thing..." He waves a hand, not knowing all the details. And then pauses for a moment and shrugs. "I might have been dead in that timeline by the time that stuff happened. The Crime Syndicate did an even better job at picking us off than average there. Pretty sure Ed and his daughter were the only ones left."

Edited Date: 2018-11-28 10:01 am (UTC)

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Marty's an ice cream guy through and through himself -- though he's checking out more colorful flavors. What's the point of getting glow in the dark ice cream if you're just going to pick boring old chocolate or vanilla? "Oh," he says as Jokester explains. "I guess if it was already answering to that. . ." He winces at the last bit. "Seriously? Shit, that's horrible."

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"Hey, I guess we could ask... about the dog, I mean," Jokester says, as he's just spotted Duela having some mint-chocolate-chip not far away. And she's accompanied by a younger girl whose twin-tail hairstyle gives her a slight resemblance to Harley Quinn, despite that her hair's more strawberry blond and her eyes are a calculating grey. And she's apparently gone for a 'dreamsicle' blend of vanilla with orange sherbet swirls. There doesn't seem to be a dog present, but the younger girl is wearing an odd-looking dark-colored bracelet, like some sort of tube made of metal snakescale.

Jokester's decided on a three-scoop bowl of lime, orange, and lemon, himself.

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"Hmm?" Marty follows Jokester's gaze to see one familiar face, and one unfamiliar one. "Oh! Is that Nigma's kid then? Guess we should at least say hello. . ." Only polite, after all. And he wants to see how Duela's doing too.

His order, when they get to the counter, is going to be a two-scoop cone of a blue confetti birthday cake flavor -- nice and bright and should taste good.

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"Daddy!" Duela waves as soon as she spots Jokester, before he can say anything.

He just laughs. "Hey, baby girl! Hey Stephie."

Stephie half-waves, mouth full of ice cream at the moment. She knows her day just got twice as surreal, even for being in the Nexus.

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"Hey Duela," Marty says, waving back. He offers Stephie a smile, waiting until she's swallowed to introduce himself. "Hi. Marty McFly."

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"Stephie Nigma," she says, holding out a hand to shake. The bracelet on the same wrist shifts, not from gravity, but with a ripple on the surface as if it's looking at Marty.

"And here I thought 'using your dog as a fashion accessory' was limited to carrying them in purses," Jokester says, indicating the bracelet with his spoon.

"I might get banned from the place if he scares off all the other customers," Stephie says.

"I think people in the Nexus would have to be a little less likely to scream and run," Duela counters. They actually been debating the point before Jokester and Marty had shown up. "I mean, one of the ones here when we arrived was some kind of giant wasp."

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Marty reaches out to take it -- only to hesitate a moment when the bracelet ripples. That is -- not helping his "T-1000" vibes from earlier. "Nice to meet you," he says, completing the handshake when he's sure the bracelet-dog-thing is only observing.

Despite his own Terminator-inspired nerves, he nods along with Duela when she says the visitors to the Nexus would be less likely to freak. "Yeah -- my family's run into giant robots, regular-sized robots, demons, vampires, superheroes. . .well-creatures. . ." Eaten's kind of in a category all his own. "We were just talking about Erdammeru, actually -- he really that scary as a dog?"

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Stephie sighs and relents, brushing fingers along the bracelet for a moment as if to pet it and calm it down. Then it comes off without so much as a click, briefly flowing and serpentine while apparently considering gravity more of a guideline than a rule. It floats, and shifts, and grows... until it's a wolf-sized and shaped mass of shadow and electric and synthetic fur. "He can be a lot bigger," Stephie also points out.

Jokester just uses his spoon to catapult a spoonful of his sherbet towards the Void Hound... which snaps it out of midair.

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Marty stares for a little bit, just taking all that in. "Okay -- fairly freaky, I gotta admit," he says at last. "Can definitely see why nobody would want to mess with him. But, also, not quite the freakiest thing I've seen here." It's up there, but -- he has encountered freakier.

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"You do realize feeding him sugary food won't actually do anything," Stephie says, having noticed Jokester's bit of sherbet-launching.

"I left all the batteries at home," Jokester quips back before deciding to eat his sherbet himself.

Stephie then looks to Marty, and smiles in a way that seems, well, almost a little too lupine. "He says if anyone did bother us, he tear them to shreds. Oh, and he can understand you."

Duela kicks her in the ankle under the table as if to remind her to behave herself.

Stephie just rolls her eyes, but the odd grin is gone at least. "Not that he could here, supposedly... and he wouldn't unless they were a real threat."

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Marty chuckles softly at Stephie and Jokester's exchange, taking a few licks of his cone. "Not gonna hurt him either, is it?" That's part joke, part genuine question -- not like he knows.

And then Stephie turns her attention to him again, and -- someone has obviously taken tips from how to be spooky from her alien weapon dog. Marty leans backward just a little from the smile on instinct. "Ookay. . .sorry, didn't realize." He shakes his head. "Hopefully we're not gonna see any real threats in an ice cream shop."

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"I thought it was just chocolate that wasn't safe for dogs, " Jokester says, poking at his sherbet with a look like he's trying to think if he's heard anything else.

"None of us are going to intentionally poison the crazy space-robo-dog-monster, "Duela quips, knowing that half of her dad's behavior is still usually an act - whatever seems funny at the time.

Stephie just snorts. "No way the Void Hound is going to get damaged by some bit of milk and sugar. It took a Green Lantern yanking the A.I. out of his old space weapon body and trapping him in a ring for ages to stop him the last time. And he broke out of that once he figured out how to make himself a new body."

Erdammeru just continues to stare at the desert bowls as if waiting for them to attack...

After a moment, Stephie sighs. "He wants a bowl, too."

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"Well, chocolate's the obvious one -- I think grapes aren't great for them either," Marty says, frowning thoughtfully. "I'd have to ask Doc -- he's the one who's owned dogs. He'd know better." He glances at Erdammeru. "Not that any of that probably applies to you. . ."

". . .Oookay then." Marty's about to add to Erdammeru that human food probably doesn't even register on his radar when Stephie reveals why the Void Hound has been staring at the bowls so intently -- and then he has to hide a laugh. Maybe Erdammeru is a little more like a dog than he thought. "Well, if it ain't gonna hurt him. . .whatcha want?" he asks the Hound.

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Jokester looks at his Lime-Orange-Lemon sherbet mess for a moment. "Good thing I didn't get grape, too. Whoops." Because it had been a close thing. He just decided to go all-citrus instead.

There's a head tilt from Erdammeru, and then Stephie seems to be having a conversation of which only one side can be heard by everyone else. "No, I don't think they'd have Green Lantern flavor," she says, and scritches one of the Void Hound's ears. The smile on her face is the only possible hint that that might be a joke. Maybe. "... iron filings?" Apparently the Void Hound's taste preferences are not human normal, for all that he liked the sherbet enough to want some.

Duela shrugs. "In this place, it wouldn't hurt to ask at the counter. That big wasp guy that was here before looked like some kind of robot."

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