Day 56: Main Street

[mustbethesuit]

After extricating himself from Harvey's company, Peter found himself at an utter loss for what to do. He drifted away from the park (too cold for that), munching on his breakfast muffin and searching out some place where $15 might be useful. The coupon pack was about as helpful as it had ever been. He wandered past Pearl's Prettification Parlour,

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[mirthfulness]

Gamzee just sort of stared as the other boy ate the bag. His thought process was less along the lines of 'wow that's strange, why is he eating the bag?' and more along the lines of 'shit, you can eat that too?' He might have gone and eaten it himself had he known, but he was glad to be able to help feed someone who was obviously hungrier than he was.

Though there was a mention of rude language again. The only troll he ever got that from back on Alternia was Equius. That wasn't to say he minded it either, as he was quite fond of the blueblood. This boy didn't seem to mind so much as he found it curious, and that caused Gamzee to grin again though he'd forgotten why soon after. What had they been talking about again? Food, right?

He didn't know what pink soup the other was talking about, but there was at least one thing he could help with. "Well shit, my brother. We can't all be havin' you go hungry. We should go on and take ourselves a stroll through the white here, find you somethin' real to munch on." It was a mission as good as any at this point, wasn't it?

[moarnomsplz]

"The white substance, stan-suh, is called snow," Ax said, helpfully. It did not snow very often on his homeworld, and he had never seen any up close on Earth, although he knew from his reading that the snowiest place in the United States was in Washington. He did not think it would be unusual if a human had not encountered it before, and there was always the chance that his companion only appeared to be from Earth.

He was momentarily disconcerted by a pang in his hearts--no, his heart--when the young human called him 'brother.' No, my brother is dead. Ax had not had much time to reflect upon this, and he did not wish to now.

"My name is Ax," he said. "And if I could consume some more food-zuh, I think I would parsh, partially meet the requirements for being-ing attired in my glad." This reminded him that he needed to ask someone how to extract the human money from the card he had been given, and he held it up to show the young human. "Some of my friends receive a-low-ance-iss-suh, but they are always in the form of paper. Do you know how this card can be made to pro, produce money?"

[mirthfulness]

Even though Gamzee knew what snow was, he let the other boy explain and nodded his head sagely as he did. Ax, and that was possibly one of the coolest names ever, had a cute way of speaking that was generally just fun to listen to, so why interrupt him? He'd accept the lesson even if he didn't need it, because his new companion seemed like such a great guy.

"Then you can be callin' me Gamzee." Attired in his glad. He needed to remember that one. That was such a great way of putting it. It was doubtful he actually would remember, but he could always mark it away somewhere in the old think pan and hope it didn't get erased over time. "And I think we can for motherfuckin' sure be gettin' you more food-zuh. Hold on up. I got a food-zuh coupon too."

He pulled out one of the pieces of paper, looking it over. There was a name in large letters printed on the front. If they could find a place around town with a sign that matched up to those letters, they'd be in business. "Tasty Burger's all up soundin' like food-zuh to me. If it's tasty, it's gotta be food, right? No motherfucker's gonna be callin' horns in a horn shop tasty. Honk!"

He'd swallowed a horn once before. Although the funny noises he'd made for weeks after had been awesomely hilarious, it hadn't tasted all that tasty at all.

[moarnomsplz]

"Gamzee." Ax grinned, delighted. "Gam, Gam-zee, zee." That was a wonderful name to say! It did not sound like a human name, and Gamzee was also displaying some of the signs of being unused to having mouthparts. Ax wondered what the significance of the 'honk' sound was. Perhaps it was a custom of Gamzee's people, or meant something in his language. Despite his expertise in human culture, he had not heard of a horn store, which seemed to further support the theory that Gamzee had not started out in a human body. "Am I correct, rect, in thinking that you are not orij, originally from Earth? I am not either, ee-ther."

Ax had plans to meet someone for lunch, and he was not certain what to expect after that somewhat troubling exchange of notes. Was it possible that someone from his home, his real home, was here? He could not have described the feeling he experienced when considering this, though he could tell a portion of it was caused by human adrenalin. Anxiety, then, because he had concluded that the fear that Landel's was under Yeerk control was not logical, but there was no reason one of them could not have been transported here in the same mysterious way Ax had been.

Whatever awaited him at the restaurant, he felt it could not hurt to approach it with a more satisfied human stomach, assuming there was time to obtain foods. He looked around for a place with 'tasty' in the name, which necessitated stopping so that trying to walk in the snow at the same time would not make him lose his balance. "It would be deceptive, tiv, to claim you had things, thing-zuh, that are tast-ee, if you did not in fact sell foods," he agreed. He considered making use of either 'motherfucking' or 'honk,' but decided further observation was required to employ them correctly.

[mirthfulness]

There was no way Gamzee couldn't give a bit of a laugh at the way Ax said his name. He would totally respond to Gam-Gam Zee-Zee, if that was the way he wanted to do it. It was close enough. The following question surprised him, though. Man, everyone was just throwing surprises at him left and right. It was completely blowing his mind, not that this was a difficult thing to do.

"Whooooa. How'd you all go about figurin' that shit out?" Ax was graced with the most stunned look the troll ever managed. "Yeah, bro. I'm all about bein' from Alternia. Usually I got me some motherfuckin' horns on my head, but the all up vanished. You all with bein' turned into a star monkey too? Shit, we could be surrounded by motherfuckers who were all not bein' pink before now. Miracles, my brother."

Oh, but he still needed to get this guy to the promised restaurant. He took him by the hand and tugged him toward what he believed to be the appropriate sign nearby. They could always talk more on the way.

[moarnomsplz]

"Alternia? Then you are from the same world as Tavros, Tav-ro-suh! He is my room, room-mate." Ax felt that the smile on his human mouth became wider, quite spontaneously, and while he was pleased that such gestures were coming more naturally to him, it was also a concern. He had not yet lost hope that he would regain his own body. It would not do to become too accustomed to a human one.

He did not know how to react to Gamzee taking hold of his hand. Ax was not used to being touched casually. He theorized that it might have been something trolls did more readily than Andalites, and so he did not pull his hand away, but followed along as well as he could, stepping carefully over the snow.

"I do not think I would call it a miracle, mirr-ah-cul, that we have been given human bodies. Dees. I believe it is a misuse of technology." He had to laugh as well, however, at Gamzee's choice of words, even though he felt a twinge of guilt as he did, which, oddly, made everything seem even more humorous. "Do you habitually, shu-lee, call humans star monkeys? They would be offended, ded, but." Another small sound of amusement escaped him, despite his best efforts. "It is not hole, wholly inaccurate. I concluded you had not always been human from your name, nay-muh, and the way you speak. I know it may be difficult, diff-ih-cul-tuh, to tell, but I am still adjusting-ing to having a human mouth myself."

[mirthfulness]

"Tavbro is here?" Now that was good news. Great news, even. If Tavros was there, then the others might be around too. He'd like to be able to interact with his friends in this environment rather than being left to figure things out among strangers. Though all these strangers had seemed pretty chill so far, so it wasn't as if he was suffering in any way. And did he have a roommate? He'd have to ask later if he remember, since he certainly hadn't seen one before.

What a miracle it was that he'd just happened to run into someone who knew his friend!

Gamzee led them to the door, and the place definitely smelled like they served edible things so he had to have made the right decision on this one. It looked like you just went up to the counter and they gave you food? that sounded like a good deal to him.

But Ax was starting to bring up technology as an explanation, and hell no he wasn't having any of that. "Nah, bro. This shit's all motherfuckin' miracles. How could someone even up and change their fuckin' shell like that man? And even if some motherfucker in a white coat was like 'shit, let's zap these bros into new bodies' then how'd they all up and get the smarts for that shit? Miracles, that's how." There was honestly no room for logic in this argument.

"They're star monkeys because it's a cute motherfuckin' name. I like sayin' it." He's grinning as he walks in.

[And there's no Tasty Burger posted for morning, so we'll just have to assume they went in and he can move on from here.]