And On Your Left You'll See a Tourist Mingle

[takingkarabusiness]

Who: Tourists and visitors
Broadcast: nah
Action: The Tourist!
When: April!!!

[ what do you mean the month is half over? this is a mingle people! ]

Comments

[takingkarabusiness]

Something I'm remarkably short on, really.

[beathach]

It's definitely an acquired skill. I mean, doing the work I've done in the past meant having a lot of patience, but it's different when it comes to people.

I kind of - er, have a temper sometimes, so between that and learning how to be patient with people - teenagers - is . . . well. I don't know how Charles managed it.

[takingkarabusiness]

Teenagers are kind of the worst. I don't know how Alex's mom survived both of us at the same time.

[beathach]

I don't know how anyone survives teenagers.

But then again I kind of - skipped over that part.

[takingkarabusiness]

What do you mean?

[beathach]

I was sort of - graduating college when I was a teenager. I was too busy with my studies to do any - er, normal teenager things.

[takingkarabusiness]

[ she laughs a little—it's good-natured, a little surprised, but mostly impressed ]

Wow. That's... that's incredible. Have you won a Nobel prize yet? You seem like someone who would win a Nobel prize.

[beathach]

[noooooo wow look at this wall over there, it's so interesting all of a sudden]

Thanks? And, uh - no, I'm relatively unknown in my field. Which - I'm perfectly okay with, especially considering I haven't done anything worth earning one.

[takingkarabusiness]

Well, that's clearly just a matter of time.

And here I was being a gawky teenager while you were getting a college degree.

[beathach]

Heh, we'll see.

[he huffs out an amused sound] Because genetics is so much more fun than being a gawky teenager.

[takingkarabusiness]

Actually, yes.

You know, when I first showed up, I was fascinated by birds. We never had them on Krypton. Poor Alex must've been so embarrassed by me.

[beathach]

[he glances over, quirking a smile]

Isn't that what siblings do, though? Embarrass each other?

[takingkarabusiness]

I think at the time I was just some really weird girl who'd shown up from space to steal her clothes and make her friends uncomfortable.

[beathach]

[he kind of winces a little]

Ouch. But it worked out though, right?

[takingkarabusiness]

Yeah, it did. She really is my sister, and I love her.

Do you have any siblings?

[beathach]

I'm glad.

[he shakes his head, then pauses thoughtfully] I have - I mean, Viva was like a little sister to me. Eveningstar, too. If you look at it that way, then I had a few. But in the McCoy family, I'm an only child.

[takingkarabusiness]

Same in the Zor-El family for me.

Found family is so important, though. And I'm not just saying that because I'm a space orphan.

[beathach]

It - yeah, it's really important. I'm still sort of getting - used to it? Erik and Charles are - they're family, but it's different with them, too. More . . . complicated, given our histories.

The found family thing started in Kyriakos for me. Teams were sort of like a second family.

[takingkarabusiness]

Yeah?

I still don't think I totally understand what that's about. The other worlds, and teams.

[beathach]

I could try to explain it better? But in all honesty, you're better off. And - really, talking to anyone who's been there, you'll hear something different.

Or - talking to anyone from one of those worlds. There's more than one - four, if I remember right. So far.

[takingkarabusiness]

Well, what if I want to hear about it because it's something you went through?

[beathach]

. . .

What do you want to know? Or - what can I - explain better?

[takingkarabusiness]

Maybe more about your team? Since they're so important.

[beathach]

Ah . . . let's see.

[he shifts to get a bit more comfortable, head tilting as he thinks about it] My team was Gulgallana. It's - hard to explain it as a whole, because people would come and go a lot, and we had all sorts of people. Some like me, with powers, or - others with magic of some kind. And - a lot of women. Us guys were always outnumbered.

We were close, but not in the same way other teams were. We depended on each other, but we were all pretty independent, too. If you wanted something - like new clothes, or something from home, or - whichever, you had to get a quest for it, and we all sort of did our own thing with that. But when it came to making decisions, we all were on the same page. It made the more difficult games easier.

[a long pause] And - then there was our patron. The - beings that ran the games, the Echoes? Some of them were in charge of a team, and ours was The Rotten - her real name was Katie. We sort of treated her as part of the team more than . . . just there to take care of us if she needed something. She was . . . er, fascinated by . . . romance. [yes that's a nice way to put it]

And just . . . we lived together. [he shrugs] And helped each other out. Especially when - some of us would get difficult memories back. It was a support network.

[takingkarabusiness]

[ she's going to scootch closer to him, actually folding her hand around his, now, as much as it will go ]

I know, objectively, it wasn't an ideal situation for anyone. But the way you describe it, it doesn't sound like a worst possible scenario. Support networks are important.