Outwardly, Adam smiles and takes off at a slow clip. He doesn’t know how fast Keri can fly and too fast might seem like some cruel game.
Inwardly, however, the proverbial alarm klaxons are sounding.
“Jevo translates as-“
“I know what it means, Sol!” Adam interrupts. “You’ve kept whatever does translations on since I got my powers.”
“The Universal Translation Matrix_? __That is unusual, that function should not-_“ Sol starts to say, but stops midway though. “Adam, are you attempting to change the subject?”
Adam doesn’t respond, so Sol pushes. “Leo’s advice involved establishing boundaries. Subject-Keri-Super-Chica seems to assuming familiar relationships that you have not agreed to.”
“Things don’t always mean what they sound like.”
Sol is now silent, but Adam can feel his mind at work processing this. “This is True. Our experience with the Moon Pies prove this. Does this mean that you are not going to take this opportunity this establish boundaries?”
Adam quibbles for a moment, but an odd repetition in his thoughts—almost like an echo—reminds him that Sol knows exactly what he’s thinking about whether he “voices” it or not. “I’m just not jumping at every sign of trouble.”
“That behavior in the field would make you an ineffective Agent of the Concordance.”
“Do you want me to talk to you or Keri?” Sol’s silence affirms his answer.
Back out of his head, Adam notices that he’s picked up speed but Keri seems to have kept pace. This puts Memorial Park a couple of minutes away. As good a time as any for a story. Adam flies close to Keri so he can be heard and tells the story of his second big fight with the Menagerie.
“So like last month we got into this fight, the team and me, with Troll and Iconoclast. Well, I kind of let Troll get away from me for a minute and when finally I caught up to him he’d gotten off to Memorial Park. And he sort of ripped up a park bench to throw at me and made a mess of one of the walkways while Link and I were fighting him.”
Adam points forward towards the park. “The Public Works Department just started fixing it and I kind of felt bad because this just shouldn’t have gotten that bad,” Adam explains, careful to leave out the part where his dad is friends with a lot of those guys. While he did feel bad about letting the park get torn up, it’s a lot different when he knows that it’s Gerald, Eric, and the others who have to fix it. “I just sort of stop by and make sure they’re doing okay." Okay, he tells himself,_ that’s enough explanation. You can shut up now._
“You know, buy them coffee during their breaks.” Do not bring up the part about how the owner of the coffee shop says he gives you discounts because you stopped that park bench from flying through the window but you know _it’s because you draw attention when you come in. That’s going to sound creepy.
_“Yesterday I helped dig a hole.” Now you’re just rambling. “It’s a lot easier and quicker for me than auger with the… you know.” Don’t say ‘superpowers.’ Do not say ‘superpowers.’ "Superpowers.”
“This sounds really dumb, doesn’t it?” Adam asks timidly while shaking his head in short frustrated motion. He may not be an idiot like Sol assured him, but he certainly feels like one.
author: Mike
url: https://app.roll20.net/forum/permalink/6040806