Calvin (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
magicalworld) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
capeandcowllogs2013-06-11 01:06 pm
magicalworld) wrote in capeandcowllogs2013-06-11 01:06 pm
Give me a sense of wonder
WHO: Calvin and OPEN
WHERE: Outside the MAC, then at the Botanical Garden, then the Pie Hole.
WHEN: The day of Tuesday the 11th.
WARNINGS: None
SUMMARY: It’s summer! That means it’s time for Calvin to goof off and get in trouble all over the City.
FORMAT: Prose with multiple setups- specify which one is being used in the subject line of your reply!
A. Outside the M.A.C. (early afternoon)
Realistically, a child as young as Calvin really, really, really shouldn’t spend as much time running around the City unsupervised as he routinely does. However, a number of factors- including having superpowers, being a long-time resident of the City, and just not caring about practicality or safety- have led to Calvin spending his summer day zooming about alone, getting in trouble.
After a productive morning sleeping in, Calvin has flown to the front of the M.A.C. to once again try his hand at the excitement and reward of the business world. He is on the street just outside the front entrance, sitting on a red plastic bucket behind an overturned cardboard box serving as an improvised sales counter. Written on the front in sloppy black marker is the product and the price:
“GREAT IDEAS – 25 CENTS”
There is nothing that could possibly go wrong here at all ever.
B. Botanical Garden (later afternoon)
One of Calvin’s least favourite things about the City, other than being separated from Hobbes and his parents, is that it’s such a city. There’s concrete and pollution and too many people, and the parks always end up being attacked by monsters or robots for some reason.
As an alternative, Calvin is now visiting the Botanical Garden in the Bronx. It's quieter here. There's more solitude. Many of the plants and displays are beautiful. The jerks in the labs wouldn't let him inside to poke at their experiments, unfortunately, but it's still a great place. When he's surrounded by plants and cool air, Calvin can close his eyes for a moment and pretend he's back in the woods with Hobbes. When he opens them again, he might still be alone and in the City, but he's also smiling more.
C. Pie Hole (evening)
Now that Calvin is once again allowed within the Pie Hole’s hallowed halls, he is celebrating by absolutely stuffing his face. The Porter’s two hundred dollar weekly stipend might not be much for an adult, but for Calvin it has resulted in him having more disposable income than a six-year-old should ever be able to waste on pie.
At least Calvin is being a model customer right now. He’s not hurling any pie or pretending to be a Skrull or calling himself ‘Nivlac.’ Calvin is really grateful for Ned letting him back into the fold, and is trying to be on his best behaviour for the moment.
His table manners are still appalling, though.
WHERE: Outside the MAC, then at the Botanical Garden, then the Pie Hole.
WHEN: The day of Tuesday the 11th.
WARNINGS: None
SUMMARY: It’s summer! That means it’s time for Calvin to goof off and get in trouble all over the City.
FORMAT: Prose with multiple setups- specify which one is being used in the subject line of your reply!
A. Outside the M.A.C. (early afternoon)
Realistically, a child as young as Calvin really, really, really shouldn’t spend as much time running around the City unsupervised as he routinely does. However, a number of factors- including having superpowers, being a long-time resident of the City, and just not caring about practicality or safety- have led to Calvin spending his summer day zooming about alone, getting in trouble.
After a productive morning sleeping in, Calvin has flown to the front of the M.A.C. to once again try his hand at the excitement and reward of the business world. He is on the street just outside the front entrance, sitting on a red plastic bucket behind an overturned cardboard box serving as an improvised sales counter. Written on the front in sloppy black marker is the product and the price:
“GREAT IDEAS – 25 CENTS”
There is nothing that could possibly go wrong here at all ever.
B. Botanical Garden (later afternoon)
One of Calvin’s least favourite things about the City, other than being separated from Hobbes and his parents, is that it’s such a city. There’s concrete and pollution and too many people, and the parks always end up being attacked by monsters or robots for some reason.
As an alternative, Calvin is now visiting the Botanical Garden in the Bronx. It's quieter here. There's more solitude. Many of the plants and displays are beautiful. The jerks in the labs wouldn't let him inside to poke at their experiments, unfortunately, but it's still a great place. When he's surrounded by plants and cool air, Calvin can close his eyes for a moment and pretend he's back in the woods with Hobbes. When he opens them again, he might still be alone and in the City, but he's also smiling more.
C. Pie Hole (evening)
Now that Calvin is once again allowed within the Pie Hole’s hallowed halls, he is celebrating by absolutely stuffing his face. The Porter’s two hundred dollar weekly stipend might not be much for an adult, but for Calvin it has resulted in him having more disposable income than a six-year-old should ever be able to waste on pie.
At least Calvin is being a model customer right now. He’s not hurling any pie or pretending to be a Skrull or calling himself ‘Nivlac.’ Calvin is really grateful for Ned letting him back into the fold, and is trying to be on his best behaviour for the moment.
His table manners are still appalling, though.
A - /shows up late with starbucks
Standing in the vestibule, she's about to trigger her hologram when she notices Calvin through the doors. He hadn't been there when she'd gone in, and this she has got to see, so she heads out to the street without her high-tech disguise, the holo-emitter obvious and out of place strapped around her wrist. On an adult it would look like a very bulky wristwatch, maybe the kind of thing you could explain away as a glucose monitor. On Val, it takes up a good half of her forearm and and contrasts rather jarringly with her pink t-shirt and pigtails. She wraps both hands around the straps of her too-large backpack and goes up to Calvin.
"A quarter, huh?" He's definitely overcharging.
no subject
"For most people, yeah," he says. "But for you, it's a nickel. I have a sale on for customers who are obviously in dire need of my product."
He almost said it would be completely pro bono for her, but he kinda wants her nickel.
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"Oh, I've got to hear this." Val sets her backpack on the sidewalk and unzips one of the smaller pockets to produce a wallet with polka dots and a cartoon butterfly on it. She might have adult cognitive capability, but she certainly doesn't have adult taste.
She considers giving him five pennies, but decides that would be petty, and instead hands him a nickel from the change pocket. "Don't spend it all in one place."
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Calvin holds the coin gingerly away from him, wrinkling his nose. "Ugh. I'm going to have to decontaminate this before I spend it anywhere." With that, he holds up a little plastic sandwich baggie, drops it inside, and seals it in a hurry.
"All right," he says. "My great idea is to find a shrink ray, and zap that thing-" he points at the emitter eating up her forearm- "down to a better size. Whatever it is, it looks like it would be really inconvenient to run around in. You should make it smaller."
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"That's--" her brain catches up to her mouth quickly, because she's nothing if not intellectually honest, even if it involves admitting Calvin might not be totally useless, "--not the worst idea I've ever heard. With some minor modifications, Mr. Stark's lab setup could generate Pym particles, and having a production infrastructure in place could come in handy..." Val's not talking to Calvin anymore, eyes distant and mind entirely occupied by the details of how to make whatever "Pym particles" are.
"...But it'll have to wait until I've got the Skrull detectors up and running." And she's back.
no subject
"Sure, you could waste time messing around with all those boring particles," he says. "Or you could realize that you've got the City's leading expert on shrink rays-" he pauses for dramatic effect. "Right in front of you!"
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"Uh-huh." She puts her wallet back in her pack and zips it up. "Remind me never to go into business with you. I don't know if Aunt Jen has any experience litigating bankruptcies."
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In his world that's a fortune, okay.
Calvin folds his arms. "Look, do you want to use my shrink ray to fix your dumb bracelet or not?"
no subject
"I'll believe you have a shrink ray when I see it." Val's not skeptical about the possibility of shrink rays, merely about the possibility of Calvin being able to design and build one.
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He hops off the stool, ducks behind the box-counter, rummages in his bag for a moment. Then Calvin emerges holding what is very obviously a plastic toy dart gun with a couple lightning bolts drawn on it in marker. "Behold! Your bracelet issues are about to become minimized!"
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"Before I let you shoot anything with that, you're not a reality warper, are you?" She remembers how Franklin's cap gun turned into a real gun when he was angry at Norman Osborn for threatening them, and she really doesn't have time for a wacky Ant-Man-style adventure today.
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"Well, everyone keeps saying I've got a warped sense of reality..."
Of course he isn't actually a reality-warper. The proof is the City's continued existence as anything other than a mashup of a prehistoric jungle and the surface of Mars.
no subject
"Okay, let's see this 'shrink ray' of yours in action."
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Calvin injects the moment with as much drama as he can, waving his free arm while pointing the ray at the holo-emitter. He's better suited to showbiz than scientific research, but he doesn't seem to care.
He pulls the trigger. It clicks. Nothing happens. Calvin frowns and peers at the 'shrink ray', thunking the plastic with his palm a couple times as though it were an uncooperative engine.
"Hmmmm, that's strange. We could be witnessing an over-sensitivity problem in the ray's Cootie Compensator, reacting to your proximity. Try standing further away, will you?"
He is totally going to get smacked if he keeps this up.
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Val isn't bothering to hide her total lack of surprise. "That's a really elaborate setup for an 'eww, girls' joke. Maybe you should consider open mic night over science as a hobby."
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A certain tiger might beg to differ on that point right about now, if he was present, citing problems with duplicates and impromptu visits to the Cretaceous. But Hobbes isn't in this universe, and Calvin is free to indulge his ego without his usual foil around to deflate him.
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She wishes she were recording this. It's comedy gold.
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"Oh, here's your problem."
Pause for effect.
"This is a toy you drew on with a magic marker."
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"I used permanent marker! And that was just proper accessorizing to complement the intricate mechanisms lying within."
He grins the grin of the implacably egotistical.
"I guess my designs are just a bit too advanced for you to understand."
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"Your weirdness aside, size-changing is a pretty useful capacity to have, and since Dr. Pym isn't around, I might as well produce a reservoir of Pym particles. You can come see a lab test when it's up and running if you want." Let it never be said Valeria Richards is not magnanimous in victory.
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"Yeah?" He crosses his arms again. "Fine! I'll come see your stupid test. I'm looking forward to seeing how badly you mess everything up."
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"I'll be in touch."