29 Chimera Court, Wednesday Morning

[firstofitskind]

When Liam had gone to sleep the night before, he'd been a child. He knew, on some level, that something had gone wrong, because his instructions from his father when he'd been born hadn't involved spending any time as a child, and yet there he was. He hadn't been overly concerned about it, in any case.

Still, when he woke up this morning and noticed that he seemed to be taller, his limbs longer... well. It was a relief.

Until he looked in the mirror and saw a face staring back at him that still seemed kind of childlike. Older, yes, but too young to infiltrate Companion Services and fulfill his destiny. That was... troubling. Perhaps human DNA interacted oddly with Kimera DNA? Liam had no idea, and it wasn't as if there was anyone around he could ask.

He figured he ought to just make the best of it, starting with finding some breakfast.

[ooc: open for housemates or anyone else! i'm off to work until afternoon so pings from me will be sloooow for a bit.]

Comments

[raspberryturk]

"I think at this point I'm half wonderin' how long it'll take for me to piss you off," Reno replied.

This was probably not actually the case. It was sometimes difficult to tell, with Reno.

[firstofitskind]

"... Really?" Liam looked at him, disbelief written all over his face.

[raspberryturk]

Reno blinked back at him, and then broke into a little cackle.

"Shit, kid," he said, shaking his head. "You take everything at face value like that? I might need to teach you how to know you're bein' fucked with to go right along with enjoying yourself from time to time."

He nodded at the pebble.

"Throw it. Just for the sake of throwin' it. Throw it for the burn you feel if you keep doin' it. Challenge yourself to hit a certain point on the rock, if that makes it more interestin' for you, yo. See how many you can fire off in under a minute. Hell, see if you can throw 'em faster than I can run and catch 'em."

[firstofitskind]

Not taking everything literally had taken him a few days to master the first time around, too.

"And if I don't want to?" he challenged.

[raspberryturk]

Reno tilted his head a little.

"Then you'll be doin' somethin' because it's what you want? That ain't bad, either," Reno noted. "But I'd love to see if you can hit that egg splatter with that pebble, yo. I don't think you can."

[firstofitskind]

Liam narrowed his eyes at that challenge. And yeah, maybe part of him suspected that Reno was just egging (heh) him on, and didn't really have expectations one way or another about whether he could hit that egg splatter.

But he threw the pebble, and hit the target.

Hah.

[raspberryturk]

Reno smiled faintly as the pebble bounced off the stone, and then nodded, conceding defeat. On that one.

"Not bad," he mused, "not bad. Think you can back up another ten meters and still pull that off?"

[firstofitskind]

Liam turned, mentally gauging where ten meters would place him, and then squinted back at the rock again.

"Sure."

Another pebble, another hit on the target.

[raspberryturk]

"You got quite the throwing arm," Reno said appreciatively, and then sauntered back a little, so they were less 'on the beach' and more 'standing on the side of the street.' "C'mon, try again. From here."

This time, he was just subtly shifting his weight, bracing himself in wait of another thrown rock.

[firstofitskind]

Well, he was a bit of an alien Mary Sue. But apparently not that much. Liam was pretty sure he wasn't going to hit the target from this far back.

"Yeah, I don't think so."

[raspberryturk]

"Try anyway," Reno suggested. "Challenge yourself."

He grinned a little.

"Maybe you'll hit, maybe you won't, but how the hell are you gonna know for sure if you never make the attempt?"

[firstofitskind]

"I'm not really going to lose any sleep at night about not knowing if I can hit a rock with another rock," Liam pointed out.

[raspberryturk]

"Okay," Reno said, "but you got any reason not to?"

[firstofitskind]

"It has nothing to do with my purpose for being here," Liam shrugged.

[raspberryturk]

"Rookie," Reno sighed, "you can't dedicate every wakin' hour to doin' the job. Sometimes you gotta wing it, too. Sometimes you gotta exist for you. S'what livin' is for."

[firstofitskind]

Well, that was why the adult-sized Liam was here in Fandom, as it happened. Finally living life for himself.

For this version of Liam, though... he was the culmination of an eons-long intergalactic power struggle, meant to fix a problem his own father had played a hand in creating all that time ago. It was hard to see beyond that.

"Maybe for other people," he conceded.

[raspberryturk]

Reno reached a hand out, aiming to poke Liam in the ribs.

"You ain't got any pressin' matters to attend to right this second, do you? They just unplug you from a wall and put you in storage when they're done usin' you like a toaster, kid?"

[firstofitskind]

"I'm not a robot," Liam said, dodging out of the way of that poke.

"And yes, actually, I do." Like figuring out why he'd stopped growing.

[raspberryturk]

"Then stop talkin' like one," Reno replied, shrugging. "So, tell me, what is it you gotta get done, then?"

[firstofitskind]

Okay, maybe he sounded a little robotic, but come on. He was three days old, and his growth had been interrupted somehow. He was trying to figure out how to person.

Liam eyed Reno critically. "I don't think you can help with that."

[raspberryturk]

Reno eyed him back.

"Try me."

[firstofitskind]

Liam bit his lip as he thought about what to say.

"This body," he said finally, quietly. "Is not... right."

He knew he was supposed to be an adult. Not in the sense that he knew he was an adult who had been transformed back in to a teenager, but that his instructions from his father had involved accelerating his growth until he was one. But something had interrupted that. Twice, now.

He also wasn't entirely sure why he was trusting Reno with this information, given how dangerous it could possibly be in the wrong hands. But here he was.

[raspberryturk]

Huh. Interesting.

"Supposed to be older, you mean?"

... Reno had no idea about the whole kimera thing. He was still keeping his head on the Fandom thing. Either way, the conversation seemed to be headed in that direction.

[firstofitskind]

"Yes," Liam nodded.

[raspberryturk]

Reno considered him for a long moment, looking him up and down. And then he shrugged.

"Tell you what," he replied. "I'll get on that for you. Gimme... Gimme a week, tops. If you ain't the way you're supposed to be by the end of that week, kick my ass if you gotta, I'll get off your case an' you can do what you need to do."

He figured a week had to be enough time.