firstofitskind | Spaceship Parking & Beyond, Sunday Afternoon

Spaceship Parking & Beyond, Sunday Afternoon

Liam had made plans with Kaidan and Verity to go on something of a joyride today, so he'd shown up at the junkyard early to give himself time to do an extra-thorough pre-flight check.

The virtual glass shimmered and became permeable as the shuttle recognized his biometrics, and he sat down in the pilot's seat and brought up the HUD.

ID core, optimal; conventional drive, optimal; weapons, optimal; communications, online; backup controls, online... everything seemed to be in working order. Now he just needed his passengers.

[ooc: for them what's mentioned!]

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"You'll probably have to scroll a bit more to find any pictures of Renee, actually." Liam admitted. "She likes to go through and delete the ones that don't meet her approval. ~~Because I couldn't find any that I liked while writing the previous ping on the bus ride home~~. Lili- I've known Lili my whole life, though." Literally. She'd been there when he was born. Not that he was going to elaborate while they had company, but Lili had been one of the people to basically teach him how to person.

"And her daughter?" Verity asked. "Hate to say it, but there's pretty much no contest about who the cutest girl on your phone is."

THOSE CHEEKS.

“Ariel,” Liam said. “You’d like her, I bet. She’s scrappy.”

"Good trait to have," Verity agreed. "So, did you send Lili pictures of your kids, back when we had 'em?"

"I did, actually. She was... concerned." Liam didn't elaborate on why, but Verity could probably guess.

"She didn't understand how I could have children that old and still look so young and beautiful?" Verity teased, because yes, she did know.

Liam nodded solemnly. "I tried to tell her you just had a really great skincare routine, but she didn't believe me."

"Joke's on her because I do," Verity said, tossing her hair over her shoulder. "A wadjet gave me the recipe. It makes her husband's scale soft and supple."

"Wadjet?" Liam echoed. "I... don't believe I know anything about them." He'd been doing some (okay, a lot of) reading lately, but there were still plenty of cryptids he'd never heard of.

Because there were a lot of them. Would be more but, well, Covenant.

"Snake-people," Verity explained. "From the Indian subcontinent. Males are giant cobras roughly the size of people, females are humanoid women that we thought up until, like, were human servants that they pair-bonded with. Except then Alex made a friend - I know, I'm shocked, too - and it turns out they're the wadjet versions of dragon princesses." Her eyes were sparkling with excitement. "Extreme sexual dimorphism! Though possibly without the parthenogenesis. He said it felt rude to ask."

"Yeah, I can see how that might be kind of an awkward conversation to have," Liam admitted.

"And wadjet are incredibly venomous," Verity said with a what-are-ya-gonna-do type nod. "So pissing them off is a really, really bad idea."

"'Get bitten by something incredibly venomous' is, surprisingly, not on my to-do list," Liam informed Verity solemnly. "Just in case you were wondering."

"Well," Verity pretended to huff. "See if I bring you to any Greater Gorgon celebrations."

Liam narrowed his eyes at her suspiciously. "... Seriously?" He was fairly sure she was kidding, but... you never knew.

"I'm teasing," Verity said, patting him. "Turning to stone when you look at a Greater Gorgon is a much bigger threat."

Not helping.

"Oh," Liam said. "Naturally. Of course."

"Also, avoid the cockatrices and basilisks," she added, with a gentle pat. "Sometimes they're kept as pets."

"I guess that does make a certain amount of sense," Liam mused thoughtfully.

"I hear tell it sucks to raise chickens and have them turn to stone on you because you're not paying attention," Verity said with an understanding shrug.

The more you knew!

"Unless your desired end result was some lifelike-looking chicken statues, I guess," Liam pointed out.

He very much doubted that would be the case.

"...And now I'm certain that, like, Pier One has a gorgon on their payroll somewhere making creepily realistic statuary," Verity said, making a face. "Can't unsee."

"Well," Liam said slowly. "Assuming some truth to the myths about gorgons," and yes, he might be relatively new to the cryptid world, but he'd figured out that myth didn't always reflect reality totally accurately, "Really, it's the gorgon who can't unsee something..." he pointed out.

Remember, Verity, his sense of humor was one of the things you found attractive about this man.

And, god help her, she was laughing.

Leaning in to kiss him and laughing. There was no hope for these two.

"I'm going to send that joke to Alex just as soon as we got back to Earth!"

"... Does Alex know about me? Us?" Liam couldn't help but wonder. Alex and Verity were close, he knew, but he didn't know if her romantic life had come up in their conversations.

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