14990/Beep Beep Beeper II: The Beepening

Beep Beep Beeper II: The Beepening
Date of Scene:	23 May 2023
Location:	22B - Tommy's Apartment
Synopsis:	Upon returning home from wa-- err, vacation, Tommy discovers he has a dino-son. His name is Beeper and he loves sweet corn.
Cast of Characters:	Bunny Macleod, Tommy Shepherd

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Bunny Macleod has posed:
    For someone who calls herself Bunny, the girl did go through an awful lot of plant material. Kale. Lettuce. Peapods. Raw corn on the cob. Timothy Hay.

    The last would be explained by an actual bunny, not just a girl who is nicknamed Bunny, because as far as anyone knows, Bunny doesn't actually eat hay, timothy or otherwise.

    She had absconded to the rooftop of the apartment building, picking the lock (Gabby showed her how), and had a blanket spread out (not from Tommy's bed), and was on her belly, watching with mild concern as what appears to be some sort of tiny, armored lizard with a club tail and a couple of bumpy head-spikes makes amused beeping sounds by rolling over some peeled corn cobs.

    "Beeper, you're not supposed to play with your food... but you are so friggin' cute doing it." she murmurs quietly, pink haired pulled back with a clip.

Tommy Shepherd has posed:
    Rolling back in from a long-haul delivery is always the worst. However much money Tommy makes always ends up being less than he expects because of the necessary food stops on the way home, since his tank just flat-out doesn't run on empty.

    But it's still a decent payout, enough that he splurges on some boba once he hits Brooklyn. There's several different teas, all in various pastel shades, within the bag he carries up the 22 flights of stairs to his apartment, and he's only mildly disappointed to find the place empty when he unlocks the door. The thing is, though, he spots a familiar pair of roller skates next to the door, so he knows Bunny's around.

    It's just a question of where?

    The rooftop is more Gabby's hangout place, but Tommy figures it's a good place to start, and when he finds the door unlocked he knows he's hit paydirt. "Yo Bun, you want taro or coconut also what the hell is that thing?" he asks as he stands in the doorway, half outside and half in. His eyes are, of course, focused on the lizard creature and not his girlfriend.

Bunny Macleod has posed:
    Bunny practically leaps outta her skin as Tommy's voice hits her as she squeaks out "COCONUTS!", pushing herself up and turning on one hand to Tommy, and then looking to Beeper, who blinks innocently. Look at him. He's so cute.

    "... uh... a corncob pile?" she asks, lacking a Smoothie to fufill the proper meme, and she purses her lips, eyes wide as a pair of cheap sunglasses slide down from her forehead to cover her eyes as if that would help alleviate the extremely obvious lie because *of course Tommy is going to ask about the tiny dinosaur*, which manages to roll back to its stomach, fully splut out with all four limbs to its side, and it looks up at Tommy.

    It beeps.

    "... congratulations, you're a dad!" Bunny throws her hands up in the air, and the little creature, the size of a football, beeps excitedly.

Tommy Shepherd has posed:
    There are a lotta thoughts flying through Tommy's head right now. A whole lot. Well, admittedly, most of them are just a sort of high-pitched screeching noise, like mental static. He, on auto-pilot, takes a slurping sip of his thai iced tea and chews through a few boba.

    "Uh huh," he replies to the, yes, obvious lie, his voice thick with disbelief. Dropping the d word, though, makes his eyes go wide and then narrow in suspicion. "Okay so you adopted some kinda lizard-looking thing."

    Mystery solved. Just call him Nancy Drew. I mean, don't, Tommy definitely wouldn't appreciate the reference, but if the shoe fits. He takes a few hesitant steps towards Bunny and the blanket, his gaze still locked on the beeping lizard. "Does it bite?"

Bunny Macleod has posed:
    "Actually I was semi-kidnapped -- don't look at me like that! -- and ended up in this big to-do where they were gonna sell a bunch of dinosaur things on the black market and this was supposed to be an *INERT* egg but it hatched and imprinted on me I guess so I hid him under my shirt after a goop-hero named Mania rescued me from a Chinese black market back-room at a big-ass mansion up North. It was a mess. There was a lot of screaming." Bunny replies, and she rubs the back of her neck a moment as she admits the story, and she scoops up the anky (with some difficulty, he's compact and heavy for his size!

    "He hasn't bitten anyone yet. This is Beeper. Beeper, this is Tommy. You gotta be nice to him." she reminds the little club-tailed creature, who looks up adoringly at Tommy, mouth wide as if gasping in surprise. Tommy! My god, of course, this is the guy his normal play area smells like!

Tommy Shepherd has posed:
    That's a whole lot of information to dump on someone at once, so it's a good thing that Tommy has that fast perception of his. Still, Bunny gets to witness his face go through a microcosm of expressions as she relays each event, until finally he just sighs and sets the bag of boba on the blanket.

    "Yo, Beeper," Tommy says, all casual... and then kind of stares at the dino.

    This continues for some time, at least from Tommy's view of things, before he finally offers up a hesitant hand (balled into a fist) for Beeper to, uh, maybe sniff? Honestly he's not sure.

Bunny Macleod has posed:
    Beeper sniffs at the fist, and then wriggles himself a bit forward and lays on a big, wet, slimey lick on the hand. You can almost see the little heart bubbles on his eyes.

    Bunny gives a squeak, and then reaches for a coconut boba as she gives a grin, setting Beeper down on the blanket. Beeper waddles to get a shucked corn cob, drags it over to Tommy, and proceeds to just sit there against him and happily nom the corn between the two.

    "How was work?" she asks, plucking a straw out to om nom nom on boba.

Tommy Shepherd has posed:
    Tommy's face can't seem to settle on "aww" or grossed out, so he does a weird sort of grimace at the lick and then awkwardly rubs his hand dry on his jeans before he sits down. He takes another sip, chews, and then shrugs one shoulder. "Terrible. Always is for the first couple of days after I come back from vacationing." Because that's how Tommy rolls: he works to save up money so he can spend a couple of weeks going out and doing things across the globe, before he has to come back and work again. It's the only thing that keeps him sane against the constant agony of his sped-up perception.

    He looks down at Beeper, nose wrinkling, but after a moment seems to accept the creature's presence against him. So he goes back to enjoying his boba. "How've things been with you and Gabs? Besides the, uh, kidnapping."

Bunny Macleod has posed:
    "Oh, things have been all right. Was kinda tracking some bank robberies, but Gabby doesn't want me going out and about and trying to stop crime without supevision -- on account of the kidnapping thing." Bunny gives a wry smile, and she sits up a bit. "Been doing less running around. Was thinking about going back to this dojo that I was studying at before I semi-demi-kinda-sorta-moved-onto-your-couch-part-time." Bunny gives a small smile. "Kinda making sure Beeper stays outta trouble has been taking up a lot of time. He tried to eat the TV power cord and I had to dive to grab him away before he could chew through the outer skin of it. I replaced the cord so that nothing could spark and start a fire." she admits.

    Beeper happily and messily noms of the sweet corn he's gotten a hold of, holding the cob down with one foot and attempting to scrape the kernals off.

Tommy Shepherd has posed:
    "Sounds like a good idea. Y'know... training stuff. If you wanna do super-shenanigans." The tone of voice Tommy uses for said super-shenanigans suggests he's not a fan, but he also doesn't get in the way of Gabby's do-goodingness, and it'll no doubt be the same for Bunny. He pulls a leg up against his chest and slings his arm over it, comfortably.

    At mention of the tv power cord, he shoots a look down at the dino, but then Tommy just shrugs again. It's a "whatever" shrug. Not something he's going to get worked up about, especially if Bunny is already handling it. "You should get him one of those baby playpens, put him in the corner." Yeah, sure. There's DEFINITELY room in Tommy's apartment for that (maybe with a little furniture rearranging).

Bunny Macleod has posed:
    "Nobody puts Baby in a corner!" Bunny states, sounding rather haughty, and she then bursts into giggles, because quoting an ancient film about dancing is funny.

    "Not gonna joke, one of the reasons I kinda wanna Get Good at the heroing thing is so that maybe I can contribute more. So that you don't have to deal with a weight-puller and the do-nothing girlfriend who is establishing a butt groove on the couch." she jokes, leaning back on the blanket.

    "I have a dog leash. With like, an extra big sport harness."

Tommy Shepherd has posed:
    The reference flies totally over Tommy's head. They're both too young for it, but Bunny is a connoisseur of media in comparison to him, so he just flat out doesn't get it. "Look, everyone has things they're good at. I don't have any expectations beyond you being you, and Gabby being Gabby, and me being me. Everything else is..."

    His expression shadows, mouth curling downwards into a frown. Tommy's upfront about who he is (and how he is, as a person) in this whole thing, which is to say: not particularly experienced at commitment. So he just says, "Everything else is whatever," and leaves it at that.

    Then he reaches to grab another corn cob, feeding it to Beeper. "Something tells me he's not going to fit in it for long, at the rate he's chowing down."

Bunny Macleod has posed:
    "Yeah, that's the other concern I have. Adult anky-saurs can be like, five feet long to 'small bus' sized. If he grows too fast he's not gonna fit in the apartment for long." Bunny replies, and there's worry in her voice. "I'm used to living in a crowd, but three's already a crowd and there's a lot going on without having a shipping truck that runs on corn and timothy hay around, y'know?" Bunny states quietly.

    Beeper sees the new corn cob, and immediately attempts to tackle it.

    He ends up on his back, against Tommy's leg, holding the corn cob in his forelegs and stripping the kernals off with his beak, making happy little beeping sounds.

Tommy Shepherd has posed:
    That's pretty cute. Even Tommy has to admit that, and it makes his face soften a little bit as he watches the dino eat while rolling around on his back. But then he looks away, because he's too cool to coo over cute animals.

    Yeah, right.

    "Well, I guess that just means you gotta enjoy his presence for as long as he's small, and then we find him a better place to live out his life so he can be a giant lizard monster and smash things in peace." He looks over at Bunny with his brow furrowed, clearly at least trying to commiserate with her over the temporal nature of Beeper's existence with them.

Bunny Macleod has posed:
    "I could always take up mercenary work and get some property upstate. Really rough it, no electricity or air conditioning, bathing in mid-winter in streams, running with the wolves..." Bunny gives a slight grin over to Tommy, knowing she couldn't live without AC for more than a couple days herself -- and then she reaches up and ruffles his head through his hat.

    "Good to have you home, Tommy."