15110/How Many Licks

How Many Licks
Date of Scene:	09 June 2023
Location:	Common Area - Milano
Synopsis:	Drax is researching what to do with his Earth money, and Mantis helps him while licking a zargnut.
Cast of Characters:	Drax, Mantis

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Drax has posed:
Is it day or night?  It's all relative to whether Drax has been paying attention to how a star is hitting the Milano, which he hasn't.  Instead he has a sack of zargnuts propped up in his lap as he hunches awkwardly over a tablet, poking at it with one giant pointed finger like it's a tiny animal while his other hand absently descends, presumably for zargnuts.

Next to Drax is his 'pillow' which is just a sack of Earth dollars that Quill once told him has no value since no one cares about Earth money.  He squints.  Poke poke.  Nothing happens.  Zargnut crunch.

Mantis has posed:
    How long has she been lurking? Like a statue, Mantis peeks out from behind the archway that leads to the Milano's common area. She's watching Drax, staring at him with her inky black eyes. She doesn't blink, though each time Drax crunches down on a zarg nut, Mantis' antennae twitch just a little bit. She slinks back behind the archway, presumably to head back to the Milano's cockpit. Presumably.

    Two antennae rise up from behind one of the chairs just behind Drax The Destroyer, followed by those black eyes. Mantis keeps getting closer. Closer. Closer. Now just over Drax's left shoulder, she tentatively reaches out, though she stops just before making contact.

    'Don't sneak up on people, Mantis!' she remembers being told. Right! Mantis retracts her hand and places them both against her midriff, each hand's fingers curled over the other. Mantis continues staring at Drax from this new vantage point, watching each zarg nut's path from the sack to his mouth. Crunch. Her antennae twitch. Zarg nuts. Oh, how she covets them! She mustn't sneak up on Drax, she knows it, but there's just only so much zarg nut action that one person can take.

    Mantis bends forward so her face is next to Drax's, allowing her an unrestricted view of the bag and its contents. She hovers there for a few moments before breaking the silence.

    "Drax, will you share your zarg nuts?" Mantis asks innocently.

Drax has posed:
A little spinny wheel shows up on the tablet screen, so Drax touches that too.  But it does nothing, so he touches it harder.  Then suddenly the screen bursts into life showing a kitten dressed up in a dress while playing piano.  "What is the Earther doing?!"  Drax exclaims in exasperation before succumbing to the horrific cuteness that is unfolding before him.  He is the perfect prey.

As every keen warrior is, of course he is perfectly aware of Mantis' presence...when she's right next to him.  "You are so scary."  A beat and a look of respect, "Of course I will share my zarg nuts.  Come, I am looking at what Earthers do with money, but somehow I have found video of these beasts."

Mantis has posed:
    Mantis' antennae droop when she's called scary. Is she scary? She doesn't have long to wonder about this, though, before Drax agrees to share his zarg nuts, a kindness that restores her antennae back to their normal posture.

    A large smile appears on Mantis' face. "I am so scary," she agrees before reaching into the bag for one of those precious zarg nuts. Better not question it, she decides. There's time for asking and time for snacking.

    "Oh, tell me what do they do with money?" Mantis eagerly asks in her awkward way of speaking. She doesn't give Drax time to respond before she brings a single zarg nut up to her mouth with two hands. Precious.

Drax has posed:
Drax treasures his zargnuts like anyone else who is sane in this universe or any other, but he still stares at Mantis without a word.  "Being scary is useful.  You shouldn't worry.  And I am not afraid of you," he assures her with a slight dip of his chin, because the great warrior knows these things.

"A lot of things I do not understand.  Some buy things for beasts.  Some jump out of planes.  But this one.  Is this a ship?"  Drax tries to go back to the one of some meglogajillionaire's backwoods complex more than a crib, garishly adorned in gold filigree as if someone picked it out of 'the catalogue' when  touring Versailles.  "What do you think we should do with this money?  I would get lots of meat but I think it would not be good for very long."  Apparently, he's never heard of beef jerky, but who would in this room?

Mantis has posed:
    Mantis holds the single zarg nut as carefully as one can, pinching it with both of her thumbs and forefingers. "Oh, you are very wise, Drax," Mantis answers. "So I will not worry." Her antennae twitch subtly as she uses the first person pronoun, a concept that was new to her when she first joined the Milano crew.

    Mantis' tongue darts out of her mouth twice in quick succession, allowing her a sample of the zarg nut's deliciousness.

    Mantis stares at the image on Drax's tablet, blinking her eyes twice. "If you do not understand, Drax, how will I understand?" Mantis wonders with a cheery tone. She asks this as a matter of fact, without even a hint of self-deprecation. Drax is wise and she is not, after all. Mantis' tongue double-taps the zarg nut again.

    The warrior's question about what he should do with his pillow of money confuses Mantis at first. Her antennae stiffen with curiosity. "You are asking me what you should do with your pictures of old men?" Mantis asks, totally unprepared for that. She isn't often asked for her opinion.

    Her tongue flickflicks against the zarg nut again.

Drax has posed:
Drax quietly looks away when Mantis eats.  It is too hideous to him, but he does not share this.  "I think we will just have to try things when we get there.  See what is good and what is bad," he explains sincerely, as if he has the wisdom of his years to tell him this.

"I want to try some different money for pillow.  Quill says credits feel like nothing.  I wonder if nothing is comfortable," Drax thinks aloud as if this were a perfectly natural line of thinking.  "But I have to spend this money first, so yes."

Mantis has posed:
    And Mantis, not knowing any better, hangs on to every word of Drax's wisdom. "Yes, yes, we will try things!" she agrees. Lick, lick. "Maybe we will even see the Elder Groot!" she suggests with some glee, recalling her brief encounter with the Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center when she was last on Terra. Lick lick, lick lick.

    But, what should Drax do with all those pictures of old men? All that money?

    "Maybe we should ask Peter?" Mantis suggests, accidentally finding a decent idea in her head.

    Licklick.

Drax has posed:
Drax grimaces openly, despite himself.  So much licking.  "Perhaps he knows what the pictures of old men would want," as if this could somehow bring them happiness, Drax and Mantis that is.  He's clearly decided she's as responsible for taking care of this money as he is now.

"Hmm."  Perhaps Peter will show them 'Blank Check' for research purposes.  One never knows.  "Yes.  But it cannot just be what Peter would do with the money.  We already see what he does with money."  It's not a loaded statement.  Just a fact.  Not that anyone is or is not rolling in dough on the Milano, as they say.  They don't say that.

"Here." Drax hands over the bag of zargnuts.  "You have made me no longer hungry."

Mantis has posed:
    If there was a prescribed number of times to lick the zarg nut before eating it, Mantis has finally reached that point. She places it into her mouth and *crunches* it, just like Drax. How proud he must be of her, she decides!

    "Yes, we will ask Peter what the old men would like you do to with them," Mantis affirms. She's been to Terra once before and, come to think of it, they did seem very focused on what they can do with the pictures of old men and, more importantly, how to get more of them.

    Whatever Mantis was going to say next gets absorbed by Drax handing her the bag of zarg nuts. She belts out a sudden, brief laugh as an expression of her unfettered glee. Mantis takes the offered bag with no shortage of enthusiasm.

    "I will now 'go be useful' like Gamora told me," Mantis announces, antennae perked. "I will scare her now that I know how to be useful. Thank you, Drax. You are a good friend." Mantis brings both hands together at her midriff and bows.

    Now armed with a mostly uneaten bag of zarg nuts and a mission, Mantis turns to go find Gamora...