7169/Geekery Extravaganza!

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Geekery Extravaganza!
Date of Scene: 01 August 2021
Location: Madison's Apartment -- Palm Tree Apartments
Synopsis: Greg sees his first movie! Irie spends time with a friend 'her own age!' The ancient secrets of miniature painting are shared! ...along with a few more unnerving secrets. How can one be 5, and -15, and 16 all at the same time? Weird.
Cast of Characters: Madison Evans, Irie West, Greg Rollins




Madison Evans has posed:
    Madison was finally at the point where she was inviting friends over to visit - much to the excitement of Madison's mother Gladys. Though the woman was usually quite strict about healthy food - for this occassion? She and Madison whipped up some popcorn with furikake mixed in, as well as a plate of chocolate chocolate chip cookies and - yes, a plate of fresh chopped veggies.
    Somethings will never change.
    Madison had finished putting everything on the table and pulling up her digital video library, trying to guess that movies Irie liked best. Some of the newer sci-fi stuff? Or was she into classics? It was hard to tell sometimes... Hrm.

Irie West has posed:
When invited over to Madison's apartment, Irie was overjoyed. This is the first time she had a friend invite her over! Exciting! She never really had any friends in the future. She was too busy doing superhero stuff with her dad, and that with the whole rapid aging thing it was hard to have a stable friendship of peers when you're suddenly five years older than them.

So when Irie comes over it's exactly on the dot for when she's supposed to arrive. She knocks on the door, and when it's open she's got two grocery bags filled with snack food. Chips, dip, various crackers and cookies. "Hi!" she calls out, "I brought snacks!"

Madison Evans has posed:
    More snacks! Yes! "Irie, come in!" Madison says brightly, gesturing her friend inside. "Mom, this is Irie. Irie, this is my mom. She said she has stuff to work on on her laptop so we're gonna have the apartment all to ourselves," she explains eagerly, as her mom steps forward to take one of Irie's bags. It's only from a stern look from her mother that Maddie goes, "Oh!" and hurries forward to take the other.
    "Irie - welcome to our home. Please make yourself comfortable. We have some juice, milk, and water in the fridge. You're welcome to help yourself."

Greg Rollins has posed:
The odd part is that outside of the building, and wandering the halls? There's Greg. He's looking at a piece of paper, probably something he scribbled in a notebook or something from school. And wandering around the hallways.

The alien teen's kinda just moving around. And he finally finds the right apartment apparently as he hears voices that sound familiar! He moves that direction, then blinks a few times. "Irie?" He asks, then pauses and apparently is wondering if he should be there or not now.

Irie West has posed:
Irie hears her name and looks back over her shoulder before the door closes to spy Greg. "Greg!" She shouts, and zips out into the hallway to drag him inside. "I found a Greg! Can we keep him?"

Then, remembering her manners she turns to Madison's mother and says, "It's good to meet you Ms. Evans," in a very polite and proper tone, like she had rehearsed this countless times to get it just right.

Irie's eyes light up at the mention of juice. "Juice! What kind?" She's already in the kitchen looking at the selection of beverages. "OMG cranberry apple! My favorite! Where are the cups. Oh! And what are we going to be doing today?"

Madison Evans has posed:
    Madison's mother is momentarily agog at this flurry of activity - and she's used to a lot. She's //Madison's// mother. But Madison just beams at her brightly, and Gladys has no choice but the shrug it off. This is what she brought Madison to Happy Harbor for - wasn't it?
    "Of course we're keeping him! If he wants to stay. Hi Greg! Greg, this my mom. Mom, this is Greg."
    "Well, it's nice to meet you as well, Greg. I hope you both make yourselves comfortable. I'm glad to see Maddie's making so many friends at school." She smiles at the trio. "But if you'll excuse me, I have some emails to write... Don't burn the house down."
    "Yeeeeeees mooooom," Madison drawls out, before turning back to her friends with a grin. "The glasses are in that cupboard there, Irie! And - well. I dunno. I've got board games! Or you can try painting miniatures, if you've ever wanted to try that. Or we could put on a movie. Or- well. I mean, we could always just have a movie on in the background. I do that a lot when I'm home."

Greg Rollins has posed:
That has Greg blinking a few times. Did he just get dragged in by a speedster? Yep! And then he looks at what happened, then to Gladys, "Hello, Ms. Evans. It is nice to meet you." He looks at Irie and Madison, "Um..."

Apparently embarassed, he finally confesses, "I... do not know what to do in this situation? I was coming to see if I could visit since the whole... alien thing means I should stay low, but well..."

Yep, one confused boy stuck with two girls.

Irie West has posed:
Irie finds the glasses and pours herself a glass. "YUS! JUICE!" She makes her way back around the island to where Madison and Greg are and thinks about her options. "I've never played a board game before, and I never painted miniatures before. We could do either. Or both!" She nods as this sounds like a good idea. "We should do both."

Irie chucks Greg on the shoulder. "You have fun, that's what you do!" She makes her way to the kitchen table and starts pulling out all of her snacks. There's... quite a lot. But she's a speedster so it'll be a miracle if there's any left over by the time she's done. "Any of you want something? I'm breaking out the bean dip."

Madison Evans has posed:
    "I love bean dip!" Madison exclaims brightly as her mother retreats from the room. No doubt she'd be hearing it later about healthy eating choices. But for now - she's going to enjoy. "And Irie's right, Greg. We just have fun. Have you tried board games before? Or painted miniatures? I suppose we could do both - but you have to be careful not to get the paints on the game, okay?" While she's talking - she walks into the kitchen, pulling down plates so they can pile them up with snacks.
    "Oh. And try not to get food on the game pieces, either. We have a big stack of napkins to use." She also adds some utensils - so they can scoop the dips onto their plates.

Greg Rollins has posed:
"Bean dip? I have not tried that before." Greg definitely hasn't tried a lot of things.

The question on if he has tried any board games or painted miniatures has him looking at the two confused. "I... have not tried either. Nor watched movies before." He admits.

Irie West has posed:
Irie sits down, taking a plate and loading it up with snacky type stuff. She even puts some veggies on it! Not many, but they're there! "Okay. I'll be careful," she promises Madison to make sure she keeps the games, food, and minis separate, though it /is/ tempting to paint a smiley face on a tortilla chip.

She gasps in horror at Greg. "You've never watched a /movie/!?" She looks over to the hostess, "Madison. We /have/ to fix this."

Madison Evans has posed:
    "I've been meaning to show him Star Wars," Madison convides. "But I don't think we should be playing board games and painting minis while we do that! We need to, you know, really focus on the movie so he can enjoy it properly."
    She looks between the other two before asking, "Should we watch Star Wars and enjoy snacks? Then we can talk about the movie while we play a game or something!"

Greg Rollins has posed:
Greg looks unconvinced on what they should be doing, then shrugs, "Um... I guess watching movies first?" He looks at the two curiously, "I mean, what are these movies anyways?"

He does grab a plate and something to drink. Even nibbling on the vegetables as if trying to figure out what they are.

Irie West has posed:
Oh boy! She gets to explain what a movie is. She hurries over to the couch with her plate of yummies and plunks down on it. "Movies are like recorded plays," She cranes her neck around to see Greg and asks, "Do you know what a play is? Anyway. It's like that but better."

She turns back around and says to Madison, "Should we really show him Star Wars first? I mean he's got his own spaceship and everything. He might get confused." She sets the plate down on the coffee table and stands back up to peruse the DVD selection. "Got a comedy? That might be a better thing to show him."

Madison Evans has posed:
    "Comedy movies?" Madison says in a thoughtful voice. "I mean - Holy Grail." Who needs to bother with the full title? Everyone knows what 'Holy Grail' is! "And 'What We Do in the Shadows.' Or, I mean, a bunch of animated stuff. You know, your typical Disney and Pixar fair. Or... Ghostbusters? Or Groundhog Day?"
    She looks at Greg for a moment, then back to Irie. "Will the humor translate, though? I mean - I guess there's only one way to find out..." She has her own plate in hand, though she sets it aside so she can start pulling up some of the digital movie selections.

Greg Rollins has posed:
Greg looks between the two, then shrugs and moves to where he can sit down. "I do not know. Some Earth humor I have managed to get, others... are odd? Perhaps it is a bit of a culture thing?"

Still, he definitely looks curious at the movie titles. "Recorded plays. Those were fun, but how will you get the emotional response across?"

Irie West has posed:
"Well, when they're first released, you all watch it in a theater that can hold a bunch of people," Irie explains. "But then later you can buy a copy of it to watch at home so you can experience it again!" She turns to Greg and grins, "Besides! You've got us here. We'll be having emotional responses, too!"

She goes back to browsing the titles. "Hm," she says thoughtfully. "Groundhog Day might be the best choice. I think we can all relate to being stuck in a time loop," says the Speed Force conduit.

Madison Evans has posed:
    Groundhog Day it is," Madison agrees brightly, cuing up the movie and hitting play. She drops into a seat on the couch, then explains quickly for Greg, "There's an animal called a groundhog in America - and somehow we got this silly tradition that if the groundhog comes out, and sees his shadow, we'll have more winter. But if he doesn't - then spring is coming. It always seemed backwards to me that sunny weather means more winter, and cloudy weather means spring is here. But anyways. The guy in the movie is a reporter going to see what the groundhog does on Goundhog Day."
    She falls silent then - so they can all enjoy the movie. Well - other than popping back to her feet briefly to make sure they have the entire bowl of popcorn close to hand.

Greg Rollins has posed:
Greg looks confused throughout the start of the movie. Blinking a few times, he looks to the two. "So... he is stuck in a time loop? That is... both sad and concerning." He looks back at the movie, munching on the vegetable snacks more than anything.

And he seems to be trying to figure out what it is that he's watching more or less.

Irie West has posed:
Irie settles into the couch, already stuffing her face full of snacks. "This is a classic," she says. "I can't believe they ever made a sequel." From then on she's quiet, watching the movie. She laughs at the funny spots like you're supposed to, and goes 'Awww!' at the heartwarming spots, and all in all has a good time.

When the movie is over she turns to Greg and asks, "So. What did you think? Pretty neat, hunh?"

Madison Evans has posed:
    Madison has spent almost as much time watching Greg as she had watching the movie. After all - she knew the story. She was much more curious to know what he thought of that particular medium of entertainment. "Don't you have anything like that back at your home?" she asks in a curious tone. "I love movies. I mean - there's a lot of bad ones. But there's great ones too!" There's a momentary pause before asking, "Are time loops a real thing?"

Greg Rollins has posed:
Greg looks at the screen, then blinks. "So, this taught a lesson in a way, but also was funny because of what the man did while stuck in the time loop?"

He considers, then looks at the two, "I think time loops may be real, but they require some incredibly crazy circumstances to even have one happen. I am not ever going to try it, as the only way I can think of would require using a faster than light drive and those like to explode if you are not using them to just go fast."

About that time there is a chiming ringtone from his pocket. Greg blinks, "Huh... excuse me. DEO, so I need to take this."

He gets up and moves out of the way, answering the phone, "Hello? Yes, it's Gex." Then he gets quieter, then sighs and looks over at the two, "This could take a while. Apparently they filed a license wrong or something and are trying to correct it."

Irie West has posed:
Irie nods enthusiastically at Greg. "Exactly! You got it!" and then he suddenly has a call that he has to take care of. "Okay! Don't let them work you too hard!"

She looks thoughtful for a moment as she considers Madison's question. "I suppose it's possible. When I..." she pauses, biting her lip. "Okay. Can you keep a secret? I've got something important to share."

Madison Evans has posed:
    "I hope it gets sorted out!" Madison calls after Greg. She'll have to ask him about faster-than-light stuff later.
    Her attention returns to Irie - her expression suddenly going more solemn - while remaining curious. "I am keeping all //sorts// of secrets right now. You can absolutely trust me - //honest//." She picks up her sparkling water for a sip - then holds it cupped in both hands.

Irie West has posed:
"Okay. Get this." She looks about her to make sure that nobody's listening, even though they're the only two people in the room. Still she leans close and lowers her voice to a whisper just in case. "I'm from the future."

Madison Evans has posed:
    Madison blinks in surprise, and honest to goodness - looks around as well before she replies. "You are?" she asks. "Really? Like - how far in the future? A hundred years? A thousand? Do I become a famous Jedi Warrior and protect all of humanity? Or - umm - are you not allowed to tell me about my future?
    "Wait. If you're from the future - why'd you come back?"

Irie West has posed:
"Not that far," Irie admits. "Just twenty years. I can't tell you anything about yourself because it may change your destiny, and I don't want to do anything that would upset the timeline." She scowls, "It's bad enough that I've gone and met my father 15 years before he had me. It's really tough knowing a bunch of things and not being able to talk about it."

Her scowl pulls deeper when asked why she came back. "It was an accident. I had just gotten full connection to the Speed Force and we were testing out my abilities and things kind of went haywire. I got stuck in the Speed Force for..." she shakes her head. "I don't know how long. It could have been minutes. It could have been decades. Time is all /bendy/ in there. When I finally found an anchor I could use to pull myself back I ended up in the past."

Madison Evans has posed:
    "...oh," Madison replies - looking a little guilty for a moment. "I- well. I won't ask anymore, then. I'm sorry, I didn't realize." Of course - it's still there all over her face. That curiosity. She is //dying// to ask - but she doesn't dare.
    "What's the 'Speed Force' exactly?" she asks instead, latching onto what she hopes is a safe topic. "That's what helps you go all..." she gestures with her hands, "ZIP! ZOOM!"

Irie West has posed:
Irie rubs the back of her head as she thinks about how to explain what the speed force is. "It's a kind of an energy and dimension all rolled up into one. It's a... a fundamental force of the universe that makes things /go/." She shakes her head. "Nobody really understands how it works. All we know, really, that there are some people who are conduits to it and tap into it in order to go really fast. It does all sorts of things like make you frictionless and bend relativity and stuff like that."

"One of the things that I can do is use it to phase through things by vibrating my molecules /just so/. I was able to do that before I was able to do anything else." A sly grin slowly spreads across her face, "Wanna give it a try?"

Madison Evans has posed:
    "Umm... sure," Madison agrees - though she seems puzzled by the offer. "Give it a try... how? Are you going to like... phase through me? Like you're a ghost or something? Because - well. Not going to lie, but that's pretty cool."

Irie West has posed:
"I could," Irie says, standing up and holding out her hand. "But I was thinking of phasing you through the wall and into your bedroom." She makes a little come hither motion with her fingers, "Wanna give it a try?"

Madison Evans has posed:
    "Yes yes yes yes yes!" Madison is on her feet in an instant - her hand slipping into Irie's. There was just enough speed to that reaction that one might think Madison was herself influenced by the speed force in some small way.
    Of course, that was not how her own gift worked.

Irie West has posed:
Irie leads Madison up to the wall that borders the living room and her bedroom. "Ready?" she says with a grin, and when ready she starts. Then she begins. The feeling is like a full body buzzing, it's slight but noticeable and your vision goes a bit blurry. Arcs of what looks like lightning spark out from their bodies, but does no damage to anything it touches. "Here we go!" And then she steps through the wall, leading Madison behind her.

The physical act of walking through a wall is interesting. At first your body would balk, instinctually wanting to stop because, duh, you're about to walk right into a wall. But when phasing through another physical body, there's a bit of resistance and the buzzing gets slightly more pronounced. And then there's what you see when you pass through the wall itself. It's like there's a field around you that shows what's about an inch in front of your face and it's /weird/ seeing drywall and support beams through all that.

And then they pop out the other side. Irie adjusts Madison so she's not standing in the middle of her bed when Irie drops the Speed Force powered vibrating.

"Neat, hunh?"

Madison Evans has posed:
    "That... was... //awesome//!" Madison exclaims excitedly - literally jumping into the air in her excitement, and beaming at Irie. "Right- wow! //Right// through the wall! I mean, gosh, I wouldn't even need my lightsaber to cut through things! You could just walk us through, and we could really surprise the baddies!"
    Pause.
    "Not that I'm a crime fighter or anything, mom! Just a hypothetical!" She lets out a sigh - coming down from her high a little bit. "Mom really doesn't like the idea of me doing any super hero-ing," she explains.
    "Hey, should I show you something neat in return?" she asks - pulling a phone out of her pocket.

Irie West has posed:
Irie has this huge grin on her face and claps in excitement as Madison jumps around. "Yeah," she says when the excitement gets toned down. "Most parents don't. I got lucky that my dad decided to take us superheroing when we were kids, so it's all kind of normal to me. This," she waves a hand in the air, "you know, going over to a friends house, watching movies and playing games and all that /normal/ stuff I never did."

Irie nods enthusiastically and crowds around Madison looking at the phone. "Lemme see!"

Madison Evans has posed:
    "I was sitting in the park - Central Park - and I got like... jumped. By this guy. Not, like, attacked or anything. He's nice, just- look!" Madison pulles up a picture a large... mountain lion man. She shows it to Irie while explaining, "My mom doesn't know. He seems nice - and he's intelligent. At least, he understands a lot of English. But he can't speak. Me and Spider-man are trying to make sure he's safe and sheltered while we figure out a way to communicate with him properly. His name's Alderic. At least, his collar says so, and he noded when I called him that."

Irie West has posed:
"Oooooh! Irie says. "Kitty!" Her eyes roam the picture and a question bubbles out from her, "Did you get to pet him? There's a mouse girl at the Titans Tower, but she won't let me pet her. There's also a centaur there and he /did/ let me brush him, but he wouldn't let me braid his tail, and then there's Gar who could be /any animal on earth/ and he'll let me pet him."

She looks over at Madison with wide, pleading eyes. "Please tell me you can pet the cat man."

Madison Evans has posed:
    "Oh, gosh, he //loves// it when you pet him. You just got to feed him hot dogs first - or, I mean, any sort of meat I think - and then you're friends. Oh, and if you tell him you know Madison, I'm sure that helps, too. He knows my name." A thoughtful look crosses her features before she adds, "Well, I think he does. It's hard to know what he knows sometimes since, you know, he can't talk or anything. We really have to figure out a why to fix that. The best idea I came up with was these picture ports a monkey used to communicate. Point at different symbols to make sentences. 'Madison go park. Go park eat hot dog' or whatever. Not perfect, but..."

Irie West has posed:
"Yus!" Irie crows triumphantly with a fistpump. "I'm gonna go pet the kitty man!" She blinks, "I mean, not right now. Right now I'm here with /you/ and you're going to show me these games and miniatures and everything. I just might do it tomorrow."

She looks thoughtful at the conundrum of how do you get a cat to talk. "Well, if he's got, like, hands then he could do sign language? I don't know it off the top of my head but I'm sure we can find /somebody/ fluent in it that can teach him."

Madison Evans has posed:
    "And Spidey did say that his head set thingy can translate sign language in real time... Which is pretty cool. So, yeah, I guess we might try teaching him that. But a few pictures to start off with might help. Where he can point to food, or people, or whatever."
    Madison moves over to her desk - dropping into her chair, and beaming at Irie. "Anyways. You might be able to find him at the park - or, well, I think I'd have to ask Spidey before I took anyone to, umm... the... 'safe house' we led him to earlier. Because that's not really my secret to tell you knnow?" As she talks, she pulls out a few of her minis - peering at them as she tries to remember what she had planned next for finishing them off.

Irie West has posed:
Irie goes to sit down on the bed, the only other place where one /can/ sit unless you want to sit on the floor. "It's cool you're friends with Spider-Man, though. I've met a lot of heroes, but he's one that I haven't met yet." She nods her head, "Yeah, I understand about the safe house thing. It's not a safe house if everybody knows about it."

When Madison picks up her minis that piques Irie's interest. "Ooh! What have you got there?"

Madison Evans has posed:
    "I met him in Manhattan, and he took me to White Castle for the first time!" Madison explains with a giggle. "He's really very nice. He's, umm, offered to show me a few things. You know? ... just don't tell my mom."
    Her attention shifts back to what she has in her hands, before she holds one of the figures out towards Irie. "Oh, these are just some Imperial Assault minis. I'm working on the Nexu because - well, because of Alderic, actually," she explains with amusement. One of the minis has been painted cream, the other tan. "I've only barely started them. I thought I'd give one stripes - I might try giving the other spots. And of course I have to do their eyes, and teeth, and claws - there's a little of little niggly details you have to work on."

Irie West has posed:
Irie shakes her head, puts a hand on her heart and holds the other one up. "I swear I will not tell your mother." She looks back and forth slyly before whispering, "If you ever need to get home real quick, call me and I can speed run you there."

"You paint these, right?" she asks, looking over Madison's shoulder. "They're so tiny!"

Madison Evans has posed:
    
    "Yeah?" Madison asks quietly. "Oh, Irie, that would be the //best//. Though - umm... I might be learning how to drive a motorcycle soon. B ut that's - erm. Another secret, you know?"
    As for painting - she nods her head eagerly. "Yup," she confirms before she slides a case from under her bed, and unzips it to reveal layers of foam compartments, filled with painted - and unpainted minis. "Here's some that I finished. You know, like Leia here, and Luke, and- well. I tried to do Vader, but I didn't realize how hard it was to paint an all black figure and not have it look just... well. Flat. So I may have to strip the paint of him and try again another time." She lets out a quietly frustrated sigh. "And here's my Jabba mini though I think I'm proudest of..." Reaching for a shelf she pulls down her largest 'mini' of all. "This is my //rancor//," she says with obvious satisfaction.
    

Irie West has posed:
"A motorcycle?" Irie asks in surprise. "How are you going to keep that from your mom? Who's going to be teaching you?" She looks around and hunches over with Madison, "How are going to be able to keep the fact that you bought a motorcycle a secret from your mom?"

The miniatures, however, grab her attention. "Oooooo!" she says appreciatively. She tentatively reaches out to take one, looking at Madison to see if it's okay. Once consent is given, Irie turns one of the panted minis around in her hand, looking at it at every angle. "This is so cool! You did a really good job!"

Madison Evans has posed:
    "I- well. I think I'm going to be riding my teacher's motorcycle," Madison answers, though - damnit. That is a good question. She can't buy a motorcycle - she doesn't have //that// much money. Huh.
    She's still pondering that until Irie's praise pulls her attention back to the present. "Oh. Oh, thanks! I'm glad you like it. It takes a really long time to paint them - if I'm being honest. I can spend an hour or two on each one. I'm terrified to try painting the Sabine Wren mini. It's going to be impossible, and it's gonna take //forever//."

Irie West has posed:
"An hour or two?" To Ire that's, like, /forever/. She looks curious, though. "What's the Sabine Wren?" She, clearly, isn't as deeply vested in Star Wars lore as Madison is.

Madison Evans has posed:
    "She's a mandalorian character who likes to spray paint her armor, and she has gradiated hair tones. Here, let me..." Madison searching on her phone really quick before pulling up some images from the show to share. "I mean, like- there's an owl on her shoulder there, right? How am I going to paint that owl - but make it only //this big//?" she asks - holding her fingers mere milimeters apparent.
    "I mean, the other minis aren't this hard. That's just.... Sabine."

Irie West has posed:
Irie takes a look at the Sabine on the phone, then at the Sabine mini. Back to the phone, and then back to the mini. "Wow. That's a lot of detail, and a lot of nooks and crannies to paint," she says. She squints for a bit before suggesting, "You're going to need a teeny tiny little brush for that."

Madison Evans has posed:
    "Oh, I have a tiny brush!" Maddie says brightly. "It's called the Psycho." She pulls out the tiny brush in question from a rack - showing it to Irie before adding, "the problem with this brush is though.... You have to paint //so// fast. Because sometimes the paint dries on the brush before you can even get it to the mini. Seriously. It's... hard to use a brush this small."

Irie West has posed:
"Oh wow," Irie says in appreciation of exactly how small that paintbrush is. "It /is/ a tiny brush." Her eyes roam around the room before asking, "Is there something I can try to paint?"

Madison Evans has posed:
    "Yeah, absolutely!" Madison says brightly. "Umm... How about a wookie warrior?" she suggests. "The thing with a furred mini - you think they're going to be trick with all that detail, yeah? But no! You get a solid coat of paint on, and then you brush it with a 'wash.' That's a thinner paint that seeps like water into all the cracks, and creates shadows immediately. And suddenly it goes from looking flat to amazing - it's easy. You'll see."
    After digging through her unpainted minis, she manages to find two wookies, and uses some blue-tack to stick them onto wine corks. "You hold the cork - it makes everything easier. I'll just go grab a chair from the living room, yeah?"
    With the second chair in place - and her wet pallet open and set up, Maddie helps Irie dig through her box of paints looking for the right colors.

Irie West has posed:
Irie sits in the chair and scooches it up to the desk to be handed the minis, which she curiously turns over in her hands. "Neat," she says. When Madison starts digging around with her colors she leans over to look. "Wow. You have a lot of different paints."

Madison Evans has posed:
    "You have no idea. You just buy them a couple at a time, though. Or if you're lucky - you can get a starter set of paints on sale because the box was damaged or whatever." Once Madison has the paints squirted out she adds, "Okay, one of the keys when you're working on details? Is to steady your hands. Okay? So when you're like... just painting all the fur brown, it doesn't matter. But if you want to do his eyes, or his mouth? Put your elbows on the desk, and press the heels of your hands together, okay? Like this." She demonstrates the posture, with the mini in her left hand, and her paint brush in her right. "See how that gives you better control?"

Irie West has posed:
Iris watches Madison intently as she demonstrates how to properly paint, but looks rather worried. "Steady?" she asks with stress in her voice, "Uh. Speedsters aren't really known for their steadiness. We're more... you know... /zoom/." Still she tries out the posture and finds that she's steadier than she imagined she could be.

Madison Evans has posed:
    "See? Anyone can do it easy peasy. I mean, I even know a guy with tremors in his hands who paints. Partly for fun, partly for therapy. He has a way he wraps a rubberband around his fingers which he says makes him even steadier," Madison explains brightly, before she starts to paint - dipping her brush in the water, before getting some paint.
    "Oh, umm, and try to keep your paint at the tip of the brush. If you get paint in the metal shank it ruins the brushes and I have to buy new ones."

Irie West has posed:
"Wow. That's cool," Irie says. "If he can do it, I can do it!" Now it's time to start! Irie sticks out her tongue in concentration as she mimics Madison, by wetting her brush with water, first, and then veeeeeeery carefully getting paint on just the tip of the brush. Maybe a bit too careful because there's hardly any paint on it. Squinting, she makes a couple of strokes on the wookiee before the brush runs out of paint. Delicately, she dips the brush into the paint and does it again.

Madison Evans has posed:
    "See? Easy peasy!" Madison says brightly. "And like I said - don't worry if you think it doesn't look as good as the finished minis. I'm telling you - the wash is //magic// in a bottle." There's an easy, relaxed smile on her features as she adds, "Gosh - it's nice to have someone to talk to while I'm painting again. Me and Emma used to do this together a lot. I mean - well, sometimes we do a video call and paint together? But it's not the same, you know?"

Irie West has posed:
Irie gets some more of the wookiee done and nods. "Yeah! This is pretty cool." She concentrates on another couple of strokes of the brush, "I've never really had a friend my age," she admits. "But then again, I'm only five years old. Or negative fifteen, depending on how you count." Her tongue comes out again as she dips her brush in the paint and continues. "So I don't know if you're really 'my age' or not."

"It's just nice doing something /normal/ for a change," she says. "I used to hate it. I wanted to do everything fast because I could, because really that's all I knew." Sounding melancholy she continues, "I love my parents and everything, but I don't really have a lot of time, so my dad tried to keep everything exciting for us so we could enjoy what time we had."

Madison Evans has posed:
    "Uhh..." Madison tries to do math in her head - and gets very, very confused. "But like... biologically how old are you? Like, if a doctor looked at you? Didn't you, umm, live all those years? Even if you did it like... non-linearly?" Is that a word? Is that the //right// word? Well, damnit, it's the word she's using.
    "And what do you mean - you don't really have a lot of time? I mean - my mom can be pretty busy... but she likes to cook, so we cook together sometimes, umm, you know. To spend time together. I mean, she's not perfect or anything. ...but at least she cares," she adds the last bit in a quiet mutter under her breath.

Irie West has posed:
Irie is silent for a while before setting down her brush. "Biologically? This body is 16. Maybe 17. I have no way to tell. But I was born five years ago." She grimaces and pinches her nose, "No, that's not right. Time travel messes everything up. I was born fifteen years from now, and five years from then I came back to five months ago." She slumps in her seat, letting her head dangle over the back and groans, "Ugggghhh. See what I mean? You're probably even /more/ confused now."

She's silent for a moment before continuing. "There was an accident when my mother was pregnant with us." She rolls her head against the back of the chair until she's looking at Madison. "Us being me and my twin brother Jae. There was an accident and we kind of gestated in the speed force itself. My mother was pregnant with us for all of thirty minutes before giving birth." She rolls her head back until she's staring at the ceiling. "So because of that my aging comes in bursts. I was an infant for less than a year. A toddler for not much more than that. The longest I've been an age was when I was, I don't know. Maybe 7(?) physically. That lasted three years. And then I aged up to a teenager, like, 10 months ago."

"So who knows when another age up is going to happen? As far as I know, tomorrow I could be physically 25. A year from now 40. Two years? 75. So I don't know how long I've got, but I know it's going to be a lot less than everybody else, so I just try to make the most of it and have the most fun.

Madison Evans has posed:
    "...gosh," Madison responds quietly - without realizing that she's stopped painting, and is now //staring// at Irie. "That's- well, it sounds kind of scary," she admits. "But you know what? We can always be friends - if you like. I wouldn't mind." She looks down at her mini, then at Irie again before she asks, "Your brother - is he still in the future?"

Irie West has posed:
Irie looks greatful. "I'd like to have an always friend," she admits. She suddenly sits up, though and flashes a bright grin to Madison. "Well. Enough moping. We've got painting to do!" She picks up her brush and gets right back at it. "Jae's still in the future," she says. "He didn't level up like I did so he's still at around 10 years when I left. He can use the speed force to bulk up and be strong. I have /no/ idea how he does it though."

Madison Evans has posed:
    "I use the Force to be strong," Madison remarks. "I'm not sure how you use the 'speed force' at all - instead of the Force. But then, I haven't met anyone else yet who can do Jedi stuff. I mean, not exactly." She returns her painting - but shoots a concerned look towards Irie. It must be hard - not being able to see her brother at all. "I have a brother you know. Chris. And two sisters, Lizzy and Gracie. They're still in California, though. I'm the oldest." She starts dipping her brush in some darker colors - to add some random patches to the fur on the wookiee she's painting.

Irie West has posed:
Irie watches Madison paint her mini, fascinated with how she's using different colors to mottle the fur. "Should I do that?" she asks. "With the fur?" And then she asks, "Did your parents divorce then? It must be hard being away from them."

Madison Evans has posed:
    "You can if you want. It's your wookiee! You do what you want!" Madison answers brightly, before shrugging her shoulders, and nodding. "When I was little, yeah. I don't really remember much about it. There's pictures of me being a flower girl for my dad's marriage - and Chris was born when I was just four," she explains. "...it's going to be weird when the holidays come. Because usually I spend time at both houses and this year- I don't know what that's going to be like. I guess I'll probably get sent to dad's house for the holidays."

Irie West has posed:
Irie looks thoughtful and looks for a greenish brown kind of paint. "He's gonna have moss," she says with a giggle. "Like a sloth! You're gonna have a sloth wookiee." Now that she has the idea in her head, she brings out her phone and starts looking up pictures of sloths. Her tongue comes out again as she starts adding the greenish brown touches to the fur, being very careful to stay within the lines.

Madison Evans has posed:
    "Sloth wookiee! I love it!" Madison declares brightly. "Hey, if you like painting and want to do it some more - we should look into getting you some minis, too. So you can keep them, you know? They're pretty affordable - you can get them for like $3, $5 - you know, whatever." She hums to herself, continuing to share little tips with Irie as they work - and delighting along with her when they finally get to the wash stage. "See? I told you! Like magic! Makes you look like an expert!"
    In fact, it's so enough having a friend to paint with again that she almost forgets all that unnerving stuff about aging at an unpredictable rate.
    Almost.
    But like she said - she and Irie can always stay friends. As long as she wants.