Overheard at Camp Melai; Does this mean Robbie's Klinger?

[balladin]

Who: Robbie and anyone (special starter for Dixon and Sirius)
What: OVERHEARD AT CAMP, Robbie accidentally figures out the healing thing. Someone tell him about it in the morning.
Where: Camp 1 - Melai Temple
When: Shortly after arrival. All conversations will pre-date that with Dixon and Sirius.
Warnings/Notes: "Overheard at camp" is basically my idea for posting several quick, one-off lines that can be taken out of context (or maybe in context) and seeing what people make of them. Possibly some talk of Dixon and Sirius' injuries.

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[ 1: In the kitchen. ]

Dibs on the fleshhook!

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[ 2: In the main hall, as he dumps a collection of wood-ish things in a pile in the center of the room for an anticipated fire. ]

Yay, carbon monoxide!

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[ 3: Anywhere. ]

Hey, V- guys? This old Enya statue won't not stop undressing me with her eyes. It's freaking me out.

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[ For Dixon and later Remus. ]
[ When Robbie heads over to Dixon, he doesn't have a specific plan in mind. He's got what small bits of cloth he could find, not wanting to cut up blankets; anyway, he's unsure how to bandage a face without mummifying Dixon. He remembered to clean them by boiling and to boil separate water for cleaning the wound, which has him feeling rather pleased with himself. He's no doctor, and he wouldn't call any of this sanitary, but Robbie's doing what he can. ]

Hey, I figured you might want to... I don't know, get the day's crap off of that.

[ He looks pointedly at the burn and then resumes talking to Dixon's face as a whole. ]

Or whatever your doc told you to do. If it's one of those things where you flinch too much to do it yourself, I'm not skeeved out by it. I can help.

[ Infections are nasty business, and his pockets don't have any Tylenol. You get a high fever - you're dying. ]

Comments

[balladin]

I have no idea who this Flash guy is, but he sounds awesome.

[ A summonable uniform is a cut above changing in a phone booth or Quinjet. Sorry, all other heroes, you're just not as awesome. ]

Don't sweat the whole "was" thing. I've never heard of anybody losing their powers permanently.

[ Well... there were thousands - if not millions - of mutants who did, but wow, is it not the time to bring that up and depress them both. Robbie glances down at his hands as if he can will them to work.

He can't.

Jerking his head back up at the sudden enthusiasm, Robbie wracks his brain to come up with anytime he'd ever heard Pietro Maximoff go by Max. He thinks it's ludicrous, but the guy has to have real friends. Or a girlfriend. This could be his kid... oh damn, he hopes not. ]

White haired dude? Got a bit of an accent? Thinks he's the greatest thing since Cheez Whiz, if he could bring himself to acknowledge Cheez Whiz exists?

[outofresets]

He's my cousin. And trust me, he's really only cool in theory.

[ Excitement disappearing, he deflates at that somewhat, and there's suddenly a slightly bitter tone in his voice. It's not just the compliment to Wally that got to him though. It's the fact that Robbie doesn't know who the Flash is. There is no chance that someone from his world that works with other heroes hasn't heard of the Flash. ]

But if you don't know who the Flash is then, either you were stuck in virtual reality a good portion of your life, or...you must be from a different universe.

[ He chews at the edge of his lip a little as he tries to think this through. Because...that doesn't exactly sound like it's NOT Max. Maybe it was the Max from whatever universe Robbie came from, and he stayed Quicksilver there? But then again, who's to say Max couldn't have ended up in an alternate universe at some point. Ultimately Max had kept a lot of his past close to his chest. He knew some of it sure, but there were plenty of gaps. And adding his penitent for time travel into the mix, things just get confusing. ]

Is he an older guy? Or wait...if he's going by Quicksilver he might not be. But if...nonono if he's younger he'd be brunet. Unless this is some weird alternate universe thing...

[ Running a hand through his hair, he tugs on it a bit in irritation the more he works himself up.

Did it really even matter in the first place? An alternate universe Max wouldn't really be Max. And if this was some younger version of him doing some universe hopping stuff he hadn't heard about, what then? What good did that information do him? Would he find a way to hop into this guys universe and warn Max about the future? Something Max had very adamantly warned him against ever doing. Yeah, that would just be brilliant.

Maybe it was best to just not know in the first place. ]

Actually, nevermind. Stupid thing to ask about.

[balladin]

[ Robbie has enough sense to recognize that there is Family Stuff floating around. He doesn't want to pry or stomp on any toes - family can be difficult enough to navigate without random strangers telling you to not say that your cousin is lame.

So he chuckles like Bart's made a joke. ]

Meanwhile, here you are, cool in real life.

[ And that is it for the Flash conversation. Like with asking too many questions about Impulse's friends, right now, he's not ready for the level of commitment that delving more deeply would me. He could get teleported somewhere else any second and never see or hear about Flash or Preston ever again. Or find out how Impulse's life in tights turns out. He hopes well.

On that note, Quicksilver isn't here. He will never know the faux pas that Robbie is about to undertake. He might not even care - he's been an Avenger, he worked for the government at one point. Who's to say that his identity is secret? Pietro's distress is a theoretical future; Impulse's is here and now. ]

He's older than me, but I never asked his age. His hair messes up my perception. Maybe 35? He could be younger, but I don't think much older. And his name is Maximoff.

[ His voice takes a much kinder tone. ]

It's never stupid to ask about your friends.

[outofresets]

[ While the comment about him being cool gets him to smile a little, it doesn't last long as his mind drifts back to the topic of Max, and whether or not he should even continue asking into this possible other version of him. In the end, it's too hard to resist prodding further at the topic, despite his better judgment. ]

Max wasn't a friend, he was [ The closest thing he had to a father. ] family.

[ Thinking over the few times he'd seen or heard Max's full first name, he chews the edge of his lip again. ]

And I don't think that's what his name was short for...unless he was lying about that. But he was definitely older than thirty-five. Except he might have been thirty-five when he was Quicksilver. He's always been kinda vague about his history.

But, even if they are the same person he would probably be a different universe version of him. Or some time-traveling dimension hopping version of him. Which means he wouldn't be the version of him I'm looking for.

[ Getting himself a little too worked up, he throws his arms up in frustration, before settling himself back down with a vexed sigh and crossed his arms over his chest in a way that he's unintentional hugging himself a little. And as he glares at the ground his shoulders hunch uncomfortable. ]

Which I guess is the kinda stupid part. Like, even if it is him, it's not as if I can just hop-skip over into your the universe to drop in and say 'Hey, how're you doing? Oh, by the way, could you maybe stop sticking your turkey neck into the Speed Force? Because bad things always seem to happen to you when you do that.'

[balladin]

[ This is definitely above Robbie's pay grade. Even if he had a road map of the kid's life, he would not want to steer this conversation. Any idiot could put the story together, or at least any idiot superhero could. Impulse is related to a speedster with white hair who goes by the name of Max, codename Quicksilver (and isn't that too much of a coincidence to not be Pietro Maximoff?), who has had Something Bad happen to him. Maybe he's missing, maybe he's in a coma, maybe he's dead.

But nobody would suggest hopping universes to warn someone about anything less. It's serious business.

And Robbie's exacerbated it by supplying details about his world's Quicksilver. He doesn't know what to do, because everything he can think of sounds stupid and uncomforting.

All of it still sounds better than nothing though, so Robbie crouches down next to Impulse and puts a hand on his shoulder. ]

I promise I will gladly chew Quicksilver out for sticking his turkey neck into the Speed Force, whatever that is, and that he should go spend more time with his family and to not be such an impatient dick about everything. That last one's for me. Maybe it's not the right one, but at least I can try to get a warning to one.

[ His hand squeezes the thin shoulder underneath and lies through his teeth. He just wants to make it better, and he knows he can't, but he's stubborn and has to try anyway. ]

I think that's the hardest thing I ever had to learn in tights. Something is better than nothing, and you can't give up hope on everything.