Trash or Treasure?

[websnextdoor]

Someone's made a bit of a mess in a little out of the way corner of the main drag of the plaza. An entire picnic table has been taken up with electronic bits and bobs that sit in stacks that don't seem to make much sense to a passer by, but definitely seem as though they were organized in some manner by whoever gathered all of this junk. In front of the table a cardboard box is stuffed to the brim with wires and cords of every kind.

HDMI? USB? A weird curly cord with a plug shaped like an octopus? It's all here and then some. It's hard to know if someone's organizing a donation to a local recycling center or setting up the multiverse's strangest tech themed garage sale.

Eventually Peter shows up (don't ask where he showed up from, the kid has a habit of dropping in when you least expect it) dragging a beat up toolbox over to the table so he can start poking around at his findings. He'd thought there'd been one back at the clubhouse and was very pleased it hadn't grown legs and walked off since the last time he'd checked.

Anyone who wanders close enough to inspect or greet him gets met with the same dirt streaked grinning face.

"Hey, can you hand me that screwdriver just over there?"

[OOC: First of all, https://tinyurl.com/zz5bdme enjoy your soundtrack. Please limit tagging in to one character per person (if you'd like to do more please just ask me OOC!) so I can try to actually do a thread all the way through.]

Comments

[websnextdoor]

"They have those? I can't even imagine what that would be like. Just a big ol' Space Macy's showcasing designer space suits and food courts with that ice cream in a tube and..." It turns out Peter can imagine quite a lot even when he thinks he can't. He'll remember what they were actually talking about in a second or two.

"Oh!" He startles and points over to one of the boxes with the screwdriver. "Can you maybe take a look at those power supplies and see if any of them are salvageable?"

[somekindofspaceuncle]

"Yes, they do. You can even buy a rarity item like an Earth's cow, living. Nobody buys them, though. We bought one. Well, my friends did. Because we're from Earth."

He smiles at the memory.

"Power supplies? Sure, I'll. I know a little bit about those."

[websnextdoor]

"How the hell did they get a cow safely out to a space mall in the first place?! Was...I...i mean I guess it could have been born in captivity and bred for that purpose but I read they were supposed to need to eat like, a lot. How would a ship even handle the waste they make?"

Shiro here is blowing this kid's mind.

[somekindofspaceuncle]

"Stranger things happened, out there in the galaxy."

"For example, what if I told you I was a clone?" Hiroki asks.

"And don't worry about Kaltenecker. Our cow. We take good care of her. Plenty of grass. And one of my teammates, Lance, milks her."

[websnextdoor]

"Y-Yeah but..." Something isn't adding up but it's getting brushed entirely under the rug. Peter can't focus on his sticking point when topics like 'clones' start getting dropped form the sky.

"I buh... uhm." The tables of electronics are so far from Peter's mind right now. He needs to take a seat on an empty spot along the bench of the picnic table. "Excuse me? Y...you are?"

That's normal???

[somekindofspaceuncle]

The lightness disappears from Shir--- Hiroki's tone of voice, even though he's smiling, trying to weather through this. Because this probably wasn't fair. To this stranger. This boy. To just drop such unnecessary truths that have nothing to do with the boy, not now, not ever. That some boy never has to think about.

"I am, actually. Cloned from one hero, by one evil witch, at that. Sounds like a fairytale, huh? I wish. Unfortunately, it's true."

"Don't worry about it, I say too much sometimes. So, back to cows... where were we? Ah, yes. Lance, the Blue Paladin. He could become a great farmer if he wanted to!"

[websnextdoor]

"So like, you're his...what? Twin now? Did...did he die?"

God, what if someone went around trying to clone heroes of Peter's world? What if--stop that thought there Parker. They're gone and fixating isn't going to bring them back. His chest hurts slightly.

"Oh. Uhm. A space farmer, right?" He's trying to take cues at least.

[somekindofspaceuncle]

"Shiro had died, but he's alive now."

"Oh. It probably sounds crazy to you, a normal kid, huh? I'm sorry. But, it's true."

Huh...?

"What's wrong? Is it something I've said??"

The boy suddenly seems so upset. Reminding him of his own teenagers in Team Voltron. Of other Paladins, that is.

"I've said too much, haven't I? Sorry. Not a nice topic, I know. Forget it."