It's a wonderful day in the neighborhood, won't you be my multiversal friend?

[basic_powers]

Parents were off taking Toby out for dinner, and Cecil was covering the excuse for him. He had a spare of the knock-out capsules, body armor, and some opened cans of tuna out for his guest, just so she wouldn't attack food in the grocery store.

It was a late Saturday afternoon and just beginning to ease into the evening hours outside, the inside of the home was neatly furnished and well kept, not a mote of dust anywhere. And given that this was only a fascade house for coverstories that was some accomplishment of cleaning in itself for a living room that size.

Which is what the linen closet door opens up into.

Welcome to Earth.

Comments

[nepetaleijon]

"Oh. Can they all fly?"

She's shading her eyes with one hand, looking up into the weird blue of Earth's sky.

[basic_powers]

"Not all of them, come on." They've got a store to visit after all.

"Some of them are strong enough to juggle battleships, others can create energy blasts, some have super speed...there's all kinds of superpowers." Tyler explains as they walk. "Wonderburg just happens to be the site of no less than six regional superhero headquarters."

[nepetaleijon]

"Wow."

So. Weird.

Nepeta trots after him willingly enough, still looking around.

[basic_powers]

Good news is that the K-Square store is now in sight at the end of the block, with it's neon-red sign.

Tyler's even jogging now to hurry inside, with a quick check to the fire escapes and rooftops.

"Okay, the general rule is that unless they offer you a sample, breaking the packaging means you've got to buy the food inside."

[nepetaleijon]

She nods. "Are you purrmitted to open the packaging without breaking it?"

[basic_powers]

"No, they used to, but some bozos ruined that by sneaking some stuff into the candy packaging." Short version, because of some bucket-thumpers who liked seeing people get sick from various forms of poisoning...

"I've got $50 that I can spend getting stuff to try out today."

[nepetaleijon]

"Is that a lot?" she asks as they approach the store entrance.

[basic_powers]

"...kinda?" It's more money that most kids his age are used to handling. "It'll buy a lot of ice cream cups. We'll go to the ice cream after we see what samples are out."

It is sample day after all. The door open automatically as they approach, and the inside is nicely air conditioned. There's a few older humans, past puberty behind little tables with trays of food on tiny wooden skewers, which are being offered out to shoppers.

And Nepeta might like the first one, it's smoked and spiced meats inside of entrails!

[nepetaleijon]

Nepeta's eyes go enormous. OM NOM ENTRAILS.

Her first swipe snags five of the little skewers, and she would probably be grabbing more if she weren't busy stuffing all five of the sausage bites into her mouth.

[basic_powers]

"Hey, one per customer!" The guy behind the table exclaims.

...And Tyler's just going to facepalm and wish rather hard that he'd thought of browsing by himself. And then presented them at Milliways.

He's going to try and tug her away towards the next table which has three kinds of crackers and dips.

[nepetaleijon]

But but but...! Awww.

Nepeta droops a little, and lets Tyler tug her away.

"But fr33 samples!" she protests, but in an undertone.

[basic_powers]

"Yeah, if you eat em all...well, no body else gets to try the delicious stuff." Tyler says, handing her a tray of crackers covered in..ooh cheeses.

[nepetaleijon]

Nepeta dives into the cheeses with as much or more enthusiasm.

"Can we buy some of this one to take home?" she asks, pointing at the remains of a cracker that held a smoked-salmon-flavored soft cheese.

[basic_powers]

"Sure," Tyler answers, checking with the clerk for the price, before picking up a container of the cheese stuff from the cool case next to the table. "You wanna grab a grocery basket? We'll probably pick up more stuff."

[nepetaleijon]

Basket? -- Right, no sylladex.

Nepeta snags one of the baskets, pauses while she works out how the handles work, and holds it up proudly.

[basic_powers]

And it's a thumbs up from Tyler for the correct response to that request. Thus the smoked salmon cheese goes into the basket, and then it's down the deli section for more samples, mostly cold salads now.

"...do you eat plants, or just meat, I forgot to ask."

[nepetaleijon]

"Some plants! Depends how they taste."

She peers with interest at the salads.

[basic_powers]

There's eight varieties of cold salads being offered out on the sampling tray. Asian Noodle salad, italian pasta salad, tuna noodle salad, broccoli salad, 7 layer taco salad, homestyle potato salad, german potato salad, and pesto sweet potato salad.

Tyler's trying out the first two noodle salads, the broccoli, taco, and pesto salad himself. Remember one cup each trial.

"Asian tastes pretty good."

[nepetaleijon]

The taco salad makes Nepeta sneeze, but she likes it anyway.

The next one, however, is apparently a revelation: her eyes go huge and shiny.

"What is this purrfectly delicious green stuff?"

[basic_powers]

"...That's the broccoli salad."

It's not his particular favorite, but he likes asian noodle salad best himself.

"They also sell veggie snack trays with that included so...add that to the list of things to serve at the party?"

[nepetaleijon]

Nepeta has already consumed the entire cupful of broccoli salad and is eyeing the other samples wistfully.

She nods eagerly at Tyler's offer. YES MOAR PLS.

[basic_powers]

...Yeah, you know what, he's just buying a couple of heads of raw broccoli with the look she's giving those samples, okay?

Save some agony.

Next up meat aisle.

Oh god he's going to have to make some kind of leash, isn't he? Tyler just watches Nepeta's reaction walking into the aisle with so many different kinds of meat, and prays that she doesn't attack something.

[nepetaleijon]

Well ...

She doesn't actually attack anything. But she is having rather the reaction of a kid-in-a-candy-store.

There's just SO. MUCH. MEAT. Of so many different KINDS.

[basic_powers]

...Okay, he'll take the 'stunned by awesome' reaction as the godsend that it is, and make a quick duck into another aisle to add two blue boxes to the basket.

"..Let's get some lean ground meat." It looks like the tuna steaks are a little out of their price range, at least if they still want to get the ice cream, and you should ALWAYS save room for ice cream.

Thus, two 2 lb tubes of 97% lean ground meat add into the basket.

[nepetaleijon]

"Is that meat or fish?" she asks, pointing to the tuna steaks. "It looks so good!"