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

[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!"

[basic_powers]

"It's meat from a really large fish. It'd be...roughly I think four times your size."

He's a little off, but not by that much.

[nepetaleijon]

"Ooooh. Feferi's lusus used to --"


She shuts her mouth, looking both a bit downcast and a bit shamefaced.

[basic_powers]

...he's not going to ask who Feferi was. Really. Much. Since the lusus was probably some sort of guardian/pet thing, the 'used to' portion of that unfinished statement is clear enough.

Tyler's just going to tug Nepeta towards the Dairy case and ignore the fact that one of her coat sleeves has a sizable dark wet-patch on it.

[nepetaleijon]

There are possibly even more kinds of cheese than there are kinds of meat.

Also: heavy cream. Nepeta eyes one container hopefully, but ends up deciding to get some at the bar instead, later.

[basic_powers]

Tyler's actually picking up a small container of the stuff, and some butter and a little bit of the Brie as well. Then it's a quick trip through the frozen goods and the fastest time ever for clearing out 30 flavors of ice cream from the single serving shelves.

There is some odd looks from the check out clerk at their age and their purchases however, paired with a smile.

"She gets to pick what's for dinner tonight, as part of one of her school projects." Tyler offers. "I get some ice cream for helping out."

That earns a laugh from the check-out clerk and soon enough they're leaving the store with the paper bags of goodies, and some leftover change.

"Here, you can eat this tube on the walk back." Tyler says, offering one of the ground meat tubes to Nepeta.

[nepetaleijon]

Meat! OM NOM NOM.

"Is it unmewsual for kids to pick out what they're having for dinner here?" she asks, trotting along after Tyler.

[basic_powers]

"Most of the time yeah, what they eat usually depends on what their parents feel like making or if they're allergic to certain foods." Tyler offers out for an explanation, with a shrug. "A kid I know can't eat beets without getting really nasty sick. and I think it's kind of unusual for anyone my age to be shopping for stuff like this by themselves without any adults."

[nepetaleijon]

Right. Parents.

She shakes her head. "But how do you efur learn to do anything if your parents do everything for you?"

[basic_powers]

"School, and i think most of the time, you learn stuff by doing it along side of your parents." If you're paying attention at least.

"At least that's what happens for other people. I wouldn't know what normal families are like."

[nepetaleijon]

She glances at him.

"... how come?"

[basic_powers]

"..it's...a long story." Or a short one, depending on how you look at it.

"I don't feel like talking about it just now." He adds. "But I've learned a lot from my visit with Uncle Ray."

[nepetaleijon]

"Oh."

Not understanding what, perhaps, but understanding that there's something painful there.

"... who's Uncle Ray?"

[basic_powers]

"...sort of a Milliways-family. He lives in New York." Tyler's expression brightens considerably at the talk about Ray, obviously this man is a pleasanter topic.