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After a few hours of mach four flight Starfire and her new lawyer friend Jennifer Walters have finally arrived somewhere in the Caribbean after some pretty last minute planning. The sun is out, waves lap at a pristine beach and a short way away in the little borrowed cottage a refridgerator is crammed to the brim with the ingrediants for making rum based cocktails.
Starfire, having little interest in unpacking her luggage, took all of a minute to switch out her Tamaranean skirt and top combination for a simple white Earth bikini before heading out to enjoy the glorious sunshine. She doesn't quite break the sound barrier to get there but it's pretty darn close. Of course once she gets to the beach she lands and sprawls out, almost cat-like on the sand, drinking in the light.
Jen could easily be a professional beach bum. She's set up in a sturdy wooden recliner that sits a few inches off the sand, and wearing a daring black bikini herself that would probably get her fined anywhere in the Northeastern United States. A bucket full of vodka martinis is mixed up behind her and a martini glass is buried into the sand so it won't tip over. Long legs are stretched out in front of her, exposing a lot of green skin to the warm sun overhead, and she wears designer sunglasses over her eyes.
"I mixed up a bucket of Vesper martinis," Jen says, hearing Starfire moving close. She wiggles a finger at it. "Do Tamaraneans drink alcohol socially? I don't think we've got anything stronger than the vodka, unless you packed some moonshine out and didn't tell me."
"We have intoxicating beverages," Starfire replies with a content sigh. She doesn't seem to mind that she's sprawling directly on hot sand. "They do not share the same chemical root as your drinks though. Most traditional drinks are made from types of fungus or slime.. The most popular are also aphrodisiacs or highten the senses."
"Food and drink culture back home is a lot more… competitive then here. With communal tables that are fought over. After all we don't really /need/ it to survive." Kori sprawls out a little more, as if she's trying to make sand angels. "So I did not think to bring anything like that.. If you wish to try a truely strong drink you should visit the Asgardian embassy. I drank some mead there which was… an experience. Just be careful you do not black out and wake up in Norway."
"Eww. Slime molds and mushrooms?" Jen lifts her designer shades and looks askance at Kori, making a face. "Those sound … repulsive," she says, settling back into her seat. "Humans do the same thing, though— the aphrodisiacs and so on. Alcohol lowers inhibitions, helps people relax. There's some harder stuff out there, of course. I knew a lot of lawyers who did cocaine, and when I was in college they all smoked reefer," she tells Kori.
"But most of that doesn't work well on me. I need to drink half a gallon of liquor before I even fill a little buzzed. Hence the bucket," she says, topping off her martini glass and spilling a little bit. "Do you want a chair, hun? You're gonna get sand in itchy places."
"Reefer? Is that some sort of coral?" Koriand'r wonders, letting sand run through her fingers. "All foods and drinks sound unusual if you did not grow up with them. We have a type of pie with live grubs inside. It is a prize worthy of fighting for but to Human tastes it would likely be… odd." She giggles with amusement. "We have used science to 'enhance' the intoxicants. Both to overcome our natural resiliance and to make them safer."
"Do not worry. The sand is nice and warm. The residual thermal energy has a mild but enjoyable essence." Starfire languidly waves a hand in the air. "Itching is the irritation of the external cells? It is not really an issue to me. Perhaps if this beach was made from diamond dust there would be cause for concern. But from what I gather this is not something your world is likely to have!"
Jen just smiles, and shakes her head. "You're a strange person, Kori," she tells her friendly with amused affection in her tone. "I'm pretty sure you could take a disc sander to my sin and it wouldn't draw blood, but I still don't like how it feels to get sand in my swimsuit. Painful and uncomfortable aren't the same thing."
She sips more of her vodka down. "I'm glad you're enjoying the sand, though I feel a little bad that I don't have any food or drink that you'd enjoy. I mean, sure, I bet the sand's thermal… energies is nice, but you sure you wouldn't like a cocktail or something?"
"I'm a very normal person where I come from. At least as normal as the heir to a planet can be. It just so happens that I'm very far from home," Starfire points out, shifting onto her side and forcing a sad smile. "In your swimsuit? Hmmm." She frowns and takes a moment to stare at Jennifer. Daring bikini and all. "I think perhaps my people have a lot more control over our bodies than yours do? I have read some books on the Human body but they do not really go into detail about how it performs in various environments."
"I would not object to trying another new Earth drink. I have been slowly making my way through all known foods and drinks. Mustard in particular is a delight to me. Tangy, spicy and sour flavours are very close to the foods back home."
"I'm probably nowhere near what you'd call baseline anymore, hun," Jen assures Starfire. "It takes a /lot/ to really hurt me," she assures Kori. The leggy lawyer gets to her bare feet and moves to a heavy cooler she'd hauled out, rooting around in the ice and digging out a small minibar worth of liquor and accoutrements. "Hmm. Savoury… spicy… how about a bloody mary?" she suggests, producing tomato juice and vodka. She adds liberal amounts of pepper and horseradish, whips it up quickly in a tumbler— shoulders flexing as she shakes it— then decants int a glass and walks closer to Kori. She kneels next to her, carefully handing off the drink, then rotates to rest on her hip and props herself up with her free hand. "There, see how that does for you," she says, reaching for her own martini.
Starfire watches the drink making process with curiosity, then accepts it with a smile. "Thank you," she says brightly. "Is Mary the name of the breed of fruit you used?" She takes a sip. "This is acceptable. Nicer than whiskey which… tastes of soil. Or beer which contains too many bubbles."
"Would it be rude of me to ask why you are in your current state?" Kori muses. "I have met people with gifts from various sources. Some gained them from scientific accients, some from magic, others from natural mutations and one claimed to be a Human god but not of Asgard."
"No, it's … " Jen blinks. "I don't know why they call it a bloody Mary," she admits. "Cocktails tend to have creative and metaphorical names. Maybe because it looks like blood? It's strong enough to wake the dead, and Bloody Mary was a legendary ghost. I'm just guessing, mind you," she tells Starfire.
She stretches sinuously and shakes her head at Starfire's question, pulling her wealth of darkly verdant hair back from her features. "It's kind of complicated. My cousin is a meta. Had an accident in a laboratory," she clarifies. "It did something to his blood, and he can turn himself big and green and mean. I got clipped by a couple of gangsters while I was working a criminal case, and he was the only viable donor at the time. A few weeks later, I slammed a hammer on my thumb, of all things. Next thing I knew— I'm blowing through my pajamas and I smacked my head against a chandelier. I got so used to the transformation that I finally decided— this is who I am. Jen Walters, the She-Hulk. She's… more me than I used to be. I know that doesn't make sense."
Starfire tilts her head and blinks. After a few moments and a few sips of her drink she finally responds "I do not really understand many of those words. Not in the context of use. But I /think/ I understand the principle. Clipped does not mean the clips used to hold paper but some sort of injury. Yes?" A shrug. "So long as you are happy look however you wish! I do not know how Earthlings judge looks but I think you appear pleasing."
"I.. have not told many people this but… My people do not usually have the ability to emit energy in the same way I can." Koriand'r scoops up a handful of sand, glances around to ensure the beach is still empty, then her hand lights up with a green glow. Moments later the sand is melting and forming a molten pool in her palm. "After my home was invaded I was… given over to our enemies to protect the people. They left me with a race called the psions who are…" Her face briefly twists with rage. "They are vile beyond the understanding of your world." She pours the melted sand back onto the beach carefully. "After roughly a year of 'experiments' I escaped and eventually found me way here. So I understand how hard it can be to accept a drastic change."
"Oh, honey. I'm so sorry," Jen murmurs. She rests a hand on Kori's shoulder, and squeezes it reassuringly, with a genuinely sympathetic expression on her features. "That's … I can't even imagine. 'Rough' doesn't even sound like a good word to start with."
She flickers one of those megawatt smiles at Kori. "I'm glad you ended up on Earth, though. And for what it's worth, I think you look very, uh, pleasing as well," she tells the exotic-hued woman. "I mean, green's a little more unusual than you. I'd almost say you look… orange." She blinks, examining Kori more closely. "Acutally, you're literally glowing a little."
Starfire laughs. "That might be a heat shimmer," she points out, forcing herself to smile. "And for what it is worth those who had me imprisoned are… well it is not important. They will never harm another again."
"I would not have found this world if not for the signals your people fire into the void. I picked up a music station on my communications device. It was some sort of jazz I think. Very unlike the music I had heard before," She pushes the molten sand down into the beach, burying it until it hardens, then digging the jagged lump of glass up. "I have had time to accept the events, so I hope you will not feel pity for my sake. There is a phrase I heard on Earth… A blessing which is wearing the disguise? So perhaps all that happened is simply a gift from X'Hal with a very good disguise."
"It's all about perspective. Yeah, catching a few bullets with my torso sure wasn't fun, and surgery was awful," Jen points out. "And then the transfusion, and this" she gestures at her green self. "This was a real shock. But I do a lot of good this way. I look better than I ever have. I mean, generally. Some guys or gals— aren't into the 'green Amazon' look," she laughs, without any resentment. "But y'know, I don't judge. I love how I look, I'm more confident, and once in a while I can walk into a bad situation, shrug off some gunfire, and throw a city bus at a bunch of lowlife gangsters. Being a lawyer's fun and I'm really, really good at it, but there's nothing quite like kicking some villain in the teeth when they're beating up someone right in front of you."
"Then I would not recommend being dunked into a star," Kori recommends earnestly. "It… was not pleasant for me and my name roughly translates as Starfire. I expect even your new form would not deal well with it." Slowly she begins to reheat the jagged glass thing until it's more malleable then, with great care not to lose any, she rolls it into a ball. "I have helped to stop a few crimes, but I find it hard to know when it is appropriate to involve myself. My values are not the same and I do not know if it is morally right to enforce them on others when I am a visitor." She lets out a long sigh. "It is also very hard not to cause lasting injury. At first even the shaking of hands was a challenge. I still avoid too much physical contact, simply to reduce the risk I might burn or break someone."
"I'll… be careful of that," Jen says, carefully. "But I haven't found much that'll hurt me, yet. Not seriously. Mostly it's just irritating. And I've takens some pretty nasty hits."
She hesitates, then reaches over and puts her palm over the molten glass in Kori's hand. She makes a slightly uncomfortable hiss, but seems otherwise not in pain.
"I had to be careful when I first went green. Broke furniture all the time. Ripped a taxicab door off without thinking about it. You learn to adjust to the new normal, though I still wreck gym equipment once in a while if I'm having a temper tantrum. But I really do know how it feels to be unsure if you can touch someone— or if you should get involved in someone's troubles. That's why I became a lawyer."
Starfire shapes the glass into a rough donut shape, about bracelet size, then rests it on her leg to cool. "When I first came to this planet I found cars very amusing. They are so slow and yet so dangerous to the user. It is quite a feat of design in a way." She leans back a little, looking up at the sky. "I'm glad I am at least used to my strength. It is simply the fragility of everything here which I must become used to and… the ease with which everything burns. Earth beds in particular seem quite prone to combustion. That was never a worry back home I suppose. It is not as if I was firing energy blasts back then. Not naturally anyway. I did have some weapons training on Okaara."
"I've broken a few beds, but it wasn't—" Jen hesitates, then coughs and shakes her head. "Uh, nevermind. But yeah, things definitely aren't built for extranormal people in mind," she agrees. "But for what it's worth, it's really swell of you to make Earth your new home and to look after the people here. There are some losers and some jerks on Earth, but I'm thinking that's a constant anywhere you go. Mostly people look after one another and help each other out. So that makes you an Earthling in my book," she says, smiling reassuringly at Kori.
"I have tried to help people," Starfire admits, scratching her head. "But I think I could do more nice things if I wasn't worried that people could find out where I was from. The media is very… hostile to any unusual individuals. Mutants, metahumans and aliens all get blamed for everything that goes wrong." She laughs. "There are even people claiming that aliens have taken them into space simply to probe them!"
"It's just the way things are. I think that it's human nature just to resist change and the outsider. We were terrible to minorities for years before Metahumans landed on the public's awareness. Now it's all mutant marches and liberty for the metas. I think aliens ends up in that category too," Jen tells Kori reassuringly. "But like I said before— I wanna help you get your citizenship. Once that's done, everything else will fall into place."
She smiles and moves her designer shades down onto her eyes, settling back into the chair and stretching her long, bare legs out towards the lapping ocean waters. "For what it's worth, /I/ think you're pretty nice."
"My people did not really have the luxury of being so isolated. There are many planets, moons and space habitats within our star system. Dozens of species with various needs and cultures. Of course it is not without problems," Kori admits with a shrug. "We were at war with the people of the Citadel on and off for hundreds of your Earth years. Perhaps even a thousand…. Unfortunately I would need an advanced computational device to get the dates exact. The mathematics involved is very complex."
"It might sound foolish but… if this process puts other people in danger will you promise to stop? I would not want you or anyone in your employ to get hurt because frightened people misundersood the situation. I do not intend to do anything that might encourage such actions but…" Another shrug. "Circumstances might one day be beyond my control. But I /can/ promise I shall not be abducting or probing anyone!" A giggle and a wink. "Unless they ask very nicely of course."
"Didn't you abduct me to the beaches?" Jen asks Kori, slyly. "I mean, this is the kind of abduction I could get used to. Little tropical drinks, white sands, clear skies, and the company's wonderful."
Her face grows a little serious behind the glasses. "No, I won't promise to quit, Kori. I don't like bullies. I don't like the way that we treat outsides. It's an American thing— we stand as a nation or we stand divided, and a house divided cannot stand."
"If I quit just because the going gets rough, then I'm not really taking a stand? I'm not risking anything. And nothing's going to change if we aren't willing to risk what we have to get what we want."
"I do not think it counts as abduction if you plan it," Starfire points out earnestly. "However I am unsure if we have broken any laws regarding your national borders. And if we have I may have broken those laws… very often. It is extremely hard to tell where one country ends and another begins."
"If that is your informed choice I will respect it but.. I do hope you will at least give anyone who works with you the same choice? As next in line to the throne I have always known I might have to ask people to do dangerous things, but my people consider it to be… morally wrong to mislead others into a dangerous action."
"I know what the risks are, Koriand'r," Jen tells her friend, with an air of cool assertion that wouldn't be out of place in a royal palace. "So anyone I enlist into this effort is my responsibility. Not yours. That's not on your consicence if I screw up."
She relaxes into the chair, interlacing her forearms behind her head and stretching out like a green cat. "Besides, you would not believe how many laws I break a day. Smoking pot, bootleg booze, kissing girls, parking illegally, and *somtimes* I fudge my taxes," she tells Koriand'r. "I don't like stupid laws, so I don't obey them unless someone's going to make a stink about it."