"Great, the dog is talking to me now. Okay... deep breaths, Max. You can hold a conversation with a dog. Stranger things have happened. Just... don't make eye contact, he might take it as a challenge and--"
Max suddenly blinked as though dazed, her clear-blue eyes locked firmly on Cosmo's muzzle as she cocked her head slightly to one side and gave a gentle, apologetic smile.
"I... said all that out loud, didn't I? Ugh, man, that was supposed to be an internal monologue! Nice going, genius."
She lightly touched the side of her forehead in mortified embarrassment.
Kaku said:
Kaku, however, did speak on another matter. He turned to the girl called Max. "You know this city? You called it New York. Is that what this city is called?" Kaku asked.
What... was
up with this guy's
nose?
Did someone wrap a packet of Starbursts in skin and glue it to his face, or what? Max tried not to be judgmental of
anybody, even on her worst days, but it was just... so striking. The most eye-catching thing about Kaku, for sure. It took everything she had in her not to stare at it as she gave her response, and even then she still didn't entirely succeed.
"Uh... last I checked, yeah. Though I guess what you call it depends on how partial you are to corny, outdated nicknames. The Big Apple, the Melting Pot, the Capital of the World? It's... obviously seen better days. It's not like this back where I come from, it's less... trashed."
Chloe said:
"Sorry about the delay. Got caught up talking to Nicki Minaj about twerking. You know the important stuff."
Despite all the hostility and general tense shenanigans going on right now, Max couldn't help but give an affectionate roll of the eyes at Chloe's quip. Having her there as backup felt a whole lot better than going it alone, time powers or not.
"Please don't remind me she's here. I've been trying not to look at the botox queen wander around ever since she showed up. I'm surprised you were able to hold a conversation with somebody so, well... obvious."
Jon Snow said:
Focusing his attention back to Cosmo, Jon was about to raise the bastard sword over his shoulder, before a certain young woman threw herself between the crow and the dog. Feeling his breath hasten, realizing it is the girl he helped removing the rubble underneath her, Jon flinched, Longclaw firmly in both of his leather, gloved hands. Wolfish eyes tighten down at Max, noting the blue-haired one also join the fray, trying to ease the bastard's fury. Deeply breathing, sheathing Longclaw, Jon's face tighten, looking at the mutt and the two girls.
"I haven't seen her in three years...she'd be 14." the Snow darkly remarked, his expression shockingly stern, the bastard strong but not invincible. "How can any man be calm? Knowing your sister is caught on the frontlines of a losing war?! And now I'm here, stuck...Seven Hells, I don't know." Jon ranted and raved, the black-cloaked man full of guilt and shame. At The Wall, he pledged his sword, his life, his soul for his brothers, but now he stood, with no brothers, no walls of ice, and the fears of being an oathbreaker. Feeling distressed, the black-haired man took a step away, running a hand through his hair, catching his breath as his tried to regain his composure, knowing it was shameful to let his emotions get over his valor and honor.
For a second, staring up into the Crow's dark, stern eyes with an elevated pulse and urgent, quickened breathing, Max wasn't entirely sure if her being there was actually going to stop him from swinging or not. Only for a second, though. He was frustrated, obviously, and confused, but he wasn't a murderer... a murderer wouldn't have helped her pull her leg out of that rubble. Still, Max had never been through anything even
remotely like he was describing... though Chloe had. It was hard to relate to him, and even harder to figure out what to say.
Eventually, though, the words came to her, and she bit her lip demurely as she let him step aside to regain himself while Chloe tried to reassure him.
"
Then let's get un-stuck. Together. You, me, Chloe, the Russki dog, hell, I'll even take Nicki Minaj if she's willing to work with us! We're all on the same side here, and if we make it through this, then... maybe we can help each other. I can't promise anything, but if I put my mind to helping you see your sister again... well... let's just say I have a knack for arranging things. Trust me. I could totally do it."
Time travel was neat like that, and ever since she learned she could turn back the clocks she'd found herself increasingly drawn to solving other peoples' problems for them. Mostly Chloe's, but it didn't have to be exclusive.
"We just have to survive first, Jon. And we're not gonna survive if we all start turning on each other in the first five minutes!"
And then...
[Darth Vader doing Darth Vader stuff intensifies]
[Storm doing Storm stuff intensifies]
"Holy shit."
Max was pretty much a pop culture nerd, through and through, and she wasn't ashamed of it. So when she saw
that guy and
that chick facing off nearby, her mind sorta... bluescreened. Fiction? These Coalition guys recruited people from
fiction?
"...Do you know what happens when a Dark Lord of the Sith gets struck by lightning?"
She added to Chloe rhetorically under her breath, sort of just... trying to deal with the knowledge that those two being here was a thing with a shake of the head.
