om_main | Lil and Tony; Backdated to the 7th.

Backdated to the 7th. Lil has problems in the kitchen; one is the toaster, the other is Tony.

"Oh, fuck you, you stupid piece of shit."

Okay, so maybe cursing at the toaster wasn't the best way to get the machine to work, but as someone who had no idea how to otherwise fix any kind of appliance, Lil was stuck.

Stuck and without her bagel.

"I swear to God, you useless crap, I will tear you open with my bare hands if I gotta and I won't care if your Cylon children come for me. I'll kick all their asses, too."

"That's not a very nice thing to say," Tony said as he swanned in, making a beeline straight for the coffee machine. "What if you hurt it's feelings?"

The giantess jumped, startled slightly by the other mutant's appearance but gave the toaster another glare before turning to address the younger student. "I stole my bagel," Lil told him plainly. Standing with her hands on her hips and dressed in her typical style of barely-there denim cut off shorts and a tanktop with chucks, she was imposing in the way a young German Shepherd dog was before they grew into their paws and teeth.

"And it don't got feelings; it's a toaster."

"How do you know?" Tony shot back, though most of his attention was on the machine in front of him and the sweet, sweet caffeine contained in it. "Have you ever asked? You know what happens when you make assumptions."

Her mouth opened and then snapped shut as she stared at him.

"You're shitting me, right? It's a toaster."

Tony glanced over his shoulder to give her a wide-eyed look of great innocence. "Have you tried asking nicely?"

There was a beat during which the six-foot-four-inch girl shifted her weight from one foot to the other, clearly debating what she should do.

"No," Lil said finally. "Because it's a toaster."

"Well then I guess you don't get any toast," Tony said with a cheerful smirk. "Sucks to be you."

"Bagel," Lil corrected and continued to sulk with her fists planted on her hips. He wasn't serious. Couldn't be serious. Ask nicely?

Tony waved one hand and collected his filled cup with the other. "Same difference. Point is, you have to respect your technology."

Okay, now she was sure the kid was just pulling her chain. "Ooooh, I get it now. I heard about how I like to throw my cellphones into walls and step on my computers sometimes so now it's getting revenge on me for them. Riiiiight."

"Or," Tony said with an arched eyebrow, "it's about how even fairly low-tech machines are made of a ton of moving parts that can go out of whack pretty easily." As if by demonstration, he turned slightly to fish a wooden spoon out of one of the draws and stuck it right into one of the toaster slots, then yanked the plug out of the wall. Some slight prodding and a tap to the lever and suddenly an only slightly charred bagel appeared.

"Like so," he said, plugging it back in with a flourish. "Though politeness doesn't hurt either. Also, you're welcome."

Hazel eyes narrowed at him before she mumbled something that sounded vaguely like gratitude and grabbed the cream cheese from nearby along with a knife. "You coulda just suggested that in the first place."

"Where's the fun in that?" He asked with a wide smirk. "Unclench, Brunhilda, you'll break something."

"Original," Lil with a role of her eyes. "Most people pick Xena. And yeah, I do breaking things. That's why I was yelling at the toaster insteada giving it some physical encouragement. My allowance only goes so far and I ain't got any desire to by the school a new kitchen appliance because I smashed it."

"Well then here's an idea," Tony said, spreading his hands out wide, complete with finger-wiggles. "You could try not breaking stuff. Just for a change of pace."

She used the knife to point at the toaster. "I didn't break that," Lil grunted. "And 'try not breaking stuff' only goes so far when you got super strength."

"Or you're just careless," he said with a shrug, and promptly buried his nose into his coffee cup.

"I ain't careless. Don't mean I don't break things. Or lose my temper." Her eyes narrowed at him slightly as she finished spreading the cream cheese on her bagel then took a large bite.

"Got news for you, Red Sonja," Tony said with a snort that nearly had him spilling his coffee, "if you're breaking stuff, you're doing it wrong. Strength or not.

Lil huffed and put her food down to turn on Tony fully. "And I got news for you, Squirt, I've been living with my mutation longer than you have. Been doing exercises and anger management and all that kinda bullshit for years now so unless your powers came with an advanced degree is psychology, I ain't taking any tips from a little kid with a big mouth - and ego to match."

Tony met her eyes over the rim of his cup, entirely unruffled. "Sure, by all means continue doing exactly what isn't working. That's an awesome way to get results."

"That ain't... I mean, it's working," she replied glumly. "There's just accidents sometimes. And anyway, it ain't any of your business anyway. I don't even know your damn name," Lil huffed and grabbed herself a few pieces of fruit to add to her plate.

"Tony," he said with another finger-wiggle. "Hi. Now you know."

"Lil," she answer, nose still wrinkled. "But that doesn't mean you can be up all in my business."

"Then don't break stuff I'll have to end up fixing."

Both of the giantess' eyebrows went up in surprise. "I told you, I didn't break it. And I didn't ask you to fix it, either. I was gonna buy another one if I ended up smashing this one."

"Well that's stupid," Tony said easily and smirked. "If you have to get schooled in wasteful money practices by a one-percenter, I'm pretty sure that's on the sad side."

"Do you always try to piss of people when you first meet them?" the taller mutant asked, cocking her hip to the side as she stared down at him again. "Or you just making a special effort on me because someone told you it's a great idea to get on Lil's bad side?"

"I calls 'em like I sees 'em," he returned cheerfully. "How you react is your own business."

Lil kept scowling. "You're still trying to push my buttons, Squirt."

And Tony made a show of giving it a long thought. "Mm, nope," he said finally. "Pretty sure if I was trying I could do a better job of it."

She gave a hard huff of breath and kept frowning, her meal all but forgotten. "Oh, so being a little, sarcastic jackass is your mutant power then? It just comes naturally?"

"It's a talent," he agreed, grinning wide enough to show teeth. "I do like having them."

One brow arched higher. "I'm sure you do, Squirt. But if you like having those pearly whites, too, you might wanna bring the snark down a few levels."

"Oh no. A threat," he said in his best monotone. "Whatever shall I do? Hate to break it to you, Nancy Archer, but you're not that impressive."

Lil opened her mouth, ready to fire off another retort but then frowned and snapped her jaw shut. After a moment, the giantess said, "I don't know who Nancy Archer is."

"Attack of the Fifty Foot Woman. Good flick."

"Huh." Lil seemed surprisingly interested. "Do you know if that's on Netflix?"

"No idea," Tony said brightly. "Don't even know if it ever got a DVD release."

Her expression fell slightly. "Oh. Damn. I kinda like all those old crappy films. I watch all the bad horror flicks I can find."

"Then go forth and explore," he said, flicking his fingers out. "Perhaps you shall discover something magical."

The scowl was back almost immediately. "I'll check Netflix but beyond that, I ain't gonna lose my head trying to find it. Like you said, 'wasteful money practices' and all that shit. I only get what the school gives me and I ain't gonna spend it trying to track down some old film even if it sounds cool."

"Whatever floats your boat," Tony said as he moved to refill his cup again. "What a person does behind closed doors with a consenting entertainment system is their own business. Have fun, Ginormica," he said, and tossed a wave over his shoulder.

Then paused, right in the doorway. "And seriously? Don't break the goddamn toaster."

A piece of bagel narrowly missed his head and instead bounced off the wooded frame. "I didn't break it!"

Tony shot her a flash of a smirk. "See that you don't. And work on your aim," he called back as he headed down the hall.