[Social] Stay Fresh, Cheese Bags

[Robin Stanton]

Robins loves her parents but sometimes they were a lot. And the last couple months especially so. First Mum had gone into full Science Panic to track down Dad, followed by a whole new spectrum of trademark Stanton issues from the Clay Blob themselves. It doesn't help that sometimes Robin wonders if her Dad is at least a little disappointed in her. Not for anything that's her fault but as she's gotten older she's come to realize her Dad is, in a way, lonely. The people who truly understand him can be counted on one hand. And that's a regular hand, not a Stanton one. And there is no one who is and thinks like him. Being born an innate shifter, so similar to his power she figures he must have, on some level, hoped she'd be like him. And she is, goofy, a bit irreverent, hopelessly optimistic and truly taking joy in their abilities. But for all their similarities she never fully followed his footsteps to where he is perfectly content to spend a day as a carpet or a dinner plate or a car and just become his shape.

There's too much of her Mum in her, she figures. The stubborn rock that would move mountains rather than be pushed around and who loves to wax scientifically about how Robin merges their two powers and gets a little too into the weeds at times, forgetting that Robin isn't a fan of the implication that her power shaped who she was. In her opinion - and she feels greatly vindicated about this in light of recent spark-related discoveries - she and her power are one and the same and chose each other regardless of genetic disposition inherited from two X-Genes cross-linking at similarly aligned repeat-sequences and blah blah blah. It makes no logical sense to her Mum that Robin wouldn't have been shaped by growing up with the powers inherited from them but since when has something as trivial as logic ever stopped a Stanton. Besides, Aunt Nailah was living proof that cause and effect aren't as straight-forward as everyone likes to think.

In Robin's expert opinion of being a twenty-something know-it-all, her parents work better together, keeping each other's shit in check. And thus after months of dealing with each of them individually she needs a break. And hey, she's here to stay for the time being, might as well familiarize herself with this weird alternate-past. Sure, she's been around the globe, vacations with her parents, trips with friends, missions with the X-Men. But she's never just gone out there, backpacking around Europe and finding her own way and that's exactly what she is going to do now. She's seen herself returning to her own world across the gulf of time, not looking older because duh shapeshifter, but still different somehow. She wants to figure out who that Robin is and how she'd get there.

And so she finds herself at the dorm where the central hub of her Dad currently resides, one hand raised to knock and loudly announcing "10 second pants warning!" before rapping her knuckles on the door. She then waits the aforementioned ten seconds before giving the door one last knock and stepping inside to walk up to the large mirror standing in the common room. "Hi there, Infinite Mirror of Dads."

[Will Stanton]

The surface of the mirror ripples and twists, and soon, Will pops out of it, shaking his head as he let his hair down. "Robbie! How's it going, Silly Putty?"

[Robin Stanton]

Robin chuckles at the fact Will popped out with his hair up just so he could shake it out. "Oh you know, things are fine. Been helping out with community center majiggy. S'mostly done now, they're putting in that experimental teleporter, so I signed you up for testing. Well, technically I signed you up a dozen times, dunno how cross your eyes and dot your tees they are about West-tech here but anyway, you're welcome." she grins, clearly avoiding talking about whatever she actually came to talk about.

[Will Stanton]

"Ah! Thanks, Robbie, I forgot all about that. Busy busy busy; I'm more than happy to help them get everything up and running. And you know how the Wests work...or don't as it were.

What's on your mind, anyway?" he says, crossing over to sit on the couch, patting it to call Robin to sit down next to him.

[Robin Stanton]

"Weeeeell..." she starts as she meanders over to the couch and then hops up to sit on the backrest. "I've been thinking. It's been cool seeing Maldon as this weird little quaint tourist town and it's not like it's been boring or anything but it's a whole different universe and I've barely left the pre-cursor of the town I grew up in, ya know?"

[Will Stanton]

"What, you want to take a trip down to London? Get some sausage rolls, watch the people go by, laugh as they stare at their phones all day?" Will laughed. "We can do that, totally. Couple o' pigeons in Trafalgar Square, gov'nah."

[Robin Stanton]

"Big oof. You're not even British." she rolls her eyes. "No Dad, I think I want to go a little further than London." She's sounding a bit more somber now. More serious than she normally is by far. "By myself. No pigeon buddy."

[Will Stanton]

"O...oh! Right. Of course," Will stammered a little bit, taken aback.

"Well, I mean, that could be good! Get out and about a bit, smell the flowers. I took a couple trips like that when I was your age. Did you, uh. Have anything in mind?" he added, trying to spin things positively.

[Robin Stanton]

"I mean, France is right over there so I figured maybe I'll start there, head to Paris and work my way south, see where the road takes me, you know? I just..." she awkwardly scratches the back of her head. "You guys have always been there for me and I love you, but I think I gotta go be by myself. Just for a little bit. I feel like I never really figured out what I wanna do with myself." Robin pulls her legs up and spins around on the backrest, letting herself fall backwards onto the seat and looking up at her Dad with her legs sticking up into the air. It's a weirdly juvenile move, but this whole talk has her feeling weirdly nostalgic.

"Back home everyone always assumes I'll follow in either your or Mum's footsteps. Well, more yours than hers cause I think people pretty quickly figured out they do not want me anywhere near expensive science shit if they can help it." she laughs a bit sadly. "But Mum still had me helping out in the lab when she was looking for you. And I was happy to help! We both missed you and then I ended up here and obviously everyone here only knows you so I just end up being 'Will's Daughter'. And I'm proud of it but... I'm not just a palette swap. So. I think I gotta go out there and figure out who I am other than Pink Stanton." And as she's talking she let's the color fade from her hair, smooth bouncy pink turning into slightly-curly brown.

[Will Stanton]

Will frowns a little, and then reaches out and rubs Robin's head.

"I get it. I do. The last thing me and your mom want to do is to limit you, or force you into something you don't want to be. We're Stantons; we're not supposed to be just one thing. And you've got to figure out how to define yourself; or someone's going to do it for you," he sighed.

"You'll just...always be my little girl, no matter what. Even if you've got to rebellious with your unnatural brown hair."

[Robin Stanton]

"I know." she smiles. "And you'll always be my Dad."

With a backwards roll that definitely shows that bones remain optional Robin dismounts the couch. "You know, I was kind of worried to talk to you about this but I think I was just being stupid. There's never been anything I couldn't come to you guys with." And with that she goes in for a hug.

[Will Stanton]

Will brings Robin in for the hug.

"Well, I swore I'd try to do better than my parents, and I sometimes even live up that.

...You sure you're OK on your own? You don't need to have something around for emergencies?"

[Robin Stanton]

"Daaad. How much of a Stanton would I be if I couldn't fend for myself?" she smirks. "But I still have the uplink camera Ashlie build for me and I promise I'll call."

[Will Stanton]

"I'm sure one of me will be around to pick up," Will smiles. "And be careful out there! I know you're made of awesome and everything, but it's still a harsher world than we came from. Keep your guard up."

[Robin Stanton]

"I know, I know. I'll be careful. I had the best role-model after all."

[Will Stanton]

"And I'm sure she'd say the same thing if she were here," Will grinned, lop-sidedly.

[Robin Stanton]

"Yeah... But I'll be offcasting things since there's no omni-net. Or I guess here that's called vlogging. So if Mum wants to look at all the bad decisions you let me get up to she can." she chuckles a bit ruefully. "Or maybe by the time I get back you got Cyborg-Ash to build some kind of trans-temporal dimension-phone so we can call her."

[Will Stanton]

"I've been told that's impossible. But when has that ever stopped us before?"

He stopped to think a little bit, rubbing one hand on the back of his head.

"When were you planning on leaving?"

[Robin Stanton]

"Not sure. Part of me wants to shout 'Right now!' and run off but realistically probably more like the next couple days. I need to pack my bag. And get a bag. You know, the basics."

[Will Stanton]

Robin knows her father, and she can tell it's taking every last ounce of Willpower to not offer to be the bag, his fingers drumming the side of the couch.

"Should get yourself one of those little guidebook things, too, though maybe that's too touristy?"

[Robin Stanton]

"Oh god, definitely too touristy. I'll already be cliché enough, wandering the earth." she chuckles. "And yes, I know. But I gotta do this by myself."

[Will Stanton]

"Well, don't get too lonely out there. And if you run into trouble, we'll be there in a flash, you know. Your dad's got eyes and ears everywhere."

[Robin Stanton]

"Plenty of people out there. In fact the world's full of 'em! I'll let you know if I run into anything I can't handle, okay?" she says, though truth be told the thought of her Dad swooping in, possibly literally on the Blackbird and with a bunch of X-Men in tow is as reassuring as it is mortifying.

[Will Stanton]

"That's all we've ever asked. Just...takes some time for our definition of 'what you can't handle' to adapt to the woman you're becoming, you know? You'll understand some day."

[Robin Stanton]

"And thus I must expedite the process. Of you updating your definitions! Not the understanding some day!" she quickly elaborates when she realizes how that statement could be taken, especially since she's pretty sure she's about the same age her Mum had been when she had her. Robin is, in fact, capable of basic math.

[Will Stanton]

"I am not nearly old enough to be a grandpa yet, Robin Thelonious Stanton," Will said, with a frown.

[Robin Stanton]

"You're like a billion years old! You were a couch long enough to be old for a couch. You're literally an old fart!" she laughs.

[Will Stanton]

"And yet, even if I live to reach the heat death of this, or many other universes, I shall not be nearly old enough! Sorry; them's the breaks, kiddo," Will said, crossing his arms.

[Robin Stanton]

"Good thing that's not up to you then!" she grins. "But you'll have a decade or five to get used to the idea and also that's not even what I meant anyway!"

[Will Stanton]

"I know what you meant; I'm just yanking your chain. Just, uh, when I say to be careful, I mean be careful in all possible ways."

Will paused again.

"You just going for the summer, or..."

[Robin Stanton]

"Honestly? I don't know. Maybe I'll hate it and come right back, yeah?" she kind of deflects the much heavier implication with a joke.

[Will Stanton]

"Robbie...

You never seemed to want to leave home back, uh, home. Is it just...too much, here? Too close, but not quite right?"

[Robin Stanton]

"I mean, a little bit but no. I think this might have been coming anyway, but first dealing with Mum on her own and now you without her... You two are a lot and I love you and you're both great because of that but it reminded me that I've only ever really bounced between what you two expect of me. I mean even my power's a compromise between you two and Mum thinks I'll do amazing things making... nano-scale shapes move and all kinds of crazy science stuff. And I can tell you're always hoping a little bit that I'm like you and understand what it's like to want to be a ceiling fixture for a week."

"But I don't know if I'm either of those things and I think if I don't do this I'll never figure it out."

[Will Stanton]

Will nodded. "I know, I know. I guess we all have to stretch our wings at some point. Have to find our own place in the world.

Just know that no, I'm never, ever, ever disappointed that you're not more like me. You've got your mother's grace in you, and I wouldn't change you one drop."

[Robin Stanton]

"Aww shucks, pop." she grins and taps his shoulder with one fist.

[Will Stanton]

"Hey, I'm corny and a cheeseball, but I mean it. You're one of the few things I haven't screwed up at some point. Makes it all worthwhile."

[Robin Stanton]

"That means a lot. It really does."

"Now, whaddaya say to one last round in the Danger Room before I leave so I don't hit the road rusty and un-humbled?"

[Will Stanton]

"This old couch can show you one or two more tricks before you leave," Will grinned, standing up and reaching back to tie his hair in a loose ponytail.

Again, entirely unnecessary for a shifter, but hey. You go through the motions for reasons.