"Weird how younger kids are so much better at accepting this stuff, isn't it? My sister thought we were just playing when I, umm, used my power. She liked it. I don't even like it."

He nodded again, knowing that if his cousins hadn't found him so wonderful they may have hated him like his siblings did. His aunt and uncle did a better job of countering the mutant hate with information and kindness. It didn't hurt that they lived in New York, with a far larger mutant population. So when he arrived they were a bit more prepared.

The kids treated him like a big plaything, rather than a monster to be scared of. Majo was always finding ways to climb on him and it wasn't like she was discouraged by her older siblings. Sophia also like to come to him to comfort, he didn't know exactly why but he was pretty sure she felt safe with him.

"You know, if you want to get your cousins off the wobbling stacks of rickety boards, all you need to do is say the words ice cream."

He glared at the young man, about ready to tell him off. But it was too late the kids were already rushing over like it had been the dinner bell. "No, no, ice cream, you already had ice cream. Your mama is cooking tonight and you want to be able to eat it all, don't you?" He sounded more like a parent than a cousin who was babysitting. The children gave a collective groans and whines. "How about we get lemonade instead? Would that work out better?" Plus it was something he could actually enjoy too.

The big guy wasn't really much of a talker. Which was okay with Jiri, and a step up from him being a growler. Apparently playing the mutant card had helped. He was glad for that, but at the same time he felt kind of... he wasn't even sure. Dirty? Like now he'd never know if the guy was tolerating him because he was a fellow mutant, or whether they might have gotten along even if he'd been a card-carrying human.

Getting along might be a bit too much to ask. The kids came running at those two sweet words, and for once, Jiri didn't cringe back from the big guy's glare. He knew that glare. That was the glare of every parent-and-or-guardian who'd ever let their kids too close to Jiri. He knew exactly how to reply to that one.

He grinned.

"Already had ice cream, huh? And your mom's cooking. Yeah, that's serious. You get between a mom and her pan, you get trouble." He tapped his chin with a very thoughtful, very not-about-to-cause-trouble finger. "You could get lemonade. All that sugar, right before you drop them back off with their parents--that's a good idea. I've done that before, myself. Of course, if we're going that route, there's a candy store not far from here. A couple of those giant pixie sticks, the ones bigger than Majo," Jiri gestured with his hands, way longer than the sugar-filled canes actually were. "That would do the trick, too. Or if you want to be nice, we could avoid the sugar high. There's a million things we could to do that would tucker you three out, instead."

He leaned in closer to the kids, conspiratorially. "Lots of boats around here. We could go for a ride. Or--and I know you guys would hate this one--I passed an animal shelter not to far from here. Pretty sure they had puppies. Or," around now was the time sane parental figures were doing their best to shut him up or drag their kids away, generally, "you know those street musicians you always see, those people putting on acts? Pretty sure we could make a band. You know what bring home the bacon means? Your mom would be really impressed if you guys came home with a hat full of the green stuff. Maybe you could buy her a present with it, surprise her when you get home." 

Jiri had lost some of his terror for the giant man. But if the man was sane, he'd started understanding the terror that Jiri could bring.

The nerve of this kid! What the hell was his problem?! If the children weren't right there, he'd tear him a new one. A real new one. Instead all he could do was rumble in agitation, letting steam flow from his mouth like a volcano about to explode. The more this guy went on the more that he wanted to knock his lights out.

He could see the excitement on the younger twos faces, though thankfully Sophia hadn't entirely bought into it. Smart girl, good girl, she would be on his side surely.

"No, no, and no. I don't have the money for any of that. I've got just enough left for lemonade on the way home. We already went to see a movie and went to the natural history museum to see the dinosaur bones and got lunch with ice cream. I know it all sounds really exciting, but perhaps another day yeah?" He was trying to be gentle but it didn't stop Majo and David from whining loudly, the beginnings of full on fits.

"C'mon guys, that's not fair to Victor. He already couldn't sit with us in the theater seats and you remember the people in the museum taking pictures of him."Sophia stepped in, "Plus we already got to build a super cool fort. I don't really feel like doing anything else today." She faked a yawn to emphasize he point.

Victor practically glowed at how mature the oldest cousin was being, what a sweet angel, precious, precious child. He mentally noted to tell her parents about this. It seemed to work with David at least, looking thoughtful as he processed all this before nodding. Note two for precious angel children. That left Majo who was the last one left crying and stomping her feet, howling something about wanting it. Which ever thing it was.

It was fine, she was still too young to fully comprehend other people's feelings. So instead he scooped her up and held her close. She would tucker herself out with crying.

Maybe that had been going a little too far. Maybe. With literal steam pouring off this guy, it was hard not to consider the possibility. 

Then the guy went and crushed every idea, which crushed the kids, of course, which left Jiri feeling like a bad guy when the youngest was in tears.

The candy store was a terrible idea, he admitted that, but you always had to toss out one terrible idea to make the rest sweeter. The ferry to Stanton Island was arguably cheaper than lemonade, if they'd wanted a boat ride. Playing with puppies didn't mean bringing home puppies, it just meant getting the dogs some exercise and socialization in a play room. Most shelters were cool with that, as long as you made sure the kids didn't rough house too much. Plus you could have the 'responsible pet owner' talk with your kids. And a corner band was a hilarious idea, that was 90% playacting and 10% things they could find on the ground that would make good drumsticks, and if they did make a few quarters off the tourists they'd feel ten feet high when they showed their mom. How was that not a winning idea? 

Seriously.

This guy. 

Had no imagination.

And now Majo was crying and Jiri felt awful even though this was clearly Steamy McNoFun's fault. Is that what being a visible mutant did to people? They kind of curled up in on themselves and refused to have fun?

Worse, the guy was training his little cousins not to have fun, either. Part of Jiri admired how grown up Sophia was acting, while the rest of him cringed for the same reason. And she was convincing David that they couldn't have fun, either. Only Majo and Jiri saw the madness, and only she was young enough to cry at the injustice of it all without getting punched by a guy who'd still have arms to spare.

There was a time and place for a you are no fun and you are making impressionable youths into no fun talk, and it was not while the kids were present.

Jiri stood up, and sort of scuffed one shoe against the ground, in the maturest possible manner. "...At least let me treat you guys to the lemonade. As an apology." It totally wasn't his fault, but adults liked apologies.

He had the feeling he was forgetting something, here. 

...Eh, it would come to him.

Eying Jiri, he spotted that the teen had a pout more befitting a two year old than someone his age. But he definitely knew better than to let some stranger grab the reigns of control. As much as he had gotten to know the boy over the last couple of hours that still wasn't enough to trust any of the ideas pouring out of his mouth.

He could explain all day the whys of why they aren't going. Like a candy shop was likely to cause more tears and frustration when he couldn't buy them exactly what they want. And his large size might make it hard to navigate without risking destroying things. Sure a trip on a boat might be cheaper. But Majo and David were climbers that might wriggle out of his grasp and straight off the boat. "Puppies" were definitely a no go. Most animals hated him and he didn't want to risk animal aggression around children. Not only that, he was too much of a softy not to let them take one and then what would he tell their parents. And he was not risking trouble with the cops just to let the three of them make some noise and make fools of themselves on the street corner.

Good intentions or no, fun or no, Jiri's ideas were full of holes. When only the five year old made a fuss about not following your plan that's when you know you don't have a very good plan in the first place. At the end of the day he was the one responsible and Jiri would be able to walk away scot-free.

"...At least let me treat you guys to the lemonade. As an apology."

He sighed again, this time with less steam, he knelt down to let David climb on his shoulders this time. "Alright. Sounds fair enough. There's a food truck near by that sells it." Usually he'd go there when he had time during his lunch break, so it should still be open this time of day.

Okay. Buy lemonade, apologize three or four more times, then awkwardly part ways and never see this guy again. That was the plan. It was a good plan.

The stand was nearby. The usual corndogs-and-pop kind of place. Jiri ordered five: three smalls, one medium, one large. Not to be size-ist, but Victor looked like a large. Jiri handed the cups down the the little ones, then got out his wallet.

Umm. Then he got out his wallet. Which was in his left pocket. Right pocket? Back left. Back right. 

Oh. He remembered. And he froze, not willing to make eye contact with the guy in the stand, and definitely not daring to meet Victor's eyes. Eye. 

What did he even say? 'I got mugged but forgot about it'? He'd forgotten because Victor had scared him way more than a little pocket picking. 'Hey I know I promised to pay, but I guess it's on you,' and Jiri had ordered one for himself, so now the guy had to pay for one more than he'd even been planning on. And the guy had already been complaining about money.

Jiri was rapidly turning red. Redder-than-Victor-red.
 Was there a way to die of mortification? Jiri was finding that easier to do than speak.

He watched Jiri order the drinks, keeping the young ones entertained by letting them use him like a jungle gym. However, he spotted the way the other male was searching all of his pockets. Nor the way he became more and more panicked as he searched. He sighed, he should have known free lemonade would be too good to be true.

He didn't reprimand the teen, he seemed terrible at keeping it a secret that he didn't have any money on him. Either he lost it or forgot it. Didn't matter. Instead, he fished out his own wallet, payed, and handed the cups out without a word. The plastic was a good deal easier for him to handle than styrofoam.

"So, lost your wallet, didn't you?"he chuckled taking a careful sip of his drink. The cold was a little unpleasant for him but the sweetness was nice.

The sigh said it all. Disappointment, mingled with just a hint of fulfilled expectations. That sigh said of course the dumbass kid can't even follow through on buying apology lemonade.

Jiri had the irrational urge to put his own cup back on the counter, but it wasn't like he could get a refund for the guy. He'd just be making a scene. Worse, he'd be turning down a drink that Victor hadn't wanted, but had paid for anyway, because he was a genuinely okay sort of guy.

Unlike Jiri. The teenager wasn't even willing to peg himself as an okay guy, right now.

The chuckle just drove home the point: never should have trusted the flakey teenager.

"Somebody picked my pocket I forgot I am so sorry I can't even buy lemonade right have I mentioned I haven't slept in forever and now I'm making excuses I'm sorry." It came out more like one very long word than a sentence, and he didn't make eye contact for any of it. He just stood there, holding his medium-sized lemonade in both hands, really wishing there was a rock he could crawl under to die.

And he hadn't even dealt with getting back to the Mansion, yet. Walking. Walking seemed the least shameful route, at this point. He really, really didn't want to try to explain his lack of basic street smarts to the Mansion staff. 

"Somebody picked my pocket I forgot I am so sorry I can't even buy lemonade right have I mentioned I haven't slept in forever and now I'm making excuses I'm sorry."

Before Victor could even speak, David chipped in with a bit of helpful advice, "You should take a nap." Sophia snorted, probably having heard them talk about their respective mutations early on. The large mutant gently patted the little boy on the head, smiling in an amused way, "That's some good advice."

"Don't worry about it, gringo. New York is a tough city on everybody. I'd suggest a you make sure you cancel any cards you had in your wallet and inform the proper departments that your id has been stolen. You don't want somebody using your money or your face for something nasty." There he went, sounding like a proper adult. When had he grown up?

Still, it wasn't like he was given much of a choice. Being as big as he had gotten, people had a tendency to see him as older than he actually was. So he had to learn rather quickly that he couldn't joke around and be a kid any more. He couldn't rely on youthful looks and handsome features to get him out of trouble any more.

"Naps are amazing," Jiri sighed, like a blind man sighing over the color blue. "That's kind of what activates my power, though. And you really, really don't want me taking you over."

Had he mentioned he was a body snatcher? He couldn't remember, really. But they'd talked about him being a mutant already, so probably.

He nodded as the big guy spoke. Cancel cards? No problem there, he wasn't really old enough to have cards. How old did this guy think he was? Was he one of those adults so old that he'd forgotten how to gauge kid's ages? Probably. He seemed pretty substantially learned. 

The only thing he really needed was a new school ID, and to grieve the lose of his twenty-some dollars of allowance money in private.

"What does 'gringo' mean? You keep calling me that."

...Did one of the kids giggle, at that?

"Naps are amazing. That's kind of what activates my power, though. And you really, really don't want me taking you over."

He blinked at that. Jiri hadn't mentioned possession when they were talking about it. But he kept his cool, taking into account that apparently the teen needed to be asleep for it to happen. An odd power but as far as powers when not terrible. But he had to wonder what exactly it did to the teens brain. He knew sleep deprivation tended to drive people crazy. So automatically possessing people when you sleep must mean he never really gets sleep. He couldn't imagine what that would do.

"What does 'gringo' mean? You keep calling me that."

He raised his only brow at that, glancing between Jiri and the kids. It wasn't exactly bad, so it wouldn't really hurt to say it. "It uh, it really just means US Citizen whose not Hispanic or Latino. American would apply to both north and south America and Estadounidense is too long." He shrugged, he didn't need to know the back story off the word. If Jiri was really curious he could always search for it.

"Esta doe uni wha?" The teen tried, and failed, to repeat. "How does that shorten to 'gringo'?" It wasn't a real question, more of an exclamation. Languages were weird.

He realized he'd been holding his lemonade for a few minutes now without actually taking a sip. His hands were cold from the ice, and a little wet from the sides sweating. He wiped a hand against his pants, and gave it a try.

...Really not bad, for a random street vendor.

He shuffled his feet a little. "So I keep saying sorry, but I haven't said thanks. For being pretty cool about me being not-at-all-cool. You're less terrifying than I'd have guessed." He gave Sophia a courteous nod. "Though I guess if I'd listened to the lady here, I'd have figured that out awhile ago."

He took another sip, and shifted the cup to his other hand so he could regain feeling in his fingertips. "You've really looked like that since you were my age? What was that, like, the eighties? How do you deal with people being as stupid as me?" He didn't ask about the ones that were even stupider. He wasn't sure he wanted to know.

Two things should have been readily apparent after that. First, that Jiri was honestly curious. Second, that he was taking it for granted that Victor was way older than he actually was.

"So I keep saying sorry, but I haven't said thanks. For being pretty cool about me being not-at-all-cool. You're less terrifying than I'd have guessed. Though I guess if I'd listened to the lady here, I'd have figured that out awhile ago."

Sophia nodded back, still sipping from her cup. She looked proud as peacock, being acknowledged for being right was nice. Especially when it concerned her cousin. People stared too often and didn't say sorry often enough.

"You've really looked like that since you were my age? What was that, like, the eighties? How do you deal with people being as stupid as me?"

He snorted and shook his head. "No, try 2010. Do I really look like I was born in the eighties? Mama was right, I need to start using lotion."he laughed running a hand over his head, as if he had hair to comb back. "As for stupidity. It's more like ignorance and at the very least you've been kind enough to acknowledge that you don't know any better. It's the most I can ask for. We were at the museum earlier today and people refused to see me as anything other than just another exhibit."

"I still say you should have set them on fire Vic."Sophia piped up. But Victor shook his head, "No, that wouldn't have been a nice thing to do. Plus I didn't want your parents to pick you up from the police station."

He was just going to keep saying stupid things around this guy, wasn't he? 2010. If he was 16-ish in 2010, then he was (com'on summer school math) 21-ish now? Not thirtyish, or fortyish. 

Jiri took a moment to face palm. "Should I just, like, get one of those Hello my name is blank stickers, and put sorry on it? You're just so... you're really big, and all responsible, and big, and you apparently have good self control if you haven't hit me yet because I'm apparently going to keep giving you reasons." He slid the hand down his face with all due teenage drama, until it flopped at his side. 

But the guy--the young, not much older than him guy--continued to be cool about this. Which was a good thing, since according to Sophia, lighting him on fire was a legit option here. Not that he wouldn't have deserved it.

He tried for a grin. "To be fair, no one's ever going to ask for your ID at a liquor store." If they did, they would supplant Jiri in the running for a Darwin award. 

"Did they really?" Jiri asked, with regards to the museum. "Look on the bright side, I guess: if they were staring"--and hadn't the little girl mentioned something about people taking photos of him, before?--"then it means you come off as, ah, approachable. If you weren't, they'd just run screaming."

"You know, it's exactly this kind of thing I was talking about with the responsible-adult-types at my school." They were not teachers. They were, what... a guidance counselor, a guy-girl-thing that ran around with an X on his/her chest, and a ghost-person whose possession powers were even creepier than his? None of them were teachers. Staff was as far as he was willing to go, and he wasn't even sure on that. "Ordinary people need to just talk with mutants like you more. Not going to lie, you're pretty stare-worthy. But, like, you're okay to talk with too, right? And it's way easier to just talk with you than stare, now."

"Should I just, like, get one of those Hello my name is blank stickers, and put sorry on it? You're just so... you're really big, and all responsible, and big, and you apparently have good self control if you haven't hit me yet because I'm apparently going to keep giving you reasons."

He chuckled, deep and rumbly in his chest. "Trust me, if we had met a few years earlier I would have not resisted the urge." He had gotten into his fair share of fighting and thankfully someone was always there to calm him down. Those first few weeks in school, after the mutation had taken hold, were the roughest he had ever had.

"Did they really? Look on the bright side, I guess: if they were staring then it means you come off as, ah, approachable. If you weren't, they'd just run screaming."

"Yes, I suppose that's one way of looking at it. Or they're just that dumb." He felt like a circus elephant when people stared. Big and powerful, but ultimately docile in most cases.

"You know, it's exactly this kind of thing I was talking about with the responsible-adult-types at my school. Ordinary people need to just talk with mutants like you more. Not going to lie, you're pretty stare-worthy. But, like, you're okay to talk with too, right? And it's way easier to just talk with you than stare, now."

"Mmhm, well underneath all this I'm just a regular guy. I hold down a job just like everyone else. I have family and friends. I'm not just my mutation, no matter how stare-worthy it may be. But, I get the feeling your about to spout another idea. Go on, let's hear it." Jiri seemed like a smart kid, but he had a feeling he didn't apply that much intelligence to his big ideas. Or maybe it was tact. It felt more like tact than intelligence. Both? Was it both?