My mom was Mexican...

"You guys have cinnamon?" Olive wondered after a moment. "'Cause I dare you to get a tablespoon and some cinnamon and take the cinnamon challenge. We're not putting it on the internet, obviously, but still."

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"We have cinnamon," Nico said, and nodded to Victor. "It's on the shelf with your weird condiment collection."

"Why do I have to get it?" he grumbled, already on his feet.

"'Cause she thinks you're going to laugh the hardest if I can't do it," Chase explained. "Which means you won't laugh at all, because I am the cinnamon master."

"There's like fifteen hours worth of videos of people messing this up on YouTube," Victor called in response from the kitchen. "No way are you the cinnamon master. You're gonna cough your lungs out."

But a moment later, he was offering Chase a spice bottle and spoon. Even if he was right, he wanted to see the attempt.

"Observe," Chase said, taking the proffered tablespoon and dumping a healthy pile of cinnamon onto it. He winked at Olive as he said, "Start timing."

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Olive just shook her head disparagingly and held up her phone, where she'd started the stopwatch function. "I preemptively feel so bad for you."

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Chase swished his cheeks back and forth, seeming to gather some saliva, and then tilted the spoon carefully into his mouth.

He turned red with the effort not to cough almost immediately. This was more ... intense than he'd expected, that was for sure. Old Lace wriggled with shared discomfort, and let out a sneeze in sympathy.

"Do you need water?" Karolina offered, holding up her bottle.

Chase shook his head, swallowed, and coughed with his hand over his mouth. He made a second attempt at swallowing before spitting a sodden, pasty mass of cinnamon back onto his spoon.

"Asqueroso," Victor observed softly.

Chase just had time to try to get the paste back in his mouth before the timer beeped. He grabbed for Karolina's water and poured about half of it down his throat the second he was allowed to.

In between giggles, Nico asked, "Are you okay?"

Chase waved a hand, indicating he was fine but couldn't talk yet. He wiped his damp and cinnamony lips on his sleeve. "That shit burns the inside of your nose," he said a moment later, still red around the mouth but otherwise back to normal. "Never trying it again."

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"I would say I'm sorry but that was way too funny," Olive said, giggling. "But, you know, glad you survived."

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"Having to call 911 for some cinnamon would be the lamest way to go out ever," Chase said, amiably enough. "So ... okay, Nico. You're up."

"I hate this game," she whined. "Geez. Um ... truth, I guess."

Chase grinned at her, seeing a chance to inflate his ego and embarrass at least three people in the room. "So between me, the toaster, Kar, and I guess Alex, who's the best kisser?" he asked. "You're the one who would know."

"No way!" Nico shouted. "Dare. I pick dare."

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"...there's lots more cinnamon!" Olive offered loudly. "Who wants to see Nico shoot it out her nose?"

Though the question had pinged her kind of interestingly -- Nico'd kissed Karolina, too? And she vaguely wondered who Alex was, to get that offhand mention.

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"She can't switch," Chase put in, as Karolina agreed. "It's too late, Nico! You can't take it back."

Victor was quiet for the moment. On the one hand, he figured there was no good way for Nico to answer the question in front of Olive. On the other, he leaned with Karolina and Chase on the 'rules are rules' thing.

The argument was interrupted when Klara wandered out, rubbing her eyes. "Why are you being loud?" she asked. "And why is everyone else awake? Can I be awake?"

"Oh, Klara," Nico said gratefully. "We just got too excited playing a big-kids game."

"I want to play!" Klara put in, seeming to wake up fast.

Nico went to hug her. "No, you don't. Anyhow, the game just ended."

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"It's a dumb game," Olive contributed for Klara's sake. "And I'm sorry we woke you up, hon. Is Molly still out?"

Maybe the younger two would save them from having to go through a super-uncomfortable question! Olive was suddenly grateful for the fact that as weird as it had been to answer Karolina, it could've been a lot worse.

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Klara nodded. "She's talking in her sleep about the Wolverine again," she said, but got cut off.

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"Like hell it ended," Chase said. "Sorry, Olive, but Minoru is not getting out of this one. Nobody forced her to make out with everybody in the house."

"It's not like Olive's never kissed anybody. And when we met Klara, she was already married," Victor added in agreement. (He really hated it when he agreed with Chase, but sometimes the guy was just right.)

"Right!" Chase nodded. "To a creepy old guy."

"So I think everybody here is grown-up enough for you to just answer the question and get it over with," Victor finished.

"Besides," Chase said, making a face, "It's an easy one. Obviously I was the best kisser, since Alex, our deviously departed leader, probably tasted evil, and Small Wonder here probably kisses in binary."

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"Fine," Nico exclaimed. "Karolina, okay? Karolina is a better kisser than either of you, so shut up. Happy now?"

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Olive had a binary-related defense for Victor's abilities on the tip of her tongue, but stopped short at Nico's answer. "...huh."

She was going to have so many questions for her roommate when she got back. As it was, she was now peering curiously from Nico to Karolina.

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“Of course I’m not happy,” Victor said apologetically, at the same time as Chase put in, “I’m actually very happy now.”

“Great,” Nico drawled, looking at Chase. “I wish Olive hadn’t wasted your dare on the cinnamon challenge. You need to stop acting like such a jerk and” – she pulled the Staff of One out of her chest – “open up.”

Chase squawked and stepped backwards, dodging the blast of magic. “Ha! You missed,” he taunted, not noticing the staff had cracked open to release … a glowing green egg.

The game was momentarily forgotten as everyone gathered around to look at the egg (or, as Klara curiously dubbed it, “breakfast.”)

“Is anyone else wondering what comes out of that thing?” Victor asked, prodding the egg with a forefinger.

"With our luck?" Karolina asked. "Probably not omelets."

Edited Date: 2013-01-08 07:04 pm (UTC)

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"Um," Olive contributed, staying nice and far away from the freaky egg. "Does that normally happen? With the stick, I mean?"

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“Pretty much. It takes blood, so sometimes I have to cut myself,” Nico said, taking her eyes off the egg to look at Olive. “But, well, it’s that time of the –“

That disturbing statement was interrupted by the crack of the egg as a giant snake burst out. The serpent wrapped itself around a startled Chase and shot upwards and out through a window.

“Oh, right,” Victor remarked, almost casual. “We were talking about 'Sons of the Serpent.' I should have seen that coming. Olive … you might want to stay in here.”

Not that he was especially worried about the snake as a threat to anybody on the team, but Olive was a civilian. Nico, Klara and Karolina had already run onto the beach in pursuit of the snake, Karolina flying and the other two trotting along.

Edited Date: 2013-01-08 08:20 pm (UTC)

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"I can help!" Olive insisted, anxiously watching the others exit. "I don't know how, but dude, I live in Fandom, I can deal. I won't get in the way, I promise. A giant snake just stole Chase, I'm not just sitting in here."

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"Okay, that's why I like you," Victor said, and rummaged behind the couch until he came up with a weapon. (What, like any superhero team didn't end up with weapons everywhere.) He wouldn't lie, the whole thing made him a little nervous, but he figured there was enough firepower on the team to keep Olive safe if need be. He also suspected she had enough sense to run if she had to.

"This shoots lasers," he explained, quickly showing her the controls on the laser gun. "Aim it at the thing's face or belly, don't hit Chase, and otherwise do whatever Nico says. Got it?"

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"Got it," she confirmed, now feeling a little uneasy -- it was one thing to say stuff, it was another to have a laser gun now. "Um. Be careful?" she added, glancing at him. Because, yes, she'd run away if she had to, but she knew Victor was going to be in the thick of it, and she got to play the worried girlfriend card for like two seconds here.

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"I always am," Victor said -- and that was even mostly true -- but if she was going to play worried girlfriend, he was going to lean in for a kiss before they went out. Just on that tiny chance one of them didn't come back.

From the beach, he heard the sounds of a fight in progress. Someone was saying something about a second snake.

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Olive was sort of scared, though she'd never admit it. If she was going to date a guy with powers and hang out with his friends with powers, she had to be willing to recognize that the stakes were real.

"Holy shit, did they just say there's another one?" she asked breathlessly, breaking the kiss in a panic.

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"Yeah," Victor said. "And that's our cue to get out there and kick snake butt."

If he was going to date a girl without powers and bring her to meet his friends with powers, he had to let her see how real the stakes were.

When they got onto the beach, one of the snakes was still holding Chase aloft as Karolina struggled in midair to get him free. From the way he snarked at her, it was safe to guess he felt more uncomfortable than truly threatened. Meanwhile, Klara had summoned vines to tangle around the second one, which Nico was blasting with magic that didn't seem to be doing much good.

"Split up," Nico ordered, with just the slightest raise of her eyebrows to show she was surprised to see Olive out there, but more people were always a good thing. "Vic, go help with the one who has Chase. Olive, back me up. Welcome to our world."

Edited Date: 2013-01-08 09:30 pm (UTC)

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"Thanks," Olive muttered, running over to position herself behind Nico, and aimed the laser gun at the snake wrapped in vines. "Jesus, the stuff you guys have to deal with really has to be seen to be believed."

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"Cookies, truth or dare, giant snakes," Nico sighed, before muttering another spell. "That's sort of how it goes around here. But at least we don't have homework."

In the background, Karolina and Victor had finally gotten the original snake to safely let go of Chase and go down, in that order. But the one in the vines -- though clearly losing strength from the blasts -- had laid another egg. The egg rapidly hatched into another snake, which scooped Victor up.

"If they keep reproducing like this, we're going to lose fast," he called grimly as he tried to shock the snake into dying or dropping him, preferably both. He was surrounded by the blue halo of energy that came with maxing out his powers.

Edited Date: 2013-01-08 10:00 pm (UTC)

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