Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?

[Veiled Malice]

"Alright, Mr X-Ray Vision, come to bed."

Ren's eyes bugged out slightly. He had once again forgotten that mumbling under his breath while anywhere around Lynn was no guarantee of keeping said comments to himself. It was getting to be something of a habit with him. Scratch that - it had been a habit for a while now. But to her credit, it appeared she was taking it in stride.

Clean being a fairly constant state for Ren - not having sweat glands was good like that - there wasn't really anything else he needed to do before bed. With none of the trepidation he would have shown earlier in their relationship, he slipped in between the sheets next to Lynn and allowed the surprisingly comfortable bed cushion him. Pity it wasn't bigger, but given his current proximity to Lynn... he wasn't going to complain.

He slipped one arm around his lady and pulled her closer, allowing her the space between his arm and chest in which to rest her head. He'd wait for her to drift off to get those books she was talking about. Then he smelled her hair, inhaled the scent of her essence... and found that occupying his mind was the last thing he could think of. He wanted to say something profound on the occasion of his first time in his girlfriend's bed, but the sight of the beautiful girl in his arms drove any thought of that out of his brain.

In the end, all he managed was, "Goodnight, Lynn."

"I love you."

[Heritage]

"Goodnight, Lynn."

"I love you."

Without opening her eyes, she reaches up and runs her fingers thorugh his soft synthetic hair; so strange to think that this sweet boy, who holds her and loves her for what she is, is not 'real', at least the way most people define the word. But she knows the truth, that the soul that dances in his metal heart like an electric flame is as real as any other man's, and that's what matters.

She smiles and murmurs while half-asleep, "I love you, too, Pinocchio; you've always been a real boy to me."

[Veiled Malice]

Boredom.

Boredom was Ren's constant enemy during the nighttime hours. Since he couldn't sleep, he had to find something to occupy his mind while the rest of the city did. Recently, he had found the wonders of "clubbing", or hopping from bar to bar and simply watching people at play. Ren had made a few friends doing just that - people seemed to be intrigued by his rather exotic features and... interesting... outlook on the superhero community.

Though at first he'd been wary of talking to people beyond those who knew about him already, after a couple nights and fascinating conversations with surprisingly knowledgeable people, Ren was forced to conclude that normal people weren't all that bad. He still didn't know what would happen should they find out he was one of those people that flew through the air and lifted up cars like they weighed nothing.

He didn't care to find out, either. Beyond Lynn, who was now privy to all his darkest secrets, there was no one else he could talk with, and more and more, Ren was finding he liked being amongst people. He would never win any awards for his oratory abilities, but even conversing about the most inane of subjects helped him forget all his troubles. It took him back to a far happier time; one before the pain that had driven him to his current course.

Ren stopped to consider that. What was his course now? What was his purpose? Up until recently, his all-consuming desire was to cure himself and return to his life as a human. He had done a lot of questionable things in pursuit of that elusive cure, a lot of things he wasn't happy about now that he could objectively view them.

Now that he was with Lynn, someone that accepted him for what he was, a cure didn't seem that important anymore. For the longest time, he thought he couldn't live the way he was; that no one could possibly love a machine. Lynn changed all that, though. She didn't care about his criminal past, and she didn't care that he wasn't human.

There was still a problem with his body, though. Okay, several things, but one in particular. Ren was immortal. Lynn was not.

...He would have to change that.

In the meantime, though, Ren needed to wake the lump named Lynn up. All throughout the night, she had maintained a death grip on his torso, precluding him being able to read any of her proffered book materials. He had to settle for browsing his favorite websites using his on board computer connection. That had gotten old after a while, though, so he tried out a couple online games. That "Breakout" one had occupied his attention for a long time.

Finally, eight in the morning rolled around, and Ren decided Lynn had slept in enough. "Hey," he whispered in her ear, receiving no response. "Hey, sleepyhead, wake up," he said a bit louder. She shifted slightly, but nothing beyond that. In lieu of actually yelling at her, Ren shook her shoulder lightly, hoping that would do the trick.

[Heritage]

Finally, eight in the morning rolled around, and Ren decided Lynn had slept in enough. "Hey," he whispered in her ear, receiving no response. "Hey, sleepyhead, wake up," he said a bit louder. She shifted slightly, but nothing beyond that. In lieu of actually yelling at her, Ren shook her shoulder lightly, hoping that would do the trick.

Lynn's initial response to Ren's shaking is to bury her face deep in her pillow, but after a few seconds some muttered words are mumbled and she lifts her head up. Her short hair sticks up in all sorts of random directions (it slowly reverted to its normal length once she fell asleep), and she's only squinting through one eye, but Bedhead Lynn is still pretty darn adorable.

"Murshablen." (At least that's what it sounds like.)

She continues to squint as she peers about the room, a surprisingly intense level of scrutiny, until she notices the position of her arms, and finally blinks both eyes awake as her face crumples with regret.

"Oh god; tell me I didn't hold you prisoner all night long."

[Veiled Malice]

"Oh god; tell me I didn't hold you prisoner all night long."

"I could tell you that," he said, a grin working it's way onto his surprisingly relaxed face. "But I'd be lying."

Ren chuckled and mussed Lynn's hair a bit, incidentally helping the stuff stay down on one side. "Don't worry about it. No blood means no circulation to cut off. And I figured if I ever really needed to, I could try and pop my body in half and try to put everything back together again."

He went through the motions of looking introspective, but in his current position, it came off as more jocose than anything else. "Of course, it would be a pain the butt... and other places... to put myself back together, so maybe it's just as well I didn't do that, hmm?"

Now that she was fully awake, Ren slid himself out of bed after giving her a good morning hug and stretched out his muscles. Even if he didn't need to, it still felt good. At full extension, his shirt pulled up enough so that it gave Lynn a fairly unobstructed view of his taut belly out to the hips. Muscles rippled under his flesh like well-knotted cords, and even though it might have been artificial, it still looked tantalizingly real.

"Mrm..." he groaned as he reached up towards the ceiling. "Doesn't matter if I don't need it, that always feels great."

[Heritage]

Ren chuckled and mussed Lynn's hair a bit, incidentally helping the stuff stay down on one side. "Don't worry about it. No blood means no circulation to cut off. And I figured if I ever really needed to, I could try and pop my body in half and try to put everything back together again."

He went through the motions of looking introspective, but in his current position, it came off as more jocose than anything else. "Of course, it would be a pain the butt... and other places... to put myself back together, so maybe it's just as well I didn't do that, hmm?"

Lynn raises an eyebrow at this rather odd discussion, then sits up in bed. "Y'know when I was little, my big sister had all these Barbie and Ken dolls; I don't know if they have them in Japan, but they must have something similar, y'know, like little dolls for girls to dress up and brush their hair, and to imagine getting married or whatever?"

She rolls her eyes and smiles evilly. "So anyway, Eddi didn't want to me to play with them, because they were her dolls, so every chance I could, I would sneak into her room and make all the Barbies and all the Kens do these things I'd seen on HBO, when I was supposed to be asleep? All these little orgies all over the room."

She actually cackles with delight at the memory, then blissfully sighs. "So now, after all these years, I finally have a Ken of my own, and it's a lot better than the ones she had.

"Mrm..." he groaned as he reached up towards the ceiling. "Doesn't matter if I don't need it, that always feels great."

Lynn pretends to look at the deliciously-exposed stomach with only vague interest, which takes considerable willpower on her part. "Huh, well will you look at that; an access panel. Better open 'er up and have a look." She extends her pinky and bends forward. "I'll just use my little hex wrench to undo this screw..." And then she pokes him in the navel with it and starts wiggling it around like crazy, praying to God that robots can be ticklish :twisted:

[Veiled Malice]

She actually cackles with delight at the memory, then blissfully sighs. "So now, after all these years, I finally have a Ken of my own, and it's a lot better than the ones she had.

Ren chuckled heartily at that. Though it was a bit odd. If anyone else had dared to call him a robot or a doll, he'd have to restrain himself from correcting the person in a rather painful manner. But with Lynn, it was more like a playful pet name; a secret both shared.

Lynn pretends to look at the deliciously-exposed stomach with only vague interest, which takes considerable willpower on her part. "Huh, well will you look at that; an access panel. Better open 'er up and have a look." She extends her pinky and bends forward. "I'll just use my little hex wrench to undo this screw..." And then she pokes him in the navel with it and starts wiggling it around like crazy, praying to God that robots can be ticklish :twisted:

Although Ren had never been particularly ticklish, even as a human, getting a finger in one's belly button would cause even the toughest man to jerk.

He squawked indignantly, and batted Lynn's hand away with a cry of "Hey!" Then a wicked expression came over his face. "So that's the way you want it, huh? Well, take this, meat creature!" So saying, Ren lunged atop the bed and Lynn in fashion that would have done a jungle cat proud and began to tickle the girl mercilessly. "It's the revenge of the robots! Resistance is futile! Give up and join the Nanocollective!" Ren grinned the grin of the victorious at his girlfriend. "Where's your magic kitty powers now, puny hu-man?"

[Heritage]

He squawked indignantly, and batted Lynn's hand away with a cry of "Hey!" Then a wicked expression came over his face. "So that's the way you want it, huh? Well, take this, meat creature!" So saying, Ren lunged atop the bed and Lynn in fashion that would have done a jungle cat proud and began to tickle the girl mercilessly. "It's the revenge of the robots! Resistance is futile! Give up and join the Nanocollective!" Ren grinned the grin of the victorious at his girlfriend. "Where's your magic kitty powers now, puny hu-man?"

Lynn is crazy ticklish, and squeals and giggles manically under her boyfriend's playful attack until tears run down her eyes and she's a bit red in the face.

"Gyah-ha-ha! Stop, oh please stop! Huh-ha-hah! Oh God, oh I can't breathe! Ahuh!"

She takes a deep breath and lets it out once the assault subsides, but a few more giggles leak out as she just lies there panting, looking up at the smiling face of the man she loves.

"Mmm, so now you know my secret weakness...actually, I do have a secret weakness, but I-" Lynn stops and wipes her eyes as she becomes suddenly very serious. "I haven't told anyone about it, actually; I don't know why it happens, it just...makes me all weak..."

She frowns and turns her head away, gnawing on her knuckle.

[Veiled Malice]

She frowns and turns her head away, gnawing on her knuckle.

"What is it?" Ren asked her, cocking his head to the side at her sudden reluctance. She had never been shy about talking about herself before.

He slid himself off of Lynn so he was in a position more conducive to conversation. "If you don't want to talk about it, that's fine, but it might help..." He shrugged. "But this... weakness... of yours? You know you can trust me not to tell anyone, or take advantage of it."

All of a sudden, his eyes lit up with a sudden flash of insight. "All right, how about this - I tell you my secret weakness and you tell me yours, how about that? For me, it's EMP, or an electromagnetic pulse. I know it's not exactly a usual occurrence, and the most common source would be a nuclear weapon going off, which would kinda negate the whole weakness thing due to... well, melting, but still, it's a weakness." He gave Lynn a lopsided smile. "So what's yours? Midnight snacks? Good luck charms? People named 'Ned'?"

Ren had the strangest feeling that Lynn was rubbing off on him.

[Heritage]

Grim smiles, a little tentative at first, but then it gets bigger and she nods as she sits up.

"Okay, fair enough; I will do my best not to activate any nukes around you, and in exchange I will share."

She worries at her lip for a bit, squeezing it between thumb and forefinger, as she looks off into space.

"Mine is a bit more common than EMPs, but still not something you see everyday, though sometimes I'm surprised how often I do encounter it."

She takes a deep breath and lets it out.

"It's iron; not steel or any other metal, just the heavy black stuff. Mostly I've run into it on older buildings, like on fire escapes or bars over windows, but also some sewer caps, the occasional frying pan. I makes me sick to my stomach just to be near it, and if I touch it, I get, like, this light-headed vertigo feeling, like I've been holding my breath too long, y'know? And then all the hair on my arms and the back of my neck stands up, and I get this gross taste in the back of my throat."

Lynn makes a 'bleagh' face and does a full body shudder.

"So yeah; iron plus Lynn equals ick, so don't forget it."

[Veiled Malice]

"That's it?" Ren said with a quirked eyebrow. "Just weak? You don't spontaneously combust? Or go blind? Or turn into a guy or something?"

"Sorry, but that was a lot of build up for nothing." Ren grinned and gave Lynn a wink as he slid off the bed to show he didn't mean it. "I mean, I bare my soul and tell you that something any physics major can build a working model of can shut me down just like that," he snapped his fingers, "and all you've got for me is 'I get weak from certain types of cookware?' That's lame, Lynn."

"And just for that, you get to pay for your own breakfast." He clapped his hands together and beckoned her out of the bed. "C'mon, kitty-cat. Time to get up. I know you puny hu-mans need food or you get all cranky from your bodies shutting down." As he spoke, Ren started gathering up his clothing and getting dressed.

[Heritage]

Ren's flippant attitude is a bit irritating, but she starts to get up anyway, her face somewhat clouded.

"You wouldn't think it was so funny if you felt it; maybe it's one of those things you can't express with words. Whatever."

Lynn shakes her head vigorously, and her hair falls perfectly into place, as though the artfully random spikes were created by a salon stylist. She steps into the bathroom, and thirty seconds later steps back out in sneakers, denim shorts and jet-black baby tee; she's also wearing a pair of oversize sunglasses that cover almost half her face. Lynn tosses her jammies on the bed and throws her messenger bag over her shoulder as she ambles over to the window.

"'Kay, let's go."

[Veiled Malice]

"Hey, don't be like that, Lynn," Ren said, trying to reassure the girl. "Listen, I didn't mean to make light of your weakness, but look at it from my point of view: all you said is it made you feel a little weak and that you'd get a weird taste in the back of your throat. I didn't - couldn't - know that there was more than that."

He was slowly starting to get a handle on Lynn's mood swings. She'd whip herself up into a frenzy and then calm down and feel sheepish afterwards. All he was doing now was keeping her from hitting that frenzied state. Ren finished putting his shoes on and walked over to stand next to her, a conciliatory look on his face. "I'm sorry for taking it lightly. I didn't mean to do that. Just tell me when it's something I might not understand right off, okay?"

He suddenly grinned down at the diminuative girl. "I am a guy, you know. Sometimes we need to have these kinds of things explained to us."

[Heritage]

"I am a guy, you know. Sometimes we need to have these kinds of things explained to us."

Lynn stops and pulls down her shades, the better to glare over them. "Yeah, no kidding." She sighs and flips her sunglasses up on top of her hair, and has a seat on top of the dead radiator by the window.

"I'm sorry to be such a hag all the time; it just felt...like I was sharing this big thing with you, and then it's like milk shoots out your nose or something." She sighs again, nods to herself, and then looks her boyfriend right in the eye.

"It feels like death, when I'm around it."

She starts scuffing a patch of natty carpeting with her shoe. "One time when I was maybe five or six, my brother was chasing me around our old house, and we're both laughing and having a great time. But then I slip and my hand goes right through one of the French doors."

She holds up her left hand and a frightening simulation of the old injury appears; there is no actual blood, but the skin between her middle and ring fingers seems to split almost halfway up the back of her hand, forming an angry red gash. The pale young woman stares down at it calmly.

"There was blood everywhere, and I mean everywhere. We were home alone; my parents had taken Eddi to ballet class, so we were horsing around totally unsupervised. And I tell Benjie that I'm starting to feel all cold and tingly, so naturally he freaks out, right? And he's going, 'Oh my god, Mom's gonna kill us, oh my god!'"

And here she stops, and there is a touch of pride in her voice as she continues.

"But then my brother Ben...he whips off his belt and wraps it around my arm real tight. And he tells me to hold it while he grabs the phone to call 911."

Lynn gets very quiet for a moment, then she holds up her unmarred hand and smiles, though her eyes are slightly moist. "And that's how iron makes me feel." She laughs and wipes her eyes. "I think I told it better this time."

[Veiled Malice]

Ren propped himself up against the wall as Lynn ran through her story. He listened carefully, nodding along with her a crucial junctures, then knelt down before her and took both her hands in his. "Lynn, I really respect the courage it took you to tell me that story. I know it must have been painful for you, physically and emotionally, to go through something like that. And I fully understand the allegory. So try to keep that in mind when I tell you this:"

"You are the most depressing person I have ever known."

He shakes his head and gave her a helpless expression. "I love learning about you, I really do, but so far, all I've heard is that you nearly killed someone, got beaten as a child, almost got... you know... and now that your arm got shredded when you were younger."

"Do you know what the happiest time I've spent with you was, absent watching you sleep last night?" His eyes sparkled slightly as Ren pulled in closer to her and whispered, "When you told me about the stuffed animal you had as a child. That one wonderful moment when your eyes lit up as I showed you the little thing I'd bought for you. That was the happiest moment... I think I've ever known, maybe even more than when you hugged me the first time I stepped out of my armor - the first time you saw the real me."

Ren's face crinkled slightly and he frowned and looked away. "It's not that I don't want to hear about your entire life - I do. I really do. But every time you tell me about some horror you experienced, it makes me depressed too. And I've been depressed for a very long time."

Slowly, Ren turned to face Lynn again and kissed her on the forehead. "You're a very beautiful girl, Lynn Epstein, and you're all the more beautiful when you smile. So let's put the doom and gloom on the backburner for the time being, huh?"

[Heritage]

At first Lynn is shocked by the frankness of Ren's comments, but by the time he's finished she's smiling, and it is indeed a beautiful smile.

"Okay. Message received."

She bobs her head a few times in agreement, then gives him a mischievous look. "Of course, I think of it as a happy story, because I don't die in the end; I love the ones where I don't die." She plants both her hands on her knees and leans back. "Okay, I will give you a happy story from my life, that doesn't involve rape, death and broken glass, and then we can go."

Lynn starts stroking an imaginary beard as though deep in thought. "Happy story, happy story...gosh, I keep thinking of all these horrible things I've seen and done; where do I keep all my happy stories?" She gives her boyfriend a wink and then sits up a bit straighter. "Okay, I've got one." Then she raises a finger and wags it. "Technically this is after I ran away, but it's all good stuff, no bad." She takes a deep breath, then begins.

"One of the things I was determined to do when I finally left home was to go to California and see the Pacific Ocean; I watched all these shows on TV growing up, and seen a lot of movies, and it just looked awesome."

Lynn claps her hands together and rests her chin on her steepled fingers. "So! I rode the rails out West, across the Rocky Mountains, which are beyond beautiful, by the way; we seriously have to go some time. Aaaaand I end up in LA, which is way too sunny for me, or at least it was back then, when I was in my 'runaway goth' phase."

She laughs and shifts herself a few years younger, a bit more scrawny, with cartoonish circles of dark makeup around her eyes. "Screw you man, I'm living my own life now! Stupid sun!" She shakes her first up at the ceiling in mock-outrage, and then shifts back to her more summery look. The black baby tee is now bright orange and sports a picture of Beaker from the Muppet Show; even Lynn's clothes are in a better mood.

"So I get out there, and I walk and walk and walk, and finally I make it to Venice Beach, and there all these blonde girls in tank tops on Rollerblades zipping around, and everyone's tan with perfect teeth, and I am pissed off. It's like all the popular kids in my old high school, but turned up to eleven."

She becomes one of those girls now, right down to the tank top, Rollerblades and a mock-iPod clipped to the belt of her Daisey Dukes; she closes her eyes and bops along, humming and snapping her fingers before becoming Lynn of the Beaker shirt once more.

"Yikes! So basically I'm in hell, right? It's a disaster. So I clomp on over to the sand and drop down to my knees in utter misery like a little drama queen." Lynn stops and waves her hands. "I know what you're thinking, but this is a happy story, I swear; we're getting to the happy part right now!"

She smiles and rubs her hands together. "So I'm sitting there on the sand, thinking my crappy thoughts, and I start, like, digging in the sand. Y'know, idly with my fingers. And then this little kid runs up to me, maybe six or seven, and he drops down to the sand right next to me, and he looks down at me digging, and then looks up at my face, and says, 'Can I play, too?' And it's like this cloud that was hanging over my head just seems...so stupid, y'know? So pointless."

Lynn closes her eyes and smiles at the memory. "That was such an awesome day." She opens her eyes and spreads her arms wide. "And you should have seen the castle we made, dude; it was freakin' huge!"

The small girl drums her fists on her legs then stands up smartly. "So, I hope you can file that under 'Lynn's Happy Stories', because I have a bunch of them, and I want you to collect 'em all."

[Veiled Malice]

At the end of her story, Ren had to clap at the performance. "Oh man, that was great! You should go into theater or something. I especially liked the little Goth girl." He stood up from his position on the bed and stroked his chin thoughtfully. "Okay, since you told me a happy story about you, I guess I should tell you one about me."

He thought hard for a couple seconds, then snapped his fingers suddenly. "Ah! Got it! Okay, you remember that kid I told you about, Daisuke? Well, this is about the first time I met him."

"At the time, I was in a deep depression. I had been out in the junkyards for a while by then, and seriously wasn't looking foreword to hosting any company, as evidenced by my fashion sense at the time. I looked a little something like this." He pulled one of the sheets off the bed and cloaked himself in it, glaring out of the narrow slit created for his eyes. "Hey, you get to shapeshift, but I have to use props."

"I kinda told you about this part already, but bear with me. Anyway, there I was, Mr. Gloom, sitting atop my kingdom of junk, when my territory got invaded by a gang of kids. About ten of them, all homeless runaways, a lot like you, I guess." He pulled back the hood, revealing his head. "Eh, that's not really working for me."

"Like I said, I wasn't big on human interaction back then, so when they first showed up, I suited up for the occasion. Armor, guns, the whole nine. I dropped in on the poor kids like a hammer dropped from the sky and just started screaming at them that this was my territory, and they should get out before I killed them all... blah, blah, insert horrible threat here." Ren shrugged, and a little more of the sheet slipped off of him.

"Needless to say, I scared the ever-loving crap out of the lot of them. Everyone scattered to the four winds, except for this one scrawny-looking thing, probably the smallest one there. He was scared, yeah, but he refused to run away. He just looked up at me with this… hell; I can’t even describe it now. It was like halfway between terror and reverence.†Ren chuckled and sat back down on the bed. A little more of the sheet sloughed off, leaving one arm and shoulder exposed. “I couldn’t even tell if it was a boy or a girl, that’s how androgynous this kid was.â€Â

“Then he got this hard look on his face and yelled, ‘Hey! What do you think you’re doing, scaring people like that?’†Ren relayed the boy’s rant in a higher pitched register, trying to imitate the boy. “He went on, telling me that I should be helping people like him or somesuch thing. There I was, hovering over the kid, more than capable of smashing him flat, and he’s chewing me out. It was so weird that I just stood there and took it with a stupid look on my face.â€Â

“Good thing he couldn’t see my face,†Ren said, shaking his head ruefully.

Ren shook himself out of his linen prison entirely and stood back up. “It’s not really a happy story, I guess, at least not like yours, but that kid standing up to me did a lot to help me out in the future.†He considered Lynn carefully. “You remind me of him a little. Weird sense of humor, ran away from home, both of you helped me out in a time when I really needed it…â€Â

He grinned. “’Course, you’re slightly more beautiful than he was, so that’s where the similarities stop.†Ren stepped up to the window. “So, are you ready to go?â€Â

[Heritage]

Lynn listens to Ren's story, and as she does she finds she's less interested in the details of the events themselves than by the emotions that flicker across his face as he tells it; each little spark of joy or twinge of regret thrills her in a way she can't quite explain.

Ren shook himself out of his linen prison entirely and stood back up. “It’s not really a happy story, I guess, at least not like yours, but that kid standing up to me did a lot to help me out in the future.†He considered Lynn carefully. “You remind me of him a little. Weird sense of humor, ran away from home, both of you helped me out in a time when I really needed it…â€Â

He grinned. “’Course, you’re slightly more beautiful than he was, so that’s where the similarities stop.†Ren stepped up to the window. “So, are you ready to go?â€Â

She nods and smiles. "Yeah, we're good to go here." As she steps up to the window, she looks over her shoulder back at Ren. "So I remind you of a little boy, huh? Maybe I should start packing some of those California curves all the time, just in case you forget who you're dealing with here." She winks and pulls down her shades as she hops up onto the sill, crouches down to stick her head out the window and peer down at the street seven stories below.

"So I guess I have a lot more say in where we eat now, right? I mean, of the two of us, I'm the one with the fully-functional digestive system."

[Veiled Malice]

“…Maybe I should start packing some of those California curves all the time, just in case you forget who you're dealing with here."…

Ren shrugged impassively. “Couldn’t hurt.†He then grinned and gave her a quick hug from behind. “But it’s not necessary. I could say something really corny right now, and say that I like you just the way you are, but I won’t. You’ll just have to take it on faith that I’m not looking for a girlfriend that’ll change herself on a whim to suit my interests on that particular day.â€Â

The grin turned wolfish all of a sudden. “Of course, if you did it for yourself, that’d be fine with me…â€Â

"So I guess I have a lot more say in where we eat now, right? I mean, of the two of us, I'm the one with the fully-functional digestive system."

“Oh, my digestive system is more than fully-functional, missy,†Ren replied with a pat on his flat belly. “Do you know how much excess fuel you waste? Only ten percent of what you eat is transferred into useful energy. I, on the other hand, being a far superior specimen of life - inorganic though I am – utilize all of the energy inherient in everything I eat, thereby providing me with…†At this point, Ren realized Lynn had already clambered out the window in an attempt to get away from his pontificating.

“Hey! Wait up!â€Â