bury me in straight laced shoes, a box backed suit and a stetson hat

[attitude]

It really said something about how much there was to do on Tabula Rasa, that Faye Valentine had offered herself up as a prize for a volunteer auction. With gambling being as fickle of a beast as it was, Faye had no way of guaranteeing that someone decent would win her as their prize. But maybe a part of her just didn't care anymore, would have been fine even with the dregs of island society opposite her at the dinner table, just as long as it meant having something interesting to deal with for a night. That was why she hadn't bothered asking around after this 'Felix Unger' character, figuring that it was best left to her vivid imagination until the night of the date.

And meanwhile, she could at least settle on a dress, an understated skin-toned fabric accented with a bright azure belt, the pattern sweet and feminine. While it was perfectly possible that Mr. Unger had seen her walking about the island in her hot pants and wouldn't be fooled by the facade, Faye preferred to put on a show, whatever would get her the most yield. Fine dining didn't exist on the island, and clothing she could get with enough pleading at the box's side, but Faye would have settled for plain old chivalry right then.

She waited by the entrance of the Winchester, having left a note in Felix's inbox to meet her there rather than at her doorstep. Hopeful she was (barely), but foolish Faye wasn't.

If he wasn't the type of man to take on a second date, she wasn't going to help him try.

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[attitude]

There was awe in his eyes, and an eagerness to learn, not unlike the one that Faye had seen in her own so many years ago as a girl, when she'd stared into the mirror, or even seeing the half-reflection of her own expression whenever she stared through the window and out towards the stars above. A part of Faye wanted to quash it, to tell him that there was nothing glamorous about life in space, nothing that differed from the way that life was when everyone was shacked to earth. But another wanted him to keep that belief and dream, no harm and no foul if he stayed on this island, the true skies being unreachable from Tabula Rasa's shores.

Just barely, she managed to hang onto the latter.

"Not that I know of," she considered, reaching out for her glass to take a sip of water. "There weren't really lots of life forms on Venus or Mars when people first landed. Maybe some microscopic organisms caught in Mars' ice caps, but nothing beyond that. Some species changed after being migrated over, of course."

[oscaroscaroscar.livejournal.com]

"Like mutants, I know about those, too! I guess that makes sense," Felix said, nodding in spite of his mild disappointment. But still, Mars!

"If aliens existed as close by as all that, more people would probably have heard of them, huh? The Skrulls came from Tarnax IV," he explained, before dropping his voice to a whisper as if this next part was some reputation-compromising secret that had to be kept under wraps. "I looked it up after the fact."

[attitude]

"Like mutants," Faye nodded, her gaze momentarily growing distant. Not that she'd met many mutants of the sort that she knew lived around the island, the kind that were different from birth. Most of the mutations she'd ever come across were the result of radiation, of proximity to any number of technologies that people had never been fully equipped to deal with yet, but had been forced to for one reason or another. "Probably nothing that couldn't have happened on Earth if we'd let it, but well, things get chaotic once another planet's thrown into the mix."

Leaning in, her forehead knit as Felix continued to babble on— and strangely, she found she didn't mind. (What that said about the company she'd had since arriving on the island, she didn't want to know.)

"So... what are Skrulls, exactly?"

[oscaroscaroscar.livejournal.com]

"Oh, they're terrible!" Felix exclaimed, although this fact only seemed to make him even more excited about the prospect of them. Certainly, he got more and more theatrical as his explanation went on. "Green skin, terrible complexions, and they can change their forms as easily as a set of sheets! You never know who could be one of them. And they can give themselves almost any paranormal ability you can think of. Growing to immense proportions, shooting lasers, you name it! Bent on domination and fueled by some religious fervor, there's nothing to be done with them -- but fight."

That had been a really strange day, in retrospect.

[attitude]

There was nothing quite like that living back on Mars, Faye thought to herself, intrigued in spite of herself. Plenty of people went under the knife to change their appearances, all the better for skirting the law and getting away with a life of crime, but there was always a consequence. Pain, money, any number of things forcing the option out of the hands of most. To think of people who were capable of changing appearance as readily as their clothes was unsettling, at best.

"And you came across these people in your everyday life?" Faye asked, brows knit. "Didn't people do anything about it? I can't imagine most people would have liked having Skrulls around."

[oscaroscaroscar.livejournal.com]

"Oh, they certainly weren't a part of everyday life," Felix was quick to assure her, lest she grow too concerned. "This was a special occasion. They were launching a full-fledged invasion! It was up to us humble Earthlings to beat them back." Eagerly, he raised his fists in a gesture that in no way managed to fully capture the sheer savagery of the battle that had ensued. The fact that it hadn't technically occurred in his world or that it may have only been a dream hardly mattered; in the moment, in the thick of it, it had been life-or-death, kill-or-be-killed!

[attitude]

She wondered if he would take offense to the fact that laughter was already bubbling from her lips, Faye feeling utterly incapable of taking them back. There was something very theatrical about the way that Felix behaved, and that theatricality, while something that hunters did occasionally turn to if they felt themselves clever enough to deal with the consequences of calling attention to themselves, generally wasn't seen around people who had to fight for the very survival of their own. Resting her forehead against her palm, Faye shook her head.

"I'm finding it a little difficult to picture," she admitted, her laughter more amused than derisive. "Surely you didn't beat them back with a mere shake of your fist."

[oscaroscaroscar.livejournal.com]

Undeterred by her laughter (if he was going to begrudge a pretty girl for laughing at a dinner date, he would have far bigger problems than the odd alien invasion to deal with), Felix barreled on. "Of course not," he said, shaking his head before he grinned. "I had an electro-arrow!"

[attitude]

With a hint of a laugh still on the tip of her tongue, Faye shook her head, trying— and how very strange it was— to take him seriously. The very thought of Felix fighting alien invaders with a rather hefty weapon was one that couldn't quite materialize fully in Faye's mind. It sounded quite as unlikely as anything else did on the island, and so she rested her chin against her palm, wondering if perhaps he was simply taking advantage of the thought that there was little way to prove his story, one way or the other. And how rude it would have been, too, for a date to point out the seeming impossibility of it.

"So you... have an interest in archery?" she asked, trying to be generous and lending him the benefit of the doubt. What harm did it do her? "And to think, shapeshifting aliens having a weakness in electricity. How'd you tell the aliens apart from everyone else?"

[oscaroscaroscar.livejournal.com]

"Since they were launching their final invasion, they'd apparently stopped caring about fitting in as much," Felix explained, leaning back in his seat a bit. "Of course, some of the good guys looked a little less than human, as well, so there was still a bit of work in determining who was what, but I like to think I acquitted myself admirably. Although the arrow wasn't mine, it was given to me by a very close friend of mine since I'd arrived unarmed."

[attitude]

"Sounds like a blast," Faye remarks, and she honestly can't even deny that right now. Everything about this island is so quiet, so small, confining and quaint, that Faye wants nothing more than to get away from it and find something that she can snatch onto again. Something exciting, even if only a fraction of what her life once was. Even a story told by a man who seems more meant to watch over a dry-cleaning store is better than what she usually has, and that's something Faye doesn't want to dwell on for very long.

The waitress arrives with their food, Faye pulling herself back with a raised brow, vaguely interested. "And I assume that you fended them off. Or helped to, seeing as how you're here and don't seem very traumatized by the entire incident. Those who aren't victors don't speak... quite so freely."

[oscaroscaroscar.livejournal.com]

"Too true, too true," Felix agreed, as solemn as one could be with a fork in his hand. "It wasn't my first rodeo, but I doubt I'd be able to smile at the memories quite so readily if I'd been on the wrong side of the first one, either. But at the end of the day, nobody messes with Felix Unger's city and gets away with it!"

Even strange alternate future versions of it.