TheTallest: My hair? ;) JK. Got ritual chew-out from Mommy dearest. Checking Ur art now...

Todd winced. He really was going to have to teach that girl's mother a thing or two. Maybe he could ask Pietro for advice.

The Tallest: Oh wow. U know, w correct BS, I could get U gallery showing. Ur textures R delish.

The boy blinked. He'd been expecting a 'That's cool' at best or an 'Ummm, what is it supposed to mean?' at the very worst. Not somethin' about a freakin' gallery. He wasn't that good...

FrogPrince: U are way 2 nice. ;; I'm an amateur. Thanks tho.

Todd gently swiveled his chair to reach for the blanket on his bed. He was getting cold. The treetops outside of his window were blowing. Great, a storm. He could hear the loose tiles on the roof rattling like dry bones.
Sara was being quiet. Todd waited patiently. Sometimes Big Blue went quiet without warning and Todd had never minded. Comfortable silences were a good thing in his book. This was kind of different, though... Todd was beginning to worry that he'd offended her or something when the window alerted him to a new message.

TheTallest: Um. Something weird is happening to my back. Got nasty red weals, blisters & sores.

Todd winced.

FrogPrince: Oh crap... did u put somethin on it?
The Tallest: Some lotion... doesn't help a whole lot.

Big Blue's away message disappeared indicating that he was back. Todd pounced on his name immediately.

FrogPrince: hey, blue, i gotta problem. maybe serious. can u help?
Big Blue: What seems 2 be the problem?
FrogPrince: friend of mine is also gifted. Any1 besides you?
Big Blue: All is clear. I am the only one in the room. how gifted exactly?

Big Blue was also a mutant as he'd told Todd online in what had been one hell of a rough but rewarding conversation. Knowing only he was a doctor who's opinion on mutants was a friendly one, Todd had taken the plunge to ask for advice when 'Tro had collapsed from lack of sleep. They had thought he was dying, but Blue had assured him - given the specs of the unconscious boy's power - that Todd's friend was merely in torpor(1) and would wake up in a few hours.
Todd had his suspicions who Big Blue was, and he was sure Big Blue had already guessed who he was, but neither mentioned it.(2)

FrogPrince: beautiful, witty, and she can change her skin 2 match the walls.
BigBlue: my, that's pretty gifted.
FrogPrince: i'm talking 2 much. her skin is all bubbling and blistered and stuff. was itching earlier, kinda like i do once a month.

Another window beeped at him. Todd brought it up and started typing even before he'd finished reading Sara's message.

The Tallest: hello? did I scare u off?
FrogPrince: no, sweetums, i'm looking something up for u.
The Tallest: don't have 2.

BigBlue: so she's an amphibious type? like a chameleon? hmm. might be scales.
FrogPrince:... . oO!!!
BigBlue: did i alarm u? poke
FrogPrince: scales, huh? so what can she do about it?
BigBlue: let them grow out like nature intended?
FrogPrince: okay... anything else? she's in pain! ;;
BigBlue: Calm thyself, Romeo. Lotion should do the trick, preferably calamine. Other than that, lots of water to drink. will probably be thirsty like u.
FrogPrince: thanx

FrogPrince: Yo Sara, u okay? drink lots of water and use calamine lotion. that's what the good doc says.
The Tallest: Who?!
FrogPrince: long story, but he's safe, i swear!

(1) Hummingbirds are known to go into something called 'torpor' at night - a deathlike sleep to make up for a day's fast work. I think Pietro would go through this if he didn't have enough energy and rest, but I doubt he'd do it every night considering how much sugar he eats to give him energy. The others naturally freaked when he went down like a sack of potatoes in the middle of a sentence.
(2) Completely and shamelessly nicked from -Fein!-

"Good thing I'm not allergic to calamine," Sara muttered. A quick visit to the medicine cabinet and, after locking her door, she was typing one-handed and patting pink sludge onto her back.

TheTallest: As long as Dr. doesn't come w blue police call box, I'm happy.
FrogPrince: Um. What?
TheTallest: Sorry. PBS joke.
FrogPrince: OH! Dr Who. I get it.
TheTallest: Surpriste! No offence, but most don't get NE refs.
FrogPrince: Got roomie who watches TV. Lots of TV. Seen a few eps.

There was a pause.

FrogPrince: What's with those pepper-shaker things?

Sara laughed.
"Are you playing around on that internet again?" Mom called.
"Just doing some research, Mom!" Sara shouted back. She had a few windows on project topics open for a quick AltTab to pretended innocence. Not that Mom often wanted to struggle past Sara's bookshelves to get a glimpse of Vincent's(1) screen anyway.
She resumed her chatting.

TheTallest: They're called "Daleks", dear. They're actually cyborgs of a sort from the planet Skaro. Inside those pepper-shakers is a globby, ugly mass of mutated flesh.
FrogPrince: Yummy (/sarcasm)
TheTallest: Oh aye, they're dead sexay.
TheTallest: Please forgive that mental image.
FrogPrince: Too late, yo. Just pictured mutant blob in bed w drumstick and Sarah Jane Smith.
FrogPrince: Eeeeeeeeeeewwwww...

Sara couldn't help laughing, but she tried to keep it under her breath.

TheTallest: ROFLMAOAPIMP! That's just too funny. Race U to conceptualize.
FrogPrince: RU kiddin? That's sick!

Drat. She'd offended.

TheTallest: Sorry, dear. Sometimes, sick things strike me as funny. I'll bin it if U think its bad.

There was a long silence. Sara winced as she patted calamine over her welty flesh. Maybe she'd scared him off.
While she waited, she storylined her site's featured animation. Once she had enough money to pay for another month of being homepaged, she'd take off the teasers and let the people see the whole episode.
This month's feature would show a certain overtall and androgynous character turning slowly into Godzilla.

TheTallest: M going 4 hot chocolate. If Ure gone by the time I'm back, I'll understand. Shall stick to technical questions in future.

Sara thought for another minute.

TheTallest: I meant it about the gallery. U R talented.

She crossed her fingers and went to the nearest kitchen for a cuppa. It was past ten already. A good thing, since Mom hated the idea of the help seeing Sara in her underduds and calamine. Sara made a big mug and watched the storm whip about outside. Perfect atmosphere for her projected animation.

(1) Most first computers are named "the Beast". Sara just took it one step further. And yes, one of her PC guardians is a dolly modelled on the character played by Ron Perlman.

"FuckfuckfuckfuckFUCK!" came grumbling down the hall, accompanied by the sound of running water.
"Hold still, Todd. Second to last one." Lance pulled the bloodied shard of glass out of the younger boy's inner arm.(1)
Fred stepped out of Todd's room with a tray full of glass and wooden splinters. "I knew we shoulda cut that branch back earlier."
Watching Todd rinse off his arm, Lance sighed. "Well, no use crying over it now. You'll have to sleep downstairs tonight, Todd."
"Man, but it's cold down there too!"
"It's better than a room with a busted window."
"True. I gotta see about Sara, though." Todd struggled one-handed to tie off the gauze until Lance helped him.
"Stuffed animal?" the older teen smirked.
"No!" snapped the now red-faced amphibian. "My girl, yo. She's probably worried about me!" Todd made a show of puffing out his chest and hopped down the hall to his room. The window had been covered with tarp, but Todd's room was still more or less a vacuum. The door slammed behind him, startling a squeak out of the boy.
"Sorry!" he called unhelpfully toward Pietro's room where the speedster had retired earlier with another headache.
Todd sat down at his computer, opened Sara's window and scrolled up to see what he'd missed.
"Aw, shit yo..." Hurriedly he typed an explanation.

FrogPrince: Yo, I'm back! Sorry for my silence, but it's nuts here. Window got busted by a branch an' the storm and I got the cuts on my arm to prove it.
FrogPrince: Yo, you forgive? Still there sweetie?

Please still be there? Please? He didn't know how long it had been since she'd gone for chocolate. He didn't get an away message, so perhaps he still had a chance.

(1) They aren't that deep. Don't worry.

Sara chugged her third cuppa and panted for breath. Damn. He wasn't kidding about being thirsty... She made a mental note to ask the good doctor about hydration per bodyweight while she mixed up some hot chocolate in her undertow mug(1).
It was half-empty by the time she got back to her room. And so was the economy-sized bottle of calamine lotion.
Todd was back.

TheTallest: Cuts? U sure Ure OK?
FrogPrince: Yeah, they're pretty shallow. Just bled everywhere.
TheTallest: U did vacuum the area, yes? Nothing worse than finding glass bits with tender portions.

Todd read that and boggled. The lighter portions of his crap were blown all over the boardinghouse and the heavier stuff was vacuum- proof... but all the same, the concept of cleaning his room alarmed him.
Then he thought about getting glass in his itchy, sensitive skin, and decided that cleaning wouldn't be that bad under the circumstances.

FrogPrince: Good thought, yo' Be five minutes.

Sara chuckled. Men.

TheTallest: Be sure to get everywhere you'd place yourself.
TheTallest: On the subject of dehydration, just HOW thirsty do you get? Usually my undertow mug lasts me some good hours. This time I'm down to a quarter left in under fifteen minutes.

She leaned back and sipped, imagining a bachelor's vacuuming job. He'd probably go over the bed and the path to his clothes and the computer and the door, forgetting the rest in his haste.

FrogPrince: Yes, Mom
FrogPrince: Um. Undertow mug?
TheTallest: It has such a large capacity that you have to watch out for the undertow.

Todd laughed out loud, his fingers already moving across the keys.

FrogPrince: LOL! I gotta get me one of them.
TheTallest: Hm. When's your B-day?

(1) PVP cartoon. www(dot)pvponline(dot)com(slash)archive(dot)php3?archive20010718