"Never asked. Although to hear him tell it they don't actually like him that much. He doesn't tell people he's a mutant, thinks his job would be the first thing to give. Better doesn't mean perfect, especially when your job involves swatting kids around."

"He's not a very likable person. Or he very deliberately doesn't go out of his way to be, at any rate."

"Sue likes him a lot, but Sue's Sue. I like him fine but only to a point."

"I get along with him better than Dad does, but that's not saying much. Emily...has a sort of weird fascination with his skeleton. She doesn't obsess over it or anything but apparently she finds the kind of metal magnetically aesthetic."

"Buy her a marble of it to play with."

It depends on the variety. If carbonadium will do, I can get you a small sphere for $360.

"You know what, sure. This is probably not the most responsible life choice I have ever made but I don't really care."

Small carbonadium marble.

"That's cute."

"Jewelry's a convenient way to carry around small quantities of metal she's particularly attached to. She has a bracelet made of a few rolls of steel pennies she used to play with when we were little."

"I don't think I've ever seen a penny of any composition in my life."

"They're mostly made of copper, but this one year they made steel ones. I guess they've probably been phased out by the time spacefuture rolls around."

"Yeah. Physical cash is not so much a thing anymore at all. Although admittedly even if it were I wouldn't have seen any since I was six, it doesn't come up in space, everything's military issue."

"Huh. Well, I'd be a little surprised if there weren't still some in museums and private collections and whatever, but kudos. Even if it takes the concept of fiat currency to mildly amusing levels."

"I remember going to museums when I was little but if there were pennies in them they didn't make an impression. At that age I liked the shiny rocks and the dinosaurs."

"Shiny rocks and dinosaurs are fun!"

"Mm-hm. Especially flying dinosaurs."

"I think the flying ones aren't technically dinosaurs, but that doesn't make them less fun."

"Eh, I was like four, technical distinctions were a little lost on me for things I cared about on the level of 'neat, I want to ride it'."

"Alas, they do not let you ride the skeletons at museums."

"And the skeletons are shit at flying, too."

"Alas, it turns out that cutting costs by only including the bare bones of one's flying machine is an unwise investment."