Katie idly scrolls through her phone as she sits at the bus stop. Hunger gnaws at her stomach. She internally debates whether to shell out for takeout or save money and heat up something from the freezer. Her bones feel like they're made of lead. She wants to lay down, but knows the bus will just arrive as soon as she does.
"I love this thing. Pity it's too risky to kidnap Siemen and give him parts. He'd blow up my base."
"If I could, I'd be working day and night to design gadgets for you." She doesn't know where that came from. Work is one of her, like, top 5 least favorite things, but Mo's presence and adorable smile have made her slip into sub mode.
"Aww, you're too precious for me to experiment with preternaturality-inducing serums on you, but maybe one day."
"I didn't actually become preternatural on purpose, you know! Most of us are born this way."
"Didn't mean you needed the island fortress and army of goons and uplifted belugas and whatnot. Or to balloon up to the size of a baby hippo, either." She flirtatiously slaps Mo's meaty thigh.
"My beautiful boiled balut, baby hippos weigh less than you when they're new. But yes, I took what I was given and live my best life with it."
"I mean, presumably you don't weigh more than an adult hippo, so there has to be some point in the growth process where the hippo weighs the same amount as you, and I'd be willing to bet it's closer to "baby" than "adolescent"."
Katie looks up from her phone. "Also, now that I've looked up what it is, I'm a little disturbed at being compared to balut. Are those actually good?"
"Anyways, like, it's difficult for me to even conceptualize or believe that you used to be skinny. I wonder if one day I'll be like that."
"People will look at you and say 'aha, she's got her own zip code, I'm not sure she even has ribs in there'."
"They will tell you your shoelaces are untied and you will not be able to check. You shall have more chins than Chinatown."
"Ok I'm horny but I'm not stupid, now you're just directly cribbing Fat by "Weird" Al Yankovic."