A Scripta

Idaho walked into the apartment that Darcy rented for the two of them over at Kings Row.  Darcy looked up from the TV.  "You look like hell," he said.

 Idaho looked down at his uniform, slashed and bloody.  "Did my original come home like this?"

 "He wore armor."  Darcy got up and walked over to him.  "You seem to heal up all right, though."

 "It's not instant.  And the supplies I got from you and Pill help."

 "Pill?"

 "Oh, this lady Vic Johanson introduced me to.  She uses a bow and arrow.  She's really smart.  She's a little old."  He smiled at Darcy.  "She said that you were my father." 

 Darcy turned white, then blushed.  "I...uh, well, I guess, maybe yeah, you could say that."

 "I could call you Dad.  I don't know, it sounds weird calling you Darcy.  You made me."

 "I didn't... well, not--" He studied Idaho, saw Nate's old look of confusion on his face, and he felt a burst in his heart.  Darcy smiled.  "Yeah, you can refer to me as that if you want."

 Idaho nodded once, went over to the refrigerator.  "I was wondering, Pill was talking about a snake between my legs."

 Darcy almost choked.

 "It's what I think it is, isn't it?"  He turned around to face him, and pointed to his crotch. 

 "Yeah, yeah, it's what you think it is."

 "Oh..."  He blushed.  "Now why am I so embarrassed?"

 "Nate was like that too," Darcy said.  "Discussed girls and he blushed all the time.  What about... that snake between your legs?"

 "What about it?"

 "Is it uncomfortable?"

 He shook his head.  "No."

 "Sometimes if you even talk about the snake it'll get uncomfortable."

 "I just know that when people talk about some things with me, I get embarrassed, but I don't know why."

 Darcy approached him.  "It's mostly a cultural thing, which might be embedded in your genes or your brain, I have no idea.  Some doctor somewhere would be so excited to tear you apart."

 Idaho blinked.  "That doesn't sound good."

 "It's not meant to.  You're going to keep doing what you're doing, do the hero stuff, save the damsels and get cats down from trees."

 "Nobody's asked me to do that yet."

 "They will."  He stood in front of Idaho.  "You'll see a lot of weird shit, Nate."  He smiled gently.  "I think you'll accept it a lot better than the Nate I knew did."

 "How do I know what's weird and what's not?"

 Darcy laughed.  "Then you won't have a problem!"