Stars over the Omniverse

[The Future Warrior]

With the guidance of her trusty map, and her brisk jogging pace (which got her several stares and unvoiced questions as to why she didn't just summon a vehicle or something, as it would have been so much quicker; the poor fools didn't realize the unholy terror that having someone like Graowr at the controls of anything resembling a vehicle would be) it didn't take her terribly long to reach her destination. About half an hour, give or take, with the added distance her aimless wandering had added to the equation. But eventually she reached the elevator.

And was promptly forced to wait for it. Staring up at it, expectantly, with the image of the closed doors reflected in the lens of her scouter. "...elevators..." she said aloud, quietly. "...I don't like elevators."

"You and me both, kid," came the grumbling voice of someone next to her. An insectoid-looking man, with four extra arms and a second set of eyes, in a raggedy-looking business suit. "Every day it's like this...just waitin' on the damn elevator. Makes my mandibles itch."

The small, blue majin's gaze slowly swiveled from the elevator doors to look up at the man who had spoken up. "....what's a mandibles?"

In response, the aforementioned mouthparts of the insect-man clacked and flexed slightly, and he lifted one arm up to scratch at them.

"....ooooh." And Graowr turned back to look up at the elevator. "Those look like they make eating hard."

"Sometimes. 'Specially when things get stuck in 'em. Least I got thumbs. Poor Charlie."

"What happened to Charlie?"

"Nothin' happened to 'im. Just doesn't have thumbs, poor bastard."

"Oh." She went quiet for a moment, holding her hands up and imagining not having thumbs. "...that sucks."

"Six fingers a hand, and not one of 'em is a thumb. It sucks, alright."

"That's a lot of fingers."

"Sucks about the arms though. Lost three of 'em in an industrial accident." He held up the top and bottom-most arms on his left side and the bottom on his right. "All lopsided now. Kinda feel bad for him, but he manages."

The elevator chose that moment to finally arrive. And without further ado, they stepped on board, along with a few others who had stopped by. "That sounds bad," the blue one spoke up, in her infinite wisdom. "What kind of accident was it?"

"Funny story, really..." The elevator doors closed, and the entire contraption started on up on its trip to the upper tiers.

Word Count: 429
Character Count: 1982