nexus_sages | (no subject)

Jon doesn't have to think very long before he realizes why that's an issue. "Because people tell little lies all the time, I imagine. Answers to 'how are you' is a pretty big one."

She nods, and is visibly relieved to not have to explain. "All those 'polite fictions' that help grease the wheels of civilization. Every story. Every advertisement. It starts to hurt after a while. I can only imagine how much worse telepathy is."

"I'll try to keep that in mind... fortunately we've never really had to hide who we are here. The first people Dad met in the Nexus knew he was going to be Superman before he ever did, so it seemed kind of dumb to lie about not being an alien." He frowns as a thought occurs to him. "If I had my superhero name already and introduced myself that way, would that count as a lie for you?"

"It really depends on the person. If you consider that as much your identity as the name you were given at birth, no. When you're growing into it, it might. Some people change their names but wear them like a mask, and that I can tell." For such a blunt instrument, the curse is surprisingly subtle sometimes.

"Don't worry about it. It's my burden, not yours."

"Sure, but that doesn't mean I have to be insensitive about it or anything. I don't make a habit of out of lying when I don't have to, anyway. Not much point when Mom knows exactly who took the cookies out of the cookie jar without anyone saying anything."

She dips her head in concession; she's not going to try to argue him out of being nice. "That must have made for some interesting conversations when report cards got sent home."

"Sort of, but we all figured out real early on that lying to Mom was worse than getting bad grades."

"Usually is, even when your mom isn't a telepath. They always find out."

"That's what I hear," he says with a little laugh.

((Just curious, how old is Jon? I'm guessing teenager?))

"It's a conspiracy of adults, you know. We really are plotting." Or they were when Mother was around.

((He's eighteenish at the moment, just started college. His timeline's kind of wibbly to put it mildly.))

"Yeah, eyes in the back of the head, and all that. To be fair, Dad's not psychic either and he knows stuff. But he's Superman, so that's his excuse."

((But is it wimey?))

"I didn't realize those kinds of perks came with the job. You're making me rethink all sorts of life choices now."

((Absolutely!))

"Oh yeah?" he asks, a little curious.

(( ヘ( ^o^)ノ＼(^_^ ) ))

"The government where I'm from once offered to sponsor me as a superhero. I'm not sure what exactly they thought I'd do in a fight, but, everyone who wanted to be one was welcome to try."

"Sponsor, like a corporate thing? Were they going to make you wear flag patches or company logos or something?"

"Well, 'sponsor' as in I would have been legally allowed to do it, as opposed to the people who were doing it illegally. I would have been answerable to a government agency. They would have trained me some, and told me to be good, and kept an eye on me so I didn't lie-detect people to death or something. But considering the head of the agency I would have answered to was the owner of a massive technology company and a fascist, and the next guy was the head of a different tech company and a creep, I have to admit, I'm a little surprised the logos didn't come up."

"Oh." That's a lot less amusing than what he was picturing. "Something like that happened in my universe too. It didn't go well. My parents don't talk about it much but I did learn about it in school."

This is the joy of talking with a literalist: she frequently misses the joke.

"Registration is too bad of an idea to not share, I guess. I'm glad you don't have to deal with that."

"Me too. There are a handful of heroes in the League who were publicly 'unmasked' during the whole thing and that's not really something that can be undone. Dad's never told me any specifics, but he had that happen to him once and had to travel back in time to stop it because it went really bad on him."

Verity winces in sympathy. "Things didn't go so great when we tried it, either. Like, predictably bad. Sometimes you really have to wonder why people think this sort of thing isn't going to lead to someone getting shot."

"Sadly, I'm pretty sure some people who were pushing for it were counting on 'capes' getting shot. At least one person did die because of it."

"This was a 'capes' elderly aunt. Not even someone who had a choice about any of this ever."

"That's even worse. At least people who choose this kinda life know what sort of risks they're taking. Someone who is just friends with or related to a superhero has nothing to do with that. They might not even know."

"Yeah." She gives him a long look, but it's not remotely her place to lecture him about these things. The story will be enough of a warning, she hopes.

"You're lucky your family's so durable."

"Not all of us are. My youngest three siblings are adopted, so they didn't get any of the family toughness. And Dad was adopted, so my grandma's an ordinary unpowered human."

"That's why it's really important to me that I have a good secret identity."