nexus_sages | (no subject)

Entry tags:

(no subject)

A young man sits on one of the many couches in the Forum, and sighs at a notebook in his hands. The page is full of scribbled-out text, pages and pages of it. The pages are dog-eared and a bit ragged, indicating he's been using this notebook for a while.

"How can it be this hard to think of a good name for a secret identity?"

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"I don't know. It was covered with genderswap fairy dust or something. I don't really remember, I was a toddler at the time."

"Huh. Yeah, I'd probably have been scared of ducks too after something like that."

"I'm actually kind of glad I don't remember it, because my parents were affected too, and that's just too weird."

"That would. Yeah. That would be weird. So I'm guessing you're much more careful about petting stray animals these days."

Jon nods in agreement. "When they're covered with magic fairy dust, absolutely."

"I'll just stick to anything that looks like it's covered in glitter, since I can't see magic. Now that would be useful."

"Yeah, I can't disagree with that. I can't see magic either."

"No? You're stuck with the vision of a mere mortal? Poor boy."

"Yeah, I didn't get that from Dad either. I don't know if he can see magic, but he can see a lot more wavelengths than the visible light spectrum."

She pauses a moment before asking, "How many powers does your dad have, anyway?"

"Waaaayy too many. It's kind of ridiculous." Hey, he's just telling it like it is. He quickly counts them up in his head. "Uh... about ten, unless you start getting really specific."

No, no, she can see how that would be ridiculous. "Wow. That's kind of a lot, yeah. He must be really busy."

"Yeah, on the one hand I kind of wish I had some powers I didn't get. On the other hand, he had to deal with getting them one after another when he was growing up, and never knew what weird crap would happen next."

"That must have been hard for him. You're lucky you had a parent who could help you with yours." There's a note of jealousy in her voice, just a faint one.

That sounds like it might be a sore subject, so he decides to change the topic a little. "So, do you have any powers? Besides the truth detector curse, anyway." He doesn't think that should count.

Little bit. She's got massive daddy issues.

"Nah, I'm just a normal human."

"Do you consider that a good thing, or a bad thing?" He can see it both ways.

She shrugs. "I don't much think about it. Aside from envying people who can fly, it doesn't much bother me. Sometimes I wish I were better at magic, but mostly it's my own fault for not practicing more."

"That's a good attitude to have about it. I've met quite a few people who want to have powers really, really badly, and they usually aren't very happy with themselves."

"Thanks. I think, at the end of the day, I always know exactly who I am, so wishing I was something else doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Plus, I'm too much a coward to put powers to good use."

"Hey, not all powers need to be used in the pursuit of truth and justice," Jon says with a grin. "My dad's used his heat vision to make popcorn tons of times."

That surprises a laugh out of her, brief and muffled by a hand, but a laugh none the less. "Well, I hadn't thought of it like that. I do love to cook..."

Jon considers it to be a much better thing to bring a little levity to the situation instead of dwelling on more depressing topics. "It's kind of funny... growing up with powers, there are all sorts of mundane uses for them. I didn't think it was weird that Dad taught me to lift up cars by hand instead of using a jack until I was a teenager."

It's a good plan and a great gift to be able to make someone like Verity laugh. "Ha! Well. I think a lot of people grow up thinking something's normal and only questioning it when they start seeing the insides of other families, but there aren't many who'd have stories like that. Mine're mostly about my mom's weird laundry habits."

"What, does she wash everything on double-hot without separating colors or something?" There's a very good chance he's teasing now.