nexus_sages | (no subject)

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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?"

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"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.

Oh no, somebody's teasing her, whatever shall she do? Oh, calamity!

She'll just have to go along with it. "Oh, no, she washes things okay. But she's so picky about how everything gets folded. I mean, yeah, it's great she can fold t-shirts so small I can line them up in my drawer, but it doesn't help much if I can't tell what shirt it is. And the rulers, man. That's just unnecessary."

"Rules? Wow, that's just too far." Although now that he's said that, he hopes that teasing like this doesn't trip her anti-lying curse. It probably will. Oops.

"Rulers." She nods, and looks very serious for about three seconds. Then she's grinning again.

Teasing and jokes do trigger the curse, but she needs to laugh. It's a delicate balancing act.

Excellent, apparently it isn't that bad as long as it's just once in a while. So he joins her in laughing about it. "Well, that's one thing I'm not mentioning when I get home, or my brother Wil might think that's a great idea, and then we'll never get anything done."

Life is easier for her in the Nexus, and she's starting to relax. A year ago, he probably wouldn't have liked her. Two years ago, she wouldn't have given him the time of day.

"It's not an idea that I think needs to be shared around," she agrees. "I take it he can be, mm, particular?"

"He definitely got Mom's fashion sense," Jon agrees with a nod. "And a lot more organized than most of the rest of us. Keeping his own room clean growing up in a house with five other kids is nearly a superpower all on its own."

"Six kids? Yeah. That's... making me glad I was an only child for so long." Do the siblings count if she's never met them? It's tricky. She's been trying to figure that out for a while, but for now, she figures she might as well count them in.

"How much of your allowance did you give him to help?"

Jon smiles. "I didn't bribe him, if that's what you mean."

"Of course not." Ver smirks right back at him. "But paying him for his services would be perfectly in line with the capitalist economy I suspect you were raised in?"

"Sure, but I was also raised on a farm where hard work is valued, and so is taking on responsibility."

"Isn't it the responsible thing to do to let each person take on the work they do best and enjoy best, so long as the division of labor remains equal?"

He chuckles a little. "That's getting a bit too philosophical for kids as young as we were, back then. Mom and Dad were more interested in making sure we cleaned up our own messes instead of leaving it for someone else."

"'sfair. You all probably had better things to do than try and use half-understood quotes from dead philosophers on your parents."

"Pretty much. It all worked out in the end, anyway."

"I suppose that's the important part." But she's not really sure on that point these days. Never grow up, Jonathan, it's all doubts and misery.

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