cacophonish | APOCALYPSE HOW: IC INBOX

"Oh, god, have I not told you yet? My world's full of superheroes and supervillains. I actually live just outside Hightower, where the Global Guardians are headquartered."

She laughs. "I thought I'd mentioned it to most people by now."

The truth is, she might've told Jeff at some point, but he's certainly got a brain like a sieve, so it could have slipped right out.

"Huh." Superheroes and shit. That's something to process. "Right on."

At 7 pm he's waiting at the ADI gym they'd met at before, wearing his sweatpants and a tank top under an open hoodie, leaning against the wall beside the door. When he sees Jeff coming, he lifts a hand and offers an easy smile, giving him a wave and pushing away from the wall.

"Hey Jeff! How are you doing?"

"I'm not a hero or anything, though. Hell, not even 'normal'."

She shrugs, looking down at her hands. "But I get by, even in that world. Pretty much the same way I do here."

Today, Jeff looks... moderately more prepared for a workout than the last time they ran into each other. He's got a surprisingly nice, well-fitted winter jacket (Patagonia! The pricey stuff!) that was most definitely stolen, but underneath it is a hoodie, tank top, and sweatpants.

He's ready to punch shit and take names. Sort of. Okay, maybe only the first part. Lightly.

"Hey!" He lights up with a smile and offers... a fist. To bump. Like manly men do. "I'm good, same as usual, so I guess it's less 'good' and more like..." A hot mess? "Um. Getting by. Whatever. Hi! How's it going?"

He needs to stop rambling now.

"Oh. Who cares about normal? I'm not normal, either."

Unless 'normal' carries some other significance in the context of Meredith's world. Kind of like how 'Gifted' is a huge chunk of his identity, back home, but here? Here it's stripped clean of all weight and significance.

Jeff tilts his head and offers a teasing smile.

"Yeah? By working for shady people for the insurance?" There's no judgment in his voice. In his six months here in Gloucester, Jeff seems to at least have matured enough to move past all that big talk of living free and following dreams. Meredith taught him that's a luxury most people can't afford.

She considers Jeff a moment. She's told Tim and Malcolm at this point. Who knows how secret her shit will stay?

So she lowers her voice. Looks him in the eye. "Shady's one word for it. I'm hoping Nia Lehrer doesn't turn out to be a literal supervillain, but we'll see."

"I bet she is." He has absolutely nothing to base that assertion on, other than his own grudge against the ADI for their anti-magic stance. But... then he looks at Meredith, as she looks at him, and even Jeff isn't too spacey to miss the significance there.

"Wait. Were you, like--" He lowers his voice, all hush hush and... actually a little eager and excited. Like a kid. "--did you work for a supervillain guild or something?"

"Nothing so dramatic as that. The tech CEO who I was the personal assistant for might have had a costumed identity, though."

His reaction is so very Jeff. Sooooo Jeff.

"Whoa."

Okay, that's less dramatic, sure. But it's also kind of cooler in a way, because she's like, what, the right hand of some costumed bigwig. A supervillain's Gal Friday!

(Is that sexist? Fuck, maybe Aelwyn was right, and he still has some things to examine...)

"That's so fucking cool."

"You're not supposed to think that's cool, I don't think. You're supposed to Judge me."

She's only mostly joking there.

"Good people don't enable villainry."

"Yeah, but that's all so..." Subjective, that's the word he's looking for. But Jeff struggles for a moment to find it, then opts for: "It's not like it's all black and white. I mean... not even monsters see themselves as monsters, you know?"

"You hang out with enough monsters to know how they think of themselves?" The jab's meant to be light, playful. She doesn't know what she doesn't know.

There's certainly a flicker of something in his expression, a grimace that he tries to smooth over with a shrug and a smile. "Yeah, I mean, I was the lead singer of a band back home. The biggest diva monster there is."

She notices that grimace--it's Meredith, how could she miss that?--but doesn't seem to know what to make of it.

Deflect, right?

"Is that like the secret love child of Miss Piggy and Cookie Monster?"

He laughs, more easily now and points out, "Cookie Monster? C'mon, Animal was right there!"

Then, taking that deflection ball and running with it, "So what's your boss's deal? World domination?"

"The belief that vigilante justice was against the precepts that America was founded on, and so it's the moral right of citizens who can to oppose heroes. It's...not the worst argument I've actually heard."

It's not the worst argument by far. Jeff nods, conceding that point. "Yeah, I mean, if you think about it, the whole vigilante thing is majorly fucked up." See also: why nobody will ever include Jeff in any ADI-sanctioned plans for extra-judicial killing.

A beat. "I mean, I guess you don't have to think about it, since you live it."

"I think everyone's world is fucked up in one way or another. Right? Your world's got some sort of shit in it."

"Well... yeah, I mean it's fucked up in a lot of the same ways this world is. Only without the Entities and apocalypses..."

He's about to just leave it at that, but it's almost on an impulsive whim that he adds, "And there's always a risk of shit going sideways with magic, I guess."

Frankly, Ches couldn't care less if the jacket is stolen, he's just relieved to see Jeff a little more prepared for a workout this time. He's not sure if it's because the kid seems to have a little more confidence in himself than last time or not, but he hopes so. It sucks to see anyone experiencing that level of self-consciousness.

Ches bumps Jeff's fist back when it's offered, and smiles back. Jeff's smile is a good one, at least.

"Well, that doesn't sound promising. What's up?" Ches asks, his tone genial, and opens the door to the gym, holding it so Jeff can go in first, "I'm doing well enough, all things considered."

"Yeah? What's it look like in your world, when shit goes sideways?" Her voice is gentle, coaxing.

The gym feels like an oasis of warmth, and Jeff's soon shedding his coat as the heat sinks in. "Oh, uh, you know." He shrugs. "I just mean... nothing's ever really good, right? Not here, anyway." Not back home, either, but that's a totally different story. Or... maybe it's more like a different chapter of the same story--

Which is all beside the point.

"So... everything's just the same level of fucked up as usual, is all."

"Sometimes people get hurt. Sometimes they go nuts, and sometimes they die. It's the same as everything else." By which he means: "Anything worth doing has at least some risk, right?"

"I dunno, I've run into some people I like well enough." he says, shrugging off his hoodie and stretching his arms and bending down to touch his toes a few times.

Honestly, it seems like Jeff is having a rough time of things. Ches wonders what's going on with him, what's got him so convinced that life is never really good.

"For example, you. But I get it. Things are kind of rough, and being kidnapped to a world where there's all this creepy shit going on really sucks. I hate not being able to turn into a wolf whenever I want. But it's not all bad."

APOCALYPSE HOW: IC INBOX

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