maskormenacelogs | [closed]

WHO: Matt Murdock and Jessica Jones
WHERE: The best coffee shop Matt can think of
WHEN: Sept 1
WHAT: A lot of catching up
WARNINGS: General discussion of Marvel events, cussing, more cussing...?

[ Matt likes Jessica. Matt has always liked Jessica, despite her cursing and her general inability to seem as though she could keep her life together when he first met her. He's well aware he can be an absolutely terrible friend (frequently) and she's known him during what was basically the slow collapse of his life and sanity and identity, which isn't terribly flattering. But despite all of that, she's still been his friend, and he's glad to find her.

The difficult part is deciding on what to do about the missing years of her life. Luke. Her baby. The Civil War. All the things he could have told her when they were walking down that street the last time she remembers him, when he promised to call Jameson for her and mess with him. He'd almost forgotten that happened in the wake of what came after. If she has to hear it from anyone, Matt would rather it be him...and yet, he's not sure what he should tell her at all.

That's what he's mulling over, waiting for her in some secluded corner of that coffee shop a few blocks over from his office. Not that he doesn't want her there, but it's a conversation he wants to have away from Kate, who plays a role in Jessica's story Matt doesn't understand yet. It might be better for her, to have some aspect of casual normalcy, friends and not her former employer. And about another half dozen reasons that do nothing to distract him from the coming trainwreck of a conversation. ]

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[ Jessica Jones had been too busy watching her own life go to shit to really notice Matt Murdock's various breakdowns. But she still felt for him, did bodyguard work, which she usually refused, because he did her a solid before and she really believed he would do it again, if she asked. Not that Jessica asked for favors, but, still. It meant something.

(She was still a bit ticked off he wouldn't tell her he was Daredevil. Asshole.)

Jessica shows up a few minutes late, wearing her hair in her eyes and a wince on her face. ]

Sorry— [ she means it ] I just, uh, haven't figured out how to get around, yet.

[ She goes from standing up to slouching in the chair across from him without an intermediate "sitting" stage. It's impressive. ]

[ God, she's so much younger. He'd forgotten what she was like, all those years ago. It's not that she outgrew all this awkwardness, but she's so much happier now, Matt thinks. ]

It takes some getting used to. [ With the sort of thoughtless graciousness that's probably at least a little condescending. Very lawyer, as though she were a late client and not his friend. But it's not like he has anywhere else to be. His life is quieter than it's been in years.

That's weird. ]

Though I'm sure that's not particularly comforting or helpful, right now.

[ Matt does feel sympathetic. Although it's not as though he'd missed out on years of his...well, his real life, there are years he doesn't and won't ever remember. Not particularly good years, either. But he doesn't need to tell her that. ]

It's okay. [ She looks absently at the little stand-up menu with deserts printed on it. ] I mean, it's not okay, okay. But no one else has had helpful shit to say, either.

Fair enough. Although there's a difference between attempts at helpful and completely unhelpful. Some people are determined to stay in the latter category no matter what.

[ He's talking about Tony. Of course he's talking about Tony. Tony, despite the change of universe, is still in full steam with all his appalling rhetoric on this topic, and Matt finds it very hard to resist the urge to punch him in the face every time they have the misfortune of speaking. And however mad he makes Matt, he's surely going to make Jessica a lot madder, if she ever finds out what happened.

Matt is honestly not sure he should tell her. He's honestly not sure if he should tell her anything about her life. In that way he has of trying to make decisions for other people, it's more about whether or not he's going to volunteer it. Because of course, if she asks, he has to tell her something. ]

But I've been here since February, their calendar, so if you've got questions, I'll give it my best shot.

[ Hopefully not questions he'll have a really hard time answering. Ironically, now might be the best time to confront him about that Daredevil thing, or other such awkward moments that he probably shouldn't have bungled, like keeping secrets from people who put themselves in the line of fire for you sort of. ]

[ Jessica hasn't run into Tony Stark, yet. And she's not psychic so she can't tell that Matt is thinking about him really loudly, Not that she'd read anyone's mind even if she were psychic. Because she wouldn't.

Anyway. ]

Okay. So, number one: Why won't you just admit that you're Daredevil?

[ Usually Jessica is stubborn enough to keep the silent resentment thing going, but these were strange times. ]

[ Wow let's not pull any punches around here. Not that this is an entirely unexpected question. He vaguely remembers her outburst of anger that she never told him, when he came to talk to Luke. ]

I did. Or I will, from your perspective. As I remember it, you confront me about this, and I tell you I'm Daredevil. Then I think you cussed me out.

[ Which he thinks he probably deserved. Which he totally did deserve. But those were crazy, hectic times. He did a lot of things he deserved to be cussed out for. ]

Edited 2014-09-22 20:19 (UTC)

I bet I fucking did.

[ This is about the first thing someone has told her about the future that she liked.

Honestly, part of what bothered her was— he could tell Luke, but not her? Why was that? She probably thought too much about Luke Cage. Or it was sexism. Yeah, it was sexism, that one. ]

I was impressed with your restraint at the time.

[Because he really would have expected a lot more cursing. In retrospect, he doesn't have any really good reasons for not telling her, except that he has a compulsive need for secrecy and privacy at times. Which is stupid, because she knew anyway, and he knew that.]

In any case, it's not a secret anymore, not really, not since it came out in the papers. I was never going to get that genie back in the bottle. And then, I had to out myself in court...

[But he's getting ahead of himself.]

Nobody's said it publicly here, not as such. Nobody says Daredevil But nobody's bothering to pretend I'm not something.

[A beat.]

Well, really, it's Tony Stark who's bad about that.

Yeah, I've been hearing a lot about that guy. [ Jessica hasn't lived through the great Millar/McNiven crossover of the central 2000s yet. The Avengers are just a cool club she's not, she won't ever be a part of, one she tells herself she doesn't want to belong to. The Avengers are also site of her greatest big time fuck-up. She keeps he distance.

But she's canny. And curious. A lot of people are talking about that guy. She doesn't ask Matt to elaborate, yet, but she kind of thinks he will. ]

That won't be changing anytime soon.

[ Matt's tone is less than pleased. It's not as though he and Tony had ever been close friends-- their egos will never allow for that. Only one man can be right, and neither of them will cede ground. But he'd at least thought this was ground they'd never have to retread. ]

He headed the Superhuman Registration Act back home. A couple of years ago, from my perspective, and within a couple from yours. It got ugly fast. And while I would have hoped he might learn from the experience, or at least developed some shred of remorse for setting goon squads on people who were supposed to be his friends...this appears to not be the case. So of course, he's championing it all over again.

Edited 2014-10-27 05:02 (UTC)

Well, yeah. If superheroes, you know, learned from their experiences like normal people, we— they wouldn't go running around in spandex underwear.

[ Pink hair. What was she thinking? ]

None of the Avengers is ever gonna admit they were wrong about anything. Even, uh, goon squads. [ A pause. ] Who says "goon squads"?

I don't really know what to call them. You can think of something else.

[ Maybe she'll come up with something much ruder when they show up at her door. Matt really doesn't want to tell her about that, if he doesn't have to. He doesn't know how she would react...to that, or to the pregnancy, and the thing about Luke Cage. ]

And it's not that I don't...agree with you. [ Grits his teeth a little to say that. Matt has some trouble admitting when he's wrong too. ] But they repealed it eventually for good reason. He just doesn't remember that. He doesn't remember anything but sitting on his supposed high horse as Director of SHIELD.

[ Since Matt's fairly well acquainted with Nick Fury, it's not as though this is particularly impressive. ]

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