(no subject)

[khajidont]

WHO: Jaime and Ellie, Ted, Kotetsu, and Jennifer in the headings below! And YOU, if you so wish it. Just PM me or ping me over on plurk at feygasm if you'd like me to set up a starter, and I'd be more than happy to do so!
WHERE: Assorted locations around Heropa (and potentially Nonah/De Chima)
WHEN: The first two weeks of September
WHAT: Various meetings
WARNINGS: A LOT OF AWKWARD

Comments

JENNIFER

[khajidont]

[ooc; continued from here.]

Rescuing maidens in distress, huh? [Jaime arches a brow at her, eyes lively with good humour.] I like it. Forget the medical profession - obviously I've gotta hire you to do my PR.

[He slides onto one of the stools and gestures for Jennifer to do the same. This particular establishment may not offer complimentary refreshments, but in Jaime's opinion, the relative quiet is well worth it. He doesn't mind spotting Jennifer, anyway; it's her first day, and he knows all too well that anyone just arriving is busy trying to get their bearings and making sure that they have food and shelter available to them.]

Don't worry, it's not always like this. They usually only get this bad during imPort events or - [he waves one hand, gesturing towards her] - when newbies like you come on in. They'll end up leaving you alone.

[forsometimenow]

[Jennifer laughed at that.]

Should I follow you around and tell the story of how to saved me from the crowds? I'd offer to compose a song, but forget about it- can't carry a tune to save my life.

[She slides in next to him, already feeling more at ease. Getting away from everyone who wanted to be up in her face was a huge help.]

I'm glad- I'm not cut out for the whole constant-admiration thing. It's nice at first, but it gets kinda... draining.

[khajidont]

You're telling me. Just avoid the ones with cameras and you'll be doing a lot better, trust me. Actually, you're already doing pretty well for someone who just got dumped into this whole mess. Being here is freaky enough without being dumped into some military bunker.

[There's a definite note of curiosity in his voice at that - most people are at least knee deep in denial, whereas Jennifer just seems to dislike the crowds. He wouldn't be surprised if she's from somewhere a little more on the exciting side.]

[forsometimenow]

Yeah... it's not the first time I've woken up in a strange place without any idea how I've gotten there, so... not exactly old hat, but nothing too shocking, either. [She glances over, wondering if the next part would be a little too unbelievable, but then again...]

At least I'm in my own body this time. That's just the kind of world I came from.

[There was also the small fact that she knew this could all be an elaborate hallucination- Lord knew she'd had some real enough dreams in her time on Atlantis, and she'd read about it happening to the other crew members before, like the time Elizabeth had hallucinated spending weeks on Earth.]

TED

[khajidont]

[ooc; after speaking to Booster and sending poor Ted an awkward voice mail.]

[One thing you don't expect after taking over a dead man's mantle is to actually get to meet the man in question. With the apparent frequency that superheroes are brought back to life and the fact that it's possible here, Jaime really should have seriously considered the idea a little more seriously, but he hadn't, and here he is now, an odd combination of nervousness and excitement settling at the bottom of his gut.

Smarter than Batman, Guy had called him, but a heck (okay, hell) of a lot more fun. By all means, it seemed as if everyone who had encountered the guy had a different story to tell, and every single one of them had been eager to tell these stories to the kid taking up the title of the Blue Beetle, alongside Ted's notes and journal and books and the list goes on and on and on...

Jaime had two options at that point: he could feel sullen about having to fill up some very, very big shoes, or he could relish the idea of taking on the legacy. He had ended up choosing the latter, working to do the Beetle mantle proud, and paying Ted and Dan his respects along the way. The image of the sign hung up at his room back home swims behind his eyelids as he makes his way to Ted and Booster's house: WWTKD?

As it turns out, there's a good reason why people usually use WWJD - Jesus isn't about to come back to life to have a little chat with you.

(Sorry, Jesus. Jaime can almost hear his - long since deceased - grandmother's frown at that thought.)

He heads to Ted and Booster's straight from school, hands worrying at the strap of his backpack as he knocks on their door. Here goes nothing.]

[bumblebeeb]

[And so the group of random teenagers fanboying him continues. Or so that's what Ted assumes; because he's completely baffled by his sudden popularity among the younger generation. (Aside from tiny Wally, which was just weird.)

He's reasonably sure that this whole fanboying thing has to do with the manner of his death, so it sort of makes sense; but even so, it would have been nice to get that kind of reaction when he was alive. Oh well. Anyway, like he said, he has nothing really to do just yet, so he opens the door not long after Jaime knocks. He doesn't quite know what to expect, but he gives Jaime a little bit of an uncertain wave.]

Jaime, right?

[khajidont]

That's right. It's nice to meet you, sir.

[Years of Bianca Reyes' strictly enforced policy on etiquette kick in at the very right moment, which he's quietly grateful for; if not for that, he has no doubt he'd just end up standing mutely in the doorway.

Her rules on etiquette have actually come in handy for a whole lot of things, though he's never planning on telling her as much.]

Maybe we could go and, um... sit?

[He gestures in the direction of where he knows their living room is, mostly because each and every house in Heropa is built in exactly the same way.]

KOTETSU

[khajidont]

[After the past couple of weeks, patrolling is, quite frankly, a joy. There's not that much to think about when he takes to the sky, not unless you count the Scarab asking Jaime a few questions about the old game show they were watching back at home.

(What does making whoopie mean?

"Sex."

Making love?

"Sex."

Bump uglies?

"Still sex, buddy. If you try looking them all up, you're gonna be at this all day."

Churning butter?

"Hahah, what? I've never heard that one! That can't actually be a thing.")

From above, the world looks peaceful. Jaime likes staring down at all those little lights dotting the houses below, all lined up in nice tidy rows, only... one of those lights is looking pretty bright. Does this place have super advanced lighting for the magnificently rich?

No, as it turns out, they don't. That's a fire.]

Oh, crap!

[All that anyone from the ground will see is a faintly glowing, blue figure that steadily becomes closer until it becomes clear that it's the Blue Beetle, diving straight to the source of the fire... then again, he's not counting on anyone else being around to see it.

They're in Heropa, however, and where there's a fire, there must be heroes.]

[earnedmystripes]

[Indeed there are. One of them seems to already be doing his thing at the scene, grateful not for the first time and certainly not the last that he'd been strong-armed into wearing Saito's fireproof suit way back when. He's not sure how many times over he'd be dead without it now.

Anyway, as Beetle closes in on the burning building, he may hear the crash of breaking glass as a figure in a green-white-and-gray mechanical suit is preparing to jump down from a second story window, a young girl nestled carefully in his arms.

...At least, until he sees the guy in what he can only assume is another hero suit. Someone that can fly, after all, can certainly provide a smoother landing than he could. He calls out to him, hopefully catching his attention.]

Hey, mind flying this kid down for me? I'm gonna look around to see if anyone else's trapped in here.

[That voice might be a little bit familiar. Curious, isn't it? But now's not the time for that, of course. There are people that need saving.]

[khajidont]

Of course, [Jaime says immediately, and if the voice sounds a little familiar, he doesn't think on it for more than a moment - why would he? There's too much to be done to waste any time mulling over the identity of this hero - a hero that he hasn't, come to think of it, seen around before now.

He takes the young girl into his arms, and even though his voice sounds young, his next words are those of someone used to dealing with little kids, particularly ones as frightened as this one.] It's okay, sweetheart, I've got you.

[He flies down to the ground and hands the girl to one of the neighbours staring up at the building in mute horror before flying back the way he came, back to where Wild Tiger is maneuvering through the house. Technically Jaime could have tried for putting the fire out, but their first priority is getting people out. Losing all your posessions is a hell of a thing, but it's nothing compared to a life.]

Hey, wait up! I can scan the place for people!

[But he can't, however, grow a double to go save them simultaneously. That's where this guy is going to come in.]

ELLIE

[khajidont]

[While Jaime does like to fly over Heropa once or twice whenever he's on his patrols - something that makes him miss Hector and Nadia something fierce - he usually doesn't pay that much attention to its going-ons. Usually when a city's crawling with superheroes, it means it's a place like Gotham, a place where they actually need that many people to deal with the sheer force of its criminal underworld.

Heropa, however, is just a touch... docile. While this makes it a pleasant place to live in, it makes it a boring place to patrol. Occasionally he'll fly over different cities, outside of the imPorts' range, but he'll also visit De Chima and Nonah, just to see what's going on over there. He ends up gliding over Nonah, listening to the hustle and bustle of the big city below until he hears something that can't be written off as a few overzealous partiers having had a few too many drinks.

He ends up on what can only be described as the seedier area of town, and while it's well away from the nightlife district, there's no way of denying the fact that these people aren't spending their time sleeping. The threatening voices aren't all that unusual, but the next thing he hears is.

Is that Ellie?

He speeds up.]

[youbastard]

[It'd been something of a sad day when the first friend Ellie had made at her job had moved to Nonah. They'd still kept in contact though and when he'd asked if Ellie could use the neat imPort teleport things to cover an unexpected shift for him she was more than happy to do so. It'd gone smoothly, pretty uneventful actually, until she'd gotten a call to go to a seedier area in town.

When she got to the scene it was more than a mess. There were three men in total, big men, and a fourth that was on the ground. The fourth looked like he'd either been sick or was going to be sick again. The stretch of vomit was also around. He had a cellphone out and her best guess put it as he'd called for help and his friends weren't happy about that.

The entire thing started out terrible with one of the biggest men going right to telling her to fuck off. When she didn't and instead tried to get closer to the man on the ground he just got even more angry. Angry and aggressive. Yeah, she definitely never would have asked for empathy.]

Lady, we don't need any help around here. So I'm gonna tell you one last time, get back in your fucking car before we you the one needing to call for help.

[That just managed to make her even more irritated. Which probably wasn't a good thing all things considered. She let out a scoff and rolled her eyes, probably also not wise choices.]

Look, you piece of shit, your not intimidating to me. If you'd just get out of my bloody way I can take a look at your idiot friend and then I'll be on my way. [So, maybe calling big thugs pieces of shit and yelling back at them in a dark ally without a weapon of her own wasn't a great plan.]

[khajidont]

[No, Jaime would agree, that wasn't the best plan at all. If the commotion didn't rile him up, the way Ellie was speaking certainly was; he had never heard her raise her voice to anyone before, and now it sounded as if she was spitting venom at this group of foul minded thugs.]

Not sober, [the Scarab murmured in his ear, and now that it mentioned it, Jaime could absolutely see it in several of the men, angry and unbalanced as they were. Even putting aside his own distaste for drugs, it was never a great combination when it came to situations like these - whatever these people were on, it was making them violent and irrational, far more prone to swing to hurt or to kill than they may have been sober.

You could reason with the sober. These men... well, that was a crap shoot. Usually Jaime entered the scene as a friendly figure, something that the bright colours, diminuitive stature and his easy smile only contributed to. Nobody who threatened an EMT worker was going to listen to reason, and more importantly, nobody hurt doctors in Jaime's presence. Nobody hurt Ellie in Jaime's presence.

He landed in a blur of blue in front of Ellie, heavily enough for the impact of it to ring loudly through the alley.]

I don't think she'll need to call for help. Do yourselves a favour, and back off.

SHEP

[khajidont]

[More often than not these days, being Registered is something that just puts a sour taste in Jaime's mouth, but that's not to say it doesn't come with its own set of perks beyond the free housing and schooling. He rarely goes to the police with anything, but he's always worked well with them; back home, it's not all that uncommon for them to wave him down with a smile and a shout.

Here, he's not quite so well known, but he can at least do his thing with the police's full cooperation, support, and most importantly, the police's agreement not to arrest him and toss him into the jail. That's nice.

What he doesn't know is that he actually knows someone on the police force, something that he's about to find out very, very quickly as he flies above a crime scene, only to recognize Shephard as one of Heropa's finest. He's distracted for but a moment, a conspicuous bright smear of blue hovering in the sky, but once the robbers - armed to the teeth, he might add - start fleeing, he drops from the sky like a ton of lead, cutting off their escape path.]

Uh-uh. I don't think so.

[sassguard]

[ Being Unsettled means Shepard tends to get the short end of the stick when it comes to patrol duty, which means he tends to get the boring routes. It's not something to complain about (it is, but he didn't promoted by whining about his missions being unfair, so he figures he'll just keep his head down and work harder to catch a break) but he does miss the kick of adrenaline that comes with action -- real action.

So being called to respond to a call about an ongoing robbery is almost a relief, even more so when the criminals actually run and gives Shepard an excuse to take action. He's been informed that the police force considers using biotic charges to tackle ordinary criminals to the ground to be excessive force, so when he steps out of cover to lob a flare of blue biotics after a running criminal, he's only aiming to sweep him off his feet.

A flash of blue at the corner of his eye distracts him, though, and he turns his head, frowning at the guy in the suit who's apparently taken it upon himself to help out. Shepard's feelings on vigilantes are mixed -- it's not as if they're technically breaking the law, and he's definitely done his share of stepping outside the rules as a Spectre.

Maybe it's just the sense that it's playing into what the government wants.

Regardless, he doesn't get much of a chance to dwell on it because where there's one robber down, there are still more who look more than ready to try and take a few holes out of an imPort cop. They open fire and this time, thankfully, Shepard's barrier is up to absorb most of the bullets' kinetic force, but it's with a touch of exasperation that he realizes the other officers -- his supposed backup -- don't seem to be in a hurry to cover him. ]

[khajidont]

[That barrier that Shepard's thrown up catches Jaime's attention, but he's able to identify it pretty quickly as having something to do with biotics, the same sort that Kaidan has and the same sort that Jacob has. He shouldn't be surprised that all three of the soldiers from that world have the same powers - Kaidan had mentioned that they were suited for little else, after all.

As experienced and as protected as Shepard may be, however, guns will always get Jaime's hackles up. It's easy enough to diffuse a situation without the presence of firearms, but once guns enter the equation, it's all about neutralizing the criminal as quickly as possible.

He hurries towards the man firing wildly at Shepard and grabs onto his wrist, snatching the gun right out of his hand before crushing it between his palms. The man's gaze darts between Shepard - a man able to make bullets simply bounce off of him - and Jaime - something capable of crushing metal in his hands - and he seems to make use of the only available opportunity to him: he flees, and the group around him tries to scatter.]

Oh, for the love of--

[Looks like they've got a new job, which is to catch the suckers. They may as well try herding cats.]

SKYE

[khajidont]

[Jaime really hadn't been planning on letting Skye knew his true identity, but it seemed like the right thing to do, considering. He's about 99% sure that she'll be able to keep it a secret, and anything that helped her feel safer would be worth it in his book - and massively cut down on the strangeness of having the Blue Beetle suddenly hanging around her temporary place of residence, because that may very well worry her more.

Whether or not it was a good decision, he tells himself, what's done is done, and she has more important things on her mind: namely, whatever freak from her past came back to haunt her. Skye has been monumentally nonjudgmental in the short time he's known her, from offering to break him out of prison to speaking with the Blue Beetle with sympathy and candor, and he has good reason to believe her when she says he's untrustworthy.

And if he does try anything, Jaime's totally going to punch him in the face.

He can't hang around 24/7, but he's got the Scarab keeping its metaphorical nose to the ground, and he ends up swinging by her hotel room the day afterwards. He should technically be in school at this hour, but he begged off his last class by pretending to have the stomach flu and leaving to go buy lunch immediately afterwards. Once he's asked the Scarab whether or not she's, ah, busy, he shoots her a quick text.]

So I'm hanging out at the hotel and the good news is that there are no creepers to be found unless you count the doorman looking at people's butts when he doesn't think they're looking

The better news is that the sandwich shop outside my school sells huge slices of cake and I'm right by your window do you want some

[Sorry, Skye. Jaime's going to try to make you feel better by single-handedly fattening you up.]

[hackitude]

[The response is immediate. Skye hops over to the side of the room, draws the curtain and opens the window.]

You know we have a front door, right? I'm fairly certain we have a front door.

[khajidont]

Ye-es, but this way is so much quicker.

[Jaime may be in his bugsuit, but he doesn't look like he's on duty at all, plastic bag in one hand, communicator in the other. The window's too small for him to simply fly through comfortably, so he ends up sliding his way in and ending up neatly on his ass.

He looks pretty cozy that way, really, and he ends up crossing his legs and opening up the bag as if that had been his plan all along.]

So, day two holed up in here. How's it going?

ARMIN

[khajidont]

[It's a little astonishing to hear that Armin is, in fact, his neighbour; without his parents around, he's made absolutely no attempt to connect to anyone living in his general vicinity. He knows that his parents always liked to talk to their neighbours, to invite them over for a barbecue if they were new to the area, and to otherwise be nice, personable neighbours.

Jaime... not so much. Regardless, it's a nice surprise. Between Connor - Superboy - and Armin, they should really try for in-neighborhood hang-outs more often.

And, well, this is the first step. He's glad Armin's coming over. It seems like the poor guy could use a friend.]

[blondtactician]

[Armin's nervous. There are times here that he truly feels he's just ad libbing, doing the things he thinks he should do instead of genuinely working from instinct. Jaime has been kind to him, his strong morals and easygoing personality have all the good markers of a potential ally if things go bad.

He kind of hates that he thinks about people that way. But it's been useful to him thus far, the constant thinking, analyzing, suspicion. If he can let go of that, at least on the surface, then maybe he can make an actual friend. Not a fellow soldier, someone who owes him something, but a regular friend.

Armin hopes he doesn't look like the bundle of nerves he feels like as he rings the bell to Jaime's place. It might've been that he took a moment to thoroughly comb his hair, renew his deodorant, and throw on a vest over the simple black band T-shirt and jeans he'd been wearing. But he hopes that isn't obvious, either. He just wants to seem normal. He wants to make a good impression.

He rings the bell and fidgets with the thumb drive in his fingers, shifting his weight from foot to foot.

It occurs to him the cool thing to do probably would've been to tumble out the door like he didn't care at all, but it's too late now.

He's not very cool.]

[khajidont]

[If Jaime looks like he didn't put any effort into his appearance before coming to answer the door, that's because he didn't; it's simply not something that occurs to him, save for if Traci's in town... and even then, she has an alarming tendency to arrive when he's a tad too busy to think about his appearance.

Still, he fails to notice Armin's manner of dress and nerves alike when he swings the door open with a smile.]

Hey, Armin. C'mon in - you're gonna stay for a while, yeah?

[It's not so much a question as it is an invitation, but the way Jaime's looking at him makes it clear that he's not expecting no for an answer.]

M'GANN

[khajidont]

[Jaime's been here for a number of months already, met all sorts of other superheroes, but somehow, he still ends up patrolling alone. He could probably call up Bart or Wally at any time, or even hit Booster or Power Girl up for an evening, but somehow, he never ends up doing it.

Maybe he's just gotten used to patrol just being him and the Scarab, with the occasional tip or chatter from Nadia and Hector if they happened to be hanging out by their computers. He supposes it would be a far, far lonelier job if he didn't have someone to chat with the whole time, even if nobody else can actually hear it, but as it is, he's content with his solo patrols.

It might be different, he thinks, if some of the Titans were around. Most of them don't really click with him, but there's still Eddie, and there's M'gann, and --

Speaking of the devil, there she is, flying just a couple blocks away. He had intended to introduce himself at some point and, barring the possibility that she's heading to an emergency, why not now?]

Is that her?

Affirmative. Number of alternative green-skinned girls: 0.

Okay, stupid question.

[And with that, he speeds up to fly beside her, which isn't all that different from their last first meeting... only this time, he knows not to try and shoot her.]

Um, Miss Martian? M'gann?

[bioshift]

[ Late night flights are literally the best thing to do; it's cooler, the breeze isn't suffocating, and seeing the city at night is almost as good- if not better, than seeing it during the day.

But she does hear BB fly up next to her a mere moment before he is next to her, eyes a little wide and flight pattern slowing down just a touch. She didn't know Blue Beetle- either back home or here. But she had heard relatively good things about him so far. Both from Bart and some of her own friends. No sense being unfriendly, right? ]

That's me; what are you doing out so late?

[ Definitely not an accusation; more curiosity. They all had their reasons, after all. ]

[khajidont]

[Jaime had been expecting a question, but that question is more along the lines of, who are you? and possibly how do you know me?.] Oh, um, just flying! I guess you'd officially call it patrolling, [he adds on, smile a mite sheepish,] but in this city, it might as well just be flying.

[If he's actually spoiling for a fight - or at least a chance to do his job - he tends to get out of Heropa, get out of Hero-infested cities altogether. They're the ones that need more help, considering they don't have twenty or so odd superheroes around at any given moment.]

You?