Standing on the edge of the crater

[darkpants_warmfeeling]

WHO: Jacob Taylor and Peter Parker
WHERE: IDK some coffee place in De Chima
WHEN: Backdated to earlier in the month, after the dust from the occupation has settled but after the White House medal ceremony
WHAT: Newly ex-coworkers meet to talk next steps after the destruction of the Future Foundation during the Soviet invasion
WARNINGS: Should be none

The cafe they'd agreed to meet at wasn't far away from the pile of imploded rubble that had once been one of the most advanced (and best, in Jacob's biased opinion) research institutes in De Chima. Some people would have preferred to get more emotional distance from the topic at hand, but Jacob Taylor liked to face things, whether they were terrorist threats or careers turned into craters a couple blocks away.

He sat at a corner table, relaxed in posture but with a sad, contemplative look on his face, an untouched black coffee in front of him. Jacob had healed since the torture at the 'Perestroika Seminar' and the ordeal that was the Battle of Helix, but something in him still looked tired.

"So," he said. "How've you been holding up?"

Comments

[shutterbugged]

Jacob may like to face these things head on, but Peter... well, Peter may not lack for courage, but as far as he's concerned a healthy sense of denial is what's kept him sane his entire life and he doesn't see any reason to start changing that now.

"Me?" He shrugs, stirring another sugar (the third) into his coffee (his fourth). "I mean, it's a setback, but this kind of thing is par for the course when you're an imPort, isn't it? It's not like we both didn't know what kind of world this is already."

[darkpants_warmfeeling]

"Yeah, I guess you're right." Jacob speaks ruefully, not touching his coffee. "We've seen so many other buildings burn down or explode around us. I guess it was just a matter of time before one of them was ours."

He leans forward over the table and speaks more quietly, suiting more sensitive topics. "I'm just glad we were able to back up Hallie and everything else. It would have been a disaster if all the research was lost." Jacob believes in what the Future Foundation was doing. Bleeding-edge medical patents are generally hard not to support.

[shutterbugged]

"I think if Hallie hadn't been backed up she still would have found a way to come back and take revenge on me, Terminator-style," Peter joked. Well, mostly joked. It was a little bit funny, anyway, even if it was probably true.

The rest of their situation, less so. "We've got our data and we've got our lives, which are the most important things -- without a place to work, though, I don't know how we can begin to put the Foundation back together."

[darkpants_warmfeeling]

"She's not programmed for revenge... Is she?" Jacob really hoped Peter was only joking. He had some bad experiences fighting killer machines back in his own Galaxy.

But that wasn't the point, and he shook his head as he redirected. "I don't know if we can- or if we should. There's plenty of other imPort labs out there that would be happy to take our projects on. Most of them are corporate, though: run for profit. I don't know if that's important to you." He shrugged.

[shutterbugged]

"I don't like the idea of being that beholden to what makes money," Peter confesses, putting his spoon down in the saucer with a quiet plink. "We may have had a few strategic patents here and there that paid for our less lucrative research, but it wasn't our central focus. Money wasn't... it wasn't our legacy."

He sighs, fiddling with the handle of his mug without lifting it for a sip. "I don't know if I can explain this to you, Jacob, because you don't know my universe, but the Future Foundation is a family operation, and I've always... well. It meant a lot to me that Valeria wanted to recreate it here, and wanted me to run it with her."

He thumps back in his chair. "Which sounds bizarre, I know, being grateful for the seal of approval from a three-year-old, even a hypergenius one, but -- it meant she trusted me with something that important --"

A pause. Peter takes a sip.

"Anyway, I guess I'll have to go do the interviews at some point. I don't know if I have better options, other than going back to freelancing of some kind.

"What about you? Got anything lined up yet?"

[darkpants_warmfeeling]

Jacob nods along as Peter explains. He was never as close to Val as Peter was, but he understands full well the importance of responsibility. And family.

"If it helps, knowing Val? She'd understand better than most that things could implode unexpectedly." Usually with her intentional or unintentional help, even. Jacob could recall adventures with the toddler back in the day, while trying to set up the Foundation's safety protocols.

He straightens up when Peter asks him about next steps, and delivers his answer with a bit of a confessional air- still holding reservations. "Right now, I'm planning to join RISE," he says. "I know they've got their issues, but they've stepped up every time things have gone to hell around here. And I want to get back in the field. It's where I belong."

Post-Archangel, Jacob hasn't exactly been avoiding heroing, but he also hasn't had a sense of mission that comes with being part of a dedicated team. It's time to change that.

haha, you are under no obligation to tag back

[shutterbugged]

"Yeah, you never really struck me as the type to be satisfied with security officer, even at a place like the Foundation," Peter says consideringly.

Another moment of quiet. He hopes it comes off as a contemplative pause, but really he's trying to think of something to say about RISE that doesn't compromise his identity or fall under the category of lying in excess to someone he considers a friend.

(He hates that it's always a question of "excess," never "at all.")

"I think RISE is more your wheelhouse than mine, to be honest. Never been much of a joiner, unless playing tech support for Spider-Man counts."

There, that's not too terrible.

[darkpants_warmfeeling]

"Yeah... don't get me wrong, it was a good job. And I knew I was protecting important work. But long-term, I don't think it was where I belonged."

Jacob shakes his head, trying to ward off the feeling that he's somehow disrespecting the dearly-departed Future Foundation by admitting that a frontline soldier craves more action than a head of security usually sees. Fortunately, Peter just gave him something else to think about, and Jacob raises an eyebrow at that one.

"You help out Spider-Man? I don't think I knew that." Then again, he hasn't met Spider-Man before either- just glanced the odd news item about a thwarted robbery or successful rescue on occasion.

[shutterbugged]

"Did I really never mention that? I guess I must have assumed you already knew," Peter says casually.

Note to self: next time, remember to set up your cover story before cashing it in.

"I help him maintain his equipment and supplies. Sometimes I build new stuff if he needs something in particular, or if he's looking for an upgrade. Been doing it for years, I guess I just don't think about it too much any more."