pummelgranite | [MoM][IC Contact]

[ Jaime laughs, a little hoarsely. ] I don't usually start steaming unless someone gives me a work-out.

[ In this moment, a part of Jaime thinks that Persephone may know him the best out of anyone here. There are people that he loves and adores, but Persephone's the one who gets what it's like to go through some majorly life-changing stuff, the one who accompanied him through that nightmare, and the only one he'd thought to call to blow off steam, a task he doesn't tend to want anyone to see. He doesn't like it when people look at him like he's a monster, but there hadn't been any danger of this here. Which means... ]

Hey, you know what's stupid? You still don't even know what my real name is.

[ What's he afraid of, exactly? This is dumb. ]

[ She glances back at him when he says it. She's never really gotten the whole Secret Identity thing. Laura Wilson was a secret that wasn't kept for any real need. She'd just wanted to be Persephone more.

Intellectually, of course she knew there was someone inside the suit. But to her, the blue chitin was as real a face as any, and Blue Beetle was plenty of name. There was no desire at all to push, even if Bruce hadn't taken the time to impress upon her the importance of secrecy for costumed heroes.

But it's not like she wasn't curious. ]

Dunno, isn't that safer? I'm pretty nefarious.

You got a point there. You might tattle on me to all the scary supervillains out there.

[ She won't. She'll keep his secret. Which is why, feeling oddly comfortable with the whole thing, he allows the armour on his face to melt back into his skin (which makes him start to faintly steam again, but the whole process is honestly pretty janky), shakes his hair out, then offers her a hapless grin. ]

So... hi, I'm Jaime? [ His voice is a little different when it's not filtered through his suit, though it's certainly nothing Persephone probably didn't already expect. It's a little hoarser and quieter, impossible to mistake for anything other than gentle without the force of technology behind it. ] This is pretty anticlimactic when people got no clue who you are. At least I don't think we've ever spoken when I wasn't suited up. Kinda lost track.

[ He's no Bruce Wayne. There's no big reputation following him around, no notoriety in any of their communities - or at least he doesn't think so. He's just some kid. A little dull, a little sweet, but mostly just there. He's okay with it, but that usually makes unmasking a bit of a tricky affair. That's okay. He doesn't need Persephone to know who Jaime is. It'd just be nice to be able to hang out without him having to go around punching people first. ]

Hi Jaime. I think I talked shit about your art once?

[ Wow, she'd kind of expected him to be hotter under there? Though this does seem about right. He's got a kind looking face, and a voice much more suited to his earnest demeanor.

There's a bit of a pause, and she tips her head back towards him. ]

I'm Laura.

That sounds like you. Hi, Laura.

[ The moment only lasts so long before he drops his chin to his chest, shaking his head and snickering. ]

Man, you know things are weird when sharing our actual names feels stranger than - all of that, [ he says, gesturing towards where there are small circles of heat-fused glass, the wreckage of a fight with no victor and no loser. ]

Speak for yourself. I mean, it's not like the Pantheon's human names are a huge secret, mostly. I was just, you know . . .

[ She trails off vaguely, as if there's any possibility Jaime would have any fucking idea what she's trying to say. ]

[ Jaime remembers his last conversation with Persephone about this - about how her former self was dead, and how she was just Persephone now. Her introducing herself as Laura properly is... well, it's different.

In a nice kind of way. Jaime may adore Persephone, but he thinks he could become awfully fond of Laura too. ]

Just what?

[ She remembers it too, and feels a little foolish backtracking so soon but- ]

When I got here, I wanted to be anything but Laura.

Yeah. I remember you saying that once.

[ He hadn't been in a place to argue, but it sure as heck didn't seem healthy. ]

What changed?

I . . . dunno.

[ There's a lot of different reasons she picks through in her mind- the way it felt like "Laura" had been taken from her by tabloids, wanting to prove that Ananke's "Destroyer" was more than what she'd said: a desperate bid to reclaim her own story no matter what the cost. She was so hurt and angry when she arrived, even being a huge destructive asshole kind of had its appeal: deny her humanity and her vulnerability all at once.

But both Ananke and Rupert Murdoch were a world away, and over the past year and a half those wounds have slowly but surely begin to close. Despite all the bullshit this world comes up with, some of the edge has come off her pain. And that's all still hard to voice, but at least she can answer Jaime honestly. ]

Time, I guess. And people.

People help.

[ Jaime and Persephone can understand each other on a lot of levels, but this isn't one of them. He doesn't know what it's like to feel that urge to push away not only everyone else, but his entire concept of self. He'd thought it sounded lonely the first time she mentioned it, and he still feels that way. There's a lot caught up in a name and an identity - friends and family, even gone, even far away, a whole life beyond what they're wrapped up in now.

Her returning to some of what she left behind could only mean good things, right? Healing? He'd like to think so. ]

For the record? I'm glad. I like Persephone all right, but I like Laura too. [ He likes to think she'll understand what he means, because that, he can understand: Blue Beetle and Jaime are two halves of the same whole, and while she may have only gotten to meet one in name, she'd wound up knowing Jaime a whole lot more than the Blue Beetle. ]

[ She just huffs and pulls her knees up to her chest, but her expression stays soft. ]

Well, that makes one of us.

[ It's said a little lighter than most of her self-depreciation, but there it is. ]

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