tushanshu | 10° VIDEO

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10° VIDEO

[There's a pause before Johnny's face appears on the screen, bent over to press the buttons. Once he confirms that the screen is on, he straightens and makes sure he's in frame, wearing very basic clothes.]

Aw, Reed. You shouldn't have! It's a little small, but I admit, I like what you've done with the place.

[He waits a beat, as if Reed might actually respond.]

There are two obvious possibilities for why I'm here. One, the Emperor is a crazed fan who abducted me to find out if The Torch is really as hot as they say he is – I am, by the way – or, two, I'm actually dead, they're lying to me, and I have a motorcycle and a pile of women waiting for me somewhere.

[A split-second pause.] I'll tell you what. If it's the first option? You can come find me. If it's the second, let me know and I'll come find you. Until then? This Fire Sector is like home, sweet home.

Johnny out.

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[Johnny gives her a brief 'oops' face, knowing he stumbled into something but completely oblivious to what it is or how to fix it. Instead, he'll just leave that there and move on to other topics.]

Any idea when this rationing will end or how to work around it?

Edited 2013-05-27 21:49 (UTC)

When the turtle stops being sick, or if we get someone with, I don't know, agriculture powers or something.

[She shrugs. She has no idea how to fix it.]

Some of us are working to reduce the effects, but it's just a stopgap.

[In this moment, Johnny misses Reed all over again. And his sister. And even Ben. The pain is visible in his expression as he frowns and looks away, uncrossing his arms. He has no idea how to fix things like this. He's never been the brains of the operation. Struggling to come up with an answer and finding none is a level of fatalism that he still doesn't handle well.]

There has to be something.. [He says quietly, as much to himself as to her.]

There's always something. I'm just not sure we're the right people to find it. Tony Stark's more of an engineer than a scientist.

[As god is my witness, I can't remember if we had a Bruce Banner yet at the time this thread started.

She gives him a wry look.]

No offense, but we could've used your brother-in-law more than you.

We can try.

[He offers lamely, but her latter words have him crossing his arms again. This time, it's an unconscious but defensive gesture at her words. Johnny's more upset with the statement because he knows it's true.]

You're right. [He practically snaps the reply, immaturity never too far.] But I think I'd rather he spend his time trying to get me back instead of coming here to grow crops for some kidnapping aliens.

[Shifting away from his place near the wall, Johnny drops his arms again, a subtle suggestion that he's planning to leave shortly.]

[Whoops. This Johnny is so similar to hers that she keeps forgetting his Fantastic Four is brand new, and that he and she don't go way back.]

Sorry. That was pretty thoughtless of me.

[Unlike practically everyone else in her universe, Nita's perfectly willing to admit when she's wrong.]

[And that completely throws him off guard, to the point where he just stops, stands, and stares at her for a moment.]

If the other Johnny was anything like me, then you know how much I miss them right now.

[A beat. He considers opening up more, adding 'how much I rely on them,' but he can't bring himself to do it. For as well as she claims to know him, he doesn't know her and really there's nothing to say that she's not in on the bigger picture of why he's here.]

We're a team. They need me and I'm letting them down by being here.

I miss my family, too.

[She's about to comment that she's also letting down her team, but then she remembers that the members are all either dead or traumatized, and the New Warriors don't exist anymore.]

It's not the same.

[Because Johnny has to be a special ~~snowflake~~ matchstick. Except that he's not one to be petty in hard and genuinely emotional circumstances, so he relaxes a little with his arms coming to rest at his sides.

A million thoughts dance across his expression in one uncomfortable flash before he gives an exaggeratedly disappointed huff, trying not to think about Reed and Sue retiring or Ben's girlfriend and how alone he really was even before coming here. Then he's smiling again, a smile that Nita might recognize as hiding something quite sad, though few would normally know him so well as to do so.]

I have a kid waiting for me. [He gestures at her door, as if there's someone on the other side of it.] I should get going.

[At that casual dismissal of her own family, her murdered mother and her beloved cousin she hasn't seen in almost a year, and all the people of Atlantis, fled from their ruined capital in a diaspora she doesn't understand, Nita feels a flash of genuine anger--not annoyance or dismay, but the real Sub-Mariner rage. How dare he. How dare this imitation hero accept her hospitality and return it with insults?

However, she's not her cousin, and instead of throwing a drink, or a punch, she fixes Johnny with a cold stare that his smile can't thaw, and the glass in her hand cracks as she doesn't quite manage not to clench her fists.]

Well. Don't keep them waiting.

[Johnny glowers at her, confused why she's suddenly so angry. He's oblivious to all of her family issues and simply takes her response as being overly sensitive about how much more important his problems right now are compared to her own arrival. After all, he just got here.]

I won't! [He grumbles angrily, dropping his arms and strutting over towards the door. Nita still has time to respond if she chooses, but otherwise, Johnny's going to storm out like his name implies and slam the door behind him.]

[Nita makes no effort to stop him, and once he finishes his exit, hurls her already cracked glass with a strangled scream of rage. It explodes against the door where Johnny's head had been a moment before, thrown hard enough that it would have done serious damage to a human. Instead it leaves a dent in the wood, and glass shards sticky with the dregs of a rum and coke scattered on the floor.

So that went well.]

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