tushanshu | [video]

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[Brandon looks, for all intents and purposes, bored as hell.]

You know what this place really needs?

[Bit of a pause. Purely for dramatic effect, you understand. He is an actor.]

Twitter.

And if you have to ask me what that is, you're seriously dead to me. Like. Don't even try.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Nita's eyes are only a little red when she answers the door.]

Hey.

[You jerk.]

Edited (realized the subject line was wrong after approximately a million years) 2012-10-14 03:10 (UTC)

[His expression flickers a little. This was a dumb idea and he should (and rightfully does) feel pretty dumb about it. But he likes Nita and he was... probably more of an asshole than he needed to be.

So he rubs at his arm a little in uncertainty and then offers a hug? Do Atlanteans even like hugs what if it's secret underwater code for 'I'm about to kill you'.]

Sorry I'm a jerk.

[Nita is both thoroughly acclimated to surface customs, and also hell yes hugging is a thing in Atlantis. They're just all too stuffy to admit it. She hesitates for a second because she's not sure Brandon deserves a hug...but dammit, she's a touchy-feely person, and none of her friends are here, so she accepts the embrace, careful not to hug tightly enough to break any ribs.]

You'd think I'd be used to it by now.

[Hurk, Atlanteans are stronger than they look.]

What, jerks?

[Nita especially!]

Yes.

[Jerk.]

Well, I'm a jerk that came over to apologize. Does that make a difference?

[pause.]

Though I can't really remember what I'm apologizing for, since I spent most of the way over here going 'oh god I hope she doesn't punch me into the sun'. You're not going to do that, right?

Idiot, too.

[Nita lets him go and steps back a bit. Brandon doesn't seem to realize how insulting the implication is. Even Namor and his infamous temper don't hurt people who aren't a threat to him.]

Seriously, dude, I don't hit people who aren't trying to hit me.

[Well, the occasional smack upside the head, but that's different.]

Hey, I'm fresh out of the Norman Osborn 'abuse children until they do what I say' program. Don't hold it against me.

[He's awesome at accidentally insulting people.]

Him, I'd hit first.

[SHE DOESN'T LIKE THIS OSBORN GUY just based on talking to Brandon and Trauma. Also idk if she knows he's Green Goblin.]

[Wryly,]

We've got that in common.

C'mon in.

[Nita's actually fairly neat, and her living room is mostly presentable. There are a couple of pillows in weird locations, as if someone had hurled them against the wall in a fit of anger and left them where they landed.]

[And so he does. Awkwardly.]

... So was this a bad idea or am I actually helping?

Dude, if I couldn't deal with guys being idiots who don't think, I'd've snapped a long time ago.

[Have you heard of Namor? You know, anything whatsoever about him?]

I mean, Rich is--was--oh, dammit.

[She digs the heel of her hand into her eye as the tears threaten to start again.]

You're the first person here I've told about all of this.

Is that a bad thing? I mean. It... sounds like it's probably something you need to talk about.

[pot, kettle. varying shades of obsidian.]

I didn't want to bug anybody, you know? None of my friends are here, and even if they were, they probably wouldn't be the people I remember.

[She flops down on a couch and hugs her knees to her chest.]

Even Rich--Nova. One minute he was this guy who just couldn't get his act together, the next he's running Nova Corps and I find out it's been years for him and he commanded the United Front during the Annihilation War. The Kree Empire and Galactus's Heralds were taking orders from him! He ended the war by ripping Annihilus's heart out through his throat! This was my loser boyfriend who couldn't even keep a job at a burger place!

[One wonders what Nita saw in the guy at the time--but apparently she's an excellent judge of potential.]

Hey. It's not bugging other people. I promise. You're... you're allowed to have problems, and no one can tell you how to deal with them but you, you know?

[Brandon: startlingly self-aware sometimes.]

And hey, for the record, jobs at burger places suck. Just saying.

[Nita half-smiles up at him.]

Careful, I might start thinking you're not a jerk.

[She gets a meditative look at his comment about minimum-wage jobs.]

I wouldn't know. I've never actually had a job, not like what people mean when they talk about jobs.

Don't pass it around.

[because really tho.]

Well what's a 'job' for you? Being royalty?

[Nita pantomimes zipping her lips. After a pause to indicate she's serious, she goes on to answer his question.]

Yeah, I guess you could say that? I'm close enough to the throne that I need to know how to rule if it comes to that. I'm on the King's Council, and the board of the Oracle Corporation...but I think Namor sold that after I...left.

[Time travel.]

Plus I was in school, and the New Warriors.

Sounds busy.

[... after a moment, and almost as if he's prompted by some outside force (otherwise known as his brain) he speaks again,]

I never had one either. A real job. Like. Same thing.

[He waves a hand.]

I guess it was? I never really noticed.

[Superhuman endurance and the world's most indefatigable personality. It's a lot easier not to get overwhelmed when next to nothing tires you out, physically or emotionally.]

But you're, like, 16. A lot of surface teenagers don't work.

[They go to school like on Welcome Back, Kotter!]

[He grimaces.]

Seventeen. And I mean-- I've been in showbiz since I was, I dunno, like a toddler or something. But I've never flipped... you know, burgers.

[Her mistake.]

That helps explain the attitude.

[She's actual royalty and she's not as much of a diva as you are, dude.]

What, the age or the occupation?

[... he's actually a little hurt by her comment but like hell is he showing it because Reasons.]

[He's lucky he's an actor or Nita would catch him.

And then apologize for hurting his feelings.

Brandon, you are really only screwing yourself here.]

The job. That whole [she waves one hand around] Johnny Storm vibe you've got.

[A future version of her dated Johnny, so it's a compliment. Mostly.]

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