[AI] One Step Closer

[beetlebutt]

Jaime's return to Defenders tower for the day consisted of him powering down the suit, walking into the loungey area where Paco was hanging out off-duty, and repeatedly kicking the couch about ten times while making abortive angry hand gestures, then diving face first onto it near Paco and screaming into the cushion.

Some days were good - great even.

Some days were okay.

This was a fairly standard bad day, probably a 4.5 on the Jaime's Temper Richter Scale. The only thing particularly notable about it was that he'd really had one too many of these lately. Definitely way more of them after the Merge than before.

Comments

[beetlebutt]

"So I got up in his face and he got up in my face and I yelled at him, and I can't remember what I said, but I think something about his mom would be ashamed of him that he was interfering in me helping a person, and then I may have possibly pulled a Kanye West and completely lost it." He bounced his head against the cushion few times. "I took the camera out of his hands and crushed it. So I was just down with the PR department and legal because apparently he can sue for that and our liability stuff as a team will cover it but if he does it, it'll be a mess and it might end up on youtube or something and the lawyers totally reamed me out - and - " He broke off into a string of absolutely filthy swearing in Spanish.

[flunkingspanish]

"Hey, Jaime, c'mere."

Paco hauled Jaime into a partially-upright position so he could give him a hug. He recognized the roughness in Jaime's voice, and he really hated how much he'd been hearing that too.

"Dude's an asshole and was trying to piss you off. That's what they do. He's probably not gonna sue, just threaten to so that maybe he can wrangle closer shots of the Tower. Going to court would take too much time out of his busy day, and he's got a lot of being a waste of space and oxygen scheduled. And the lawyers were just yelling because suddenly they got to deal with this instead of the guy who's trying to save people's lives. Breathe."

[beetlebutt]

Paco had been giving a lot of hugs lately. In the past, they hadn't been too shy about the hugs at the times hugs were very appropriate, but over the last year or so - years, really - that Jaime had been superheroing, they pretty much had tossed any reservations they had about regular hugging to the wind. Jaime had needed it. He'd needed it right now without realizing it. Paco had already figured out what was about to happen before he did, and sure enough, his eyes started prickling. He sucked in deep breath after breath. It didn't stop the stress crying from starting but it at least meant he wasn't sobbing or anything. While growing up, Jaime had never had any issues where he devolved to stress crying but it had become a thing in the year since he'd returned. Now that he was piling even more onto himself it had only gotten more frequent as time had gone on. It didn't help that so much of what he saw was extra ugly - like that human trafficking thing he and Spidey had broken up.

[flunkingspanish]

As awful as the situation was, it was also why Paco didn't feel remotely threatened by either of the other two guys competing with each other for "Jaime's best (male) friend": he knew what Jaime needed. He knew what Brenda needed too, though in her case it tended to be less hugs and more excuses to kick someone's butt.

Jaime was going to save the world. Brenda was going to change it for the better. It was his job to make sure they both got there in one piece. Sometimes that involved hitting things with sticks, and sometimes it involved hugging the crap out of them.

"You got this, dude. It's gonna be fine."

[beetlebutt]

He knocked his head against Paco's shoulder. "I been doing this years now but lately it's like how I was when I crashed back from the first Crisis without any idea what was going on, walking through the desert - naked, scared out of my mind because some kinda beetle rock was stuck in my spine." Confused and stressed and scared. He'd cried quite a few times that night. When Guy had attacked, when the man at the gas station had been nice to him, when he'd gotten home and realized how much time had passed. He'd been in over his head and that meant all of it had gotten him going, every scare or act of kindness. He felt like that a lot lately. "Lately it's like I'm always over my head. Always. All the time. And the world's so much more wrong." Like this thing with the paparazzi not caring about that girl and the people they endangered. Like those North Korean trafficking victims and how they'd gotten caught up in trafficking to escape worse horrors back home - horrors that had somehow grown worse than they were before the Merge. Like the B-siders that hated mutants for no reason when they were no different than metas, who tried to commit acts of violence against them right there in his own town. As if he'd ever stand for that. He'd talked to the press about that one. About how he wasn't a mutant but he wasn't going to tolerate it and how he'd treat it like any other crime. So folks didn't think he'd turn a blind eye. So folks understood it wouldn't be how it was back in World B where the mutants looked after their own and the other metas stuck to their own affairs. Oh no, he was actively going to fight that kind of persecution. "And it seems like it's never gonna stop."

[flunkingspanish]

"Dude, you are always in over your head," Paco pointed out. "You once almost single-handedly took out an alien invasion that could phase their mind control drugs halfway out of reality so they could put it in our water, remember? You are doing ridiculous bull@#%& all the time, of course it feels like you're drowning! But you've got people who've got your back, okay? We're not gonna let you sink."

[beetlebutt]

J/-\|/|\E = N()T /-\L()NE. FR|ENDS = L|FE R/-\FT. N() DR()WNING. Jaime's crying fit stopped abruptly as he chuckled. "So you're all a life raft now, huh?" he asked. YES. KH/-\J| D/-\ + J/-\|/|\E'S FR|ENDS DOUBLE /-\S SUPERHERO FL()T/-\T|()N DEV|CE. "Scarab says that he and you guys all double as a superhero flotation device." WE /-\RE VERY BU()Y/-\NT. "And that you're all very buoyant."

[flunkingspanish]

"And if you can't believe the alien technology that crawled into bed with you in the middle of the night to give your spine a special hug, who can you believe, right?"

Paco clapped Jaime on the back. "We are the best flotation device. Most flotation devices definitely don't offer to bring you snacks."

Beat.

"Also, I think we should all take a moment to appreciate how many boob jokes I'm not making right now, because the temptation is there, my friends. The temptation is there."

[beetlebutt]

EST|/|\/-\TING 43567 P()SS|BLE B()()B J()KES. Jaime chuckled again. "That many boob jokes don't even exist." Between the two of them joking around, he was feeling a lot better. He wiped at his face. "Thanks, guys. I keep...getting all overwhelmed. But it helps being reminded I'm not doing it all on my own." A pause. "Also the jokes help. Mostly the jokes."

[flunkingspanish]

"There are totally that many boob jokes."

Paco didn't know what number Khaji had pulled out of his buggy little butt, but he was sure that the number of boob jokes in two realities slammed together could absolutely exist.

"Don't worry about it man, that's what we're here for. Also to be taken hostage by hot chicks and/or robots, and to help you save the world." Paco smiled. "Try not to look at the whole picture, all right? Just deal with what's in front of you. I know you're a big picture kind of guy, but you can't worry about the big stuff until you get on top of the small stuff, yeah? Even if the small stuff is people you really shouldn't have to waste your energy on rescuing because wow, who the hell does that?"

[beetlebutt]

"Okay. Okay. One thing at a time. So. How about snacks? Brenda's due to be off monitor duty soon. When she's done maybe we can watch a movie while I do my superhero homework." One thing at a time, right? Just dealing with what was on front of him. He'd worry about the paparazzi thing when and if it became a bigger problem. "That's a good plan, right?" WE SH()ULD W/-\TCH M/-\N()S H/-\NDS ()F F/-\TE. "Scarab thinks we should watch Manos Hands of Fate since we haven't seen it in a while." "J/-\|/|\E, |'M SC/-\RED." L()L. That was always what made the scarab most amused, the woman in the movie constantly saying 'Mike, I'm scared.'