khajidont | MoM IC Contact

I know what's gonna happen with your work, [Jaime says from the kitchen.] You'll have to do a little regathering, maybe work with some new people, but you'll get right back on with it. You'll get back whatever you've lost, you'll see.

[At least from Jaime, he's not going to get anything but unconditional support -- support that pokes at the flaws, perhaps, but he's all for the Porter plan. He walks back into the living room, offering Tadashi his topped off coffee.]

[He takes it and watches him over the top of the mug before smiling.] Probably right.

At the very least, we know most everyone here can work to a common goal together.

[That's a good, positive thing, right? He nudges the remote closer to himself with his foot so he can reach it, brow twitching when he feels the tech humming under his fingers. The only bad part about his technopathy is not being able to turn it off for something as simple as changing a channel.]

... I know you probably thought it and the answer's no, I didn't spend that birthday money on Wally.

What, for real? What did you spend it on, then?

[If he's spent it on anything yet, that is. Jaime's trying to think of one selfish thing Tadashi would buy for himself, and he's coming up empty.]

[The channel guide is really interesting for a few seconds while he listens - to both Jaime, and the remote's hum in his hand.]

Mm. That last big dinner we all had before we got on the road home.

[So Tadashi did spend it on the trip... the trip that seemed to go awry in the worst ways for the poor guy. It seems like a waste. Tadashi hadn't been too happy on the way home, though nobody had been brash enough to comment directly on it.]

Oh. [...should he be thanking Tadashi?] Was that, uh, worth it?

[Tadashi doesn't expect thanks for it, he didn't at the time either. But even he can't help the little smile thinking back on that. All of his friends and roommates together eating one big meal: his family.]

Yeah. I think it definitely was worth it.

[Jaime did, in fact, thank Tadashi at the time - he's not a monster! Only monsters don't thank people for food! - but he decides not to belabour the point. It seems like kind of a crappy birthday present, but it's not like he'd know what to do with money as a gift either.

He'd probably intend to save it and accidentally spend it on groceries. Ah, the lives of the financially independent.]

Hey, so long as that's the way you wanted to spend it. I'm just glad you didn't manage to just give it to someone else.

It is.

[And he meant it. Whatever else happened on the trip didn't change that. But that gets a little short bark of laughter.]

I think I have the excuse at the time of being a little upset trying to figure out what to do with it.

[Jaime lets out a quiet noise between his teeth, more a cluck of his tongue than anything else.]

Geez, no kidding. So much for a relaxing vacation. One of these days you're gonna have a good week.

[...he's just not sure when.]

May only happen if I make it happen.

Which isn't too far out of my abilities if things keep up like this.

[If worse comes to worst, then he can just cut himself off from the network and comm contact for a week and just work in his lab.]

[God, that's depressing. All they want are a couple of decent weeks, but the universe keeps on raining terror down on Tadashi. He's right, though, it might be a couple months before things start looking up, but they will start looking up, somehow.]

Oh, you'll make it happen, [he says, leaning back into the sofa and grabbing his own drink.] Or we will, anyway. Just give it time... or you can just hole away with your aunt's cat.

[He likes Mochi. He's huge. Any cat that huge is a delight to Jaime's sensibilities.]

I'm sure Mochi wouldn't mind.

[Mochi's great. But also has this weird habit of sleeping on top of him any chance he gets since his aunt's shown up here. He reaches over to pat Jaime on the shoulder.][.... Huh. There's that weird humming from Jaime again that he thought he felt on the trip. He gets quiet, hand still resting on his shoulder like he's listening to something.]

[Jaime likes to think that he's subtle with his particular powers, but there's no hiding from a technopath. His blood practically runs electric; Khaji's at the core of him, and even if nobody else knows it, he's changed the way Jaime operates, the way he sees and smells, the way he lives. Being without him had been like having a sense ripped away from him.

So while it depends on the technopath, it sure means that there's a lot there to suss out. As it turns out, Jaime's forgotten about Tadashi's whole technopath deal, which just means that he's just regarding Tadashi's hand with curiosity.]

Uh... you doing all right there?

What?

[He blinks out of the slow trance he'd fallen into trying to listen and looks to him, pulls his hand away.]

Sorry- sorry! Felt.. something weird for a minute, was trying to figure it out. Have you got like a tablet or something on you somewhere?

[He didn't get to feel long enough to figure out what exactly it was, but he could tell it was definitely bigger than a watch or a phone.]

Oh.

[Crap. This is the second time this has happened, except this time, this time he can deal with the after-effects better, right? Catch him in a lie once, shame on you, catch him in a lie twice, shame on him. Only Tadashi's only guess is that Jaime has a tablet on him, and though he dresses baggy, absolutely none of his clothing has a big enough pocket to carry a tablet on him.

Which is probably for the best in general, because otherwise he'd need a fashion intervention, but in this case, isn't altogether helpful. He glances down at himself.]

Yyyyyyyeeee -- [Right, he doesn't have any pockets big enough.] -- no. I've got my phone on me?

[Experience with it this long runs through his mind. Tadashi isn't looking at Jaime, instead running a few quick calculations in his mind - the feel of the electric charges he felt along with what he knows he feels in his own comm.

No. No, it's not a phone. He shakes his head slowly, still distracted by the lingering feeling in his fingertips.]

Bigger than a phone. More complex, too.

[It's a good thing that Tadashi isn't looking at Jaime, because he's starting to look a little nervous. He's not horribly opposed to Tadashi knowing a little more about him at some point, but today's not the day to have the wonderful talk about him having alien technology in his spine that was supposed to make him into a monster -- and, as he's learned, succeeds at some indeterminate point in the future.

It's just kind of an awkward conversation to have, every time he has it. He can't help but feel a little curious, though, as to exactly what Khaji feels like. He knows how electronics feel to him, but the way he experiences them must be so different from the way a technopath does.]

So, uh... what does it feel like?

[That is the question, isn't it? If he can nail down what exactly it feels like, then he can hazard a guess at what he thinks it is. Nevermind that Jaime... might not want Tadashi trying to guess at it; it's a puzzle and it's tech, Tadashi has to know more about it. In some ways, he's a lot more like his little brother than he'd care to admit.

He rubs his thumb and forefinger together, brows furrowing as he considers it. Though it definitely felt like there was a source, the pieces weren't all centralized there. It was flowing evenly, like Jaime was the tech himself. But Jaime's not a cyborg or android (that he knows of? Who knows!) so that doesn't fit right. On top of that, it had more spark than regular tech. Usually he can feel whatever the tech he's touching feels, like an extension of himself. But this felt like... some other kind of entity altogether, like he felt the distant tips of a personality, but he's not sure.

A piece of that dream they had flashes back into his mind, that aliens had put some kind of tracker in Jaime. He can't help but wonder now how much of that had been just a dream and how much had been based in reality.]

Like there's something in you. Deep, whatever it is.

[It occurs to him that Jaime probably knows what it is and is probing to see how much Tadashi just figured out.]

...Ri-iight. [Jaime's not even thinking about the dream, or about how Tadashi could put two and two together to realize exactly what alien technology Jaime has inside of him. He forgets just how much he wound up giving away, back there, and the predominant image in his mind is that of Tadashi's death; the whole Reach thing sort of fell by the wayside. Tadashi never mentioned it, and as far as Jaime's concerned, that's totally fine by him.

He's definitely fidgeting now, pushing his fingers together as he tries to think up a good way of explaining away what Tadashi's got the finger on the pulse of what's inside of him, and what has always been inside of him for as long as they've known each other.

Ugh. Technopaths.]

...like the, uh, nanotech?

[Dumb mislead. They all have nanotech inside them.]

No, different from that. Nanotech's barely a buzz, this is bigger.

[Much bigger.

Sorry he's too smart for his own good, Jaime.

But his friend's hesitance has him a little worried now. Will Jaime get in trouble if someone finds out about whatever's in him? What if he's putting his friend in danger questioning him like this?]

I-- I'm sorry, uh.

Before, in the dreams. You mentioned something about a tracker. Is... That what that is? Or something like it?

Or something.

[Jaime lets out a sigh that is, perhaps, just a touch exaggerated. It's not that big of a deal to tell Tadashi about Khaji, but it's never a conversation he particularly enjoys. Even those who know that he's the Blue Beetle tend to treat Khaji with more than a little trepidation, as an aberration instead of a part of him. Tadashi's friendship with Magicman suggests that he won't feel the same way, but it's still uncertain ground, especially when Jaime can't wave it off as aliens and pretend like he's not scared of them.

He rubs at the back of his neck.]

I mean, technically it is a tracking device, but mostly, it's an AI.

Oh.

[.... OH.

That actually explains a lot.

He can only take what he saw in the dream with a grain of salt but an AI? And the bit of it being alien is likely true as well, but he won't assume much else unless Jaime tells him. He at least has the decency to not look at jaime yet, still, not while he mentally adjusts what he knows now with what he felt.]

That makes more sense.

Yeah, you caught me. It's a little bigger than nanotech.

[A lot bigger, in fact, and with its own very rich, and occasionally, very violent inner life. It is what it is. Jaime adores Khaji, but he's understandably wary about who knows about him, and how much. He knows he can trust Tadashi, though.

The grin he flashes at Tadashi is a little uneasy, but not entirely false.]

You've probably guessed already, but me having him is a secret, so... don't tell anyone?

No kidding. I probably would've never realized if I'd kept my limiter around.

[He gives him back an equally apologetic smile. He didn't mean for him to find out something Jaime's kept secret for probably good reason.]

You got it. I'm good at secrets.

Most people don't.

[It may make a few other things make more sense, however, in retrospect. The mumbling that Jaime did when he was asleep, how it'd sound like he talked to himself in the shower, the way he'd duck off with the excuse of having a phonecall to make at least once, if not twice a day... Jaime's nothing if not willing to act a little odd for the sake of Khaji to have some conversation that doesn't take the form of text.]

...y'know, I was kinda wondering if you even remembered that dream, [he has to confess.] I'm sorry you did.

[Especially since he got to die there too. Whoops.]

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