MoM IC Contact

[khajidont]

Jaime's cell phone is more or less plugged riiiight into his brain, so he tends to pick up like 99% of the time! If not, however...

"Hey, Jaime here! Leave a message, and I'll get back to you ASAP."

Comments

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[moded]

uuuggghhhh why is texas so hot??
i mean i know why but dude why do ppl choose to live here its just a desert with buildings thrown on top

[Hey, Jaime. Look who's back. Avoiding any emotional I'M BACK moments through inane texts because--

Well. Just Because.]

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[khajidont]

WHY THE HECK ARE YOU IN TEXAS

[Okay, okay, Bart came back from a world where Wally is dead, he's probably emotionally messed up from remembering everything all over again, blah blah blah. Sensitivity later, hugs now. He thought that this time, maybe he'd never see this kid again, and -- hell, he's family.

Jaime's already a blue blur in the sky because he's getting his damn hug.]

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[moded]

cause of that place u told me to go to think and stuff??

[But- Bart can guess what that means. He's been here long enough, has done this whole going and coming back dance already. So, he just kind of sets his communicator aside and sits on that little rock ledge Jaime had shown him way back when and waits.

Honestly, he almost wished he'd waited a little longer. Because by the time Jaime finds him, Bart still feels muted around the edges. He's nowhere near what he had been back in December, when he'd come back and been hit with the fact that Wally was dead, that the Wally they knew here was going to die. In fact, he hadn't even gone home this time. He'd just... not existed.

The Porter hadn't moved him forward in time, at least not in any measurable way. He'd just closed his eyes and opened them again almost two weeks in the future-- but in a way that's almost worse. Here they are, living at the beck and call of something that can not only cross a universal divide, but can play with time in its own universe so easily?

Bart doesn't get mad, he doesn't get angry, not because of what is said or done to him or anything other than villains threatening his friends. But this feeling of helplessness, the way the Porter is just playing with all of them- he's pissed. And upset. And unable to smile or joke or do anything near his normal amount of energy. It's annoying and obnoxious and uuuggghhh.

Either way, whenever Jaime tracks him down, Bart's still just sitting there, leaning against a rock with one of his knees pulled up to his chest, the other leg dangling off over the miniature abyss. Staring at nothing and looking... well. Upset. At least by Bart's standards.]

[khajidont]

[It's like deja vu. No one Jaime knows is truly happy at the heart of it, and if he was making a list of his happiest friends, he's not sure if Bart would crack the top ten. He usually doesn't broadcast it quite this much, however, and once he starts to approach and sees Bart's withdrawn body language, he knows he's not getting his hug quite yet. It's clear how he changes gears, smile falling away, slowing from full speed down to a hover, so that he doesn't land quite so heavily beside Bart.]

So, [he says, tone deceptively light,] I tell you where you can be alone to think and I ruin it by barging over here anyway.

[Jaime would have come regardless, he knows, because even if his tone is light, he's clearly staring at Bart, greedily drinking up the sight of him. Even if Wally was right, even if Bart was better back home, Jaime had missed Bart. Knowing that this place may well be all they get means that he's all the more anxious to see him, to spend time with him, to take advantage of what they have before it's ripped away.

But he's not so selfish as to concentrate on that instead of whatever's going on with Bart. He plops down beside him, heels kicking against the cliffside. He takes a deep breath, and puts a hold on the I'm so happy that you're heres, or requests to just hang out again, and takes care of what's staring at him, right smack dab in the face.]

Something bad happen back home?

[Something more bad, anyway. Maybe Robin dies too. He feels kind of bad for thinking it, but at this rate, it's pretty darn likely.]

[moded]

[If there's one thing hanging out with Jaime always does, it's put Bart in a better mood. Even this, just Blue landing and saying something dumb and joining him in sitting and staring at nothing- it lightens the load he's felt settling down on top of him in seconds. Lets the shadow of a smile pull at his lips as he shrugs a shoulder.]

Nah. You get alone spot privileges, hermano. [Oh no, he's speaking at a normal speed and using an almost proper Spanish accent? Something is horribly wrong.] Besides you fly way too slow I could've booked it to Washington in the time it took you to get here.

[But then the question comes, and Bart just takes a second to frown, to stare out at the desert in front of them for a long moment. He can feel the frustration bubbling up inside of him, can feel the anger of feeling useless, the sharp bitterness that had driven him back in 2056.]

Dunno. I didn't go back home. [There's a pause, and Bart really shouldn't be talking. He shouldn't be saying anything. He knows he shouldn't be, that's why he's here and not hanging off of Barry and Wally and claiming Jaime's TV as his own again.] I thought the Porter just worked with other universes. That it just reached into parallel universes and got different points sometimes, it made more sense that way.

I didn't know it could- [He stops, grits his teeth, bites back the babble of words and equations he wants to rant about so badly. The calculations he's done since coming back and how things just don't make sense without a terrifying amount of energy and something a bit more than technology at its center. But him and time travel... as much as just about everyone close to him knows he built the time machine, he still considers it just one of those things he's never allowed to talk about. So, in the end, he just lets out a frustrated noise.] Either I just didn't exist for almost two weeks or the Porter knows how to time travel without a machine. And both of those options are way moded considering the Porter can do whatever it wants whenever it wants.

[Sorry, Jaime. But at least no one died?]

[khajidont]

[Jaime has a response for Bart on the tip of his tongue: Could've followed you there too. In any other situation, it would just be a good natured tease. They both know that Bart is faster than him, that all Jaime's got on him is the ability to track him down wherever he may be, but after the dream they'd both had? He finds it difficult to bring up any of his suit's powers with anyone who had to see it, like he's just rubbing in their face just how bad things can get.

So he doesn't say that, just sits back and listens. Lucky for the both of them, Jaime's always been pretty good at that. He can tell that Bart's unhappy, though not drastically so; at least around Jaime, he's used to Bart keeping it a little more real, talking slower when he feels like he has to, letting himself, even temporarily, look tired. More tired than a kid his age should be, probably, but that goes for them all these days.]

It's happened to a few people I know. I don't think that means you just stop existing, Bart, but... I don't know what you mean by the whole time travel without the machine thing. Isn't the Porter itself the machine?

[moded]

[Oh no, Jaime. Don't tempt him into opening that can of time machine worms.

But he can't help but make a little annoyed noise at Jaime's question. Can't help the tirade that wants to come pouring out. He'd had this conversation with Nathaniel what seemed like ages ago now. And he feels just as much frustration now as he did then. The frustration of someone who feels like their back is against the wall, like they're just a plaything of something far more powerful.]

Well yeah kinda, but it's more of an engine. [He lets out a breath of air, reaching up and rubbing at his face as he feels the tension start to actually show.] It's like driving a car- you can't just ride around on an engine.

[It's not like that at all, but hey. Close enough.]

Sorry. [He mutters into his hands as he finishes dragging them across his face in his frustration.] M'fine, just- I could've not come back. And it's not like I would know it.

[He manages a grin, even if it's a little strained, and reaches over to bump his fist lightly against Jaime's shoulder.]

But I'm back, so we can figure something out now. [Like he hasn't already texted a few people about this.]

[khajidont]

[Jaime's not sure where Bart's getting his information from. As far as he's concerned, the Porter's always had control over space and time, and it's in control the whole time, more like a Motherbox than anything they can properly understand. The Motherbox had sent him hurtling between planets like nothing, and it had been a cube he could hold in his hands. He's beyond understanding one consistent way this sort of thing works.

It makes sense for it not to make sense. He'd met people from an alternate future, after all. But, honestly, he doesn't want to start talking shop when all he'd wanted to do is see Bart again.]

Yeah, well... I'm glad you did, Bart. It's not the same here without you.

[moded]

[It all has to do with your scope of understanding. Interstellar travel and teleportation is one thing, but time- time's something else. And when people start messing with it, start tossing him back and forth through it like it's nothing- it's something both amazingly concerning and also full of so many possibilities.

For now, though, Bart's just wrestling his mind back to the present moment, letting his hand fall from that half-hearted bro fist to shoulder bump as he leans back against the rock he'd been using as a sulk-rest for the last while.]

Yeah. [He grins, but it's still tired, still just not as lively as it should be.] I mean without me you'd probably go so slow you'd actually grow a beard trying to get to the door.

[But, after a short pause: ]

M'glad I didn't go home this time. I mean as moded as anything Porter related is, I never lost anything from here.

[khajidont]

...I had a feeling you wouldn't wanna go back. Not like that, anyway. [Jaime may not be getting his hug, but he's scooting a little closer to Bart, resting on him shoulder-to-shoulder, just that bit of human contact that he suspects the both of them could use. He can tell that Bart's upset, that he's not feeling good, but that's okay. They can work it out. They've worked a lot more out, haven't they?

Either way, he thought he knew that Wally was wrong. Bart's not happy here, but he's not happy back home either, is he? Man, this is tough. This poor kid deserves all the scraps of happiness he can get his hands on.]

We've got too much left to do here, right?

[He's not entirely aware that he's implicating himself in not wanting to go home like that either, but it's natural for him to defer to we. No matter what, he tends to think about him and Bart as sort of a joint package.]

I SWEAR I WROTE THIS

[moded]

Why would I want to go back? [Oh no. He can feel the bitterness building up inside of him, feels a strange pressure in his chest that just has the words spilling out of his mouth without even a hope of stopping them.] I mean yeah, I miss grandma, Jay and Joan. I miss the rest of the Team, I miss the Watchtower. And I mean if I'd lived all this time back home my dad and Aunt Dawn would be born, but it's not here.

[He's waving his arms vaguely as he speaks, slipping in and out of superspeed due to annoyance rather than manic energy, this time. Not that there's much of a difference when everything's just a blur of motion.]

And if I go back, Nightwing's gonna be off the team, Wally's dead and I won't care like I do here, and I'll forget everyone else- you you, the SB who's here now, CK, JJ, Gogo, Riku-

[Bart stops, clicks his teeth shut as he realizes he's actually ranting, and not in a frantic, whining speedster way. He lets out a breath, dragging his hand over his face as he tries to just get a grip.]

Yeah. Way too much.

it's ok IT'S HERE NOW

[khajidont]

Hey, hey. I know, Bart. [He reaches out, places one hand on Bart's back, steady and solid. He's not sure what the world Bart's going home to really looks like, beyond a dead Wally (as if that's not enough), but Jaime's not so sure about his future either. Superman's made a bunch of cryptic comments about how things go sour again, and Eddie and Nadia die, and he gets reset... there's not a lot good about it. Oh, sure, he misses his family, misses them so bad that he feels a pain in the gut every time he looks at their pictures - he's known them for a lot longer than Bart's known his - but he's not sure about sacrificing all that he's learned and loved here.

People like Bart, for one.]

Trust me on that one, [he says, and if he's taken aback by Bart's demeanor, he doesn't show it, just treats him with as much seriousness as before. He's seen Bart a little like this before, and while it's never a good thing... at least he's being honest about it.]

Freaks you out, doesn't it, [he says quietly, more of a comment than a question.]