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 Posted: Wed Jan 07, 2009 6:50 pm
Well...
Joy wasn't certain what to expect at the group that came thundering in as she was on her way out. To her it looked like they were coming from a retreat from battle...or scurrying to a battle with no warning.
"Ah...Ace?" She hesitatingly responded to his rather loud shout. Why was he looking at her so strangely? Her head turned rather quickly at the whole 'city destroied' comment. "City?" She echoed, though Lesley took care of that little untruth quickly enough.
Joy's head tilted again, sos he could see the toddler standing with the phone and being berated by his father. For just the weirdest and eerie moment Joy wanted to ask Ace if he had ever checked Jimmie to see if he had a power. Who knew? It was possible the boy could have a visionary type power. Joy didn't know of any evolved that did have it though.
Unfortunatly she found herself in Ace's arm grip and berated by not only him, but Robbie.
"Thanks Neil." She dryly grumbled out of character. "I just have not been sleeping well. That is all guys. I'm really fi--" Joy paused as Jimmie would squish her cheeks together and laugh.
Amid cheek squishing, she spoke with puffy fish lips. "Ace. Haff you evar checked Jibbie for powuhs?"
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Posted: Wed Jan 07, 2009 7:14 pm
"You haven't been slee---" Robbie blinked at Joy's question, "What is wrong? Why haven't you been sleeping well? What can we do for you?"
"What is wrong with you?" Ace's question was more accusatory, "Don't you know that if you don't care of yourself, you're never going to get home? Don't you WANT to get home? Get the heck out of here while you can?"
"You are very uncouth." Lesley didn't sound approving.
"Are you trying to kill yourself? Well, if you want that, I can give you a good way to do it without having to--Uhmph!"
Robbie had punched Ace in the face. The thing that saved him from--oh, a broken jaw--was the fact that Jimmie was in his hand and he was still too close to Joy.
"I would imagine it is simply homesickness." Lesley now sounded entirely unruffled. "If you must fight, please take it outdoors."
"I'm sorry." The apology was made by Robbie directly to Joy, still sincere. "You have to take care of yourself. Have we really made you that miserable?"
"Awh, I wanted a fight." Destin had Ace, but hadn't even really needed to hold him. He looked properly embarrassed for the rampage that had invited the punch.
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Posted: Wed Jan 07, 2009 7:29 pm
"Guys..... guys..." Joy did try to cut in. Ace was getting rather agitated and he was starting to ramble. Any moment now he was going to---
Get punched in the face.
"Gah!" Joy jumped, more as a after thought to having her brother cold c**k punched right in front of her. It was a touch shocking to see her brother be knocked on his a**.
It was disconcerting to have her attention pulled in different directions. Part of her wanted to kneel by Ace and assure him that she was going to be fine and explain what she could to him.
At the same time she wanted to pay attention to Robbie and assure him as well that she was fine. Even Lesley's commentary made her want to at least apologize to him for the inconveinece she was being.
"Guys...Ace...Robbie... Mr. Hyland is right. I'm just homesick..." She began, then paused to shoot a look at Destin.
"I'm not miserable Robbie." She continued after a moment. Turning to look back at him she forced a faint smile onto her lips. "I'm really worried about my brother...I mean...the Ace in my world. I want to get home and out of your lives so I'll just...stop messing things up."
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Posted: Wed Jan 07, 2009 7:42 pm
"Messing things up?" Robbie repeated, the left-over angry look fading into sad-puzzling sort of mix. "Nono, Joy. No, you're not messing anything up. Don't start blaming yourself again. Not for anything. It wasn't your choice to come here, and honestly, we're pleased to see you. A little worried, but--Who else gets the chance?"
"A little worried?" Destin repeated with a roll of his eyes, "If Ace was anymore worried about her, he'd have killed himself over it. Frankly, I'm a lot tired of watching Ace worry himself half to death and watching you sit around in a paralyzed fear. If the lot of you were any more 'a little worried' and not doing but feeding it any more, then I'd be stuck burying all of you! Man, the only one not flipping out is the nonevolved that's never dealt with an evolved, or likely even considered he'd find himself in such a situation! I should go meld some freakin' gold into a medal for you!" Destin's sarcastic speech rolled into an all out roar, in which Neil somehow became the central unit to vent all his frustrations out on.
"Destin is angry." Jimmie stated.
"Flipping ding-ding-ding!" Destin snapped at the little boy, "Never mind, HE gets the useless piece of medalled gold."
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Posted: Wed Jan 07, 2009 8:03 pm
Joy stood in silence for a moment. Her eyes shifting from Robbie and back to Ace. She had hoped that by distancing herself the pair of them would have a easier time coping with their situations. Perhaps that just wouldn't be the case until she had left completely.
Destin's small explosion though made her cringe inwardly. It had to be difficult for him to be dealing with two men going through strange moods constantly. Joy placed a hand on her forehead, and exhaled a slow breath.
"I do not need to be worried about. I'm in the safest place I could possibly be. In fact being here has probably been the best for me completely. I can focus on my goals and I don't have to worry about someone putting a gun to my head here." Joy made a small gesture with her hands, then sighed once more.
"But...from the fuss Destin is making...it sounds like the two of you need to..I don't know... say something. Anything really so... Ace...would you mind waiting for me back in my room? Robbie I want to talk with you a bit..."
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Posted: Wed Jan 07, 2009 8:11 pm
"Well, hallelujah!" Destin exclaimed, going to grab Neil by the arm, "Come on, boy, we're eating on the veranda today. Take the baby with you, Ace." Rena followed after them
Ace had started off with obeying Joy, and now turned around to obey Destin. He reached out for Jimmie, who squealed and reached likewise for "Uncle Spacey-Acey!" He turned to Joy before leaving, taking a deep breath, "I'm sorry." Then turned again to leave.
"Please spend time truly talking." Lesley's soft statement was something between a plea and an odd mixture of a grandfatherly sort of admonishment and advice. Then he too left.
"Yes, sir." Robbie answered the superhero's back, then turned to Joy, quietly waiting for whatever it was she had to say.
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Posted: Wed Jan 07, 2009 8:23 pm
Joy nodded at Ace when he apologized, and responded with her usual "It's okay Ace." She watched him leave of course, her lips quirking at the cute nick name that she assumed Jimmie had heard from someone else. destin perhaps?
It was a bit...embaressing to have Lesley speak to her and Robbie in such a manner. She assumed that it was mostly concern for Robbie then anything towards her. Even though she appreciated his concern over her current habits...and she did value his advice and had made small adjustments to her current lifestyle....Joy still had that weird sense of being a intruder in their lives hanging over her.
Once they were alone though...she turned to look back at Robbie. He was waiting for her to speak...and she felt.... She had little right to even try. She reminded herself that she had to be certain what she said was because it was her feelings...not because she felt she had to say these things for a dead altnerate. She couldn't even begin to relate in all honesty.
"Robbie.... I'm sorry. I don't know how I can even begin to bring these things up. I feel like I'm....like I'm some ghost around you and Ace. I feel afraid that some things I say or do may be a painful echo. But at the same time I feel like I have no right to even assume that my alternate and I were so close. I'm worried that somehow I'm making things harder for you to deal with your Joy's death. I.... I never even suspected you two may have been close.I had thought you had ignored me out of resentment in the begining."
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Posted: Wed Jan 07, 2009 8:37 pm
Robbie shook his head, "You're not Joy." He murmured. "I've heard how everyone else mistook you, but I knew it from the start. I'm worried that Jimmie will get you confused with his mother though, and I don't want that. I guess I thought that you were getting enough grief from Ace, I didn't want to be a bother to you. I guess I figured telling you that I was here for anything was enough. I am though. Part of it is that you're Joy in another world. A lot of it is that I know how disorienting and upsetting this all must be for you. I could compare it to our worlds suddenly changing on all of us, and having to have who knew relationships while getting adjusted to a new system. I know exactly how that is. Mostly though, I have high hopes for you. This past month you've echoed Joy more than you did the week and a half you were with us. Your determination and the fact that you've surprised everyone with how much you have advanced is very much just the beginning of your abilities. My hopes aren't for this world though. My position here is to try to take care of things to make them better for others. If making them better extends out into another universe that I may never hear anything from again--so be it. At least I'll know that I've had some influence to help you. That is what I want, for you to go home, make your own life, and be aware of the issues so that you can be a greater help and possibly a catalyst to keep your world from a downward spiral like ours has become. Nothing about that hurts me, except that I thought my telling you that earlier scared you into wanting to run away. I can't help but to fear that is why you wish to go home so much. I can't help but to fear that this will actually drive you away from your potential."
He looked away, took a deep a breath. When he spoke, it was with a lower voice, "And admittedly away from being the Joy that I loved so much. You can blossom into the lady I knew. Ace thinks being here will destroy you. If you're not training to run away, but out of some sort of determinedness, then I think all it is doing is helping you to be---Joy. I want you to go home, but that's comforting thought to me anyway, to think I could help you and others. I'm just so afraid of messing it up--I'm running away from confronting it."
His voice was steady and sincere, though he spoke slower than usual. This wasn't grounds he wanted to walk on, but somehow now he felt compelled to do so.
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Posted: Thu Jan 08, 2009 5:49 pm
"Well." Joy started with a faint smile. "I would hope that you would have noticed some big differences between me and Joy." She attempted to make the conversation lighthearted, but somehow it felt like a failure even as the words came out of her lips. So instead, Joy listened to robbie. her eyes blinking as he would admitt that he had been thinking about how the situation may have and was effecting her.
"I honestly don't think Jimmie will get me confused with his mother. Children have a very good sense about them. He knew I wasn't his mother when he ran into me and I'm certain he'd never make that mistake. I appreciate you trying to shield him though. I can't imagin how hard it must be trying to deal with a child in this situation."
Joy quieted as Robbie would explain hos much she seemed like the other Joy this past month. All of her practice and focus... Joy wasn't certain if she cared for the similarities. If her alternate worked as hard and in the same manner she was...she couldn't have been very happy could she have? All Joy had felt was a terrible misery, Robbie was correct in assumeing that at least. Her focus was so she could run away from them...to get as far away from them as she could. Back home...
"Robbie... I didn't want to impose. Maybe if you and Joy hadn't been so close I would not have minded. I feel...felt...like I'd be taking advantage of you. The same with Ace. I haven't earned your respect or your ...any thing. I don't have the right words to explain. All I kept feeling was that I was making you both suffer longer when you should just be working on getting over her death...." Joy shook her head a small bit and placed her hand to her forehead. "I'm still trying to imagin how it could have happened. I mean...her secondary power made it so hard for her to die...how could she have been killed?"
Joy paused, her lips pressing into a thin line as she tried to properly address everything he had said. Which really had been a lot. "I'm not...certain what sort of potential you think I may have... I know I have some..new ideas though...a new...perspective I guess. But none of that matters. What worries me sick is what you had told me before. About how Ace had gotten involved in the wrong group, but he had never realized it...Robbie...the day before Rena mistook me...Ace and i had a bit of a...dissagreement. He said he had something he wanted to show me. That it was special and I couldn't tell anyone. He mentioned job opportunities as well. I am really worried that it's this group you were talking about that he's gotten himself into." Joy made a small fist with her left hand and inhaled deeply before she continued. "I also have a bad feeling that...Ace and daddy will blame each other for me vanishing. That they will start fighting. They don't get along in my world, they hardly see eye to eye. I'm not sure how daddy will react...but I'm afraid it will drive Ace into this group deeper if they promise to help him find me. I have to get back as quickly as I can. I...I can't risk loseing Ace to the bad guys..."
Her head once more shook. Ace...poor Ace...both of them... " I'm afraid your Ace is right in a way though. Being here..in this world... I feel like I've been completely blind for my whole life. I'm coming to accept that some of my beliefs before were nothing more then cotton fluff day dreams.... I fooled myself into thinking that everyone wants a peaceful world and that everyone wants the same happy life. It's not true though. Being here has definatly...changed me a bit... I don't think I'm destroied but..well..I had to grow up I suppose..and it's better to see the mistakes my world can make and be awakened by it...maybe your right and it will help my world..but I can't be so..blind anymore..."
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Posted: Thu Jan 08, 2009 6:10 pm
"Maybe I've been foolish." Robbie acknowledged Joy's response to his concerns about Jimmie, "but knowing how you feel, I'm glad I've kept him away anyhow. You're having a hard time dealing with all of this as well. I guess anyone would. You've come to a world that may or may not be your future and you've just died." He shook his head, "Unimagineable. No though. No, you aren't cheating us." He paused and frowned, "Well, you're not cheating me anyway, if you want to call trying to hang on cheating. You're not Joy, I don't want you to be Joy. I never even thought of it that way. I can't understand Ace in that. I don't want you to try to replace her, and I don't want you to even become her in your world. I don't want you to have to face the situations she did. Like the decision that got her killed. She left without anyone at all. Most importantly, she left without Ace backing her up and she had been ill all that week. I know now that---" He swallowed. "Anyway, she'd been ill, she was going in blind, and she had no extra strength or backup. Those are unfavorable conditions. Things happen, and that's the way life is. She knew it when she went in."
He listened to her concerns about Ace, eyes turning downward. "I don't know about how Ace or your father would respond in this situation. What Ace and I might be able to do is to give you some names to keep an ear out for. I could tell you what sort of things they did, and what sort of lies they tell. If the NSA, or any sembalance at all, is still in existence in your time line, I suggest you have them infilitrate and investigate, with someone stronger minded than Photon."
"No, I think that is what will help you. It's better to be disillusioned by strangers and strange situations than by those around you. Joy had to face the fact that she had been fighting on the wrong side for years, and that she had to betray the people she'd grown close to. That included Ace. Perhaps you won't have to do that, or at least if you do have to do anything like it, you know that it is so that things don't just get worse with those you care about. This is better, especially as you have Neil to help confirm it all. I hope that he can stand by you and help."
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Posted: Thu Jan 08, 2009 6:40 pm
Joy could not stop herself from tugging on a lock of her hair. Twisting it around her fingers, she listened to Robbie stress how he did not want her to be the Joy he knew. It was hard not to wonder if those words were just for her sake or not. How could you honestly tell a person that you don't want them to be the woman you love when you know they are so similar? Still, it wasn't her place to question him about that, but to accept it and attempt to live with it.
"Ill..." Joy wasn't ill though...she was pregnant. Joy continued to twirl her hair thoughtfully. She supposed that would have been a great distraction but...the descion she made did not sound right. Why had Joy gone then? There was more to it. More to the reason she went... But..it was in the past and done.
"When I get home..." She began, yet paused to gather her thoughts before continueing. "When I return home, after I find Ace, i am going to sit down and have a talk with my daddy. I am certain he and Charles would be very interested to know what happened to me. If you could give me the names I would really appreciate it...though...what do you mean by stronger minded then Photon?"
Her head turned to glance at some nearby decoration as a means to partly focus her mind. It did seem to want to wander right now... Particularly when he said..the wrong side...
"Robbie I need you to tell me what you mean by that. What wrong side? And...how could I ever betray Ace? I don't think that's possible... I am certain that neils support of my story will be useful when we get back but... "
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Posted: Thu Jan 08, 2009 6:55 pm
"Photon also fell for this group." Robbie answered. He started to speak very directly and bluntly now, a sense of 'this is how it is and just the way you'll have to believe' in his voice. If he'd been talking to Jimmie like this, he'd probably be ordering him to do something he didn't want, "Listen to me, Joy. This group feeds on the weaknesses of others and uses that to exploit them into doing what they want. You and Ace are so idealistic, in whatever world, and Ace wanted so badly to get his chance to actually do something he felt was shaking the world that you both fell easily right into it. They fed on that idealism to have you do thins that you thought were the right way to go about fixing matters, but just turned out to be promoting an elitist agenda for the evolveds. All it was doing was working to undermine and destroy the authorities in place and to gain support for their cause so that they could have people in place to keep their footing when things really began to fall. Joy eventually recognized that, tried to convince Ace of it, and he refused to believe her. She had to turn her back on him and work against him. She was very, very fortunate to have it work out to a happy ending where Ace pulled out at just the right time to not get recognized as one of the groups members, or killed for a betrayal. Do you understand? You were working for the people that were the undermen for those who wish to destroy nonevolveds for the sake of a an elitist agenda. I'll get you those names, and I'll tell you what all they were doing. I don't know, the worlds are different, but if it's following the same path at all that ours is, Photon has already fallen for this group and betrayed the NSA. I don't know, but I get the impression that your father and this Charles are high up in the ranks. If that's so, they probably know about this betrayal. It was kept secret from the media, to ward off the anti-evolved protests that were bound to follow, but if you come out with this information---if it's close to the truth at all, then you have a foot in the door for them believing you and taking the necessary actions to try to resolve these issues. I'll give you information. Newspapers. Whatever. Anything to try to help them be wiser in this thing. Do you see now?"
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Posted: Fri Jan 09, 2009 4:11 pm
Robbies words made Joy feel like... like a child. Even though she had not yet fallen into this trap. SImply knowing that she coud have...would have done so. It made her feel terrible. Idealistic...Yes she supposed that she and Ace both had high hopes for the future... Though Joy's bright hopefulness had waned quite a bit now that she had seen what sort of future there was. It was far worse then what she already lived in. She had thought Super villian evolveds and hate riots was the worst...but she obviously had been very blind to think thus.
"I... Understand. Yes please Robbie...I would like their names and ...and what their real agendas were. I'd also like to know what they had Ace and Joy do...as well as information about the group itself... I need to know everything I can. maybe I can...help stop it. maybe I can help some of them see a bit differently or at least redirect some of the damage they want to do..." Joy's head shook lightly. Was this the real reason the NSA was dismissed?
"Anything you give me will be useful for my father and Charles. As well as to provide credibility to everything I'll be telling them." Joy rubbed at her ear now so she could continue to think on the subject. It bothered her so much to know that right now Ace could be with them..doing these things... She wanted to get back to him more then anything!
"Robbie...I was hoping maybe you could tell me about...Bolthor...was he always a villian? In our world he's a hero...does he...lose his way?"
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Posted: Fri Jan 09, 2009 4:36 pm
"I'll print the information for you." Robbie agreed to her request, "And I'll see about writing a letter to these people."
He looked down a moment at the question about Bolthor, clearly gathering his thoughts as to how to respond to her. "Bolthor is viewed as something of an anti-hero. In some places, he's hailed as a hero. Most of these are more of the north eastern european countries. Sir Aquifer has sent mixed messages about him, both praising many of his efforts and condemning others. For this reason, in a lot of places in north western Europe anyway, he's not seen as a villain so much as... uh, as someone not to make angry, I guess. But North America as a whole doesn't look well on him at all, and neither does some of Europe. It just all depends where he is, what he's done, and what side of the political spectrum the country is on. He certainly doesn't view himself as a villain."
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Posted: Fri Jan 09, 2009 4:50 pm
Joy placed her thumbnail between her teeth and bit down upon it. "No..I'm certain most people don't." She slowly responded. "I can't see someone like him purposefully going all out for the sake of wickedness... I wish I could say that no one wants to be a villain deep inside. that all they want is acceptance, recognition, and self value. That these reasons are what cause a person to make the wrong choices...but I'm not sure I can believe that anymore."
Joy continued to chew on her thumbnail as more questions wanted to rattle loose. however..she found it rather...difficult to put them all in order. "Robbie..what sort of leader was she? I mean...I don't expect that I'll automatically grow up to be like her..and I know it's foolish to believe that just because she turned out that way i will too..but..I can't help but be curious."
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