nexus_crossings | Nothing is normal anymore, is it?

Astaroth had been watching her from where he is sitting outside drinking tea. The pale blue skin and huge black wings, perhaps more shocking in the sunlight where the oil slick like swirls of color becomes apparent in his feathers. Unnaturally tall and slim, some find Astaroth to be in the uncanny valley.

His blue eyes are dark, almost black and he laughs as she comes to sit nearby on one of the seats. "You're worried about clowns and mimes, here? You must be new."

[His profile if you want it.]

"Clowns are fucking ridiculous, and mimes are just weird." The sentence leaves Janet's lips before she turns to see who she's talking to, and she doesn't even try to hide her surprise. The idea of this being the result of Valium gets a little more appealing. Did she take one yesterday instead of her Aleve and she's having a weird side effect? She's usually really good about that.

"You are definitely not like anyone I've ever seen before," she continues, and it's not said as a bad thing, just stating a fact. "This is the Nexus, right? Or I might have mixed up my medication. But one of my friends mentioned this weird place called the Nexus and that's probably more likely than the Valium tripping me out."

"Individuality is the manifestation of freedom from overbearing influence." He motions toward the seats to remind her that she was on her way to sit. The angels were accustomed to a measure of shock or surprise when they decided to mingle with mortals. The Nexus did nothing to change that aspect of the universe, any universe.

"Yes, this is the Nexus of the multiverse." He sips the tea, mildly amused by her surprise. "Valium is your poison? That would explain some things."

"It's what I was prescribed to deal with my anxiety attacks." Janet's not sure if she should be insulted or not, and it really doesn't matter since she hasn't had an anxiety issue in a few months so the bottle's just been sitting in the medicine cabinet. It's surprising how much she's calmed down now that she's working in an office and not out in the field where something could happen to her.

"So... How does this place work? I'm not even sure how I got here," she admits. It probably says something that her first thoughts are about her roommate and her dog and if they'll be looking for her. She tends to prioritize other people over her own needs. "I just know about it because Megatron says he lives here. And to be honest sometimes I don't understand when he tries to explain things to me."

"Clowns and mimes? I would hope not. At least I haven't see any such beings frequenting my bar lately. Or there were a few oddly dressed gentlemen passing through the other night drinking quite a lot of booze---or at least I assumed they were gentlemen. They might have been ladies or a bit of both. Variety, darling!"

Balthazar offered the stranger a beaming smile as he liked to introduce himself to anyone new as they may be a possible patron to his bar. That and he loved conversation and idle chatter. Who didn't?

"I have to ask---clown phobia? It's just that you seem adverse to the theatrical is all."

"I just find them creepy." Janet chuckles. "I'm not averse at all. I minored in theater at Columbia and last year I got to perform off-Broadway."

One of the things she's getting better at saying, and bragging about. She's spent a long time not admitting that she loves theater because she thought people would make fun of her for it or find it too nerdy for an FBI agent. But thanks to her friends, and some soul-searching, she's just decided to care less about that kind of thing anymore. She knows it was a pretty cool thing and she hopes other people find it cool too.

"So you own a bar?" she continues. "What kind of bar is it? I've been dragged to quite a few." That was the D.C. social scene. Get off work, find a bar or a restaurant to have dinner in, and then go home to bed and do it all again the next day.

"They can be creepy with those odd looking red noses and ghastly face paint. I do agree with you on that."

The angel perked up once she mentions his bar. Oh yes he does indeed own a bar and a very reputable one at that. Most Nexus residents frequent it in one form or another when the fancy takes them.

"I do indeed. The Angel's Retreat. Call it a little cliche but I love it all the rest. It's a bar and dancefloor. A nightclub if you will. Stripper poles, private booths, games machines. It's got everything, darling."

He wondered what sort of bars she'd been dragged off to.

"Can't be any weirder than my friend's favorite bar. It's tiki-themed, but it also serves great Cuban food. They have drinks in actual animal-shaped glasses." Janet chuckles just thinking about it. Her colleague Adam Lydon is definitely still a kid at heart but that's also his best quality; when they get bogged down in cases that are draining or emotionally hard, he's always there to make everyone else laugh or keep their lives interesting. She has no idea how he became an FBI agent but she's glad he did.

A small smile. "I spend a lot of time in bars and restaurants. My partner and I usually get off work and go out for a nightcap or dinner. Not as much as we used to, since I have a roommate now who's looking for me... and hopefully not looking for me right now before he gets worried... but that's our idea of a good time. We're not really clubbing people or concert people, we just like to sit and talk."

"Tiki? What sort of theme is that? You will have to forgive me, love. I'm an angel and some human themes and traditions escape me entirely."

No doubt Seth would probably know this? Or maybe he did not since the knowledge of tiki was not there in the memories of the vessel. The explorer had been to places all around the world but some had eluded him.

"Animal shaped glasses? Oh, how fun! I'd love a tiger shaped one or perhaps a graceful bird to match my wings."

Why yes, he mentioned he had wings. Concealed out of sight for reasons concerning the safety of Nexus residents. The angel's wings were pure bright energy and would blind anyone gazing upon them.

"Shall we head towards my bar then, darling? If indeed you are feeling adventurous."

"It's like a whole island...thing." Janet waves a hand because it's definitely not her cup of tea but she doesn't mind either. It's at least more interesting than the usual generic bars they could end up in. "Usually bright colors and flowers and weird tiki mugs and... yeah, it's a lot."

His mentioning the wings does get her to arch an eyebrow but she doesn't freak out about it. It's weird and she's confused but not scared. She's friends with a giant robot, after all. You can't be friends with Megatron and then have a meltdown over other weird things happening; he's weird enough.

The drink, however, is appreciated.

"I think I might need a drink," she says with a soft laugh and another hand gesture to indicate she'll follow him. She kind of has to considering it's his bar and she got here five minutes ago. "Non-alcoholic, since I'm still on pain meds, but... This might all need to sink in for a minute."

"Tiki mugs? Those sound delightful, darling. Perhaps I should get some in my bar and see how the patrons get on with them? Have a tropical evening. Ooh, theme nights! Those could work."

Balthazar was getting brilliant ideas for his bar. Theme nights. During the summer months it could be karaoke and tropical themed drink nights. As for the winter? Perhaps hot beverages and some such festive treats. He hadn't thought that far ahead yet. Maybe Nexus feedback was needed next time he pitched a question on the Plaza.

"Well then, let's peruse to my bar, love. It's just up this way past the line of shops. I do soda, tea, coffee, alien, robotic, anything kind of non-alcoholic drink you can think of."

He shot her a friendly smile as they both walked through the door of the Angel's Retreat.

"I'm a pretty simple woman. Cherry Coke when I'm sober, Jack and Coke when I'm trying not to be." Janet chuckles as she enters the bar and scopes the place out. She's spent a lot of time in a lot of bars, either because her team is getting together after shift or because they're also convenient places to meet witnesses or set up sting operations. But this one is much nicer than many of the clubs she's been to.

"So how did you end up here?" she asks, trying to make small talk the best she can in current circumstances. "Does this place just randomly drop people off the way it did me, or do people move here, or... I don't even know what to ask, if I'm honest. This whole thing is weird and the whole last few months of my life haven't been that normal either."

"Well, that makes perfect sense to me, darling."

Balthazar made a mental note of what she liked to drink on and off duty so to speak as he opened the hatch door and walked behind the bar. How did he end up here? Oh, such a good question. Where the wind blew? It had been just over a year or so now since he'd arrived and what a year it had been so far.

"I sort of fell through the portal and drifted here. Being an angel I often walk through strange portals into new worlds. This was such a fantastic place to come to. What more can I say? Sometimes, yes, it does just drop random people here. The Nexus could be a strange place indeed."

He began pouring her a drink, passing it to her.

"Thank you." Janet gives him a polite nod to thank him for the drink, pausing to take a sip.

Balthazar's explanation makes her arch an eyebrow for a moment. The idea of this place being able to randomly pull people into it is slightly terrifying. She can only hope it doesn't choose to do that to Holden, because she knows her best friend would not take this well at all, and he has enough stress to deal with. At the same time considering that he's the most important person in her life, would it drag him here because she's here? Janet knows she's overthinking and she makes herself stop before she can get carried away.

"I imagine you see a lot of interesting people," she says. "I mean, bars tend to bring the interesting out of people depending on how drunk they are, but in a place like this. Is it fun or is it... kind of weird? I've lived my life in a pretty specific way for, well, most of it and then the last two years have just been so chaotic. In some ways it was good because it pushed me to do things I'd never have done otherwise, like I realized who I was meant to be with... and in other ways all I want is for things to go back to the way they used to be. When things were safe and normal."

If Janet has seen pictures, it's pretty obvious who she's looking at. He's in casual clothes--black trousers and a long-sleeved shirt, because if he wears short sleeves or pants the glare from his pale skin will blind people--but the band that holds back his hair has twin horns on it.

He, on the other hand, has heard of her but has yet to see pictures, so he is not familiar. But he's capable of only being a little bit of a jerk to strangers, so when he sees her approach, cane and all, he rises from his place at a cafe table and pulls out a seat for her, like the gentleman he is not.

"I'm afraid we can't make that promise," he tells her, visibly amused. "At least not for weird surprises in general. I can't say I've ever seen a mime here, myself."

"You're not missing anything." Janet chuckles as she sits down. Her leg has mostly healed, but she still finds herself utilizing the cane just in case, especially in unfamiliar areas. She doesn't want to fall down the stairs at work or in some place where there might not be help.

She glances over at Loki and recognizes him momentarily, which causes a small smile to appear on her face. She hasn't always been able to follow everything that Megatron has said about what seems like a really complicated relationship, but she knows that her friend loves him, and anyone important to her friends is also a friend of hers. "I've heard a lot about you from your... husband? I'm sorry, I don't know what the appropriate term might be," she admits. "Megatron is the one who told me about this place. I might have to ask him if he's also the reason I've turned up here." She doesn't know what he gets up to with all of his interdimensional traveling after all.

"Oh, I don't know. There's something to be said for the living statue people. They don't interfere with anything, they just look pretty."

He's about to sit back down, but a surprised, deer-in-the-headlights look crosses his face when she speaks again. His what?? He--oh. Oh!

"Conjunx," he corrects with a little laugh. "And it's not formalized yet, and neither of us is exclusively monogamous or likely to be, but yes. I'm with Megatron. I am Loki, but I suppose you're aware of that already."

...hm! It's interesting to have his reputation precede him without negativity. "You must be Janet? I'm afraid I don't remember your surname, if he ever told me."

"It's not important." Janet chuckles. She has no problem telling him her last name but she also harbors no particular attachment to it; she once considered going by her mother's maiden name just to get further away from her dad, before she realized that there was no outrunning the fact that her father was a nationally known felon. But the Ford name means nothing to her except for the fact that she and her roommate share a surname.

"It's nice to finally meet you," she continues. "He talks about you a lot. We usually end up talking about our love lives since they've both been so much of a mess recently. Mine is finally slowing down, though. Getting everyone back on the same page and on steady ground and all that." Regardless of who she was or was not with romantically, the men in her life were all dear friends, and they had all banded together to make sure that everyone was okay in the face of all the job stress they'd recently dealt with.

Now, that's an interesting point of order. Surname not important? Coming from a culture where more last names than not are someone's-son or someone's-dottr, that's notable to Loki. Especially since he's perfectly willing to use any of the names he's entitled to--Odinson, Friggason, Laufeyson, and all variations thereof--when they feel most appropriate.

"I shall take that as permission to simply refer to you by first name, then," is all he tells her, mildly, though his eyes are curious.

There's another deer-in-headlights moment, then, at the idea of Megatron gossiping about his love life. Which doesn't exclusively involve Loki, but Loki suspects he's at the top of the mech's mind more often than not. There's a brief, inward groan, but he knew what he was signing up for. "I do love him," he says wryly, "very much, but he has almost no filters between brain and mouth, particularly where emotions and sex are concerned. That whole radical honesty thing has been exceedingly difficult to get used to. But it's good that he has someone to share with; thank you for that."

"Mind you," he adds thoughtfully, "I am a god. People are supposed to be talking about me when I'm not around. I suppose you get what you wish for sometimes, just not in the form you expected."

"I have not heard about your love life in turn, which is for the best. I did hear you were injured on the job, though. I hope you're recovering well? If you'd like a coffee, I'd be happy to treat."

"I am, thank you." Janet nods slightly. The cane of course isn't ideal, and she still needs to keep working on her stamina, but it's a far cry from when she had a hard time getting out of bed. In that sense she was very lucky to have a roommate who could assist her around their apartment. "It'll still be about two more months of physical therapy and then I have to pass a physical at my work, but I've come a long way. Just trying to stay out of the line of fire for a while."

She was always the one running toward danger. It was hardwired in her, having grown up with a felon in her own home, to want to even the score and be someone who did some good in the world. Add that to the fact that she was headstrong and so never scared of much and it was a dangerous combination that had so far ended up just getting her hurt.

"He does talk a lot about you, though. Almost every conversation we have ends up touching on our love lives somehow between his and mine being an absolute mess. As you can imagine being in a few life-threatening situations has a way of warping your relationships." A small chuckle. "But the people closest to me have stuck with me, even if our relationships have changed. I'm just getting used to the idea of celibacy which... has not been easy. At all."

That was the problem of said roommate also being the ex-boyfriend she still had feelings for. It was difficult to be around him sometimes and not feel that urge to act on those feelings. But they'd kind of had more important things to worry about, like not getting killed.

"You mean to go back into the same line of work, then?" He looks thoughtful. "That's impressively courageous. I hope that you will have better luck, going forward, as far as escaping injury."

He's seen a lot of hero types, of course, and they get hurt or nearly-killed and bounce back fast, but he knows mortality well enough to be aware that isn't always the case. Physically normal humans don't just get shot and go back to fighting alien invasions. Months of physical therapy followed by slow re-adjustment to work is unquestionably the more normal course of events. (How many people were injured in the Chitauri attack on New York, and how much physical therapy did they require? Better not to think of that right now.)

"It seems my life has been nothing but life-threatening situations for quite a while," he tells her wryly. "At least until recently. I do understand."

He frowns thoughtfully a moment, then adds: "It is good for him to have someone to confide in. He cannot speak freely to the others on his ship, regarding the Nexus. And he can certainly talk to Soundwave and Ravage, but it's possible they're too close to him to provide an objective perspective. I'm glad you've been his friend, and vice versa."

"You've just arrived in the Nexus, yes? If you'd like assistance with orientation, I'm available. You should definitely get a PINpoint."

"Yeah, I just got here like...five minutes ago." Janet chuckles. She plans her vacations well in advance; she's not liable to just jet off someplace. So to show up unannounced like this especially in what she's come to realize is a whole other dimension has her feeling marginally embarrassed. It feels lie interrupting someone's family dinner, even though she knows that's not the case.

But at his earlier comment she nods. "I've been an FBI agent my whole adult life, and I'm not really qualified to do anything else," she admits. "Except for one small stint performing in an off-Broadway musical. So I'll be back as soon as I'm able, but I want to take my time. It's not worth coming back unless I can actually do my job completely, and this has all given me cause to think about what I want in the rest of my life. Realize that I'm not the one who can run into danger like I always have anymore."

She's 34 now, still single and not even close to changing that; it's sinking in how little of a life she has outside of work. Janet would like to change that more than she's able to but there's only so much she can do when the person she wants to be with is asking for space. Still, she supposes having a home of their own and a dog counts for something. The dog would certainly say so.

"Are things any calmer for you?" she asks, not wanting to make the whole talk about herself. "Last I spoke to Megatron he was going on about some argument he was having with your girlfriend. It sounded pretty frustrating."

"Clowns and mimes. Never met one here, but..." Ben shrugs. He wouldn't be surprised if there were some here. He's not a fan, but he doesn't have a problem with them either. He offers a hand, figuring he ought to introduce himself. This woman's a stranger. "I don't know either way. Are clowns frightening in Earth culture?"

"You're new around here. My name's Ben." He's a tall man, roughly six-foot-three, sticking out with his dark clothes and blue cape. He chuckles a little, with a hint of shadow behind it. "You're the first one I've seen asking about clowns."

"Well, good, maybe that means they're not here." Janet chuckles as she shakes the offered hand and glances slightly up at him. She's not a short woman at almost five-nine but he's still considerably taller than she is. "Nice to meet you, Ben. I'm Janet."

Thinking on his question she shrugs. "There are some people who just get creeped out by clowns. I'm one of them. I mean, aside from the whole being able to make balloon animals thing, because I never mastered that... But I'm guessing from what my friend has said that just about anything is possible here so I'd like to set some guidelines. I don't need any more surprises in my life right now."

"You had a friend who invited you here?" Ben is curious, wondering if this friend is anybody he knows. "People come here in many different ways. My story's rather, ah, complicated, so I'll save it for later. It's good to meet you." There's a lot he still has to learn about the Earth.

"I can't help you with balloon animals, unfortunately." He chuckles a little. "I have talents, but that's not one of them. The Nexus is a safe place, mostly, though half of that's the anti-violence field as much as benevolence on the part of the population."

"I don't know if he invited me here... or accidentally brought me here or what... I just know he mentions this place a lot. So I'm guessing he might have something to do with it." Janet chuckles. If he does, she's pretty sure it's an accident, because Megatron seems like he would ask before he does something like abduct her out of her own reality. Unless he decided she really needed a break with how crazy her life has been recently.

He has told her a couple of times how confusing her life is, and that's him talking.

"It's good to be in a safe place, though. I haven't had many of those lately," she admits, before reminding herself she's trying not to talk about her drama as much. It's good for her to get it out but not so much for other people she's just met. "What is it that you do?" she asks instead, because that's a totally innocuous question.

"The Nexus is safe, unless you go in the Wilds. While I choose to, many don't. Not everyone here is friendly." Ben is a more than competent fighter and a bit of a slow learner. "Well, you're welcome to tell him Ben Solo says hello. I live in the industrial area - I do some repair work there, and sometimes draw artwork."

Ben's life has been complicated, and probably will be again in the future, so he savors the simplicity while it lasts.

"I'll do that, if he shows up." Which Janet hopes he will because if Megatron is at all responsible for this it would be the least he could do to get his big metal ass down here and explain what's going on.

She pauses though and smiles. "You're an artistic type, huh?" she says. "My partner, he's an artist. I have one of his pieces hanging in my bedroom; he made it for me when I moved into my current apartment. He's actually really talented, but he chose to join the FBI instead."

"...Janet? What are you doing here?" Megatron has finally found the pet store again and has a full supply of Spitfire's favourite treats. They're expensive, but Megatron has finally recovered his Malatine Confederacy bank account--they don't care what either the Autobots or the Galactic Council have to say, they never cancel accounts, nor do they ever turn them over to outside governments--that's not how they built the reputation they have.

The winged kitten is sitting on his shoulder pauldron contentedly munching a treat. Soundwave is walking along beside him, followed by a baby elephant with a purple collar marked with a Decepticon insignia nametag on it; they're both mass-displaced, which is fortunate, all things considered, as Janet would barely come up to their knees.

Soundwave remembers meeting Janet from karaoke. He had Ravage with him then, but she's in a meeting at the Embassy right now.

[OOC: Karaoke, which will happen in my journal, I swear, Real Soon Now.]

Edited 2021-06-29 00:09 (UTC)

"I was going to ask you that!" Janet replies. "Did you somehow accidentally bring me here? Or... how the fuck did I get here?"

She is surprisingly unfazed by seeing him in his natural form, perhaps because she's known him for so long so she knew what to expect. Or maybe because she has other things to worry about at the moment. Janet is just hoping that this doesn't mean she's missing from the apartment because she doesn't want to give Holden an unnecessary panic attack. She knows he worries about her, and with him worrying is hazardous to his mental health.

"Also..." she says. "Is that a fucking elephant? God, Holden would love that." He loves elephants, as she learned from their last trip to the zoo.

"I don't have the power to bring people here through dimensional portals, only to travel through them myself," Megatron says, shaking his head. "Which you too will obtain once you have a PINpoint, although you will need to learn the coordinates of places you want to keep visiting. Remember--the three of us were randomly hopping around that night and just happened to run into you?"

Megatron frowns, worried. "You are here, physically here. But you can go home...unless you've died. You haven't been shot again, have you?"

Janet may not be able to remember seeing Megatron's true form, but she's almost certainly seen glimpses of it during conversations in real time wherever he was when those very few conversations actually happened...but she has certainly never seen Soundwave's before, unless she's been watching the right children's cartoons--if those even exist in her universe. Soundwave looks a good deal more like he did in the cartoons than Megatron, who has rounded edges, filigree and pointy bits that he didn't have in the cartoons because he's something of a peacock at heart.

Soundwave is smaller than Megatron at their natural sizes, but he isn't rated for 80% mass displacement like Megatron is, so at the moment, the top of Megatron's helm, which is around 7' off the ground, reaches Soundwave's shoulders. And Soundwave is blue and silver, with a heavy helmet, a yellow visor that covers his eyes, and a metal face mask that covers the lower half of his face. The way he moves his head, these seem a little like armour, but also like the helmets that some people who have problems with proprioception and motor control sometimes wear, though he's otherwise surprisingly graceful for someone so...boxy. With what looks like the front of a cassette deck on his chest, and what looks like buttons for some kind of music player on his pelvic block, the largest of which still says "PLAY", because Ravage thinks it's accurate and Soundwave just thinks it's hilarious.

His voice...at first it sounds like a robot's voice from the kind of 70s or 80s movie that has terrible special effects and a writer who didn't understand computers. His syntax is odd to say the least. As he starts to get more comfortable around Janet, and speak in more fluid sentences, it will change; at first it will seem obviously autotuned, but finally it will settle into something resembling the voice his human avatar used, and his syntax...won't be any odder than it was when he was comfortable talking with her and her friends on their own world. Which isn't to say that it won't be odd at all. He has a disconcerting tendency to talk about himself in the third person with almost everyone but the person who introduced herself as his wife.

(The difference between Ravage and her human avatar will be even more shocking.)

"Affirmative. Designation: Thunder. Soundwave: loves elephants, too."

Soundwave lowers his head for a moment.

"Janet: should know this--others have been disconcerted, even angry. Soundwave: telepath, empath, datapath. Complete blockage of surface thought input impossible, but Soundwave...does try not to listen." He ex-vents. "Does not want to know." Already he's sounding a little more...well, not human, exactly. Less electronic, though.

"No. No, thank God, I have not been shot again." Janet chuckles knowingly. "I'm being kept out of the field until my leg heals completely. I'm working with Holden in the Behavioral Science Unit."

Which was an interesting job, learning about serial killers and how the BSU tracked them; it was a kind of violence that Janet had not yet been exposed to in her career, and often disconcerting. But she knew that probably happened to every agent who joined the team and she'd swallowed most of her discomfort, not wanting Holden to worry about her. It was also just strange working in a basement office that could best be described as minimalistic when she was used to having her own private office on the third floor with her department's own coffee machine and a spread of baked goods.

"So if you didn't bring me here, how did I get here?" she asks. "And what am I supposed to do here? Like, is this one of those things where you have to do some kind of task before you can go home? Because I don't want to be stuck here and have everyone think something else has happened to me."

They will. Even if Holden didn't have OCD, he'd worry when he woke up and Janet wasn't there, just because of everything she'd recently been through. And he was well within his rights to, as was everyone else she worked with. Except for maybe Bill, but Bill would probably be concerned if only because he would know the effect Janet being in potential trouble would have on Holden. She had yet to get a complete read on her best friend's partner.

The two robots exchanged glances.

"It's not like that," said Megatron. "There's no fairies here giving quests or karmic stuff going on, unless of course you want that, because then you could probably find it. But since I don't, I have no idea how that would work out. We'll get your PINpoint set up and then you can come and go as you please. You don't have an internal chronometer, do you?"

Soundwave laughed at him gently, because he knew that of course the answer to that would be no. He began to play a piece of music that Janet didn't recognise; however, apparently, Megatron knew what it was.

Megatron gave him a very irritated frown. "Well the children don't, but they're Asgardian, and I don't know how human children develop all the skills human adults have!"

He rolled his eyes, then returned his attention to Janet. Once he was looking back at Janet, Soundwave winked at her. He was wearing a visor that hid his eyes, but he flashed her a winky emoji on one of the lenses.

"Okay, so we might have to do the calculations for you, but it's possible--usually--to return within minutes of having left. Things do go awry sometimes. I don't know why you're here. It's possible that it might have had something to do with our acquaintance, but I know an awful lot of people in a fairly large number of universes who haven't shown up here. Did you...did you possibly, maybe, want to see the place? That's how Ravage got here, after hearing Misfire and Ben talk about it so much."

"I guess I could." It comes out cautiously, given Janet's recent track record. "As long as there aren't any clowns or mimes, or any other weird surprises."

She really wants her life to get back to normal right now. After the better part of a year of being involved in high-profile investigations, only one of which she actually needed to be working, she was impatient and wanting to prove to herself that she wasn't just a walking magnet for crazy things. Showing up in the Nexus was not helping that paranoia. But she trusted Megatron enough to think that he wouldn't let anything happen to her.

"Is there anything specific you want me to see?" she asked. "I shouldn't stay that long... But I guess you could give me the highlights."

"That's up to you," Megatron says. "I'd love to show you the sights, but if you want to go home and come back at a later time when it's more convenient for you, I can also help you arrange that."

He thinks for a moment. "Soundwave, if you can take a look at Janet's phone...and Janet, if you don't mind...does she already have a PINpoint code? If she does we just need to get her a proper card. If not, new account. It just occurred to me that as often as I talk to her, she might already be in the system."

Soundwave finally speaks directly to Janet about something other than his elephant, whom he is currently patting.

"Soundwave...just realised that you, Janet, may not realise that I am also Kit, which is how you were introduced to me at karaoke, because Soundwave is not the kind of name your people like to give themselves."

Edited 2021-06-29 22:00 (UTC)

"I don't know, Frank Zappa named his kid Dweezil." The comment slips out of Janet before she can stop it, thus revealing what a smartass she is and also how much she knows about music. She still looks like she's not sure she should have said that, but she's getting better at admitting that she's not as straight-laced and proper as some people (read: her mom) would like her to be. She does reach into her back pocket for her phone and hand it over, hoping that she's also not about to get judged on its equally nerdy contents.

"I guess I don't mind. As long as we don't get lost or something. I just really don't want Holden to worry. He's been through a lot recently." Another bite of her lip, because she'd feel bad about that too, but she just keeps repeating her roommate's words that she didn't put him through anything.

When Janet mentions Frank Zappa, one of his songs ("Who Are the Brain Police?") starts to waft through the air. It seems to be coming from Soundwave.

"I had told her your real name before that." Megatron sighs. "We do try to use less obtrusive names when we're pretending we're humans, though."

"Kit: short for Kytherion," Soundwave says, and his tone is now clearly amused, though at whose expense isn't clear; it's likely all three of them, himself very much included. "Megatron gave me that nickname." He takes the phone without mentioning that Kytherion, not Kit, is the nickname, because he's not about to explain that.

Soundwave is far too much of a nerd himself to judge Janet for being one. He also doesn't have to spend much time looking at the phone; all he has to do is hold it. "You don't have an account yet," he says, handing it back, "but it won't be any problem to link this telephone number; we'll get you a card at the vending machines."

"Okay. Makes sense." Janet still isn't one hundred percent with the situation but she understands the concepts of vending machines and of proper phone use (even if in this case it's extra-dimensional phone use). She went to Columbia, but it was for economics, and clearly no one is going to have a conversation with her about the economy in the Nexus.

She clears her throat and waits for either of them to tell her what direction to go. She still can't move that fast with her cane, but at least she can walk longer distances without discomfort, as long as she rests now and then.

"So...what exactly should we talk about?" she asks, still feeling lost. "I mean. You know pretty much everything that's been going on with me. And I'm sure all of that sounds boring when compared to this place."

"I don't think your life sounds boring at all. Getting shot is unpleasant, but not something that usually happens to boring people," Soundwave points out. "And we can talk about whatever you like."

[Sorry! I aten't dead! Work ran over me with a truck (not literally) but I'm fine. I don't usually disappear for 6 weeks at a time, sorry about that!]

"It should stop happening to me." Janet laughs as they walk, taking everything in as they go. Despite her family being well-off, they hadn't traveled as much as it looked, so a place like the Nexus was well beyond her worldview. "I guess there's not much to talk about on my end. I'm just working on getting better and getting back to work. Did I tell you two that I started teaching? So Holden and I are working in the same building, even though we're not working together directly. And I have an office, even though it's the size of a closet."

[ ooc: No problem. Will PM you with some updates so you're caught up. ]

"Working with people you care for is always a bonus, and... Teaching! I'm thinking that's what I'd like to do eventually," Megatron says with a grin. "Are you teaching your tradecraft? I've been teaching my stepdaughter about poetry and literature, and I've been teaching history on the Lost Light. And I love it. Do you?"

[Wow, yeah, that might throw a curveball into the karaoke party. Well, there's always the liberal application of handwavium, since it's already been established that "Kit" was actually Soundwave in his holo-avatar.]

"I do, actually." Janet surprises even herself with how enthusiastically she says that. "It was a little rough at first, because these recruits were all looking at me like 'who the hell are you' and I was afraid that with my degree and all I'd make everything sound so boring and complicated... But I've found a rhythm, and they're all staying awake, and I've started to have my colleagues come by to do guest speeches which has been fun. It's been nice."

A pause. "It's kind of nice to know that I have something to fall back on, too. I can't be running around out in the field forever. To know that I'm not only good for getting into fights and making painful sacrifices."

She knew her body had taken too much damage, too fast and that she was on the verge of serious health problems if she continued to take that kind of punishment. And mentally it was draining on her too; especially after her break-up, she'd started to see herself as nothing but a punching bag. It was good to know that she had other things she was good at, things that wouldn't hurt her.

"Don't ask me about poetry, though," she added with a laugh. "I don't know anything about it."

A voice answered from above and behind, where a young man was balancing/walking across the edge of a wall.

“Depends on what you’d call weird. Everything’s at least kinda weird until you get used to it.”

"Clowns. Mimes. The Kardashians." Janet shrugs. "Careful with that parkour stuff. You can fall and hurt yourself." She is an expert in accidentally hurting herself, as the cane would indicate.

“Not sure what a Kardashian is, but we have Antheans, Cybertonians, Klingons, Grouches, Angels, Wizards…” he paused to count on his fingers, knowing no matter how many species and categories he listed, he’d be missing a lot. “Oh, and if you see a giant feathered snake dancing around the sun at dawn, that happens too.”

Seemingly ignoring the safety warning, though, he turned around by jumping.

Nothing is normal anymore, is it?

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