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Megan "Pixie" Gwynn ([info]i_gotsoul) wrote in [info]we_coexist,
@ 2012-01-19 17:46:00

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Entry tags:jack heart, megan gwynn

Government accountability and ruling out a career in private investigation (Jack Heart)
Snooping was hard when you stood out. A hat and sunglasses kind of helped cover her hair, ear, and eyes, but Megan hated covering her wings. It was uncomfortable and it made her nervous, since she liked being able to fly at a moment's notice. But it needed to be done.

She needed to investigate. Who was the mayor? Why had Rufio decided that he needed to be fought? Did the mayor know anything more about the city that she did? (She hoped so. He ran the place, after all.) Megan couldn't very well know how to defend herself and her friends--current, future, whatever--if she didn't know anything about this threat. Or if he even was a threat. Stupid lack of information.

Which was how she ended up in oversized sunglasses and her hair tucked mostly under a really snazzy fedora being all inconspicuous just outside of Mayor Heart's window, trying to peek in all spy-like. Hovering. Because the stupid coat was uncomfortable and too warm and people never looked up anyway, right?

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[info]i_chasehearts
2012-01-20 02:37 am UTC (link)
As always, Jack had a pile of paperwork to look over and approve. Some days it seemed like he never got out of the office. Today, however, he was having a hard time concentrating on much of anything.

It was hard not to think about Fred walking away with the guy who seemed to be an ass and had accused her of sexual harassment. And it was hard not to think of the hurt in Zatanna's voice when she'd come to see him after the statement.

Lois Lane's scathing opinion pieces in the City Voice weren't helping matters much either.

He sighed and put some of the paperwork down. It was a nice enough day, so he went over to the window and slid it open. And then he jumped.

There was a girl. Outside his 4th story window. Hovering.

Hovering.

"Um. Are you with the Justice League too?" he asked.

He could only assume. After all, people with superpowers seemed to be teaming up in the City. And they all seemed very unhappy with him.

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[info]i_gotsoul
2012-01-20 07:25 am UTC (link)
"With the who?" Megan asked before she could stop herself. She'd flown a little out of the way when she saw him approach the window, but apparently not far or fast enough. The hazards of trying to stay close by enough to keep spying.

He didn't look evil or suspicious or even just sketchy, at least not that she could tell. He'd just been sitting around, doing paperwork. It had been kind of boring to watch. Maybe today was just an off-day?

In any case, it wasn't so boring now that she'd been seen. Her mind raced through every movie she'd ever seen on what she should do now to deflect suspicion. Come on, Megan! Think fast!

"Uh. Would you believe I'm the new window washer?" She flashed a big nervous grin to sell the lie.

The absolutely terrible lie. Good job, Megan.

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[info]i_chasehearts
2012-01-20 10:42 pm UTC (link)
Jack looked at the young girl in response to the obvious lie.

"No," he said simply.

Then he backed away and opened the window further. It was a large picture window-large enough for a person to fly through.

"Might as well come inside and explain why you're lurking outside my window."

It wasn't like he was going to get much work done at the moment anyway. And she didn't seem dangerous. For that matter she didn't even look old enough to vote. Though if she was, it would be simple enough to get his security team up here.

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[info]i_gotsoul
2012-01-21 01:03 am UTC (link)
"Right." She sighed, flying through the window and landing just I side. She was pretty sure that if he went suddenly evil instead of just being paperwork dull she could teleport away--she'd been practicing at home and it seemed that as long as she tried to 'port inside the City and not out of it everything worked, but she still thought that being by the open window would be smart.

Megan looked down and shuffled her feet. "I was trying to gather information. But not in the criminal mastermind way," she hurried to add, looking up and waving her hands defensively. "Just in the I-need-to-know way. I think next time I try something like this I'll just pay someone, because this is so awkward and it's a lot cooler in the movies. Not that I'm saying I'll do this again! I was just being hypothetical, like. And I don't think I could afford a private investigator on my salary anyway. At least, not working part-time, maybe if I was working full-time..."

She trailed off suddenly remembering that she was in the mayor's office, talking about further spying activities, gasped, and clutched her hands to her face. "Oh God. Please don't get me fired. I was just, you know, checking! On you!"

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[info]i_chasehearts
2012-01-21 02:25 am UTC (link)
"Fired?" Jack blinked in surprise. "I don't even know where you work."

He pulled out two glasses and went over to his minifridge.

"Why don't you have a seat and tell me why you were checking on me? Would you like a soda?"

Perhaps he should have been more upset that she'd been spying on him, but he had a hard time believing that anyone who seemed to just blurt out their intentions like she had been was malicious.

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[info]i_gotsoul
2012-01-23 01:42 am UTC (link)
"Oh. Right." She followed behind him, taking off her sunglasses and fiddling with them because she needed to do something with her hands. "Oh yeah, that'd be great."

Megan looked around, found a seat, and plopped down, looking around the office with wide black eyes. "So what exactly do you do as a mayor? You always think it's going to be all, 'Do this!' and it gets done, but there was a lot less shouting orders than I'd imagined. Does anything exciting happen ever? Maybe it's just this place. It's a lot less exciting than San Francisco, at least so far... Have you ever been to San Francisco?"

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[info]i_chasehearts
2012-01-23 12:44 pm UTC (link)
So, a soda without caffeine, Jack thought to himself. He turned up an orange soda can and a glass and set in in front of her.

He smiled. She certainly had a lot of questions. In that way, she reminded him of a very young Fred. He shoved the little pang that accompanied that thought away.

"There's not much yelling involved. More drafting laws and signing paperwork, and planning and of course giving speeches."

He was actually surprised that she would think this place un-exciting. Perhaps it wasn't exciting in a good way, but any place where gigantic apes kidnapped women was certainly not dull.

"So why exactly were you hovering outside my window?"

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[info]i_gotsoul
2012-01-23 04:22 pm UTC (link)
"Well, the speeches have got to be fun," she said pouring the soda almost to the top of the glass. "Unless you have a fear of public speaking or something, in which case I guess you'd really be in the wrong job. Or else you'd get used to it." She took a big gulp of her drink, both because she was kind of thirsty and because it put off answering for a little while longer.

"It's kind of... paranoid," she said, in a rare moment of finding herself at a loss for words. Her wings unfolded and re-folded themselves behind her as she slouched forward, a kind of foot-shuffling or hand-wringing motion but more wing-y. "I met this guy, and he seemed really decent but he said some things that got me suspicious, and where I'm from the people in charge aren't always... I kind of wanted to check and make sure you aren't evil?" She winced as she said it. It was pretty rude, and also right, because bad guys were just going to become right out and admit it if you asked.

...actually, maybe. Some of the bad guys she'd met really did like to gloat. She could get lucky.

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[info]i_chasehearts
2012-01-24 02:58 am UTC (link)
Jack raised an eyebrow.

"Are you sure you're not with the Justice League?"

He poured himself some water and took a seat.

"I suppose it depends who you ask, but I don't think I'm evil. At least, I don't want to be. I'm just trying to protect the City."

It just seemed like his idea of protecting the City didn't exactly mesh with what other people thought was best for the City.

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[info]i_gotsoul
2012-01-25 12:32 am UTC (link)
"Really, really sure," Megan said, nodding for good measure. "I'm--I was--an X-man. Maybe I still am. I don't really know. Can you retire at sixteen?"

She gulped some more soda and frowned. "So... what does that mean, exactly? Because, look, I know people always say, 'Oh, I'm doing this for the right reasons!' but then before you know it lots of people end up hurt or dead or in jail--" or with important bits missing-- "or people end up voting on whether or not they even get to have babies any more." Another big gulp. Her hands were sweating now, and her voice shook a little. "So if you're doing stuff like that, or stuff that could go that way, I think I kind of need to know about it, especially since you're the guy in charge and I'm just kind of here."

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[info]i_chasehearts
2012-01-25 02:48 am UTC (link)
Jack nodded. He actually did know all about people who abused power and deluded themselves into thinking they were doing what they were doing for the right reasons.

"I'm not going to tell anyone to stop having babies," he said with a half-smile. It was hard to not laugh at something quite that far out there.

"I just want to make sure that people with superpowers don't feel like they can operate outside the law and hurt people just because they're strong. I want to make sure that everyone's held to the same standards."

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[info]i_gotsoul
2012-01-25 04:32 am UTC (link)
"Oh yeah, go ahead and smile," she said. "It wasn't funny when I was watching them debate it on the news."

She gave him a measuring look. "But everyone's already not held to the same standards. I mean, I can fly. Do I get arrested for jaywalking if I fly across the street instead of going at a crosswalk or something?" Megan huffed. "I don't--look, I'm sorry I was spying on you. And okay, so you don't seem cackling over maps of the world evil or anything, but I don't know you or how this place works or anything and it's making me really nervous. Also one of my friends said that he was fighting you and he seemed like a decent sort of guy, so..."

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[info]i_chasehearts
2012-01-25 12:55 pm UTC (link)
Jack's smile faded instantly and he studied the pink-haired girl in alarm.

"They tried to outlaw people having babies where you're from?"

He sighed in response to her expressed concern over whether she'd be arrested for jaywalking for flying across the street.

"I'm not concerned with what constitutes jaywalking. My concern is strictly those who are using their abilities to hurt others under the guise of being 'vigilantes.' Flying across the street won't hurt anyone unless you're hovering low enough to potentially get in the way of cars."

He rubbed at his forehead, trying to combat the headache that usually started to form whenever he debated the metahuman rights and vigilantism.

"The guy that you met-was his name Rufio? Might have called himself the Pan?"

That was the only person he could think of that was perpetually trying to fight him.

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[info]i_gotsoul
2012-01-25 04:26 pm UTC (link)
"People like me," she said. "Mutants. Because we look different or got different abilities or whatever. And religious weirdos who think it's okay to kill us because of that--look, none of that's happened here and I'm really grateful, but you can see why I'd be a little worried by the people in charge, right?"

Megan started nodding and froze. "Maybe?" Oh God, she was going to get everyone in trouble naming names all over the place, wasn't she? Think! "It's not really important."

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[info]i_chasehearts
2012-01-26 12:37 pm UTC (link)
Jack's expression sobered at that.

"They were trying to stop people like you from having babies?" He tried not to blanch at the idea.

While he had his concerns about metahumans (or mutants, as she'd called them) he still believed they were human and thus had all of the rights that a human would have. The idea that someone would try to take away those rights made him a little sick.

"Actually, it is important. Rufio's already caused quite a bit of trouble at some of my rallies and speeches. If there's yet another out there that plans to cause trouble, I would rather be warned about it so I can take precautions to make sure that no one gets caught up in the crossfire."

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[info]i_gotsoul
2012-01-27 04:14 am UTC (link)
"It didn't go to a vote," she muttered. Mostly because the mutants of San Francisco and most of the ones left in the world had relocated to an island nation instead of dealing with everything. Not really a perfect answer, or necessarily a good one, but it beat getting beat up every couple of weeks.

Megan listened with no small amount of suspicion, but it did make a certain amount of sense. Rufio had seemed kind of... intense. And kind of mixed up, a little. She could talk to him, maybe, and find out more. But she'd keep her mouth shut until then. She could do that. She could so do that.

She made a distressed squeaking noise, like an overpressured tire.

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[info]i_chasehearts
2012-01-27 10:56 pm UTC (link)
"All the same, it shouldn't have even been a discussion," Jack said.

He might have his concerns about how people chose to use their powers, but that wasn't the same as denying them basic human rights.

He raised an eyebrow as she made the small squeaking noise.

"Everything all right?"

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[info]i_gotsoul
2012-01-28 10:04 pm UTC (link)
"Oh, I'm great," she said, obviously false. The high, overly-cheery tone after the whole baby-vote thing and all the rest kind of gave it away. "But I think I've really taken up enough of your time and I'm really sorry for spying and I promise I won't do it again probably so I'll just be going now and thanks for the drink." She beamed at him.

Okay. So he seemed nice enough, which was good, but there was some weirdness with powered people, which could be bad, and she really needed to talk to Rufio, which could go either way, and Megan was really starting to wish she'd stayed home and used her off day to watch movies. She got up and fluttered back towards the window. "I'll just see myself out."

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[info]i_chasehearts
2012-01-29 03:41 am UTC (link)
Jack studied the pink-haired young girl for a moment. She was certainly a little strange, and he wasn't entirely sure that this impromptu meeting went all that well.

But he wasn't going to attempt to keep her here by any means. He did still have work to do and he supposed she had to mull over whatever it was that was causing distress.

"Well, it was... nice to meet you..." he realized that she'd never actually introduced herself.

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[info]i_gotsoul
2012-01-29 05:41 pm UTC (link)
"Oh! Megan," she said, landing and walking back toward him with her hand out. She held back her last name and nickname, since it was also a teamname and all and he seemed kind of hung up on the superpowers thing. "Right, I didn't even think--yeah, I'm Megan. Hi."

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[info]i_chasehearts
2012-01-30 02:43 am UTC (link)
"Well, nice to meet you Megan," Jack said with a charming smile.

It was a genuine statement, even if the meeting had been more than a little strange.

Moreover, Megan's mention of the way people with abilities had been treated in her world had given Jack cause to think. He wasn't ready to reverse his stance on vigilantes by any means, but it was frightening to think of just how a world might devolve into a place where fear determined what laws were passed.

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[info]i_gotsoul
2012-01-30 04:38 am UTC (link)
"Yeah, it's been really enlightening. Good luck with the mayor thing." She lept out the window in a way that would have been alarming for non-winged people, wings exploding into action once she was out in the open air and flying her off safely.

She had some more poking around to do, it looked like.

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